Effects of performance expectancy and self-focused attention on social interaction.

Investigated the impact of performance expectancies and self-focused attention on social performance in mixed-sex dyads of 48 undergraduate men with self-reported moderate social anxiety on a modified Social Avoidance and Distress Scale. Ss were divided into 2 groups on the basis of their high or low performance expectancies. Ss were asked to respond to several self-report questionnaires before and after making a telephone call lasting 4–5 min to a female confederate for the purpose of getting acquainted. Results show that half of the Ss in each expectancy group performed in the presence of a self-focusing stimulus (video-camera). When anxiety level was controlled for, focus of attention alone had a very limited effect on performance. Expectancy had a significant influence on social performance, but only if Ss were self-focused. Thus confident Ss were rated by judges as more socially skilled than were doubtful Ss, but only when the camera was present. The interaction between these variables parallels previous research by C. S. Carver et al (see record 1980-32489-001) and Carver and M. F. Scheier (see record 1980-25774-001) and supports the self-regulation model of Carver and Scheier (1983). (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depression, self-focused attention, and the negative memory bias.

On the basis of self-regulatory perseveration theory, we hypothesized that the negative memory bias commonly found among depressed people is mediated by excess levels of self-focused attention and thus can be reduced by preventing depressed people from focusing on themselves. In Experiment 1, nondepressed and subclinically depressed college students were induced to either focus on themselves or externally and then to recall 10 events that had happened to themselves during the previous 2 weeks. Consistent with our hypotheses, events recalled by depressed Ss were more negative than events recalled by nondepressed Ss under conditions of self-focus but not under conditions of external focus. We conducted Experiment 2 to determine whether this effect was specific to self-referent events or generalizable to events that happened to other people. Experiment 2's findings replicated the previous findings for self-referent events but showed a different pattern for recall of events that happened to others, suggesting that self-focus reduces the negative memory bias among depressed individuals by deactivating their self-schemas. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The accuracy of self-monitoring and its relationship to self-focused attention in dysphoria and clinical depression.

The accuracy with which dysphoric (Study 1) and clinically depressed (Study 2) individuals make self-regulatory judgments about their own performance in the absence of external feedback and the extent to which this relates to trait self-focused attention (SFA) were examined. Relative to objective criteria, both dysphoric and depressed participants showed a positive judgment bias, overestimating the number of trials they had performed correctly. Relative to control participants, the dysphoric and depressed groups showed a reduction in the extent of this positive bias in that they judged error trials more accurately and correct trials less accurately. Although the dysphoric and depressed groups both reported elevated trait SFA, this did not correlate significantly with accuracy of self-judgment on the performance-monitoring task. Implications for self-regulation models of depression are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Chronic occupational stressors, self-focused attention, and well-being: Testing a cybernetic model of stress.

By using a cybernetic approach to occupational stress, it was hypothesized that the relationship between chronic work stressors and strain would be stronger among individuals high in private self-consciousness than among individuals low in private self-consciousness. Moderated regression analyses, using a sample of 135 blue-collar workers, revealed strong support for this hypothesis. This finding is antithetical to prior research showing that self-focused attention may buffer the effect of acute life events (B. Mullen and J. Suls [see PA, Vol 68:3591]; J. Suls and B. Fletcher [see PA, Vol 73:21993]). The results of the present study in conjunction with prior research suggest that the type of stressor (acute vs. chronic) examined may be a boundary condition influencing the direction of Stressor?×?Self-Focused Attention interactions. Implications for future research and stress management are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of negative affect on autobiographical memory: the role of self-focused attention to moods

Five studies examined how self-focused attention affects the impact of negative moods on autobiographical memory. It was proposed that self-focused attention to moods may increase the likelihood of both mood-congruent recall and mood-incongruent recall and that the type of recall effect that occurs will depend on the manner in which people focus on their moods. In these studies, participants were led to experience negative or neutral moods, exposed to a manipulation designed to affect some aspect of their attention to their moods, and then asked to report memories. This research revealed that when people adopt a reflective orientation to their moods, they are more likely to engage in mood-incongruent recall; in contrast, when they adopt a ruminative orientation to their moods, they are more likely to engage in mood-congruent recall. Thus, the way in which people focus on their moods moderates the relation between mood and memory.     

Port noise complaints: Verbal and behavioral reactions to airport-related noise.

Compared the verbal and behavioral reactions of a total of 716 residents living in high-, medium-, and low-noise zones surrounding a major airport, as well as in communities out of the airport's noise range. Results show that the effects of noise were highly complex. While the proportion of those reported to be bothered by noise was correlated with objectively measured noise levels, the intensity and perceived source of the noise were unrelated to reported psychological and physical symptoms, length of residence in the area, or trace measures indicating recreational use of outdoor areas. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teacher reactions to behavioral consultation: An analysis of language and involvement.

Explored 2 dimensions of behavioral consultation that can potentially influence teachers' reactions to the consultation process. Two independent variables (consultee involvement and consultant language) were completely crossed to create 4 videotape scenarios differing only with respect to the manipulated variables. 60 elementary school teachers were randomly assigned to view and rate 1 of the 4 scenarios on a measure of acceptability. Ss reported high ratings for technical language when the psychologist took a directive role and did not involve the teacher in the problem-solving process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alcohol and aggression: A meta-analysis on the moderating effects of inhibitory cues, triggering events, and self-focused attention.

The authors conducted a meta-analysis of 49 studies to investigate 2 explanations of how alcohol increases aggression by decreasing sensitivity to cues that inhibit it. Both the level of anxiety and inhibition conflict moderated the difference between the aggressive behavior of sober and intoxicated participants, but neither level adequately accounted for variation in effect sizes. Additional analyses of 3 social psychological moderating variables—provocation, frustration, and self-focused attention—showed that the aggressiveness of intoxicated participants relative to sober ones increased as a function of frustration but decreased as a function of provocation and self-focused attention. The authors also examined the moderating effects of dose. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sexual behavior between clinical supervisors and trainees: Implications for professional standards.

Comments that sexual behavior between clinical supervisors and trainees presents a challenge to professional psychology. At least 4 areas need attention: the prevalence and nature of such sexual contact, its effects on clinical training, ethical implications, and the potential legal liability of supervisors who engage in sexual intimacies with trainees. The extent to which sexual behavior in the supervisory relationship may have negative effects on the teaching and learning of professional skills remains unknown until it becomes a legitimate subject of research and discussion. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cardiac and behavioral interrelationships in the reactions of infants to strangers.

Recorded cardiac and various behavioral reactions of 80 5- and 9-mo-old infants to strangers to determine (a) whether the shift with age from attentiveness to fearfulness of strangers is accompanied by a shift from heart rate (HR) deceleration to acceleration; (b) whether testing infants in the presence of the mother attenuates cardiac and behavioral manifestations of stranger distress; and (c) whether the direction of HR change is related to the direction of change of facial expression, even when age is held constant. Results are generally positive. Behavioral data confirmed that most 5-mo-olds were not frightened by the stranger, and many but not all 9-mo-olds were. HR responses also changed with age, being predominantly deceleratory to the stranger at 5 mo of age and acceleratory at 9 mo. The accelerations were of much greater frequency and larger magnitude when 9-mo-olds were tested in the mother's absence. In contrast, behavioral reactions were not significantly affected by the mother's absence. The direction of HR responding was linked at both ages to affective expression: Whether 5 or 9 mo of age, behaviorally distressed Ss gave progressively acceleratory responses, whereas behaviorally undistressed Ss did not. It is concluded that future studies can profit from careful recording of both HR and behavioral expression in the infant. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depression, self-focused attention, and expectancies for positive and negative future life events for self and others.

In two studies, we examined depressed and nondepressed persons' judgments of the probability of future positive and negative life events occurring to themselves and to others. Study 1 demonstrated that depressed subjects were generally less optimistic than their nondepressed counterparts: Although nondepressed subjects rated positive events as more likely to happen to themselves than negative events, depressed subjects did not. In addition, relative to nondepressed subjects, depressed subjects rated positive events as less likely to occur to themselves and more likely to occur to others and negative events as more likely to occur to both self and others. Study 2 investigated the role that differential levels of self-focused attention might play in mediating these differences. On the basis of prior findings that depressed persons generally engage in higher levels of self-focus than nondepressed persons do and the notion that self-focus activates one's self-schema, we hypothesized that inducing depressed subjects to focus externally would attenuate their pessimistic tendencies. Data from Study 2 supported the hypothesis that high levels of self-focus partially mediate depressive pessimism: Whereas self-focused depressed subjects were more pessimistic than nondepressed subjects, externally focused depressed subjects were not. The role of attentional focus in maintaining these and other depressive pessimistic tendencies was discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Limited attention and cue order consistency affect predictive learning: A test of similarity measures.

The authors empirically tested the similarity metrics underlying 2 predictive-learning theories: J. K. Kruschke's (1992) attention learning covering map and J. M. Pearce's (1987, 1994) configural models. In Experiment 1, participants concurrently learned 3 types of discriminations: simple (A- vs. B+), common cue (XC- vs. XD+), and compound (YE- vs. ZF+). Accuracy was ordered: simple > compound > common cue. Neither model anticipated this ordering. In Experiment 2, cue order in 2-element configurations was either inconsistent (e.g., YE and EY) as in Experiment 1 or consistent (e.g., EY throughout). Although accuracy differences were smaller under consistent ordering, the relative difficulty of the tasks was the same as in Experiment 1. In Experiment 3, common cue and compound discriminations were tested in different participants to determine whether the ordering of difficulty in Experiments 1 and 2 was caused by differential generalization mediated by the number of elements; the ordering was the same as in Experiments 1 and 2. These results suggest the need for differential attention to event presence and absence and to mechanisms that incorporate limited attentional capacity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Objective standards are not enough: Affective, self-evaluative, and behavioral responses to social comparison information.

Three studies examined affective, self-evaluative, and behavioral responses to objective and social comparison information. In the first study, 437 male and female college undergraduates imagined they had a 30% or 60% risk of experiencing a negative event and that the average person's risk was higher or lower. All types of responses were sensitive to relative but not absolute risk. In the second study, 60 male and female college undergraduates learned that they scored 40% or 60% on a task and that this score was above or below average. Subsequent behaviors whose outcomes depended largely on objective ability still reflected attention to relative standing. This effect of comparative feedback was shown to be mediated by changes in self-evaluation. A third, follow-up study demonstrated that attention to comparative feedback (in the context of objective information) hinges on its desirability. Implications for social comparison theory are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Temporal stability and cross-situational consistency of affective, behavioral, and cognitive responses.

Examined consistency and stability of feelings in reports that were completed on 3,512 occasions randomly sampled from the lives of 42 undergraduates. Over a 6-wk period, Ss completed a mood inventory at times indicated by an alarm watch. The stability and consistency of responses depended on the situations, individuals, and responses involved. High degrees of consistency were unusual for single responses, although mean levels of responding tended to be both highly stable and consistent. The consistency and stability of variables covaried, suggesting a connection between the two. Ss who were more consistent across one pair of situations tended to be more consistent across other situational pairs. Results indicate that the question of whether personality consistency exists does not have a simple answer and requires knowledge of the persons, situations, responses, and level of analysis involved. (41 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The fleeting gleam of praise: Cognitive processes underlying behavioral reactions to self-relevant feedback.

We propose that a preference for favorable social feedback (i.e., self-enhancement) requires only that feedback be characterized as favorable or unfavorable but that a preference for self-confirming feedback (i.e., self-verification) is based on a more elaborate set of cognitive operations that requires both the characterization of feedback and a subsequent comparison of that feedback to a representation of self stored in memory. Study 1 set the stage for testing this hypothesis by showing that depriving people of processing resources interfered with their tendency to access their self-conceptions. In Studies 2 and 3, participants who were deprived of resources preferred the favorable, self-enhancing evaluator, whereas control participants displayed a preference for the self-verifying evaluator, even if that evaluator was relatively unfavorable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Resilience: Enhancing well-being through the positive cognitive triad.

The present study tested whether the relationships among resilience, life satisfaction, and depression could be explained by positive views toward the self, the world, and the future (positive cognitive triad). Structural equation modeling and mediation analyses were conducted based on 1,419 college students in Hong Kong. The model of positive cognitive triad as mediator between resilience and well-being fit the data (comparative fit index = .94, Tucker–Lewis index = .93, root-mean-square error of approximation = .08). Findings showed resilience to be significantly related to positive cognitions about the self, the world, and the future. Individuals who had higher level of resilience held significantly more positive cognitions and reported significantly higher levels of life satisfaction and lower levels of depression. The utility of the positive cognitive triad as the mechanism through which resilience enhances well-being was supported. Applications in cultivating resilience and positive cognitions in counseling services are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A reply to Page: Fraud, pornography, and the Meese Commission.

Criticizes S. Page's (see record 1989-29305-001) endorsement of the Meese pornography commission (Department of Justice, 1986), his attack on pornography researchers, and his justification of severe legal restrictions on pornography based on present research evidence. Page's suggested correlation between increased pornography and crime in North America is also critiqued. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Application of social-learning theory to training supervisors through behavioral modeling.

40 male first-line supervisors were randomly assigned to a behavioral modeling training program or to a control group. The training was designed to improve supervisors' interpersonal skills in dealing with their employees. The training program produced highly favorable trainee reactions, which were maintained over time. Moreover, the performance of the trainees was significantly better than that of supervisors in the control group on a learning test administered 6 mo after training, on behavioral simulations collected 3 mo after training, and on performance ratings collected on the job 1 yr after training. After the control group received the training, they achieved significant improvement in their supervisory skills and did not differ from the trainees who had originally undergone the training on any of the measures. The modeling films, developed by M. Sorcher (A. Goldstein and M. Sorcher, 1974) were based primarily on A. Bandura's (1977) principles of social-learning theory. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)