Effect of socioeconomic status of biological and adoptive parents on WISC-R subtest scores of their French adopted children

Analyses from an a priori full cross-fostering study (Capron & Duyme, 1989, 1991), investigating the IQs of 38 children whose average age was 168 (SE = 3.28) months, indicated a link between the socioeconomic status (SES) of both biological and adoptive parents and Full, Verbal, and Performance IQs of the WISC-R scale. Here detailed analyses of the WISC-R scale are presented. These show that these two factors affect Block Design and Information subtests, and other subtests are affected either by one or the other factor. Two subtests—Picture Arrangement and Picture Completion—are not affected by either factor. There is no evidence for an interaction between these factors on adopted children's subtest scores. As the sample size is small for a test of nonadditivity, the analysis is extended to the power of interaction test.     

Perceptions of relative group size and group status: Effects on intergroup discrimination in negative evaluations

The positive–negative asymmetry in social discrimination proposes a threshold for ingroup favouritism within the negative domain: in contrast to comparable studies dealing with in- and outgroup evaluations on positive attributes, ingroup favouritism does not occur when negative attributes are used. The present study focuses on two aspects of this threshold: it investigates processes, which may influence the absence of ingroup favouritism in the negative domain, and it tests ‘aggravating’ variables, which seem to be suficient to elicit ingroup favouritism even in the negative domain. Results show that ingroup favouritism occurred within the negative domain when several aggravating conditions were included, namely high salience of size- and status- similarity between groups and high ingroup identification. Furthermore, subjects under minimal conditions tended to overestimate relative size as well as relative status of their ingroup. The perception of group members to belong to a high status majority is interpreted as a sufficient condition counteracting tendencies towards ingroup favouritism within the negative domain.     

Peer relations and behaviors of adoptive children in residential treatment

This study explored the peer relationships and behaviors of 17 adoptive children in a residential treatment center. Compared to a group of 17 nonadoptive children, the youngsters tended to be rejected more by peers and to be perceived as having greater attentional difficulties by child-care workers.     

The effects of children on parents: adoptee genetic dispositions and adoptive parent psychopathology

Although the traditional focus in socialization research has been on the effect of parents on their children (Finley, 1999), recently, researchers have turned their attention to the effects of children on their parents (Ambert, 1992; Demick, Bursik, & Dibiase, 1993). An important confound in the study of the effects of children on parents, however, is shared genetic or biological heritage. One method of avoiding this confound is for researchers to study adoptees and adoptive parents who have no shared genetic heritage. We, therefore, designed the present secondary analysis to examine the effects of adopted children on their adoptive parents without confounding shared biological heritage.     

The effects of sex and marital/parental status on performance evaluations and attributions

One hundred sixty female and 160 male undergraduates provided performance evaluations and attributions for a poor-performing stimulus employee depicted as male or female, and as either single or married with three preschool-aged children. No significant differences were detected for ratings given by male and female evaluators. The results did however, reveal a significant interaction of employee sex by marital/parental status conveying that of the four employee groups, married mothers were evaluated the most favorably, while single females were the least favorably evaluated. The differential performance evaluations were interpreted by attributional responses indicating that raters perceived external, uncontrollable factors as causes of the married mother's poor performance, while internal, controllable factors were seen as primary reasons for the poor performance of the other employees, particularly the single female's. Implications of the findings were presented.Portions of this paper were presented at the 43rd annual meeting of the Academy of Management, Dallas, Texas, August 1983.     

Cultural determinants of status: Implications for workplace evaluations and behaviors

Status is a valued workplace resource that facilitates career success, yet little is known regarding whether and how cultural orientation affects status attainment. We integrate status characteristics theory with the literature on individualism and collectivism and propose a cultural patterning in the determinants of status. Four studies (N = 379) demonstrate that cultural orientation influences the tendency to view high status individuals as competent versus warm (Study 1), uncover cultural differences in both individuals’ tendency to engage in competence and warmth behaviors to attain workplace status (Study 2) and evaluators’ tendency to ascribe status to individuals who demonstrate competence versus warmth (Study 3), and verify that cultural differences in the effects of competence and warmth on status perceptions, and in turn performance evaluations, generalize to real world interdependent groups (Study 4). Our findings advance theory on the cultural contingencies of status attainment and have implications for managing diversity at work.     

Effects of mood and knowledge on evaluations: An experimental study

An experimental study was conducted to estimate the impact of subjects' mood states on their responses to evaluative ratings. Four experimental groups were induced by either a very negative, mildly negative, neutral or positive mood-inducing film. As hypothesized, systematic differences were found between the groups in their evaluations. Factual knowledge about the evaluation object was, contrary to expected, not found to modify mood effects. This negative finding could, however, be explained by a strong stereotypical impression of the object (a distant travel destination) held by the respondents.     

Effects of social setting on the friendship formation of young children differing in developmental status

This study examined the effects of social setting on the friendship formation of preschool-aged children differing in developmental status. Normally developing children (ND), children with communication disorders (CD), and children with developmental (cognitive) delays (DD) participated in a series of short-term play groups. Each of the 21 play groups consisted of children similar in developmental status (ND, CD, or DD play groups; specialized social settings) or contained primarily ND children with a small number of either CD or DD children (mainstreamed social settings). All children initially were unacquainted with one another and were carefully matched on a variety of family demographic and child characteristic measures. Results revealed that high proportions of unilateral friendships were established for all developmental status groups, but proportions were smaller when employing an index of reciprocal friendships. The proportions of unilateral and reciprocal friendships varied in accordance with a child's developmental status, but were not affected by social setting. In mainstreamed settings, the friendship choices of ND children were affected by peers' developmental status. Moreover, children with reciprocal friends were more socially interactive overall than children without reciprocal friends. The implications of these results for arranging social settings that support friendship formation for children with and without disabilities are discussed.     

Peer evaluations of the competence of children vulnerable to psychopathology

Peer evaluations of the behavior of 75 children of schizophrenic mothers, 57 children of depressed mothers, and 153 controls were collected using the Pupil Evaluation Inventory. The children, both boys and girls, were in grades 2 through 9. Both male and female children of schizophrenics were viewed more deviantly than controls on Aggression and Unhappiness-Withdrawal factors. Only the female children of schizophrenics were viewed as less likable than controls. In general, children of schizophrenics did not differ from children of depressives. The exception was the older daughters of schizophrenics, who were rated as more deviant than members of both the remaining groups.This research was supported by grant MH 21145 from the National Institute of Mental Health and by funds from the William T. Grant Foundation.     

Forensic sexual abuse evaluations of older children: Disclosures and symptomatology

This study examines the results of forensic evaluations of 399 children between the ages of 8 and 15 who were seen at an urban evaluation center regarding allegations of sexual abuse. Data collected included demographic, family environment, and abuse variables, outcome of a multidisciplinary forensic evaluation, and psychological distress as measured by the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (TSCC Briere, in press). Children were grouped according to the outcome of the evaluation: nonabused, abused-disclosing, and abused-nondisclosing (composed of children for whom there was external evidence of abuse but who denied being abused). A number of variables predicted group membership, including subject race, sex, cognitive delays, mother's belief or disbelief in the allegation, and psychological distress. Sexually abused children who disclosed abuse reported particularly high levels of distress, abused but nondisclosing children reported the lowest levels, and nonabused children reported intermediate symptom levels. The data are discussed in terms of the role of denial, maternal support, and symptomatology in forensic evaluations.     

Effects of employment status and marital status on perceptions of mothers

Forty-eight female and 48 male adults at a shopping mall evaluated a briefly depicted adult female stimulus person on 24 7-point bipolar scales that described personality traits and professional performance characteristics. Each subject rated one of four mothers of a young child. The mother was portrayed as either employed or nonemployed, and as either divorced or married. Employed mothers were perceived as more professionally competent but as less dedicated to their families than were nonemployed mothers. Married mothers were rated as more nurturant and as better adjusted than divorced mothers.Portions of this paper were presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, Atlanta, Georgia, August 1988.     

Effects of self-attributed and other-attributed gaze on interpersonal evaluations between males and females

Male and female subjects were placed together in pairs for 10 min to get to know each other and talk about anything they wished. After the conversation, an experimenter gave the participants false feedback about the amount of gaze between them during the conversation. One subject (designated Self) was reported by the experimenter to have gazed at the Other at a higher level than usual for most people, at an average level, or at a lower level than usual for most people. After the conversation and the false feedback manipulation, subjects evaluated each other on a rating form. Results of the experiment showed that females gave males the most favorable ratings when they had ostensibly gazed at the males at a high level. Males were most favorable toward females when they thought they had given the females low levels of gaze. When considering the gaze of the other person, both male and female subjects rated a low gazing partner as least attentive and a high gazing partner as most sincere. Males rated low gazing females as least attractive. Females rated males with high reported gaze as least attractive. The research was discussed in terms of Bem's theory that attitudes are a function rather than a cause of behavior. Results were integrated with past research and suggestions for further study were made.     

Effects of message, source, and context on evaluations of employee voice behavior

The article contained a production-related error. In Table 5, the four values in the rows for Study 1 Prosocial motives and Study 1 Constructive voice should have been shifted one column to the right, to the Direct and Total Performance evaluations columns. All versions of this article have been corrected.] Although employee voice behavior is expected to have important organizational benefits, research indicates that employees voicing their recommendations for organizational change may be evaluated either positively or negatively by observers. A review of the literature suggests that the perceived efficacy of voice behaviors may be a function of characteristics associated with the (a) source, (b) message, and (c) context of the voice event. In this study, we manipulated variables from each of these categories based on a model designed to predict when voice will positively or negatively impact raters' evaluations of an employee's performance. To test our model, we conducted 3 laboratory studies in which we manipulated 2 source factors (voicer expertise and trustworthiness), 2 message factors (recommending a solution and positively vs. negatively framing the message), and 2 context factors (timing of the voice event and organizational norms for speaking up vs. keeping quiet). We also examined the mediating effects of liking, prosocial motives, and perceptions that the voice behavior was constructive on the relationships between the source, message, and context factors and performance evaluations. Generally speaking, we found that at least one of the variables from each category had an effect on performance evaluations for the voicer and that most of these effects were indirect, operating through one or more of the mediators. Implications for theory and future research are discussed.     

Child and parent evaluations of depression and aggression in psychiatric inpatient children

This investigation examined the agreement between children and their parents on measures of depression and aggression. A total of 120 inpatient children (ages 7–13) and their mothers and fathers independently completed self-report and interview measures that focused on the children's dysfunction. Children and their parents differed in their ratings of each symptom area, with children providing significantly less severe ratings than their parents. Children who met DSM III criteria for major depression or conduct disorder were significantly higher in their ratings of depression and aggression than children without these diagnoses, as reflected in both child and parent ratings. Child and parent ratings correlated in the low to moderate range on measures of children's symptoms, whereas mother and father ratings correlated in the moderate to high range. The correspondence between children and parents did not vary as a function of symptom area (depression and aggression) or assessment format (self-report and interviews). The results suggest that children are able to rate the severity of their dysfunction, although they tend to provide lowerbound estimates than do their parents.     

Effects of speech accents on interpersonal evaluations: implications for counseling practice and research

This article reviews literature from the fields of psycholinguistics, communications, and social psychology that has examined the effects of speech accents (i.e., regional, national, and international variations in same-language use) on interpersonal attitudes, casual attributions, and subsequent behaviors. The authors link selected findings from this literature to the field of counseling to show that these findings can inform service delivery, particularly counseling conducted with ethnic minority and immigrant populations in the United States. Implications for practice and ideas for future research in this area are also discussed.     

Effects of mood on self-appraisal of health status

Two experiments investigated the effects of temporary mood on the self-perception of health status. In Experiment 1, participants viewed one of two videotapes designed to induce either positive or negative mood. Under the guise of a second experiment, they were asked to imagine an illness-related scenario and to provide judgments concerning their health status. As predicted, positive-induction participants judged their health more favorably than negative-induction participants. Experiment 2 examined the mediating role of illness-relevant thinking in this mood effect. After seeing one of the two mood-induction tapes, some participants were asked to imagine either an illness-related or illness-unrelated scenario. A third group was given no instructions concerning imagination. As predicted, the relative effect of negative mood on health appraisal was attenuated only among those who imagined a scenario unrelated to health. Furthermore, the pattern of symptom recall data mirrored the self-appraisal findings. The data are consistent with the notion that negative mood can affect subjective appraisals of health by increasing the accessibility of illness-related memories. Implications for diagnostic practice are explored.