Cognitive similarity and interpersonal communication in industry.

Does cognitive similarity affect the process of interpersonal communication? "One hundred and fifty-five Ss responded to 12 triads of jobs and 12 triads of people. The Ss were asked to state 'Which job (person) is more different from the other two?' and 'Why' The responses of subordinates and supervisors to these triads were compared by two judges. If the responses were judged to be similar the index of categoric similarity of the pair was high. The same Ss were asked to rate five jobs and six people on specially constructed semantic differentials. Similarity of the 'semantic profiles' obtained indicated high syndetic similarity between a boss and a subordinate. Successive intervals scales on perceived communication effectiveness and liking within the boss-subordinate pair were constructed. Correlational analysis and analyses of variance showed an association between categoric similarity based on people and syndetic similarity based on jobs and communication effectiveness and liking within the pair. This is considered evidence supporting the hypothesis that cognitive similarity is a significant variable in interpersonal communication and liking." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Generalization of children's preferences as a function of reinforcement and task similarity.

"An experiment was designed to study children's preferences for a series of problem-solving tasks as a function of the particular reinforcement condition associated with a training task, and the degree of similarity of each task to the training task… negative reinforcement produced in some S's approach gradients and in others avoidance gradients. The meaning of the results was discussed and related to motivation theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cross-cultural similarity and difference in interpersonal behavior.

It is suggested that certain aspects of interpersonal behavior are common to different cultures while certain other aspects change from culture to culture. 8 types of interpersonal behavior are defined; it is predicted that they can be arranged in a circular order according to the size of their coefficients of intercorrelation. The population investigated consists of a sample of 633 married couples living in Jerusalem, Israel, and belonging to 2 cultural groups: one originating from Europe and the other from the Middle East. It was found that the predicted circular order is the same in both groups. On the other hand the size of specific correlation coefficients varies for the 2 groups and appears to be related to group differences in cultural values. Cross-cultural similarity and difference are traced to the sequence of development of interpersonal concepts during socialization and to the influence of cultural values on the formation of these concepts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality similarity, positive affect, and interpersonal attraction.

The present study "assumed that interpersonal positive affect is a key determinant of interpersonal dynamics and that personality similarity facilitates the mutual expression of positive effect. The hypothesis was that subjects and their unilateral sociometric choices have significantly similar personality profiles prior to acquaintance, while subjects and their sociometric rejections do not." The hypothesis was supported. From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2GE84I. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal attraction and attitude similarity.

It "was hypothesized that (a) a stranger who is known to have attitudes similar to those of the subject is better liked than a stranger with attitudes dissimilar to those of the subject, (b)… is judged to be more intelligent, better informed, more moral, and better adjusted… and (c)… is evaluated more positively on… four [other] variables." The first 2 hypotheses were confirmed. From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4GE13B. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality similarity and friendship.

Using the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule, "personality similarity or similarity of affect needs and of ways of expressing and receiving affect" was found to be a significant factor in interpersonal attraction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Premises of interpersonal theory.

Premises of interpersonal theory are elucidated in order to crystallize its foundations and to point up the utility of discussing psychoanalytic theory on the level of premises. In regard to human psychology, interpersonal theory assumes an inextricable interpenetration of biology and external influences. It therefore questions assigning biology or "biologized" concepts predominance in explaining meaning or the contents of the mind. Biology is implicated in many interpersonal concepts, but not in the form implied in such concepts as drive or inherently arising endogenous states. Rather than an unfolding general nature, interpersonal theory assumes an outcome emerging from the interaction of manifold biological potentials with complex social influences. Such a perspective implies further assumptions about human impressibility, social determinism, psycho/social multidimensionality, complexity, and uniqueness. These assumptions lead to a focus on individual psychology, on character, for example, rather than general psychology, and on holistic/field conceptions of causality rather than the causal linkage of relatively isolated dimensions. ... (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality profile similarity as a function of group membership.

Students in 3 universities were compared in an investigation of the question as to whether personality similarity between Ss paired at random would increase as the homogeneity of the group from which they were drawn increased. Homogeneity was defined in terms of race, sex, social class, and field of study. The results failed to confirm the expectation but they furnished convincing evidence of the existence of a low, positive, and significant average profile similarity among Ss paired at random. Regardless of its source, this phenomenon of interperson profile similarity should be taken into account in future studies utilizing personality similarity as a variable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive processes and interpersonal predictions.

An investigation of the cognitive process by which one observer makes predictions about another person in a social situation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Handbook of interpersonal psychoanalysis and Pioneers of interpersonal psychoanalysis.

Reviews the books, Handbook of interpersonal psychoanalysis, edited by Marylou Lionells, John Fiscalini, Carola H. Mann, and Donnel B. Stern (see record 1995-99011-000) and Pioneers of interpersonal psychoanalysis, edited by Donnel B. Stern, Carola H. Mann, Stuart Kantor, and Gary Schlesinger (see record 1995-99013-000). Of all the principal psychoanalytic schools in contemporary America--Freudian or classical, object relations, self psychological, and interpersonal--the last has stood at the greatest remove from orthodoxy, in part because its founders, most notably Sullivan and Fromm, were not closely linked to the institutional centers. The growing emphasis of world analysis on relational experience, however, as both an influence on personality development and with important implications for treatment, has thrown most of the schools closer together, and the rich contributions of the so-called interpersonalists have made this proximity of even greater importance. The two books prompting these remarks are the most complete and forthright statements of the interpersonal position available. They provide an opportunity to review this position, its gradually emergent effects on clinical work particularly, and the problems and possible solutions resulting. Of course, this interpersonal effort at understanding both treatment and the self does not complete the story. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changes in interpersonal perception as a means of reducing cognitive dissonance.

A situation was structured so that Ss were under the impression they were reading to someone a negative evaluation about him. Half of the Ss expected to meet this person later, where the nature of the situation could be explained and rectified; the other half were told they would not be given such an opportunity. It was predicted that there would be greater cognitive dissonance where S was given a choice whether to read the abusive statement or not and where no opportunity to meet the individual and rectify matters would be permitted. This prediction was confirmed. From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2GE02D. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assumed similarity measures as predictors of team effectiveness.

"The present investigations test the hypothesis that group effectiveness is related to the interpersonal perceptions which members of the group have toward one another. Interpersonal perceptions were measured by correlating identical questionnaires which subjects were instructed to fill out (a) describing themselves, (b) predicting the responses of their preferred co-worker, and (c) predicting the responses of their rejected co-worker." The assumed similarity score of the team's most preferred work companion was found to be negatively correlated with a criterion of team effectiveness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Similarity and assumed similarity of attitudes between husbands and wives.

Similarity of attitudes, interpreted as reward via consensual validation, has been found to exert a positive effect on interpersonal attraction. It was hypothesized that with respect to relatively important topics, husbands and wives have similar attitudes. Working from Newcomb's A-B-X model, it was further hypothesized that assumed similarity of attitudes is greater than actual similarity. Ss were 36 married couples who responded to Rokeach's Left Opinionation, Right Opinionation, and Dogmatism scales as they themselves felt and as they guessed their spouses would respond. As predicted, significant husband-wife correlations were found for all 3 scales. Further, the correlations indicating assumed similarity (the relationship between self-scores and assumed spouse scores) were significantly larger than the actual husband-wife relationships, regardless of length of marriage. (30 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relational self: An interpersonal social-cognitive theory.

The authors propose an interpersonal social-cognitive theory of the self and personality, the relational self, in which knowledge about the self is linked with knowledge about significant others, and each linkage embodies a self-other relationship. Mental representations of significant others are activated and used in interpersonal encounters in the social-cognitive phenomenon of transference (S. M. Andersen & N. S. Glassman, 1996), and this evokes the relational self. Variability in relational selves depends on interpersonal contextual cues, whereas stability derives from the chronic accessibility of significant-other representations. Relational selves function in if-then terms (W. Mischel & Y. Shoda, 1995), in which ifs are situations triggering transference, and thens are relational selves. An individual's repertoire of relational selves is a source of interpersonal patterns involving affect, motivation, self-evaluation, and self-regulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Generalization of prism adaptation.

Prism exposure produces 2 kinds of adaptive response. Recalibration is ordinary strategic remapping of spatially coded movement commands to rapidly reduce performance error. Realignment is the extraordinary process of transforming spatial maps to bring the origins of coordinate systems into correspondence. Realignment occurs when spatial discordance signals noncorrespondence between spatial maps. In Experiment 1, generalization of recalibration aftereffects from prism exposure to postexposure depended upon the similarity of target pointing limb postures. Realignment aftereffects generalized to the spatial maps involved in exposure. In Experiment 2, the 2 kinds of aftereffects were measured for 3 test positions, one of which was the exposure training position. Recalibration aftereffects generalized nonlinearly, while realignment aftereffects generalized linearly, replicating Bedford (1989, 1993a) using a more familiar prism adaptation paradigm. Recalibration and realignment require methods for distinguishing their relative contribution to prism adaptation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Client interpersonal and cognitive styles as predictors of response to time-limited cognitive therapy for depression.

This study examined the relationship between cognitive and interpersonal styles and outcome among 24 clients who received time-limited cognitive therapy for depression. The authors hypothesized that this relationship would be mediated by therapeutic alliance. They found that clients' interpersonal style, particularly an underinvolved style, was predictive of treatment outcome. As predicted, the impact of this style on outcome was mediated through the therapeutic alliance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral models of odor similarity.

Carbon chain length in several classes of straight-chain aliphatic odorants has been proposed as a model axis of similarity for olfactory research, on the basis of successes of studies in insect and vertebrate species. To assess the influence of task on measured perceptual similarities among odorants and to demonstrate that the systematic similarities observed within homologous odorant series are not task specific, the authors compare 3 different behavioral paradigms for rats (olfactory habituation, generalization, and discrimination). Although overall patterns of odorant similarity are consistent across all 3 of these paradigms, both quantitative measurements of perceptual similarity and comparability with 2-deoxyglucose imaging data from the olfactory bulb are dependent on the specific behavioral tasks used. Thus, behavioral indices of perceptual similarity are affected by task parameters such as learning and reward associations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)