Psychoneurosis and suggestibility.

"The main aim was to investigate the relationship between neuroticism and suggestibility, using a test which did not involve static ataxia. Hull's horizontal arm movement test was used, and confirming previous findings, neurotics moved more with suggestion than normals. Some movement occurred without suggestion (the neurotics tending to move more than the normals). There was no evidence of a difference in suggestability between the groups when they were matched for arm movement without suggestion, although such movement was slight. It is therefore impossible to conclude with certainty that neurotics respond more to suggestion." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender differences in emotional risk for self- and other-directed violence among externalizing adults.

Objective: Women and men generally differ in how frequently they engage in other- and self-directed physical violence and may show distinct emotional risk factors for engagement in these high-impact behaviors. To inform this area, we investigated gender differences in the relationship of emotional tendencies (i.e., anger, hostility, and anhedonic depression) that may represent risk for other-directed violence (i.e., physical fighting, attacking others unprovoked) and self-directed violence (i.e., self-injury, suicide attempts). Method: The ethnically diverse sample consisted of 372 adults (252 men and 120 women age 18–55) with a history of criminal convictions. Facets of emotional risk assessed with the Aggression Questionnaire (Buss & Warren, 2000) and Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire (Watson et al., 1995) were entered simultaneously as explanatory variables in regression analyses to investigate their unique contributions to other- and self-directed physical violence in men and women. Results: Analyses revealed that anhedonic depressive tendencies negatively predicted other-directed violence and positively predicted self-directed violence in men and women, consistent with a model of depression in which aggression is turned inward (Henriksson et al., 1993). Gender differences, however, emerged for the differential contributions of anger and hostility to other- and self-directed violence. Trait anger (i.e., difficulty controlling one's temper) was associated with other-directed violence selectively in men, whereas trait hostility (i.e., suspiciousness and alienation) was associated with self- and other-directed violence among women. Conclusions: The divergent findings for trait anger and hostility underscore the need to examine gender-specific risk factors for physical violence to avoid excluding potentially useful clinical features of these mental health outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On remembering… more or less: A trace strength interpretation of developmental differences in suggestibility.

In this article we review the arguments of Brainerd and Reyna (1988) concerning children's presumed vulnerability to erroneous postevent suggestions. Contrary to most researchers in this area who view memory as an all-or-none phenomenon, these authors maintain that the observed developmental trend in suggestibility could be the result of nonsuggestibility mechanisms that operate differently for various age groups because of correlated changes in the strength of their memory trace. They elaborate a trace strength account of these findings, one with which we agree and have endorsed in our previous work. In this comment we review the various possibilities that exist for age-related differences to occur to memory traces in response to misleading postevent suggestions. We conclude by arguing that most of the suggestibility effects found by Ceci, Ross, and Toglia (1987) were probably the result of the mechanisms we postulated, even though the mechanisms described by Brainerd and Reyna may have accounted for some of them and have a great deal of merit in explaining other findings in this area. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prestige effects in body-sway suggestibility.

The effect of the prestige of E on body-sway suggestibility was assayed by measuring the influence of academic personnel on students. The findings, in general, were that body-sway suggestibility was heightened in response to individuals perceived as being prestigeful, most significantly among Ss already high in suggestibility. From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2GD87D. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Desensitization, suggestibility, and pseudotherapy.

44 snake phobic Ss participated in laboratory experiments assessing the degree of fear change associated with systematic desensitization, no treatment, placebo treatment, and the trait of suggestibility. Desensitization Ss showed significantly greater fear reduction than controls, while placebo Ss changed no more than did untreated Ss. Successful desensitization was relatively independent of suggestibility. Desensitization of specific fears generalized positively to other fears, and among desensitization Ss, degree of fear change could be predicted from measurable aspects of therapy process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Hypnotic-like" suggestibility in children and adults.

724 Ss of ages 6-22 were told that they were to be tested for imaginative ability, and were then given 8 standardized test suggestions as follows: Arm Lowering, Arm Levitation, Hand Lock, Thirst "Hallucination," Verbal Inhibition, Body Immobility, "Posthypnotic-Like" Response, and Selective Amnesia. The sexes did not differ in response to the suggestions. Ss between 6 and 12 were more "suggestible" than adults. Children of 8-10 showed the highest level of response. No differences in "suggestibility" were found among Ss of ages 14-22. Suggestibility in both children and adults was inversely related to "conscious" (verbalizable) resistance to the test suggestions. (29 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Source misattributions and the suggestibility of eyewitness memory.

Although the suggestibility of eyewitness memory is well documented, previous studies have not clearly established the extent to which misled Ss might come to believe they actually remember seeing the suggested details they report. To assess whether Ss confuse misleading suggestions for their "real memories" of a witnessed event, Ss were asked specific questions about their memory for the source of suggested items. The results of 5 experiments showed that misled Ss do sometimes come to believe they remember seeing items that were merely suggested to them, a phenomenon we refer to as the source misattribution effect. Nevertheless, the results also showed that the magnitude of this effect varies and that source misattributions are not an inevitable consequence of exposure to suggestions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Theory-of-mind development influences suggestibility and source monitoring.

According to the mental-state reasoning model of suggestibility, 2 components of theory of mind mediate reductions in suggestibility across the preschool years. The authors examined whether theory-of-mind performance may be legitimately separated into 2 components and explored the memory processes underlying the associations between theory of mind and suggestibility, independent of verbal ability. Children 3 to 6 years old completed 6 theory-of-mind tasks and a postevent misinformation procedure. Contrary to the model's prediction, a single latent theory-of-mind factor emerged, suggesting a single-component rather than a dual-component conceptualization of theory-of-mind performance. This factor provided statistical justification for computing a single composite theory-of-mind score. Improvements in theory of mind predicted reductions in suggestibility, independent of verbal ability (Study 1, n = 72). Furthermore, once attribution biases were controlled (Study 2, n = 45), there was also a positive relationship between theory of mind and source memory, but not recognition performance. The findings suggest a substantial, and possibly causal, association between theory-of-mind development and resistance to suggestion, driven specifically by improvements in source monitoring. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Confidence judgments in children's and adult's event recall and suggestibility.

The present work investigated the role of children's and adults' metacognitive monitoring and control processes for unbiased event recall tasks and for suggestibility. Three studies were conducted in which children and adults indicated their degree of confidence that their answers were correct after (Study 1) and before (Study 2) answering either unbiased or misleading questions or (Study 3) forced-choice recognition questions. There was a strong tendency for overestimation of confidence regardless of age and question format. However, children did not lack the principal metacognitive competencies when these questions were asked in a neutral interview. Under misleading questioning, in contrast, children's monitoring skills were seriously impaired. Within each age group, better metacognitive differentiation was positively associated with recall accuracy in the suggestive interview. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Imaginative suggestibility and hypnotizability: An empirical analysis.

Hypnotic and nonhypnotic suggestibility were investigated in 2 experiments. In Experiment 1, nonhypnotic suggestibility was suppressed when measured after hypnotic suggestibility, whereas hypnotic suggestibility was not affected by the order of assessment. Experiment 2 confirmed a small but significant effect of hypnosis on suggestibility when nonhypnotic suggestibility was measured first. Nonhypnotic suggestibility was correlated with absorption, fantasy proneness, motivation, and response expectancy, but only expectancy predicted suggestibility when the other variables were controlled. Behavioral response to hypnosis was predicted by nonhypnotic suggestibility, motivation, and expectancy in a model accounting for 53% of the variance. Experiential response to hypnotic suggestion was predicted only by nonhypnotic suggestibility. Unexpectedly, hypnosis was found to decrease suggestibility for a substantial minority of participants. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender differences in peer relations of children with neurodevelopmental conditions.

Objective: To examine gender differences in the peer relations of children with congenital neurodevelopmental conditions (NDC). Participants: Thirty-four children with cerebral palsy or spina bifida and 41 typically developing (TD) children, ages 6-12. Measures: Personality Inventory for Children-Second Edition (PIC-2), Social Network Inventory for Children-Child Version, and the Friendship Quality Questionnaire-Revised (FQQ-R). Results: Children with NDC report smaller social networks and lower quality of friendships than TD peers. Group × Gender interaction effects were not significant. Conclusion: Prior to adolescence, the social differences and risks associated with NDC do not appear to be gender specific. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences in locus of control and performance under competitive and cooperative conditions.

To test the possibility that certain factors may mediate the locus of control (Adult Nowicki-Strickland Internal–External Control Scale) of reinforcement/achievement relation, 80 male and 80 female college students in Exp I were asked to compete against or cooperate with same- or opposite-sex partners. The hypothesis that the achievement behavior of internally controlled females would be more affected by sex of partner and type of competition than that of males was confirmed and replicated in Exp II with 60 female college students. Although internally controlled males increased their achievement more than did externally controlled males, internally controlled females increased their performance when competing against males or cooperating with females. These results are interpreted as meaning that females may require more complex models to describe their behavior in general and the locus of control/achievement relation in particular. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of repeated experience on children's suggestibility.

The effect of suggestive questions on 3- to 5-year old and 6- to 8-year old children's recall of the final occurrence of a repeated event was examined. The event included fixed (identical items) as well as variable items where a new instantiation represented the item in each occurrence of the series. Relative to reports of children who participated in a single occurrence, children's reports about fixed items of the repeated event were more accurate and less contaminated by false suggestions. For variable items, repeated experience led to a decline in memory of the specific occurrence; however, there was no increase in susceptibility to suggestions about details from nontarget occurrences. Although younger children and children who were interviewed a while after the event were more suggestible, respectively, than older children and those interviewed soon after the event, repeated experience attenuated these effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of discrete emotions on young children's suggestibility.

Two experiments investigated the effects of sadness, anger, and happiness on 4- to 6-year-old children's memory and suggestibility concerning story events. In Experiment 1, children were presented with 3 interactive stories on a video monitor. The stories included protagonists who wanted to give the child a prize. After each story, the child completed a task to try to win the prize. The outcome of the child's effort was manipulated in order to elicit sadness, anger, or happiness. Children's emotions did not affect story recall, but children were more vulnerable to misleading questions about the stories when sad than when angry or happy. In Experiment 2, a story was presented and emotions were elicited using an autobiographical recall task. Children responded to misleading questions and then recalled the story for a different interviewer. Again, children's emotions did not affect the amount of story information recalled correctly, but sad children incorporated more information from misleading questions during recall than did angry or happy children. Sad children's greater suggestibility is discussed in terms of the differing problem-solving strategies associated with discrete emotions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toddlers' language development: Sex differences within social risk.

Sex differences in the association between environmental risk and language development were examined in a longitudinal study of 54 high-social-risk families. Measures of the environment included information about family stress and coping, opportunities for cognitive and linguistic stimulation, the nature of learning experiences, and the affective quality of the infant–mother relationship. Despite apparently similar family conditions and early experiences, there were significant sex differences favoring girls on observational measures of spontaneous language production at 20 and 30 mo of age. For the group as a whole, sex differences on standardized tests at 24 and 36 mo of age were nonsignificant. In addition, relations between aspects of the learning environment and children's language performance differed for boys and girls, supporting a moderator interpretation of the findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Imagery and suggestibility: a test of the Arnold hypothesis.

Two hypotheses were tested: (1) Sway test scores secured when S is asked to imagine falling should show a higher correlation with scores of hypnotizability then sway test scores obtained with the standard Hull "falling" instructions; and (2) there should be a positive correlation between imagery ability and susceptibility to hypnosis. Evidence is presented to contradict the first hypothesis and to support the second hypothesis. 21 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of counselor facilitative level on client suggestibility.

Investigated the effects of the level of counselor facilitation on client suggestibility. 48 university students were individually tested for suggestibility in 1 of 3 conditions. In the experimental conditions, Ss interacted with an E rated as either high or low on a scale of empathy and were then administered the Barber Suggestibility Scale. In the control condition, Ss were simply administered the test. Results support the hypothesis that Ss of higher rated Es would demonstrate more suggestibility than Ss of lower rated Es. Results do not support the hypothesis that S interaction with lower rated Es would elicit less suggestibility than a no-interaction control. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assessing the validity of nicotine abstinence effects by self- and observer ratings under "blinded" conditions.

The authors examined the validity of nicotine abstinence effects by using both self- and observer ratings. Participants were 61 cigarette smokers undergoing 48 hr of smoking abstinence and 61 collateral observers. Ratings of abstinence effects were derived from both self- and observer reports. A 3-part analytic strategy was used. First, the authors conducted an analysis of variance to determine which negative mood states both observers and abstaining cigarette smokers report as abstinence effects. During abstinence, both groups reported significant increases in anxiety, anger, impatience, restlessness, and confusion, and a significant decrease in vigor. Both groups reported nonsignificant changes in fatigue and drowsiness. The authors compared the magnitude of self- and observer-reported abstinence effects and found no differences between these 2 sets of scores. The results of a multitrait multimethod analysis indicated modest convergent and poor discriminant validity for individual abstinence effects. Results converge with previous findings to support the validity of a general nicotine abstinence syndrome but highlight the need for refinement in the assessment of individual component symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)