Give them what they want: The benefits of explicitness in gift exchange

Five studies show that gift recipients are more appreciative of gifts they explicitly request than those they do not. In contrast, gift givers assume that both solicited and unsolicited gifts will be equally appreciated. At the root of this dilemma is a difference of opinion about what purchasing an unsolicited gift signals: gift givers expect unsolicited gifts will be considered more thoughtful and considerate by their intended recipients than is actually the case (,  and ). In our final two studies, we highlight two boundary conditions for this effect: identifying a specific gift and using money as a gift. When gift recipients request one specific gift, rather than providing a list of possible gifts, givers become more willing to purchase the requested gift (Study 4). Further, although givers believe that recipients do not appreciate receiving money as much as receiving a solicited gift, recipients feel the opposite about these two gift options (Study 5).     

The formalization of family therapy training—issues and implications

This paper highlights the emerging debate, particularly evident in the U.K. and Australasia, regarding the desirability of more formalized training programmes for family therapy. The professionalization of family therapy is under way. The implications of this process for training structures, the role of the family therapist, the nature of family therapy associations and thus the ultimate goals of family therapy are summarized. Alternative models of training structures, their ideological bases and the implications of these alternatives for the nature of an association and the family therapy process are then briefly discussed. In summary, some priorities for a desired model of family therapy training are listed for discussion.     

What they want and what they get: The social goals of boys with ADHD and comparison boys

Twenty-seven boys diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and 18 comparison boys participated in a competitive tetradic interaction task. Boys were individually interviewed before the game about their goals for the interaction, and adult observers inferred boys' social goals from videotapes of the interaction. Social acceptance was determined by combining positive and negative sociometric nominations collected through individual interviews at the end of the summer research program in which the interaction was held. In their self-reports, ADHD-high aggressive boys prioritized trouble-seeking and fun at the expense of rules to a greater extent than did both ADHD-low aggressive and comparison boys. Observers judged ADHD-high-aggressive boys to seek attention more strongly and seek fairness less strongly than the other two groups. Self-reported goals of defiance and cooperation predicted boys' end-of-program social standing, even with interactional behaviors and subgroup status controlled statistically. Observer-inferred goals were differentially associated with social acceptance for ADHD and comparison boys, suggesting discontinuities in peer interaction processes. Differentiation of goals from behavior and the integral role of children's goals in peer acceptance are discussed.This research received primary support from National Institute of Mental Health Grant RO1 MH45064, awarded to Stephen P. Hinshaw. Special acknowledgments are due to the child participants and the many dedicated interviewers and behavior observers who made this study possible.     

When what you type isn’t what they read: The perseverance of stereotypes and expectancies over e-mail

People form impressions of others by communicating with them, but not all modes of communication transmit information with equal fidelity. E-mail, for instance, is an inherently more limited mode of communication than is voice because of its relative lack of paralinguistic and non-verbal cues. The present research investigated the implication of this distinction for the biasing influence of stereotypes and expectancies. Three experiments demonstrated that racial stereotypes and bogus expectancies influence people’s impressions of a target more strongly over e-mail than voice interactions (Studies 1-3). This occurred despite an experimental design that ensured that the word-for-word content was constant across the two mediums. Follow-up analyses revealed that the effect was due, at least in part, to the greater ambiguity of e-mail versus voice communication (Study 3). Although e-mail affords many benefits, the present research suggests that it may also have some unexpected costs.     

Helping the child with cancer: what school personnel want to know

As more children with cancer survive, the importance of facilitating school reintegration as a part of maximizing the quality of life has become evident. Workshops have been presented to school personnel to acquaint them with the issues facing cancer patients and their families, but there are gaps in our knowledge of what school personnel really need or want to know. In this study, 18 teachers of children with cancer and 15 teachers with no prior contact with students with cancer completed a questionnaire designed to assess needs, beliefs, and priorities with regard to working with cancer patients in the classroom. Significant findings included: (a) a consensus that a certain core of information about medical/psychological issues would be useful, and presentation of such information by psychologists and medical personnel working with such families would be optimal; (b) teachers having cancer patients as students were less likely to see the adaptation of siblings as an important issue; (c) teachers associated working with a student with cancer with less stress and demands on their time than predictable from previous studies; and (d) cancer patients as a whole were rated as having fewer behavioral, emotional, and learning problems than randomly selected students without a major illness, suggesting a "halo effect" or contradiction of some literature. Preliminary findings are detailed and implications are discussed for those attempting to help teachers facilitate students' adjustment to school following diagnosis and treatment of cancer.     

Getting what you want: Power increases the accessibility of active goals

Power facilitates goal-directed behavior. Two studies, using different types of goals, examined the cognitive mechanisms that underlie this tendency. Participants, primed with power or powerlessness, performed lexical decision tasks that assessed the relative facilitation of goal-relevant constructs during goal striving and after goal attainment. Results showed that during goal striving powerful participants manifested an increased facilitation of goal-relevant constructs compared to other constructs, and this facilitation decreased immediately after goal completion. In contrast, their powerless counterparts showed less facilitation of goal constructs during goal striving and maintained goal accessibility after completion. These results are consistent with the effects of power on goal-directed behavior found in past research.     

But murderers can have all the children they want: Surrogacy and public policy

No new ethical issue is created by reproductive technologies. The state should not intervene to suppress individual rights to take advantage of these technologies, including third party donations. Some individuals will view these technologies as the best available option for having and rearing children. The major values to be protected in public policy ought to be compassion, privacy and procreative rights.     

When people want what others have: the impulsive side of envious desire

Envy is the unpleasant emotion that can arise when people are exposed to others with superior possessions. Common wisdom and scholarly opinion suggest that when people experience envy they may be motivated to obtain the others' superior possession. Despite the vast interpersonal, societal, and economical consequences attributed to this potential aspect of envious responding, experimental demonstrations of the affective and behavioral consequences of envy-inducing situations are scarce. We propose that social comparisons with better-off others trigger an impulsive envious response that entails a behavioral tendency to strive for their superior good. However, given that the experience of envy is painful, self-threatening, and met with social disapproval, people typically attempt to control their envious reactions. Doing so requires self-control capacities, so that envious reactions may only become apparent if self-control is taxed. In line with these predictions, four experiments show that only when self-control resources are taxed, upward comparisons elicit envy paired with an increased willingness to pay for, to spontaneously purchase and to impulsively approach the superior good.     

See what you want to see: motivational influences on visual perception

People's motivational states--their wishes and preferences--influence their processing of visual stimuli. In 5 studies, participants shown an ambiguous figure (e.g., one that could be seen either as the letter B or the number 13) tended to report seeing the interpretation that assigned them to outcomes they favored. This finding was affirmed by unobtrusive and implicit measures of perception (e.g., eye tracking, lexical decision tasks) and by experimental procedures demonstrating that participants were aware only of the single (usually favored) interpretation they saw at the time they viewed the stimulus. These studies suggest that the impact of motivation on information processing extends down into preconscious processing of stimuli in the visual environment and thus guides what the visual system presents to conscious awareness.     

Demonstrations of spatiotemporal integration and what they tell us about the visual system

Five sets of displays are presented on the journal website to be viewed in conjunction with the text. We concentrate on the factors that give rise to the integration and disruption of the direction of apparent motion in two-dimensional and three-dimensional space. In the first set of displays we examine what factors contribute to the integration and disruption of apparent motion in the Ramachandran/Anstis clustered bistable quartets. In the second set we examine what factors give rise to the perception of the direction of motion in rotating two-dimensional wheels and dots. In the third and fourth sets we examine how the depth cues of shading and disparity contribute to the perception of apparent motion of opaque displays, and to the perception of rotating unoccluded displays, respectively. In the fifth set we examine how the depth cue of motion parallax influences the perception of apparent motion. Throughout, we make inferences about the roles which various parallel pathways and cortical areas play in the perceptions produced by the displays shown.     

‘Tell me what I want to hear’: Motivated recall and attributions in media regarding asylum seekers

Within Australia, divisive debates regarding the processing of asylum seekers have delivered increasing polarisation rather than convergence on an evidence‐based, humane approach. In order to investigate the role of motivated reasoning (the idea that our judgment is based on our motivations) with respect to attributions of warmth and competence, 186 participants indicated the extent to which they accepted false beliefs regarding asylum seekers. They read an article rebutting such false beliefs and then reported their attitudes towards the author and the extent to which the author possessed warmth and competence traits. They then reported whether they agreed with the information in the article before completing a test of recall. Participants who disagreed with the article recalled less accurate information and rated authors significantly lower on warmth and competence. These findings suggest that motivated reasoning plays an important role in the way stereotypes are applied and in the way information is processed.     

First look: what brings clergy candidates into ministry and what happens when they don't get it

This article reports on a retrospective examination of all candidates for ordained ministry in Alabama-West Florida Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church from September 1995 to 1998. The results showed, contrary to expectations, that clergy in this annual conference are significantly more likely than the general population to become physically ill when placed under stress. One of the major stressors identified in this study was the likelihood that the clergy persons will not receive the high levels of affirmation and reinforcement they look for. The author presents some conclusions and suggestions both for action to change the predictions and for further research.     

Family therapy in the home

There is good evidence in other areas of therapeutic endeavour that home-based therapy may have advantages over clinic-based work for some patients. There are some families who have real difficulties in attending clinics. Despite these facts little has been written on the topic. This brief article reviews some of the objections to home-based family work and suggests possible solutions for the interested therapist.     

Family systems therapy

Journal of Child and Family Studies -     

Reaping what they sow: Benefits of remembering together in intimate couples

Recent research suggests that remembering with a long-term partner may scaffold successful memory. To test whether collaboration reduces the episodic deficit shown by older adults, we created a social version of Addis, Musicaro, Pan, and Schacter's (2010) episodic memory paradigm. As predicted, in Experiment 1 20 long-married, older adult couples generated more “internal” – on topic, episodic – details when they remembered together versus alone, but the same amount of “external” – off-topic, semantic – details. In Experiment 2 this memory benefit did not extend to 20 young adult couples who generated high levels of internal details together or alone. Notably, however, young adults’ self-reported relationship intimacy was related to their episodic recall across conditions. We discuss these findings in terms of possible benefits of collaboration in the face of ageing and cognitive decline as well as the development over time of “transactive memory systems” in intimate relationships.     

Family therapy for the borderline patient

Family therapy can be an appropriate modality of treatment for borderline patients: family sessions may be helpful in making order out of chaos in the system. It also takes into account the fear of separation and other developmental issues which are of concern to the borderline patient. Issues related to the structure and format of sessions in the beginning and middle phase of therapy are discussed. Progress and treatment implications including transference reactions are examined. We have concluded that the family members in a case presented have become considerably stronger and more independent. Their current developmental level indicates that we can begin to work on intrapsychic factors.