Effects of source prestige on subjects' acceptance of the Barnum effect: Psychologist versus astrologer.

Studied whether the Barnum effect (i.e., S's willingness to endorse universally valid statements as accurate and meaningful) is best attributed to the prestige of psychologists and their tests or to the nature of the statements themselves. Although significant differences in the ratings of psychologists and astrologers by 84 undergraduates were found, data suggest that the high base rate validity of universally valid statements may be sufficient to account for the Barnum effect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Judging personality assessments: putting the Barnum report in perspective

The ability of expert and naive judges to discriminate between genuine and Barnum assessment statements was assessed. In a 2 X 2 X 2 design (naive vs. expert judges, genuine vs. Barnum test statements, sex), judges rated assessment statements for their information value, usefulness, social desirability, and typicalness. Results indicated that judges were able to make expected discriminations between genuine and Barnum statements. These results were discussed in terms of previous findings which have suggested that judges have seen Barnum statements as "accurate" or "good" as genuine statements. In the present study, the discriminations seemed due to the use of a population of judges more representative of clinical assessment consumers and to the more specific judgments required.     

The Barnum effect and validity of computer-based test interpretations: The Human Resource Development Report.

This article addresses 2 conceptual problems surrounding the validation of computer-based test interpretations (CBTIs): assessing the discriminating power of a real CBTI compared with a generic bogus report and assessing the overall level of accuracy or validity of the report. The full Barnum research design, based on split-plot analysis of covariance, was developed and used to evaluate the Human Resources Development Report (HRDR), a CBTI from the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF). Real HRDR CBTIs were rated by 54 college student examinees as 76.3% accurate, compared to 71.1% perceived accuracy for bogus reports. In the CBTI statement analysis, statements appearing only in real reports were rated as 76.2% accurate, compared to 68.6% for statements in bogus reports only. Procedures are also described for assessing the influence of context on the perceived accuracy of a statement contained in a report. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Validity of Millon's computerized interpretation system for the MCMI: Comment on Moreland and Onstad.

Moreland and Onstad (1987) reported the results of a "controlled study" to determine the incremental validity of Millon's computerized interpretive system for the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) in relation to the Barnum effect. Eight clinicians rated the accuracy of actual case reports and paired control reports that were randomly generated but designated experimental. However, in view of several limitations of their experimental design and statistical analyses, the authors may have prematurely concluded that the perceived accuracy of the interpretive system exceeds a Barnum base rate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Trait-inferential relationships and judgments about the personalities of others.

Discusses the effects of trait-inferential relationships, defined in terms of perceived probabilities of joint occurrence, on the perception of the personalities of others. 216 male and female undergraduates served as judges predicted the targets' responses to personality statements, highly or lowly inferentially related to the target information. Judges made a greater number of trait-inference judgments, were more certain, and were more willing to make a prediction on high-inferential than on low-inferential statements. Female judges were more inferentially "accurate" and thus more certain of their predictions than male judges. Other aspects of the data suggest that judges may have experienced conflict on statements that were inferentially negatively related to the target information, but frequently endorsed by others. A secondary analysis of the data indirectly supported this interpretation. (French summary) (26 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The interpretation of opinion statements as a function of message ambiguity and recipient attitude.

The purpose of this study was to replicate an earlier one by the author (Manis, 1960) to determine the validity that the interpretation of ambiguous statements permits of greater interpretation in the light of personal opinions than nonambiguous statements. College Ss having 3 opinions towards fraternity (positive, negative, neutral) were presented with statements regarding fraternities. Half the Ss were presented with nonambiguous statements, half with the same statements with every other word omitted (ambiguous). In general, the results supported the hypothesis. From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4GD76M. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of counselor statements on rater judgments of client self-exploration.

Examined the influence of counselor statements on rater judgements of client self-exploration. Audiotaped segments of counseling interviews that included both counselor and client statements and identical autiotaped segments, but with the counselors' statements deleted, were rated on client self-exploration by separate groups of raters (totaling 20 counseling graduate students). A significantly positive correlation was found between the 2 sets of ratings. With 1 exception, no significant differences were found for each segment. Finally, no differences were found between ratings for segments, unedited and edited, in which counselors were functioning at high levels of accurate empathy and ratings in which counselors were functioning at low levels of accurate empathy. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contextual effects in the interpretations of probability words: Perceived base rate and severity of events.

Previous research has demonstrated substantial effects of context on the numerical interpretation of verbal probability statements and has attributed these effects to the perceived base-rate probability of the predicted events. These context effects are shown to be attributable to the perceived severity of the predicted event as well as to the perceived base rate. Furthermore, there is evidence for strong context effects that are not explained by either of these 2 variables. The implications of these results for the use of probability statements in the communication of verbal probability information are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An argument-based approach to validity.

Outlines a general argument-based approach to validation, develops an interpretive argument for a placement test as an example, and examines some key properties in interpretive arguments. Validity is associated with the interpretation assigned to test scores rather than with the test scores or the test. The interpretation involves an argument leading from the scores to score-based statements or decisions, and the validity of the interpretation depends on the plausibility of this interpretive argument. The interpretive arguments associated with most test-score interpretations involve multiple inferences and assumptions. An explicit recognition of the inferences and assumptions in the interpretive argument makes it possible to identify the kinds of evidence needed to evaluate the argument. Evidence for the inferences and assumptions in the argument supports the interpretation, and evidence against any part of the argument casts doubt on the interpretation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accuracy of attitude stereotypes: The case of inferences based on gender.

Three studies were undertaken to assess the accuracy of people's estimates of the attitudes of men and women. In Exp 1, attitudes of male and female college students were assessed on a broad range of social and political issues. In Exp 2, 30 male and 30 female college students estimated the attitudes of typical males and females on the same statements. These estimates were used to select a set of stereotypic male statements and a set of stereotypic female statements. In Exp 3, 44 male and 53 female college students estimated the attitudes of male and female students on the 2 sets of statements. Results of the 1st 2 studies indicated that both men and women expected larger gender differences in attitudes than actually exist. In the 3rd study, this result was confirmed and it was found that people were least accurate in their estimates of the attitudes of men. Partial support was obtained for the hypothesis that in-group stereotypes would be more accurate than out-group stereotypes. Men were more accurate than women in estimating the attitudes of men but men and women were equally accurate in estimating the attitudes of women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Description and validation of a procedure for the interpretation of an interest inventory score profile.

The rationale underlying a formal procedure to interpret interest inventory score profiles is discussed, and the procedure is described. I validated the proposed procedure by comparing its interpretation of the interests of 100 high school seniors and 50 young adults with the interpretations of 5 career counselors. The average agreement between the interpretation of the formal procedure and that of the counselors (about 90%) was almost as high as the agreement among the career counselors themselves (about 91%). The implications of this result are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How to be sarcastic: The echoic reminder theory of verbal irony.

Positive statements, such as "A fine friend you are," can readily be used sarcastically. Negative statements, such as "You're a terrible friend," can be used sarcastically only under special circumstances. We account for this asymmetry in terms of echoic reminder theory, which asserts that listeners recognize sarcasm when they perceive that a speaker is alluding to some antecedent state of affairs. Positive statements do not require explicit antecedents because such statements may implicitly allude to societal norms and expectations, and these norms are almost invariably positive. Negative statements, however, cannot implicitly allude to such positive norms, and so they should require explicit antecedents if they are to be understood. An explicit victim of a sarcastically intended remark can provide such an antecedent and so should enable negative statements to be used sarcastically. Three experiments, involving scenarios with and without victims, provide support for this theory of sarcastic irony. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Processing causal and diagnostic statements in discourse.

Diagnostic statements (e.g., It is raining because the streets are wet) take longer to read than causal statements (e.g., The streets are wet because it is raining). The authors present 4 experiments investigating this phenomenon. In Experiment 1, a reading-time study, the authors demonstrate that this difficulty is reversed when a more complex mental model is cued through the use of phrases like John thinks that and John says that. Experiment 2 shows that the use of a modal construction (e.g., Perhaps it is raining because the streets are wet) makes the processing of diagnostics as easy as processing causals but does not disadvantage causals. The authors explain the pattern of results by proposing that readers build the simplest possible discourse representation during interpretation and that readers adopt a specific pattern of semantic interpretation. These proposals are tested and verified in Experiments 3 and 4. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Victimization, self-monitoring, and eyewitness identification.

38 undergraduate low self-monitors and 42 undergraduate high self-monitors (as determined by a scale of self-monitoring of expressive behavior) witnessed in small groups a staged crime of either their own wristwatches or a laboratory calculator. Campus police detectives took individual witness statements as if a real crime had occurred, and using biased or unbiased instructions, police administered a suspect-present photospread. Results show that victim witnesses who had been given biased instructions gave the least accurate identifications and that high self-monitoring Ss were least likely to reject the lineup when instructions were biased. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)