Outcome effects of receiving a preferred, randomly assigned, or nonpreferred therapy.

32 snake-fearing undergraduates viewed a videotape of 4 therapists who described and illustrated their techniques for treating fear of snakes. The therapies were systematic desensitization, encounter, rational emotive, and a combination of modeling and behavioral rehearsal. After describing their liking or disliking of each of the therapies, 16 Ss were assigned a preferred therapy, and the other 16 were given a nonpreferred therapy. 16 control Ss who had not seen the videotape or indicated their therapy preferences were randomly assigned to the different therapies. Posttherapy measures indicated that the preferred therapy produced significantly (p     

Age, testing at preferred or nonpreferred times (testing optimality), and false memory.

Two experiments investigated whether age and testing at preferred (optimal) times of day or nonpreferred (nonoptimal) times affected the ability to select relevant from irrelevant but thematically related alternatives in a verbal false memory paradigm. A 3rd experiment pursued the same issues with a visual false memory paradigm. In all 3 experiments, younger adults (n?=?195) correctly recalled studied items more often than older adults (n?=?121), whereas the 2 age groups correctly recognized about the same numbers of previously studied items. In all 3 experiments, nonoptimally tested older adults had mom difficulty excluding nonstudied but thematically related items than the other groups; thus, they showed the greatest evidence of false memory, although all groups did so to a significant extent The results suggest that optimality and its circadian determinants need to be considered with some tasks for the elderly. Various models and mechanisms are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivated decision making: Effects of activation and self-centrality of values on choices and behavior.

Six studies examined the value-behavior relation and focused on motivational properties of values, the self, and value activation. Priming environmental values enhanced attention to and the weight of information related to those values, which resulted in environmentally friendly consumer choices. This only occurred if these values were central to the self-concept. Value-congruent choices were also found in response to countervalue behavior in an unrelated context. Donating behavior congruent with central altruistic values was found as a result of enhanced self-focus, thus demonstrating the importance of the self in the value-behavior relation. The external validity of the value-centrality measure and its distinction from attitudes were demonstrated in the prediction of voting. Values were thus found to give meaning to, energize, and regulate value-congruent behavior, but only if values were cognitively activated and central to the self. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of rater race on conclusions regarding differential prediction in cognitive ability tests.

The possibility of predictive bias by race in employment tests is commonly examined by across-group comparisons of the slopes and intercepts of regression lines using test scores to predict performance measures. This research assumed that the criteria, primarily supervisory ratings, were unbiased. However, a concern is that the apparent lack of differential prediction in cognitive ability tests may be an artifact of the predominant use of performance ratings provided by supervisors who are members of the majority group; a criterion that is potentially biased against members of the minority group. We posited that ratings by a supervisor of the same race as the employee being rated would be less open to claims of bias. We compared ability-performance relationships in samples of Black and White employees that allowed for between-subjects and within-subjects comparisons under 2 conditions: when all employees were rated by a White supervisor and when each employee was rated by a supervisor of the same race. Neither analysis found evidence of predictive bias against Black employees. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mixed motives and racial bias: The impact of legitimate and illegitimate criteria on decision making.

Recent high-profile court rulings addressing the influence of illegitimate information--such as race--on decision making have highlighted the difficulty of establishing whether and when discrimination has occurred. One factor complicating such efforts is that decision makers are often simultaneously influenced by racial and nonracial information. The authors examined the psychological processes underlying such mixed-motive decision making, demonstrating how legitimate information can be manipulated to justify preferences based on illegitimate factors such as race. Study 1 showed that Black candidates were favored over White candidates in hypothetical college admissions decisions, although participants justified their decisions using nonracial information, and further showed that participants' levels of prejudice predicted both which candidate was chosen and how those choices were justified. Study 2 demonstrated that these justifications were not simply strategic and post hoc but also occurred as a natural part of the process of evaluating candidates. Discussion focuses on policy and legal implications for employment discrimination, affirmative action, and courtroom proceedings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivated inference: Self-serving generation and evaluation of causal theories.

The results of four studies suggest that people tend to generate and evaluate causal theories in a self-serving manner: They generate theories that view their own attributes as more predictive of desirable outcomes, and they are reluctant to believe in theories relating their own attributes to undesirable events. As a consequence, people tend to hold theories that are consistent with the optimistic belief that good things will happen to them and bad things will not. I argue that these self-serving biases are best explained as resulting from cognitive processes guided by motivation because they do not occur in the absence of motivational pressures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clinical decision making: Use of selection ratios to predict intelligence.

Illustrated the concept of selection ratios for large clinical settings. Four Draw-A-Person (DAP) variables were used to predict intelligence (revised beta) in 601 institutionalized drug addicts (mean age, 27.8 yrs). The simple correlations between each of the variables and beta, as well as the multiple correlation between the 4 variables and beta, were generally weak. However, prediction of the extreme scores on intelligence (upper and lower quartiles and deciles of the distribution) was possible with some degree of accuracy. Results indicate that a test with low predictability across the entire distribution can often be used quite effectively for identifying poor or excellent performers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Use of actual and preferred Classroom Environment Scales in person–environment fit research.

Used the Classroom Environment Scale (CES) to aid in investigating the person–environment fit hypotheses of whether the relationship between achievement and actual classroom environment varies with the environment preferences of the class. Students in 116 8th and 9th grade science classes were the Ss. Achievement on several cognitive and affective outcome measures was related to interactions between the actual classroom environment and that preferred by the class. Regression surface analyses revealed numerous cases in which the actual–preferred interaction on a CES scale accounted for a significant amount of criterion variance beyond that attributable to corresponding pretest, general ability, and actual environment. In each case, the person–environment interaction was supported in that the relationship between achievement and an actual environment dimension was more positive for classes whose students had a higher preference for that dimension than in classes whose students had a lower preference. (57 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging, source, and decision criteria: When false fame errors do and do not occur.

Two experiments investigated the influence of decision criteria on source memory performance of older adults and younger adults. Experiment 1 used the false fame paradigm, which encourages people to use relatively loose decision criteria when making what are, in essence, source judgments. Consistent with previous research, older adults made more false fame errors than younger adults. Experiment 2 was identical to Experiment 1 except that the fame judgments were made with the traditional source task format that encourages relatively stringent decision criteria when making source judgments: Possible sources were listed, and participants categorized names in terms of their source. In contrast to Experiment 1, older adults reduced their false fame errors to the level of younger adults. Encouraging older adults to use relatively stringent decision criteria when making source discriminations can reduce age differences in source misattributions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Use and evaluation of discrete test information in decision making.

Elementary decision theory is applied to the problems of evaluating discrete tests or test items used to classify people into several categories, and choosing which of several treatments is best for persons falling within each response category. The technique explicitly considers the base rates of various criterion groups and the relative seriousness of different types of errors of classification, as well as the proportion of each criterion group falling in each response category. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Encouraging the perceptual underdog: Positive affective priming of nonpreferred local–global processes.

Two experiments examined affective priming of global and local perception. Participants attempted to detect a target that might be present as either a global or a local shape. Verbal primes were used in 1 experiment, and pictorial primes were used in the other. In both experiments, positive primes led to improved performance on the nonpreferred dimension. For participants exhibiting global precedence, detection of local targets was significantly improved, whereas for participants exhibiting local precedence, detection of global targets was significantly improved. The results provide support for an interpretation of the effects of positive affective priming in terms of increased perceptual flexibility. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reasons for skepticism about the efficacy of simulated social contact interventions.

Comments on Crisp and Turner (May–June 2009), who argued that imagining intergroup interactions reduces intergroup prejudice. They argued that the procedure is remarkably effective, with “significant potential application for policymakers and educators seeking to promote tolerance for social diversity” (p. 238). We believe that such interventions, although appealing to many individuals, are problematic and that the authors’ conclusions are overly optimistic. We believe that simulated contact interventions are highly unlikely to produce meaningful attitude change. In sum, we are deeply skeptical about the ability of imagined contact interventions to reduce prejudice. A single, brief, imaginary encounter with an outgroup member is unlikely to reverse or erase the psychological mechanisms that create prejudice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivated augmentation and reduction of the overattribution bias.

Three experiments investigated whether the need to have (or avoid) cognitive closure affects observers' tendency to display attributional bias. Results of each experiment indicate that the overattribution bias was magnified under high need for cognitive closure and attenuated under high need to avoid closure. In Exps 1 and 3, the relevant motivational state was manipulated situationally, whereas in Exp 2 an individual-differences measure of the closure motivation was used. These divergent operationalizations yielded convergent results. Furthermore, when in Exp 3 the task consisted of attributions to the situation, high need for closure augmented, and high need to avoid closure reduced, situational rather than dispositional overattributions. The results imply general motivational boundary conditions for inferential biases across judgmental contents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Help-seeking for alcohol-related problems in college students: Correlates and preferred resources.

Despite the development of a variety of efficacious alcohol intervention approaches for college students, few student drinkers seek help. The present study assessed students' history of help-seeking for alcohol problems, as well as their estimates of how likely they would be to use various help-seeking resources, should they wish to change their drinking. Participants were 197 college students who reported recent heavy drinking (46% male, 68.5% White, 27.4% African-American). Participants completed measures related to their drinking and their use (both past use and likelihood of future use) of 14 different alcohol help-seeking options. Repeated-measures analyses of variance revealed that students preferred informal help-seeking (e.g., talking to friends and family) over formal (e.g., talking with a counselor or medical provider) and anonymous resources (e.g., internet- or computer-based programs). Higher self-ideal discrepancy, greater depressive symptoms, and more alcohol-related consequences were positively associated with actual past help-seeking. Alcohol-related problems and normative discrepancy were negatively associated with hypothetical likelihood of utilizing all three help-seeking resources. These results suggest that heavy drinking college students prefer low-threshold intervention options including peer, family, computerized, and brief motivational interventions. Only 36 participants (18.3% of the sample) reported that they had utilized any of the help-seeking options queried, suggesting that campus prevention efforts should include both promoting low-threshold interventions and attempting to increase the salience of alcohol-related risk and the potential utility of changing drinking patterns. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological androgyny: Theories, methods, and conclusions.

Methodological and conceptual problems in existing psychological androgyny research are illuminated by application of the 2-way ANOVA model, which views masculinity and femininity as a pair of crossed independent variables, with androgynous, male-typed, female-typed, and undifferentiated sex-role categories represented in the cells of the resultant 2-by-2 table. Foremost among previously overlooked theoretical points is that the J. T. Spence et al (see record 1975-27536-001) "high/high" and the S. L. Bem (see record 1974-27631-001) "balance" androgyny formulations represent 2 independent hypotheses, a main effects hypothesis and an interaction hypothesis. Androgyny research findings are summarized in terms of the effects and interaction predicted by these theories. There is no evidence of consistent interaction effects favoring the balanced over the sex typed. Furthermore, the consistency and strength of the masculinity effect relative to the femininity effect suggest that masculinity rather than main effects androgyny predicts psychological well-being. The data provide no support for the traditional model that masculinity is best for men and femininity best for women. (107 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evidence-based therapy relationships: Research conclusions and clinical practices.

In this closing article of the special issue, we present the conclusions and recommendations of the interdivisional task force on evidence-based therapy relationships. The work was based on a series of meta-analyses conducted on the effectiveness of various relationship elements and methods of treatment adaptation. A panel of experts concluded that several relationship elements were demonstrably effective (alliance in individual psychotherapy, alliance in youth psychotherapy, alliance in family therapy, cohesion in group therapy, empathy, collecting client feedback) while others were probably effective (goal consensus, collaboration, positive regard). Three other relationship elements (congruence/genuineness, repairing alliance ruptures, and managing countertransference) were deemed promising but had insufficient evidence to conclude that they were effective. Multiple recommendations for practice, training, research, and policy are advanced. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attendance behavior: A reevaluation of Latham and Pursell's conclusions.

G. P. Latham and E. D. Pursell (see record 1975-24318-001) suggested that the traditional focus on absenteeism may have been misguided. They argued that absenteeism is not a behavior but rather the absence of behavior; therefore, it would be better to be concerned with attendance rather than absenteeism. They presented data purported to demonstrate that attendance is a more reliable measure than absenteeism as well as more appealing theoretically. It is concluded in the present paper that attendance measures have few theoretical advantages over absenteeism measures and that the differences in reliability are limited. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Violations of Implicit Theories and the Sense of Prediction and Control: Implications for Motivated Person Perception.

Beginning with the assumption that implicit theories of personality are crucial tools for understanding social behavior, the authors tested the hypothesis that perceivers would process person information that violated their predominant theory in a biased manner. Using an attentional probe paradigm (Experiment 1) and a recognition memory paradigm (Experiment 2), the authors presented entity theorists (who believe that human attributes are fixed) and incremental theorists (who believe that human attributes are malleable) with stereotype-relevant information about a target person that supported or violated their respective theory. Both groups of participants showed evidence of motivated, selective processing only with respect to theory-violating information. In Experiment 3, the authors found that after exposure to theory-violating information, participants felt greater anxiety and worked harder to reestablish their sense of prediction and control mastery. The authors discuss the epistemic functions of implicit theories of personality and the impact of violated assumptions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of perceptual pretraining on children's concept performance with nonpreferred relevant dimensions: Evidence for the role of attentional strategies.

Two experiments investigated why perceptual pretraining (PPT) facilitates children's performance on concept problems involving a nonpreferred relevant dimension and preferred irrelevant dimensions. In Exp I, 5 groups of 15 kindergartners each received a concept problem in which their least preferred dimension was relevant and their most preferred dimensions were irelevant. One group received no PPT, whereas the others differed in the relationship between PPT stimuli and concept stimuli. Results indicated that concept performance was facilitated by PPT on dimensions that did not appear in the concept problem. In fact, no additional facilitation was obtained by including Ss' least preferred dimension among the PPT dimensions. Exp II, with 48 kindergartners, replicated the finding that concept performance was facilitated by PPT on 4 dimensions that were not involved in the concept problem. However, an equivalent amount of PPT involving only 1 dimension produced no significant facilitation. It is concluded that PPT facilitated concept performance by inducing a general strategy of switching attention among dimensions. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)