Preference for people and tasks.

The authors investigated the preferences of Social (S) and Investigative (I) people for performing S and I tasks with either S or I people or alone. Participants, 38 upper division undergraduates in Social majors and 15 upper division undergraduates in Investigative majors, were administered a paired-comparison inventory in which the stimuli to be compared were task (S or I) and people (S, I, or alone) combinations. As expected, S participants preferred to work with S people, particularly on S tasks, although they preferred (slightly) to perform an I task with S people rather than an S task with I people. I participants most preferred to perform I tasks with I people and least preferred to perform an I task with S people, confirming the conjecture that I people avoid S environments that require emotional interactions, in spite of the tasks that might be performed in the environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Testing for licensure and certification.

Tests are one part of the licensing and certification process whose purpose is the protection of public health, safety, and welfare. It is pointed out that this purpose determines not only the test content, which usually is based on skills, knowledge, and ability directly related to the area of qualification, but also the difficulty of the items, the format of the test, how test scores are used in decision making, and the way standards are set. Given the nature of these tests, content validity procedures are seen as appropriate to determine validity. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Scales for sex experience for males and females.

Tested 83 male and 101 female unmarried undergraduates on scales containing a range of heterosexual experiences. 2 12-item scales, one for males and one for females, were developed. Coefficients of reproducibility were .97 for both males and females, and the rank-order correlation between the ordering of items in male and female scales was .95. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Desire for control and academic performance.

Examined the relationship of desire for control (DFC) and academic performance. 65 undergraduates completed the Desirability of Control Scale. The Ss were asked to estimate their grade point average (GPA) for the current quarter and entire academic year, to estimate the number of hours they studied per week, and how important grades were to them. Two years later, the academic records of 54 Ss who gave permission were examined. High DFC Ss had higher grades than low DFC Ss. 84.6% of the students in the sample who achieved a GPA of 3.0 or better during the 2-yr period were high DFC students. High DFC Ss indicated they placed greater importance on grades and studied more per week than did low DFC Ss. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Screening for marital and relationship discord.

Based on recent findings suggesting that marital discord is taxonic (i.e., that couples in discordant relationships differ qualitatively, and not just quantitatively, from couples in nondiscordant relationships), this study was designed to develop a brief screening measure for detecting the relationship discord taxon. A national, representative sample of 1,020 married couples completed the Marital Satisfaction Inventory—Revised. Data from this sample were used to create a 10-item screening measure. Using the cut scores from the original study that found evidence of taxonicity as a point of reference, the 10-item screen demonstrated good diagnostic performance in assessing the relationship discord taxon. Taxon classification based on the brief scale demonstrated good short-term stability. The scale is easily administered and scored, making it appropriate for use in clinical and research settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Looking for Skinner and finding Freud.

Sigmund Freud and B. F. Skinner are often seen as psychology's polar opposites. It seems this view is fallacious. Indeed, Freud and Skinner had many things in common, including basic assumptions shaped by positivism and determinism. More important, Skinner took a clear interest in psychoanalysis and wanted to be analyzed but was turned down. His views were influenced by Freud in many areas, such as dream symbolism, metaphor use, and defense mechanisms. Skinner drew direct parallels to Freud in his analyses of conscious versus unconscious control of behavior and of selection by consequences. He agreed with Freud regarding aspects of methodology and analyses of civilization. In his writings on human behavior, Skinner cited Freud more than any other author, and there is much clear evidence of Freud's impact on Skinner's thinking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Birth order and hospitalization for schizophrenia.

Among female schizophrenics admitted to Spring Grove State Hospital, Catonsville, Maryland, between 1942 and 1949 there were significantly more last-born than 1st-born individuals. Compared to 1st-born, last-born females also showed a lower degree of social competence and a higher incidence of bizarre and self-destructive behavior, raising the question of whether the differences found between the birth ranks are the result of differences in incidence of the disease process or in the prevalence of forms of symptomatology likely to lead to hospitalization. Male patients showed no overall differences in birth rank. However, when the effects of social class of origin were examined, significantly more of the 1st-born and 1st-half male patients came from working-class and last-born and last-half patients from middle-class families. The study was seen as providing firm support for the previously reported relationship between birth order and schizophrenia, especially among women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attitude change and justification for compliance.

"This experiment has tentatively illustrated some of the processes involved in creating and reducing psychological dissonance and the implications of such dissonance for attitude change in compliance situations. It was hypothesized that increased justification for taking an opinion position discrepant from one's private opinion would lead to decreased dissonance and therefore decreased attitude change toward the discrepant position. Ss were asked to write an essay taking a stand opposite to their initial opinion on a given issue. One group of Ss was then given a number of reasons for compliance with the request (high justification condition). For another group (low justification condition) Ss were given no detailed justification for writing the essay. Attitude change was determined from a postexperimental questionnaire… . Attitude change tended to be greater where manipulated (and perceived) justification was least." From Psyc Abstracts 36:01:1GD76C. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hope for rehabilitation and vice versa.

Objectives: To use Snyder's (1989, 1994b) hope theory as a framework for understanding rehabilitation goals and designing effective interventions. Conclusions: According to this theory, hope reflects the perceived capacity to generate routes to desired goals (called pathway thinking) along with the associated motivational thoughts to use those paths (called agency thinking). Given that higher hope has correlated previously with superior physical and mental functioning, it is suggested that the hope construct may be helpful in fostering adaptive rehabilitation processes through the use of intervention techniques aimed at creating clearer and more sustainable goals, increasing pathways thoughts, and instilling greater agency. Furthermore, teaching patients about approaches for facilitating their recoveries using a hope-based vocabulary may have therapeutic value beyond the treatment team's use of hope theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Generation and Memory for Contextual Detail.

Generation enhances item memory but may not enhance other aspects of memory. In 12 experiments, the author investigated the effect of generation on context memory, motivated in part by the hypothesis that generation produces a trade-off in encoding item and contextual information. Participants generated some study words (e.g., hot-___) and read others (e.g., hot-cold). Generation consistently enhanced item memory but did not enhance context memory. More specifically, generation disrupted context memory for the color of the target word but did not affect context memory for location, background color, and cue-word color. The specificity of the negative generation effect in context memory argues against a general item-context trade-off. A processing account of generation meets greater success. In addition, the results provide no evidence that generation enhances recollection of contextual details. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Person stereotypes and memory for people.

Tested the proposal by M. Snyder and S. W. Uranowitz (see record 1980-05464-001) that there exists a memory-priming mechanism by which information about a person that is normally unavailable in episodic memory is made available by the activation of a person stereotype that subsumes that information. In 2 experiments 128 college students read a biography of Betty K, who was later labeled as either a heterosexual or a lesbian before Ss took a recognition memory test. A signal-detection model was used to assess the effects of labeling on response bias as well as on the amount of information available in memory. The memory availability hypothesis predicted that Ss primed with a lesbian label for Betty K would have more availability in memory of lesbian information, and Ss primed with a heterosexual label would remember more heterosexual material. Neither experiment produced any improved recognition memory for biographic information due to activation of a sexual stereotype. Both experiments found a response bias (guessing) acting in the direction of the label S received. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multirater feedback and conditions for change.

Discusses the use of multirater feedback (feedback from peers and subordinates) rather than manager feedback for appraisal purposes in the workplace. The author argues that using multirater feedback for administrative purposes ignores basic principles from the counseling and stress literature about how people change, invites rater inflation and poor data, and is naive to organizational issues of hierarchy, status, and power. The trend toward using multirater feedback is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cultural myths and supports for rape.

Tested hypotheses derived from social psychological and feminist theory that acceptance of rape myths can be predicted from attitudes such as sex role stereotyping, adversarial sexual beliefs, sexual conservatism, and acceptance of interpersonal violence. Personality characteristics, background characteristics, and personal exposure to rape, rape victims, and rapists are other factors used in predictions. Results from regression analysis of interview data from 598 randomly selected adults indicate that the higher the sex role stereotyping, adversarial sexual beliefs, and acceptance of interpersonal violence, the greater an S's acceptance of rape myths. In addition, younger and better educated Ss revealed fewer stereotypic, adversarial, and proviolence attitudes and less rape myth acceptance. Implications for understanding and changing this cultural orientation toward sexual assault are discussed. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Creativity and the need for novelty.

An experiment designed to demonstrate the reinforcing properties of associative novelty for creative Ss. 60 undergraduates were separated into high (HC) and low (LC) creativity groups on the basis of their scores on the Remote Associates Test. Ss were then presented with a series of pairs of words (each pair containing a noun and a nonnoun) and asked to choose the word they preferred. The choice of a noun was followed by a novel association to that noun. Nonnoun choices were followed by common associations. The HC group significantly increased and the LC group significantly decreased the frequency of their noun choices over the series of pairs. The results support the need for novelty hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mrs. Ricord and psychology for women, circa 1840.

The 1st comprehensive textbook of psychology by a woman was written surprisingly early and expressly for female students. Published in 1840, the book's full title is Elements of the Philosophy of Mind, Applied to the Developement of Thought and Feeling. It is based on the lecture notes Elizabeth Ricord used for teaching mental philosophy at the Geneva Female Seminary, where she was the school principal in the 1830s, and represents quite well the most advanced thinking of that time. This article explores the context for the work, provides information about the author, and comments on her conception of psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Physical attractiveness and attributions for disability.

80 undergraduates viewed stimulus slides of an unattractive or attractive female or an unattractive or attractive male who had allegedly become paraplegic as a result of an automobile accident. Ss then completed a questionnaire assessing the potential causes of the accident, prognosis for the victim's disability, and the victim's level of responsibility for the accident. Results demonstrate that the unattractive victims were perceived as having more permanent disabilities and needing longer rehabilitation periods than the attractive victims. Ss made different attributions of the injury and assigned more personal responsibility to the physically attractive victims. Findings are discussed within the context of the "just world" hypothesis proposed by M. Lerner et al (1976). (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Women and cognitive-behavioural therapies for depression.

Presents 5 major comments on J. M. Stoppard's (see record 1989-29654-001) discussion of the adequacy of cognitive/behavioral theories for understanding depression in women. These include the author's agreement with the importance that Stoppard places on differential rates of depression in men and women and disagreement with Stoppard's emphasis on the need to achieve a sense of control in psychotherapy. (0 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Good weather for Schwarz and Clore.

This article is a tribute to the “mood as information” paradigm in general and the seminal weather study (Schwarz & Clore, 1983) in particular. Schwarz and Clore used a natural variation in weather to induce different mood states and to further show that participants reported higher life satisfaction on sunny days than on rainy days, presumably because they misattributed their mood to their life satisfaction. Based on the mood-as-information heuristic the present study tested the reverse relationship between mood and weather. The results fully support the predictions of Schwarz and Clore. Participants in a good mood judged the weather more positively than did participants in a sad mood. Moreover, the effect diminished when participants were made aware of their mood, as predicted by Schwarz and Clore. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)