Assessment of overt behavior and childhood depression among psychiatrically disturbed children.

Examined the relation of direct observations of overt behavior to depression among 62 child psychiatric inpatients (aged 8–13 yrs). Childhood depression was assessed by self-report and interview measures administered separately to Ss and their mothers. DSM-III diagnoses were also obtained from direct interviews and were supplemented with clinical information. Direct observations of Ss were obtained during free-time periods over several days. Multiple behaviors were observed and coded into 1 of 3 categories: social activity (e.g., talking with others and playing games), solitary behavior (e.g., working alone on a task and playing alone), and affect-related expression (e.g., smiling and frowning). Results show that depressed Ss (n?=?21) engaged in significantly less social activity and exhibited less affect-related expression than nondepressed peers (n?=?41). Moderate stability in performance was observed over a 4-wk test–retest interval. Overt behavioral measures were consistently related to parent-completed but not to S-completed measures of depression. Findings suggest that depressive symptoms are reflected in diverse behaviors in everyday life. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The motivational and emotional consequences of considering positive or negative possibilities for an upcoming event.

The hypothesis that attention to negative possibilities for an upcoming event can have advantages for performance in comparison with a more optimistic approach was examined in 2 studies. Focus of attention to positive or negative possibilities for a social interaction was manipulated for Ss previously identified as optimists or defensive pessimists in the social domain. In Study 1, negatively focused defensive pessimists performed better in their conversations than positively focused defensive pessimists on several dimensions (e.g., talk time, perceived effort, and sociability). Optimists' behavior was unaffected by the focus manipulation. However, all negatively focused Ss felt worse after their conversations than did positively focused Ss. Study 2 examined the cognitive process by which a negative focus may lead to positive behaviors. Some pessimists may benefit from an initial negative focus that is not accompanied by lowered expectations and that actually facilitates positive thoughts about the self. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Processing of ambiguous and unambiguous feedback by depressed and nondepressed college students: Schematic biases and their implications for depressive realism.

Explored schematic processing as a mechanism for predicting (a) when depressed Ss would be negative relative to nondepressed Ss and (b) when depressed and nondepressed Ss would show biased or unbiased (i.e., "realistic") processing. Depressed and nondepressed Ss performed multiple trials of a task under conditions in which the 2 groups held either equivalent or different schemas regarding this task. Ss received either an unambiguous or objectively normed ambiguous feedback cue on each trial. In full support of schematic processing, depressed Ss showed negative encoding relative to nondepressed Ss only when their schemas were more negative, and both depressed and nondepressed Ss showed positively biased, negatively biased, and unbiased encoding depending on the relative feedback cue-to-schema match. Depressed and nondepressed Ss' response latencies to unambiguous feedback also supported the occurrence of schematic processing. We discuss the methodological, treatment, and "realism" implications of these findings and suggest a more precise formulation of Beck's schema theory of depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Seeing less and knowing more: The benefits of perceptual ignorance.

We suggest that dispositions are more automatically inferred from nonlinguistic than from linguistic behavior, and thus the attributional processing of linguistic behavior is more easily impaired by peripheral cognitive activities. In Exp 1, Ss observed an applicant who claimed to possess the requisite attributes for a desirable job, but who failed to display nonlinguistic behavior to support that claim. Ss who performed a concurrent visual detection task based their attributions primarily on the applicant's nonlinguistic behavior and drew less biased inferences than did control Ss. In Exps 2 and 3, Ss heard an unenthusiastic essayist who was constrained to read a political speech. Ss who performed either a concurrent visual detection task or a concurrent social influence task drew less biased inferences than did controls. These studies suggest that person perception includes subprocesses that differ in their characteristic degrees of automaticity and that performing simultaneous cognitive operations may enable perceivers to avoid certain kinds of inferential errors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptions of the impact of negatively valued physical characteristics on social interaction.

24 female undergraduates were led to believe that they were perceived as physically deviant in the eyes of an interactant when in fact they were not. Following a brief discussion, they commented on those aspects of the interactant's behavior that appeared to be linked to the deviance. Ss who thought that they possessed negatively valued physical characteristics found strong reactivity to the deviance in the behavior of their interactant, whereas those with a more neutrally valued characteristic did not. An expectancy/perceptual bias explanation is advanced to account for these results, although experimental demand is also a plausible interpretation. Study 2, with 50 male and female Ss, reaffirmed that both the expectancy and the demand explanations were plausible. Study 3 with 30 female Ss used a new set of instructions devised to test the competing explanations. Results strongly undermine a demand interpretation of the original results. In Study 4, with 32 female Ss, persons who had observed the behavior of the interactants in Study 1 via videotape also perceived greater reactivity to an imputed negative form of deviance than to a neutral one. Data support the notion that the results of Studies 1 and 3 reflect the operation of an expectancy/perceptual bias mechanism and tend to rule out a self-fulfilling prophecy dynamic. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences in interaction style as a product of perceived sex differences in competence.

Observed the interaction styles of 72 male and 72 female university students while they worked in 4-person, mixed-sex groups on a discussion task. In some groups, Ss were only given information about each other's names and gender. In this circumstance, males were perceived by themselves and other group members to be higher in competence than females. Males also engaged in a greater amount of active task behavior than females, who exhibited a greater amount of positive social behavior than males. In other groups, Ss' competency-based status was manipulated by providing false feedback that they were high or low relative to their group in intellectual and moral aptitude. High-status Ss were then perceived to be more competent and engaged in more active task and less positive social behavior than low status ones. In this condition, no sex differences were obtained on perceived competence or on active task or positive social behavior. Findings support the idea that the gender differences obtained in interaction when status was not specified were partially a function of Ss' belief that the sexes differ in competence. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anxiety and self-disclosure: Toward a motivational model.

The self-disclosures of socially anxious and nonanxious Ss were compared within the framework of R. M. Arkin's (1981) motivational theory of social anxiety. Ss (N?=?84 women) were paired with a confederate who disclosed at either a high or a low level of intimacy (i.e., the classic reciprocity paradigm). Consistent with Arkin's theory, anxious Ss were concerned with self-protection during the task and disclosed at a moderate level of intimacy regardless of their partner's behavior. In addition, anxious Ss did not reciprocate their partners' disclosures as well as did nonanxious Ss. The self-protective behaviors of the anxious Ss were associated with less liking and more discomfort on the part of their partners. This suggests that the adoption of self-protective strategies may elicit negative interpersonal reactions that maintain self-defeating interpersonal patterns in socially anxious people. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social interaction and experimenter effects in the verbal conditioning experiment.

Investigated the extent to which the concepts of e effect and e bias could be predicted, in a verbal conditioning situation, from a knowledge of several behaviors observed in the actions of psychological es. Ss were 80 female undergraduates, and es were 25 male undergraduates. Analyses of videotapes of verbal conditioning experiments indicate the importance of interactional behaviors, E.g., e smiling, and e-s eye contact. Also, it appeared that es behaved somewhat differently for positively biased than negatively biased ss. Various interpretations of such results are presented, with implications for the social psychology of verbal conditioning experiments. (french summary) (19 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive sets, attribution, and social interaction.

Examined relationships among cognitive set variables, attribution, and behavior using 135 female undergraduates. Ss were given either positive-, negative-, or no-set information about the emotional health of a stimulus person prior to observing a videotaped social encounter. After viewing the tape, Ss were administered a free-response attribution measure or a distraction task. All Ss then engaged in actual social interaction with the stimulus person. Results indicate that (a) Ss receiving positive-set information wrote more positively valenced attributions and displayed more positive behavioral responses than did Ss receiving negative- and no-set information. (b) Ss who made attributions exhibited more pronounced behavioral responses as a function of the set manipulation than did those who did not make attributions. It is argued that the latter data reveal the important role of attribution in mediating the effects of set on behavior. Overall data are discussed as reflecting a control motivation in the production of attribution and behavior. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Abnormal social behavior in phenylketonuric monkeys.

Compared 4 rhesus monkeys, given a diet high in phenylalanine early in life, with 2 control groups in learning and social behavior when all Ss were on a normal diet. In comparison with the controls, the phenylketonuric (PKU) Ss were slow in learning a conditioned shock-avoidance task and showed extreme subnormal and inadequate social behavior. This gross incompetence in social interaction was reflected in the inconsistence of dominance rankings in a competitive food stituation and in the excessive hostility, excessive fear, and deficient play responses, both in the relatively unfamiliar playroom situation with familiar peers and in the home cage with unfamiliar stimulus monkeys. These PKU Ss were normal in more primitive, more reflexive behaviors, e.g., behaviors reflecting activity, simple social, environmental, and self-stimulating behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Type A behavior pattern and the self-evaluation of abilities: Empirical tests of the self-appraisal model.

The self-appraisal model proposes that Type A behavior reflects active attempts to generate diagnostic information about abilities, particularly in situations that evoke high uncertainty. In Study 1, subjects were provided feedback indicating high or low uncertainty about underlying abilities in two domains. When subjects were more uncertain of their ability in one domain than in the other, Jenkins-Activity-Survey-defined Type As (but not Type Bs) subsequently constructed tests that were biased to assess the more uncertain domain. Study 2 examined postfailure performance. The model holds that Type As perform poorly because they suspend information gathering when faced with evidence that requisite abilities are absent. Results indicated that deficits emerged only if Type As believed that a second task assessed the same abilities as the initial task on which they failed. A final study examined social comparison among Type As and Bs. Results indicated that Type As engaged in social comparison to obtain diagnostic information, primarily when they were uncertain of their ability levels. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Illusory correlation and social categorization: Toward an integration of motivational and cognitive factors in stereotype formation.

Investigated the effect of group membership on the processes underlying the formation of group stereotypes. In two studies, Ss were randomly assigned to a majority group, a minority group, or neither group (control). Ss were then presented with 48 short statements in which other in-group and out-group members displayed disirable and undesirable behaviors, with either desirable or undesirable behaviors occurring more frequently. Across these items there was no correlation between group membership and desirability of behavior. In Study 1, measures of covariation perception showed that control Ss formed biased impressions of the group, consistent with a memory-based process of stereotype formation. Group members' perceptions showed little evidence of this bias. In Study 2, group members showed evidence of an in-group bias, with further evidence suggesting that these biased judgments were not dependent upon memory processes. Discussion focuses on the complexity of stereotyping processes introduced by social categorization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The framing of relative performance feedback: Seeing the glass as half empty or half full.

It was proposed that individuals' responses to information regarding their relative position in a performance distribution would depend on how they frame the information. To the degree that they focus selectively on the positive features of the feedback (i.e., the number of others who performed worse than them) rather than the negative features (i.e., the number of others who performed better than them) they should report higher ability levels and more positive affective reactions. In Study I, Ss received feedback indicating that they occupied a particular percentile standing in either a large or small distribution. Individuals with negative orientations (depressives and pessimists) reported lower ability levels as a function of increases in comparison group size, whereas individuals with positive orientations (nondepressives and optimists) reported higher ability levels. Presumably, these effects occurred because negatively oriented persons focused on the negative features of the feedback and positively oriented persons focused on the positive features of the feedback. The results of Study 2 support this explanation. Implications for the social comparison literature are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Goals in social information processing: The case of anticipated interaction.

Examined the role of anticipated-interaction instructions on memory for and organization of social information. In Study 1, Ss read and recalled information about a prospective partner (i.e., target) on a problem-solving task and about 4 other stimulus people. The results indicated that (a) Ss recalled more items about the target than the others, (b) the target was individuated from the others in memory, and (c) Ss were more accurate on a name–item matching task for the target than for the others. Study 2 compared anticipated interaction with several other processing goals (i.e., memory, impression formation, self-comparison, friend-comparison). Only anticipated-interaction and impression formation instructions led to higher levels of recall and more accurate matching performance for the target than for the others. However, the conditional probability data suggest that anticipated interaction led to higher levels of organization of target information than did any of the other conditions. Discussion considers information processing strategies that are possibly instigated by anticipated-interaction instructions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Generalization of verbally conditioned self-acceptance to social interaction in small group discussions.

Discusses generalization of change in a socially relevant variable during verbal conditioning trials to social behavior in small groups. On the basis of scores obtained on the E. M. Berger (see 27:7) scale of expressed acceptance-of-self and expressed acceptance-of-others, 2 groups of student nurses were selected for study: (a) a low self-acceptance group (low s-a) (N = 44), and (b) a high self-acceptance group (high s-a) (N =20). The low s-a Ss were randomly assigned to experimental (i.e., reinforced) and control (i.e., nonreinforced) conditions. All low s-a Ss participated in pre- and postconditioning, 4-person discussion groups. Similar preconditioning discussion groups were held for high s-a Ss. Berger scores of self-acceptance were significantly related to judges' ratings of self-acceptance in the group-discussion situation. Verbal conditioning of self-accepting responses on the Berger scale significantly increased judges' ratings of self-acceptance for those Ss who showed a high level of conditioning. (French summary) (17 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interaction of fear and guilt in inhibiting unacceptable behavior.

80 male college students completed the Mosher Incomplete Sentences Test which was scored for sex guilt. The Ss were assigned by alternation to a fear-reduction or fear-induction experimental condition which preceded a perceptual defense task. The results supported the prediction derived from social learning theory that the inhibitory behavior of Ss who score low on a measure of sex guilt is more influenced by situational cues relevant to the probability of external punishment for sex-related behavior than is the inhibitory behavior of the high-sex-guilt group. The results suggested that the high-sex-guilt S is relatively insensitive to situational cues concerning the probability of external punishment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of subsequent performance on evaluations of previous performance.

Tested the hypothesis that subsequent performance levels would bias the recall and evaluations of a ratee's previous level of performance with 183 undergraduates, who rated 3 videotaped lectures in either immediate or delayed rating conditions. The 1st videotape depicted an average level of performance and was followed by either 2 good lectures or 2 poor lectures. A significant performance level?×?time of rating interaction was found, in which memory-based ratings were biased in the direction of subsequent performance (i.e., when there was a delay between observation and rating, Ss who had seen an average lecture followed by good lectures rated that average lecture more favorably than did Ss who had seen that same lecture followed by poor lectures). It is suggested that raters are biased in favor of recalling behaviors that are consistent with their general impression of a ratee and that subsequent performance may systematically alter the rater's recall of the ratee's previous behavior. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Vocal isolation: Effects of occluding auditory feedback from one's own voice.

Investigated the effects of vocal masking on the associative structure and content of ideas elicited in an imagery task, using 16 college graduates as Ss. When Ss were unable to hear their own voices, their images showed significantly greater indications of overall drive expression (unweighted drive), more intense drive expression (weighted drive), and a significant increase in morality references. The degree of drive expression was positively correlated with speech editing behaviors (aborted sentences, incomplete words, etc.), and negatively correlated with language editing behaviors (e.g., use of qualifying expressions). Findings are discussed in terms of the reciprocal activity of speech and language editing in relation to (a) drive expression, (b) the functional significance of hearing one's own voice, and (c) the contribution of the total experimental situation (e.g., the masking noise) to the effects obtained. (15 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ego-identity status, personality, and social-influence style.

80 female undergraduates were identified as having diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium, of identity achievement statuses on the Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status. Ss then completed the Test of Attentional and Interpersonal Style and engaged in a social influence experiment with a same- or opposite-sex peer confederate. Results show that foreclosure Ss were least able to integrate ideas and to think analytically, whereas moratorium and achievement Ss were better able to process large amounts of information and to be alone with their thoughts and feelings. Diffusion and foreclosure Ss were also more likely than moratorium and achievement Ss to make errors in judgment due to reduced attentional focus. In the social influence task, identity-achievement Ss were more likely to use verbally aggressive behavior, whereas foreclosure Ss manifested a greater degree of image-control behavior. Lower ego-identity statuses were associated with more frequent use of resources and deception. The sex of the confederate also differentially affected the behaviors of Ss with different ego-identity statuses. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)