Effects of the "mentally retarded" label on adult judgments about child failure.

Retarded children show marked susceptibility to learned helplessness. Three experiments illustrate how adults may foster this helplessness. In Exp I, 152 college students reported causal attributions for failure and expectancies of future success for either "a 6-yr-old child" or "a 9-yr-old mentally retarded child with a mental age of 6 yrs." In Exp II, 58 Ss reported attributions and expectancies for both children. In both experiments, insufficient ability was rated a more important cause of failure for the retarded than for the unlabeled child, insufficient effort was rated more important for the unlabeled child, and the retarded child was rated less likely to succeed in the future. In Exp III, 54 Ss' responses indicated that either a low expectancy of success, an insufficient-ability attribution, or the retarded label alone would reduce the likelihood of their urging a child to persist after a failure. Results suggest a proposed attributional bias (overextension), a familiar attributional bias in a new context (discounting), and resultant helplessness-condoning behavior by adults. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A cognition-emotion-action sequence: Anticipated emotional consequences of causal attributions and reported communication strategy.

84 to 90 5–12 yr olds were given scenarios that involved social rejection or a broken social engagement in a role-playing paradigm. The reasons for rejection were varied to be internal or external to the person being rejected, while the reasons for not appearing at an appointment were varied so that they were controllable or uncontrollable. Ss revealed whether they would communicate the true reasons for their outcomes and, if so, how much the other person's feelings would be hurt when rejected or how angry the person would be when stood up. Results show that for all age groups, there were strong associations between the causal properties of locus and controllability and the respective anticipated reactions of hurt feelings and anger. Correlations between anticipated affects and reported response strategy in this hypothetical situation varied as a function of age and the type of emotional anticipation, with older Ss stating that they would especially withhold causes that elicited anger. Data documented developmental changes in communication strategy rather than in the understanding of attributional determinants of affect. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Empathic mediation of helping: A two-stage model.

Proposes a 2-stage model of empathic mediation of helping behavior, which holds that taking the perspective of a person in need increases empathic emotion; this in turn increases helping. Ss in 2 experiments learned of another person's need from taped radio broadcasts and were subsequently given an opportunity to offer help to that person. The experiments used different strategies for manipulating empathic emotional response to the other's plight. In Exp I, using 44 male and female undergraduates, the empathic emotion of some Ss was experimentally reduced by a misattribution of arousal technique; in Exp II, using 33 female undergraduates, the empathic emotion of some Ss was experimentally increased by a false feedback of arousal technique. Results of each experiment support the proposed model. Ss who experienced the most empathic emotion also offered the most help. Results of Exp I indicate that perspective taking did not directly affect helping; it affected helping only through its effect on empathic emotion. Motivational implications are discussed. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of pyruvate on lens myo-inositol transport and polyol formation in diabetic cataract

Attitudes toward deviant behavior that might indicate psychiatric disorder were investigated among the Inuit of Northern Québec (Nunavik). In a convenience sample of 137 Inuit adults, respondents were randomly presented with one of six different vignettes that described a man with "strange" behavior who was either threatening or withdrawn and whose problem was labeled either "isumaluttuq" ("burdened or weighed down by thoughts"), "demon possession," or "mental illness." Respondents rated their willingness to live, work, or hunt with this person and allow him into their family on a social distance scale. Significant predictors of greater social distance were female gender, more education, less familiarity with the behavior, and perception of the person as less likely to recover. There were no significant effects of vignette behavior or label on social distance ratings. Rating of likelihood of recovery was influenced by the vignette label, with isumaluttuq associated with less chance of recovery. Ascribing strange behavior to morally wrong action and to spirits or demons were highly inter-correlated and each was associated with perception of greater likelihood of recovery. Results suggest that Inuit attitudes toward deviant behavior are influenced more by perceived familiarity and likelihood of recovery than by labels, causal attributions, or explanations. The indigenous psychological concept of isumaluttuq does not serve to reduce social stigma. Efforts to promote the community integration of psychiatric patients through education should aim to increase familiarity with the problematic behavior and emphasize potential for recovery.     

Effect of depression level and length of acquaintance on reaction of others to a request for help.

Examined an interpersonal-process view of depression by assessing 60 undergraduates' reactions to a request for help from a hypothetical depressed or nondepressed person with whom they had been acquainted for a relatively short (2 wks) or long (1 yr) period of time. Ss responded to each of the 4 hypothetical persons by indicating their probable affective reactions to the request, the number of minutes they would be willing to help, their desire for future social contact with the hypothetical person, and their expectations of future requests for help. Results indicate that Ss felt significantly more concern and were willing to provide significantly more time for long-term acquaintances. Requests from depressed persons elicited significantly more anger and social rejection but equal amounts of concern and willingness to help. This mixed response pattern was interpreted as providing partial support for an interpersonal-process view of depression. A path analysis provided limited support for J. C. Coyne's (see record 1979-01146-001) hypothesis that rejection of depressed persons results from the negative mood they induce in others. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of problem ownership on teachers' perceptions of and strategies for coping with problem students.

98 elementary school teachers read vignettes depicting incidents involving (fictional) students who presented chronic behavior problems and then told how they would respond if the incidents occurred in their classrooms. Responses were coded for attributions about the students and about the Ss' roles in causing and correcting the problems. Ss attributed controllability and intentionality to students presenting teacher-owned problems but not to students presenting student-owned problems. Students presenting shared problems often were seen as able to control their behavior but not as misbehaving intentionally. The contrasting patterns of attribution seen in these 3 levels of problem ownership were associated with contrasting patterns of goals and strategies, as well. The data bear out expectations based on attributional analyses of helping behavior but raise questions about teachers' preparedness to cope with problem students. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

May I borrow your class notes? An attributional analysis of judgments of help giving in an achievement-related context.

Two simulation experiments described a student seeking to borrow class notes. The notes were needed either because of a lack of academic effort or because of a physical disability. The perceived controllability of the cause, affective reactions, and the likelihood of lending one's notes were ascertained. A total of 245 undergraduates served as Ss. It was found that (a) lack of effort, perceived controllability, anger, and neglect and (b) lack of ability, perceived uncontrollability, pity, and help formed 2 constellations of associations. There was also suggestive evidence of an attribution–affect–action motivational sequence, in which thoughts determine what is felt and feelings determine what is done. (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An attributional analysis of reactions to stigmas.

In two experiments, we examined the perceived controllability and stability of the causes of 10 stigmas. Guided by attribution theory, we also ascertained the affective reactions of pity and anger, helping judgments, and the efficacy of five intervention techniques. In the first study we found that physically based stigmas were perceived as onset-uncontrollable, and elicited pity, no anger, and judgments to help. On the other hand, mental-behavioral stigmas were perceived as onset-controllable, and elicited little pity, much anger, and judgments to neglect. In addition, physically based stigmas were perceived as stable, or irreversible, whereas mental-behavioral stigmas were generally considered unstable, or reversible. The perceived efficacy of disparate interventions was guided in part by beliefs about stigma stability. In the second study we manipulated perceptions of causal controllability. Attributional shifts resulted in changes in affective responses and behavioral judgments. However, attributional alteration was not equally possible for all the stigmas. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Help giving in achievement contexts: A developmental and cultural analysis of the effects of children's attributions and affects on their willingness to help.

This developmental and cultural study investigated the impact children's attributions and affects have on their willingness to help in achievement contexts. B. Weiner's (1980a) attribution-emotion-action model was extended in order to consider a peer's responsibility for the cause of his or her need for help (onset responsibility) and the solution to the problem (offset responsibility). The 145 Anglo and Chinese American elementary and middle school student participants read 4 scenarios that manipulated the controllability of the onset and offset of a problem by describing a peer in need of help to complete a collaborative assignment. Overall, the findings supported Weiner's model, although interesting developmental and cultural differences were revealed. For example, Chinese American middle school students' willingness to help was not impacted directly or indirectly by their attributions or affects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of actor depression on observer attributions: Existence and impact of negative attributions toward the depressed.

This experiment examined whether others explain the successes and failures of depressed versus nondepressed people differently and how these attributions are related to affective and behavioral reactions to a request for psychological help. Ss reported attributions about the success and failure experiences of hypothetical depressed and nondepressed people. Ss also responded to a hypothetical request for psychological help by indicating their attributions, affective reactions, willingness to help, and desire for future social contact. As hypothesized, Ss displayed more negative attributions toward depressed people. Replicating prior research (W. P. Sacco et al; see record 1986-12000-001), Ss responded to the depressive's request for help with mixed emotional and behavioral reactions. Path analyses revealed that attributions influenced affective reactions, which influenced willingness to help; but a more complex pattern emerged from the analysis of desire for future social contact. Results are discussed in terms of the interpersonal impact and possible causes of negative attributions about the experiences of depressed people. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distortion in person perception as a consequence of the need for effective control.

Conducted 2 experiments to assess the impact of the need for effective control on attributions made in a conflict situation. In the 1st experiment with 32 undergraduates, it was hypothesized that the prospect of future interaction with a target person would lead observers to exaggerate the degree of dispositional information they believed could be inferred from the target person's behavior. Results confirm the hypothesis. In the 2nd experiment with 90 undergraduates, it was hypothesized that Ss scoring high on Rotter's Internal–External Locus of Control Scale would draw more dispositional inferences from a target person's behavior than would Ss scoring low on this scale. This prediction was also supported. The overall pattern of results is construed as supporting the position that the attributional differences found between the various types of observers were due, at least in part, to motivational as opposed to information-processing factors. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Temperament and helping behavior in preschool children.

This study investigated the idea that children's temperaments, in interaction with situational factors, are related to their helping behavior. Twenty-four preschool children were each presented with four opportunities for helping a female adult during a play session in the laboratory, while their mothers rated the children's helpfulness at home. Multiple measures of sociability as well as a broad temperament measure called social adaptability were gathered from mothers and preschool teachers, some several months prior to the laboratory session and some concurrent with it. The primary hypothesis that sociable children would appear to be more helpful than less sociable children was supported for helpfulness in the laboratory, but not at home. It was suggested that this was because in the laboratory the person needing help was unfamiliar, which may have differentially affected the sociable and unsociable children. Preliminary evidence suggested an association between discipline techniques reportedly used by mothers and their children's temperaments. Possible mechanisms by which temperament could mediate prosocial behavior are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Empathy avoidance: Forestalling feeling for another in order to escape the motivational consequences.

Often people fail to respond to those in need. Why? In addition to cognitive and perceptual processes such as oversight and diffusion of responsibility, a motivational process may lead people, at times, to actively avoid feeling empathy for those in need, lest they be motivated to help them. It is predicted that empathy avoidance will occur when, before exposure to a person in need, people are aware that (1) they will be asked to help this person and (2) helping will be costly. To test this prediction, Ss were given the choice of hearing 1 of 2 versions of an appeal by a homeless man for help: an empathy-inducing version or a nonempathy-inducing version. As predicted, those aware that they soon would be given a high-cost opportunity to help the man chose to hear the empathy-inducing version less often than did those either unaware of the upcoming opportunity or aware but led to believe that helping involved low cost. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attributions, false consensus, and valence: Two field studies.

Two studies, with 1,056 Ss, investigated attitudes, knowledge, and behavior with regard to several environmental issues. Findings demonstrate that observers tend to perceive a false consensus with respect to the relative commonness of their own behavioral choices. This phenomenon was replicated across a variety of behaviors. This bias was not related, however, to Ss' trait inferences of the typical person who would choose a particular alternative. Neither estimated commonness of responses nor Ss' own behavioral choice provided an adequate explanation of the obtained differences in attributional inferences. Results show that Ss made more extreme and confident trait ratings about evaluatively positive behavior, irrespective of their own behavioral choice. Ss' trait ratings were in accordance with L. Ross's (1977) proposal, that Ss make more extreme ratings about dissimilar others, only when Ss rated their own behavioral choice relatively unfavorably compared with the behavioral alternative. Implications for previous investigations dealing with the false consensus effect are outlined, and evaluative and motivational mechanisms are proposed for research on social inference and attributional processes. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attributions and the stigma of illiteracy: Understanding help seeking in low literate adults.

Examined the extent to which members of a stigmatized group would make internal versus external attributions for their difficulties and how these attributions would influence their willingness to seek help. Hypothesis 1 was that help-seeking by stigmatized individuals would be influenced by reflected attributions (their expectations of the attributions others would make regarding their difficulties). Hypothesis 2 was that stigmatized individuals would possess a less optimistic style of attribution than others. Ss included 26 low-literate adult learners (aged 18–62 yrs), 26 literacy tutors (aged 27–80 yrs), and a comparison group. Information was collected concerning attributional style and personal and reflected attributions for the difficulties experienced by low literate adults. Contrary to predictions, low literate Ss were found to have the most optimistic style of attribution. The belief that others would make internal attributions for literacy difficulties was strongly correlated with a fear of negative evaluation as a result of being helped. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How to promote social approval: Effects of audience and achievement outcome on publicly communicated attributions.

Students' understanding of attributional self-presentation strategies that facilitate adults' and peers' social approval in achievement situations was examined. In Exp 1, 8th-grade students were asked to predict how success and failure due to ability (high vs low) and effort (high vs low) would affect peer popularity and teacher liking. Students recognized that attributions elicit different responses depending on their audience and achievement outcome. In Exp 2, the same participants rated the likelihood of communicating 4 attributions (ability, effort, exam fairness, and luck) as a reason of their own imagined exam performance to peers, teachers, and parents. Consistent with the results of Exp 1, the students varied their explanations according to the outcome and the audience. The results of the 2nd experiment were also replicated with college students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-focused attention and helping behavior.

Conducted 4 experiments that examined the role of self-directed attention in prosocial behavior. In the 1st 2 experiments, in which only focus of attention was varied, self-awareness had a debilitating impact on prosocial behavior. In subsequent research, conditions were created under which self-focus enhanced prosocial behavior. Two such conditions are identified, both of which concern whether the potential helper is likely to focus on helping-relevant values at the moment the opportunity to help arises: (a) The situation must clearly set off an orientation toward acting on a value of helping; that is, the cue to help must be legitimate as well as salient. (b) The person who is called upon to act prosocially must not come into the helping situation with a personal preoccupation that would be inimical to thinking about helping. The research is discussed in terms of its relevance to the early thinking of the symbolic interactionist school, and it is oriented around the theory of self-awareness. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social evaluation and the empathy–altruism hypothesis.

Tested the claim of R. L. Archer et al (see record 1982-05783-001) that empathy leads to increased helping only under socially evaluative circumstances. In Exp I, 22 female undergraduates were led to believe that no one (including the person in need) would ever know if they declined to help. In this situation, which was designed to be devoid of the potential for negative social evaluation for not helping, there was still a positive relationship between self-reported empathic emotion and offering help. In Exp II, empathy (low vs high) and social evaluation (low vs high) were manipulated with 32 Ss. Once again there was a positive relationship between empathy and offering help when the potential for social evaluation was low as well as high. Results of both studies suggest that the motivation to help evoked by empathy is not egoistic motivation to avoid negative social evaluation. Instead, the observed pattern was what would be expected if empathy evokes altruistic motivation to reduce the victim's need. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)