A conditional approach to dispositional constructs: The local predictability of social behavior.

A conditional approach to dispositions is developed in which dispositional constructs are viewed as clusters of if-then propositions. These propositions summarize contingencies between categories of conditions and categories of behavior rather than generalized response tendencies. A fundamental unit for investigating dispositions is therefore the conditional frequency of acts that are central to a given behavior category in circumscribed situations, not the overall frequency of behaviors. In an empirical application of the model, we examine how people's dispositional judgments are linked to extensive observations of targets' behavior in a range of natural social situations. We identify categories of these social situations in which targets' behavior may be best predicted from observers' dispositional judgments, focusing on the domains of aggression and withdrawal. One such category consists of subjectively demanding or stressful situations that tax people's performance competencies. As expected, children judged to be aggressive or withdrawn were variable across situations in dispositionally relevant behaviors, but they diverged into relatively predictable aggressive and withdrawn actions in situations that required the social, self-regulatory, and cognitive competencies they lacked. Implications of the conditional approach for personality assessment and person perception research are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of situational demands and cognitive competencies in behavior organization and personality coherence.

Consistency in the natural organization of aggressive and prosocial (constructive) behavior, assessed repeatedly in vivo over a summer in a residential camp for children, was predicted from situational and personal characteristics. Similarity of situations in the types of competencies they demand in part predicted cross-situational consistency in individual differences in aggressive behaviors (Study 1). Study 2 examined the effect of cognitive competence on the discriminative patterning of behavior variation across situations. More cognitively competent Ss showed such discriminative patterning, which was reflected in greater Person?×?Situation interaction variance in their prosocial behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interaction of fear and guilt in inhibiting unacceptable behavior.

80 male college students completed the Mosher Incomplete Sentences Test which was scored for sex guilt. The Ss were assigned by alternation to a fear-reduction or fear-induction experimental condition which preceded a perceptual defense task. The results supported the prediction derived from social learning theory that the inhibitory behavior of Ss who score low on a measure of sex guilt is more influenced by situational cues relevant to the probability of external punishment for sex-related behavior than is the inhibitory behavior of the high-sex-guilt group. The results suggested that the high-sex-guilt S is relatively insensitive to situational cues concerning the probability of external punishment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of serotonin and transcapillary pressure on the capillary permeability in the rete mirabile of the eel (Anguilla vulgaris l.)

A frame of reference for studying human disease is presented. An individual's social behavior serves as the orienting theme. Special forms of social behavior are in effect what tie an individual to his physical and social space, and alterations here can lead to disease. Causes of disease can thus be linked to behaviors of the individual. Although associated with basic changes in the psysiologies and chemistries of the individual, disease invariably comes to affect the individual's behavior and adaptation. Different ways in which such behavioral changes can be conceptualized are discussed. The individual relies on these behavioral changes as the data for evaluating his disease and deciding about medical treatment. A model of how an individual processes information about illness and makes decisions designed to alleviate his condition is presented. Finally, the rationale and value of keeping behavior and adaptation in mind when studying disease are discussed.     

Affective consequences of social reinforcement, punishment, and neutral behavior.

The social behavior of 101 4- and 5-yr-old children was observed in 2 settings and classified as reinforcing, punishing, or neutral. The positive, negative, or neutral affective reactions of the target Ss were also recorded. Conditional probability analyses revealed that positive affective reactions tended to follow reinforcing behaviors and negative reactions followed punishing ones. Neutral behaviors were frequent and were distinct from reinforcing and punishing ones. The findings held for a majority of Ss and their interactions, as well as for the group as a whole. The importance of a classification of neutral behaviors and the social antecedents of expressed affect are discussed. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Life satisfaction in old age: Linking social psychology and history.

A life course perspective on aging assumes that adaptation is governed by factors beyond the immediate situation. Longitudinal data on 79 women from the 1900 generation of the Berkeley Guidance Study (J. Macfarlane, 1938) were used to examine how social and psychological factors interact over time in the course of successful aging, as expressed by life satisfaction. The consequences of adaptive resources in early adulthood varied in relation to social class. Intellectual skills in 1930 indirectly predicted life satisfaction in old age for Ss from the working class, whereas emotional health is more influential in the life satisfaction of Ss with higher class origins. Social activity in old age made a difference only in the lives of Ss from the working class. Finally, adaptation to old age was related to Ss' experiences with past stressful events. Middle-class Ss in 1930 showed gains attributable to Depression hardship, whereas the life satisfaction of Ss from the working class was diminished by such hardships. Several mechanisms are discussed that may link widely separated problem situations and life events across the life course. Results support the proposition that the influence of social change on life trajectories is contingent on what individuals bring to change situations. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of model characteristics on psychiatric inpatients' interview anxiety.

Examined the utility of model characteristics of mastery vs coping behavior and the expression of positive affect in modifying 38 psychiatric inpatients' anxiety and performance in an interview. (Mean age of Ss was 31.7 yrs; mean length of hospitalization was 69.8 mo.) Also, the influence of these variables on model attraction were examined to evaluate how model characteristics achieve their effects. Between repeated assessments, Ss observed televised models demonstrating 1 of 4 types of job interview situations; mastery-positive-affect, mastery-no-affect, coping-positive-affect, or coping-no-affect. Results indicate that modeled coping behavior produced partial modification of Ss' behavior; however, some evidence supports the value of modeled positive affect. Modeled mastery and positive affect behaviors increased model attraction, but attraction was not correlated with behavior change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Les enfants anxieux-isolés sont-ils inhibés dans un contexte de nouveauté sociale?

Studied correlations between social behaviors in nursery school and social behaviors in novel situations to test genetic vs environmental theories of social withdrawal in early childhood. Ss were 30 preschool children (mean age 46 mo) of average social competence, 30 socially competent preschool children (mean age 47 mo), 30 aggressive-irritable preschool children (mean age 46 mo), and 28 anxious-withdrawn preschool children (mean age 45 mo). Ss were assigned to their respective groups on the basis of socioaffective ratings provided by their nursery school teachers. Each S's social behaviors were observed in 2 novel situations involving the S's own mother as well as another mother–child dyad. Intergroup differences in measures of sociability vs social inhibition were analyzed, and the effects of the mother's behaviors toward her child were determined. A French version of the Preschool Socioaffective Profile (P. J. LaFrenière et al, 1990) was used. (English abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The nonverbal display of psychological androgyny.

Attempted to determine how individual differences in sex-role orientation, as assessed by the Bem Sex-Role Inventory, were related to undergraduates' display of nonverbal behaviors indicative of "masculinity" and "femininity." Smiling, gazing (feminine behaviors), interrupting, and filled pausing (masculine behaviors) were coded for sex-typed males and females and androgynous males and females assigned to either an instrumental situation or an expressive situation in 36 same-sex dyads. Analyses of nonverbal behavior showed that androgynous Ss showed a blend of both masculine and feminine behaviors. The blend was the product of the addition of cross-sex behavior and deletion of some sex-consonant behavior. In contrast, sex-typed Ss showed more cross-sex behavioral avoidance and more sex-consonant behavioral cohesion. Results are discussed in terms of S. L. Bem's (1974, 1975) and J. T. Spence and R. L. Helmreich's (1977) conceptions of masculinity and femininity. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Person perception and the bounded rationality of social judgment.

In this article, we develop a bounded rationality view of the relation between person perception and social behavior. Two theses of this approach are that behaviors vary in their significance to observers, and that observers pursue bounded rather than global utility in forming personality impressions. Observers are expected to be sensitive to targets' overall behavioral tendencies and to the variability of their behavior across situations, but both sensitivities are bounded, being greater for behaviors that directly affect observers' outcomes. In two investigations involving extensive hourly and 6-s observations, we examined the bounded utility of people's impressions of personality, demonstrating how impression accuracy is linked to the significance of behaviors. Observers were sensitive to the organization of aggressive behaviors, but less sensitive to the organization of withdrawn behaviors, even when the consistency of those behaviors was comparable. The results clarify the relation between people's inferential shortcomings in laboratory paradigms and the bounded utility of person perception in the natural environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Racial and behavioral cues in Black and White children's perceptions of ambiguously aggressive acts.

Examined the way in which the interpretation of ambiguous social behavior is influenced by racial stereotypes and cultural differences. 40 Black and 40 White 6th-grade males were shown a variety of ambiguously aggressive behaviors performed by Black and White stimulus figures. As predicted, both Black and White Ss rated these behaviors as more mean and threatening when the perpetrator was Black than when he was White. In contrast, ratings of personal characteristics were in general determined by individual behavior rather than by group stereotypes, although Blacks, whether they were the perpetrator or the recipient of the behaviors, were rated as stronger than their White counterparts. Cultural differences between S groups were apparent in the greater tendency of the White Ss to read threat into ambiguously aggressive behaviors involving no physical contact and to assume that the perpetrators of such behaviors were stronger than the recipients. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social status of aggressive and aggressive/withdrawn boys: A replication across age and method.

Conducted a replication across age and method of R. Milich and S. Landau's (see record 1984-22852-001) findings that the relationship between aggressive child behavior and social status was clarified by classification of kindergarten males into aggressive vs aggressive/withdrawn (AW) groups. Ss were 238 3rd–6th grade males, and a group-administered sociometric procedure was used for classification instead of the individual interview used by Milich and Landau. Consistent with the previous findings, AW Ss were both highly rejected and unpopular; although rejected, aggressive Ss had no popularity problems. (1 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Situational determinants of assertive behaviors.

Administered 32 assertive situations that varied in social-interpersonal context to 60 male 21-67 yr old hospitalized psychiatric patients via role playing. Half of the role-played situations required the expression of negative (hostile) assertiveness, and the other half required positive (commendatory) assertive expression. Situational context was varied by having Ss respond to male and female interpersonal partners who were either familiar or unfamiliar to Ss. Responses were videotaped and rated on 5 measures of speech content and 7 measures of nonverbal behavior. Additionally, groups of high- and low-assertive patients were identified from the total sample using a behavioral measure of global assertiveness and a self-report instrument. Results indicate that interpersonal behavior in assertive situations varied as a function of social context. Further, high- and low-assertive Ss were differentiated on the basis of 9 of the 12 measures of interpersonal behavior. Support for a stimulus specific theory of assertive behaviors and implications for assertive training are discussed. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of social context and mothers' requesting strategies on Down's syndrome children's social responsiveness.

Social context and maternal style of requesting and responsiveness were examined in teaching and social interactions in relation to 28 Down's syndrome (DS; aged 30–69 mo) and 28 mental-age matched normal children's cooperation and social initiative. Compliance for DS Ss was similar to normal Ss for child-initiated exchanges but decreased during mother-initiated exchanges, particularly in less structured situations. The DS Ss initiated fewer exchanges but were comparable on self-directed behavior. Differences in mothers' requests and children's social competence related to risk, language skills, and social situation. The DS but not normal Ss were more likely to increase compliance with directive vs suggestive requests, but only in the unstructured situation. Mothers' behaviors, social context, and expressive language skills were important in understanding the social competence of DS Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Handedness and approach-avoidance behavior in chipanzees (Pan).

The relationship between hand preference and approach–avoidance behavior was examined in 49 chimpanzees (Pan). Ss were presented with 2 sets of novel objects on 4 consecutive days. The objects were presented for 2 hrs during each session, and latency to touch any object was recorded for each S. Latency scores were then compared for chimpanzees that had been determined to be non-right- or right-handed. Right-handed Ss approached and touched the objects significantly faster than non-right-handed Ss did. In addition, males touched the objects significantly faster than did females. Correlations in approach–avoidance behavior were significant across stimulus sets and days of testing. The overall results support recent theoretical models linking hemispheric specialization with the expression of positive and negative affective behaviors. (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)     

Influence of multiple models on the behavior of institutionalized retarded children: increased generalization to other models and other behaviors

After being pretested to determine base levels of imitation, 32 9-14 yr old retarded children were reinforced for imitating a model in 9 training sessions. Ss in a single model condition were reinforced by the same model across all sessions, whereas Ss in a multiple model condition were reinforced by 3 different models (3 sessions per model). A posttest to assess levels of imitation was then conducted by a model with whom the Ss had not had contact and who demonstrated a new set of behaviors. Results during training sessions show that (a) Ss learned to imitate, and this learning was not inhibited by multiple models; and (b) Ss generalized and imitated nonreinforced behaviors, and this response generalization was facilitated by multiple models. Most importantly, pre-posttest comparisons indicated that generalized use of the new response class (imitation) with new models was 8 times greater for Ss trained with multiple as opposed to single models. Implications for the maintenance and generalized effectiveness of social intervention programs are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)