Roles of perceived sexist events and perceived social support in the mental health of women seeking counseling.

The authors of the present study contribute to research on the role of sexist events in women's mental health by examining the sexism-distress relation (a) with a sample of women who are seeking mental health services and (b) in the context of the additional roles of perceived social support in positive self-appraisal (i.e., empowerment and self-esteem) and psychological distress. A path analysis was conducted with data from 157 women who were seeking counseling services. Results supported the generalizability of previously observed links between the frequency of perceived sexist events and psychological distress. Results also indicated that the sexism-distress link was significant in the context of an additional significant indirect relation of perceived social support with psychological distress, which was mediated through empowerment but not through self-esteem. Implications for future research and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cross-modal source monitoring confusions between perceived and imagined events.

Two experiments tested the prediction based on the source monitoring framework that imagination is most likely to lead to false memories when related perceived events have occurred. Consistent with this, people were more likely to falsely remember seeing events when the events had been both imagined as seen and actually heard than when they were just heard, just visually imagined, or imagined both visually and auditorily. Furthermore, when people considered potential sources for memories or more carefully evaluated features of remembered events, source errors were reduced. On average, misattributed ("false") memories differed in phenomenal qualities from true memories. Taken together, these findings show that as different qualities of mental experience flexibly enter into source attributions, qualities derived from related perceptual events are particularly likely to lead to false claims that imagined events were seen, even when the event involves a primary modality (auditory) different from the target event (visual). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Phenomenal characteristics of memories for perceived and imagined autobiographical events.

Two studies explored potential bases for reality monitoring (M. K. Johnson and C. L. Raye [see PA, Vol 65:6694]) of naturally occurring autobiographical events. In Study 1, subjects rated phenomenal characteristics of recent and childhood memories. Compared with imagined events, perceived events were given higher ratings on several characteristics, including perceptual information, contextual information, and supporting memories. This was especially true for recent memories. In Study 2, subjects described how they knew autobiographical events had (or had not) happened. For perceived events, subjects were likely to mention perceptual and contextual details of the memory and to refer to other supporting memories. For imagined events, subjects were likely to engage in reasoning based on prior knowledge. The results are consistent with the idea that reality monitoring draws on differences in qualitative characteristics of memories for perceived and imagined events (Johnson & Raye, 1981) and augment findings from more controlled laboratory studies of complex events (A. G. Suengas and M. K. Johnson [see PA, Vol 76:14478]; M. K. Johnson and A. G. Suengas, in press). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Temporal order and the perceived mutability of events: Implications for blame assignment.

Hypothesized that later occurrences in a series of events tend to evoke counterfactual alternatives more strongly and, hence, tend to be blamed more for ensuing negative outcomes than do earlier occurrences. In Study 1, Ss played the role of students whose task it was to read an article and then to identify the questions they thought a teacher might include on a test of it. Consistent with the hypothesis, Ss were less critical of a teacher whose test questions did not match their own when the teacher generated his or her questions before they did than when he or she generated them after they did. In Study 2, Ss played the role of teachers whose task it was to select questions to be answered by a student. Presumably, because of a greater fear of being blamed, Ss selected easier questions when their selection of questions occurred after the student had finished studying than when it occurred before the student began studying. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging and qualitative characteristics of memories for perceived and imagined complex events.

Older and younger adults' memory for perceived and imagined events was examined with a procedure in which everyday situations are simulated in the laboratory. Subjects perceived some situations and imagined others. Later, they were asked to rate their memory for various aspects of these situations (e.g., amount of perceptual detail, thoughts and feelings). A recall test followed the ratings. On the rating scale, for both perceived and imagined events, older subjects reported better memory for their thoughts and feelings than did younger subjects. In addition, on the recall test, older subjects produced more thoughts and feelings than did younger subjects, whereas younger subjects produced more perceptual and spatial information. These results suggest that older subjects may not inhibit personal information (e.g., thoughts and feelings), and this information may interfere with memory for other aspects of information, such as perceptual and contextual details (Hasher & Zacks, 1988). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prior experiences and perceived efficacy influence 3-year-olds' imitation.

Children are selective and flexible imitators. They combine their own prior experiences and the perceived causal efficacy of the model to determine whether and what to imitate. In Experiment 1, children were randomly assigned to have either a difficult or an easy experience achieving a goal. They then saw an adult use novel means to achieve the goal. Children with a difficult prior experience were more likely to imitate the adult's precise means. Experiment 2 showed further selectivity--children preferentially imitated causally efficacious versus nonefficacious acts. In Experiment 3, even after an easy prior experience led children to think their own means would be effective, they still encoded the novel means performed by the model. When a subsequent manipulation rendered the children's means ineffective, children recalled and imitated the model's means. The research shows that children integrate information from their own prior interventions and their observations of others to guide their imitation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Childhood maltreatment, perceived stress, and stress-related coping in recently abstinent cocaine dependent adults.

The authors examined associations between a personal history of childhood maltreatment and the perceived stress and stress-coping styles of recently abstinent and treatment-engaged cocaine dependent adults. Fifty men and 41 women at an inpatient treatment and research facility were administered the short form of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (D. P. Bernstein & L. Fink, 1998; D. P. Bernstein et al., 2003), the Perceived Stress Scale (S. Cohen, T. Kamarck, & R. Mermelstein, 1983), and the COPE Questionnaire (C. S. Carver, M. R. Scheier, & J. K. Weintraub, 1989). Simple and multiple linear regression analyses were used to analyze relationships while adjusting for relevant covariates. Findings indicate that overall childhood maltreatment severity was significantly associated with greater perceived stress and greater use of avoidance stress-coping strategies. These findings suggest that having a history of childhood maltreatment may influence how recently abstinent cocaine dependent individuals experience and cope with stress. Stress and stress-coping focused interventions may be particularly indicated for cocaine dependent individuals with histories of childhood maltreatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hypnosis and clinical pain.

Hypnosis has been demonstrated to reduce analogue pain, and studies on the mechanisms of laboratory pain reduction have provided useful applications to clinical populations. Studies showing central nervous system activity during hypnotic procedures offer preliminary information concerning possible physiological mechanisms of hypnotic analgesia. Randomized controlled studies with clinical populations indicate that hypnosis has a reliable and significant impact on acute procedural pain and chronic pain conditions, Methodological issues of this body of research are discussed, as are methods to better integrate hypnosis into comprehensive pain treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Qualitative effects of rehearsal on memories for perceived and imagined complex events.

Three experiments explored the effects of rehearsal and the passage of time on qualitative characteristics of memories for perceived and imagined complex events. Subjects thought or talked about events, focusing on either the perceptual (e.g., colors, sounds) or apperceptive (e.g., thoughts, feelings) aspects of the events (Experiment 1). Thinking about apperceptive aspects of events decreased the salience of context and sensory characteristics of memories and made memories for perceived and imagined events seem more similar in the subjective amounts of thoughts and feelings included in the memories. When the aspects of events subjects thought about were unspecified, thinking about events primarily affected rated clarity (Experiment 2). The clarity of imagined events was more affected than was the clarity of perceived events by whether the memories had been rated previously (Experiments 1 & 3). Over 24 hrs, clarity and sensory ratings decreased more for imagined than for perceived events (Experiment 3). Implications for reality monitoring (M. K. Johnson and C. L. Raye [see PA, Vol 65:6694]) are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hypnosis and verbal learning.

Rigidly standardized hypnotic procedures were used in a double-blind experiment which examined the acquisition ability of Ss who differed in hypnotic susceptibility for the learning of both meaningful (poems) and meaningless (nonsense syllables) material when hypnotized and when unhypnotized. Regression analyses indicated that: (a) Differences in relative degree of hypnotic susceptibility among Ss did not influence the learning of nonsense syllables or poems; (b) S's degree of manifest anxiety and verbal intelligence did not contribute significantly to performance scores; and most important, (c) the application of hypnosis did not significantly influence performance on either nonsense syllables or poems when compared to performance in the unhypnotized treatment. (22 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of perceived mental illness on interpersonal relations.

This study was carried out to measure the influence of general attitudes toward mental illness on 2 aspects of interpersonal interaction: an S's performance on a motor task requiring cooperative effort and the perception of another after having interacted with him on the task. Ss were undergraduates who were induced to believe their coworker was either "normal" or had been mentally ill. The results indicate that perceiving the coworker as mentally ill is associated with better task performance, possibly because of the greater threat posed by a successful peer in comparison to that posed by a person believed to be maladjusted and inadequate. It was also found that when a coworker is viewed as mentally ill, Ss prefer to work alone rather than with him and blame him for inadequacies in the joint performance even though objective measures do not justify these responses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attributions for negative life events and depression: The role of perceived control.

Although perceptions of control occupied a central role in the development of learned helplessness theory, recent helplessness research has not considered controllability judgments when relating attributions to depression. Supporting the importance of this construct, the research discussed in this article found evidence that judgments of control interact with other attributions in predicting depression. Specifically, in a prospective study of stress and well-being in adolescence, internal, stable, and global attributions for negative events attributed to uncontrollable causes were found to be positively related to increases in depression (as predicted by the reformulated helplessness theory), but internal and global attributions for negative events attributed to controllable causes were found to be inversely related to increases in depression. The discussion considers the implications of the findings for understanding the nature of the relation between attributions for naturally occurring life events and depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of induced mood on self-reported life events and perceived and received social support.

Tested the relation between mood (depressed [D], elated [E], or neutral [N]), induced by the Velten (1968) procedure, and college students' responses on a subjectively scored life events questionnaire and measures of perceived and received social support. A manipulation check showed that the mood manipulation was successful. There was a significant mood effect on the number of self-reported negative life events, with E Ss reporting the fewest. However, mood had no significant effect on the number of self-reported positive life events or the rated intensity of negative and positive events. Mood had a significant effect on perceived social support, with D Ss scoring the lowest. Self-report of received social support, however, was not affected by the mood manipulation. The findings challenge the widespread use of life event and perceived social support questionnaires whose independence from a mood-related response bias has not been adequately demonstrated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hypnosis for the treatment of burn pain.

Investigated the clinical utility of hypnosis for controlling pain during wound debridement. 30 hospitalized burn patients and their nurses submitted visual analog scales (VASs) for pain during 2 consecutive daily wound debridements. On the 1st day, patients and nurses submitted baseline VAS ratings. Before the next day's wound debridement, Ss received hypnosis, attention and information, or no treatment. Only hypnotized Ss reported significant pain reductions relative to pretreatment baseline. This result was corroborated by nurse VAS ratings. Findings indicate that hypnosis is a viable adjunct treatment for burn pain. Theoretical and practical implications and future research directions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Informational influence as a determinant of perceived task characteristics and job satisfaction.

Task characteristics and informational cues about the task were manipulated in a laboratory investigation of the impact of objective task design and informational influence in determining employees' perceptions of task characteristics and job satisfaction. Although a manipulation check involving 33 control Ss confirmed differences between the 2 experimental tasks (enriched and unenriched), results of the experiment with 42 graduate business students showed the major determinant of perceptions of task characteristics (Job Diagnostic Survey—JDS—and the Job Characteristic Inventory) and job satisfaction (JDS) to be informational influence in the form of cues about the task as either enriched or unenriched. Findings suggest that (a) job characteristics may be socially constructed as well as objective realities and that (b) perceptual measures of task dimensions may be susceptible to bias from informational cues. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Negative life events, perceived stress, negative affect, and susceptibility to the common cold.

After completing questionnaires assessing stressful life events, perceived stress, and negative affect, 394 healthy Ss were intentionally exposed to a common cold virus, quarantined, and monitored for the development of biologically verified clinical illness. Consistent with the hypothesis that psychological stress increases susceptibility to infectious agents, higher scores on each of the 3 stress scales were associated with greater risk of developing a cold. However, the relation between stressful life events and illness was mediated by a different biologic process than were relations between perceived stress and illness and negative affect and illness. That these scales have independent relations with illness and that these relations are mediated by different processes challenges the assumption that perceptions of stress and negative affect are necessary for stressful life events to influence disease risk. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hypnosis and risks to human subjects.

Concerns for the safety of human Ss have led to the creation of institutional review boards that evaluate experimental procedures according to the risks involved. Because establishing criteria for evaluating the risk of specific psychological procedures is difficult, the judgments of reviewing committees may be quite variable and unpredictable. The US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare has labeled hypnosis as being at risk. This article attempts to clarify the degree of risk associated with the use of standard hypnotic susceptibility scales. The aftereffects of the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C, were compared with the same aftereffects of (a) participating in a brief verbal learning experiment, (b) taking a college exam, (c) attending a college class, and (d) college life in general for a sample of 209 undergraduates. The results indicate that hypnosis was no more bothersome than the comparison activities. The authors discuss the limitations of the study with regard to the use of hypnosis, the limitations of the way negative sequelae were measured, the use of such an empirical approach to clarify the actual risks in specific experimental procedures, and the problem involved in taking too conservative or too liberal a position on the protection of human Ss. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An experimental investigation of group members' perceived influence over leader decisions.

The premise that increased perceived influence over leader-made decisions has positive effects on members' satisfaction and commitment was tested in an experiment. One hundred four participants in ad hoc groups of 4 (plus 1 confederate) gave their opinions about the settlement of a civil lawsuit to the group leader (a confederate), who made the decision on behalf of the group. Feedback provided to the participants by the leader manipulated members' perceived personal influence, and the influence of the group as a whole, over the leader's decision. Perceived personal influence predicted levels of satisfaction, whereas perceptions of group influence were important with respect to commitment to the decision. Results are integrated with recent work on leadership and organizational behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Subordinate satisfaction with male and female managers: Role of perceived supervisory influence.

103 22–35 yr old (38 male and 49 female) semiskilled French-speaking Canadian workers read about 3 critical incidents in the company in which either a male or female supervisor had high or low influence in solving a problem of his/her subordinates. Satisfaction with the supervisor was rated on a 6-point scale. Results show that the degree of influence had a significant impact on S satisfaction, but gender-based variables did not. It is suggested that supervisory gender is a proxy variable that may mask more salient organizationally relevant parameters. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)