A Q methodological study of rebelliousness

Through the use of the notion of rebelliousness, the argument is raised and developed that conventional social psychological research tends to downplay investigation of intangible, ‘fuzzy’ issues in favour of the study of more clearly operationalizable constructs. The thesis is developed that slippery social categories should concern us both for their own sake (because social knowing is fuzzy) and because they require of investigation analytics that have a sensitivity to the social and historical circumstances which impinge upon psychological processes. A Q methodological study into construals of rebelliousness is reported, which reveals eight interpretable factors explicated as ‘the ambivalent rebel’, ‘the antirebel’, ‘rejecting rebelliousness: the free thinker’, ‘rebellion as social change’, ‘shockable and anti-confrontational’, ‘positive support for the rebel’, ‘rebel with a cause’ and ‘strong-willed confrontational rebel’.     

Health as a value: methodological and theoretical considerations

The concept of value placed on health is very important in several different theoretical approaches to the study of health behavior. In practice, however, health value is generally assumed to be universally high rather than being directly measured. If this assumption is incorrect, then theories that include health value have rarely been adequately tested. This paper presents a short 4-item Likert scale designed to measure the value placed on health. Norms from the utilization of this scale in five different samples are presented. Health value is found to increase with age among girls, but the increase apparently stops by late adolescence, before full adult levels of health value are achieved. Middle-aged women place a higher value on health than do middle-aged men, although no comparable sex difference appears in a sample of undergraduates. Consistent with theoretical predictions, both health locus of control beliefs and beliefs in the efficacy of certain preventive health behaviors correlate more highly with the performance of those same behaviors 5 to 9 months later among respondents who place a high value of health relative to those who do not value health so highly. However, this interaction is found only when it can be safely assumed that health is the primary value underlying the behavior. The importance of considering a variety of values in addition to health as possible motivators of preventive health behavior is stressed.     

Attenuating the Attribution of Responsibility: The Lay Perception of Jealousy as a Motive for Wife Battery1

Jealousy can consist of a broad range of experiences, from an everyday feeling to a pathology that causes abuse and crime. Although historically jealousy has been positively valued, century has seen an antijealousy crusade the effects of which can be noticed everywhere–with the exception of the legal system. Using Weiner's attributional model as theoretical background, a questionnaire research survey was conducted to determine if lay perception considers jealousy to be a justification of wife battery. Results show that current views of jealousy are negative and do not justify a mitigation in responsibility. Additionally differences by age and education can be found in the victim's attributed responsibility independently of the motivation. Implications for the legal system as well as for defensive attribution theory are discussed.     

Follower Jealousy at Work: A Test of Vecchio's Model of Antecedents and Consequences of Jealousy

The present study tests the validity of Robert P. Vecchio's seminal work on antecedents and consequences of jealousy. Specifically, we examine whether antecedents such as in-group status, supervisory considerateness, and supervisory differentiation of subordinates are associated with jealousy. In addition, we examine whether jealousy is associated with the outcome variable of social loafing. Leaders (n = 73) and their followers (n = 303) working in business organizations in Norway contributed data. Multilevel analyses showed that a high-quality working relationship with one's supervisor was inversely related to reports of jealousy. In addition, supervisors who displayed high levels of considerateness, for example, by providing followers with positive emotional support, were better able to reduce subordinate jealousy. This is a novel observation since previous research failed to demonstrate such a relationship. Finally, jealousy was positively associated with social loafing, suggesting that jealous followers engaged in an active counterproductive resistance response. The present study contributes to the extant literature by identifying unexamined antecedents of jealousy and a dysfunctional behavioral response to jealousy in the form of social loafing in the workplace.     

Determinants of human operant heart rate conditioning: a systematic investigation of several methodological issues.

Three methodological issues of concern within the literature on human operant heart rate conditioning were assessed utilizing a number of techniques for data reduction. The type of statistical approach largely determined the conclusions to be drawn about 2 issues: (a) differences and similarities between heart rate acceleration and deceleration learning and (b) changes in conditioning over a number of sessions. Three techniques yielded data that confounded between- and within-session shifts in tonic heart rate. A fourth method of data reduction (contrasts between pretrial and trial responding) involved no such difficulty. This method of analysis most accurately represented changes in operant heart rate that occurred within and between conditioning sessions.     

Coenzyme Q10: a review of its promise as a neuroprotectant

Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is a powerful antioxidant that buffers the potential adverse consequences of free radicals produced during oxidative phosphorylation in the inner mitochondrial membrane. Oxidative stress, resulting in glutathione loss and oxidative DNA and protein damage, has been implicated in many neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and Huntington's disease. Experimental studies in animal models suggest that CoQ10 may protect against neuronal damage that is produced by ischemia, atherosclerosis and toxic injury. Though most have tended to be pilot studies, there are published preliminary clinical trials showing that CoQ10 may offer promise in many brain disorders. For example, a 16-month randomized, placebo-controlled pilot trial in 80 subjects with mild Parkinson's disease found significant benefits for oral CoQ10 1,200 mg/day to slow functional deterioration. However, to date, there are no published clinical trials of CoQ10 in Alzheimer's disease. Available data suggests that oral CoQ10 seems to be relatively safe and tolerated across the range of 300-2,400 mg/day. Randomized controlled trials are warranted to confirm CoQ10's safety and promise as a clinically effective neuroprotectant.     

Jealousy Revisited: Recent Philosophical Work on a Maligned Emotion

Taking as its starting point a previous work by the author which reviewed early philosophical sources on jealousy and proposed both a conceptual and moral account of this much-maligned emotion, the present article reviews the relevant philosophical literature from the last decade or so. Most noticeable is how scarce those sources still are. Special attention is given, however, to a new conceptual model proposed by Purshouse and Fredericks which rejects the standard architectonic of jealousy as a three-party compound emotion. While the essential contours of the new model are rejected, Fredericks is shown to offer some powerful misgivings about putative instrumentalist defences of jealousy. In addition to this new model, a number of other recent writings about jealousy – historical, conceptual and moral – are subjected to critical scrutiny in this overview article.     

An exploratory investigation of divergent thinking through protocol analysis

Verbal protocols were recorded while 21 MBA students at India's leading management school sought to solve a complex divergent thinking task. The content analysis of these protocols yielded five major categories and 23 subcategories of divergent thinking. The five major categories were problem structuring, searching, feeling, ideating, and evaluating. Ideating turned out to be the most commonly utilized category. The resort to ideating, that is, articulating solutions, was negatively correlated with feeling and problem structuring and positively correlated with evaluating. There were marked differences in the way the subjects tackled the divergent thinking task. Three cognitive styles were uncovered through cluster analysis: the intuitive ideator style, the anxious analyst style, and the random scanner style. Transitions among categories were examined, and yielded several recursive divergent thinking paths. Contrary to several extant models of creative problem solving, there was no marked evidence for sequentiality among the categories of divergent thinking. Most solutions to the divergent thinking problem were of the “objective”; type, that is, they actually existed in nature. A minority were “creative,”; that is, synthesized through an act of imagination. There was relatively greater tendency for objective solutions to be preceded by the use of searching, evaluating, and analytical mechanisms, and relatively greater tendency for creative solutions to be preceded by ideating (especially listing and elaboration), feeling, and redefinition mechanisms. Implications of the findings for models of divergent thinking are discussed.     

The effects of a modeling film on social isolation in preschool children: A methodological investigation

Children in a Headstart program N=113) were assessed on two occasions using a naturalistic observation system and peer sociometric measures. Thirtytwo children were selected by O'Connor's (1969, 1972) convergent criteria of teacher rankings and being below 15% peer interaction frequency. Half of the children saw an experimental modeling film designed to teach children how to initiate entry into peer groups and half of the children saw a control film. The present investigation included methodological elements left uncontrolled in previous investigations. Results indicated no significant multivariate Fratios for treatment main effects, sociometric main effects, or treatment by sociometric interactions. This failure to replicate previous results with the O'Connor film raises serious methodological criticisms of previous work with socially withdrawn children.The author wishes to acknowledge the help of Jonni Gonso, Brian Rasmussen, and Phil Schuler in carrying out the data collection for this study. Thanks are also due for the invitation to do the research and the patience shown by the staff of Headstart, Bloomington, Indiana.     

The Cultural Factor in Lay Perception of Jealousy as a Motive for Wife Battery1

Cultural psychology is concerned with the comparative study of the way culture and psyche shape each other: This process is particularly well illustrated in the social construction of some feelings. Although sexual jealousy seems to be universal, people differ in the intensity of their reactions and in the type of stimuli perceived as threatening. Replicating previous research in Britain by Delgado and Bond (1993), a questionnaire research survey was conducted in Spain to determine if lay perception considers jealousy a justification for wife battery. The comparison of results shows striking differences: The harmdoer was seen as more guilty in Britain and the victim was seen as more guilty in Spain. Results demonstrate cultural differences in the perception of jealousy; when jealousy is a motive for assault, there are also cultural differences in judgments of responsibility. Emotions function differently in different cultures regarding perceived causes and justification for conduct.     

On threat of shock as an elicitor of anxiety: a methodological note.

The effects of anxiety on the eyeblink component of the human startle response were measured in 32 college students. The manipulation of threat of shock was not successful in eliciting anxiety, suggesting that, while threat of shock can increase anxiety, this increase is not inevitable, illustrating the importance of a manipulation check of the effectiveness of the threat.     

Concept empiricism: a methodological critique

Thanks to Barsalou's, Damasio's, Glenberg's, Prinz' and others' work, neo-empiricism is gaining a deserved recognition in the psychology and philosophy of concepts. I argue, however, that neo-empiricists have underestimated the difficulty of providing evidence against the amodal approach to concepts and higher cognition. I highlight three key problems: the difficulty of sorting out amodal predictions from neo-empiricist predictions, the difficulty of finding experimental tasks that are not best solved by imagery and the difficulty of generalizing findings concerning a given cognitive process in a given context to other cognitive processes or other contexts. Finally, solutions to these three problems are considered.     

An investigation of high school social studies teachers' understandings of vocabulary teaching and learning

This qualitative study focused on high school social studies teachers' understandings of and perspectives about vocabulary acquisition and instruction. The research questions were the following: (1) What do high school social studies teachers understand about vocabulary instruction? and (2) How do high school social studies teachers support vocabulary learning? Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 25 high school social studies teachers. Findings indicate that external factors shaped instructional decision-making for teaching vocabulary, teachers' belief systems guided instructional choices, and the diverse needs of students called for differentiated instruction not only for English language learners but also for all students given the unique nature of the language of social studies.     

Therapists’ understandings and experiences of working with clients with problems of addiction: A pilot study using Q methodology

This pilot study aims to increase our understanding of therapists’ subjective attitudes, beliefs, and experiences of working with clients with problems of addiction. The study yielded useful clarifications, arising from the finding that opinions about the nature of addiction support different approaches to therapy. In addition, it seems that diverse or conflicting attitudes and beliefs are likely to impact on the ability of therapists to work together effectively. Another objective was to test the feasibility of using Q methodology in this study and more broadly in qualitative research in psychotherapy. Participants were 13 therapists from a variety of backgrounds and working in a range of agencies. Using Q methodology, four distinctive factors were identified, indicating divergent understandings of addiction. Each factor is shown to be a multifaceted construct which does not correspond to any single theory or therapeutic orientation. It is suggested that the results have significant implications for therapists’ training and supervision. In addition, this study demonstrates the capacity of Q methodology to identify commonalities and diversity in viewpoints which do not conform to a priori conceptualisations. As a pilot study, this paper invites further discussion and research.