Psychology Commons^™

What Was Under The Mcmartin Preschool? A Review And Behavioral Analysis Of The "Tunnels" Find, W. Joseph Wyatt

Psychology Faculty Research

The McMartin Preschool child abuse case began in 1983 in Manhattan Beach, California, and was one of the most visible cases in history. Although two trials were conducted and no convictions were obtained, some individuals continue to believe that dozens of children were sexually abused at the preschool. In 1990 an archeologist was hired to determine whether tunnels had existed under the school because some of the children had alleged that some of their abuse took place in tunnels under the building. The archeologist’s report was issued in 1993. It concluded that evidence of back-filled tunnels had been found. This …

Emotional Episodes Facilitate Word Recall, Paula T. Hertel, C. Parks

Psychology Faculty Research

Dysphoric and nondysphoric college students described self-generated images of themselves interacting with the referents of neutral nouns; the nouns were paired with adjectives that changed their emotional meaning (e.g., cruise ship, cargo ship, sinking ship). On the subsequent unexpected test, the nouns from emotional pairings were more frequently recalled than were those from neutral pairings, regardless of their valence or congruence with the students' mood. An examination of the initial descriptions revealed that emotional images were more distinctive, but not in a pattern correlated with recall of the corresponding nouns.

The Role Of Suggestions And Personality Characteristics In Producing Illness Reports And Desires For Suing The Responsible Party, Marc A. Lindberg Ph.D.

Psychology Faculty Research

For this project, 92 students entered an abandoned theater room in an old basement of the university where sand was scattered throughout. The purpose of the study was to experimentally demonstrate that psychological suggestions could produce illness reports and to explore who is most likely to say that they would sue for personal damages. The students filled out the Trait-State Anger Scale and two subscales, Anger Temperament and Anger Reaction as well as the Costello-Corey Anxiety Scale, the Hardiness Inventory, the Pennebaker Inventory of Limbic Languidness, and, embedded in the Hardiness Inventory, measures of current illness as a result of …

Physician-Related Determinants Of Cervical Cancer Screening Among Caribbean Women In Toronto, Ilene Hyman, Punam Mony Singh, Marta Meana, Usha George, Lilian M. Wells, Donna E. Stewart

Psychology Faculty Research

BACKGROUND: Minority women in Canada are less likely to be screened for cervical cancer than their counterparts in the general population, despite the fact that the proportion of these women who consult a general practitioner about their health each year is similar to minority women. This study examined the physician and practice characteristics associated with Pap testing and perceived barriers to Pap testing of family physicians serving the Caribbean community of Toronto.

METHODS: A mail-back questionnaire was sent to Toronto family physicians practicing in neighborhoods with a high proportion of Caribbean Canadians.

RESULTS: Although 79.7% of the 64 participating physicians …