The seven sins of consumer psychology

Consumer psychology faces serious issues of internal and external relevance. Most of these issues originate in seven fundamental problems with the way consumer psychologists plan and conduct their research—problems that could be called “the seven sins of consumer psychology.” These seven “sins” are (1) a narrow conception of the scope of consumer behavior research; (2) adoption of a narrow set of theoretical lenses; (3) adherence to a narrow epistemology of consumer research; (4) an almost exclusive emphasis on psychological processes as opposed to psychological content; (5) a strong tendency to overgeneralize from finite empirical results, both as authors and as reviewers; (6) a predisposition to design studies based on methodological convenience rather than on substantive considerations; and (7) a pervasive confusion between “theories of studies” and studies of theories. Addressing these problems (“atoning for these sins”) would greatly enhance the relevance of the field. However, this may require a substantial rebalancing of the field's incentives to reward actual research impact rather than sheer number of publications in major journals.     

Maternal representations: A clinical and subjective phenomenological view

The relationship — as represented — is proving to be of growing value in our thinking about clinical problems such as “intergenerational transfer.” It is also an extremely positive influence in our thinking about how the interpersonal world is remembered, abstracted, and lived. Yet, the nature of a “represented relationship” remains unclear. This paper is an attempt to clarify some of the problems and areas for needed study regarding this concept. The mother's representation of her infant and of the people in her own life who have played “maternal roles” will be taken as the model. First, we will explore the richness and complexity of these representations and conclude that, for clinical purposes, different models are used to simplify this richness and render it therapeutically useful. Three models will be discussed. The first is the disfortion model which measures the distance between the mother's subjective experience of her interaction or relationship with another and some objective, observable “reality.” The model of overdeter-mining themes is a second model, largely the inspiration of psychoanalysis but inclusive of Bowlby's theory of attachment. Here psychobiological and/or psychodynamic themes organize the clinical material. Finally, a coherence model is discussed. Here the motive is goodness of the narrative construction rather than the historical “truth.” A second issue discussed is the capacity to represent dyads vs. triads and actual vs. second-hand narrated relationships. These issues are crucial for notions not only about the nature of such representations but also their limitations in understanding family interactions and relationships, i.e., where many members are concerned. A third issue concerns the nature of the subjective experience for a mother when a representation of her infant or herself in relation to the infant is “activated.” There exists here an unknown typology of experience. Finally, we will discuss what all of the above have to contribute to our further understanding of the nature of represented relationships.     

Issues in the psychological assessment of preschool children

This article discussed two issues relating to assessment of preschool children: (1) whether assessments of children of this age should be attempted, and (2) the issue of what is a “good” assessment. The general impression from a review of the literature and from personal experience is that preschool assessment is desirable and can be useful, but only under conditions which avoid labeling and attempt to circumvent and reduce the problems of reliability and validity, taking into consideration the interacting variables of the child, the task, and the setting.     

Development of Strategic Norms in Groups

In his classic norm formation research, Sherif (1935) demonstrated convergence in group members' judgments of ambiguous perceptual stimuli. In the present study, we investigated convergence in group members' strategic orientations for solving problems, specifically riskiness and conservatism. According to Regulatory Focus Theory (Higgins, 1998), people in a “promotion focus” (who are sensitive to the presence and absence of positive outcomes and who desire accomplishments) adopt risky strategies for solving problems, whereas people in a “prevention focus” (who are sensitive to the absence and presence of negative outcomes and who desire security) adopt conservative strategies. Using a modified version of Sherif's classic paradigm, we introduced a subtle manipulation to induce promotion vs prevention focus in three-person groups working on a multitrial recognition memory task. We found evidence that group members' responses converged and that this convergence was associated with a directional bias in strategic orientation (i.e., promotion groups were riskier than prevention groups). Implications of these results for understanding shared reality in groups were discussed.     

Vierordt's The Experimental Study of the Time Sense (1868) and its legacy

The paper discusses the results from Vierordt's 1868 book Der Zeitsinn nach Versuchen [The Experimental Study of the Time Sense]. Illustrations of “Vierordt's Law”, the proposition that short durations are judged as longer than they really are, whereas long durations are judged as shorter, with an “indifference point” in between, are provided, mainly from reproduction experiments where Vierordt and his students or colleagues served as experimental participants. Other work from Der Zeitsinn including time discrimination and categorical timing procedures is also presented. Some subsequent research on Vierordt's Law and the “indifference point” is discussed with respect to some issues in contemporary timing theory.     

Innovative Approaches to Child Custody and Domestic Violence in New Zealand

Summary

In 1995, as part of a major review of domestic violence law, the New Zealand Parliament amended the legislation under which disputes about custody of and access to children are determined by the Court. Specifically, the amendment introduced a rebuttable presumption that a parent who had used violence against a child or against the other parent would not have custody of, or unsupervised access to the child unless the Court could be satisfied that the child would be safe during visitation arrangements. Three years after the implementation of this legislation, it is timely to reflect on the impact of this major domestic violence law reform initiative. Our findings indicate that there are indeed advances. Psychological violence is now clearly being considered when Courts are assessing the issue of children's safety. As well, the delineation of mandatory risk assessment factors has led many judges to see a continuum of power and control tactics as relevant in domestic violence related visitation proceedings; the previous emphasis on physical violence has given way to an analysis which more closely reflects accords with women's and children's realities of the abuse they are exposed to. Some of the old problems continue to exist despite the law changes. There are still recent cases where perpetrators of serious violence are awarded unsupervised access and where their violence continues to be construed as “out of character,” arising because of the perpetrator's “despair” about the breakdown of his relationship. These and other issues are discussed.     

Location,Location, Location: Applying Spatial Statistics to the Relationship Landscape

The desire to understand relationships is a passion shared by professionals in research, clinical, and educational settings. Questionnaires are frequently used in each of these settings for a multitude of purposes—such as screening, assessment, program evaluation, or establishing therapeutic effectiveness. However, clinical issues arise when a couple's answers on questionnaires do not match clinical judgment or lack clinical utility, while statistical problems arise when data from both partners are put into analyses. This article introduces the use of geospatial statistics to analyze couple data plotted on a two‐dimensional “relational map.” Relationship maps can increase assessment sensitivity, track treatment progress, and remove statistical issues typically associated with couple data. This article briefly introduces core assumptions of spatial models, illustrates the use of spatial models in creating a relational landscape of divorce, offers suggestions for the use of relational maps in a clinical setting, and explores future research ideas.     

Working with Lesbians,Gays, and Bisexuals: Addressing Heterosexism in Supervision

Heterosexism is a form of multicultural bias that has the potential to harm both clients and supervisees. Supervisors are encouraged to examine their own heterosexist lens as a first step in providing a safe environment in which supervisees can challenge their own heterosexism. The issue of heterosexism is first discussed from an ethical vantage point. The second section of the article examines four facets of heterosexism (discrimination, lack of knowledge, stereotyping, and insensitivity) and how they might be exhibited by the supervisor in the supervision arena. Special topics discussed in this section include: the possible consequences of “coming out” in the supervisory context; the presence of heterosexism in the foundational family systems theory; the need for recognition of the special family characteristics of lesbians, gays, and bisexuals; the value of personal and professional relationships with persons who are gay, lesbian, and bisexual; common heterosexist stereotypes and research that refutes them; and the use of language. The final section of the article offers suggestions for working with supervisees around these issues.     

Overcoming the winner's curse: an adaptive learning perspective

The winner's curse phenomenon refers to the fact that the winner in a common value auction, in order to actually win the auction, is likely to have overestimated the item's value and consequently is likely to gain less than expected and may even lose (i.e., it is said to be “cursed”). Past research, using the “Acquiring a company” task has shown that people do not overcome this bias even after they receive extensive feedback. We suggest that the persistence of the winner's curse is due to a combination of two factors: variability in the environment that leads to ambiguous feedback (i.e., choices and outcomes are only partially correlated) and the tendency of decision makers to learn adaptively. We show in an experiment that by reducing the variance in the feedback, performance can be significantly improved. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

What's in a Name? The Effects of the Labels “Fat” Versus “Overweight” on Weight Bias1

This research examined the effects of the labels “fat” vs. “overweight” in the expression of weight bias, with the prediction that the label “fat” biases individuals to respond more negatively than does the label “overweight.” In Study 1, participants' attitudes toward people labeled as fat were less favorable than were their attitudes toward people labeled as overweight. In Studies 2 and 3, although participants chose similar‐sized figures to depict fat and overweight targets, weight stereotypes and weight attitudes were more negative toward people labeled as fat than those labeled as overweight. In addition, the endorsement of weight stereotypes mediated the biasing effect of the “fat” label on weight prejudice. Implications of this work for prejudice researchers and for public attitudes are discussed.     

The intentionality bias and schizotypy

The “intentionality bias” refers to our automatic tendency to judge other people's actions to be intentional. In this experiment we extended research on this effect in two key ways. First, we developed a novel nonlinguistic task for assessing the intentionality bias. This task used video stimuli of ambiguous movements. Second, we investigated the relationship between the strength of this bias and schizotypy (schizophrenia-like symptoms in healthy individuals). Our results showed that the intentionality bias was replicated for the video stimuli and also that this bias is stronger in those individuals scoring higher on the schizotypy rating scales. Overall these findings lend further support for the existence of the intentionality bias. We also discuss the possible relevance of these findings for our understanding of certain symptoms of schizophrenic illness.     

COMMUNICATION AS AN INTENTIONAL,SOCIAL SYSTEM

The argument is presented that taking communication as intentional and as a social system is necessary although not sufficient for defining the concept of communication for scholarly and research purposes. To illustrate the tendency and the error of ignoring the sociality of communication the notion of “intrapersonal communication” is examined. It is contended that many authors reject “intention” as a defining attribute of communication as a result of a strong tendency toward seeing the concept only in a defective form, represented as “speaker's purpose” and that the sense of “intention” needs to be grounded in a prior notion of “intentionality.”     

Becoming us and them: Social learning and intergroup bias

In recent years, research has demonstrated that the basic features of prejudice and discrimination emerge early in children's development. These discoveries call into question the role of social learning in intergroup bias. Specifically, through what means do we learn to distinguish “us” from “them?” Here, we explore this question, focusing on three key issues: how children respond to biased information they receive from others, how children selectively seek out certain types of biased information, and how children communicate biased information to others. We close by discussing the implications of this research for interventions to reduce stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination.     

Effects of rank ordering stimuli on magnitude ratings of these and other stimuli

Five experiments investigated the effects of rank ordering stimuli on subsequent magnitude ratings of these and other stimuli. In Experiments 1 and 2, subjects first rank ordered environmental issues in terms of their importance. Ranking stimuli from “most” to “least” led to more extreme ratings than ranking them from “least” to “most,” regardless of whether the rating criterion was the same as or diametrically opposite to the ranking criterion. (For example, subjects who had previously ranked them beginning with the most important issue subsequently rated these issues not only as more important, but also as more trivial, than did subjects who had ranked them beginning with the least important.) These effects generalized to stimuli other than those that had previously been ranked, and generalized over stimulus domains. (For example, ratings of environmental issues were also affected by ranking the importance of attributes of a marriage partner.) Other experiments in the series circumscribed the conditions in which these effects occur. Results suggested that rank ordering stimuli leads subjects to adopt comparative standards, the use of which generalizes to subsequent magnitude rating tasks and produces an anchoring bias similar to that identified by A. Tversky and D. Kahneman (1974, Science (Washington, D.C.), 185, 1124–1131). Implications of these results for the cognitive processes that underlie social judgment are discussed.     

Intrinsic Religious Orientation and Religious Teaching: Differential Judgments Toward Same-Gender Sexual Behavior and Gay Men and Lesbians

There is a developing discussion within the literature regarding religiosity and negative attitudes toward same-gender sexuality. A fair amount of empirical evidence now exists linking increased conservative religiosity with negative attitudes toward gay men and lesbians. However, past research has failed to account for the participants' religious group's position on same-sex issues. Results from the project presented here indicated that those who had high scores of intrinsic religiosity and reported attending a religious group that taught “love the sinner, hate the sin” responded with relatively more positive attitudes toward gay men and lesbians. These findings are discussed in relation to the emerging evidence that some intrinsic religious individuals apparently are able to make the distinction between “sin and sinner.”     

Students' Perceptions of Multicultural Training in Counseling Psychology Programs

The Multicultural Competency Checklist (Ponterotto, Alexander, & Grieger, 1995) was used to assess counseling psychology students' perceptions of multicultural training in their programs. Results revealed that most students perceived their programs to (a) have a required multicultural counseling course, (b) employ diverse teaching strategies and procedures, (c) use varied methods of evaluating performance, and (d) have faculty members whose primary research interest was in multicultural issues. Alternatively, many students reported that their programs did not (a) have appropriate representation of bilingual individuals on the faculty, (b) demonstrate adequate leadership and support with regard to multicultural issues, (c) use assessment instruments in evaluating their level of multicultural competency, and (d) make available a “multicultural resource center” for their use. The importance of integrating multicultural issues throughout academic programs is also discussed.     

The Crossroads of Countertransference and Attribution Theory: Reinventing Clinical Training within an Evidence-Based Treatment World

Social Psychological research on Person Perception/Attribution Theory has concluded that an individual responds to interpersonal situations based upon their interpretation of the “nature” of that situation. For example, physically attractive people are often attributed niceness and capableness even without any basis in reality. The observer, guided by percepts cum attributions, may treat the attractive participant “as though” these qualities are about them rather than about the observer's internal bias. In psychoanalysis, this social phenomenon takes on individual meaning as countertransference. Therapists seem to experience irrational feelings during the psychotherapy exchange, which remain, whether or not the therapist is conscious of these responses or whether their technical objective includes or ignores their own transference. The attributional tendency to act upon these feelings “as though” they were wholly about the patient may lead to therapeutic disasters. Therefore, clinical training of psychotherapists needs the early inclusion of this concept to prevent subsequent dogmatic and untherapeutic attitudes. This paper will discuss the possibility of disarming the damage rendered by medicalized parsimonious “healing” and the latest fashion, Evidence-Based Treatment, via a translation of assumedly unmeasurable psychoanalytic tenets into multiply measured, investigated areas of social research.     

ON THE TENACITY OF CHRISTIAN ANTI‐JUDAISM1

Joachim of Fiore's three ages of Father, Son and Spirit demonstrated that the supersessionist gambit Christianity had introduced against Judaism is a logic any successor can employ. Modernity (cf. modo, “now”) is constituted by a relentless supersessionist logic; the modern issue is less supersessionism than a conflict of supersessionisms. Christianity has repeatedly overspiritualized God's “bodily covenant” with Israel (Wyschogrod). This distortive tendency is intensified in modernity by Christianity's anxiety that it too will appear old/“Jewish” vis‐à‐vis a new New Testament of infinite spiritual freedom (cf. Romanticism.) One corrective would be for Christianity to return to a more Jewish understanding of election.