Cognitive and affective causes of interest and liking.

In this study, I investigated some of the cognitive and affective causes of interest and liking. In Experiment 1, 240 undergraduates read stories with endings that varied in the degree of surprise, outcome valence (i.e., goodness or badness of outcome), and incongruity resolution. The results did not support the hypothesis that degree of surprise per se causes interest (Schank, 1979). Instead, as suggested by Kintsch (1980), subjects rated high-surprise story endings as more interesting than low-surprise story endings for those conditions in which the postsurprise incongruity was resolved (p?p?     

Children's emotional attributions to self versus other: An exploration of an assumption underlying projective techniques.

Examined the assumption that children attribute socially undesirable or conflictual affects to ambiguous characters that they ordinarily censure when attributing affect to themselves. The quality and intensity of 72 1st, 3rd, and 5th graders' emotional attributions to themselves and to others as characters in affect-laden stories were examined. Each of 5 stories was told twice, once using "you" as the subject of the story and once using an ambiguous character named Mary or John as the subject of the story. Results indicate that Ss attributed a greater number of sad and scared responses and fewer happy responses to the other than to the self. More intense responses were attributed to the other than to the self. Boys attributed more intensely happy and less intensely scared responses to characters than girls did. Results partially confirm the assumption underlying projective techniques and are discussed with reference to the development of children's defenses, to social desirability, and to developmental studies of empathy. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nursery rhymes and prose passages: Preschoolers' liking and short-term retention of story events.

In Exps I–IV, 128 3–5 yr old preschoolers listened to stories told in either prose or verse form and then answered recognition or recall questions about each narrative's content. Ss also indicated their liking of the story on a 3-point scale. Even though Ss reported liking stories better in verse than in prose form, results demonstrate that Ss' overall short-term retention of story events was significantly higher for prose than for verse presentations. Although 40 college students in Exp V showed higher recall of the rhyming than prose passages, no overall facilitation for rhyme was found with preschoolers, even when recognition of only the rhyming facets of a narration was tested. Results are discussed in terms of a levels-of-processing approach to memory functioning. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of role-taking experiences on role taking, empathy, altruism, and aggression.

Investigated the effect of 2 types of role-taking experiences on role taking, empathy, altruism, and aggression in 30 6- and 30 9-yr-old boys. In the role-taking condition each S assumed the perspective of 1 character in a story. In the role-switching condition the Ss assumed the perspectives of different characters by changing roles approximately every 5 min. The same stories were used in the control condition, but the experimenter did not promote role taking. Although there were no significant differences between the role-taking and role-switching conditions, there was a significant increase in role-taking performance following both training conditions as compared to the control condition. Altruism in 6-yr-olds was significantly greater following both training conditions, and there was a significant difference in the effect of the 2 training conditions. Role-taking and role-switching conditions did not have a significant effect on either aggressive or empathic behaviors. These results demonstrate the importance of a sociocognitive skill such as role taking for better understanding of social behaviors and the process by which cognitive and social behaviors interact. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of equity and altruism in judgment of reward and damage allocation.

Tested the author's (in press) model of the development of equity and related positive justice to negative justice judgments. In Exp I, 98 7-, 9-, 11-, and 13-yr-olds allocated monetary rewards or damages to pairs of story characters when a character had contributed nothing (altruism), 25% (equity), or 50% (same) to the gain or loss. With increasing age of allocator, reward allocations went from nominality (equivalent allocations to characters making any contributions) to ordinality (equivalent allocations to any characters who contributed less than their partners) to proportionality (allocations proportional to character contribution). In the altruism conditions, the lesser (0%) contributor was allocated more rewards than damages by all age groups. In the equity conditions, younger Ss allocated the lesser contributor (25%) more rewards than damages, whereas older Ss did the opposite. Exp II with 98 age-matched Ss replicated this latter finding with an improved design and explanation system. Findings support the author's model and suggest that share-the-gain norms are stronger than share-the-loss norms. Thus, justice preferences develop differently for reward and damage allocations. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Matchmaker, matchmaker, can you make me a match? Predicting liking between two unacquainted persons.

This research examined liking predictions for 2 unacquainted persons made by a 3rd person who was acquainted with both targets. Both the process by which these predictions were made and the accuracy of these predictions were explored. A total of 120 women in 24 five-person groups was studied. Using a Social Relations Model (SRM) analysis (D. A. Kenny and L. La Voie, 1984), it was found that Ss relied on their own liking for the 2 targets, balance, and reciprocity to predict the targets' liking for each other. Evidence from notes taken about the interactions and justifications for Ss' predictions indicated that Ss used perceived similarity of the targets as a basis for liking predictions. Although Ss were somewhat accurate at predicting general popularity levels, little accuracy was found at the dyadic level. The process by which these predictions are made is discussed in terms of person perception, balance theory, and the use of similarity as a determinant of liking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's reactions to textbook stories in which females are portrayed in traditionally male roles.

Assessed the effects of portraying a female main character in a traditionally male role on male and female children's sex role perceptions and story evaluations. 67 female and 44 male 3rd and 4th graders read a series of stories in which either the majority of main characters were female, or the majority of main characters were male, or male and female main characters were equally represented. Results indicate that (a) exposure to female main characters in nontraditional role activities increased Ss' perceptions of the number of girls who could engage in these same activities but did not affect perceptions of sex role activities not presented in the stories, and (b) story evaluations did not vary as a function of sex of the main character. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Consistency and retribution in children's immanent justice decisions.

72 children in kindergarten and 2nd and 4th grades were asked to evaluate behavior/accidental event sequences that represented all possible combinations of good or bad prior behavior followed by a lucky or unlucky event. Differences were found for grade level, for story type, and for their interaction. Stories describing bad behavior or those depicting evaluatively consistent events (behavior and accident both negative or both positive) evoked immanent justice responses at the kindergarten level; consistent stories evoked immanent justice interpretations at the Grade 2 level; and only the classic Piagetian story (bad behavior/unlucky outcome) tended to evoke immanent justice responses at the Grade 4 level. It is concluded that the child's judgment reflects both the need for punishment or retribution and the expectation of consistency. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of parental maltreatment on children's conceptions of interpersonal relationships.

39 maltreated and 60 nonmaltreated Black 6–14 yr olds from lower income families told stories about kind or unkind initiatives from child to child, adult to child, or child to adult and then told what the recipient would do next. In contrast to their nonmaltreated counterparts, maltreated 6–8 yr olds told more stories in which children reciprocated the kind acts of adults and fewer stories in which adults or peers reciprocated the kind acts of children. Maltreated Ss of all ages justified their parents' unkind acts on the basis of their own bad behavior. Developmental trends in story content and story context measures differed for maltreated boys and girls; boys showed less development toward mature interpersonal peer relations. Findings suggest that the modes of adaptation used by abused and neglected children may be cognitively and emotionally similar. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

With a little help from my friend: Effect of single or multiple act aid as a function of donor and task characteristics.

96 Israeli males were asked to bring a good same-sex friend with them to the experiment. Half the Ss were told that their teammate, with whom they were to interact at a later stage of the experiment, was their friend. The other half were told that they had been teamed up with someone whom they did not know. Ss were instructed to solve a detective story, the performance of which was presented to half the Ss as related to ego-relevant dimensions (e.g., intelligence, creativity) and to the other half as related to non-ego-relevant dimensions (e.g., luck and momentary mood). The assignment was insolvable, and Ss were helped by their supposed teammate to obtain the "correct" solution. Half received help on one detective story, and the other half received help on 2 stories. Results show that Ss who had been helped twice on an ego-relevant task by a good friend had the least-favorable affect and self-evaluations. Ss who had been helped twice by a good friend on a non-ego-relevant dimension tended to have the most-favorable affect and self-evaluations. Similar patterns were observed for measures of external perception (i.e., liking for helper, evaluations of helper, and relations with the helper). Implications for research on recipient reactions to aid, social comparison processes, and close interpersonal relations are discussed. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Empathic role-taking precursors.

Investigated the possibility that young children make empathic inferences by reading off feeling states from common situations. 32 children in 2 age groups (mean ages 3 yrs 10 mo and 5 yrs 2 mo) were told 2 classes of stories. Ss were required to discriminate and explain the differing feelings of each story character. In Class 1 stories, cues for correct responses were located in the situation; in Class 2 stories, correct explanations required consideration of the characters' subjective characteristics. For discriminations, a significant age effect was found. For explanations, both significant age and task effects were found. Explanations requiring inferences about others, characteristics were more difficult for the younger children. An analysis of errors suggests that children who are unable to offer psychological explanations for Class 2 stories reconstruct the story to permit a situationally based response. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of depression on structural aspects of the recall of prose.

Investigated depressed patients' memory for stories. This indicated that although normal Ss showed particularly good recall for units central to the structure of the story, this did not hold for depressed Ss. In contrast, effects of centrality were comparable in high- and low-IQ Ss and effects of imageability of story units were comparable in both depressed and normal Ss. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that depressed patients do not use structure to organize stories when encoding them. A failure to identify central aspects of material and selectively recall them is likely to be a handicap to everyday functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Masculinity, identification, and father-son relationships.

2 groups of kindergarten boys were selected on the basis of high and low scores on a test of sex-typing of interests. Ss were exposed to a doll-play situation and were asked to complete 9 stories involving parent-child relationships. 3 theories of identification were tested, viz., psychoanalytic (defensive identification with a punitive aggressor), developmental (movement towards a nurturing figure), and role-playing (identification as a result of intense interaction with a figure). To some extent, all 3 theoretical formulations were supported, with masculine identification most significantly related to intensity of the father-son relationship. 15 refs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

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)     

The Thematic Apperception Test as an outcome measure in psychotherapy research.

Correlated 2 measures of the TAT—the presence of depressive themes and the ratings of story endings—with other indicators of depression (MMPI and Beck Depression Inventory) or with ratings of improvement. 129 psychiatric hospital patients, aged 20–65 yrs, served as Ss. Results support the potential use of the TAT as an outcome measure in the treatment of depressions. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive resources, valence, and memory retrieval of emotional events in older adults.

In 2 studies with older adults, the authors investigated the effect of executive attention resources on the retrieval of emotional public events. Participants completed a battery of working memory tasks, as a measure of executive attention, and a battery of tasks assessing memory, as well as subjective experiences associated with the retrieval of remote public events. Participants also rated the valence of each public event story. The group-rated valence of the public event stories predicted retrieval and the quality of experiences associated with them, such that emotionally arousing events elicited the highest memory rates and the richest experiences. Furthermore, positive public events elicited the highest memory rates. Executive attention moderated only the relationship between event valence and how participants' associated memories are experienced at retrieval, such that superior executive attention resources predicted richer experiences associated with positive relative to neutral and negative stories. The current results extend previous findings on the effects of aging on emotion regulation, suggesting that cognitive control resources modulate subjective experiences associated with retrieved memories for remote real life events, but not memory retrieval itself. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fear of success: Motive and cognition.

Conducted 2 experiments to investigate whether projective and objective methods of measuring fear of success (FOS) differentially enable the assessment of motives and cognitions. In Exp I, 67 male and 85 female 14- and 15-yr-olds wrote 3 stories to story cues representing sex-appropriate success, sex-inappropriate success, and sex-appropriate nonsuccess. Ss then completed a concern-over-negative-consequences-of-success scale (CONCOSS), and their stories were judged for negative content. In Exp II, 29 14- and 15-yr-old girls viewed a film conveying positive information about a specific sex-inappropriate activity, and measures of FOS were taken 2 days later. 23 controls who did not view the film completed the same procedure as Ss in Exp I. Overall results reveal that, contrary to the predictions of motivation theory, stories written in response to sex-inappropriate success cues did not correlate negatively with sex-appropriate nonsuccess cues. Viewing the film resulted in long-term positive changes in story content, consistent with the cognition explanation but not in long-term change in CONCOSS score, consistent with the motive explanation. Sex and ability differences were found on CONCOSS but not on the projective measure, and the 2 measures did not correlate. Findings suggest that sex-inappropriate cues are culturally marked and, lacking the ambiguity characteristic of other projective tests, elicit culturally based rather than motive-based stories. (49 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)