Naive probability: A mental model theory of extensional reasoning.

This article outlines a theory of naive probability. According to the theory, individuals who are unfamiliar with the probability calculus can infer the probabilities of events in an extensional way: They construct mental models of what is true in the various possibilities. Each model represents an equiprobable alternative unless individuals have beliefs to the contrary, in which case some models will have higher probabilities than others. The probability of an event depends on the proportion of models in which it occurs. The theory predicts several phenomena of reasoning about absolute probabilities, including typical biases. It correctly predicts certain cognitive illusions in inferences about relative probabilities. It accommodates reasoning based on numerical premises, and it explains how naive reasoners can infer posterior probabilities without relying on Bayes's theorem. Finally, it dispels some common misconceptions of probabilistic reasoning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A test of a theory of anxiety about body integrity: Part 2.

Kolhberg (1966) suggested that uncertainty about body integrity was more plausibly explained by cognitive factors than by the psychoanalytic theory of castration anxiety. This hypothesis leads to the prediction that children who understand the concept of anatomical constancy would show less anxiety in relation to threats to the body's integrity than children who have not yet attained the concept. The results of this study are not consistent with Kolhberg's cognitive developmental prediction. Additionally, the results of this study also reveal significant relationships between children's level of anxiety in response to threats to the body's integrity and age (or stage of development). Those subjects showing the highest level of anxiety were in the 3 to 5-year-old age group, the period referred to by psychoanalysts as the phallic period. This finding is consistent with the prediction derived from Freudian psychosexual theory which posits that 3- to 5-year-old children would be particularly sensitive to threats to the integrity and unity of their bodies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The medium and the message in mental imagery: A theory.

Describes a computational theory of imagery that posits that visual mental images are transitory data structures that occur in an analog spatial medium. These "surface" representations are generated from more abstract "deep" representations in long-term memory and, once formed, can be operated upon in various ways. The theory is described in terms of detailed claims about the mental structures and processes invoked during imagery. In addition, the philosophical and empirical roots of the present theory are briefly reviewed. Further, arguments and data that have been offered against the theory are critically examined, and none are found damaging. An alternative account of the data that purportedly support the theory is also examined and found deficient in several respects. Finally, the current status of the "analog-propositional" debate is reviewed. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Opinions about mental illness: A review of the literature.

Describes the major measures and studies of attitudes about mental illness, mental hospitals, and mental patients. Historical trends in such attitudes are delineated, and studies of attitudes of different groups are summarized, including those of the general public, mental health professionals, college students, and mental patients. Analysis of the susceptibility of such attitudes to modification through academic or practical experience is followed by observations regarding the relation between attitudes and behavior toward mental patients. Implications for future work in this field are considered. (78 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Word-association commonality: A standardized test and a theory.

The Verdun association list (VAL) is a word-association test with stimulus words selected to elicit a high frequency of common responses among normal adults. Commonality, reaction time, and response stability measures are incorporated in the test. Standardization was based on 2 independent, representative metropolitan samples of normal employed adults—575 Ss in all. Validation groups consisted of (1) 2 independent samples each comprising 100 working and 100 nonworking hospitalized mental patients; (2) all 15 psychiatric patients, some working and some not, who attended the night treatment center of a general hospital over a 2-mo period, and (3) the 44 Canadian Army volunteers at 1 induction session at a recruitment center who were rejected as unfit for military service on various nonphysical grounds. The high agreement between cut-off scores and all external criteria suggested that the VAL could be effective in a wide variety of industrial, clinical, and experimental settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thinking about parenting: Reasoning about developmental issues across the life span.

Examined reasoning about developmental problems over the life span and related it to cognitive style and parenting behaviors. In Study 1, 35 children's and adults' concepts of development (COD) stages (A. Sameroff and L. Feil, 1985) were investigated. As hypothesized, stage scores were positively related to age and to 2 other developmental indexes. In Study 2, 24 parents and their 5th-grade children were observed. COD stage scores were positively related to more effective tutoring styles by parents. In Study 3, 60 adults in 3 different age groups were interviewed about standard and personal parenting dilemmas. COD stage scores were lower for the oldest adults on the hypothetical dilemma only and were inversely correlated with a measure of right-wing authoritarianism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Extraversion and performance: A test of the theory of cortical inhibition.

Hypothesized that extraversion scores should correlate with scores on performance tasks purported to depend on cortical inhibition. Data from 104 undergraduates who performed spatial and internal inhibition tasks did not reveal any significant correlations between extraversion (Maudsley Personality Inventory) and performance measures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Disclosure and anxiety: A test of the fever model.

According to the fever model of Disclosure, the relationship of Disclosure (utterances that reveal subjective information) to psychological distress is analogous to the relationship of fever to physical infection: Both are indicators of some underlying disturbance and part of a restorative process. High and moderate trait anxious university students (but not the low trait anxious students) used higher percentage of Disclosure when speaking about an anxiety-arousing topic than when speaking about a happy topic. With topic order counterbalanced, students tended to use more Disclosure during their 1st presentation than during their 2nd. These results support the fever model's suggestion that people tend to Disclose when they are distressed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A test of the melioration theory of matching.

Melioration theory entails that matching in concurrent schedules occurs because the subjects equalize the local reinforcement rates (reinforcers received for each alternative divided by the time allocated to each alternative). The role of local reinforcement rates was tested by using multiple schedules in which one component involved an alternative with a high absolute rate of reinforcement and a low local reinforcement rate while the second component involved an alternative with a low absolute rate and a high local rate. These alternatives were then presented simultaneously in probe trials to determine preference between them. Contrary to melioration, the absolute rate of reinforcement, not the local rate, was the controlling variable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Excuse theory: A test of the self-protective role of attributions.

Tested the hypothesis that individuals use consensus-raising, distinctiveness-raising, and consistency-lowering attributional explanations as strategies to excuse their poor performance on an ego-involving task. It was also predicted that such excuse-making tactics occurring after failure feedback, in comparison with those occurring after success feedback, lead to (1) decreased negative emotions when individuals anticipate that their excuse attempts will not be closely scrutinized by an informed or all-knowing audience, and (2) increased negative emotions when individuals anticipate that an evaluative audience has access to their private cognitions and feelings about their poor performance. 96 male undergraduate students were given high or low scores on a purported intelligence test and were administered a mood questionnaire and either items from Rotter's Internal–External Locus of Control Scale (control condition) or an excuse questionnaire (excuse condition). Results support the use of distinctiveness-raising and consistency-lowering, but not consensus-raising, attributional explanations. In addition, the predicted effects of excuse making on emotional state were generally obtained; that is, without the scrutiny of the all-knowing audience, the excuse making lessened negative affect after failure, whereas under the scrutiny of an all-knowing audience, excuse making served to increase negative affect. Results are discussed in terms of the circumstances under which excuse behaviors are construed as self-protective or self-defeating. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A test of the Taylor-Spence theory of anxiety.

"The present studies tested the Taylor-Spence theory under 2 conditions: (a) Competing and noncompeting materials were equated in difficulty for a nonanxious group. The prediction from the Taylor-Spence theory that the anxious Ss would perform more poorly on the competing than on the noncompeting material was not sustained. (b) Anxious and nonanxious Ss were tested on easy competing and difficult noncompeting materials. The prediction from the Taylor-Spence theory was that anxious Ss would do more poorly (relative to nonanxious Ss) on the easy competing than on the difficult noncompeting material. The results were opposite from those predicted and significant at beyond the .05 level." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A resource exchange theory approach to interpersonal interactions: A test of Foa's theory.

Employed U. G. Foa and E. B. Foa's (1974) resource exchange theory to examine the types and patterns of exchanges involved in 57 college students' interpersonal interactions. Two judgment tasks were used to test both the functional and structural aspects of this theory. The dimensions of particularism and concreteness were hypothesized to underlie the 6 resource categories of love, status, information, money, goods, and services. In addition, resources perceived to be in the same category were expected to be exchanged with a higher probability than resources in different categories. Support for both the structural and the functional relations among the resource categories was consistent not with the initial classification of the behaviors used to represent the 6 resource categories but with the meaning associated with the behaviors. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Faculty teaching goals: A test of Holland's theory.

Tested J. L. Holland's (1966, 1973) theory relating personality, vocational choice, and academic environment in a hexagonal matrix. 1,140 faculty members rated the importance of 16 factors in the areas of character and intellectual and vocational development. Results suggest that disciplinary differences among Holland's proposed environmental groups are generally (a) congruent with the postulated characteristics of the respective environments, (b) consistent across different kinds of colleges and universities, and (c) similar to the order of psychological resemblances defined by Holland's hexagonal model. Implications for reseach on faculty activities are discussed. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interaction of environment and personality: A test of Holland's theory.

Tested J. L. Holland's assumption that personality variables interact with environment. The following hypotheses were investigated: (a) for males who leave engineering (n = 27) there is a personality change different from that found among those who remain in engineering (n = 25); and (b) for males who leave or remain in engineering, the personality development is different from that of males in a 2-yr college (n = 22). Analysis of Omnibus Personality Inventory scores indicates that 2 dimensions represented differences between groups: intellectual independence and practical inclination. Transfers to arts and sciences from engineering became more realistic, nonjudgmental, intellectual, liberal, and skeptical of orthodox religious beliefs. 2-yr students showed greater variability in their personality change scores and a loss in their liking for reflective and abstract thought. Results tend to support Holland's theory of vocational development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Caregiving outcomes for older mothers of adults with mental retardation: A test of the two-factor model of psychological well-being.

A two-factor model of caregiving appraisal and psychological well-being, based on previous findings with caregiving spouses (M. P. Lawton et al; see record 1991-34214-001) was tested with 225 older mothers who provided care at home to an offspring with mental retardation The effects of objective caregiving stressors, caregiver resources, and subjective appraisals (caregiving satisfaction and burden) on the positive and negative dimensions of psychological well-being were examined. LISREL 8 analyses revealed that the model differed in two key ways for caregiving mothers: (a) Positive psychological well-being appeared to diminish subjective burden, and (b) both objective stressors and resources were unrelated to subjective burden. These findings suggest the need for future research into how caregiving dynamics are influenced by the specific nature of the relationship between the caregiver and the recipient. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reasoning about responsibilities and obligations in close relationships: A comparison across two cultures.

The study compares sociomoral reasoning of children and adolescents in Iceland, longitudinally assessed at ages 7, 9, 12, and 15 years (N?=?97), and in China, cross-sectionally assessed at corresponding ages (N?=?350). Participants reasoned about choices, motives, and moral justifications of a protagonist in a sociomoral dilemma. The dilemma allows persons to focus on different concerns (e.g., promise keeping or close friendship vs. self-interest or altruism toward a 3rd person). Overall, Icelandic participants referred more often to self-interest and contractual concerns, whereas Chinese participants focused on altruistic and relationship concerns. However, some cultural differences remained stable over time, whereas others decreased. In adolescence, close friendship became an equally important value in both cultures. The results indicate a complex interaction of culture and development in sociomoral reasoning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Induction of depressed mood: A test of opponent-process theory.

To test whether R. L. Solomon's (see record 1980-26727-001) opponent-process theory of acquired motivation can be applied to the induction of depressed mood, 100 female undergraduates completed the Depression Adjective Check Lists before, during, and after a depression-induction procedure or 1 of 2 control conditions. Results are not totally consistent with the opponent-process interpretation, suggesting that this model may not be applicable to depressed mood. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Migrant mental health: A model for indicators of mental health and health care consumption.

Objective: This study explores the relationship between mental health and health care consumption among migrants in the Netherlands. Design: Samples of the Turkish (n = 648), Moroccan (n = 102), and Surinamese (n = 311) populations in Amsterdam were examined. The study tested a hypothesized model of risk factors for psychiatric morbidity, indicators of well-being, and indicators of health care consumption. The model was specified on the basis of information from earlier research on the sample and literature on the topic. The model was tested and refined using structural equation modeling. Main outcome measures: Psychiatric morbidity and well-being measures were assessed with the CIDI 1.1 and MOS-sf-36 subscales, respectively. Health care consumption was assessed by the question "Have you ever consulted one or more of these professionals or health care facilities with respect to mental health problems or problems related to alcohol or drugs usage?" Results: The primary result of this study was the confirmation that health care consumption among migrants is predicted by need and predisposition factors, such as health condition and sociodemographic characteristics. In addition, mental health care consumption of migrants is predicted by acculturation characteristics. This result suggests an effect of cultural and migrant-specific factors in help-seeking behavior and barriers to mental health care facilities. Conclusions: Findings confirm the existence of migrant-specific mechanisms in health care consumption. Mental health care professionals should be aware of these. However, ignoring common ground for interventions unnecessarily creates distance between migrant groups and between migrant and indigenous Dutch groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Essentialism revisited: Evolutionary theory and the concept of mental disorder.

J. C. Wakefield's (1999) elaboration of his harmful dysfunction analysis (HDA) of mental disorder does little to address previous criticisms (S. O. Lilienfeld & L. Marino, 1995) and instead reveals further conceptual weaknesses in his position. The authors demonstrate that (a) a Roschian analysis can account for the results of all of Wakefield's conceptual experiments and predicts a number of judgments of disorder not predicted by the HDA, (b) the HDA is incapable in many cases of providing a scientifically nonarbitrary distinction between disorder and nondisorder, and (c) the HDA cannot account for failures of cultural exaptations, mismatches between evolutionary design and novel environments, or defenses against threat. The authors argue that the HDA has been convincingly falsified and discuss the failure of essentialistic concepts to resolve controversies in other domains of biological science. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)