The portable rod-and-frame test was used to measure the level of psychological differentation for 100 behavior-problem, father-absent children, ages 8-16. A significant interaction was noted between the reason for the father's absence (death vs divorce/desertion) and the child's age when the father left home. (Author/SJL)

Discusses implications of recent evidence for genetic influences on personality development and psychopathology. Presents a model of the childhood origins of psychopathology that incorporates genetics and gives special emphasis to the role of parental conflict in the previously neglected middle childhood years. (Author/GC)

Male and female college students were assessed on measures of ego identity development, intimacy development, and sex role orientation. For both males and females, identity was related to masculinity; also, there were more high-intimacy females than males. This low identity-high intimacy finding in women is discussed with respect to proposed…

Father-absent and father-present seveth graders were compared on moral attributes and overt aggression. Some evidence suggests that some but not all of the effects of father absence are attributable to the lack of a paternal model. Effects may be mediated in part by changes in the mother's child-rearing pattern. (NH)

Results of this study indicate that female offspring develop personality types more congruent with their parental-pair type. Degrees of congruence between male offspring and their parents' personality types conform to chance expectation. (Author)

This comprehensive paper proposing the use of evolutionary theory as a basis for studies in developmental psychology includes these specific sections: (1) Developmental Theories--a brief overview, (2) Individual Differences, (3) Culture and Inbreeding, (4) Sexual Dimorphism, (5) Critical Periods in the Development of Attachments, (6) Continuity…

This study examines the impact of a high ability suburban school district on the personal development of adolescents with average mental ability who had always lived in the community and attended its schools. Two groups were identified to determine the influence of academic and intellectual competition on personal development. An "average…

Presents research findings on the relationship of academic skill level, ethnic membership, and foreign birth to two personality traits, autonomy and theoretical orientation, in a sample of college undergraduates. Concludes that while sex, foreign birth, and ethnicity were not related to either trait, the experience of attending college has a…

To test the inversion of intensity interpretation based on negative relations between newborn and pre-school intensity behaviors, 106 normal children were examined at the neonatal and pre-school periods. Interpretations of intensity behaviors at both periods and their longitudinal relations are discussed. (Author/SB)

Suicide proneness and self-destruction scales, together with measures of self-favorability and self-confidence, were administered to two samples (n=106 and n=213). It is suggested that women are self-destructive in passive ways, reflecting their lack of self-favorability and confidence and manifested by failure to react to everyday situations in…

Specifies some problems in the Piagetian characterizations of assimilation and accommodation and offers an alternative formulation intended to resolve some conceptual anomalies. On the basis of the revision, the orthogenetic law of developmental progression is explicitly derived. Further, Piaget's notion of "equilibrium" is extended into…

Examined the relationship between sex role identity and two measures of adjustment--self-acceptance and peer acceptance--among adolescents. Sex differences were discovered regarding factors positively associated with self-acceptance. Findings suggest that a model of sex role differentiation during adolescence must recognize differential pressures…

Investigates the validity of a semiprojective measure of "engagement" with respect to the differential effects of family size. Engagement style refers to the perception one has of oneself as either doing (agent) or being done to (patient). Subjects were 51 male college students ranging in age from 18 to 26 years. (SS)

Summarizes the theory of psychological differentiation and reviews recent cross-cultural research on the roles of child rearing, culture, and ecology in the development of individual, group, and sex differences in the field dependence-field independence cognitive style component of psychological differentiation. (SS)