Positive mood and helping behavior: A test of six hypotheses.

Past research has shown rather consistently that positive mood states lead to increased helpfulness. In an expanded analysis of the published literature, we examined six distinct views about this relation: the focus of attention, objective self-awareness, separate process, social outlook, mood maintenance, and concomitance hypotheses. For each of 61 positive affect conditions in which it was possible to generate an effect-size estimate corresponding to the relative degree of helpfulness exhibited by positive mood subjects (compared with neutral affect subjects), judges assessed the contextual levels of variables relevant to each of the six hypotheses by reading the Method section of each article. Higher-order partial correlation coefficients were then calculated to isolate the independent contribution of each of the theoretically relevant variables to the variation among the 61 effect sizes. The results support the focus of attention, separate process, social outlook, and mood maintenance hypotheses, and partially support the objective self-awareness and concomitance hypotheses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The motivation of self-injurious behavior: A review of some hypotheses.

The literature on self-injurious behavior suggests 5 major hypotheses concerning the motivation of such behavior: (a) Self-injurious behavior is a learned operant, maintained by positive social reinforcement (positive reinforcement hypothesis); (b) self-injurious behavior is a learned operant, maintained by the termination of an aversive stimulus (negative reinforcement hypothesis); (c) self-injurious behavior is a means of providing sensory stimulation (self-stimulation hypothesis); (d) self-injurious behavior is the product of aberrant physiological processes (organic hypothesis); and (e) self-injurious behavior is an attempt to establish ego boundaries or to reduce guilt (psychodynamic hypotheses). Data bearing on each hypothesis are reviewed and evaluated. It is suggested that effective treatment may depend on a recognition of the different motivational sources of self-injurious behavior and the developmental relationships existing among these sources. Animal analog experiments may provide clues to the motivation of self-injurious behavior in cases in which human experimentation is ethically indefensible. (88 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attitudes toward instructors, social desirability, and behavioral intentions.

Examined whether student attitude toward instructors was related to subsequent behavior, such as the behavioral intention to take further courses with that instructor, and whether social desirability affected this relationship. 158 undergraduates completed instructor ratings, and a short form of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. Principal components analysis and varimax rotation isolated 6 instructor rating factors. Ss also participated in a mock preregistration procedure assessing their intention to reregister for the same or different instructors. Results indicate that the 1st instructor rating factor, Instructor Skill, correlated .72 with intention to take further courses with that instructor. No other relationships or interactions were significant. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of organizational citizenship behavior in turnover: Conceptualization and preliminary tests of key hypotheses.

The authors conceptualized levels of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) performance as a behavioral predictor of employee turnover and empirically examined the strength of this relationship. Data were collected from 205 supervisor–subordinate dyads across 11 companies in the People's Republic of China. The results provided considerable support for the hypothesis that supervisor-rated OCB was a predictor of subordinates' actual turnover. In particular, subordinates who were rated as exhibiting low levels of OCB were found to be more likely to leave an organization than those who were rated as exhibiting high levels of OCB. The authors also found that the self-report turnover intention was a predictor of turnover, but this relationship did not hold for 2 companies. The explanations and implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stress and smoking in adolescence: A test of directional hypotheses.

The authors conducted a comparative test of the hypotheses that (a) stress is an etiological factor for smoking and (b) cigarette smoking causes increases in stress (A. C. Parrott, 1999). Participants were a sample of 1,364 adolescents, initially surveyed at mean age 12.4 years and followed at 3 yearly intervals. Measures of negative affect, negative life events, and cigarette smoking were obtained at all 4 assessments. Latent growth modeling showed negative affect was related to increase in smoking over time; there was no path from initial smoking to change in negative affect. Comparable results were found for negative life events, with no evidence for reverse causation. Results are discussed with respect to theoretical models of nicotine effects and implications for prevention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A cross-cultural examination of some of Jensen's hypotheses.

Examined Level 1 and 2 intelligence in Inuit and White 2nd–5th graders through an examination of several of Jensen's major hypotheses. The sample consisted of 559 80–150 mo old students. Of the 559, there were 148 middle-class urban White children, 173 low socioeconomic urban children, 175 White children living in Labrador, and 63 Inuit children also living in Labrador. The Level 1 and Level 2 intelligence measures were a series of digit span tests and the Raven Progressive Matrices, respectively. Results do not support the generality of some of A. R. Jensen's propositions. However, there can be no clear-cut rejection of the genetic hypothesis based on the present results. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A distribution-free test of analysis of variance hypotheses.

Rao's technique of decomposing chi-square into components is modified to derive a distribution-free or nonparametric test of hypotheses involving main effects and interaction examined customarily by the analysis of variance of the two-factor or two-way variety. The proposed nonparametric test of analysis of variance hypotheses is described in terms of six principal steps, illustrated with a computational example, discussed with regard to small expected frequencies, compared with Mood's tests which appear to be disadvantageous in treating interaction effects, and is possible to extend for designs of three or more factors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depressive affect: A test of behavioral hypotheses. Reply to Buchwald.

In reply to Buchwald's (see record 1978-21210-001) critique of Wener and Rehm (see record 1975-25511-001), it is argued that the alternative hypotheses he offers are not compelling and the artifact he identifies is not of sufficient magnitude to have been solely responsible for the results of the reanalysis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological androgyny and sex role flexibility: A test of two hypotheses.

In a conceptual replication and extension of a study by S. L. Bem and E. Lenney (1976), 90 male and 118 female college students rated their comfort in and preference for performing several series of masculine, feminine, and neutral activities. Correlations between ratings and scores on the masculinity (instrumentality) and femininity (expressiveness) scales of the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ) of J. T. Spence and R. L. Helmreich (1978) tended to be theoretically reasonable in sign but in each sex were low in magnitude and only occasionally significant. Classification of Ss into 4 PAQ groups (androgynous, masculine, feminine, and undifferentiated) on their joint masculinity and femininity scores revealed that androgynous and masculine Ss of both sexes had higher comfort ratings, independent of type of task, than did feminine and undifferentiated Ss, suggesting the importance of instrumentality and expressiveness per se. For forced-choice preference ratings, significant differences were found only in males, masculine Ss having a stronger preference for sex-typed tasks than those in other categorical groups. The PAQ variable, however, accounted for only a small percentage of the variance. The data support the Spence-Helmreich hypotheses that the PAQ and similar instruments are largely measures of instrumental and expressive personality traits rather than sex roles and that these personality dimensions are only minimally related to many sex role behaviors. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depressive affect: A test of behavioral hypotheses. Reply to Wener and Rehm.

In reply to Wener and Rehm's (see record 2005-08994-001) comments on Buchwald's critique (see record 1978-21210-001) of an earlier article by them (see record 1975-25511-001), it is argued that (a) there are no grounds for interpreting their certainty ratings as a measure of self-confidence and that (b) the data they offer to refute the possibility of an artifact does not do so. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationships between leader behavior and subordinate satisfaction and performance: A test of some situational moderators.

Examined the effects of 4 situational moderators on the relationships between (a) leader behavior and subordinate satisfaction and (b) leader behavior and subordinate performance, in a social services organization. Respondents--54 Black counselors and people-helping workers--described their job satisfaction, role clarity, and the behavior of their leaders ( n = 19), while the leaders evaluated the respondents' job performance. Using subgroup moderator analyses, the effect of work unit size was significant, with leader structure related to satisfaction in larger units and consideration related to satisfaction in smaller units. Results confirm earlier findings that in low-stress jobs consideration enhances satisfaction and performance but that in high-stress jobs, structure is helpful. Also confirmed were results of previous studies showing that high structure had dysfunctional effects only when accompanied by low consideration. Finally, role clarity did not moderate the relationship between leader behavior and subordinate satisfaction and performance. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sensation seeking, stress, and adolescent injuries: A test of stress-buffering, risk-taking, and coping skills hypotheses.

The potential stress-buffering effects of sensation seeking were assessed in a prospective study involving high school athletes. A significant positive relation between major negative sport-specific life events and subsequent injury time-loss occurred only for athletes low in sensation seeking. No evidence was obtained for a competing hypothesis that high sensation seeking would constitute an injury vulnerability factor by increasing risk-taking behaviors. Although low sensation seekers reported poorer stress management coping skills, there was no evidence that differences in coping efficacy mediated the injury vulnerability difference. Results indicate that sensation seeking is a stress-resiliency factor and suggest the utility of assessing relations between life stressors and outcomes that occur within the same environmental context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Glossolalia: A test of the "trance" and psychopathology hypotheses.

Tested 3 hypotheses concerning glossolalia: that glossolalia (a) results from a "hyperaroused trance," (b) is associated with high levels of hypnotic susceptibility, and (c) is symptomatic of psychopathology. Contrary to the "trance" hypothesis, 12 experienced glossolalics (aged 18–23 yrs) performed glossolalia with eyes open and without accompanying kinetic activity (e.g., trembling, shaking) or residual disorientation. Moreover, memory deficits following glossolalic speech occurred to the same degree following nontrance control activity. Glossolalics and 36 nonglossolalic control Ss matched for age, sex, and level of education did not differ from one another on hypnotic susceptibility, absorption, or measures of psychopathology (e.g., Rokeach Dogmatism Scale, Eysenck Personality Inventory). Findings are consistent with nontrance formulations that conceptualize the acquisition and maintenance of glossolalia in terms of social-learning variables. (52 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences in working memory and comprehension: A test of four hypotheses.

A relationship has consistently been found between measures of working memory and reading comprehension. Four hypotheses for this relationship were tested in 3 experiments. In the 1st 2 experiments, a moving window procedure was used to present the operation–word and reading span tasks. High- and low-span Ss did not differentially trade off time on the elements of the tasks and the to-be-remembered word. Furthermore, the correlation between span and comprehension was undiminished when the viewing times were partialed out. Exp 3 compared a traditional experimenter-paced simple word-span and an S-paced span in their relationship with comprehension. The experimenter-paced word-span correlated with comprehension, but the S-paced span did not. The results of all 3 experiments support a general capacity explanation for the relationship between working memory and comprehension. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting future blood donor returns: Past behavior, intentions, and observer effects.

A prospective design was used to explore the efficacy of 6 factors (e.g., intentions) to predict the number of future blood donations in an initial sample of 630 blood donors. Differential predictions are made for the roles of past behavior and intentions with respect to occasional (4 or fewer previous blood donations) and regular (5 or more previous blood donations) blood donors. Intentions were predictive for occasional donors, and past behavior was predictive for regular donors. Furthermore, for regular donors only, an inverted U-shaped curve explained the relationship between past behavior and future behavior. Finally, it is reported that observing others fainting produces a reduction in the number of future donations for occasional donors. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When self-regulation fails: Tests of some preliminary hypotheses.

In a laboratory study designed to investigate variables that affect self-regulatory dysfunctioning, 96 college students volunteered to practice solving mathematics problems similar to those found on graduate school admissions tests. They were assigned to groups in which they either self-recorded inaccurate problem solving (negative self-monitoring, NSM), self-recorded accurate problem solving (positive self-monitoring, PSM), did not self-record but received immediate performance feedback, or did not self-record or receive immediate feedback (control). Groups were matched on ability and received either easy or difficult problems. Ss also completed Byrne's Repression–Sensitization Scale. Predictions derived from the closed loop model of self-regulation were supported in that NSM, relative to other conditions, led to lowered self-evaluations, decreased favorableness of self-consequations (self-reinforcement/punishment), and somewhat increased association of anxiety with performance. NSM also led to decreased accuracy in performance, but in comparison to PSM, it facilitated sustained self-monitoring (self-initiated viewing of a videotape of Ss' own problem-solving activity) when the task was relatively simple. All groups decreased sustained self-monitoring when the task was relatively difficult. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed, and attention is drawn to the role of affect in self-regulation. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceiving outgroup members as unresponsive: Implications for approach-related emotions, intentions, and behavior.

In 2 studies, the authors investigated the determinants of anger and approach-related intentions and behavior toward outgroup members in interracial interactions. In Study 1, White and Black participants who were led to believe that their interracial interaction partner was not open to an upcoming interaction reported heightened anger and approach-related intentions concerning the interaction, including viewing their partner as hostile, intending to ask sensitive race-relevant questions during the interaction, and planning to blame the partner if the interaction went poorly. Results of Study 2 showed that White participants who received negative feedback about their Black partner's openness to interracial interactions behaved in a hostile manner toward their interaction partner. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the quality of interracial interactions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personal religious practice, risky behavior, and implementation intentions among adolescents.

The benefits of religiousness for promoting well-being and avoiding risky behaviors has long been noted, especially for adolescents, but a precise understanding of the mechanism underlying this effect on risky behaviors has not yet been developed. We hypothesized that religious practices help religious adolescents form implementation intentions (IIs) when pursuing decisions and goals to avoid risky behaviors. We predicted that participants with higher rates of private religious practice would generate greater numbers and higher quality IIs to avoid risky behaviors relative to other participants. In this preliminary exploration, 50 college students completed assessments of private religious practices, risk–benefit evaluations about risky scenarios, and the number and quality of IIs they could generate to avoid risk in those scenarios. Results supported our predictions: After controlling for age and gender, participants who engaged more frequently in private religious practice were able to generate both more and higher quality IIs about avoiding risky scenarios. This provides initial support for the hypothesis that religiousness may protect against risky behaviors by enhancing the abilities of religious adolescents to form IIs to avoid risky behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differential challenge stressor-hindrance stressor relationships with job attitudes, turnover intentions, turnover, and withdrawal behavior: A meta-analysis.

In this article, a 2-dimensional work stressor framework is used to explain inconsistencies in past research with respect to stressor relationships with retention-related criteria. Results of meta-analyses of 183 independent samples indicated that whereas hindrance stressors had dysfunctional relationships with these criteria (negative relationships with job satisfaction and organizational commitment and positive relationships with turnover intentions, turnover, and withdrawal behavior), relationships with challenge stressors were generally the opposite (positive relationships with job satisfaction and organizational commitment and negative relationships with turnover intentions and turnover). Results also suggested that the differential relationships between challenge stressors and hindrance stressors and the more distal criteria (withdrawal behavior and turnover) were due, in part, to the mediating effects of job attitudes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender, nonverbal behavior, and perceived dominance: A test of the theory.

We evaluated Henley's (1973, 1977) and Goffman's (1976, 1979) theories about the relation between gender, nonverbal behavior, and perceived dominance in three studies. Our ratings of 1,106 media portrayals (Study 1) and observations of 1,257 people in public settings (Study 2) revealed few gender differences in frequency of head canting or body canting but some gender differences in frequency of smiling. In Study 3, we rated 96 advertisements that included all levels of gender, head cant, body cant, and smiling on five personality dimensions; we obtained only one predicted relation with dominance. It may be that the head canting, body canting, and smiling behaviors of females and males are actually more similar than was previously recognized and, contrary to hypotheses, dominance may not be strongly associated with these behaviors. We used previously suggested notions of gender as a categorizing strategy and as a diffuse status characteristic to explain why hypotheses that associate nonverbal behaviors with dominance and gender have had an acceptance unwarranted by the data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)