No abstract

The relationship between staff ratings of ward atmosphere, their attitude to treatment, and their direction of interest was investigated in four psychiatric in-patient units. Two general admission units, one intensive care unit, and one regional secure unit were studied. Fifty-eight psychiatric nurses rated their units using the Ward Atmosphere Scale-Form R (WAS) and expressed their direction of interest and attitude to treatment on the Direction of Interest Questionnaire and the Attitude to Treatment Questionnaire from the Claybury Selection Battery. An equamax factor analysis of the WAS subscales produced three clear factors. These factors, together with the original WAS subscales, were used to compare staff ratings of their units and to correlate with their attitude to treatment and direction of interest. A multivariate analysis of variance showed that staff ratings of ward atmosphere varied according to their unit and their attitude to treatment, but not with their direction of interest. Significant relationships were also found between staff characteristics, such as age, qualifications and experience, and ratings of ward atmosphere.

A variety of findings in the fields of constitutional personality theory, person perception, emotion, and orthodontic dentistry suggest there may be a relationship between personality dimensions and facial structure. Twenty subjects with long, angular faces and 20 subjects with short, square faces were selected on the basis of a radiographic study of their facial structure. The subjects completed a biographical data sheet and took Forms A and B of the 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire. Subjects with long, angular faces were found to be more responsive, assertive, and genuine than subjects with short, square faces who were more restrained, conforming, and shrewd. The results of the study were compared with findings in the somatotype literature linking body size and shape with personality traits. The role of genetic factors underlying facial structure and personality attributes, the development of behaviour patterns based on social stereotypes about facial shape, and the effect of postural sets on facial form during maturation were discussed. Suggestions were made for further research utilizing EMG recordings and developmental observations.

Previous investigations have been directed toward the analysis of discrimination learning under fixed-ratio schedules of reinforcement. Other parameters have been investigated, such as the length of the interval during which discrimination stimuli are presented, the degree of overlap between SD and St subsets of stimulus elements, and the effects of using the same or different stimulus series upon the speed and variability of discrimination learning (Green, 1955(Green, , 1956. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the effects of a wide range of schedules of reinforcement upon discrimination learning under standard conditions, with apparatus adopted by other investigators and a method of stimulus presentation which lends itself easily to replication. METHODSeventy adult male students from an introductory course in psychology served as Ss. Their ages ranged from 18 to 20 years. Five Ss were assigned to 13 major experimental groups and one additional control group. Except with three of these groups, each experimental session lasted for 1 hour, during which 60 stimulus patterns were presented visually to the subject. Discriminative stimuli consisted of combinations of lights presented upon a panel, where ten jewel lights were mounted in two rows of five lights each. Thirty of the presentations of stimuli were occasions for reinforcement, SD; and half, or 30, of the stimuli were occasions for nonreinforcement, St. A different sequence of stimulus presentation was used with each S in every group. After each S was run, leads to the stimulus panel were disconnected, randomly shuffled, and reattached. In this way, no S could' communicate to"another the particular light or combination of lights which occasioned reinforcement. During 50, responding by pulling a Lindsley Manipulandum was reinforced under the appropriate schedule. Reinforcement consisted of awarding S a point on an electrical counter mounted on the panel before him. His instructions directed him to obtain as high a score as possible during the time available to him. In the first experimental group, reinforcement was programmed on a continuous schedule. Reinforcement was programmed on a fixed-interval schedule for three more groups, the intervals being 5, 15, and 30 seconds. In another set of three groups, reinforcement was programmed on the basis of variableinterval reinforcement, the intervals also being 5, 15, and 30 seconds. Two sets of ratio groups were also run. Under the fixed-ratio condition, FR 5, FR 10, and FR 20 schedules were used. An additional FR 15 group was also run.Data from VR 5, VR 10, and VR 20 groups were obtained in a related study (Burdick, 1958) under conditions identical to the present, except that only 25 SD's and 25 SA's were presented during discrimination training.