From attribution to helping: An analysis of the mediating effects of affect and expectancy.

Applied the attributional model of motivation of B. Weiner et al (1971) to the study of helping behavior and predicted that willingness to help another person is influenced by the cause of the need and that the relationship between attribution and helping is mediated by affect and expectancy of future need. 80 undergraduates rated the likelihood that they would lend money to an acquaintance in each of 8 conditions in which causality varied along 3 dimensions: stability, locus, and control. Ss also rated their emotional reactions on 25 affect scales, selected from the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List, and estimated the likelihood that the person would require aid again in the future. ANOVA revealed that willingness to help was influenced primarily by the controllability of the cause. Consistent with the mediation hypothesis, a path analysis revealed that the effect of controllability on helping judgments was largely an indirect result of its influence on Ss' affective reactions to the request. The development of an attributional model of helping behavior is discussed. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inhibition of suckling in weaning-age rats: A possible serotonergic mechanism.

Four experiments studied the nature, development, and specificity of serotonergic involvement in the control of suckling behavior in Sprague-Dawley rat pups from 10 to 35 days of age. During development, suckling normally declines after 10 days and is abandoned after 30 days. It was found that (a) methysergide, a serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) receptor blocker, reinstated suckling behavior in pups 15 days of age and older; (b) quipazine, a 5-HT receptor agonist, inhibited suckling of pups 10 days of age and older; (c) methysergide pretreatment blocked the quipazine inhibition of suckling; and (d) metergoline, another 5-HT blocker, also stimulated suckling, and fenfluramine, a 5-HT releaser, blocked suckling in deprived pups. Data support the hypothesis that a serotonergic inhibitory mechanism modulates the suckling of weaning-age rats. These pharmacological manipulations of 5-HT appear to alter specific components of suckling behavior involved in its initiation and maintenance but do not appear to alter a general hunger system. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Vroom's expectancy models and work-related criteria: A meta-analysis.

This meta-analysis integrates the correlations of 77 studies on V. H. Vroom's (1964) original expectancy models and work-related criteria. Correlations referring to predictions with the models and the single components—valence, instrumentality, and expectancy—were included in relation to 5 types of criterion variables: performance, effort, intention, preference, and choice. Within-subjects correlations and between-subjects correlations were included separately. Overall, the average correlations were somewhat lower than reported in previous narrative reviews. In certain categories, moderators pertaining to the measurement of the concepts were analyzed with a hierarchical linear model, but these moderators did not explain heterogeneity. The results show a differentiated overview: the use of the correlational material for the validity of expectancy theory is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

After the missiles: Sociopsychological effects of nuclear war.

Discusses the physical and medical effects of nuclear war, including the effects of radiation and the possibility of a "nuclear winter," and speculates on the sociopsychological effects on persons in urban and rural areas. Issues considered include the occurrence of survival guilt and deindividuation, the forseeable breakdown in the social and economic order, and resulting violence. The uncertainties of nuclear war and the disastrous effects of even a limited nuclear exchange are emphasized. (59 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Manipulating subjective expectancy through feedback: A laboratory study of the expectancy–performance relationship.

Investigated the form of the expectancy–performance relationship in a laboratory study of the performance of 132 undergraduates on a simple clerical task. As feedback after each of 8 trials, Ss were told that their performance was better, worse, or borderline. Ss recorded their subjective expectancies before each trial. Over all Ss, feedback condition had no impact on performance; but when 39 Ss whose reported expectancy did not match their assigned feedback were eliminated, a strong expectancy–performance relationship emerged. Ss having intermediate expectancy outperformed those whose expectancy was low or high. Examination of the nonbelievers supported the mediating role of cognitive variables in deciding how hard to work at this task. (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A pharmacokinetic interaction between carbamazepine and olanzapine: observations on possible mechanism

OBJECTIVE: Olanzapine is a novel antipsychotic, which is effective against both the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia and causes fewer extrapyramidal adverse effects than conventional antipsychotics. The purpose of the present study was to assess the potential for a pharmacokinetic interaction between olanzapine and carbamazepine, since these agents are likely to be used concomitantly in the treatment of manic psychotic disorder. METHOD: The pharmacokinetics of two single therapeutic doses of olanzapine were determined in 11 healthy volunteers. The first dose of olanzapine (10 mg) was taken alone and the second dose (10 mg) after 2 weeks of treatment with carbamazepine (200 mg BID). Measurement of urinary 6beta-hydroxycortisol/cortisol excretion was used as an endogenous marker to confirm that induction of CYP3A4 by carbamazepine had occurred. RESULTS: The dose of olanzapine given after a 2-week pretreatment with carbamazepine was cleared more rapidly than olanzapine given alone. Olanzapine pharmacokinetic values for Cmax and AUC were significantly lower after the second dose, the elimination half-life was significantly shorter, and the clearance and volume of distribution were significantly increased. CONCLUSION: Carbamazepine has been shown to induce several P450 cytochromes including CYP3A4 and CYP1A2. Since CYP1A2 plays a role in the metabolic clearance of olanzapine, the interaction may be attributed to induction of CYP1A2 by carbamazepine, leading to increased first-pass and systemic metabolism of olanzapine. The interaction is not considered to be of clinical significance because olanzapine has a wide therapeutic index, and the changes in plasma concentration of olanzapine are within the fourfold variation that occurs without concern for safety in a patient population.     

Response expectancy and phobic anxiety: A reply to Wilkins and Bandura.

Responds to W. Wilkins's (see record 1987-09397-001) and A. Bandura's (see record 1987-09389-001) comments on the present author's (see record 1986-13702-001) study of expectancy modification, suggesting that (1) the procedures used as expectancy controls by Wilkins render implausible his hypothesis that expectancy changes are epiphenomena caused by Ss' observation of their improvement and (2) Bandura has misrepresented the present author's position and then argued against it. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social and behavioral consequences of alcohol consumption and expectancy: A meta-analysis.

Conducted a meta-analysis on 34 studies that investigated the effects of alcohol consumption and expectancy within the balanced-placebo design. Preliminary results indicated that both alcohol and expectancy had significant but heterogeneous effects on behavior. Subsequent analyses were conducted to determine the factors responsible for the heterogeneity of effects. At the highest level of analysis, alcohol expectancy had strong effects on relatively deviant social behaviors and minimal effects on nonsocial behaviors. Alcohol consumption showed the opposite pattern of effects. The principal effects associated with alcohol expectancy involved increased alcohol consumption and increased sexual arousal in response to erotic stimuli. On the other hand, alcohol consumption led to significant impairment of information processing and motor performance, induced a specific set of physical sensations, resulted in general improvements of mood, and tended to increase aggression. Across all studies it was observed that alcohol consumption and expectancy interacted no more frequently than would be expected by chance. A list of the studies used in the meta-analysis is appended. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-efficacy expectancy, outcome expectancy, and outcome value: Relative effects on behavioral intentions.

Used a persuasive communications paradigm to examine the relative contributions of self-efficacy expectancy, outcome expectancy, and outcome value (importance) in influencing and predicting behavioral intentions. 88 college students were asked to react to a promotional brochure presented as a discussion of the broken-record technique. Outcome expectancy was manipulated independent of self-efficacy expectancy and had a main effect on behavioral intentions, but self-efficacy expectancy failed to produce a main effect on intentions. The outcome-value manipulation also had a main effect on intentions, although problems with the manipulation check made interpretations of this effect problematic. Correlational data reveal that assessments of self-efficacy expectancy, outcome expectancy, and outcome value were all significant and roughly equivalent predictors of intentions. Each component significantly contributed to the other 2 components combined in the prediction of behavioral intentions. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alcohol expectancy priming and drinking behavior: The role of compatibility between prime and expectancy content.

According to information-processing models of alcohol use, alcohol expectancies constitute representations in long-term memory that may be activated in the presence of drinking-related cues, thereby influencing alcohol consumption. A fundamental implication of this approach is that primed expectancies should affect drinking only for those individuals who possess the specific expectancies primed. To test this notion, in the present study, participants were initially assessed on 3 distinct domains of positive alcohol expectancies. Approximately 1 week later, they completed an ad libitum drinking study during which only a single expectancy domain (sociability) was primed in the experimental condition. Consistent with predictions, following exposure to sociability primes but not control primes, individuals with stronger expectancies that alcohol would enhance sociability uniquely showed increased placebo consumption of nonalcoholic beer. These results, which demonstrate the moderating role of compatibility between the specific content of primes and that of underlying expectancies, offer new, direct support for memory network-based models of drinking behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Research methodology: A possible reconciliation.

Examines both the experimental and psychometric models, pointing out major strengths and limitations. Reconciliation is proposed through the use of major strengths from each procedure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Classroom climates and students' intergroup behavior.

Conducted observations in 99 desegregated elementary school classes (kindergarten through 6th grade) to determine the relationship between classroom conditions and pupils' interracial behaviors. Results of factor and regression analyses indicate that 2 types of observed interracial behavior were associated with different classroom environments. Diffuse positive intergroup contacts were more likely to occur in classes in which teachers emphasized interpersonal concerns. Although businesslike environments impeded overall cross-racial association, they had no effect on more purposeful intergroup contacts, which were facilitated by teacher patience and by diversity in instructional arrangements. These findings suggest that tensions between the social and academic objectives of multiracial education might be resolved by emphasizing purposeful interactions among children of different racial backgrounds. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Explicit and implicit measures of expectancy and related alcohol cognitions: A meta-analytic comparison.

Implicit measures assess the influence of past experience on present behavior in the absence of respondents’ awareness of that influence. Application of implicit measurement to expectancy and related alcohol cognition research has helped elucidate the links between alcohol-related experiences, the functioning of alcohol-related memory, and alcohol-related behavior. Despite these advances, a coherent picture of the role of implicit measurement has been difficult to achieve because of the diversity of implicit measures used. Two central questions have emerged: Do implicit measures assess a distinct aspect of the alcohol associative memory domain not accessible via explicit measurement; when compared with explicit measurement, do they offer unique prediction of alcohol consumption? To address these questions, the authors conducted a meta-analysis of studies using both implicit and explicit measures of alcohol expectancy and other types of alcohol-related cognition. Results indicate that implicit and explicit measures are weakly related, and although they predict some shared variance in drinking, each also contributes a unique component. Results are discussed in the context of the theoretical distinction made between the 2 types of measures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expectancies in therapy research: Interpretive artifact or mediating mechanism?

W. Wilkins (see record 1980-01498-001), in his critique of client expectancy, concludes that expectancy is a questionable interpretive artifact for the effectiveness of therapy. The authors disagree with much of Wilkins's analysis, which they say confuses attempts to demonstrate effectiveness with attempts to explore theoretical mechanisms. It is their view that expectancy is a viable alternative explanation for the effectiveness of therapy. Contrary to Wilkins's assertion, it is argued that systematic desensitization, as an exemplar of therapy, has not been demonstrated to be superior to equally credible, observable manipulations of expectancy. Further contributions to treatment technology will require a detailed analysis of how expectancy manipulations mediate improvement. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Safety climate as a mediator between foundation climates and occupational accidents: A group-level investigation.

Building on recent work in occupational safety and climate, the authors examined 2 organizational foundation climates thought to be antecedents of specific safety climate and the relationships among these climates and occupational accidents. It is believed that both foundation climates (i.e., management-employee relations and organizational support) will predict safety climate, which will in turn mediate the relationship between occupational accidents and these 2 distal foundation climates. Using a sample of 9,429 transportation workers in 253 work groups, the authors tested the proposed relationships at the group level. Results supported all hypotheses. Overall it appears that different climates have direct and indirect effects on occupational accidents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Congruity and the expectancy hypothesis.

Two experiments examine the adequacy of the expectancy hypothesis explanation (M. Marschark and A. Paivio; see record 1980-29481-001) of the congruity effect in symbolic magnitude comparisons. According to that hypothesis, an instruction to select the larger or the smaller object primes objects of large or small magnitude, respectively. Accordingly, large objects will be compared more rapidly under the instruction to choose the larger, but small objects under the instruction to choose the smaller. A new paradigm in which subjects indicate whether a second object is larger or smaller than the first tests this model. In this new paradigm, there is no differential priming by an instruction. Nevertheless, comparable congruity effects occur for the same materials across priming and nonpriming paradigms, demonstrating that congruity effects are not likely to be due to expectancies. These experiments support the discrete code model account (W. P. Banks, 1977) of congruity against models that ascribe the effect to differential processing induced by an instruction prior to or subsequent to a trial. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A comparison of some objective measures of expectancy.

4 measures of expectancy were compared. "Similarities of results in the four groups indicate that all four methods are tending to measure the same thing… There appears to be a close relationship between previous training in a specific situation and expectations for future performance." 26 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological stress and glucose metabolism in obese and normal-weight subjects: A possible mechanism for differences in stress-induced eating.

Compared 10 obese Ss (mean age 51.7 yrs) and 10 age- and sex-matched normal-weight controls in 2 counterbalanced sessions (stress and nonstress). At each session, Ss were fed a carbohydrate load, and glucose was measured 0, 30, 60, 90, and 120 min after the load. On nonstress days, Ss relaxed after the drink; on stress days, Ss participated in 30 min of competitive tasks. The stressor significantly delayed glucose response in normal-weight Ss but did not affect glucose response in obese Ss. This finding may have implications for differences between obese and normal-weight individuals in stress-induced eating, possibly explaining the decreased consumption of normal-weight individuals during stress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reaction time and musical expectancy: Priming of chords.

Explored the cognitive processes underlying musical expectation by measuring reaction time (RT) in a priming paradigm. 40 adult Ss made a speeded true/false decision about a target chord following a prime chord to which it was either closely or distantly related harmonically. Using a major/minor decision task in Exp I, it was found that major targets were identified faster and with fewer errors when they were related than when unrelated. It is suggested that an apparent absence (and possible reversal) of this effect for minor targets can be attributed to the prime's biasing effect on the target's stability. In Exps II and III, this hypothesis was tested by employing an in-tune/out-of-tune decision for major and minor targets separately. Results indicate that both major and minor in-tune targets were identified faster when related than when unrelated. A spreading activation model is outlined that consists of a network of harmonic relations. It is concluded that priming results from the indirect activation of chord nodes linked through the network. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)