Reexamining Personal and Situational Factors in Drunk Driving Interventions1

Informal peer intervention may be an effective means of combating drunk driving. Prior research finds that: (a) An experimental model of decision making in bystander intervention situations can successfully be applied to drunk driving intervention (DUI intervention); and (b) various personal and situational factors influence a person's decision to intervene. Our research examines questionnaire data and finds support, with some modification, for application of the experimental model to DUI intervention. We also find that a person's self-evaluation as a competent helper is often the most important factor in determining whether or not they intervene. This suggests that empowering persons as interveners may be an effective means of decreasing drunk driving.     

Judgment Processes and Interpersonal Conflict Related to Societal Problem Solutions1

An application of multidimensional scaling to judgments about potential solutions to the overpopulation problem yielded two dimensions: Voluntary versus involuntary and economic versus noneconomic. The location of the “solutions” in this two dimensional space was closely related to their judged acceptability, for both original and cross-validation samples. The two-dimensional coordinates of the “solutions” were then used as implicit cue values in a “lens model” analysis of potential conflict among the subjects. This analysis indicated that judgmental inconsistency was likely to be the major source of conflict for these subjects.     

Parent and Teen Perceptions Regarding Parental Efforts at Controlling Teen Drunk Driving1

This research examined the potential utility of a parental control technique to prevent adolescent drunk driving by identifying parent and teen sources of resistance to an ignition interlock system. The research also examined the theoretical issue of parental control over adolescents by identifying factors parents consider when deciding to use a control technique. Parent and teen receptivity to the interlock was examined in relation to teen drunk driving. General parental control orientations (controlling vs. permissive) were examined in relation to the factors that influence parental decisions to implement such a control technique. Factors related to sources of reluctance to use the device were also examined. The findings revealed that parents were generally ambivalent toward the interlock. In contrast, teens responses varied, with approximately 20% of the sample reporting favorable attitudes toward having an interlock installed in the their cars. In addition, both parents and teens expressed concern about how the interlock would affect their relationship with each other. Finally, controlling parents tended to place less emphasis on the perceived effectiveness of the control technique when forming their attitudes toward its implementation compared to permissive parents. The findings are discussed in the context of prevention efforts for adolescent drunk driving.     

Informal Drunk Driving Intervention: Psychosocial Correlates Among Young Adult Women and Men1

Based on experimental research on helping and survey findings on drunk driving intervention, we selected 28 variables for study that might relate to informal intervention in a drunk driving situation. We tested six hypotheses by categorizing the 28 variables into personal (12), relationship (4), situational (5), and individual response (7) aspects. Bivariate correlations and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed between these 28 predictor variables and intervention for 303 college students (192 females and 111 males). Three personal, one relationship, three situational, and four individual responses in situation variables were correlated significantly with intervention. Four significant predictors emerged in the stepwise logistic regression equation: knowing the driver well; having a conversation that encouraged the respondent to intervene; perceiving the driver as needing help; and the respondent's feeling able to intervene. All hypotheses received at least some confirmation in these results, but noteworthy discrepancies from expectations emphasize the need to appreciate differences between studies of helping behavior in the laboratory and this natural form of helping behavior.     

Effects of Severity of Accident,History of Drunk Driving,Intent, and Remorse on Judgments of a Drunk Driver1

A total of 160 women and 160 men read scenarios of an accident caused by a male drunk driver. The severity of the accident was either high (death) or low (monetary damage) and the driver either had or did not have a history of drunk driving. In addition, the driver expressed or denied feeling remorse and expressed or denied intent (or negligence-he admitted or denied knowing he was drunk before deciding to drive). The driver was evaluated on character traits and cause, responsibility, blame, and punishment. Participants also recommended sanctions (fine and prison sentence). Trait ratings of the driver were influenced negatively by history and positively by remorse. The driver who expressed intent was evaluated as more believable and more reckless. Participants with high belief in a just world evaluated the driver as being less responsible and believable and more of a cause of the accident. There were no differences in judgments given by men and women. Severity did not affect trait ratings, but was the only variable influencing sanctions. Although the driver's self presentation strategies were effective in moderating judgments about his character, they had no bearing on recommended sanctions.     

Motivated Strategies for Judgment: How Preferences for Particular Judgment Processes can Affect Judgment Outcomes

Beyond motivations to achieve particular outcomes, people also have motivations to use particular strategies while pursuing these outcomes. This article integrates research on the latter strategic preferences and discusses the place of such research in the broader investigation of motivated thinking. A review of studies examining the strategic preferences stemming from both motivations for promotion versus prevention ( Higgins, 1997 ) and motivations for locomotion versus assessment ( Higgins, Kruglanski, & Pierro, 2003 ) illustrates that these preferences have unique effects on basic processes of judgment, including the evaluation of alternative hypotheses or counterfactuals, the prioritization of fast versus accurate information processing, and the recall and activation of knowledge from memory. Moreover, this review also demonstrates important interactions between strategic preferences and outcome preferences. Strategic preferences thus appear to make distinct and important contributions to understanding how motivation influences judgment and should feature prominently in general analyses of motivated thinking.     

An Evaluation of Arizona's July 1982 Drunk Driving Law: Effects on the City of Phoenix1

In July 1982, Arizona implemented a Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) law which mandated severe penalties for DWI convictions. Interrupted time series analyses conducted using data from the city of Phoenix showed an initial estimated reduction of 7.44 vehicular fatalities per month when the law went into effect, which then slowly returned to baseline. In a switching replication, parallel results were found in San Diego for the effect of a similar January 1982 California law. No changes in fatalities corresponding to the implementation of the Arizona or California laws were found in the El Paso comparison series. Time series analyses of DWI-related law enforcement activity in Phoenix showed no change associated with the implementation of the Arizona DWI law. Analyses of newspaper coverage in Phoenix suggested that another substantial decrease in fatalities occurred prior to the implementation of the law, coinciding with the beginning of intense media coverage of the DWI issue.     

Judgment and Response Processes across Two Knowledge Domains

Wallsten and Gonzalez-Vallejo (1994) developed the Stochastic Judgment Model to account for true-false judgment and response processes in a single well-defined knowledge domain. This paper generalizes the model to a four-category rating task that encompasses two knowledge domains simultaneously. It then applies the model to an experiment in which Ph.D. students in history and English literature rated confidence in the truth of statements in both domains, and also decided which statement within a pair consisting of one from each domain was more likely true. Constrained versions of the general model fit the rating data very well and accurately predicted the pair-comparison (PC) choices. The results suggest that (a) the mean distance between the true and false statement distributions of confidence was greater in the better known domain; (b) judged confidence variability is greater in the domain of greater knowledge; while simultaneously (c) criterion variability is constant across domains; (d) the extreme response criteria are located symmetrically around the central one; which (e) is located to yield the usual bias to call statements true. Finally, cross-domain PC choices were very well predicted by assuming that respondents judged only the statement in the single domain they knew better and not well predicted by the more common assumption that they compare their levels of confidence in the two statements. Implications for the underlying cognitive processes are discussed including the effects of expertise.     

An Examination of the Relationships Between Personality,Attitudes, and Cognitions Relevant to Alcohol-Impaired Driving Tendencies1

Previous research has explored the domain of legal and educational prevention in regard to the phenomena of accidents and injuries caused by drinking and driving. Most investigations of psychological factors attempt to distinguish characteristics of drunk drivers relative to the general driving population or controls matched on driving risk variables. In contrast, the present research concentrated on the examination of the process by which empirically derived personality and general attitudinal constructs operate within a cognitive framework to influence the decision to drive. Four conceptual models were proposed that suggested the presence of direct, indirect, and moderated effects of personality and general attitudinal constructs on cognitions relevant to drunk-driving tendencies. Support was observed for a model suggesting the presence of indirect, direct, and moderating effects for the general attitudinal construct driving aggression, and support for an indirect effects model for the personality variable emotional control. The implications of these findings are discussed in the context of utilizing personality and general attitudinal constructs to improve short term cognitive-based interventions.     

Constructions of Agency in Accounts of Drunk Driving at the Outset of Semi-Mandatory Counseling

Convicted drunk drivers, in accounts of their offenses, rarely display qualities of agency that would contribute to a favorable outcome in counseling. Instead, the discursive and rhetorical aim of the accounts is often to evade responsibility and ownership of the offending behavior. Such disclaim of personal agency can be achieved in various ways in the narration of drunk driving (DD) incidences. This study examined how five aspects of agentic presentation (reflexivity, historicity, intentionality, causal attribution, and relationality) were present in or missing from such accounts. It was found that a tentative model of (non)agentic display based on those five aspects could differentiate between the cases in a meaningful way and contribute to an understanding of the clients’ ways of positioning themselves in semi-mandatory counseling as well as of their uses of the counseling context.     

Psychological Reactions to the Drunk Driver: Associations With Intervention and Their Success1

Research on psychological factors in helping behavior has been undertaken primarily in laboratory settings. Although this work has been instrumental in identifying psychological factors that influence helping, their role in naturally occurring helping behavior, such as informal drunk-driving intervention, is largely unknown. College students (N= 192) completed a questionnaire that assessed 11 possible reactions to the drunk driving situation, types of interventions, and their success. Over half of the students (55%, N= 10) reported having intervened to prevent someone from driving drunk. Using structural modeling, we examined the effect of various emotions and affective and cognitive reactions on the frequency and success of different types of informal drunk-driving intervention. Different reactions to the drunk driving situation influenced the number, type, and success of interventions used.     

Consumer Inference: A Review of Processes,Bases, and Judgment Contexts

Because products are rarely described completely, consumers often form inferences that go beyond the information given. We review research on the processes, bases, and the judgment contexts in which inferences are formed. The most basic processes are induction (inferences from specific instances to general principles) versus deduction (inferences from general principles to specific instances). Stimulus‐based inferences are formed on‐line (as information is encountered) using situationally available information, whereas memory‐based (or theory‐based) inferences are formed using prior knowledge and experience. Inferences can pertain to a single product judged in isolation (a singular judgment context) or to multiple products considered in relation to one another (a comparative judgment context). This 2x2x2 (Induction vs. Deduction x Stimulus‐Based vs. Memory‐Based x Singular vs. Comparative Judgment) theoretical framework suggests that there are 8 different types of inferences that consumers may form. Based on this framework, we identify gaps in the literature and suggest directions for future research.     

Culture and Negotiator Cognition: Judgment Accuracy and Negotiation Processes in Individualistic and Collectivistic Cultures

In this paper, we argue that judgment biases in negotiation are perpetuated by underlying cultural values and ideals, and therefore, certain judgment biases will be more prevalent in certain cultural contexts. Based on theory in cultural psychology (Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Triandis, 1989), we considered the notion that fixed pie error, a judgment bias in which negotiators fail to accurately understand their counterparts' interests (Pruitt & Lewis, 1975; Thompson & Hastie, 1990), would be more prevalent at the end of negotiations in the United States, an individualistic culture, than Greece, a collectivistic culture. The results of a 2-week computer-mediated intercultural negotiation experiment, which took place between American students in Illinois and Greek students in Athens, supported this view. Theoretical implications of culture and cognition in negotiation are also discussed.     

Comparative Judgment Processes: The Effects of Task Objectives and Time Delay on Product Evaluations

Consumers who compare products may often ignore features that the choice alternatives have in common. As a result, they often evaluate products more favorably when the products have unique positive features but common negative features than when they have unique negative features but common positive ones. Two studies examined contingencies in the occurrence of these “cancellation” effects and explored their implications for people's evaluations of not only the products being compared but other products they encounter subsequently. Some participants were explicitly told to compare two products at the time they received information about them. They not only disregarded the products' common features when initially evaluating these products, but disregarded evaluatively similar features of a third product they encountered some time later. Other participants were initially told to describe each product separately. In this condition, they formed an overall impression of each product individually, and so cancellation effects were not apparent. Nevertheless, their preference for one product over the other was based on a comparison of the products' individual features that they could recall at the time of judgment rather than on the global impressions they had formed when the product information was first presented.     

The Effects of Acute Alcohol Intoxication on Person Memory: The Stereotypical Drunk1

Research has suggested that acute alcohol intoxication disrupts cognitive functioning by reducing the availability of executive resources for person perception. The present study tested the prediction that this effect would increase stereotype application during impression formation by reducing the encoding of nonstereotypical information. Participants were instructed to complete an impression-formation task following consumption of low, medium, or high doses of alcohol. This task involved the encoding of both stereotypical and neutral material. A subsequent free-recall test demonstrated that alcohol significantly decreased participants' encoding of neutral information, but did not affect the memorability of stereotypical information. These findings are discussed in relation to models of both stereotyping and alcohol intoxication.     

A Review of Reviews Examining Neurological Processes Relevant to Impact of Parental PTSD on Military Children: Implications for Supporting Resilience

In this study, 10 recent meta-analytic and systematic review studies were synthesized on the neurological underpinnings of stress and trauma with implications for the impact of parental post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and resilience among military children. Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) group guidelines and utilizing a validated quality assessment tool, this systematic review of reviews incorporated results from more than 35,971 individuals with stress exposures, effects, or disorders and healthy controls. This synthesis found support for important gene, physiology, and environment correlations and interactions that predict increased risk for stressful life events and PTSD, but not direct transmission, among military children. Future research is needed to determine if these constitute indirect pathways of intergenerational transmission in military children.     

Reactions to Feedback in Goal Choice and Goal Change Processes1

Two laboratory studies were conducted to test the effects of reactions to feedback on propensity to change an initial self-selected performance goal. In Study 1, the performance of 228 subjects on a word search task was manipulated by varying puzzle difficulty. In Study 2, two-dimensional goals (i.e., time and quantity) were first assigned and then chosen by 75 subjects. In Study 1, satisfaction with performance and self-efficacy predicted goal change beyond the effects of past performance. Subjects lower in both satisfaction and self-efficacy tended to lower initial goals, whereas those higher in either or both variables tended to raise them. In a post-hoc analysis, goal-performance discrepancies and motivational force interacted to explain satisfaction with performance for subjects experiencing negative feedback. This result was replicated in Study 2 for self-selected quantity goals. In Study 2, satisfaction with performance explained goal choice beyond the effects of past performance for initial time goals and final quantity goals. Trade-offs in the selection of dual goals occurred, with subjects selecting a difficult goal on one dimension and an easy goal on the other. Suggestions for future research and practice on self-regulation of goals and performance are provided.     

Racism,Counterfactual Thinking,and Judgment Severity1

Two contrasting models of the effects of motivational influences on the relationship between counterfactual thinking and social judgment were tested, using a modified version of Wells and Gavanski's (1989) cab driver vignette. Undergraduates (N= 208) assigned blame to a negligent white or black target after imagining how the target's alternative behavior could have either easily or improbably averted two accident-related fatalities. Results suggested that motivational variables such as racism moderate the relationship between counterfactual thinking and judgment severity rather than directly affect the counterfactual thinking process itself. Implications for current conceptions of both counterfactual thinking and racism are discussed.