Browsing by Department "Psychology"

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Open Access
A comparison of reported experiences associated with different styles of hypnosis
(1981) Brown, Charles, 1953-
Reported experiences were compared for subjects undergoing a traditional style of hypnosis, a cognitive behavioral style of hypnosis, and a "waking imagination" procedure similar to hypnosis but explicitly labeled "non- hypnotic." Experiences of subjects within these three treatment conditions were also compared with the experiences subjects believed prior to treatment they would be most likely to have during a hypnotic session. No significant experiential differences appeared with regard to spatial, temporal, and personal disorientation; a sense of dissimilarity to ordinary experience; or obliviousness to extraneous thoughts or stimuli. Compared to subjects in the non-hypnotic procedure, subjects in the two hypnotic conditions reported more strong and positive feelings regarding the experience and a greater perceived inability to resist the experience. The only significant difference between cognitive behavioral and traditional subjects was the stronger belief of cognitive behavioral subjects that they were consciously directing and causing their hypnotic experience. Even though reported experiences differed somewhat for the different procedures, correlations of reported experiences with responsiveness (or ''hypnotic susceptibility") were similar for the three procedures, with no apparent interaction effects for procedure with responsiveness on experience. In the two hypnotic conditions the experience of hypnosis was seen as more difficult to resist than subjects expected prior to treatment, but also less mysterious than expected. These findings overall indicate that experiential self-report is a useful method of gauging similarities and differences between different styles of hypnosis, quasi- hypnotic procedures, and expectations regarding hypnotic experience. Other theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.
Open Access
A cross-cultural study of social perception …
(1968) Paramesh, C. R.
Introduction: Wherever social relations or interpersonal relations are involved, social perception runs as an undercurrent, either implicitly or explicitly. Perhaps the primary importance of social perception derives from the assumption that overt forms of social behavior are "steered" by the perception of social environment. Many problems in interpersonal relations turn out to be in some measure the consequence of perceptual distortion. Social perception, it may also be added, is closely related to one’s perception of self. Under ordinary conditions, there are three major elements which we will confront in a study of social perception. They are (a) the situation or context in which the person to be judged is embedded, (b) the person who is apart from the situation and (c) the perceiver himself. In the present study, the first two elements are not of special interest. The main point of interest is the third element, the perceiver who is shaped and sensitized by his or her particular cultural background. We are interested in examining the "selective- tuning" on the part of the perceiver in perceiving certain aspects of both the self and other people in preference to others. The present study aims to analyze the consistent trends, termed here "self- styles, " in individuals that influence them in perceiving others. It is assumed that these self- styles are determined fairly well by societies and, therefore, it is proposed to examine the variations of these self-style orientations in terms of culture. However, it is difficult to isolate and assess the differential importance of personal and social characteristics, although it is feasible. So, by "social perception" we refer to the consistent tendency to look for certain attributes in the other as influenced by self-concept.
Open Access
A test of interactional power theory : the effects of sibling-status upon dependence, power, and influence success in sibling pairs
(1976) Adams, Donald Winfield, 1941-
The application of interactional power theory to sibling relationships was tested in a study of sibling pairs in middle childhood. Hypotheses were posed about sibling-status effects upon influence success, power, and dependence. Hypotheses were also posed for correlations among these variables, which correlations were expected irrespective of the sibling-status of the children in the sibling pairs. Hypotheses about dependence-based power, which stated that a child's power would be determined by the sibling's dependence upon him for good play outcomes, was the major tenet of interactional theory to be tested. Closely age-spaced sibling pairs were grouped by position, sex, and sex-of-sibling to form the eight cells of the 2x2x2 factorial design. One child in each pair influenced the other to eat mildly bitter crackers, yielding an influence success score. Each child also filled out a questionnaire designed to measure variables related to the child's general experience of dependence and power in the sibling relationship. The scales formed from this questionnaire were newTy devised and lacked demonstrated reliability and validity. The hypothesized sibling-status effects were not obtained in the influence procedure. One significant but oppositely predicted effect was obtained; children with a brother had greater influence success than children with a sister. This was not due to a sex-linked willingness for boys to eat more crackers than girls. Behaviors of the influencing children were interpreted to indicate that some of them reacted in a highly competitive fashion. The younger children in the pairs and the children with a brother appeared to form a stronger alliance with the investigator and then to use this alliance to pursue their influence attempts more vigorously. This account explained the unexpected sex-of-sibling effect and the expected but missing position effect. The influence procedure was not a measure of relative power but was a measure of how much the usually overpowered sibling seized the competitive possibilities offered by the situation. Sibling pairs differed from non-sibling peer pairs by reacting more competitively to this investigative procedure. No relationships were obtained between the questionnaire scales and influence success. On the questionnaire, older children in the pairs reported more usable power in the relationship than did the younger children. Children in same-sex pairs reported more affinity with the sibling (perceived similarity, play, friendship, and dependence) than did children in cross-sex pairs. Boys and children with sisters reported more power, while boys and children with brothers reported more affinity; these sex-of-child and sex-of-sibling effects were small, inconsistent, and inconclusive. Older children in same-sex pairs reported more affinity and less power than older children in cross-sex pairs. In cross-sex pairs wide differences in power (O > Y) and in affinity (Y > O) were obtained. In same-sex pairs the older and younger reported equal affinity and there was a muting of the reported power difference (O > Y). Greater conflict and greater development of counterpower in the more cohesive same-sex pairs were concluded to have led to this muted power difference. Tests of the dependence-based-power hypothesis were inconclusive. Neither influence success nor reported power showed the sibling-status results expected for dependence-based power. The empirical viability of this theoretical construct was questioned. The assumption that the sibling's dependence determines the child's power was not supported. The questionnaire responses were judged to support other aspects of interactional power theory. Overall, the results of the study were more simply explained by assuming that characteristics associated with sibling-status determine both a child's dependence and his power in the sibling relationship.
Open Access
An attributional analysis of the effects of target status and presence of ulterior motives on children's judgments of two types of ingratiating behaviors
(1978) Matter, Jean Anne, 1950-
The study examined children's evaluations and attributions in response to ingratiating acts directed at different targets in the presence or absence of an ulterior motive. According to an attributional analysis of ingratiation (Jones & McGillis, 1976; Jones & Wortman, 1973), attributions of enduring behavioral dispositions to ingratiators and evaluation of these ingratiators should vary as a function of presence or absence of ulterior motives and as a function of target status, because very high status targets are likely to control desirable benefits even when these are not made explicit. Ingratiators with ulterior motives and those who ingratiate high status targets should be evaluated less positively, and they should be seen as less likely to repeat their "nice" acts in other situations or to other targets. These "idealized predictions rest on the assumption of differential perception and evaluation of ingratiators ' motives under different circumstances. Children's ability to use motives in making moral evaluations of others has long been a subject of debate. However, few researchers have asked children about the dispositional implications of their moral evaluations. The present study was thus intended to examine children's evaluations and attributions in response to a morally relevant behavior (ingratiation) somewhat different from the behaviors most studies have investigated. It was expected that age-related changes in evaluation of strategic behaviors and changes in patterns of attribution would reflect a shift away from reliance on adult rules in judging acts and a corresponding increase in reliance on peer group norms. Male and female first, third, and fifth graders and an adult control group heard four stories about children who opinion conformed or did favors . The target of the acts was either a disliked (low, status) peer, a well-liked (high status) peer, or an adult (the ingratiator's teacher). Each act either occurred with no explicit ulterior motive, or it occurred after the ingratiator learned that the target controlled a benefit that the ingratiator very much desired, so that an ulterior motive was prominent. Subjects used rating scales to evaluate the ingratiators , to estimate the probability that they would repeat their acts, and to rate the effectiveness of the ingratiation. Subjects' were also asked for free response explanations of the ingratiators' behaviors, and they explained what they would do if they wanted to get a desirable benefit from one of the story targets. Favor doing was regarded far more positively than opinion conforming, and evaluation of ingratiation declined steadily with age. First graders tended to see all ingratiation as quite positive, likely to generalize, and likely to be effective. First graders were able to explain strategic favor-doing, but they had difficulty with opinion conformity. Among the other groups , motive became increasingly important with age as a determinant of both evaluations and predicted repetition of the act. Motive effects were not always in the expected direction, however. Ulterior motive opinion conformity to an adult was evaluated more positively than no ulterior motive opinion conformity, indicating that ingratiation of this target was less deplorable if the ingratiator was strongly tempted. Third graders in particular showed signs of regarding opinion conformity to an adult in a fairly favorable light. They thought an adult would be relatively likely to pick an opinion conformer to receive a desirable benefit, where- as the other age groups saw favor-doing as much more effective with an adult target. I^en asked how they themselves would try to influence a target, younger subjects of ten mentioned providing physical benefits while adults were more likely to suggest a straightforward request. The patterns of main effects seen on the measures pertaining to predictions of future behavior appeared to strongly resemble the one predicted by an attributional analysis of ingratiation. Children seemed more sensitive than adults to the power of the very high status adult target to elicit ingratiating acts . Patterns of attribution among third graders sometimes appeared more adult-like than those appearing among fifth graders . This paradoxical finding and third graders' relatively favorable responses to adult oriented opinion conformers are discussed in terms of third graders’ greater tendency to judge behavior in line with adult rules, while fifth graders may be more sensitive to peer groups norms.
Open Access
An experimental investigation of learning and performance in children with academic disabilities
(1968) Ussery, Lon Esker, 1928-
A distinction between learning and performance has long been traditional in theoretical and experimental formulations of general learning theory. More recently a similar or parallel distinction has developed in the literature on children with academic difficulties. Here it has been referred to as a distinction between "assimilation and utilization" or between "disorders in the function of taking in knowledge" and "disorders in the use of learning." Other recent investigations have further hypothesized that a set of broad motivational variables characterized as "fear of success" or "need to fail" are crucial in the poor achievement of some children with academic difficulties. This study was designed as an experimental investigation of some consequences that seemed deducible from the inter-relationships among these distinctions and hypotheses. Three groups of children were defined within a normal school population by a statistical comparison of academic grades and achievement test scores in reading. All subjects had at least average I.Q. scores. In the first group, academic grades were significantly lower than might have been predicted from the achievement test scores. This was considered to reflect a difficulty in performance and the group was referred to as the non-performers. In the second group, academic grades and achievement test scores were both considerably below the average for the whole group. This was considered to reflect a difficulty in learning, and the group was referred to as the non-learners. In the third group, academic grades and achievement test scores were congruent and both were at an average level. This group was referred to as the normals. Subjects were examined individually under one of three conditions of evaluative feedback: (1) competitive success, (2) competitive failure, and (3) neutral. In the competitive success condition, the subject was convinced that he was performing more adequately than his peers. In the competitive failure condition, he was convinced that he was performing more poorly. In the neutral condition, the feedback was purely procedural. A modified version of the Digit-Symbol Test was the principal task. During the performance trials emphasis was on speed, and time in seconds was taken as a performance measure. After 10 trials, each subject was asked to complete the Digit-Symbol form without a key. The number of digit-symbol combinations remembered correctly was taken as a measure of learning. Thematic Apperception Test stories and Sarason Anxiety Scale scores were obtained from each subject. The major hypotheses may be stated informally. The non-performer group should show greater decrement in performance than in learning, and the largest performance decrement should occur under the competitive success condition. The non-learner group should show decrements in both performance and learning when compared to the other two groups. They should show no special decrement under success. The normal group should show best performance and learning under the success condition with only slight decrements under the other two conditions. There should be no difference between the non-performer and the normal group on the learning measure. None of these major hypotheses were unequivocally substantiated. There was, however, evidence to warrant several conclusions. The groups defined statistically were discriminable on some experimental tasks. This lends credence to the notion of two types of learning problems. The crucial role of competitive success in influencing the behavior of the non-performer group was demonstrated. However, such broad motivational patterns as “need to fail” or “renunciation of success” are not sufficiently explanatory. There was, in fact, evidence that consideration must also be given to the non-performers unduly intense "need to succeed". The experimental conditions were effectively created in that there were differences among conditions across all groups on the learning measure. Also, each group showed a pattern of differential response to each of the conditions.
Open Access
Animistic thinking in children
(1966) Stern, Harris Weil
The objectives of the study were based on constructs which were originally described and studied by Piaget and some of which were studied subsequently by other authors with contradictory results. The four major objectives of the study were: 1. to reexamine the development of children's concepts of life, and, in particular to systematically investigate the relationship between children's errors in classifying items as alive or not alive and their use of different justifications for those classifications , 2. to attempt to elicit precausal explanations from children in response to demonstration items (Piaget ; originally studied precausality in terms of natural objects and events and subsequent experimenters failed to find the precausal forms for demonstrations). 3. to test the hypothesis that children who give pre- causal explanations will have difficulty in learning a causal relationship, even in the face of repeated experience. 4. to test the hypothesis that children who classify inanimate objects as alive (and are hence, animistic) will be the children who also give the greatest number of precausal explanations for demonstrations. 5. to attempt to relate systematic animism and pre- causality to a standardized measure of cognitive development.' In order to study these constructs and the relationships in between them, 96 children between the ages of four and ten years were individually administered a test battery consisting of (1) an animistic questionnaire, consisting of 21 plant, object, and animal items to be classified as alive or not alive; (2) eight demonstrations about which the children were questioned in order to obtain their explanations for what took place; (3) a causal learning task, requiring the children to isolate a particular cause for the outcome of an event, given a number of trials and some directly relevant, extra experience and (4) the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. The major findings were: 1. that reduction of animism in children is associated with the identification of life with animals' and their characteristics. This association leads children to classify plants as well as objects as not alive, since plants have none of the more obvious characteristics of animals (locomotion, sensation, vocalization), and, it is only at some later stage, when life is identified with more general characteristics (need for air, water, food; death, birth, reproduction), that plants are again classified as alive. 2. Young children do indeed give precausal, non-mechanical explanations for demonstrations. The study suggests that Piaget's particular categories of precausal thought may not have universal validity for all kinds of events or for all children, but that the general characteristics of these explanations which he described (lack of attention to details of how things happen, lack of understanding of temporal sequences of events, and the lack of understanding of the need for spatial contact for the transfer of energy and motion) are found in the explanations of many young children, even for demonstration and mechanical events. 3. Children who gave precausal explanations for the causal learning task did fail to learn the correct cause-effect relationship. 4. There was no support for Piaget's theory that animism, or the attribution of life to objects, has a direct relationship to precausal explanations. In the present study, animistic children were not more likely to use precausal explanations than were non-animistic children.
Open Access
Anxiety as a determinant of differential responsivity to reward and punishment
(1952) Barger, Benjamin, 1920-
Reward and punishment have been studied in the laboratory for their relative effects on learning processes and on perceptual processes they have been studied in the classroom for their relative effects on learning and on modification of performance of various motor and mental tasks; they have been studied in relation to intellectual, age and sex factors, and temperamental or personality factors; and they have recently been studied in a clinical setting in connection with problems of psychopathology, The studies concerned with personality variables reflect a broadening concern with personality dynamics that has accompanied the recent rapid expansion of interest in the clinical area of psychology. They strongly suggest that there are differences related to personality factors in the effects and perhaps the effectiveness of rewarding and punishing incentive conditions. It was to explore some of the implications of these studies and to extend the empirical data in this area that the present research was designed. It was to explore some of the implications of these studies and to extend the empirical data in this area that the present research was designed. To provide a framework for the discussion which follows the major aspects of two studies will be outlined.
Open Access
Attention, attachment and motivation in schizotypy : a review and extenstion of research with the continuous performance test
(1995) Wilson, John Seddon, 1958-
Most contemporary schizophrenia research indicates that a heritable neurointegrative deficit may be a vulnerability marker for schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Researchers often measure this deficit in terms of impaired attention on a vigilance task, the Continuous Performance Test (CPT). Impaired attention is found not only in floridly psychotic schizophrenics, but also in remitted schizophrenics, children biologically at risk for schizophrenia, and young adults psychometrically identified as at risk for schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Findings from these investigations provide a possible link in the diathesis-stress model of schizophrenia genesis. However, little research attention has been paid to the potential interactive effects that attentional impairments and interpersonal relations may have in determining susceptibility to active schizophrenic symptomatology. In this study, 703 undergraduates completed measures of interpersonal attachment, perceived relations with parents and peers in childhood, positive schizotypy (schizophrenism) and negative schizotypy (anhedonia). Based upon their schizotypy scores, 191 of these participants were selected to complete a version of the CPT that, by degrading visual stimuli and presenting them very briefly, rapidly produces decrements in vigilance. In a staggered random design, CPT participants were assigned to one of three motivational induction conditions designed either to increase intrinsic motivation, decrease intrinsic motivation, or to replicate the standard CPT protocol. Path modelling supported a bidirectional relationship between adult attachment and schizophrenism. For female participants, recalled relations with fathers and childhood peers, but not with mothers, predicted adult attachment: for males, recalled relations with mothers, fathers, and childhood peers all predicted adult attachment. Maternal and paternal relations had no direct relationship to schizophrenism, while childhood peer relations and adult attachment were substantially related to schizophrenism for both sexes. Using signal detection indices and growth curve analysis across six blocks of CPT performance, the motivational induction designed to increase intrinsic motivation was found to attenuate the decrement in vigilance across time, while the motivational induction designed to decrease intrinsic motivation was found to augment the vigilance decrement, compared to the standard CPT protocol. Perceptual sensitivity scores were lower for high schizotypy participants than for low schizotypy participants, such that anhedonic (negative) and schizophrenism (positive) schizotypy interacted to predict the most impaired performance. High schizotypy participants had lowered perceptual sensitivity scores throughout the CPT protocol, but did not show a more rapid decrement in vigilance compared to others. Participants who reported low levels of intrinsic motivation or positive emotion, or who demonstrated diminished persistence in a hand held dynometer task, also had lowered perceptual sensitivity scores. This relationship was most strong for self-reported intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation was unrelated to schizotypy, and there were no interactions between self-reported intrinsic motivation, schizotypy, and the experimental motivational inductions. High levels of motivation appeared to compensate partially for the impaired attentional performance associated with schizotypy. Contrary to expectations, no interactions between interpersonal attachment and attentional performance were predictive of schizotypal tendencies. Results indicate the importance of the experimental setting as an interpersonal occasion that can either support or undermine attentional performance. The substantial relationship between motivation and attentional performance indicates that future CPT research should include measures of motivation, and that schizophrenia-related deficits in attention may be at least partially eliminated by increasing intrinsic motivation.
Open Access
Avoidance learning to stimulus objects presented following shock
(1973) Keith-Lucas, Timothy, 1945-
An earlier informal experiment by Hudson (1950) in which rats learned to avoid a bundle of pipe cleaners presented only following shock is replica.ted and extended. Five groups of 20 Ss each received a single shock each while taking a sucrose pellet from a novel striped panel, A black-out period ranging from 1 to 40 sec. began with the onset of the 3/4 sec. shock. During the black-out the striped panel (forward-order CS) was removed; immediately following the black-out, a rubber toy hedgehog descended into the apparatus, Following a short exposure to the toy hedgehog and an intervening 24 hr. in the home cage, S was observed in the apparatus with the toy hedgehog at one end and the striped panel at the other. Control groups received either shock without the toy hedgehog or the toy hedgehog without the shock. All behavior was video recorded. Significant differential avoidance of the toy hedgehog occurred in the short inter stimulus interval groups (1, 5, and 10 sec.), but not in the 40 seCc group or in the control groups. In further analyses, individual’s were classified as differentially avoiding either the toy hedgehog, the striped panel, the shock location, the opposite end of the apparatus or no identifiable stimulus, according to two schemes. In the first, the basis of classification was differences in time spent in a normal posture at the two ends of the apparatus relative to a distribution of such differences in the unshocked control group. In the other, a combined score derived from differences in four other classes of behavior was the basis of classification. In both analyses, significant numbers of Ss from the 1, 5, and 10 sec. groups were identified as avoiding the toy hedgehog, while insignificant numbers of Ss from the 40 sec. and control groups did so. Only insignificant numbers of Ss avoided the striped panel. The results demonstrate that the "backward" association of the toy hedgehog with the shock is a reliable and robust phenomenon that can occur despite a 10 sec. UCS-CS delay, a single trial procedure, a 24-hr. delay between shock and testing, and the availability of a potential forward - order CS. The results cannot readily be explained either in terms of an unconditioned response to the toy hedgehog or simple sensitization. Both logical considerations and experimental results in backward conditioning preclude describing these results in terms of stimulus cuing. The results are interpreted as a. demonstration of the ability of rats to perceive causal agent-effect relationships in certain specific situations. Support for conclusions drawn from the inference that rats can make causal agent-effect connections is taken from the areas of belongingness, stimulus selection in avoidance learning, delayed taste -avoidance learning, novelty, reflexive aggression, and species-specific defense reactions. Theoretical literature relevant to this inference and the broader question of what is learned is discussed.
Open Access
COGNITIVE PROCESSES IN RESPONSE TO PROMOTION AND PREVENTION FAILURE: A STUDY OF MALADAPTIVE RUMINATION AND ITS AFFECTIVE CONSEQUENCES
(2007-07-13) Jones, Neil Patrick
Theories of self-regulation have not adequately specified the psychological events and processes that cause an emotional response following acute failure to be prolonged and intensified. Research on repetitive thought suggests that engaging maladaptive rumination can prolong and intensify existing mood states. However, theories of rumination have not incorporated the implications of failing to attain different types of desired end states for rumination, that is failing to attain goals associated with nurturance and advancement (i.e., promotion goals) versus goals associated with safety and security (i.e., prevention goals). In this investigation, 78 graduate and professional students participated in a within-subjects experimental design testing the overall hypothesis that exposure to past failures to attain promotion and prevention goals will promote maladaptive rumination on dejection- and agitation-related emotions, respectively. Furthermore, under conditions of high negative affect engaging in maladaptive rumination will cause the specific type of negative affect experienced to be intensified and prolonged. Study findings did not result in clear support for the proposed model in the prevention condition. The prevention manipulation failed to induce agitation-related emotions associated with anxiety and instead appeared to induce emotions associated with anger. The prevention condition also did not result in unique changes in quiescence. However, as predicted decreases in quiescence uniquely predicted increased engagement in maladaptive rumination. In this condition, engagement in rumination did not interact with low levels of quiescence to prolong and further decrease quiescence. Stronger support was found for the proposed model in the promotion condition. Individuals with chronic promotion failure experienced significant increases in dejection following exposure to past promotion failures. The level of dejection experienced significantly predicted engaging in greater maladaptive rumination. Furthermore, engaging in maladaptive rumination in the presence of high levels of dejection intensified and prolonged of the experience of dejection-related emotions. Overall, the results suggest that self-regulatory cognition, the level of affect that results, and variability in the tendency to engage in maladaptive rumination all play a significant role in determining a person's cognitive and emotional experiences in the ongoing process of self-regulation.
Open Access
Cognitive structure: a comparison of two theories and measure of integrative complexity ...
(1970) Cox, Gary B.
This study was intended to assess the generality of a particular type of cognitive structure characteristic, that of integrative complexity. Pursuant of this, the theories of H. M. Schroder and O. J. Harvey were com- pared, and their respective measures administered to 440 students (Ss) of both sexes from three different southern schools. The theoretical analysis suggested that Schroder's theory is more truly structural in nature, and is more powerful in that it is more easily and obviously applicable to a broad range of cognitive domains. Harvey's position is much more firmly grounded on the content of the interpersonal domain. Both theories claim that the characteristic of cognitive structure which is most important in determining cognitive complexity is not differentiation, or an increase in the dimensionality, of the cognitive domain, but the subsequent integration of the differentiated components. Unfortunately, neither theorist is able to define integration so as to clearly distinguish it from a dimensional position. Here again, however, Schroder's theory seems to be the stronger, since it is at least explicit enough that the locus of difficulty can be precisely identified. Further, even if Schroder is un- able to define adequately the integration concept, his theorizing suggests the importance of the possibility of super- and sub-ordinate relationships among dimensions. Results of the testing were as follows: (a) As expected, the respective measures of cognitive integration were non-significantly correlated with each other, (b) Both measures of integration were significantly correlated with such measures of intelligence as vocabulary, abstract thinking, and SAT verbal and mathematical scores, (c) Sex differences in the scores may exist, although the pattern is not clear, (d) Other sample characteristics may affect the distribution of scores, e.g. large intelligence differences, socioeconomic differences, etc. On the other hand, Negroes are not ipso facto inferior to Caucasians, even when the latter enjoy a 100- point advantage on SAT averages. Nor are Southern whites inferior to Northern whites, at least when both are of superior intellectual ability. (e) Reliability, as estimated by coefficient alpha, is satisfactory for Harvey's measure and unsatisfactory for Schroder's, (f) The distribution of scores is such that for both measures complex Ss are rare, so pools of Ss must be tested in order to obtain adequate numbers of complex Ss. This is more a problem in attempting to apply Schroder than Harvey, largely because Schroder has often not bothered to study middle-range Ss, so their characteristics are unknown. Schroder's variable (especially) is essentially inapplicable to an unscreened group of subjects. Overall, Schroder's theory seems more promising than Harvey's. Suggestions were made for improving the reliability and distribution of scores. Additionally, a translation of Schroder's theory into dimensional terminology was attempted, and some important implications of his position for the dimensional orientation were discussed.
Open Access
Conformity behavior of schizophrenic subjects to maternal figures
(1961) Clarke, Alan Rogers, 1932-
Recent clinical studies of schizophrenia have been aimed at clarifying the nature of the relationship that has existed between the schizophrenic patient and other members of his family. The majority of these investigations have focused upon the mother-son relationship, and the experiment to be described represents an extension of this area of study. Specifically, the present investigation was an attempt to observe the extent to which schizophrenic patients would conform to the preferences expressed by mothers who possess some of the attributes reported to characterize mothers of Poor pre-morbid (Phillips, 1953) schizophrenic patients. These attributes, it was hoped, would serve as relevant cues foreliciting conformity responses in such patients.
Open Access
Coping with traumatic events : a theoretical model and a study of recovery from rape
(1985) Cohen, Lawrence J., 1958-
The study of coping with stress has been disjointed, lacking a coherent model. The present work proposes a theoretical framework for understanding coping based on approach and avoidance. Approach and avoidance are discussed in terms of the psychoanalytic concepts of defense and working through and other historical precursors as well as recent research on coping with traumatic events. Two experiments are presented. The first consists of a scale-construction study of the Cohen Roth Approach Avoidance Scale, a self- report measure of coping strategies. A revised version of this scale is proposed based on factor-analytic data from a mixed-stress sample. Experiment 2 is a study of the long-term impact of rape. Seventy-three women, who were victims of rape an average of eight years ago, were given questionnaires covering the following areas: demographics, nature of the assault, coping styles, and current level of functioning. Most of the sample was found to still be in moderate to severe distress. The relationships between outcome and demographics, situational variables, and behavior after the assault are discussed in the context of prior research in this area. Approach and avoidance strategies, measured by the revised Cohen Roth Approach Avoidance Scale, had a complex relationship with outcome. This relationship is discussed in the context of the theoretical model of coping presented in the Introduction, focusing on the difficulty women have in resolving the trauma of rape.
Open Access
Determination of relationships between distributions of stimuli and distributions of judgments under instructions of differing specificity
(1954) Bleke, Priscilla Dattman, 1927-
INTRODUCTION: Basic to the judging process is the relating of a given item to a group of items* The simpler case of judging is one in which an item is compared with another which is simultaneously present while the more complex case consists in comparing an item with previously experienced items* Analysis of the latter process was given impetus by Wever and Zener (8) who introduced a method of investigation applicable to this problem of judgment in time* Positing that even simple comparisons draw heavily upon an extended context of experiences, these investigators demonstrated that their method of presenting for judgment single members of a stimulus series gives data comparable to that obtained with the traditional method of constant stimuli. Wever and Zener and investigators who subsequently utilized the method of single stimuli have demonstrated that subjects are able to make consistent judgments which are sensitive to small increments of change in the stimulus series* Additional studies have investigated some of the influences that modify judgments such as changes in end stimuli or stimulus density, and aspects of the stimulus distribution to which judgments are anchored. Several reviews of the research in this area are available (5,6,7). In addition to laboratory findings everyday life offers many examples of the utilization of judgments which reflect previous experiences with the stimulus dimension involved. The basis for such characterizations as “a tall man”, “a fascinating lecture”, “ a good meal” is admittedly more involved than the basis for usual laboratory judgments but the same general principles may be assumed to underlie both. In both the laboratory and the social situation the process of relating one item to a non-present set of items is dependent upon a temporal integration of the effects of previous contacts with items of that set. It is meaningful, therefore, to examine the functional dependence of distributions of judgments upon previous experience with items of the same set as the ones being judged. This problem is implicit in several different lines of research such as investigations of shifts in judgments, where the underlying assumption is that changes in judgment reflect changes in the fundamental character of the stimulus distributions, and empirical studies of anchoring, which in general follow the pattern of modifying essentially rectangular stimulus distributions. Both types of investigation represent efforts to discover the aspects of a stimulus distribution to which judgments are related. The present study is composed of several experiments which 4 were designed to investigate systematically general relationships obtaining between different distributions of stimulus items and distributions of judgments elicited by these items with attention to such factors as differences in the instructions, the number of judgment categories and the step-interval between items. In all experiments the subjects were required to judge the length of singly presented horizontal lines. The first group of four experiments represents an effort to discover the form of the basic functional relationship in relatively unstructured situations which are representative of most judging tasks. The initial experiment consisted of separate groups of subjects judging one of five different distributions of stimulus items. All the distributions (rectangular, symmetrical unimodal, bimodal, positively skewed, negatively skewed) had the same range and density of items and two categories of judgment (longer or shorter) were available to the subjects. The second experiment was designed to investigate the influence of the factor of stimulus distribution on judgments rendered by subjects who experience successively more than a single stimulus distribution, since in life situations individuals do not typically experience one clearly defined distribution of similar stimulus items. Rather they have a variety of contacts with items whose distribution may vary over a period of time. The aspect of the judging situation which was altered in the third experiment was the number of judgment categories. In order to determine the effect of the distributional properties of the stimulus items on judgments in multiple category situations the number of categories available to the subjects was increased from two to three (longer, medium, shorter). In the fourth experiment the step interval between stimulus Items was increased from a barely supraliminal to a clearly discriminable one. This was done in order not to restrict the findings of the study to situations such as those of the traditional psychophysical experiments where the step-interval is in the region of the Ilmen. In the first four experiments the instructions to the subjects were very general, and thus the question is raised whether the relationships obtained under these conditions depend upon varying individual interpretations of the task. The last two experiments in this study were designed to investigate the effect of more explicit instructions with the aim of obtaining results which could be compared with the relationships found between distributions of stimuli and distributions of judgments in the more representative unstructured situations.
Open Access
Disordered Eating and Binge Drinking among College Students
(2008-12-02) Rush, Christina Celeste
The overarching goal of this study is to enhance the current understanding of how college students with disordered eating experience alcohol. The study focuses on negative consequences, drinking behaviors, alcohol expectancies, and outcomes to a high-risk drinking prevention program. Taking a novel perspective to examine these problem behaviors, the current study uses a national sample of college students (N=8,095) who participated in an internet-based alcohol prevention program (AlcoholEdu for College, www.outsidetheclassoom.com). Multiple multivariate analyses were conducted. The results found that male and female college students with disordered eating are a high-risk drinking population. They reported higher rates of binge drinking, experienced more negative alcohol consequences, and engaged in more risky drinking behaviors and less protective drinking behaviors than college students without disordered eating. Additionally, most but not all, college students with disordered eating endorsed higher alcohol expectancies. College students with mild disordered eating also reported slightly worse outcomes to the program than students without disordered eating. The results suggest that college students with disordered eating should be targeted as a high-risk drinking population.
Open Access
Effects of age and curing on retrieval from semantic memory
(1979) Horn, Raymond William, 1945-
Elderly subjects are known to perform less well than young subjects on laboratory tests of recall from episodic memory. Although the elderly report increased difficulty in recalling information from semantic memory, experimental attempts to demonstrate this deficit are equivocal. It is suggested that studies which use multiple choice tests to measure recall from semantic memory fail to find age-related deficits because the tests provide cues to aid in recall, a procedure known to reduce age-related differences in recall from episodic memory. When time to retrieve a single item of information from semantic memory is measured, some studies show an age-related deficit while others do not. When episodic recall is tested using categorized lists, the elderly show recall deficits largely because they access fewer categories than do young subjects. Semantic cues increase the number of categories recalled by the elderly subjects more than for young subjects in such tasks, Since studies with young subjects show that recall both from categorized lists and from a taxonomic category (a semantic recall task) proceeds via temporal clusters of related items, it was hypothesized that elderly subjects would show increased difficulty in accessing clusters of related items in a semantic recall task, just as they do in recall of categorized lists. Further, it was hypothesized that semantic cues would reduce the time taken by the elderly to access sequential clusters of information from semantic memory. In one experiment, healthy, well-educated young (ages 19-21) and old (ages 67-72) subjects were required to perform a Bousfield task: to generate examples from two taxonomic categories, foods and animals, for 15 minutes. The slope-difference algorithm, a procedure developed by Gruenewald and Lockhead, was used to categorize each subject's inter- item times (IIT's) into times between temporal clusters (BIIT's) and times between items within temporal clusters (WIIT). In a second experiment, a group of old subjects were given semantic differential labels as cues for recall on one of their two experimental trials. Results for the first experiment showed no age effect on mean BUT, number of clusters, or average cluster size for recall of food items. There were also no age effects during the first 5 minutes of recall of animals. Later in the task old subjects had longer mean BIIT's for animals than did young subjects. The differences appeared to result because old subjects tended to report primarily mammals, while young subjects reported birds, fish, reptiles/amphibians, and insects as well, A trend toward slower mean WIIT's for old subjects was attributed to slower vocalization rates. Thus, Experiment 1 failed to demonstrate age- related differences in time to access successive clusters of related items in semantic memory or in the rate at which items in a cluster are emitted. Higher repetition rates observed for the old subjects do support an age-related deficit in recognition. In the second experiment, only half the subjects reported that the semantic -differential cues were helpful in finding new items. No effect of cuing was observed for the food category. Cuing did significantly reduce mean BIIT for animals during the last 5 minutes of recall. However, the actual effect of cuing on number of clusters produced was minimal. It was suggested that more practice with the cues might have led to higher cue usage and a greater impact on BIIT.
Open Access
Emotional Modulation of Cognitive Skill Learning.
(2007-12-13) Thomas, Laura Anderson
In this set of studies the modulation of feedback-based cognitive skill learning was investigated by modulating a probabilistic classification learning (PCL) task to be either emotional or neutral. In the current task, based on the weather prediction task, cue cards were presented on the screen and subjects were asked to predict what they would come across while walking in the woods, in the emotional condition a snake/spider or in the neutral condition a flower/mushroom. Chapter 1 is a review of the animal and human literature of multiple memory systems, amygdala modulation of multiple memory systems, and sleep-dependent procedural memory consolidation.Chapter 2 examined how emotional arousal affected performance, strategy use, and sympathetic nervous system activation in our manipulated PCL task. Subjects highly fearful of the outcomes in the emotional condition showed overall greater skin conductance responses compared to the other groups, as well as retardation in initial cue-outcome acquisition. Individuals who were not fearful of the outcome stimuli used more complex (optimal) strategies after a 24-hr period of memory consolidation relative to the other groups, reflecting greater implicit knowledge of the probabilistic task structure.The purpose of the experiment in Chapter 3 was to examine consolidation-based stabilization and enhancement in an emotional cognitive skill task. There was no effect of sleep on retention or savings on percent correct or strategy use in both the emotional and neutral PCL task. These results conform to recent evidence that probabilistic learning does not show sleep-dependent performance enhancements.Chapter 4 investigated the neural correlates of emotional PCL with functional magnetic resonance imaging. There was greater amygdala and striatal activity in the emotional versus neutral group on Day 1. There was also increased activity in the striatum on Day 2, suggesting an early and lasting bias of emotion on procedural learning. Additionally, there were differences in neural recruitment by subjects using complex versus simple implicit strategies.The findings from this series of experiments have implications for the assessment of psychopathologies that show dysfunction in affective and striatal areas, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder and Tourette's syndrome, and for the development, eventually, of optimal therapies.
Open Access
Explaining Discrepant Findings for Performance-approach Goals: the Role of Emotion Regulation During Test-taking
(2008-04-25) Tyson, Diana Frances
The study of achievement goals has begun to examine the underlying mechanisms that link goal orientations in order to develop a more accurate model that explains achievement outcomes. Currently, performance-approach goal orientations are inconsistently linked to affective, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes. Little research has considered the underlying mechanisms that sustain performance-approach goal orientations, particularly for early adolescents. This study explores the ways in which adolescents modify or regulate the emotional experiences that can interfere with or enhance the attainment of performance-approach goals and achievement. As such, this dissertation examined the role of emotion regulation as a critical process in the pursuit of performance-approach goal orientations that explains how individuals can modify their emotional experiences in order to achieve in a middle school sample (N=328). Students completed self-report measures of their goal orientations and other background variables. After taking a unit math exam, students reported on the emotions that they experienced during the exam. Structural equation modeling was used to examine associations among student goals, emotional experiences, strategies for regulating emotions, and math achievement. Results demonstrated evidence that emotion regulation strategies moderated the relation between performance-approach goals and achievement on a math test. The study found partial support for the PARE model, indicating that performance-approach goals are associated with achievement outcomes when students experience debilitating emotions and utilize emotion regulation strategies.
Open Access
Expressive Control and Emotion Perception: the Impact of Expressive Suppression and Mimicry on Sensitivity to Facial Expressions of Emotion
(2008-05-28) Schneider, Kristin Grace
Recent studies have linked expressive suppression to impairments in interpersonal functioning, but the mechanism underlying this relationship has not been well articulated. One possibility is that the individual who engages in expressive suppression is impaired in perceiving the emotions of others, a critical ability in successful interpersonal functioning. In the current study, participants were presented with a series of photographs of facial expressions that were manipulated so that they appeared to "morph" from neutral into full emotion expressions. As they viewed these images, participants were instructed to identify the expression as quickly as possible, by selecting one of the six emotion labels (happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust) on the screen. Prior to this task, participants were randomized to one of three groups: instructed to mimic the expressions on the screen, instructed to suppress all emotion expressions, or not given specific instructions on how to control expressions (the control group). The speed with which participants accurately identified emotional expressions (emotion sensitivity) was the primary variable of interest. Overall, participants in the suppression condition were found to be slower to accurately identify emotions, while no statistically-significant differences were found between the mimicry and no-instructions conditions. The decreased emotion sensitivity in the suppression group could not be accounted for by impulsive responding, decreased sensitivity at full expression, or perceived difficulty of task.
Open Access
Eye contact and intimacy
(1974) Webbink, Patricia Glixon, 1943-
The meeting of the eyes is a potent form of communication. The eyes are able to convey many subtle nuances of feeling by their complex capacity for expression. Their stimulus configuration has made them highly noticeable; they serve as an innate releaser for the responses of animals and infants. The fact that they are critical in the maternal - infant relationship later gives them special meaning to the adult person. This is conveyed in the many references to the eyes found in literature, language, art, and mythology. Psychologists have begun to recognize, both in research and practice, the importance of eye contact in interpersonal interaction. Eyes intensify expressions of warmth and empathy, as well as hostility and aggression (Ellsworth & Carlsmith, 1968). Recognizing this, psycho- therapists have begun to emphasize the intimacy value of eye contact. Group therapists and sensitivity trainers often ask strangers to engage in eye contact as a way of transcending interpersonal barriers in a group. Many of the relationships between eye contact and variables such as sex, age, race, and culture have been investigated. It is assumed in most of these studies that eye contact leads to intimacy. The present study will attempt to document this assumption. For this purpose, it was hypothesized that 3 minutes of silent eye contact between a female subject and a confederate would facilitate inti- macy more so than the two selected silent control conditions which were also of 3 -minute duration. One of these involved looking at another part of the body, the hand, and the other was an interaction in which no instructions were given other than to maintain silence. For this study, intimacy was postulated to be composed of the Rogerian attitudes which facilitate therapeutic change - empathy, positive regard, and congruence. In addition to the main effect of condition, a secondary prediction involved a main effect of personality. That is, the way a subject responded to the confederate was partly related to the subject's style of relating to people, regardless of experimental condition. A three-way interaction effect was predicted for the dependent variable of state anxiety such that high AFFE would lead to an increase in anxiety going from high interpersonal contact- -the eye contact condition- -to low interpersonal contact- -the hand and non-directed conditions. The reverse was predicted for low AFFE. In addition, the magnitude of the interaction would differ for high vs. low anxious subjects on the trait anxiety. That is, the amount of anxiety experienced by high and low AFFE subjects in both the high and low contact conditions was hypothesized to be less. As predicted, in all cases women who made eye contact expressed more intimacy than the those with no eye contact. By their own report, they felt more empathy, positive feeling, and willingness to tell intimate details about their lives to the women they had visually contacted than did the women in the other situations. Furthermore, the hypothesis was partially confirmed that subjects who usually express affection to other people (high AFFE) feel greater empathy than do low AFFE subjects. Only in the case of empathy was the difference between high and low AFFE significant; however, the trend was in the predicted direction for self-disclosure and positive feeling variables. The final hypothesis was not supported. That is, trait anxiety did not interact significantly with condition and personality for state anxiety. Problems in the measurement of this variable may have accounted for the nonsignificant results. Implications for further research are discussed.

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