A resource exchange theory approach to interpersonal interactions: A test of Foa's theory.

Employed U. G. Foa and E. B. Foa's (1974) resource exchange theory to examine the types and patterns of exchanges involved in 57 college students' interpersonal interactions. Two judgment tasks were used to test both the functional and structural aspects of this theory. The dimensions of particularism and concreteness were hypothesized to underlie the 6 resource categories of love, status, information, money, goods, and services. In addition, resources perceived to be in the same category were expected to be exchanged with a higher probability than resources in different categories. Support for both the structural and the functional relations among the resource categories was consistent not with the initial classification of the behaviors used to represent the 6 resource categories but with the meaning associated with the behaviors. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Subordinates' reactions to performance appraisal interviews: A test of feedback and goal-setting techniques.

Compared the effectiveness of 4 appraisal interview conditions with 60 corporate research team leaders and 203 subordinates. Three training conditions (feedback, feedback plus assigned goal setting, and assigned goal setting) and a control group were randomly structured for the team leaders. Pre- and posttraining evaluations of subordinates' reactions to appraisal interviews were obtained. The pretraining responses were factor analyzed, and 5 appraisal interview reaction factors emerged: Equity, Accuracy, Clarity, Motivational Impact, and Anxiety. MANOVA, t-tests and the Scheffé test indicated that some of the training interventions were superior to the control group with regard to Equity, Accuracy, and Clarity. Subordinate anxiety was higher in the 2 groups in which the leaders used assigned goal setting. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special section: Providing psychological test feedback to clients.

This article introduces the special section on providing psychological test feedback to clients. This Special Section has three main objectives. First, we will explore the ethical issues involved in discussing test results with clients. Next, we will illustrate the test feedback process with an often complex clinical assessment situation: neuropsychological evaluation. Finally, the process of incorporating test feedback into the treatment context has not been extensively researched and not much is known about whether clients effectively use information they are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Faculty teaching goals: A test of Holland's theory.

Tested J. L. Holland's (1966, 1973) theory relating personality, vocational choice, and academic environment in a hexagonal matrix. 1,140 faculty members rated the importance of 16 factors in the areas of character and intellectual and vocational development. Results suggest that disciplinary differences among Holland's proposed environmental groups are generally (a) congruent with the postulated characteristics of the respective environments, (b) consistent across different kinds of colleges and universities, and (c) similar to the order of psychological resemblances defined by Holland's hexagonal model. Implications for reseach on faculty activities are discussed. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Responsibilities in providing psychological test feedback to clients.

This introduction to a series of articles of test feedback highlights 10 fundamental aspects of the feedback process: (1) feedback as process; (2) clarification of tasks and roles; (3) responding effectively to a crisis; (4) informed consent and informed refusal; (5) framing the feedback; (6) acknowledging fallibility; (7) countertransference and the misuse of feedback; (8) records, documentation, and follow-up; (9) looking toward the future; and (10) assessing and understanding important reactions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuropsychological test feedback to patients with brain dysfunction.

The provision of neuropsychological test feedback is of central importance in helping patients and their families cope with the consequences of brain injury. A general framework for presenting feedback is described, with an emphasis on techniques designed to maximize patient benefit. Special issues involving test-related limitations, patient characteristics, and family involvement in the feedback process are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Word-association commonality: A standardized test and a theory.

The Verdun association list (VAL) is a word-association test with stimulus words selected to elicit a high frequency of common responses among normal adults. Commonality, reaction time, and response stability measures are incorporated in the test. Standardization was based on 2 independent, representative metropolitan samples of normal employed adults—575 Ss in all. Validation groups consisted of (1) 2 independent samples each comprising 100 working and 100 nonworking hospitalized mental patients; (2) all 15 psychiatric patients, some working and some not, who attended the night treatment center of a general hospital over a 2-mo period, and (3) the 44 Canadian Army volunteers at 1 induction session at a recruitment center who were rejected as unfit for military service on various nonphysical grounds. The high agreement between cut-off scores and all external criteria suggested that the VAL could be effective in a wide variety of industrial, clinical, and experimental settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Induction of depressed mood: A test of opponent-process theory.

To test whether R. L. Solomon's (see record 1980-26727-001) opponent-process theory of acquired motivation can be applied to the induction of depressed mood, 100 female undergraduates completed the Depression Adjective Check Lists before, during, and after a depression-induction procedure or 1 of 2 control conditions. Results are not totally consistent with the opponent-process interpretation, suggesting that this model may not be applicable to depressed mood. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Instrumental learning with sociopaths: A test of clinical theory.

27 incarcerated sociopaths, 27 incarcerated nonsociopaths, and 27 normals were instructed to draw 3-in lines while blindfolded. Knowledge of results was the verbal response "correct," "too long," or "too short," plus mild electric shock for incorrect responses. All groups showed rapid improvement during the treatment trials. Contrary to some recent experimental findings, the incarcerated sociopaths improved with reinforcement and, in addition, demonstrated the most rapid acquisition and greatest resistance to extinction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory.

The present article presents a meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory. With 713 independent samples from 515 studies, the meta-analysis finds that intergroup contact typically reduces intergroup prejudice. Multiple tests indicate that this finding appears not to result from either participant selection or publication biases, and the more rigorous studies yield larger mean effects. These contact effects typically generalize to the entire outgroup, and they emerge across a broad range of outgroup targets and contact settings. Similar patterns also emerge for samples with racial or ethnic targets and samples with other targets. This result suggests that contact theory, devised originally for racial and ethnic encounters, can be extended to other groups. A global indicator of Allport's optimal contact conditions demonstrates that contact under these conditions typically leads to even greater reduction in prejudice. Closer examination demonstrates that these conditions are best conceptualized as an interrelated bundle rather than as independent factors. Further, the meta-analytic findings indicate that these conditions are not essential for prejudice reduction. Hence, future work should focus on negative factors that prevent intergroup contact from diminishing prejudice as well as the development of a more comprehensive theory of intergroup contact. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Low adolescent self-esteem leads to multiple interpersonal problems: A test of social-adaptation theory.

Reports the results of a study that annually monitored the self-esteem and interpersonal problems of over 100 male students during their sophomore, junior, and senior years of high school. Cross-lagged panel correlation differences show that low self-esteem led to interpersonal problems in all 3 time lags when multiple interpersonal problems constituted the dependent variable but not when single interpersonal problem criteria constituted the dependent variable. Results support social-adaptation theory rather than self-perception theory. Implications for the conceptual status of personality variables as causal antecedents and for the assessment of individual differences are discussed. (57 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The price of soliciting and receiving negative feedback: Self-verification theory as a vulnerability to depression theory.

The hypothesis that people who seek and receive negative feedback are vulnerable to increases in depressed symptoms was tested among 100 undergraduates and their roommates. Students and roommates completed questionnaires on their views of each other and on their own levels of negative feedback seeking, depressed and anxious symptoms, negative and positive affect, and self-esteem. Three weeks later, students and roommates completed the same questionnaires. Results were, in general, consistent with prediction. Students who reported an interest in their roommates' negative feedback and who lived with a roommate who viewed them negatively were at heightened risk for increases in depressed symptoms. These results could not be explained in terms of the variables' relations to trait self-esteem. The symptom specificity of the effect was moderately supported. Implications for work on interpersonal vulnerability to depression are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Excuse theory: A test of the self-protective role of attributions.

Tested the hypothesis that individuals use consensus-raising, distinctiveness-raising, and consistency-lowering attributional explanations as strategies to excuse their poor performance on an ego-involving task. It was also predicted that such excuse-making tactics occurring after failure feedback, in comparison with those occurring after success feedback, lead to (1) decreased negative emotions when individuals anticipate that their excuse attempts will not be closely scrutinized by an informed or all-knowing audience, and (2) increased negative emotions when individuals anticipate that an evaluative audience has access to their private cognitions and feelings about their poor performance. 96 male undergraduate students were given high or low scores on a purported intelligence test and were administered a mood questionnaire and either items from Rotter's Internal–External Locus of Control Scale (control condition) or an excuse questionnaire (excuse condition). Results support the use of distinctiveness-raising and consistency-lowering, but not consensus-raising, attributional explanations. In addition, the predicted effects of excuse making on emotional state were generally obtained; that is, without the scrutiny of the all-knowing audience, the excuse making lessened negative affect after failure, whereas under the scrutiny of an all-knowing audience, excuse making served to increase negative affect. Results are discussed in terms of the circumstances under which excuse behaviors are construed as self-protective or self-defeating. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interaction of environment and personality: A test of Holland's theory.

Tested J. L. Holland's assumption that personality variables interact with environment. The following hypotheses were investigated: (a) for males who leave engineering (n = 27) there is a personality change different from that found among those who remain in engineering (n = 25); and (b) for males who leave or remain in engineering, the personality development is different from that of males in a 2-yr college (n = 22). Analysis of Omnibus Personality Inventory scores indicates that 2 dimensions represented differences between groups: intellectual independence and practical inclination. Transfers to arts and sciences from engineering became more realistic, nonjudgmental, intellectual, liberal, and skeptical of orthodox religious beliefs. 2-yr students showed greater variability in their personality change scores and a loss in their liking for reflective and abstract thought. Results tend to support Holland's theory of vocational development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-regulatory functions of children's private speech: A critical analysis of recent challenges to Vygotsky's theory.

Recent empirical findings have challenged L. S. Vygotsky's (1962) theory regarding the self-regulatory functions of children's private speech by suggesting that such speech occurs infrequently and that there is little functional relationship between children's production of private speech and success in cognitive tasks. It is hypothesized that the scarcity of private speech is an artifact of the typical research paradigm used in recent investigations. Within a Vygotskian framework, private speech will tend to co-occur with failure in cognitive tasks because both private speech and the likelihood of failure increase with task difficulty. In the present study, 32 3.5–6 yr olds were videotaped while performing semantic and perceptual tasks, and their verbalizations were transcribed and coded into social and private speech categories. Results indicate that the condition most frequently used in recent studies indeed minimized production of private speech and that failure in tasks was associated with greater production of self-regulatory speech. As the number of self-regulatory utterances declined, the number of whispers and mutterings increased, supporting Vygotsky's notion that private speech does not disappear with age but "goes underground" to constitute inner speech. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A test of the melioration theory of matching.

Melioration theory entails that matching in concurrent schedules occurs because the subjects equalize the local reinforcement rates (reinforcers received for each alternative divided by the time allocated to each alternative). The role of local reinforcement rates was tested by using multiple schedules in which one component involved an alternative with a high absolute rate of reinforcement and a low local reinforcement rate while the second component involved an alternative with a low absolute rate and a high local rate. These alternatives were then presented simultaneously in probe trials to determine preference between them. Contrary to melioration, the absolute rate of reinforcement, not the local rate, was the controlling variable. (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)     

Bilingual memory representation: A further test of dual coding theory.

Compared incidental recall for words coded as synonyms, translations, and copies in 28 Spanish-English, early and late onset bilingual undergraduates. 24 English-monolingual undergraduates recalled in draw, synonym, and copy conditions. Words in the synonym condition were recalled more than copied words by both groups of Ss, and bilingual Ss recalled imaged and translated words more often than synonyms. No differences were found between early and late onset bilinguals across words. It is argued that a dual coding view offers an explanation for these findings. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A test of the Taylor-Spence theory of anxiety.

"The present studies tested the Taylor-Spence theory under 2 conditions: (a) Competing and noncompeting materials were equated in difficulty for a nonanxious group. The prediction from the Taylor-Spence theory that the anxious Ss would perform more poorly on the competing than on the noncompeting material was not sustained. (b) Anxious and nonanxious Ss were tested on easy competing and difficult noncompeting materials. The prediction from the Taylor-Spence theory was that anxious Ss would do more poorly (relative to nonanxious Ss) on the easy competing than on the difficult noncompeting material. The results were opposite from those predicted and significant at beyond the .05 level." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A driving-simulator test of Wilde's risk homeostasis theory.

Previous experimental tests of risk homeostasis theory (RHT) have failed to manipulate both motivational and nonmotivational variables in an ecologically valid within-subject design. In this study, 24 Ss operated an interactive driving simulator under varying levels of a within-subject motivational factor (monetary accident cost), a within-subject nonmotivational factor (speed limit), and a between-subjects nonmotivational factor (speeding fine). Consistent with RHT, increased speed limit and reduced speeding fine significantly increased driving speed but had no effect on accident frequency. Moreover, increased accident cost caused large and significant reductions in accident frequency but no change in speed choice. Results suggest that in contrast to motivationally based accident countermeasures, regulation of specific risky behaviors such as speed choice may have little influence on accident rates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)