自恋与青少年亲社会行为之间的关系

本文以青少年为研究对象,使用相关研究和实验设计探究自恋与亲社会倾向及与现实情境中亲社会行为的关系。研究1表明,对男性而言,自恋与公开的亲社会倾向之间存在正相关,与匿名的亲社会倾向之间不存在相关;而女性的自恋与公开、匿名的亲社会倾向之间均不存在显著相关。研究2通过行为实验证实,在公开的情境下,男性青少年中高自恋者比低自恋者做出更多的亲社会行为;而在非公开的情境下,高低自恋者的亲社会行为没有差异。研究结果揭示,男性青少年自恋者将亲社会行为作为自我调节的策略之一。     

Developmental trends in the appraisal of anxiety-provoking situations

Empirical results on the appraisal of anxiety-provoking situations are integrated with general findings on perceptual and cognitive growth. It was hypothesized that younger teenagers would appraise relations between anxiety-provoking situations on the basis of manifest and perceptually salient characteristics of the situations more so than would older teenagers, whereas the latter group would view relations predominantly on the basis of latent, anticipatory qualities. The hypothesis was tested with a similarity rating method designed to enable subjects to rate similarity between situations both from manifest and latent situation characteristics. The results supported the hypothesis. Implications of results for stability of cross-situational behavior was discussed.     

Transfer effects in isomorphic problem situations

The results of a recent experiment to assess the relationship between human problem solving behaviour and the structural properties of certain problems are presented. The results suggest that human performance in a problem-solving task is significantly influenced by immediately prior experience on a different but structurally identical problem. Specifically, transfer effects are demonstrated across two problems of isomorphic structure.     

A comparison of four causal factors of embarrassment in public and private situations

In this study the authors investigated which of 4 causal factors of embarrassment is most characteristic in public and in private situations. University students (N = 288) were presented with 2 scenes representing public or private situations and were asked to rate 17 items related to the 4 factors causing embarrassment. The results indicated that in the public situation the causal factors were ordered as (a) disruption of social interaction, (b) apprehension of social evaluation, (c) inconsistency with self-image, and (d) loss of self-esteem, and in the private situation causal factors were ordered as (a) loss of self-esteem, (b) inconsistency with self-image, (c) apprehension of social evaluation, and (d) disruption of social interaction. From these results, new models for the mediating mechanism of embarrassment are proposed.     

Insensitivity to children: Responses of undergraduates to children in problem situations

A study focused on insensitivity of adults to children was presented and discussed. The responses of 100 male and 100 female college undergraduates to hypothetical parent-child problem situations indicated a general lack of communication concerning the child's and their own feelings. However, when the problems involved adult needs being aroused and thwarted, theSs responses were both more insensitive and destructive than when the confrontation centered around only the child's aroused needs. In the latter case theSs did focus their communications more on the child's feelings and how he or she could express them. The results have implications for understanding effective adult behavior and reciprocal adult-child influences on the development of child-behavior dysfunctions.The research reported in this paper was supported in part by Grant MH 16444 from the U.S. Public Health Service, National Institute of Mental Health.The help of Lawrence Messe, Joel Aronoff, Luch Ferguson, and Albert Rabin is very gratefully acknowledged. We also wish to acknowledge the help of Kathy Barrie, Lew Borman, Deletha Crum, and Eli Karimi, who served as coders.     

Resolution of a drug abuse problem in a private practice setting

This case study involves a 27-year-old male who began therapy in an effort to understand his drug abuse. As an essential part of treatment, the client was asked to abstain from drugs. In doing so, he began to experience and understand the feelings of anxiety which drugs had defended him against.The therapeutic technique used provided for the therapist to establish an interaction with the client by playing the dual role of the supportive, yet assertive father and the soothing, yet separation-encouraging mother. Consequently, the client was able to experience, confront and work through his anxiety.     

Social problem solving in unsafe situations: Implications for sexual abuse education programs

Examined the impact of two subject variables (age and gender) and two contextual factors (antagonist age and nature of the social dilemma) on children's social problem solving (SPS). Preschoolers (N=62) were individually presented with four stories that varied the antagonist age (peer vs. adult) and social dilemma (nonsexual vs. sexual). Responses were coded for three SPS variables: number of alternative solutions, solution content, and planfulness. Younger preschoolers were less competent problem solvers in all types of unsafe situations, and, compared to girls, some aspects of boys' problem solving were compromised in sexual encounters. Results also suggest that the nature of the social dilemma, but not the age of the antagonist, affects perschoolers' SPS. Children generated fewer alternative solutions and fewer effective strategies to the sexual encounters compared to the nonsexual dilemmas. Findings are discussed in relation to research on children's SPS and child sexual abuse prevention efforts.     

Siblings as babysitters: responses of adolescents to younger siblings in problem situations.

Adolescents (75 males, 150 females) assumed the role of parent surrogate and responded to nine problem situations involving younger siblings. Responses were coded into 21 categories--grouped as high, medium, low and non-power as well as "effective" or "ineffective"--and analyzed by sex, grade (10, 11, or 12) and birth order (first-, second-, or laterborn). Ninety-two percent of responses were categorized as "ineffective" (i.e., not communicating own or sibling's feelings). Seniors used less high and more medium and non-power responses than younger students. Most students, particularly females, expressed interest in joining a group to learn better ways of relating to younger siblings.     

The goal structure of situations

An empirical method for analysing the goal structure within and between persons in different social situations is described. The method involves establishing the main goals of occupants of situational roles and then finding out how the different goals inter-relate in terms of degree and type/direction of conflict and compatibility. Principal components analyses were carried out on ratings of importance of goals of those in different situational roles. Criteria of high factor loadings combined with high mean importance ratings were used to produce the main higher order goals for each of the roles. The goals for the six roles studied were, in each case except one: social acceptance/developing relationships, own well being and achieving a specific situational task goal. However, the precise nature of these goals is rather different in the different situations. Inter-relationship of goals was studied using ratings of conflict or compatibility between pairs of goals within and across roles of each situation. The results were used to describe the goal structures of the different situations. The situation with the most conflict between goals was, as expected, the complaint. Ways were suggested in which knowledge of the goal structure, particularly the points of conflict, could help with skilful handling of potentially difficult social situations.     

The relationship between motivation and achievement in interdependent situations

This meta‐analysis investigates the degree to which achievement is positively associated with motivation within situations characterized by positive, negative, and no interdependence. First, the relative effects of positive, negative, and no interdependence on motivation and achievement were determined. Then the amount of variance in achievement explained by motivation (and vice versa) was calculated. In all, 629 independent studies were included, representing 26 different countries. Results also showed that motivation accounted for 14% of the variance in achievement (and vice versa). When the lowest‐quality studies were eliminated, the percentage of achievement explained by motivation increased to 24%. Positive interdependence resulted in greater motivation and achievement than did negative or no interdependence. Implications for theory and application are discussed.     

The reward value of near-miss situations

Svartdal, F. (2011). The reward value of near‐miss situations. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology52, 209–217. What is a “positive” outcome? Clearly, obtaining something attractive is regarded as positive, but so is avoiding something negative. The present paper compared these two types of situations in scenario‐type evaluations. Participants rated positive (P), avoiding negative (AN), and negative (N) outcomes in terms of luck (Experiment 1) and overall positive/negative evaluations (Experiments 2 and 3). The results demonstrated that evaluations of P and AN outcomes were judged as equally positive, but the emotional basis for these evaluations was very different: The feeling of relief was the dominating emotion in AN situations, whereas joy was the dominating emotion in P situations. Overall, these results indicate that avoidance‐induced reward value may be important as a motivating factor in cognition and action.