Interviews with parents of 30 school-age girls with fragile X syndrome (fraX) and 31 age- and IQ-matched controls concerning autistic behaviors found that girls with fraX had significantly more autistic behaviors than controls, but incidence of autistic behaviors was not correlated with IQ. Anxiety and posterior cerebellar area measures were also…

Research on individual's response to emergency situations in the presence of others has produced conflicting results. The bystander effect is the label applied to inaction or the unlikelihood of assistance with others present. The social facilitation effect occurs when the presence of others energizes response; strong habit responses are…

Interviews with 60 female victims (ages 7-12) of sexual abuse found that most viewed relationships with their mothers as warm and accepting. Girls who perceived lower maternal rejection had higher competency ratings and fewer behavior problems. Abuse involving force was correlated with lower victim competency. More violent abuse was correlated…

Historically pesonality has been predicated on behavioral consistency. To demonstrate the uniqueness of personality using three methods, 23 female college students initially recorded self-descriptive words at the end of each of 23 days. These words were then assigned favorability values from the Adjective Generation Technique norm list. First,…

Recent studies have indicated that bulimia, characterized by binge eating followed by depressed mood and purging, is increasing. To investigate the behavioral and emotional antecedents and consequences of binge eating in women, 22 female college students (14 diagnosed bulimics, 8 binge eaters) completed self-monitoring forms for four binges.…

Although coronary prone, or Type A behavior, appears to predict coronary heart disease in women, as it does in men, little research has compared men and women in the same life circumstances. To determine if there is a coronary prone behavior pattern in women preparing for traditionally male professionals, two studies were conducted. In the first…

Research has suggested that people not sharing a common fate lack a sense of group identity, thus decreasing the tendency for helping behavior. To study the effects of stress and commonality of fate on helping behavior, 60 female college students participated in a replication of an earlier study which used male subjects. Participants were assigned…

This study compared 29 females with Turner syndrome and 21 females with fragile X syndrome (ages 6-22) on a videotaped role-play interaction with 34 females in a comparison group. Three of eight behavioral measures of social skills differentiated the participant groups. Fragile-X subjects required more time to initiate interactions and Turner…

Reports a study that examined the influence of authoritarianism on the formation of behavioral intentions by female college students. High authoritarians took subjective norms less into account relative to low authoritarians, providing support for the theory that personal and subjective norms can be distinguished empirically. (LS)

Intended to help classroom teachers, students, or researchers fathom or simply explore the impact of sex roles in human communication, these 47 annotated citations cover a variety of sources written in a range of disciplines. Sources, which are arranged alphabetically by author, include books and journals in communication, psychology, linguistics,…

Studies of sex roles and their relationship to behavioral and personality variables have abounded since Bem published her original theory of androgyny (1974). To examine different kinds of sex roles, 256 college students (191 females, 65 males), with a median age of 18.4 years, completed the Activities Inventory. The Inventory is based on…

A controversial issue in the literature on eating disorders is whether or not bulimia is a disorder distinct from anorexia nervosa. To compare the personality and behavioral characteristics of bulimic women with and without prior anorexia nervosa, 14 female college students (mean age 19.6 years, 86 percent white) were divided into two groups…

To derive a descriptive profile of communication role patterns and to determine whether these patterns were gender dependent, a Gender Communication Scale was developed by selecting scale items from other instruments that best discriminated reports of role behavior. The scale was then administered to 91 male and 148 female undergraduate students.…

A study examined S.L. Bem's Gender Schema Theory as it relates to communicator style. It was hypothesized that (1) speakers using a "powerless" speech style would be perceived less positively than would "powerful" speakers, and (2) sex-typed subjects, that is, those who adhere to a traditional sex role schema, would perceive…