GOAL SETTING AS A MEANS OF INCREASING MOTIVATION.

ON THE BASIS OF DIFFERENCES IN PERFORMANCE IN RELATION TO MAXIMAL ABILITY AND DIFFERENCES IN ATTITUDE RATINGS ON AN ADDITION TASK, A LOW-MOTIVATION AND A HIGH-MOTIVATION GROUP WERE SELECTED FOR 2 RETESTS ON THE SAME TASK. THE LOW-MOTIVATION GROUP WAS GIVEN SPECIFIC GOALS TO REACH, AND THE HIGH-MOTIVATION GROUP WAS TOLD TO DO ITS BEST ON EACH TRIAL OF EACH RETEST. BY THE END OF THE 2ND RETEST, THE GROUP GIVEN SPECIFIC GOALS HAD "CAUGHT" THE DO-BEST GROUP BOTH IN TERMS OF PERFORMANCE AND IN TERMS OF FAVORABLE ATTITUDES TOWARD THE TASK. THE RESULTS SUGGESTED THAT SPECIFIC GOALS CAN BE USED TO MOTIVATE SS WHO BRING A LOW DEGREE OF MOTIVATION TO THE TASK SITUATION. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

AGE, CIGARETTE SMOKING, AND TESTS OF PHYSICAL FITNESS.

HYPOTHESIZED THAT SMOKING WOULD DECREASE SS' PERFORMANCE ON PHYSICAL FITNESS TESTS CALLING FOR STRENUOUS ACTIVITY, BUT NOT FOR TESTS CALLING FOR MILD ACTIVITY. 88 SS WERE GIVEN 5 PHYSICAL FITNESS TESTS AS PART OF THEIR WORK REQUIREMENT, AND THEN ASKED TO REPORT THE NUMBER OF PACKAGES OF CIGARETTES SMOKED PER DAY. A MULTIPLE LINEAR REGRESSION ANALYSIS OF THE RESULTS, USING AGE AS A COVARIATE AND AMOUNT OF SMOKING AS THE INDEPENDENT VARIABLE, SUPPORTED THE HYPOTHESIS. THE SMOKING CONDITIONS RESULTED IN SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES FOR THE MOST STRENUOUS TEST AND THE 2 MODERATELY STRENUOUS TESTS WITH PERFORMANCE SCORES DECREASING AS REPORTED SMOKING SCORES INCREASED. THE LEAST PHYSICALLY DEMANDING TESTS SHOWED NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SMOKING CONDITIONS. AGE WAS AN IMPORTANT FACTOR IN ACCOUNTING FOR SS' PERFORMANCE ON ALL OF THE TESTS. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

MODERATING EFFECTS OF INTELLIGENCE ON THE INDEPENDENCE OF EXTRAVERSION AND NEUROTICISM.

ATTEMPTED TO ASCERTAIN WHETHER INTELLIGENCE SYSTEMATICALLY MODERATED THE RELATIONSHIP OF EXTRAVERSION (E) AND NEUROTICISM (N). FROM 215 MALE SS, 5 GROUPS OF 43 SS EACH WERE RANKED FROM HIGH TO LOW ON THE BASIS OF INTELLIGENCE TEST SCORES, AND WITHIN EACH GROUP E AND N MEASURES WERE CORRELATED. NO PATTERN OF CORRELATIONS EMERGED THAT INDICATED ANY MODERATING EFFECT OF INTELLIGENCE. AS EXPECTED, MOST OF THE CORRELATIONS WERE IN THE NEGATIVE DIRECTION AND INSIGNIFICANT. DATA WERE DISCUSSED IN REGARD TO THE SEARCH FOR RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN COGNITIVE VARIABLES AND PERSONALITY/MOTIVATIONAL VARIABLES. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

IS THE HYPNOTIC TRANCE NECESSARY FOR PERFORMANCE OF HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA?

THE PERFORMANCE OF 2 SO-CALLED HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA (SELECTIVE AWARENESS AND AUDITORY HALLUCINATIONS) WERE COMPARED BETWEEN HIGHLY SUSCEPTIBLE SS IN THE WAKING OR HYPNOTIC STATES. 40 SS (FROM AN ORIGINAL 148 PAID, VOLUNTEER, UNIVERSITY STUDENTS) WERE TRAINED IN DEEP HYPNOSIS AND SUBSEQUENTLY ASSIGNED RANDOMLY TO 4 GROUPS OF 10 SS EACH. EACH GROUP WAS TESTED ON ITS PERFORMANCE OF THE 2 "HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA" WHILE EXPERIENCING 1 OF 4 COMBINATIONS OF 2 VARIABLES, NAMELY, THE WAKING OR HYPNOTIZED STATE OF EACH S, AND THE SUGGESTION TO HALLUCINATE DURING OR AFTER EXPOSURE TO A PAIRED-ASSOCIATE WORD LIST GIVEN AUDIBLY TO EACH S. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE CHANGES IN S RESPONSES TO 2 SEPARATE ADMINISTRATIONS OF A WORD-ASSOCIATION TEST WERE USED AS AN INDEX OF EACH S'S LEVEL OF AWARENESS TO THE PAIRED-ASSOCIATE WORD LIST, AND HIS OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE EFFECTIVENESS IN AUDITORY HALLUCINATIONS. RESULTS INDICATE NO DIFFERENCES ATTRIBUTABLE TO STATE, BUT SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES ATTRIBUTABLE TO THE SUGGESTED TIME OF HALLUCINATING. (33 REF.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

INTERACTION PATTERNS IN CHILDREN WITH PHENYLKETONURIA.

TO ELUCIDATE THE ROLE OF EMOTIONAL FACTORS IN PHENYLKETONURIA (PKU), 4 S GROUPS COMPRISED OF PKU, RETARDED AND/OR BRAIN DAMAGED, PSYCHOTIC, AND NORMAL CHILDREN WERE COMPARED ON A MEASURE OF INTERACTION BEHAVIOR. ON TOTAL INTERACTION SCORES, THE PKU GROUP WAS FOUND TO PERFORM SIGNIFICANTLY MORE POORLY THAN THE NORMALS, BUT SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER THAN THE PSYCHOTICS. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE PKU GROUP AND RETARDED AND/OR BRAIN-DAMAGED GROUP TENDED TOWARD SIGNIFICANCE, ALTHOUGH ON SEPARATE COMPARISONS FOR THE 3 SOCIAL STIMULUS CONDITIONS THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THESE 2 GROUPS WERE NOT SIGNIFICANT. THE PKU GROUP WAS FOUND TO BE THE MOST HETEROGENEOUS, AND THE CLUSTERING OF SCORES SUGGESTED THAT PHENYLKETONURIA IS BEHAVIORALLY NOT A UNITARY DISORDER. CORRELATIONS OF INTELLIGENCE CRITERIA AND INTERACTION SCORES FOR THE PKU GROUP FURTHER INDICATED THAT THE INTERACTION MEASURE MAY TAP FUNCTIONS NOT ASSESSED BY STANDARDIZED IQ TESTS. (18 REF.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

THERAPIST RESPONSES TO HOSTILITY AND DEPENDENCY AS A FUNCTION OF TRAINING.

THERAPIST RESPONSES TO A TYPICAL CLIENT, A HOSTILE CLIENT, AND A DEPENDENT CLIENT WERE STUDIED AS A FUNCTION OF THE SS' TRAINING. SS WERE 18 ADVANCED GRADUATE STUDENTS IN A COURSE IN THEORIES AND TECHNIQUES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELING. THE COURSE INCLUDED DIDACTIC MATERIAL WITH SUPERVISED EXPERIENCE IN THE FORM OF ROLE PLAYING, STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS, AND PRACTICE COUNSELING. RESPONSES TO TAPE RECORDINGS OF THESE CLIENTS WERE OBTAINED BEFORE AND AFTER THE COURSE AND WERE SCORED FOR DIRECTIVENESS. RESULTS SHOWED SS TO BE INCREASINGLY DIRECTIVE TO THE TYPICAL, HOSTILE, AND DEPENDENT CLIENTS, RESPECTIVELY, ON BOTH ADMINISTRATIONS AND SHOWED SS TO BE LESS DIRECTIVE TO ALL 3 CLIENTS ON THE 2ND ADMINISTRATION. THE DECREASE IN DIRECTIVENESS TO THE DEPENDENT CLIENT, HOWEVER, WAS NOT SIGNIFICANT. IMPLICATIONS SUGGESTED WERE THAT DIFFERENT CLIENTS ELICIT DIFFERENT RESPONSES FROM THE SAME THERAPIST, AND THAT TRAINING MAY AFFECT RESPONSES TO HOSTILITY MORE THAN IT AFFECTS RESPONSES TO DEPENDENCY. (17 REF.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

STIMULUS TRACE IN THE MENTALLY RETARDED: DEFECT OR DEVELOPMENTAL LAG?

TO DETERMINE WHETHER THE CENTRAL ORGANISMIC VARIABLE OF STIMULUS TRACE THEORY, I.E., NEURAL INTEGRITY (NI), WAS MORE CLOSELY RELATED TO MA OR IQ, COMPARISONS WERE MADE BETWEEN DIGIT SPAN PERFORMANCE OF OUTPATIENT CHILDREN WHO WERE MATCHED ON EITHER MA OR CA BUT WHO DIFFERED IN IQ GROUPS MATCHED DIFFERENCES WERE FOUND BETWEEN NORMAL, BORDERLINE, AND RETARDED IQ. ON CA, BUT NOT BETWEEN THOSE MATCHED ON MA. IT IS CONCLUDED THAT N1 WAS RELATED TO MA BUT NOT TO IQ AND THAT AS A CONSEQUENCE STIMULUS TRACE THEORY WAS BEST REGARDED AS A DEVELOPMENTAL RATHER THAN A DEFECT APPROACH TO MENTAL RETARDATION. THE DIFFERENTIAL IMPLICATIONS AND RESEARCH STRATEGIES OF DEVELOPMENTAL AND DEFECT APPROACHES ARE DISCUSSED AS IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FINDING OF NO DIFFERENCES IN VARIABILITY OF DIGIT SPAN PERFORMANCE BETWEEN NORMAL AND RETARDED CHILDREN. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

PERFORMANCE AND REMINISCENCE OF BRAIN-DAMAGED, BEHAVIOR-DISORDERED, AND NORMAL CHILDREN ON FOUR PSYCHOMOTOR AND PERCEPTUAL TESTS.

TEST RESULTS SUPPORT THE HYPOTHESES THAT NORMAL CHILDREN ACCUMULATE LESS REACTIVE INHIBITION THAN BRAIN DAMAGED AND BEHAVIOR DISORDERED SS AND THAT BRAIN DAMAGE PRODUCES EXTRAVERTED BEHAVIOR. 11-15 YR. OLD CHILDREN (25 BRAIN DAMAGED, 25 BEHAVIOR DISORDERED, AND 25 NORMALS) OF AT LEAST AVERAGE INTELLIGENCE WERE SAMPLED. RESULTS REVEALED NORMAL SS WITH LESS REMINISCENCE EFFECTS, ON 2 OF THE 4 TESTS, THAN THE OTHER SS. THE NORMAL SS HAD BETTER PERFORMANCE LEVELS ON ALL 4 TESTS. THE BRAIN DAMAGED SS HAD PERFORMANCE AND REMINISCENCE EFFECTS SIMILAR TO THOSE OF BEHAVIOR DISORDERED SS. A DISCRIMINATE FUNCTION ANALYSIS CORRECTLY CLASSIFIED 84% OF THE SS. (16 REF.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

CONSUMER CONFUSION IN THE SELECTION OF SUPERMARKET PRODUCTS.

THE MATTER OF TRUTH IN THE PACKAGING AND PRICING OF PRODUCTS IN THE AMERICAN MARKETPLACE HAS BEEN A SUBJECT OF PUBLIC CONTROVERSY IN RECENT YEARS. BY TREATING "TRUTH" OR "CONFUSION" AS POINTS ON AN UNDERLYING PSYCHOLOGICAL DIMENSION, AN ATTEMPT WAS MADE TO DEFINE THE ISSUES IN THIS CONTROVERSY MORE OBJECTIVELY. 3 BEHAVIORALLY BASED QUANTITATIVE MEASURES OF CONFUSION IN UNIT-PRICE INFORMATION FOR PACKAGED PRODUCTS WERE DEVELOPED, AND APPLIED IN A SUPERMARKET SETTING. 33 YOUNG MARRIED WOMEN WERE INSTRUCTED TO SELECT THE MOST ECONOMICAL PACKAGE FOR EACH OF 20 PRODUCTS ON DISPLAY AT A LOCAL SUPERMARKET. EACH OF THE 3 MEASURES EMPLOYED PROVED TO BE HIGHLY RELIABLE, BASED ON A RETEST OF 13 OF THE SS, AND REASONABLY VALID, WHEN CORRELATED WITH AN INDEPENDENT MEASURE OF CONSUMER CONFUSION. SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES WERE FOUND FOR THE SET OF PRODUCTS ON ALL 3 MEASURES OF CONFUSION, AND THERE IS REASON TO BELIEVE THAT THESE DIFFERENCES REFLECT, AT LEAST IN PART, DIFFERENCES IN PACKAGING PRACTICES. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

SVIB KEY LENGTH: DISSIDENT DATA.

RECENT STUDIES OF INTEREST KEY LENGTH SUGGEST THAT ABOUT 60 ITEM RESPONSES ARE OPTIMAL FOR MAXIMIZING GROUP PREPARATION. THIS STUDY SOUGHT TO DETERMINE WHETHER THIS OPTIMUM STILL EMERGES WHEN CONTROL OF ITEM VALIDITY IS ACCOMPLISHED BY RANDOMLY SELECTING THE ITEM RESPONSES TO BE INCLUDED IN KEYS OF VARIOUS LENGTHS. THE POSSIBILITY OF AN OPTIMAL KEY LENGTH WAS EVALUATED IN TERMS OF VALIDITY AND TEST-RETEST RELIABILITY. THESE COMPARISONS INDICATED THAT VALIDITIES, AS WELL AS TEST-RETEST RELIABILITIES, SUBSTANTIALLY AND CONSISTENTLY INCREASED AS MORE ITEM RESPONSES WERE SCORED. IT WAS CONCLUDED THAT NO OPTIMAL KEY LENGTH, SUCH AS THE ONE PREVIOUSLY PROPOSED, EXISTS WHEN VARIOUS ITEM CHARACTERISTICS ARE RANDOMIZED; CONSEQUENTLY, KEY LENGTH IS A DECISION SPECIFIC TO EACH ITEM POOL. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

WAIS DIGIT SPAN, DIGIT SYMBOL, AND VOCABULARY PERFORMANCE AS A FUNCTION OF PRIOR EXPERIENCES OF SUCCESS AND FAILURE.

RELATIVELY IMPAIRED PERFORMANCE ON THE WAIS DIGIT SPAN SUBTEST IS FREQUENTLY INTERPRETED AS REFLECTING ANXIETY. RECENT RESEARCH HAS ALSO INDICATED THAT INTELLIGENCE TEST PERFORMANCE MAY BE INFLUENCED BY CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE TESTING SITUATION AND RELATIONSHIP. IT WAS THEREFORE THOUGHT THAT THE CLINICAL INTERPRETATION OF DIGIT SPAN WOULD BE ENHANCED BY AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE POSSIBLE EFFECTS OF NATURAL EVALUATIVE EXPERIENCES INHERENT IN THE CONVENTIONAL TESTING SITUATION. A STUDY ASSESSED THE DIFFERENTIAL EFFECTS OF PRIOR EXPERIENCES OF SUCCESS VS. FAILURE ON THE SUBSEQUENTLY ADMINISTERED DIGIT SPAN, DIGIT SYMBOL, AND VOCABULARY SUBTESTS. FAILURE EXPERIENCE LED TO AN ELEVATION IN SUBSEQUENT PERFORMANCE ON BOTH DIGIT SPAN AND DIGIT SYMBOL COMPARED TO THE EFFECT OF SUCCESS, WHILE VOCABULARY APPEARED TO BE UNAFFECTED. SS WERE 43 FEMALE UNDERGRADUATES. (24 REF.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

TWO TESTS OF A THEORY OF VERBAL-DISCRIMINATION LEARNING.

2 TESTS WERE MADE OF A THEORY WHICH ASSUMES THAT VERBAL-DISCRIMINATION (VD) LEARNING IS BASED UPON A FREQUENCY DIFFERENTIAL BETWEEN THE RIGHT AND WRONG WORDS. IN EXP. I 150 UNDERGRADUATES WERE GIVEN EITHER 0, 2, OR 5 FREE-RECALL LEARNING (FL) TRIALS ON A LIST OF WORDS PRIOR TO THE WORDS' BECOMING EITHER THE CORRECT OR INCORRECT MEMBERS OF PAIRS IN A VD LIST. WHEN WORDS FROM FL WERE CORRECT IN VD, PERFORMANCE ON VD LEARNING WAS NEARLY PERFECT ON ALL TRIALS. WHEN WORDS FROM FL BECAME INCORRECT IN VD LEARNING, 2 FL TRIALS HAD ESSENTIALLY NO INFLUENCE ON VD LEARNING; WITH 5 FL TRIALS PERFORMANCE WAS INITIALLY HIGH ON VD LEARNING, BUT PROGRESSED VERY SLOWLY OVER TRIALS. IN EXP. II 45 SS WERE FORCED TO VOICE BOTH THE CORRECT AND INCORRECT MEMBERS OF PAIRS IN A VD LIST. THE INTENT WAS TO MAKE LEARNING BASED ON A FREQUENCY DIFFERENTIAL DIFFICULT. LEARNING WAS MARKEDLY RETARDED AS COMPARED WITH CONTROLS. CONTROLS FORCED TO PRONOUNCE ONLY THE CORRECT RESPONSE PERFORMED BETTER THAN A GROUP LEFT TO THEIR OWN DEVICES. BOTH EXPERIMENTS ARE INTERPRETED AS SUPPORTING THE THEORY. (FRENCH SUMMARY) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

DELAY OF GRATIFICATION AND SEVERITY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTURBANCES AMONG HOSPITALIZED PSYCHIATRIC PATIENTS.

TO INVESTIGATE A POSTULATED RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DELAY OF GRATIFICATION AND SEVERITY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTURBANCE, 3 MEASURES OF DELAY OF GRATIFICATION WERE CONSTRUCTED AND ADMINISTERED TO 2 PATIENT GROUPS, DIFFERING IN SEVERITY OF DISTURBANCE, AND 1 "NORMAL" GROUP. SS WERE GIVEN AN OPPORTUNITY FOR MAKING ACTUAL AND HYPOTHETICAL CHOICES BETWEEN A SMALL REWARD NOW OR A RELATIVELY LARGER REWARD LATER. THE 3 MEASURES SHOWED MODERATE BUT SIGNIFICANT RELATIONSHIPS. THE 3 EXPERIMENTAL GROUPS DIFFERED SIGNIFICANTLY ON THE MEASURES OF DELAY OF GRATIFICATION. AN ADDITIONAL HYPOTHESIS, THAT SITUATIONAL VARIABLES (PRAISE AND REPROOF) MAY BE IMPORTANT MODIFIERS OF THE PATTERN OF DELAY OF GRATIFICATION, FOUND ONLY PARTIAL SUPPORT. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

LEVEL OF PROFICIENCY AND MULTIDIMENSIONAL VIEWPOINTS ABOUT PROBLEM SIMILARITY.

THE OBJECT OF THIS RESEARCH WAS TO DETERMINE WHETHER INDIVIDUAL CONSISTENCIES IN JUDGMENTS OF PROBLEM SIMILARITY ARE RELATED TO THE PROFICIENCY LEVEL OF THE JUDGES. 51 RADAR CONTROLLERS OF VARYING LEVELS OF EXPERIENCE AND COMPETENCY WERE ASKED TO JUDGE THE DEGREE OF SIMILARITY AMONG 30 AIR-TRAFFIC CONTROL STIMULI USING THE METHOD OF SUCCESSIVE INTERVALS. THESE DATA WERE ANALYZED ACCORDING TO THE "POINTS-OF-VIEW" PROCEDURES DEVELOPED BY TUCKER AND MESSICK. 4 DIMENSIONS OF VIEWPOINT WERE EXTRACTED REPRESENTING 4 MAJOR SUBGROUPS OF SS, EACH OF WHICH EXHIBITED CONSISTENTLY DIFFERENT EMPHASES IN THEIR JUDGMENT OF STIMULUS SIMILARITY. RESULTS INDICATED THAT (1) ASSIGNMENT TO A VIEWPOINT GROUP WAS RELATED TO TRAINING AND COMPETENCY LEVEL, AND (2) SS WITH GREATER PROFICIENCY TENDED TO VIEW THE STIMULI, NOT IN TERMS OF THEIR PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS, BUT RATHER IN TERMS OF THE RESPONSES THAT WOULD BE REQUIRED FOR AIR-TRAFFIC CONTROL. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS OF CHILDREN AS VIEWED BY TEACHERS AND THE CHILDREN THEMSELVES.

THE 50 BEHAVIORS ORIGINALLY USED BY WICKMAN ON ADULTS WERE RATED ON A 4-POINT SCALE OF SERIOUSNESS BY 455 BOYS AND 456 GIRLS IN GRADES 7-12. BY SEX AND GRADE LEVEL, THE FREQUENCIES IN EACH CELL WERE COMPARED BY CHI-SQUARE TESTS OF INDEPENDENCE TO FREQUENCIES SIMILARLY GENERATED BY THEIR TEACHERS. CONSIDERING THE 20 BEHAVIORS RATED MOST AND LEAST SERIOUS BY THE STUDENTS, DISAGREEMENT WAS OBSERVED BETWEEN BOYS AND GIRLS, AMONG GRADES, AND BETWEEN STUDENTS AND TEACHERS. SOME OF THE BEHAVIORS GAVE RISE TO MORE DISAGREEMENTS THAN OTHERS. THE RELATIVE ORDERS OF THE BEHAVIORS AS RANKED BY STUDENTS AND TEACHERS WERE COMPARED TO THE ORDER ESTABLISHED BY WICKMAN'S ORIGINAL TEACHER GROUP. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

EFFECTS OF ANXIETY AND DEFENSE IN A THERAPY-LIKE SITUATION.

THE MAJOR HYPOTHESES WERE THAT (1) HIGH-ANXIOUS (HA) SS TALK WITH LESS SPONTANEITY AND AFFECT IN AN AMBIGUOUS CONDITION THAN IN A MORE STRUCTURED ONE, WHILE FOR LOW-ANXIOUS (LA) SS THE REVERSE RELATIONSHIP OBTAINS; AND (2) LA SS TALK WITH LESS AFFECT AND SPONTANEITY THAN HA SS. 52 HA AND LA WOMEN WERE EACH INSTRUCTED TO TALK AS A PATIENT MIGHT IN THERAPY. 2 SETS OF INSTRUCTIONS USED WERE INTENDED TO VARY IN AMBIGUITY. HA SS DID TALK WITH GREATER AFFECT AND SPONTANEITY THAN LA SS, AND THE PREDICTED INTERACTION WITH AMBIGUITY OCCURRED. THE RESULTS SUGGEST THAT THE ANXIETY SCALE CONSTITUTED A MEASURE OF DEFENSIVE STYLE. FURTHER, THE USUAL HA GROUP IS NOT HOMOGENEOUS, BUT CONTAINS AT LEAST 2 SUBGROUPS. (36 REF.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

COMPARISON OF DESENSITIZATION AND PROGRESSIVE RELAXATION IN TREATING TEST ANXIETY.

STUDENTS WHO REPORTED HIGH LEVELS OF TEST ANXIETY RECEIVED SYSTEMATIC DESENSITIZATION, RELAXATION TRAINING, OR NO TREATMENT. THESE SS WERE FOLLOWED ON 4 MEASURES BELIEVED TO REFLECT ANXIETY LEVEL. IT WAS PREDICTED, IN KEEPING WITH DESENSITIZATION BY COUNTERCONDITIONING, THAT DESENSITIZED SS WOULD SHOW LESS ANXIETY THAN SS WHO RECEIVED ONLY RELAXATION TRAINING AND THAT BOTH GROUPS WOULD SHOW LESS TEST ANXIETY AFTER TREATMENT THAN CONTROLS. RESULTS SHOW THAT DESENSITIZATION SS ATTAINED SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER GRADES THAN THE OTHER 2 GROUPS WHICH DID NOT DIFFER FROM EACH OTHER. THE OTHER MEASURES SHOWED NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GROUPS. SINCE THE RESULTS OF THE MOST IMPORTANT AND NONREACTIVE MEASURE CONFIRM THE PREDICTION WITH REGARD TO THE SUPERIORITY OF DESENSITIZATION OVER THE 2 CONTROL CONDITIONS, IT IS CONCLUDED THAT EVIDENCE FOR THE COUNTERCONDITIONING EXPLANATION WAS PROVIDED. (29 REF.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

DESENSITIZATION AND THE EXPERIMENTAL REDUCTION OF THREAT.

TESTED A SYSTEMATIC DESENSITIZATION PROCEDURE AND 2 OF ITS COMPONENTS FOR ABILITY TO REDUCE STRESS RESPONSES OF 58 MEN AND 51 WOMEN IN A LABORATORY THREAT SITUATION. SS RECEIVED 1 OF 4 TYPES OF TRAINING PROCEDURES BEFORE EXPOSURE TO A STRESSFUL FILM: AN ANALOGUE OF THERAPEUTIC DESENSITIZATION, RELAXATION, COGNITIVE REHEARSAL, OR NO TRAINING CONTROL. STRESS RESPONSE DURING THE SHOWING OF A DRAMATIC FILM ON INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS WAS MEASURED BY CONCURRENT SELF-REPORT, HEART RATE, AND SKIN CONDUCTANCE MEASURES. RESULTS SHOWED THAT THE SEPARATE COMPONENTS OF DESENSITIZATION, RELAXATION AND COGNITIVE REHEARSAL, WERE AS EFFECTIVE ALONE AS WHEN COMBINED IN THE COMPLETE DESENSITIZATION PROGRAM. ON SEVERAL MEASURES, COGNITIVE REHEARSAL APPEARED TO BE THE MOST EFFECTIVE THREAT REDUCER. (26 REF.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

VALIDITY OF THE JOB-CONCEPT INTERVIEW IN AN INDUSTRIAL SETTING.

INTERVIEWS BY PSYCHOLOGISTS WERE USED TO PREDICT EMPLOYEE ATTITUDES AND JOB PERFORMANCE. CORRELATIONS WERE COMPUTED BETWEEN THE PSYCHOLOGIST'S PREDICTIONS, EMPLOYEE RATINGS OF THEIR JOB ATTITUDES, AND SUPERVISOR RATINGS OF EMPLOYEE JOB PERFORMANCE. THE PSYCHOLOGISTS WERE MOST ACCURATE IN PREDICTING EMPLOYEE ATTITUDES TOWARD ADVANCEMENT AND GENERAL MORALE, BUT LEAST ACCURATE IN PREDICTING EMPLOYEE ATTITUDES TOWARD SUPERVISION AND REWARDS. THEY WERE UNABLE TO PREDICT EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE AS RATED BY THE SUPERVISORS. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

COMPARATIVE VALIDITY OF DIFFERENT STRATEGIES OF CONSTRUCTING PERSONALITY INVENTORY SCALES.

TO EXAMINE THE DIFFERENTIAL VALIDITY OF PERSONALITY INVENTORY SCALES DEVELOPED BY DIFFERENT STRATEGIES OF SCALE CONSTRUCTION, 6 STRATEGIES WERE COMPARED: FACTOR ANALYTIC, EMPIRICAL GROUP DISCRIMINATIVE, INTUITIVE-THEORETICAL, INTUITIVE-RATIONAL, STYLISTIC-PSYCHOMETRIC, AND RANDOM. A COMMON ITEM POOL, THAT OF THE CPI, WAS USED TO CONSTRUCT SETS OF 11 SCALES BY EACH OF THE 6 STRATEGIES. THE SS WERE APPROXIMATELY 200 UNIVERSITY FRESHMAN GIRLS, FOR WHOM CPI RESPONSES AND 13 CRITERION MEASURES WERE AVAILABLE. THESE 13 CRITERIA INCLUDED AN INDEX OF SORORITY MEMBERSHIP; AN EXPERIMENTAL MEASURE OF CONFORMITY; PEER RATINGS ON THE TRAITS OF DOMINANCE, SOCIABILITY, RESPONSIBILITY, PSYCHOLOGICAL-MINDEDNESS, AND FEMININITY; A PEER RATING OF HOW WELL S WAS KNOWN; S'S AVERAGE NUMBER OF DATES PER MO.; COLLEGE GRADE POINT AVERAGE; COLLEGE ACHIEVEMENT RELATIVE TO ABILITY; COLLEGE MAJOR; AND COLLEGE DROPOUT. MULTIPLE REGRESSION PROCEDURES WERE USED IN A DOUBLE CROSS-VALIDATION DESIGN. RESULTS INDICATED THAT THE 4 PRIMARY STRATEGIES OF SCALE CONSTRUCTION DID NOT DIFFER FROM ONE ANOTHER IN OVERALL VALIDITY; ALL 4 WERE SIGNIFICANTLY MORE VALID THAN THE STYLISTIC AND RANDOM SCALES, WHICH IN TURN DID NOT DIFFER SIGNIFICANTLY FROM EACH OTHER. (2 P. REF.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)