Accentuation and perspective in attitudinal judgment.

Studied 185 15–16 yr old high school students' and 73 undergraduates' judgments of statements concerning the nonmedical use of drugs as affected by judges' attitudes toward the issue, the range of items presented, and value connotations. As predicted by accentuation theory, prodrug judges gave more polarized ratings on scales where the "pro" end was more positively labeled (P+), and antidrug Ss gave more polarized ratings on scales where the "anti" end was the more positive (A+); this replicated previous findings. Also, as predicted, more polarized ratings were given on P+ than on A+ scales when the item range was aborted at the pro end and vice versa when it was aborted at the anti end. It is argued that judgment does not necessarily depend on the total subjective range of items that a judge takes into account (the original definition of perspective) but rather on the perceived appropriateness of a given scale to a given region of the underlying continuum. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social judgment theory and academic advisement.

13 advisors in a university student development program each made a large number of judgments concerning appropriate course selection for profiles of students based on archival data. These judgments were analyzed via regression analysis, and the judgment policy of each S was "captured." Three Ss (the director of counseling, a professional counselor, and a "peer" counselor) are described as examples of the potential use of the lens model in investigating curriculum advisement behavior. The power and limitations of this research model are briefly reviewed. Implications of the results, and of the findings of the social judgment literature in general, are explored. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expert judgment: Some necessary conditions and an example.

Studied characteristics of expertise in situations where judges deal with multidimensional information. Psychometric criteria were advocated as being indicative of expert judgment: (a) Experts should tend to cluster variables in the same way when identifying and organizing cues; (b) expert judgment should be highly reliable (intrajudge reliability), show both convergent and discriminant validity, and be relatively free of judgmental bias when measuring cues; and (c) experts should weight and combine information in similar ways. These criteria were applied to data obtained when 3 medical pathologists rated the amount of histological signs in biopsy slides. Results show that these experts generally met the criteria, although they did not seem to weigh information similarly. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social judgment theory and the analysis of interpersonal conflict.

Presents the general framework of social judgment theory as it applies to the analysis of interpersonal conflicts caused by cognitive differences, a general experimental paradigm for the study of cognitive conflicts, and the principal results of the experiments conducted so far. The experiments have been concerned with the structure of conflict, sources of cognitive change, and effects of the characteristics of the policy task as generated in a situation in which 2 persons with divergent thoughts about a given policy task are required to work out agreements for a series of policy decisions. Results show that (a) cognitive conflicts are not resolved; (b) Ss are able to reduce the systematic differences between their cognitive systems as they interact, but they are prevented from reaching agreement by inconsistency in their cognitive systems; (c) Ss change their cognitive systems to adapt to the task; and (d) the structure of the Ss' policies is affected by the characteristics of the policy task, and thus their agreement, as well as the structure of their agreement, is affected by the structure of the task. Results demonstrate that cognitive factors are sufficient to explain certain forms of conflict, as well as why the conflicts are not resolved, and that the analysis of conflict will have to take into account not only the persons in conflict, but also the nature of the task facing them. (61 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Moral judgment, personality, and attitudes toward authority.

Two studies investigating attitudes toward authority using the Survey of Ethical Attitudes (SEA) clarify the dynamics of conformity. The SEA and a semantic differential were administered to 369 college students, who rated the concepts mother, father, police, and government on 10 evaluative adjective pairs. Ss endorsing the "ethics of social responsibility" held more favorable attitudes toward authority than did those endorsing the "ethics of personal conscience." This result was replicated in the 2nd study. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A dynamic theory of proportional judgment: Context and judgment of length, heaviness, and roughness.

Ss judged the length of lines, the heaviness of weights, or the roughness of sandpaper in 2 conditions. In one condition, they were instructed to make all their judgments relative to a long-term reference point, which consisted of a reference response and sensation. In the other condition, they were told to use a short-term reference point, namely, the response and sensation of the previous trial. A dynamic model of proportional judgment (L. T. DeCarlo; see record 1993-12129-001) predicts that the autocorrelation of successive responses will be larger for the latter instructions. This prediction was confirmed for the 3 continua. In addition, fits of a recently proposed dynamic regression model show that there is little or no effect of the previous stimulus intensity on the current response, whereas the results for an earlier model suggest a large contrast effect. The theory and experiments provide insight into judgmental and sensory processes in magnitude scaling. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dependence on external influence: Correlates in perception, attitudes, and judgment.

The hypothesis that people have a generalized tendency to accept or reject external influence is tested in perceptual and conformity situations, using 53 college males as S's. The results show that S's who are highly influenced by the field in one perceptual test perform similarly in other perceptual tests, conformity measures are not significantly interrelated, and field dependent perceptual behavior is associated with high conformity in other tests, particularly autokinetic and attitude change measures. It is suggested that while perceptual performance reflects central tendencies of the person, his performance in specific conformity situations is subject to greater fluctuation as a result of more peripheral factors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comment on Haubensak's associative theory of judgment.

G. Haubensak (see record 1992-18402-001) presents an ingenious alternative to the range-frequency interpretation of how the category rating scale is affected by the number of stimuli and categories (A. Parducci and D. H. Wedell, 1986). However, the assumption that the scale is determined by initial stimulus presentations seems inconsistent with results from a new experiment in which the initial presentations are unrepresentative of the overall distribution. Paradoxically, the specific algorithm proposed for associative theory implies an instability of judgment much greater than that implied by sequential application of range-frequency theory or that found in actual empirical data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A test of Piaget's theory of moral judgment.

Tested Piaget's theory that children's moral development is a function of their peer group experiences and age. 48 8-yr-old children, in 16 cohesive and 16 low-cohesive groups of 3, competed for prizes on 4 paper-and-pencil tasks, unaware that their cheating could be detected. The procedure was repeated with 48 5 yr. olds. Prior social experience was inferred from sociometric data. Findings are: (a) 5 yr. olds cheated significantly more than 8 yr. olds, supporting Piaget's belief that moral autonomy increases between ages 5 and 8; (b) at age 8, but not at age 5, cheating was an inverse function of the degree of cohesiveness, supporting Piaget's theory that group ties produce moral autonomy at age 8, but not at age 5; and (c) prior social experience bore a significant inverse relationship to cheating at age 8, but not at age 5, supporting Piaget's theory that such experience is the principal factor responsible for moral autonomy at age 8, but not at age 5. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impediments to accurate clinical judgment and possible ways to minimize their impact.

Recent research in cognitive psychology has begun to uncover some of the factors that make clinical judgment a difficult task. Five impediments to accurate judgment are discussed: inability to assess covariation, influence of preconceived notions, lack of awareness of one's judgmental processes, overconfidence, and the hindsight bias. To minimize the impact of these impediments, 3 strategies are suggested: active consideration of alternative outcomes, increased attention to certain types of usually ignored data, and minimization of the role of memory. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accentuation and sensitization effects in the categorization of multifaceted stimuli.

Categorization affects perceptions in ways that are assumed to underlie social stereotypes. Research on categorization, however, has focused either on very simple stimuli or on judgmental tasks that focus attention only on single dimensions. To more fully understand the role of categorization in social perception, it is important to examine its effects in the case of multifaceted stimuli and holistic judgments. In 3 studies, participants formed an impression of a focal category of multifaceted stimuli either by itself or in the context of another category. They then judged the typicality of exemplars to the focal category. Results showed that categorization in the presence of a context produced both accentuation and sensitization effects: Participants accentuated between-category differences on relevant dimensions, and they were less sensitive to exemplar differences on irrelevant dimensions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Focus theory of normative conduct and terror-management theory: The interactive impact of mortality salience and norm salience on social judgment.

Research on terror-management theory has shown that after mortality salience (MS) people attempt to live up to cultural values. But cultures often value very different and sometimes even contradictory standards, leading to difficulties in predicting behavior as a consequence of terror-management needs. The authors report 4 studies to demonstrate that the effect of MS on people's social judgments depends on the salience of norms. In Study 1, making salient opposite norms (prosocial vs. proself) led to reactions consistent with the activated norms following MS compared with the control condition. Study 2 showed that, in combination with a pacifism prime, MS increased pacifistic attitudes. In Study 3, making salient a conservatism/security prime led people to recommend harsher bonds for an illegal prostitute when they were reminded of death, whereas a benevolence prime counteracted this effect. In Study 4 a help prime, combined with MS, increased people's helpfulness. Discussion focuses briefly on how these findings inform both terror-management theory and the focus theory of normative conduct. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clinical judgment under varied informational conditions: Rorschach, personal data, and best guess.

Requested 105 psychological clinicians to make clinical judgments derived from Rorschach information and personal history data (RPD), personal history data alone (PD), or best guesses (BG) on diagnosis, anxiety, and intelligence. Compared with the BG group, the RPD group was significantly more accurate on anxiety and the PD group on diagnosis (p     

Stress and accessibility of proximity-related thoughts: Exploring the normative and intraindividual components of attachment theory.

Three studies examine the effects of stress on the accessibility of proximity-related thoughts. In all the studies, participants reported on their attachment style, and the accessibility of proximity themes and worries in a lexical decision task was assessed upon the priming of a stress or neutral word. In Study 2, the primed stress word was semantically related to attachment themes. In Study 3, lexical decisions were made under low or high cognitive load conditions. Overall, the priming of a stress word led to increased accessibility of proximity themes, regardless of attachment style. Anxious–ambivalent people also showed high accessibility to proximity themes and worries in both neutral and stress contexts. In most conditions, avoidant persons' reactions were similar to those of secure persons. However, they showed no accessibility to proximity worries even after the priming of a semantically related word and reacted with high accessibility to these worries upon the addition of cognitive load. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Choosing between predictable and unpredictable shock conditions: Data and theory.

Reviews the literature on predictability and describes the factors that affect choice. Emphasis is given to the reliability of basic findings, including replications and failures to replicate. Behavioral measures related to choice are reviewed, and some physiological correlates of predictable and unpredictable shock are noted. The data allow several firm conclusions regarding preference, notably that (a) rats (albino, hooded, male, female) prefer predictable shock conditions; (b) they prefer predictable conditions whether shock is avoidable, escapable, or inescapable and whether it is scrambled or unscrambled grid shock; (c) this preference occurs with different procedures, apparatus, and shock delivery systems, such as water electrodes or electrodes attached to the tail, back, ears, or pubis bone; (d) fish and birds also prefer the signaled condition; and (e) although the preference is robust, it is affected by shock intensity, signal duration, intershock intervals, amount of training, and the dependability of shock-free periods. Other factors that may affect preference are also noted. Finally, the theoretical views of conditioned reinforcement, of information, of preparation, and of safety are evaluated, and their strengths and weaknesses are described (4 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Exploring the specificity of age-related differences in theory of mind tasks.

Tasks assessing theory of mind (ToM) and non-mental state control tasks were administered to young and older adults to examine previous contradictory findings about age differences in mental state decoding. Age differences were found on a verbal ToM task after controlling for vocabulary levels. Older adults achieved significantly lower scores than did younger adults on static and dynamic visual ToM tasks, and a similar pattern was found on non-ToM control tasks. Rather than a specific ToM deficit, older adults exhibited a more general impairment in the ability to decode cues from verbal and visual information about people. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adaptation in very old age: Exploring the role of resources, beliefs, and attitudes for centenarians' happiness.

When individuals reach very old age, accumulating negative conditions represent a serious challenge to their capacity to adapt and are likely to reduce the quality of life. By examining happiness and its determinants in centenarians, this study investigated the proposal that psychological resilience may come to an end in extremely old age. Data from the population-based Heidelberg Centenarian Study indicated high levels of happiness. Basic resources (i.e., job training, cognition, health, social network, extraversion) explained a substantial proportion of variance in happiness, but some resource effects were mediated through self-referent beliefs (e.g., self-efficacy) and attitudes toward life (e.g., optimistic outlook). Results challenge the view that psychological resilience reaches a critical limit or that the self-regulatory adaptation system loses its efficiency in very advanced age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

White fears and native apprehensions: An integrated threat theory approach to intergroup attitudes.

Motivational and cognitive factors have been used to explain negative attitudes toward out-group members. According to the integrated threat theory of prejudice, negative intergroup attitudes are predicted by proximal factors consisting of perceived threats from out-group members; these threats, in turn, are predicted by distal factors such as perceived differences in group status or negative out-group contact. In the present study, White and First Nation people (adolescents and adults) completed measures assessing distal and proximal variables and attitudes toward members of the other ethnic group. Path analyses indicate that realistic and symbolic threats, intergroup anxiety, and negative stereotypes predicted negative out-group attitudes. Many of these threats, and in some cases ethnic attitudes, were associated with negative intergroup contact, strength of in-group identity, perceptions of intergroup conflict, and perceived status inequality. Theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)