Role of disconfirmed expectancies in the instigation of attributional processing.

Tested the hypothesis that individuals engage in more thorough attributional processing for unexpected events than they do for expected events. 51 undergraduates observed the experimenter asking a confederate either a small or large favor. The small request led to an expectancy of compliance; the large request led to expectancy of refusal. The confederate then either did or did not comply with the request, thus either confirming or disconfirming Ss' expectancies. Ss were than allowed to look at any 5 of the confederates' responses to a 10-item questionnaire that the confederate had supposedly filled out earlier. Five of the items on the questionnaire were relevant to helping, and 5 were of general interest. As predicted, Ss chose more helping-relevant items when their expectancies had been disconfirmed. Implications for attributions for the behavior of stereotyped out-group members are discussed. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Drinking habits and expectancies about alcohol's effects for self versus others.

Administered an alcohol effects questionnaire and a measure of drinking practices to 150 college students. Ss consistently expected alcohol to affect other people more than themselves for both positive effects such as social or sexual pleasure and negative effects such as impairment, except that moderate and heavy drinkers expected as much social/physical pleasure from alcohol as they expected others to receive. Moderate and heavy drinkers expected alcohol to enhance their own social and sexual pleasure, aggression, and tension reduction more than did light drinkers but did not differ in expected aversive consequences, suggesting that differences in anticipated reinforcement are more salient than anticipated impairment in influencing drinking behavior. Women expected less pleasure and tension reduction and more cognitive and motor impairment from alcohol but did not differ from men in expected enhancement of sexual pleasure, aggression, or expressiveness when differences in drinking habits were statistically controlled. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

International and American students' expectancies about counseling.

Investigated whether students from different backgrounds differ in their expectancies about counseling on a university campus. Ss included 40 American, 39 Chinese, 35 African, and 36 Iranian freshmen and seniors who completed a questionnaire measuring college students' expectancies about counseling. Significant differences among the 4 nationality groups were observed on 12 of the 17 expectancy scales. It was found that American Ss expected the counselor to be less directive and protective and expected themselves to be more responsible for improvement. In contrast, the Chinese, Iranian, and African Ss expected to assume a more passive role and expected that the counselor would be a more directive and nurturing authority figure. (7 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anxiety arousing effects of inappropriate crowding.

Evaluated the anxiety arousing effects of inappropriate crowding in a dyadic experimental setting. 48 female undergraduates were presented 8 Make A Picture Story test settings, containing 2 doll figures accompanied by a brief narrative describing the situation. Ss rated the amount of dysphoria they believed the female figure would feel in each setting. Ss were run under either an inappropriately crowded or appropriately spaced seating arrangement. Results indicate that crowded Ss projected more anxiety in their ratings of the figures than did the uncrowded Ss, with the effects becoming more pronounced during the latter 1/2 of the experimental period. (22 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Factor analysis of the domain of client expectancies about counseling.

446 college students completed a questionnaire measuring 20 expectancies regarding counseling. After item analysis, the instrument was reduced to 135 items comprising 17 expectancy scales. Scale scores were calculated for each S, and data analyzed using principal-components analysis with varimax rotation. Evidence of 4 expectancy factors was obtained: Personal Commitment, Facilitative Conditions, Counselor Expertise, and Nurturance. To clarify interpretation, scores on the 4 factors were correlated with Ss' responses to 13 items measuring how realistic respondents' expectancies were. (48 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Research on the effects of disconfirmed client role expectations in psychotherapy: A critical review.

Critically examines the pervasive assumption found in psychotherapy literature that disconfirmation of client role expectations has been demonstrated to be a negative influence in psychotherapy. When the empirical literature is examined, this hypothesis does not appear to be as conclusive as has been suggested. In fact, the empirical studies are evenly divided in supporting this hypothesis. The ambiguous state of the research is discussed in terms of problems in design and conceptualization: (a) The operationalization of the independent variable has often been inadequately precise or reliable. (b) The definition of expectation has usually not been clearly specified. (c) The theoretical base for almost all of the research may not be appropriate for the kinds of affectively toned expectations in psychotherapy. Future research should incorporate procedures to counter these types of problems. (72 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differential effects of voluntary expectancies on reaction times and event-related potentials: Evidence for automatic and controlled expectancies.

Expectancy has been used to explain the effects of stimulus sequences both on reaction times (RTs) and on the P300 component of the human event-related potential. However, there are conflicting views about the control obtainable over these underlying expectancies. The effects of voluntary expectancies for stimulus changes or repetitions in random tone series on RTs and the P300 were compared. Ss responded according to either stimulus identity (Exp 1) or stimulus sequence (Exp 2). In both experiments, RTs were strongly affected by event expectedness. P300 amplitude, on the other hand, was affected (as a trend) only in Exp 2. Results suggest that there are at least 2 types of "expectancy," one that is largely automatic and inflexible, reflected in P300 amplitude, and a second, controlled process that is reflected mainly in RT. The latter type of expectancy appears to affect processing stages beyond stimulus evaluation and classification. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The generalization of expectancies.

To test the proposition that generalization of expectancy changes occurs along a dimension of learned-goal similarity, a level-of-aspiration paradigm was utilized. The results were dealt with in terms of proportion of Ss who changed their expectancies on three generalization tasks (which varied in goal-relatedness to a control task by decreasing amounts) after experiencing success or failure on the control task. The data supported the hypothesis and indicated that the three tasks were significantly different from each other in relative position along the dimension of goal similarity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral effects of combining alcohol and caffeine: Contribution of drug-related expectancies.

This experiment tested the hypothesis that drinkers' expectations about the behavioral effect of combining alcohol and caffeine predicted their psychomotor performance when they expected to receive both drugs. Fifty male social drinkers were assigned to 1 of 4 treatment groups or to a no-treatment control group. Participants in the 4 treatment groups expected and received alcohol (0.56 g/kg). The expectation and the receipt of caffeine (4.4 mg/kg) were manipulated independently. After training on a Pursuit Rotor task, participants rated the expected effect of combining alcohol and caffeine and then received the drug treatments. As predicted, individual differences in expected effects predicted participants' performance when they expected to receive caffeine in combination with alcohol. Regardless of whether caffeine was actually received, those who expected the most impairment from the drug combination performed most poorly. This evidence has implications for understanding factors that contribute to individual differences in behavioral responses to drugs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interactive effects of alcohol outcome expectancies and alcohol cues on nonconsumptive behavior.

Experimental research and popular belief suggest that, among its many effects, alcohol consumption reduces tension and facilitates aggression. Such observations could result from direct, pharmacological effects of alcohol on neural control of behavior but also may be accounted for by positing that drinking behavior activates mental representations of relaxation-related or aggression-related alcohol expectancies in long-term memory. Building on this latter view, in 2 experiments, the authors investigated whether rudimentary drinking-related cues, which presumably activate encoded alcohol expectancies, facilitate tension reduction and hostility in the complete absence of actual or placebo alcohol consumption. In Experiment 1, following contextual exposure to alcohol-related words, individuals with stronger expectancies that drinking reduces tension showed an increased willingness to meet with an opposite-gender stranger under relatively anxiety-provoking circumstances, suggesting that they experienced less apprehension regarding the meeting. Analogously, in Experiment 2, following near-subliminal exposure to alcohol-related words, individuals with stronger expectancies that drinking fosters aggression showed greater hostility toward a target person following an experimentally engineered provocation. Neither of the latter effects was obtained following exposure to nonalcoholic beverage words, which presumably did not activate alcohol outcome expectancy representations in long-term memory. Moreover, the strength of relevant, content-specific expectancies (i.e., for tension reduction or aggression, respectively) moderated alcohol cue exposure effects, but the strength of other expectancies (e.g., for sociability or sexual arousal) did not. Together, these findings demonstrate that exposure to rudimentary alcohol cues independently engenders expectancy-consistent behavior, thereby attesting to the remarkable breadth and subtlety of the behavioral impact of alcohol expectancy activation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measuring adolescent alcohol outcome expectancies.

The psychometric properties and construct validity of the Comprehensive Effects of Alcohol (CEOA) questionnaire were compared with those of the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire—Adolescent version (AEQ-A) in relation to adolescent alcohol consumption. Ss were aged 13–17 yrs. Both measures of adolescent alcohol expectancies were found to be internally reliable and temporally stable. Alcohol use was significantly associated with subjective evaluations for Cognitive and Behavioral Impairment and Self-Perception on the CEOA and with expected effects for Cognitive and Motor Impairment and Changes in Social Behavior on the AEQ-A. Compared with the AEQ-A, the CEOA explained more variance in quantity (28%) and a similar variance in frequency (15%) for adolescent alcohol use (AEQ-A quantity = 20%, frequency = 15%). Whereas the general content and psychometric properties of the 2 measures are markedly similar, the Likert response format, shorter length, and assessment of both expected effects and subjective evaluations with the CEOA may offer measurement advantages over the AEQ-A. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Generalized expectancies for interpersonal trust.

Describes results of a program of research on interpersonal trust, defined as belief in social communications. Construction of a scale for measuring individual differences, construct validity studies, and investigations of antecedents of trust, correlates of trust, and changes of college student trust are included. The evidence supports the hypothesis of (a) stable individual differences in a generalized expectancy for interpersonal trust, and (b) the feasibility of studying such trust under a variety of conditions. (29 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The importance of race and social class information in the formation of expectancies about academic performance.

Studied the perceived locus of control, expected academic performance, and relative importance of 5 causal factors (ability, effort, luck, task difficulty, and quality of instruction) in the academic performance of a stimulus student. Both the race (Black vs White) and social class (middle vs lower) of the stimulus student were varied. Ss were enrolled in elementary education (n = 64) or introductory psychology (n = 64). Results indicate that middle-class Ss were expected to receive higher grades than lower-class Ss (p     

Measuring adolescent smoking expectancies by incorporating judgments about the expected time of occurrence of smoking outcomes.

French and English Canadian adolescents completed a smoking expectancy questionnaire and 2 measures of current smoking status. Multiple regression revealed that beliefs about the expected time of occurrence of smoking outcomes explained unique variance in current smoking after controlling for judgments about the probability and desirability of these outcomes. In addition, the relationship between the perceived probability of the general costs of smoking and current smoking was moderated by beliefs about the expected time of occurrence of these costs. There was no relationship between perceived probability of general costs and smoking for adolescents who expected the costs to occur far in the future, whereas there was a significant negative relationship between these 2 variables for adolescents who expected the costs to occur soon after smoking. The authors' results suggest that it may be possible to increase the concurrent validity of traditional smoking expectancy measures by incorporating expected-time-of-occurrence judgments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Utilizing expectancies in alcoholism treatment.

35 veterans who participated in an assertion training program as part of their treatment for alcoholism completed the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire (AEQ; [S. A. Brown et al; see PA, Vol 65:1217]) and self-evaluations of social competence. The participants were rated on social interaction skills by an independent observer during their initial and final training sessions. Analyses indicated significant relations between the Social and Physical Pleasure scale of the AEQ and improvement in Ss' social competence. Findings provide modest support for the utility of incorporating alcohol expectancies in treatment allocation decisions and suggest that targeting certain expectancies may optimize treatment effect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adults' expectancies about children's emotional responsiveness: Implications for the development of implicit theories of affect.

96 undergraduates and preschool, 3rd-grade, and 6th-grade children were presented with vignettes depicting 8 types of experiences and were asked what would be their own (for children) or a preschool, 3rd-grade, or 6th-grade child's (for adults) emotional reaction. Without exception, adults' expectancies agreed with those of 3rd and 6th graders. However, adults' expectancies about preschoolers' affect varied significantly from preschoolers' own accounts for vignettes presenting experiences of success, dishonesty that is discovered, dishonesty that is not discovered, being the target of aggression, and unjustified punishment. Adults and preschoolers did agree in predicted affective responses to failure, nurturance, and justified punishment. Overall, adults did not differentiate their predictions as a function of the age of the child whose affective reactions they were asked to predict, indicating an absence of developmental considerations in their implicit theories of children's emotional responsiveness. Results are discussed within a framework of social cognition, focusing on the nature and development of implicit theories about affect. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-efficacy expectancies, outcome expectancies, and the persistence of pain control in childbirth.

Examined A. Bandura's (see record 1977-25733-001) self-efficacy theory of mastery behavior, which distinguishes self-efficacy expectancies (SEEs) from outcome expectancies (OEs), by the relative roles of SEEs, OEs, and importance as predictors of persistence of pain control in medication-free childbirth. 52 primiparous women made self-efficacy judgments before and during labor and then reported in postdelivery interviews the timing and amount of medication use during labor and delivery. SEEs predicted persistence in pain control without medication better than OEs, importance, and 7 other alternative predictors. These results support several aspects of construct validation to the SEE construct. However, SEEs and OEs were highly correlated and largely redundant in their correlations with mastery. Three possible reasons and implications for this lack of differentiation are discussed. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Peer model and experimenter expectancies about appropriate response as determinants of behavior in the hypnotic setting.

Conducted 2 studies with undergraduates (N = 180) to analyze the behavioral effects of the variables "peer model behavior" and the "E's statement of his own expectancy" on the application of hypnosis. The 2 sources of social influence were established prior to induction of hypnosis. The sources were studied for their effects within the framework of a factorial design in which model and hypnotist expectancies about appropriate hypnotic response were manipulated simultaneously, in harmony and in opposition to each other. Exp I established the accuracy of the expectancy manipulations. Exp II analyzed the consequent effects of such manipulations and predicted a positive relationship between hypnotist-expectancy effect and Ss' susceptibility to hypnosis. As predicted, both variables effectively shaped Ss' hypnotic response. The level of susceptibility of Ss to hypnosis was significantly related to the strength of influence of the hypnotist's expressed expectancy. (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Disruptive effects of posttraining perirhinal cortex lesions on conditioned fear: Contributions of contextual cues.

Lesions placed in the rostral perirhinal cortex (rPRh) after fear conditioning interfere with the expression of conditioned fear responses elicited by auditory and visual conditioned stimuli when these stimuli are presented in a context that differs from the conditioning context. The present study examined whether lesions of the rPRh have similar effects when animals are tested in the conditioning context. Two days after male rats received classical fear conditioning, involving the pairing of an auditory CS with footshock, bilateral electrolytic lesions were produced in the rPRh. Five days later conditioned freezing behavior was measured during a 60-s exposure to the CS in a novel context and then 1 hr later in the conditioning context. There were 3 major findings: rPRh-lesioned Ss froze significantly less than controls to the CS in the novel context, thus confirming previously reported findings. rPRh-lesioned Ss also froze less than controls to the CS in the conditioning context, but froze significantly more to the CS in the conditioning than in the novel context, suggesting that at least part of the deficit in the novel context is due to the absence of contextual cues. Ss with rPRh lesions froze significantly less than controls to the conditioning context itself.… (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)