On the psychology of eyewitness testimony.

Investigated various aspects of eyewitness testimony in a simulated courtroom setting. 80 undergraduates were shown a filmed murder and then testified about their observations in one of several experimental conditions. Testimony was rated for accuracy and quantity. Significant main effects were found for sex of witness, immediacy of testimony (immediately or after a 1-wk delay), testimony structure (unstructured free recall or response to questions), question type (open-ended, leading, and multiple choice), and question bias (positive, negative, and neutral). Results also support a predicted cognitive-set hypothesis, relating accuracy and quantity of testimony to the specificity of the questioning situation. The strong findings attest to the efficacy of empirically investigating aspects of courtroom procedures as a viable research paradigm. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Correlation of eyewitness accuracy and confidence: Optimality hypothesis revisited.

Inasmuch as a completely satisfactory estimate of effect size for the eyewitness accuracy-confidence relation does not exist, we conducted a meta-analysis of 35 staged-event studies. Estimated r?=?.25 (d?=?.52), with a 95% confidence interval of .08 to .42. Sampling error accounted for 52% of the variation in r, leaving room for measurement error and possibly moderator variables to account for the remaining variation. Further analysis identified duration of target face exposure as a moderator variable, providing support for Deffenbacher's (1980) optimality hypothesis. When corrected for the attenuating effect of sampling error in the accuracy-confidence correlations, the correlation of exposure duration and the accuracy-confidence correlation was .51: Longer exposures allowed for greater predictability of accuracy from confidence. Even through correlation for unreliability in the confidence measure produces a higher estimate of the population correlation of accuracy and confidence, .34, one must be cautious in assessing the utility of confidence for predicting accuracy in actual cases. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The psychology of being "right": The problem of accuracy in social perception and cognition.

Several difficulties are noted with general questions psychologists have been asking about human accuracy, such as whether people are typically accurate or inaccurate, what the boundary conditions for accuracy are, or the general process whereby accuracy may be improved. Instead, a situationally specific approach to accuracy is adopted in which a central role is assigned to the judgmental process. Accordingly, two general paradigms are distinguished addressing accuracy from realistic and phenomenal perspectives. The realist paradigm focuses on Ss' judgments and the degree to which these correspond to an external criterion. The phenomenal paradigm focuses on Ss' internal criterion as well as their perceptions of the target judgment and the judgment-to-criterion correspondence. Research possibilities in each paradigm are noted. It is suggested that attention to judgmental factors may extend accuracy work in previously unexplored directions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Victimization as a determinant of eyewitness accuracy.

Eyewitness identification research frequently uses a simulated crime paradigm, yet the witnesses in these studies are seldom themselves the victims of the crime. To the degree a witness is more personally involved (as a victim), eyewitness identification accuracy and confidence might be modified. 66 undergraduates were randomly assigned to 3 eyewitness conditions: no-theft control, impersonal calculator theft, or personalized watch theft. Whereas the victims in the watch-theft condition were more accurate than Ss in the other 2 treatments, they were not significantly more accurate than witnesses to the less personal calculator theft. Eyewitnesses' accuracy was unrelated to their confidence in their identification. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Theoretical nuances and practical old questions: The psychology of aging.

The dichotomy of theory and practice is discussed within the framework of the experimental psychology of aging, with particular emphasis on investigations of memory retrieval. Over-emphasis on theoretical nuances should be replaced by attempts to provide tentative answers to questions of importance to our aging population. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The social psychology of citations.

Discusses 2 social facets of citations and citation counts. It is proposed that literature is cited both because of scholarly impact and to show a familiarity with the pertinent literature. In this sense, citation counts measure social consensus indistinguishable from scholarly impact. Qualitative evaluation methods are considered to be appealing because of the social-historical climate. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The psychology of social impact.

Proposes a theory of social impact specifying the effect of other persons on an individual. According to the theory, when other people are the source of impact and the individual is the target, impact should be a multiplicative function of the strength, immediacy, and number of other people. Furthermore, impact should take the form of a power function, with the marginal effect of the Nth other person being less than that of the (N–2)th. When other people stand with the individual as the target of forces from outside the group, impact should be divided such that the resultant is an inverse power function of the strength, immediacy, and number of persons standing together. The author reviews relevant evidence from research on conformity and imitation, stage fright and embarrassment, news interest, bystander intervention, tipping, inquiring for Christ, productivity in groups, and crowding in rats. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Causal and associative hypotheses in psychology: Examples from eyewitness testimony research.

Two types of hypotheses interest psychologists: causal hypotheses and associative hypotheses. The conclusions that can be reached from studies examining these hypotheses and the methods that should be used to investigate them differ. Causal hypotheses examine how a manipulation affects future events, whereas associative hypotheses examine how often certain events co-occur. In general, experimental methods with random allocation are well suited for addressing causal hypotheses, whereas random sampling is an asset when examining associative hypotheses. These hypotheses are discussed primarily with reference to 4 topics within eyewitness testimony research: the own-race bias, emotion and memory, event duration estimation, and system variables in lineups. Some other examples in forensic psychology are provided to illustrate difference between causal and associative hypotheses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fast and confident: Postdicting eyewitness identification accuracy in a field study.

The combined postdictive value of postdecision confidence, decision time, and Remember-Know-Familiar (RKF) judgments as markers of identification accuracy was evaluated with 10 targets and 720 participants. In a pedestrian area, passers-by were asked for directions. Identifications were made from target-absent or target-present lineups. Fast (optimum time boundary at 6 seconds) and confident (optimum confidence boundary at 90%) witnesses were highly accurate, slow and nonconfident witnesses highly inaccurate. Although this combination of postdictors was clearly superior to using either postdictor by itself these combinations refer only to a subsample of choosers. Know answers were associated with higher identification performance than Familiar answers, with no difference between Remember and Know answers. The results of participants' post hoc decision time estimates paralleled those with measured decision times. To explore decision strategies of nonchoosers, three subgroups were formed according to their reasons given for rejecting the lineup. Nonchoosers indicating that the target had simply been absent made faster and more confident decisions than nonchoosers stating lack of confidence or lack of memory. There were no significant differences with regard to identification performance across nonchooser groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some questions about theoretical psychology.

Comments on the article by B. D. Slife and R. N. Williams (see record 84-17550) concerning theoretical psychology as a new subdiscipline of psychology. Several unaddressed questions are raised, such as terminology, possibility of further fragmentation of psychology, and possible problems of formal recognition and institutional legitimation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Crisis in social psychology: The relevance of relevance.

Considers that external influences on social psychology for socially relevant research are misguided and potentially destructive to the progress of the discipline. Social psychologists have studied socially relevant topics for years and if their findings are not generalizable to community problems it is because they are not relevant to the constructs to which they pertain. Once conceptual relevance is obtained by reevaluation of existent research methods, social relevance will inevitably follow. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The social psychology of creativity: A componential conceptualization.

Considers the definition and assessment of creativity and presents a componential framework for conceptualizing this faculty. Including domain-relevant skills, creativity-relevant skills, and task motivation as a set of necessary and sufficient components of creativity, the framework describes the way in which cognitive abilities, personality characteristics, and social factors might contribute to stages of the creative process. The discussion emphasizes the previously neglected social factors and highlights the contributions that a social psychology of creativity can make to a comprehensive view of creative performance. (99 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The social psychology of perceived prejudice and discrimination.

Most research on prejudice has followed a unidirectional orientation of investigating why or when majority- or dominant-group members become prejudiced toward members of minority or subordinate groups without considering the effects of prejudice and discrimination upon its victims. By contrast, my research program over the past quarter century deals with the "phenomenology" of prejudice and discrimination from the perspective of the victim and has sought to answer questions such as the following: What is it like to be discriminated against on the basis of an arbitrary characteristic such as ethnicity, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, etc.? What are the social-psychological and affective correlates and consequences to individuals who confront prejudice and discrimination by virtue of membership in a minority or subordinate group? This paper presents a sampling of my research on the "phenomenology" of prejudice and discrimination, along with several theoretical perspectives that I have used and developed to help to understand this issue. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The place of personality and social structure research in social psychology.

In this article, I examine the relevance of the personality and social structure perspective for social psychology. A brief historical review summarizes earlier studies in this tradition and examines the limitations of these previous works, particularly the failure to explicate the linkages between individuals and their social worlds. At the same time, significant strengths of the personality and social structure perspective are emphasized, especially the concern with how normative culture influences people's values, beliefs, and behaviors, areas traditionally neglected in mainstream social psychology. Thus, the objective of the article is to describe the ways in which the personality and social structure perspective both contributes to and benefits from greater discourse with traditional domains of social psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alcohol and social behavior: I. The psychology of drunken excess.

Conducted a meta-analysis of 34 studies of tests of alcohol's effect on a social behavior to test the hypothesis that alcohol impairment makes a social response more extreme or excessive when the response is pressured by both inhibiting and instigating cues (when it is under inhibitory response conflict). Each test was rated (validated against independent judges) as to whether it was under high or low inhibitory conflict. Results show that over low-conflict tests, intoxicated Ss behaved only a tenth of a standard deviation more extremely than their sober controls, while over high-conflict tests intoxicated Ss were a full standard deviation more extreme. The effect of conflict increased with alcohol dosage, was not mediated by drinking expectancies, and generalized (with few exceptions) across the 34 studies and 12 social behaviors included in the analysis. Studies included in the meta-analysis and rules for coding inhibitory response conflict are appended. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The social psychology of aging in industry.

In 3 previous studies, H. Meltzer (see PA, Vols 33:4955, 38:4107, and 39:1533) investigated the relationship between work attitudes and mental health. Results show that as workers got older, attitudes toward place of employment increased favorably, satisfaction increased, and work took on more significance. In a 4th study, content analysis of life and work stories was used to investigate the relationship between positive mental health and age of workers. 143 workers were divided into 5 groups according to age: 20–29, 30–39, 40–49, 50–59, and 60+ yrs. Mental health indices were adapted and condensed from M. Jahoda's (1958) 6 categories of criteria for total positive mental health. Results suggest that the stereotype of decreasing cognitive capacity and ineffectual role execution was largely false. Older Ss seemed more satisfied and less prone to change jobs but when compared with 30–39 yr old Ss, they scored lower on signs of mental health. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The crisis of confidence in social psychology.

Notes that social psychologists' early enthusiasm has been replaced by serious doubts about the future of their field. Difficulties in conducting research, unfulfilled expectations about research payoffs, and outside pressures had all contributed to a sense of crisis. Relief may come from acceptance of theoretical and methodological pluralism, from reevaluation of research expectations and ethical stances, and from the development of realistic responses to societal demands. (49 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of interpolated mugshot exposure on accuracy of eyewitness identification.

Four groups of 15 Ss (ages 20–65 yrs) observed a videotape of 3 men whom they were later asked to identify in a recognition test. Results demonstrate significant effects on confidence ratings of both target and nontarget stimuli through the interpolation of irrelevant face stimuli, but the pattern of results does not lend itself to a straightforward interpretation in terms of interference. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The social psychology of Rorschach validity research.

An analysis of the research extant in the literature on the validity of the Rorschach, revealed that there was a relationship between where the research was done (academic, nonacademic settings) and type of validity study (construct, criterion, i.e., theoretical or practical validity). Ramifications of these findings with regard to formulation and interpretation of studies on the Rorschach were discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)