Inconsistent findings in the investigation of the characteristics of the empathic process as well as of the role of sex differences in this process are detailed. The present investigation uses an empathy measure that minimizes abstract reasoning, facilitates intuitive empathic judgments, and systematically varies both sex of the judge and sex of the person being judged. Ninety-six male and female subjects judged the feelings of an equal number of male and female clients during videotaped counseling sessions. Results showed that males and females did not differ significantly with regard to empathio ability. However, significant differences were found between samesex and other-sex groups, supporting the hypothesis that individuals will show more empathy when judging people of the same sex than when judging persons of the opposite sex. Implications involve the consideration of sexual similarity in terms of both counselor and teacher effectiveness.

The recent growth of culturally sensitive parent education programs necessitates an evaluative look at their effectiveness. This article critically reviews the quantitative literature on culturally sensitive parent education programs, discussing issues of research methodology and program efficacy in producing change among ethnic-minority parents and their children. Culturally sensitive programs for African American and Hispanic families are described in detail Quantitative studies of culturally sensitive programs are critiqued against existing literature on the effectiveness of traditional parent education programs. Main conclusions include the prevalence of flaws in research methodology, which may contribute to the finding of somewhat lower efficacy of these programs in comparison to standard programs. Although efficacy studies of programs for Native American and Asian American parents could not be found, efforts to serve these populations are also described. Recommendations for future research are proposed.

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The authors explored the relationship between selected maternal attitudes as related to the sex, sex-role preference, and level of psychological differentiation of the preschool child. The maternal attitudes investigated were as follows: (a) the degree to which the mother has an attitude of fostering or limiting autonomy, and (b) the extent to which she expects sex differences (i.e., to what extent does she expect boys to act differently from girls). The Ss were 92 mother-child pairs, boys and girls evenly divided. The mean age of the children was 66 months. No significant difference was obtained for psychological differentiation between boys and girls. Boys, however, demonstrated a significantly higher degree of sex-role preference than girls. It was found that mothers with high expectation of sex differences had daughters with lower levels of psychological differentiation and that high expectation of sex differences in the mother was associated with authoritarianism. No statistically significant relationship was found between authoritarianism in the mother and psychological differentiation in the child, although a trend was found for girls, that authoritarianism in the mother is related to lower levels of psychological differentiation. It was suggested that a different set of maternal attitudes facilitates psychological differentiation for each sex.