Internality, controllability, and the effectiveness of attributional interpretations in counseling.

Investigated an attributional approach to counseling in 2 studies. In Exp I, with 58 female and 24 male psychology students, the theoretical basis for the use of attributional interpretations was tested by giving Ss who had just received a negative social evaluation no information or information that stressed 1 of 4 types of causes: internal/controllable, internal/uncontrollable, external/controllable, and external/uncontrollable. Stressing internal/controllable causes produced more positive affective reactions and performance evaluations among internal locus of control respondents (Rotter's Internal–External Locus of Control Scale), whereas externals were more variable in their responses. Exp II (24 Ss) assessed the generalizability of these findings by administering causal counseling to Ss who identified themselves as interpersonally anxious. Utilizing a quasi-counseling design, Ss were exposed to 1 of 2 interpretations emphasizing internal control or coping. Results of Exp II confirm initial conclusions that the effectiveness of causal counseling may depend on the individual's locus of control. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sequential attributional feedback and children's achievement behaviors.

Determined how the sequence of ability and effort attributional feedback influenced task motivation, attributions for success, self-efficacy, and skillful performance in 80 elementary school Ss (aged 8 yrs 2 mo to 10 yrs 5 mo) in 2 experiments. In Exp I, 40 Ss lacking subtraction skills received training and problem-solved over 4 sessions. During the problem solving, Group 1 (ability-ability) periodically received ability feedback; Group 2 (effort-effort) received little effort feedback; Group 3 (ability-effort) was given ability feedback during the 1st 2 sessions and effort feedback during the last 2; Group 4 (effort-ability) had this sequence reversed. In Exp II, 40 Ss (chosen with the same criteria as in Exp I) followed the same procedures except they were asked about their perceptions of success or failure following training. Results for both experiments show that Ss in Groups 1 and 3 developed higher ability attributions, self-efficacy, and subtraction skills compared with Ss in Groups 2 and 4. The sequence of attributional feedback did not differentially affect motivation, effort attributions, or perceptions of training successes. (42 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attributions modulate immunization against learned helplessness in humans.

Conducted 3 experiments to determine the effect of global and internal attributions on immunization against learned helplessness. Exp 1 replicated the helplessness effect and its immunization. This immunization effect was weakened in Ss with global internal attributions about negative events and strengthened in Ss with specific and external attributions. In Exp 2, previous attributional style did not produce any effect on either immunization or helplessness. However, instructions to induce global internal attributions produced an enhanced helplessness effect. In Exp 3, global internal attributions induced by instructions during uncontrollability, but not during controllability, produced significant differences in the immunization effect. Immunization against helplessness was a function of a previous controllable experience, and attributions represented a vulnerability factor that modulated the actual influence of previous experiences on new tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self–nonself-segregation and reality monitoring.

Three experiments with 144 female undergraduates tested the hypothesis that field-independent (FI) Ss would be better reality monitors and would be better able to separate the self from the nonself than field-dependent (FD) Ss. It is noted that, according to M. K. Johnson and C. L. Raye (see record 1981-06694-001), reality monitoring is the process of determining whether a memory originated in thought processes (internal) or in perception (external). Ss' field dependence–independence was determined with the Group Embedded Figures Test. In Exp I, FD and FI Ss were asked to discriminate between internal and external sources of memories. FI Ss were more accurate at identifying the origin of their memories and made fewer reality monitoring confusions than FD Ss. When Ss were asked to discriminate between 2 external sources of memories in Exp II or between 2 internal sources of memories in Exp III, FI Ss did not show the source discrimination advantage. Recognition memory also varied across experiments, with FI Ss showing an advantage in some (Exps I and II) but not all (Exp III) cases. Findings are discussed in terms of an overreliance by FD Ss on the sensory, semantic, and contextual detail characteristic of externally derived memories and little awareness by these Ss of their own cognitive operations. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sad and guilty? Affective influences on the explanation of conflict in close relationships.

What is the role of mood in the way people explain interpersonal conflicts in their close relationships? On the basis of the multiprocess Affect Infusion Model (AIM) of judgments (J. P. Forgas, 1992, in press), 3 experiments, with a total of 306 Ss, found a nonobvious pattern of greater mood effects on attributions for serious rather than simple conflicts. In Exp 1, sad Ss blamed themselves more for conflicts than did happy Ss. Exp 2 found that in a field setting, sad persons attributed real-life conflicts more to internal, stable, and global causes and did so more for serious than for simple conflicts. Exp 3 replicated these findings in the laboratory and also produced reaction time (RT) data showing that it was the longer processing recruited by more serious conflicts that accentuated these affect-priming effects, as predicted by the AIM. The cognitive mechanisms linking affect and judgments are discussed, and the role of moods in everyday explanations of conflict is considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Priming of mediators in causal attribution.

According to H. H. Kelley (1967), the process of making person, stimulus, and circumstance attributions is based on the 3 informational criteria of consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness. Two experiments assessed how the relative accessibility of these 3 process-relevant criteria affected the time required to make the 3 attributions. In Exp I, 93 college students were primed for either all 3 process-relevant criteria or 3 pieces of attributionally irrelevant information. 30 sec after the accessibility manipulation, Ss scaled a person, stimulus, or circumstance attribution. Priming the process-relevant information decreased subsequent attribution decision time relative to the control group. In Exp II, 137 college students were primed for consensus, distinctiveness, or consistency after which they were scaled for 1 of 3 attributions. As expected, attribution decision times were lower when all 3 factors were primed (Exp I) than when only 1 of the 3 factors was primed (Exp II). In addition, stimulus and person attributions were made fastest when consensus and distinctiveness, respectively, were primed. Finally, priming cognitive access to a single factor made that factor dominate the scaled attributions. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Specificity of process, response, and stimulus in behavioral bioassays.

Reported 3 experiments which studied aspects of the behavioral specificity of the "biochemical transfer" phenomenon. In Exp I, using 120 common goldfish, an acquisition extract facilitated acquisition but not extinction, while an extinction extract facilitated extinction but not acquisition. In Exp II, using 60 Ss from Exp I and 20 additional Ss, brain extracts facilitated an avoidance response only if they originated in donors that made that same response; extracts from donors that did not respond, although exposed to identical stimuli, did not modify recipient behavior. In Exp III, the biochemical transfer effect was found to be stimulus specific in 48 large and 111 small Ss. Results suggest that the extracts in question are behavior specific and do not generally affect behavior in a global excitatory or global inhibitory way. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impact of group consensus and social support on stimulus meaning: Mediation of conformity by cognitive restructuring.

Three experiments with a total of 163 undergraduates tested the hypothesis that a person reinterprets the meaning of the stimulus object when facing unpopular responses from a unanimous group and that this change in meaning leads to a shift in response toward the group's position. In Exp I, several opinion items were presented, and either Ss observed unpopular responses, supposedly made earlier by a unanimous group (UG) or by a group having 1 dissenter (social support), or they observed no response at all (control). Ss merely gave their interpretation of the meaning of a key word or phrase in each opinion statement—they did not give their own opinions. Results show that UG Ss gave more uncommon meanings to the stimuli than did Ss in the other 2 conditions. Exp II ruled out the possibility that the shift in meaning was due to Ss' adhering to the interpretation they assumed to be held by the majority. In Exp III, Ss were exposed to scores representing the meanings that were produced by the unanimous group and control conditions in Exp I. Results show that after observing the consensually produced meanings for these items, the Ss shifted their own opinions toward the position held by the UG in Exp I. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental changes in knowledge about different retrieval problems.

Conducted 2 experiments to examine developmental changes from middle childhood to adolescence in metaretrieval plans offered to solve different retrieval problems. In each experiment, 80 children in Grades 3, 5, 7, and 9 made judgments about 2 problems that were more or less external or internal . The spontaneous responses from Exp I revealed an age increase in the number of different ideas generated for the internal problem and an age increase in the number of children who recommended the highly general strategy of retracing one's steps for retrieval. The forced-choice judgments in Exp II revealed the perception that the internal problem is more difficult than the external one and some discrepancy between the "best" strategy most often chosen for each retrieval problem (Exp II) and the strategy most frequently mentioned (Exp I). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Writing and revising persuasive documents: Cognitive demands.

In 2 experiments, 40 graduate and 60 undergraduate students wrote preliminary and final drafts of a persuasive document. In Exp I, the need for Ss to comply with mechanics (i.e., punctuation and spelling), to form complete sentences, and to sequence their ideas, respectively, were eliminated one at a time from preliminary-draft formats. The elimination of sentence-formation and sequence operations produced corresponding increments in persuasive argument production. In Exp II, Ss with average verbal ability (as assessed by the Scholastic Aptitude Test) benefited more from the elimination of these structure operations than did Ss with low verbal ability. When allowed to freely choose their typical preliminary-draft format, Ss with average verbal ability usually selected proposition-based formats (e.g., lists, outlines, and diagrams) that dispensed with the need for structure operations. Ss with average verbal ability also produced more sentences, more arguments per sentence, and fewer mechanical errors than did those with low verbal ability. In both experiments, comparatively few new arguments were constructed during revision. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of the "mentally retarded" label on adult judgments about child failure.

Retarded children show marked susceptibility to learned helplessness. Three experiments illustrate how adults may foster this helplessness. In Exp I, 152 college students reported causal attributions for failure and expectancies of future success for either "a 6-yr-old child" or "a 9-yr-old mentally retarded child with a mental age of 6 yrs." In Exp II, 58 Ss reported attributions and expectancies for both children. In both experiments, insufficient ability was rated a more important cause of failure for the retarded than for the unlabeled child, insufficient effort was rated more important for the unlabeled child, and the retarded child was rated less likely to succeed in the future. In Exp III, 54 Ss' responses indicated that either a low expectancy of success, an insufficient-ability attribution, or the retarded label alone would reduce the likelihood of their urging a child to persist after a failure. Results suggest a proposed attributional bias (overextension), a familiar attributional bias in a new context (discounting), and resultant helplessness-condoning behavior by adults. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of purpose in the organization of information about behavior: Trait-based versus goal-based categories in person cognition.

Three experiments with 120 college students investigated (a) the role of observational purpose in the tendency to employ trait or goal categories in the organization of behavioral information and (b) the effects of goal-based vs trait-based organization of the information on Ss' ability to recall it. Exp I showed that Ss reading and categorizing a series of episodes for the purpose of recalling either the material or empathizing with the main character organized the episodes primarily in terms of the character's goals. In contrast, Ss whose purpose was either to form a personality impression of the character or to predict her future behavior organized the episodes primarily in terms of her traits. Exp II demonstrated that the categorizations produced by recall-oriented Ss in Exp I facilitated the ability of a new sample of Ss to remember the episodes, relative to the categorizations produced by impression-oriented or control Ss. Exp II provided evidence that the relatively goal-based structure of the recall-oriented categories probably mediated the effects observed in Exp II. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of "voice" and peer opinions on responses to inequity.

Examined the effects of "voice" (participating in allocation decision making by expressing one's own opinion about the preferred allocation) on responses to an inequitable allocation. In addition to Ss' (82 female undergraduates) presence or absence of voice, Exp I manipulated (a) whether the allocation made by a "decision maker" (a confederate) was or was not made biased (due to self-interest) and (b) whether the S did or did not learn that a "co-worker" believed the allocation to be inequitable. Exp II, with 61 female high school students, manipulated presence/absence of voice and involved only a self-interested decision maker. In both experiments, the impact of voice was mediated by knowledge about the co-worker's opinion. When Ss had no knowledge about the co-worker's opinion (Exp I) or knew that the co-workers's opinion coincided with the decision maker's allocation (Exp II), there was evidence for a "fair process effect": Voice Ss expressed greater satisfaction than those with no voice. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Awareness of the response after feedback training for changes in heart rate and sudomotor laterality.

Examined the relation between (a) the ability to control visceral responding on a biofeedback (BFB) task and (b) the ability to report behaviors actually contributing to this performance in 4 experiments with 97 male Ss. Ss received BFB training for unidentified visceral responses and then gave written reports about what they had done to control BFB displays. Independent judges were given these reports and, on the basis of knowledge about activities known to contribute to visceral activity, were asked to determine the visceral responses for which Ss had been trained. The reports of Ss who succeeded at bidirectional control of heart rate (Exp I) or sudomotor laterality (Exp II) showed awareness of behaviors related to BFB as assessed by this procedure, whereas the reports of Ss who failed at bidirectional control did not. Subsequent experiments indicated that these results did not depend on a learning strategy that might have been specific to the initial studies. Findings question the view that people are unaware of what they have done to produce the response after training on BFB tasks. (81 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social psychology and plea bargaining: Applications, methodology, and theory.

Conducted 2 experiments with male undergraduates to investigate the plea bargaining process. Exp I (143 Ss) used a role-playing procedure to identify variables that affect the acceptance of a plea bargain. 18% of the Ss playing the role of innocent defendants accepted the plea bargain, whereas 83% of the guilty defendants accepted. Two other main effects revealed that defendants were more likely to accept a plea bargain when relatively many charges had been filed against them and/or when the severity of punishment upon conviction was great, although internal analyses revealed that these effects were present in guilty defendants only. Exp II (18 Ss) was conducted using involved participants to provide validation for the major result of Exp I. Ss were made to be innocent or guilty of having prior information about an exam. All were accused of having used prior information and were given an opportuinity to plea bargain rather than face an ethics committee. In accord with Exp I, guilty Ss accepted the plea bargain significantly more often than innocent students. Results are discussed in terms of information differences between innocent and guilty defendants and the availability heuristic. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Performance implications of corrective testing.

Compared testing with immediate feedback and partial credit to a traditional multiple-choice exam format in 2 experiments. In Exp I, Ss were 286 students in 3 large introductory courses. Feedback to Ss about their performance dramatically increased the impact of doing well or doing poorly on the test: Among Ss doing well, those who were aware of that fact performed far better overall than counterparts who were unaware of their performance. Among Ss doing poorly, those who were aware of their poor performance did much less well than Ss who were unaware of it. Interestingly, this polarizing effect was particularly dramatic among low-test-anxious Ss. Subjective reactions of 35 high- and 34 low-test-anxiety Ss to immediate feedback and partial credit were assessed in Exp II. Immediate feedback and partial-credit testing was rated as indicating more about one's ability and effort than traditional testing, a finding that fits well with the performance effects uncovered in Exp I. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)