A Comparison of Survey Data Collected by Regular Mail and Electronic Mail Questionnaires

A survey was conducted by the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME) to examine the telecommunications needs of the organization's membership. A component of this study permitted an examination of two response modalities (regular mail and e-mail) across a number of variables. Separate samples of 585 were drawn to take the survey. The first sample consisted of all those organization members who had registered their e-mail address with the organization while the second sample was randomly selected from those members who did not list an e-mail address. The first group was sent a nine question instrument via e-mail while the second group was asked to fill out a ten question instrument via regular mail. Overall response rates were low and significantly different [30% for the e-mail group and 36% for the regular mail group, ² (1) = 10.42, p < .01], though not uncommon for institutional surveys. Individual item response rates, however, were statistically significantly higher for the e-mail group across a number of dimensions. The results suggest that for some organizations, e-mail questionnaires may be a viable mechanism for conducting surveys. Suggestions are made on how to improve overall response rates.     

Mail Surveys of Faculty and Acquaintances-of-the-Researcher Bias

Abstract

(Morris C. Signs, Languages, and Behavior. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1946. Pp. 365.) Reviewed by Ira Jean Hirsh     

Using Mail Questionnaires in Multifirm Studies of Sales Representatives

Abstract

As further efforts are made to construct theories of sales force behavior, increasing emphasis will be placed on studying sales forces across several firms in an effort to produce generalized results. This study reports on an experiment which tests four methods of improving response from sales representatives in a multifirm survey.     

Mood Management Mail Intervention Increases Abstinence Rates for Spanish-Speaking Latino Smokers

A self-administered mood management intervention program for smoking cessation provided through the mail to Spanish-speaking Latinos resulted in a 23% abstinence rate at 3 months compared to an 11% abstinence rate for a smoking cessation guide alone. Participants (N = 136) were randomly assigned to receive either the cessation guide (the Guía), or the Guía plus a mood management intervention (Tomando Control de su Vida) presented in writing and in audiotape format. At 3 months after random assignment, 16 out of 71 of those assigned to the Guía-plus-mood management condition reported being abstinent (not smoking for at least 7 days) compared to 7 out of 65 in the Guía-only condition (z = 1.8; p = .04, one-tailed). Moreover, those with a history of major depressive episodes, but not currently depressed, reported an even higher abstinence rate in the Guía-plus-mood management condition, compared to the Guía-only condition (31 vs. 11%, z = 1.8, p = .04, one-tailed). We conclude that the mood management mail intervention substantially increases abstinence rates, especially for those with a history of major depressive episodes.     

Thinking outside the ballot box

A deeply heterogeneous set of ideological cohorts have shaped the course of history. From anarchists and authoritarians to Zionists and Zapatistas, the expansive alphabet of politics demands an equally expansive psychological vocabulary to describe political belief systems. We propose that constructing such a vocabulary is best facilitated by decentering familiar models that emphasize psychological differences between leftists and rightists. Synthesizing recent developments in the fields of personality, political science, and psychopathology, we characterize individual variation in politics as high-dimensional, heterarchical, intrapersonally eclectic, and contextually shaped and activated. Developing a data-driven taxonomic model of political-psychological phenomena will help create a foundational base of knowledge within political psychology that is more rigorous, more replicable, and certainly richer to investigate.     

Blocking the box: an informal look.

Data for 32 1-hr. observations in a residential community showed about 200 violations of a traffic regulation requiring motorists to keep intersections clear. Women driving vans were the least compliant--accounting for approximately 40% of the total.     

Sequential effects of non-reward in a skinner box

The partial reinforcement extinction effect was examined within subjects in a simultaneous discrimination in a two bar Skinner box. Discrete trials were used, rats being required to press the bar under the illuminated cue light; one bar was correlated with 100% the other with 50% reinforcement. The three groups differed in the probability of a change in the cue light between trials during acquisition. When this probability was low, the 50% bar was preferred in extinction, while when it was higher (0.433 or 0.875) the 100% bar was preferred. These results confirm Capaldi's (1966) hypothesis of the partial reinforcement extinction effect, and support a suggested explanation of some conflicting results on partial reinforcement effects in a Skinner box.     

Overconfidence at the Keyboard: Confidence and Accuracy in Interpreting Affect in E‐Mail Exchanges

Gesture, voice, expression, and context add richness to communications that increase chances of accurate interpretation. E‐mails lack much of this richness, leading readers to impose their own richness. Three experiments tested the effect of communicator relationship and availability of context on e‐mail writer and reader confidence levels and accuracy. Effects of nonverbal and verbal behavior were also investigated. Results showed that confidence levels for both writers and readers were high, yet somewhat unwarranted based on accuracy rates. Further, writers had more confidence that friends would correctly interpret e‐mails than strangers, although friends showed no more accuracy. Findings suggest that reliance upon friendship and context, as well as verbal and nonverbal cues, to interpret emotion in e‐mail is ineffective, sometimes detrimental.     

A parallel breakout box for I/O monitoring

The construction and use of a parallel breakout box for input/output (I/O) monitoring is discussed. A standard chip for I/O is used along with circuitry, light-emitting diodes, and switches to allow researchers to simulate the running of computer-controlled experiments.     

Mental disorder as a black box essentialist concept.

This is a reply to commentaries on the target article (J. C. Wakefield, 1999) on the evolutionary foundations of the concept of mental disorder in defense of the harmful dysfunction analysis (HDA) of disorder. The author argues that the HDA is adequate to explain disorder and nondisorder judgments and is not disconfirmed by any of the claimed counterexamples put forward by the commentators; the commentators' proposed alternatives to the HDA are inadequate to explain disorder and nondisorder judgments; and the concept of natural function is a factual, scientific concept, contrary to K. W. M. Fulford's (1999) claim that it is inherently evaluative. The foundations of the HDA are clarified by providing a black box essentialist analysis (H. Putnam, 1975; J. C. Wakefield, 1997, in press) of the concept of natural function that underlies the concept of disorder.     

Referred sensations induced by a mirror box in healthy subjects

Twenty-one healthy subjects were instructed to observe the mirror image of the tactile stimulation of their own hand (control condition) or an assistant’s hand (experimental condition) while being queried about the referred sensation (RS) in their own masked hand behind the mirror. The rated intensity of the RS under the experimental condition was significantly stronger than that under the control condition. In a second experiment, the experimental condition was replaced with the tactile stimulation of a prosthetic (rubber) hand, and was compared with the tactile stimulation of the subject’s own hand (control condition). In both of the experiments, the rated intensity of RS was significantly stronger under the experimental condition than under the control condition. The qualitative characteristics of the induced RS on the mirror image hand—including the location, sense of ownership, and various subjective feelings—were also found to vary among subjects. In conclusion, an RS could be induced in healthy subjects on the mirror image of the hand by tactile stimulations, although this effect differed substantially among individuals.     

Pandora's box: An investigation of essay anxiety in adolescents

Abstract

This paper is an investigation into possible causes of essay anxiety experienced by adolescent students. The three students are presented as being representative of three broader categories: the non-starter, the non-completer and the non-exhibitor. Parallels are drawn between the student essay and student family relationships, and essay anxiety is explored in terms of the utilization of defences against the anxiety of loss. In the process, there is an attempt to appreciate some of the deeply rooted, inter-related, developmental factors - in particular, tolerance of aggressive impulses and the experience of the good object as modifying container - which might affect the student's ability to deal productively with an essay.