Lateral dominance of legs in maximal muscle power, muscular endurance, and grading ability.

The purpose of this study was to examine lateral dominance in maximal muscle power, muscular endurance, and grading ability, using isokinetic mulscular strength in knee extension and flexion. The subjects were 50 healthy male students whose ages ranged from 19 to 23 years (M height: 173.6+/-6.2 cm, M weight: 67.2+/-6.8 kg). Their dominant legs for power exertion and for functional use were based on questionnaire items selected from those used in previous studies. The angular velocities of extension and flexion for exerting maximal muscle power were 60, 180, and 300 x sec.(-1). A continuous exertion 30 times at an angular velocity of 180 sec.(-1) was used as the load for muscular endurance. For grading ability, 25%, 50% and 75% of the maximal muscle strength at angular velocities of 60 and 180 x sec.(-1) were the required values, and the difference between these values and the exerted muscular strength was evaluated. The dominant leg and nondominant leg were compared for both power exertion and functional use. There was no lateral dominance in maximal muscle power and muscular endurance. In muscular endurance, especially, some subjects showed one leg superior in power exertion and some superior in functional use. Lateral dominance was noted across maximal muscle power and muscular endurance in grading ability. The dominant leg tended to be better than the nondominant leg in functional use. However, lateral dominance was not remarkable for flexing motion and in exertion for a short time.     

The impact of need for closure on conservative beliefs and racism: differential mediation by authoritarian submission and authoritarian dominance

The present study explores the influence of need for closure as well as authoritarian submission (Right-Wing Authoritarianism [RWA]) and authoritarian dominance (Social Dominance Orientation [SDO]) on the genesis of conservative beliefs and racism. For this purpose, two structural equation models were compared. In Model 1, RWA and SDO were entered as independent variables and the need for closure facets Decisiveness and Need for Simple Structure acted as mediator variables. In Model 2, the need for closure facets served as independent variables and RWA and SDO acted as mediators. In two student samples (Sample 1, N = 399, Sample 2, N = 330) and one adult sample (Sample 3, N = 379), Model 2 showed superior fit to the data. These results corroborate the hypothesis that authoritarianism should be interpreted in terms of generalized beliefs rather than in terms of personality characteristics. In addition, analyses show that the effects of Need for Simple Structure on conservative beliefs and racism are fully mediated by RWA but only partly by SDO. These results suggest a differential genesis of RWA and SDO.     

Rhythm and dominance

Subjects were tested by a short experimental procedure involving tapping of a rhythm with one limb with a simultaneous regular beat with another limb. Informal observations had suggested a rhythm dominance effect—that is was dramatically easier with some limb combinations. Notably it was easy when the right hand tapped the rhythm and the left hand the beat but almost impossible the other way round. Equally, both hands dominated both feet. Our tests revealed enormous individual differences, subjects separating neatly into three groups. Some people could not do the task at all, some could do it with any limb combination, the latter group including all the serious musicians tested. For the remainder the rhythm dominance effect was clear. However, the laterality effect was the same (right hand advantage) for a majority (60%) of left handers. We conclude, then, that this effect is linked to language dominance and not handedness. In addition it seems there is a task scheduler which imposes its own view in combining this laterality effect with the dominance of hands over feet.     

Meaning dominance norms for 120 homographs

Over the past two decades, homographs have been used in psychological experiments aimed at testing a variety of theoretical issues concerning memory and language. Often, such research requires prior knowledge of the dominance relations among various meanings of the homographs. Previously available homograph meaning norms are limited because they are now more than 10 years old, and they have typically reported only the two most dominant meanings even though many homographs have three or more common meanings. This paper presents normative data on 120 homographs from a relatively large, heterogeneous sample of subjects (N = 100). Meaning dominance was assessed by having subjects write the first definition that came to mind for each homograph. Definition responses were grouped by similarity, and the resulting meaning categories were verified against dictionary meaning classifications. The number of distinct meanings varied from two to six for the homographs investigated, and frequency of response is reported for all definition categories.     

Chameleonic social identities: Context induces shifts in homosexuals' self‐stereotyping and self‐categorization

Do people align their self‐concepts to the environment? It was predicted that low‐status (homosexuals), but not high‐status group members (heterosexuals), respond to environmental cues by shifting the type of self‐categorization and self‐stereotyping. In the presence (vs. absence) of environmental cues to sexual orientation, homosexual individuals felt more talented for typically homosexual jobs and showed greater self‐stereotyping on typically homosexual traits (Experiment 1). Using implicit measures of self‐categorization and self‐stereotyping, we observed parallel findings for homosexuals, but not for heterosexuals (Experiment 2). Results are discussed in relation to research on stigma, with particular attention to the potential benefits for low‐status group members of changing their implicit self‐concept flexibly across situations. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stimulus dominance and ear dominance in the perception of dichotic voicing contrasts

Two studies were conducted to determine the effect of variations in voice onset time (VOT) on the perception of dichotic stop-consonant-vowel syllables contrasting in the voicing feature. The dichotic stimuli were partially fused, so that only a single response was required. Variations in VOT had a systematic effect on the probability of hearing the fused stimuli as voiced or voiceless. Changing the VOT of a voiceless stimulus had a larger effect than changing the VOT of a voiced stimulus. Unless one of the competing stimuli was close to the category boundary, the perceptual integration of their VOTs seemed to be roughly additive. The relative phase of the periodic portions of the stimuli had an unexpected effect on perception that remains to be explained. A number of subjects showed very strong right-ear dominance in these tests. The range and reliability of the laterality effects obtained, as well as certain other methodological features, make the present tests promising as tools for assessing individual differences in ear dominance.     

Using cerebral dominance for education programs.

Instructional methods in today's classroom are sometimes based on the notion of cerebral dominance. However, the link between hemispheric laterality and education practice is highly questionable. One instrument used by teachers to assess individual differences in cerebral dominance is a paper-and-pencil survey called Your Style of Learning and Thinking (SOLAT; Torrance, Reynolds, Riegel, & Ball, 1977). In this study, the authors explored the psychometric properties of the SOLAT in three phases. In the first phase, the authors examined SOLAT's construct validity. Contrary to cerebral dominance theory, a principal factor analysis revealed a seven-factor solution. The second phase was conducted to determine the SOLAT's internal consistency and test-retest reliability coefficients. As expected, these analyses generated low to moderate correlations. In the final phase, the authors further examined the SOLAT's construct validity by comparing the performance of brain-injured versus normal adults. With one exception, there were no significant differences. The results of this study did not support the notion of hemisphericity, at least not as measured by the SOLAT. Therefore, educators should not use the SOLAT to categorize students in terms of their preferred mode of processing information.     

Love and the need for comprehension

The question of how well we need to be known, to be loved, is considered. A ‘second-person’ model is argued for, on which love requires that the beloved's demands to be known be respected. This puts pressure on the idea that lovers need to make a beloved's interests their own, taking that to require comprehension of the beloved's interests: a lover would have to appreciate the normative intelligibility and motivating force of an interest. The possibility of love with failure of comprehension is defended, using illustrations from Marilynne Robinson's novel Gilead.     

Aesthetic preference and lateral dominance

Aesthetic preferences for photographs with the main focal content either to the left or right of the photograph's center were examined in right- and left-handed subjects. Verbal responses or manual responses were required. In one experiment with 261 introductory psychology student-subjects, left-handers more often preferred photographs with the more important part on the left ("left-geared") than did right-handers. Exp. 2, involving 84 right-handed student subjects, showed that left-geared photographs presented on the left side were preferred more often than left-geared photographs presented on the right side, and left-geared photographs presented on the left side were more often chosen when a left-handed manual response was required. Interactions between handedness, position of the stimulus, language hemisphere, and response mode make it extremely difficult to ascertain whether the right hemisphere is really more involved in aesthetic decisions.     

Authoritarianism, dominance and assertiveness

It is shown that there are definitions of the three constructs of authoritarianism, dominance and assertiveness which read very similarly; so much so that no distinction is immediately evident. It is proposed that authoritarianism might be conceived as aggressive dominance and at least some types of assertiveness as nonaggressive dominance. A new scale of Dominance suitable for general population use was produced, and compared with the existing Ray (1976) behavior inventory of authoritarianism. Both scales showed highly significant correlations with peer rated dominance and submission (the latter being negative in sign) but only the authoritarianism scale showed significant correlations with rated aggressiveness and rigidity. It was concluded that the new definitions could be operationalized into valid scales.     

Social dominance and individual aggressiveness

Male rats exhibiting high, moderate, or low levels of offensive aggressive behavior in interactions with intruders in their home cage were grouped in mixed-sex colonies with 1 male of each aggression-level group in each colony. Agonistic interactions measured 1, 2, 3, 7, 14, 21, and 22 days after colony formation indicated that highly aggressive males on pretests continued to be more aggressive, becoming the dominant colony male in five of seven colonies and attacking intruders more often than less aggressive males. In the two remaining colonies the moderately aggressive male became dominant. This relationship, which was consistent over a number of indices, including offensive and defensive behaviors, and wound counts and wound sites, was seen even when a substantial weight differential favored the less aggressive animal. Dominance relationships were rapidly established and within-group fighting declined significantly over the 21-day test period. Pretest offensive levels also influenced the behavior of subordinates, with high or moderately aggressive subordinates showing more defense in interactions with dominants and receiving more wounds than did low-aggression subordinates. Dominant males also showed more defense in interacting with those subordinates which had been more aggressive during pretests. This pattern of results suggests that aggression level of the subordinate as well as the dominant may be an important factor determining the intensity of agonistic interactions in male rats.