The effects of three variables on children's concepts of physical causality.

"This study investigated the effects of 3 variables on children's concepts of physical casuality. It was found that: (1) The nature of the causal thinking of withdrawn children is at a significantly less mature level than the causal thinking of normal children. (2) Questions about phenomena whose causal agents are not accessible to direct experience yielded significantly more nonnaturalistic responses than did questions about phenomena whose causal agents are more ascessible. (3) Questions worded so as to suggest the possible operation of 'animistic,' 'supernatural,' or 'dynamic' forces yielded more such nonnaturalistic types of responses than questions less suggestively worded." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Collective induction: Social combination and sequential transition": Correction to Laughlin and Futoran.

Reports an error in "Collective induction: Social combination and sequential transition" by Patrick R. Laughlin and Gail C. Futoran (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1985[Mar], Vol 48[3], 608-613). One sentence reads incorrectly on page 610. The correct sentence is provided in the erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1985-20078-001.) 240 undergraduates, as individuals and 4-person cooperative groups, attempted to induce a rule that partitioned a deck of standard playing cards into exemplars and nonexemplars. A trial consisted of (a) individual member hypotheses, (b) group hypothesis (omitted in individual conditions), (c) choice of any of the cards, and (d) feedback on the exemplar or nonexemplar status of the card. Ss were instructed to select cards to confirm or disconfirm the current hypothesis, or received no such instructions. Groups had significantly more correct final hypotheses, plausible final hypotheses, and overall plausible hypotheses than individuals. Performance was better for both individuals and groups under control instructions than either instructions to select cards to confirm or disconfirm hypotheses. Social combination analyses and sequential transition analyses indicated that the groups were remarkably able to recognize and adopt the correct hypothesis if and only if it was proposed by at least 1 group member on some trial. Thus, the superiority of collective induction over individual induction was due to superior hypothesis evaluation by groups rather than to superior hypothesis formation by groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spirituality, religion, and health: An emerging research field.

The investigation of spiritual/religious factors in health is clearly warranted and clinically relevant. This special section explores the persistent predictive relationship between religious variables and health, and its implications for future research and practice. The section reviews epidemiological evidence linking religiousness to morbidity and mortality, possible biological pathways linking spirituality/religiousness to health, and advances in the assessment of spiritual/religious variables in research and practice. This introduction provides an overview of this field of research and addresses 3 related methodological issues: definitions of terms, approaches to statistical control, and criteria used to judge the level of supporting evidence for specific hypotheses. The study of spirituality and health is a true frontier for psychology and one with high public interest. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Deception and role playing: On telling the good guys from the bad guys.

In an effort to determine what is appropriate methodology in social psychology research, the empirical basis of the controversy between deception and role-playing methods is examined. It is suggested that "involved participation" and role enactment best describe the contrasting methodologies and that deception be used in either case where necessary. In contrast to the position of J. Forward et al (see PA, Vol 57:Issue 4), involved participation is considered a more flexible approach, capable of obtaining people's reactions to the social variables under study. It is also reasoned that role enactment and involved participation need not be viewed as mutually exclusive approaches to psychological investigations. Rather, role enactment is seen to have merit in generating hypotheses. Involved participation, on the other hand, is considered to be superior for the testing of hypotheses in the hypothetico-deductive system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Can after-the-fact designs test functional hypotheses, and are they needed in psychology?

While various methodological psychologists have traditionally claimed that ex-post facto or after-the-fact investigational designs cannot test functional hypotheses of "causal" type, it is maintained in the present paper that they can under certain circumstances. To the usual objection that the "treated" groups in after-the-fact studies have not been equated by randomization or matching to the "control" groups, it is argued that where suitable data are available, judicious matching can be done and conceivable regression effects avoided or discounted. While admittedly probable functional determinants ("causes") are preferably investigated by classical experimental designs, there are important fields, such as the study of the effects of physical disorders and investigations of the actual determinants in real-life situations, in which an appropriate series of after-the-fact analyses is essential for the testing of the alleged causal connections. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Quality of communication experience: Definition, measurement, and implications for intercultural negotiations.

In an increasingly globalized workplace, the ability to communicate effectively across cultures is critical. We propose that the quality of communication experienced by individuals plays a significant role in the outcomes of intercultural interactions, such as cross-border negotiations. In 4 studies, we developed and validated a multidimensional conceptualization of quality of communication experience (QCE) and examined its consequences in intracultural versus intercultural business negotiations. We proposed and found 3 dimensions of QCE—namely, Clarity, Responsiveness, and Comfort. Findings from intercultural and same-cultural negotiations supported the hypotheses that QCE is lower in intercultural negotiation than in intracultural negotiation and that a higher degree of QCE leads to better negotiation outcomes. Moreover, we found evidence that the beneficial effects of higher QCE on negotiation outcomes are more pronounced in intercultural than in intracultural negotiations. We propose an agenda for future research and identify implications for practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"On the application of within and between analysis: Are absence and affect really group-based phenomena?": Correction to Yammarino and Markham.

Reports an error in "On the application of within and between analysis: Are absence and affect really group-based phenomena" by Francis J. Yammarino and Steven E. Markham (Journal of Applied Psychology, 1992[Apr], Vol 77[2], 168-176). The exponents in Equations 4 and 5 are incorrect. The correct exponent in each equation is 1/2. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1992-29454-001.) J. M. George (1990) examined personality, affect, and absence behavior as group-level phenomena. The recognition of level of analysis issues in that study was important, and the formulation of group-level hypotheses was interesting. However, the incomplete application of within and between analysis (WABA) led to suspect conclusions about group-based effects. The current study reexamined and reinterpreted George's results in light of an appropriate application of WABA. Personality, affect, and absence behavior appear to be based primarily on individual rather than group differences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conditional health threats: Health beliefs, decisions, and behaviors among adults.

Combined the health belief model with the theory of subjective expected utility to derive hypotheses about the relations among health beliefs and preventive decisions. The central implication of this combination of theories is the importance of conceptualizing, measuring, and communicating about health threats in ways that are clearly conditional on action. Study 1, with 33 undergraduates, examined judgments about a hypothetical preventive action to test many of the theoretically derived hypotheses. Study 2 used survey data from 618 adults in a correlational study of dental flossing behavior that tested the hypotheses as they apply to overt behavior rather than to judgment. Results of both studies support (1) the theoretical implication that the concepts of susceptibility and severity should be made conditional on action and (2) most of the hypotheses derived from the integrated model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Longitudinal study of social class and defense preferences": Erratum.

Reports an error in the original article by A. Weinstock (Journal of Consulting Psychology, 1967[Oct], 31[5], 539-541). In this article, the author failed to mention that the study was done at the University of California Institute of Human Development and was supported in part by United States Public Health Service Grant MH 06238-02. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1967-16574-001.) Longitudinal data were used to assess the relationship between childhood social class and the development of particular defense mechanisms in adulthood. Childhood social class was correlated with ratings of defense mechanisms made when Ss were 30 yr. old. The results show that denial is negatively and projection and intellectualization are positively correlated with childhood social class. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Test performance as an involuntary function of interpersonal relationships.

The hypothesis that tension aroused by making a new acquaintance might adversely affect test performance is here investigated. Two person teams of subjects are given the Vigotsky Blocks Tests. In the control group, the subjects knew each other before the experiment and knew the experimenter. In the experimental group, the subjects were unacquainted before the experimental session. Analysis of the results shows that the experimental groups took significantly longer to complete the test. Although this result tends to support the hypothesis, several alternate explanations are proposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A comparison of three measures of cognitive load: Evidence for separable measures of intrinsic, extraneous, and germane load.

Understanding how to measure cognitive load is a fundamental challenge for cognitive load theory. In 2 experiments, 155 college students (ages = 17 to 22; 49 men and 106 women) with low domain knowledge learned from a multimedia lesson on electric motors. At 8 points during learning, their cognitive load was measured via self-report scales (mental effort ratings) and response time to a secondary visual monitoring task, and they completed a difficulty rating scale at the end of the lesson. Correlations among the three measures were generally low. Analyses of variance indicated that the response time measure was most sensitive to manipulations of extraneous processing (created by adding redundant text), effort ratings were most sensitive to manipulations of intrinsic processing (created by sentence complexity), and difficulty ratings were most sensitive to indications of germane processing (reflected by transfer test performance). Results are consistent with a triarchic theory of cognitive load in which different aspects of cognitive load may be tapped by different measures of cognitive load. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Trait as Default: Extraversion, Subjective Well-Being, and the Distinction Between Neutral and Positive Events.

On the basis of prior work suggesting that trait self-knowledge serves a "fill-in" function when event-specific information is missing (M. D. Robinson & G. L. Clore, 2002a), we sought to demonstrate that extraversion is a more reliable predictor of subjective well-being (SWB) judgments among certain individuals than among others. Four studies involving a total of 260 participants revealed that the extraversion-SWB relation was relatively weaker among those quick to appreciate the distinction between neutral and positive events in a choice reaction-time task; by contrast, it was stronger among those slow to recognize this distinction. The findings suggest that extraversion scales measure (among other things) beliefs about SWB that differentially contribute to judgments among those less capable of making evaluative distinctions at encoding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Families of handicapped persons: Research, programs, and policy issues.

Reviews the book, Families of handicapped persons: Research, programs, and policy issues by James J. Gallagher and Peter M. Vietze (1986). This edited volume consists of a collection of papers presented at the Conference on Families with Mentally Retarded Children sponsored by the Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in cooperation with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The purpose of the conference was to stimulate leaders in the field to both review current trends and project future research directions regarding issues relevant to families having members with mental retardation. The main text of the book is composed of sixteen chapters covering a variety of topics, such as the development of typologies for classifying families, adaptation to stress, the impact of the family life cycle on family adaptation, the role of the father in the family, sibling relationships, mentally retarded parents, behavioral parent training, and social policy issues. A major strength of the book is that a number of the authors advocated four perspectives that reflect a positive shift in philosophical approaches to the study of families having a child with mental retardation. The present reviewer found Wickler's chapter applying Hill's ABCX Stress Model to the study of family adaptation to be the most useful presentation among those advocating a systems/transactional approach to research on families having a disabled member. Unlike Wickler, other chapters focusing on family systems/stress issues tended to present vague connections between popular theoretical approaches (e.g., family systems theories, stress theories, Samaroff s transactional model) and the needs of families having a member with mental retardation (although Farren, Metzger, & Sparling is an exception here). In summary, this book presents some interesting ideas regarding areas that should be investigated by further research. Selected chapters within the book are very well conceptualized and clearly written. Although the remaining chapters present interesting ideas, they tend to be repetitive and somewhat vague with respect to specific research suggestions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality adjustment and the study of abnormal psychology.

Rorschach story-completion test and autobiographical data were obtained from 21 students in an abnormal psychology class and 22 students in a history class, both at the beginning and the end of the semester. Comparisons of the pre- and post-test data "support the belief that, (a) as a group, students studying abnormal psychology differ in personality from those not enrolled in the course, and (b) while the study of abnormal psychology has little immediate effect on personality ad ustment, measurable changes occur which appear to be related to course experience." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex with children is abuse: Comment on Rind, Tromovitch, and Bauserman (1998).

Comments on the article by B. Rind, P. Tromovitch and R. Bauserman (see record 1998-04232-002) which reported a meta-analysis of the relation between sexual abuse in childhood and adolescence and psychological functioning among college students. Sever aspects of their work have proven highly controversial, including their assertion that the relation between child sexual abuse and adjustment is quite small and their questioning of whether child sexual abuse should be labeled abuse in scientific inquiry. In this commentary, the authors summarize the controversy that has ensued, place it in a historical context, discuss the limitations of B. Rind et al.'s findings, and critique the manner in which those findings are presented. The authors also argue for the appropriateness of the term abuse and for scientific terminology that reflects rather than contradicts consensual public morality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Disentangling the effects of promised and delivered inducements: Relational and transactional contract elements and the mediating role of trust.

Psychological contracts contain both relational and transactional elements, each of which is associated with unique characteristics. In the present research, the authors drew on these distinct qualities to develop and test hypotheses regarding differential employee reactions to underfulfillment, fulfillment, and overfulfillment of relational and transactional promises. Further, the authors extended their test of the theoretical distinctions between relational and transactional contracts by assessing the relevance of trust as a key underlying mechanism of relational and transactional psychological contract breach effects. Participants in this 3-wave longitudinal study included 342 full-time temporary employees. In support of existing theoretical distinctions, results indicated that employees reacted differently to varying levels of fulfillment of their relational and transactional contracts and that trust is a more central mechanism of relational, as opposed to transactional, psychological contract breach effects. These findings underscore L.S. Lambert, J. R. Edwards, and D. M. Cable's (2003) recent recommendation that the traditional conceptualization and study of psychological contract breach requires expansion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Grief Processing and Deliberate Grief Avoidance: A Prospective Comparison of Bereaved Spouses and Parents in the United States and the People's Republic of China.

In this study, the authors measured grief processing and deliberate grief avoidance and examined their relationship to adjustment at 4 and 18 months of bereavement for 2 types of losses (spouse, child) in 2 cultures (People's Republic of China, United States). Three hypotheses were compared: the traditional grief work assumption, a conditional grief work hypothesis, and a view of grief processing as a form of rumination absent among resilient individuals. Although cultural differences in grief processing and avoidance were observed, the factor structure of these measures proved invariant across cultures. Consistent with the grief work as rumination hypothesis, both grief processing and deliberate grief avoidance predicted poor long-term adjustment for U.S. participants. Furthermore, initial grief processing predicted later grief processing in both cultures. However, among the participants in the People's Republic of China, neither grief processing nor deliberate avoidance evidenced clear psychological consequences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Links in the chain of adversity following job loss: How financial strain and loss of personal control lead to depression, impaired functioning, and poor health.

The authors tested hypotheses concerning risk mechanisms that follow involuntary job loss resulting in depression and the link between depression and poor health and functioning. A 2-year longitudinal study of 756 people experiencing job loss indicates that the critical mediating mechanisms in the chain of adversity from job loss to poor health and functioning are financial strain (FS) and a reduction in personal control (PC). FS mediates the relationship of job loss with depression and PC, whereas reduced PC mediates the adverse impacts of FS and depression on poor functioning and self-reports of poor health. Results suggest that loss of PC is a pathway through which economic adversity is transformed into chronic problems of poor health and impaired role and emotional functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of child sexual abuse: Comment on Rind, Tromovitch, and Bauserman (1998).

Comments on the article by B. Rind, P. Tromovitch, and R. Bauserman (see record 1998-04232-002) which examined the long-term effects of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) by meta-analyzing studies of college students. The authors reported that effects "were neither pervasive nor typically intense" and that "men reacted much less negatively than women" (p. 22) and recommended value-neutral reconceptualization of the CSA construct. The current analysis revealed numerous problems in that study that minimized CSA-adjustment relations, included use of a healthy sample, an inclusive definition of CSA, failure to correct for statistical attenuation, and misreporting of original data. Rind et al.'s study's main conclusions were not supported by the original data. As such, attempts to use their study to argue that an individual has not been harmed by sexual abuse constitute a serious misapplication of its findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationships between overt and fantasy aggression.

The interrelationships among aggressive needs, anticipation of punishment, and overt aggressive behavior in 29 lower-class boys were investigated in this study. Three hypotheses were tested: 1) among lower class boys, those having a relatively great amount of fantasy aggressive needs indulge in more overt aggressive behavior than those who have relatively few aggressive fantasy needs; 2) Ss whose TAT stories included a great deal of punishment press relative to the number of their aggressive needs demonstrate less overt aggression than Ss whose ratios of punishment press to aggressive needs are low; and 3) Those with low punishment press/aggressive fantasy ratio show more aggression in their behavior than those with high P/A ratio. All three hypotheses were supported by the data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)