Identity development and formal operations as sources of adolescent egocentrism

The self-concerns and social expectations that are part of the identity development process may lead adolescents to think that others survey them for signs of individuality. The novelty of identity development may also lead to feelings of uniqueness and invulnerability. The imaginary audience and personal fable may therefore stem from identity development and not from the emergence of formal operations. In this study high school and first-year university students (N=255) completed measures of adolescent egocentrism, identity development, and formal operations. Egocentrism was moderately associated with higher scores on identity crisis and identity achievement, and with lower scores on identity diffusion. There was no significant relationship between egocentrism and the emergence of formal operations.Received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of Victoria. His main interests are in personality, social and developmental psychology.Currently completing a master's degree at Lakehead University. Interests are in social and clinical psychology.     

SEMATECH and collaborative research: Lessons in the design of high-technology consortia

This article reviews the experience of SEMATECH as a model for high-technology research consortia. SEMATECH's original aims of developing next-generation manufacturing technology proved hard to achieve, and the program has refocused on generic technology and the equipment industry infrastructure. Though more modest, these new objectives have produced significant tangible results. The study considers the reasons for the change and implications for consortium design. This is contrasted with the history of other major collaborative research programs in Japan, Europe, and the United States.     

Adoptees' portrayal of the development of family structure

Young adult adoptees and nonadoptees provided retrospective accounts of family relationships from infancy to young adulthood. Adoptive families were portrayed as more cohesive and adaptable than nonadoptive families. Adoptive fathers were recalled as being closer to their children then were nonadoptive fathers in the years preceding adolescence. Within the same time frame, adoptive mothers were drawn in a less hierarchical relation to their children than were other parents. Also, while adoptive males saw themselves as presently unconnected to their adoptive parents, adopted females perceived themselves as more connected to their parents in the present than any other period of time. Openness of communication and acknowledgment of difference in adoptive family formation varied with graphic retrospective accounts. Results were considered in terms of discontinuities between reported observations of adoptive families and adoptees' personal reflections on family developmental history.Received PhD in clinical psychology from the State University of New York at Stony Book. Research interests: adoptive family relations, social attributions of children and their parents.Received M.A. from the University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1. Research interests: development of identity, adoption.Received Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Toronto. Research interests: attribution, jealousy, parents' theories of child psychology.     

Adolescent depression: Why more girls?

Although there has been evidence for some time of a sex difference in depression, relatively little research has examined the developmental process by which women come to be at greater risk than men for depression. In this paper, the developmental pattern of depressed affect is examined over early and middle adolescence, with a special focus on the patterns of boys as compared to girls. In addition, a developmental model for mental health in adolescence is tested for its power in explaining the emergence of gender differences in depression. Longitudinal data on 335 adolescents randomly selected from two school districts were used to test the hypotheses. Results revealed that girls are at risk for developing depressed affect by 12th grade because they experienced more challenges in early adolescence than did boys. The sex difference in depressed affect at 12th grade disappears once early adolescent challenges are considered.This research was supported in part by grants MH30252/38142 to A. Petersen. We gratefully acknowledge the contributions of study participants and staff. Portions of this material were presented in a symposium at the 1988 meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence, and one at the 1989 meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development.Received Ph.D. from University of Chicago in 1973. Research interest in biopsychosocial development in adolescence, with a focus on sex differences in mental health.Research interests include adolescent mental health, and parent and peer relationships.Received Ph.D. in psychology from The Pennsylvania State University. Research interests include development of affective and conduct disorders, especially sex differences in these problems.     

THE AMBITIONS OF POLICY DESIGN

There is no shortage of warnings concerning the hazards of excessive ambition in consciously-pursued public policy. In the light of these cautions, this paper considers the appropriate ambitions for policy design. The critics have missed the target. There is no need to fear ambition in policy design, provided that openness in communications about policy is secured.     

The spectrum of intramyocardial small vessel disease associated with sudden death

Intramyocardial small vessel abnormalities are not commonly recognized. The best known abnormality is fibromuscular dysplasia involving the sinoatrial or atrioventricular nodal arteries. Small vessel disease has been reported as an isolated cardiac anomaly in individuals with sudden death, and may also be associated with other cardiac conditions including hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and mitral valve prolapse. The nature of the association is unknown, and the mechanism causing sudden death is sometimes obscure. We describe pathological changes of the intramyocardial small vessels of three individuals with sudden death. Abnormalities involved small vessels at different levels. In all the cases, the abnormalities were thought to have caused or contributed to the individual's death. The possible mechanisms of this are discussed.