The effects of reciprocal reactivity on positively and negatively valenced self-rated behaviors

Reactivity refers to behavioral changes that occur in a target behavior when some assessment procedure is used to record that behavior (Webb. Campbell. Schwanz and Sechrest, 1966). One example of these reactive effects is the change in response frequency that occurs when individuals are asked to self-record their own behavior. Several studies have demonstrated that self-recorded behaviors will increase or decrease in frequency (Ciminero. Nelson and Lipinski. 1977). Kanfer (1970) speculated that the direction of this reactive behavior change is related to the social norms or valence of the response. Thus, appropriate or positively valenced behaviors are likely to increase when they are self-monitored whereas inappropriate or negatively valenced behaviors would be more likely to decrease (e.g. Broden. Hall and Mitts. 1971).Cavior and Marabotto (1976) directly examined the effects of behavior valence on the direction of change due to self-monitoring. They used heterosexual dyads to compare the effects of various monitoring procedures on behaviors that were selected by subjects as having one of three valences: High social desirability, neutral social desirability, or low social desirability. They found that the valence of a target behavior was important in determining the direction of change: positive verbal behaviors increased whereas negative verbal behaviors decreased during the dyadic interactions.Reactive effects other than those found in self-monitoring have also received some attention. In an examination of the parameters of reactivity Ciminero. Graham and Jackson (1977) studied a phenomenon they labelled reciprocal reactivity. This term describes the behavior changes that occur in individuals who are asked to record the behavior of others. Ciminero et al. reported four single-case designs in which parameters of reciprocal reactivity were examined in female dyads. In the first three experiments, various motor responses (e.g. leg-kicking, head-nodding, or face-touching) decreased in subjects when they were asked to monitor those behaviors in their partners. The fourth experiment showed that self-monitoring resulted in greater decreases in response rate than did the reciprocal reactivity.As with self-monitoring, the valence of the target behavior may have an important influence on the direction of the behavior change due to reciprocal reactivity. Since the valence of behaviors targeted in the study by Cimineroet al. (1977) were not specifically evaluated the effects of valence could not be established. Therefore, the present study was designed to replicate the effects of reciprocal reactivity and to examine the influence of the valence of the target behaviors.     

Positive illusions: positively correlated with subjective well-being, negatively correlated with a measure of personal growth

Psychologists have long debated the benefits and costs of self-deceptive enhancement or positive illusions. Accurate perception of reality is central to the definitions of mental health proposed by many personality and clinical psychologists, but Taylor and Brown have suggested that having positive illusions is associated with increased happiness and satisfaction with life. One explanation for the conflicting assertions is that mental health, broadly defined, includes both subjective well-being and personal growth, distinguishable factors which are differentially related to positive illusions. For this study, 81 college students completed measures of positive illusions (Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding Self-deceptive Positivity and How I See Myself Questionnaire), subjective well-being (Satisfaction With Life Scale and Existential Anxiety Scale), and moral reasoning (Defining Issues Test) as an index of personal growth. As predicted, positive illusion composite scores were positively correlated with scores on the subjective well-being composite (r=.40) but negatively correlated with Defining Issues Test scores (r=-.25). The quadratic relationship between these measures of positive illusion and subjective well-being composites was not significant, indicating no support for an "optimal margin of illusion."     

Response persistence: the effects of stimulus control on negatively reinforced problem behavior in a concurrent operant

In the context of instructional demands, compliance and problem behavior can be considered concurrent operants. Of applied interest is increasing one response (i.e., compliance) while decreasing the other (i.e., problem behavior). Strategic arrangement of reinforcement can alter response allocation accordingly. Such schedules can also influence response persistence and generalization. A case study is used to illustrate the effects of stimulus-reinforcer relations in a concurrent-operants arrangement involving an adult with developmental disabilities and problem behavior. Results are discussed in the context of basic operant research findings in the areas of stimulus control and behavioral persistence.     

Predicting whether multiculturalism positively or negatively influences White Americans' intergroup attitudes: the role of ethnic identification

Multiculturalism, or the belief that racial and ethnic differences should be acknowledged and appreciated, has been met with both positive reactions (e.g., decreased prejudice) and negative reactions (e.g., perceptions of threat) from dominant group members. The present research proposes that multiculturalism can either positively or negatively influence White Americans' intergroup attitudes depending on their degree of ethnic identification. In Studies 1 and 2, White Americans primed with multiculturalism exhibited higher social dominance orientation (Study 1) and greater prejudice (Study 2), especially when they identified strongly with their ethnicity. In Study 3, perceptions of threat to group values were found to mediate the relation between multiculturalism, ethnic identification, and prejudice among White Americans. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for threat perceptions, ethnic identification, and conceptions of diversity.     

Memory for media: investigation of false memories for negatively and positively charged public events

Despite a large body of false memory research, little has addressed the potential influence of an event's emotional content on susceptibility to false recollections. The Paradoxical Negative Emotion (PNE) hypothesis predicts that negative emotion generally facilitates memory but also heightens susceptibility to false memories. Participants were asked whether they could recall 20 "widely publicised" public events (half fictitious) ranging in emotional valence, with or without visual cues. Participants recalled a greater number of true negative events (M=3.31/5) than true positive (M=2.61/5) events. Nearly everyone (95%) came to recall at least one false event (M=2.15 false events recalled). Further, more than twice as many participants recalled any false negative (90%) compared to false positive (41.7%) events. Negative events, in general, were associated with more detailed memories and false negative event memories were more detailed than false positive event memories. Higher dissociation scores were associated with false recollections of negative events, specifically.     

From good and bad to can and must: subjective necessity of acts associated with positively and negatively valued stimuli

In Study 1, 24 participants generated sentences expressing ways of dealing with positively and negatively valued noun stimuli (objects and humans). They were instructed to begin each sentence with One + auxiliary verb. The auxiliary was to be selected from a set including auxiliaries expressing high (must) and low (can) necessity. As predicted on the basis of a minimal nonsocial model of behavioral adaptation, higher necessity was associated with negative stimuli than with positive stimuli. In Study 2, this effect was replicated using trait adjectives as stimuli. Consistent with the model, the effect was produced by stimulus valences belonging to an approach‐avoidance related evaluative dimension ‘other‐profitability’. However, additional effects, involving an alternative evaluative dimension ‘self‐profitability’, were not fully accounted for by the model. They suggested that genuine social factors were involved that, however, were only required to explain some marginal effects. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessment of coping: an empirical illustration of the problem of inapplicable items

The prevalence and effects of inapplicable items on the Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WOC) were studied. Three hundred seventy-six college students completed the WOC twice, referring to both heterogeneous (i.e., different types of) and homogeneous (the same) stressors. In addition to the standard procedure for administering this questionnaire, subjects were asked to identify items that were inapplicable to the stressors with which they were coping. Item inapplicability ranged from 2.1% to 83.9%, with a mean of 21.5% inapplicability across all WOC items. Application of a correction for item inapplicability demonstrated that situational effects are confounded by this phenomenon and may not hold up when the correction is applied. Implications of these findings include the possibility that previous research has over- or misidentified situational effects on coping.     

Understanding associations between negatively biased attention and depression and social anxiety: positively biased attention is key

ABSTRACT

Background and objectives: Although research supports the premise that depressed and socially anxious individuals direct attention preferentially toward negative emotional cues, little is known about how attention to positive emotional cues might modulate this negative attention bias risk process. The purpose of this study was to determine if associations between attention biases to sad and angry faces and depression and social anxiety symptoms, respectively, would be strongest in individuals who also show biased attention away from happy faces.

Methods: Young adults (N?=?151; 79% female; M?=?19.63 years) completed self-report measures of depression and social anxiety symptoms and a dot probe task to assess attention biases to happy, sad, and angry facial expressions.

Results: Attention bias to happy faces moderated associations between attention to negatively valenced faces and psychopathology symptoms. However, attention bias toward sad faces was positively and significantly related to depression symptoms only for individuals who also selectively attended toward happy faces. Similarly, attention bias toward angry faces was positively and significantly associated with social anxiety symptoms only for individuals who also selectively attended toward happy faces.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that individuals with high levels of depression or social anxiety symptoms attend preferentially to emotional stimuli across valences.     

The effects of variable-time delivery of food items and praise on problem behavior reinforced by escape

Prior research indicates that reinforcement of an appropriate response (e.g., compliance) can produce concomitant reductions in problem behavior reinforced by escape when problem behavior continues to produce negative reinforcement (e.g., Lalli et al., 1999). These effects may be due to a preference for positive over negative reinforcement or to positive reinforcement acting as an abolishing operation, rendering demands less aversive and escape from demands less effective as negative reinforcement. In the current investigation, we delivered a preferred food item and praise on a variable-time 15-s schedule while providing escape for problem behavior on a fixed-ratio 1 schedule in a demand condition for 3 participants with problem behavior maintained by negative reinforcement. Results for all 3 participants showed that variable-time delivery of preferred edible items reduced problem behavior even though escape continued to be available for these responses. These findings are discussed in the context of motivating operations.     

MCMI-II diagnosis of borderline personality disorder: base rates versus prototypic items.

The Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II (MCMI-II) profiles of 26 psychiatric inpatients diagnosed as having borderline personality disorders were compared with profiles of 42 patients with no personality disorders. The borderline group scored significantly higher on the following scales: Disclosure (X), Debasement (Z), Passive-Aggressive (8A), Self-Defeating (8B), Borderline (C), and Major Depression (CC). Differences approaching significance were also found on substance abuse measures: the Alcohol Dependence (B) scale and Drug Dependence (T) scale. These findings are consistent with criteria established in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed., rev. [DSM-III-R]; American Psychiatric Association, 1987) and the results of other studies utilizing the MCMI-II. In addition, diagnostic efficiency of Scale C was assessed at various cutoff points defined by either base rate (BR) scores or the number of prototypic items endorsed. The greatest efficiency was found when a cutoff of seven or more prototypic items was utilized, with nearly 80% of the patients correctly classified. Results are discussed in terms of their relevance for further research.     

Repeated study of items with and without repeated context: aging effects on memory discriminability

Presenting items multiple times during encoding is a common way to enhance recognition accuracy. Under such conditions, older adults often show an increase in false recognition that counteracts benefits of repeated study. Using a false-memory paradigm with related study items and related lures, we tested whether repetition within the same encoding task or repetition across two different encoding tasks would be more beneficial to older adults’ memory discriminability. Results showed that, compared to items not repeated at study, items repeated in the same context and items repeated across different contexts showed improvements in memory discriminability in both young and older adults. This improvement was primarily reflected in improved recollection responses for both age groups across both repeat study conditions, as compared to no repetition. Importantly, the results demonstrated that repetition can be used to successfully mitigate age-related deficits by increasing memory discriminability and without incurring a cost of false recognition specific to any one age group.     

Preference for leisure items over edible items in individuals with dementia: A replication

We replicated previous research in which adults with dementia tended to show a preference for leisure items over edible items when presented in the same array. Additionally, we conducted engagement analyses with the highest, middle, and lowest preference leisure items to determine whether relative preference corresponded to engagement in the natural environment. The most highly preferred stimulus for 6 out of 7 participants was a leisure item, and for each of those six the top 3 preferred stimuli were leisure stimuli. For 4 participants, the most preferred stimulus also produced the longest duration of engagement. We discuss the issues we encountered when conducting preference assessments with adults with intact vocal verbal repertoires, and suggest potential explanations for the displacement of edibles by leisure stimuli in older adults with dementia.     

Dissociations in performance on novel versus irregular items: single-route demonstrations with input gain in localist and distributed models

Four pairs of connectionist simulations are presented in which quasi-regular mappings are computed using localist and distributed representations. In each simulation, a control parameter termed input gain was modulated over the only level of representation that mapped inputs to outputs. Input gain caused both localist and distributed models to shift between regularity-based and item-based modes of processing. Performance on irregular items was selectively impaired in the regularity-based modes, whereas performance on novel items was selectively impaired in the item-based modes. Thus, the models exhibited double dissociations without separable processing components. These results are discussed in the context of analogous dissociations found in language domains such as word reading and inflectional morphology.     

The impact of differentially valued overlapping categorizations upon the differentiation between positively,negatively, and neutrally evaluated social groups

The present study attempted to determine whether the impact of overlapping cate-gorizations upon intergroup differentiation should be attributed to cognitive category differentiation processes or whether motivational social identity processes do also inter-vene. Experimentally created groups were placed in one of four overlapping categor-ization conditions: the overlapping category was either absent or it was affectively positive, negative, or neutral. These groups were also differentially evaluated by providing them with positive, negative, or no feedback. Subjects estimated then the performance of the two groups in an experimental task. Thereupon, their self-esteem and their liking of the groups were also measured. The presence of an overlapping category had no impact upon the performance evaluations of positively evaluated groups. Negatively evaluated groups favoured the outgroup but the presence of an overlapping category led to a reduction of this perceived ingroup inferiority. The groups of the no-feedback condition exhibited ingroup favouritism. The presence of a positive and of a neutral overlapping category reduced this bias but the presence of a negatively evaluated overlapping category strongly enhanced it. The impact of overlapping categories upon the liking measure was less pronounced. Group members' self-esteem was influenced by the experimentally manipulated factors, but these effects did not really support social identity theory. The theoretical implications of the data are discussed.     

Assessing privacy invasiveness of psychological test items: Job relevant versus clinical measures of integrity

This pilot study was conducted to determine if clinically-oriented test items are judged to be more offensive than job-related test items. Clinical tests typically ask more personal questions while employment tests usually ask job-relevant questions. A random selection of items from three employment tests was analyzed. Two of the tests evolved from clinical-personality tests, while the third test was designed specifically for employment settings. The results suggest that if companies are interested in using employment tests that are perceived as being job-relevant, inoffensive, and non-invasive, then they should consider selecting tests that include job-relevant items as opposed to tests that are derivatives of clinical assessment instruments.     

Establishing versus preserving impressions: Predicting success in the multiple audience problem

People sometimes seek to convey discrepant impressions of themselves to different audiences simultaneously. Research suggests people are generally successful in this “multiple audience problem.” Adding to previous research, the current research sought to examine factors that may limit this success by measuring social anxiety and placing participants into situations requiring them to either establish or preserve multiple impressions simultaneously. In general, participants were more successful when preserving previously conveyed impressions than when establishing impressions for the first time. In contrast, social anxiety did not affect multiple audience success. In all, this research offers valuable insight into potential challenges that people face in many social situations.     

The effects of control on betting: paradoxical betting on items of high confidence with low value

Traditional decision theories emphasize the probabilities and values of possible outcomes, but decisions may also be influenced by perceived control, with control defined as probability alterability. In 3 experiments, participants were offered bets on their own answers to general knowledge questions, bets that are characterized by control. The bets were fair if participants' reported confidence was well calibrated, positively valued if participants were underconfident, but unfavorable when participants were overconfident. Bet acceptance was a steep, linear, increasing function of confidence that is termed paradoxical betting. This pattern was generally contrary to the value of bets (considered either as average outcome or as subjective utility) and was steeper in slope than matched bets on apparently random events in Experiment 3. The author argues that control is a fundamental determinant of decision making that is readily incorporated in some existing models of decision weighting.     

Insight problem solving in individuals with high versus low schizotypy

Insight problem solving requires restructuring of a problem space by stepping out of the framework provided by the commonly activated cognitive schemas and acquiring a new perspective on the problem. Schizotypy has been linked with loosened associative and overinclusive thinking that may be advantageous for this process. The present study tested this hypothesis and found that individuals with a high degree of schizotypy show better performance on a set of insight problems relative to individuals with low schizotypy, but not on a set of incremental problems that required focused goal-related thinking. Results support the notion that schizotypy is associated not only with enhanced abilities in creative processes involved in divergent thinking but also in creative operations during analytical problem solving.     

Introduction: primitivism versus reductionism about the problem of the unity of the proposition

Synthese - We present here the papers selected for the volume on the Unity of Propositions problems. After summarizing what the problems are, we locate them in a spectrum from those aiming to...