Microanalysis of action and fear arousal as a function of differential levels of perceived self-efficacy.

Two experiments combining intergroup and intra-S designs tested the hypothesis that perceived self-efficacy (SE) operates as a cognitive mediator of coping behavior (CB) and fear arousal (FA). Differential levels of SE were induced in 20 snake- and spider-phobic Ss (aged 16–62 yrs) through enactive mastery or modeling, and their CB and FA were measured. In the next phase, SE was successively raised to designated levels within the same Ss, and their CB and FA were measured again. CB corresponded closely to instated SE, with higher levels of perceived SE being accompanied by greater performance attainments. The SE–action relationship was replicated across different modes of SE and behavioral dysfunctions, and in both intergroup and intra-S comparisons. The hypothesis that FA stems largely from perceived coping inefficacy also received support. Results of Exp II (12 Ss), which used cardiac acceleration and elevation in blood pressure as indicants of FA, further corroborate the generality of the relationship between perceived coping inefficacy and stress reactions. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Palmar Sweat Index as a function of repression–sensitization and fear of dentistry.

Investigated the relationship between the repression–sensitization dimension and palmar sweating in response to simulated dental threat stimuli (drill sounds). After the 60 female undergraduates completed the Repression–Sensitization Scale they were given the Palmar Sweat Index under conditions of relaxation and actual and simulated drill sounds. Sensitizers were found to be more physiologically aroused than were repressors during relaxation and during a presentation of drill sounds but not during initial or final measurements. Sensitizers also reported being more fearful of dentistry than repressors. These results are seen as consistent with W. Mischel's (1976) social-learning formulation of repression–sensitization in terms of differential attention to threatening stimuli and contrary to repression hypotheses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Choosing to be afraid: Preferences for fear as a function of goal pursuit.

According to an instrumental approach to emotion regulation (M. Tamir, in press), people may not always prefer to feel pleasant emotions and avoid unpleasant ones. Instead, they may be motivated to experience even unpleasant emotions when they might be useful for goal attainment. Given that fear serves to promote successful avoidance, these studies tested this hypothesis by examining preferences for fear in preparation for avoidance goal pursuits. Consistent with the predictions of the instrumental approach, participants preferred to increase their level of fear as they prepared to pursue an avoidance goal. Such preferences were higher than preferences for either excitement or anger and were unique to avoidance (vs. approach or confrontational) goal pursuits. Given the aversive nature of fear, these findings clearly demonstrate that people may sometimes prefer to feel bad if doing so can lead to instrumental benefits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Extinction of conditioned fear in rats as a function of several parameters of CS exposure.

Employed Pavlovian fear acquisition and extinction procedures in a factorial design which varied conditioned-stimulus (CS) duration in acquisition, the number and duration of CS exposures in extinction, and total CS exposure across extinction trials. Ss were 128 female Blue Spruce hooded rats. Suppression of licking for water served as the measure of residual fear. The data revealed that suppression of licking was an inverse function of total nonreinforced CS exposure irrespective of the number and duration of extinction exposures used to amass that total. The effect of total nonreinforced CS exposure was not significantly influenced by the duration of the CS utilized in acquisition training. The discrepancy between the obtained results and predictions derived from several theories of extinction is discussed. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The extinction of fear as a function of distance versus dissimilarity from the original conflict situation.

An earlier study (see 30: 4198) studied the behavior of rats running down alleys in which they had been shocked in comparison to alleys resembling, to various degrees, the original shock alley. Since the least similar alley was always furthest away from the original, alley similarity and distance were confounded. The present investigation was an attempt to correct this confounding. It was shown that the rat's capacity to overcome the inhibitory effects of shock experienced in one alley was related to distance from the original alley, not dissimilarity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Internal–external locus of control as a moderator of fear appeals.

161 midwestern US residents responded to a questionnaire that contained Rotter's Internal–External Locus of Control Scale, 1 of 4 fear messages, and scales measuring attitudes and intentions. Determination of the 4 fear messages was developed through 2 pretests using randomly selected judges. The subject of the fear messages was a health maintenance organization. ANOVA indicated that level of fear appeal and locus of control predicted attitude and intention. There was, however, no significant interaction. At all levels of fear appeal, external Ss tended to react more favorably to the message. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Displacement as a function of conflict.

"Miller's theory of displacement was extended by integration with his conflict theory into a three-dimensional model… . To test deductions from this model rats were first trained to get food at one end of an alley and then shocked while eating until they no longer approached the food cup. They then left this alley and entered other alleys differing slightly from the original alley. Here they went closer to the food end than in the original alley. Tracings of their movements followed a pattern predicted from the model… . After making goal responses in the generalized alleys, the rats returned to eat in the original alley, showing a 'therapeutic' effect." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived self-efficacy domains as predictors of fear of the unknown and fear of dying among older adults.

Using a sample of 167 women and 121 men, aged 65-87, this study tested the hypothesis that self-efficacy beliefs of older persons are significantly stronger predictors of death fears than are demographics, social support, and physical health variables used in earlier predictor models. Standard self-report measures were used to assess all predictor variables, including perceived self-efficacy in 8 different domains. Findings from a series of hierarchical regression analyses that were conducted separately for men and women supported the hypothesis concerning the superiority of self-efficacy variables as predictors of fear of the unknown after death and fear of dying, with spiritual health efficacy and instrumental efficacy being the most potent predictors of death fears for women and men. respectively. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prejudice as a function of self-organization.

This article reviewed the traditional psychoanalytic theories of the development and maintenance of prejudiced attitudes and affects. To this body of understanding, the authors offered a self psychological perspective. They described the treatment of Sandy, a woman who presented with extreme expressions of prejudice, to illustrate how self psychology provides a framework for understanding the narcissistic roots of her prejudice and a therapeutic stance for promoting the transformation of her prejudiced attitudes and affects. From this perspective, prejudice is understood not as the displacement or projection of aggression, but as an expression of a vulnerable, fragmentation-prone self-organization struggling to overcome a traumatic developmental history. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Real-life exposure as a primary therapeutic factor in the desensitization treatment of fear.

Conducted a 2 * 3 factorial study to assess the theory and efficacy of systematic desensitization and to identify the factors responsible for its effects. 54 female undergraduate aquaphobics received 1 of 6 treatment conditions administered individually by trained psychologists and psychological assistants: (a) systematic desensitization with/without repeated exposure, (b) predesensitization with/without repeated exposure, and (c) no office treatment with/without repeated exposure. Results reveal considerable subjective and behavioral improvement associated primarily with the repeated exposure treatment, which consisted of sessions of graded exposure to real water situations. Reduction of anxiety to the imagined stimuli in systematic desensitization showed little transfer to the real situations in the absence of exposure, suggesting that actual exposure may be a primary therapeutic factor in the desensitization treatment of fear. A follow-up evaluation revealed the durability of the aquaphobic improvements, and evidence of beneficial side effects which appeared primarily attributable to training in self-relaxation. (38 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of contingency violations on the extinction of a conditioned fear inhibitor and a conditioned fear excitor.

In 4 experiments, 192 male Holtzman and Sprague-Dawley rats were used in a conditioned-suppression paradigm to assess the effects of contingency variations on responding to a conditioned stimulus (CS) inhibitor (CS–) and a conditioned stimulus excitor (CS+). In Exp I, various unconditioned stimulus/stimuli (UCS) frequencies were equated across the presence and absence of a CS– in the context of either background cues (continuous-trial procedure) or an explicit neutral event (discrete-trial procedure). With both procedures, a CS-alone treatment enhanced inhibition, whereas treatments involving 50 or 100% reinforcement for the CS– eliminated inhibition without conditioning excitation to that CS. The latter outcome also occurred in Exp II, with discrete-trial training equating considerably reduced UCS frequencies for the presence and absence of the CS–. In further evidence that inhibition was eliminated without conditioning excitation to the CS–, Exp III showed that a novel CS did not acquire excitation when 25, 50, or 100% reinforcement was equated across the presence and absence of that CS in the context of a discrete-trial event. Using the procedures of Exp I, Exp IV showed that a CS+ was extinguished by a CS-alone treatment but was substantially maintained by treatments involving 50 or 100% uncorrelated reinforcement. These effects for a CS+ and a CS– implicate CS–UCS contiguity, rather than contingency, as the factor determining the extinction of a CS. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Verbal and overt-behavioral assessment of a specific fear.

Investigated self-ratings of fear on a modified Fear Survey Schedule and overt approach-avoidance responses to a large insect using 70 undergraduates. Professed fears of insects were negatively related (p     

Mathematics achievement as a function of language.

The superior mathematics performance of Asian Americans has been documented by recent reports of standardized test results and supported by cross-national comparisons of mathematics achievement. Cultural emphasis on education, parental support for learning, and innate ability have been cited as factors contributing to this exceptional performance. In this study, in which American and Japanese children residing in the United States were compared, variations in cognitive representation of number were examined in an attempt to understand these cultural and ethnic differences in students' mathematics scores from the perspective of differential cognitive organization of number resulting from differences in primary-language characteristics. Results showed that the cognitive representation of number for children whose only language was English differed from those whose primary language was Japanese. The relation between cognitive representation of number and mathematics achievement was also explored. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Volunteering as a function of field structure.

It was predicted that significantly more volunteering would occur when test Ss observed the invitation (to participate in an experiment) being accepted prior to their being asked than would occur in the control condition (where S had no opportunity to observe the behavior of others in the invitation situation); and significantly less when refusal was observed, as compared with the control condition. The results support the predictions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavior as a function of the situation.

The power of several well-known and important situational factors to affect behavior is assessed in terms usually reserved for measuring the power of dispositions. The linear effects of incentive for counterattitudinal advocacy on attitude change, of degree of "hurry" and number of onlookers on bystander intervention, and of proximity of authority and "victim" on obedience average slightly less than .40. This magnitude is comparable to that of important dispositional effects. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Errors as a function of noun concreteness.

Conducted 2 experiments to investigate the effects of stimulus and response noun concreteness in paired-associate learning. In Exp. I, error-success protocols were examined with the aid of a 2-stage Markov model. 64 undergraduates and spouses served as Ss. The 2 stages of the model have been interpreted in terms of storage and retrieval processes. In Exp. II, the production, retrieval, and decoding of mediators were examined. 15 undergraduates served as Ss. The model analysis indicated that the primary effect of noun concreteness, whether manipulated in the stimulus or response terms, was on the retrieval process. The data from Exp. II were consistent with this conclusion, in that concreteness affected the retrieval and decoding of mediators rather than the number of mediators generated. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hypnotizability as a function of nonhypnotic experiences.

The relationship between various subjective experiences and susceptibility to hypnosis was studied in 2 samples of female college students, totalling 102. The subjective experiences were registered by the Experience Inventory, a questionnaire developed earlier for this purpose. Hypnotizability was determined by administering objective hypnotic scales individually. Correlations between hypnotizability and the total Experience Inventory score as 'well as a composite score of selected items were significant in both samples, but the latter failed in predicting hypnotizability better than the total score. Items of subjective experiences significantly related to hypnotizability in the total sample were analyzed in terms of the personality dimensions implied. alyzed (17 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence and leadership as a function of group structure.

"In a group decision situation, influence and perceived leadership were studied as a function of an individual's position in the communication network of his group. The hypotheses were advanced that, regardless of the network he is in, a group member (a) will be influenced less as his group reaches a decision, and (b) will be perceived as the group leader more often when his position in the communication network is more central… . On an overall basis, both hypotheses were confirmed… . The hypothesis concerning influence was tenable only in the case of one kind of network." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Leadership and popularity as a function of behavioral predictions.

Two hypotheses regarding leadership behavior are tested by means of a social prediction test derived from the Rosenzweig P-F test. The leadership hypothesis states that S's who are ranked high in the leadership dimension will be more successful in estimating the predictions made by each group member to a list of test situations than S's ranked low in this dimension. The popularity hypothesis states that leaders who are ranked high on the popularity dimension will be more successful in estimating predictions made on them by group members to a list of test situations than leaders who are ranked low on this dimension. Both hypotheses were confirmed but the design of the experiment precludes generalizations to leaders as a group, claiming only that significant findings existed within the group studied. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)