Thinking about thinking: Causal,evaluative and finalistic cognitions about social situations

The present article is concerned with first considerations and data for a theory of social cognitions. A taxonomy of social cognitions is suggested comprising three classes: causal, evaluative and finalistic thinking. These classes are subdivided according to the social perspective taken, i.e. self-directed versus other-directed thinking. The situational preconditions of these social cognition classes are studied in different social episodes each comprising either positive or negative, expected or unexpected events. The results show that the most reasoning about a situation occurs when it is an important private episode with an unexpected and affectively negatively experienced event. The data concerning the natural occurrence of the three cognition classes is interpreted as providing suggestions of their functional meaning: The functions of the three classes of social cognitions are labelled ‘information integration’ (self-directed evaluative thinking), ‘action planning’ (self-directed finalistic thinking and other-directed causal thinking), ‘control of negative feelings’ (self-directed causal, and finalistic thinking) and ‘understanding’ (other-directed finalistic and evaluative thinking and self-directed causal thinking).     

Self-report of basic symptoms among psychotic and nonpsychotic subjects

Basic symptoms, as defined and described by the Bonn Scale, were assessed by means of a new self-report inventory, the Rome Basic Disorders Scale. On all the subscales, psychiatric outpatients (n = 105; most frequent diagnoses: Schizophrenia, Anxiety Disorders, and Mood Disorders) scored significantly higher (p < .001) than nonclinical controls (n = 105). Psychiatric patients with at least one diagnosis on the psychotic sets of Foulds' hierarchical inventory (n = 45), compared with the rest of the psychiatric sample (n = 60), had significantly higher scores on nearly all subscales. Two groups of inpatients with Schizophrenia (n = 20) and Mood Disorders (n = 20) were tested on Day 2 and 9 of hospitalization in an emergency ward. Schizophrenic patients had significantly higher scores on most of the subscales, but only on Day 9; on Day 2 depressed and manic patients scored significantly higher on four subscales. Until now basic symptoms had not been studied during the intrapsychotic phase, mainly because of their transformation into first-rank symptoms; present findings suggest that basic symptoms are active also at the height of the psychotic breakdown and that they are more responsive to treatment in Depression and Mania than in Schizophrenia.     

Self-report measures of defeat and entrapment during a brief depressive mood induction

Recent studies have reported that depression is strongly associated with perceptions of defeat and entrapment, and have proposed that such perceptions are central features of depression. This study used experimental mood induction procedures to investigate the putative causal relationship between perceptions of defeat/entrapment and depressed mood. Two groups of female undergraduate volunteers (n = 16) completed visual analogue mood scales, as well as Defeat and Entrapment scales, before and after either a negative or a positive musical mood induction procedure (MIP). Scores on the Defeat and Entrapment Scales were significantly correlated with scores on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The negative MIP caused a worsening of mood and significantly increased perceptions of defeat and entrapment, particularly internal entrapment. The positive MIP caused a small but significant improvement in mood, and significantly decreased defeat scores. Individuals with elevated BDI or internal entrapment scores prior to the negative MIP showed the greatest increases in internal entrapment after the negative mood induction. The results demonstrate that induction of a depressed mood increases perceptions of defeat and entrapment, and suggest that, in the case of internal entrapment, this effect increases with the initial level of depression or entrapment.     

The impact of open and closed mindsets on evaluative priming

In the present research, we argue that open versus closed mindsets, accompanying ongoing versus completed mental jobs on the prime, determine the size of congruity effects in the evaluative priming paradigm. More specifically, we hypothesised that disfluent primes that resist an easily completed encoding process should induce an open mindset and thereby result in stronger congruity effects than fluent primes that induce closed mindsets. Across two experiments, we applied two different manipulations of prime fluency: gradual demasking (Experiment 1) and colour contrast (Experiment 2). As expected, in both experiments we found robust congruity effects, but only on trials with disfluent (vs. fluent) primes. Results of a follow-up experiment suggest that these effects are not due to attentional processes. We conclude that the mindsets resulting from individuals' activities during encoding are crucial in determining the outcome of evaluative priming effects.     

Self-report, peer-report, and teacher-report measures of childhood depression: an analysis by item.

We explored the low correlation among different types of childhood depression measures at the item level. The items from the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), Peer Nomination Inventory of Depression (PNID), and the Child Behavior Checklist-Teacher Report Form (CBCL-T) were combined, and both first- and second-order factor analyses were conducted. Results indicate that self-report, peer-report, and teacher-report assessments of depression measure generally uncorrelated constructs. Second-order analysis suggests that depression as a global construct is being measured to some degree by items from all three instruments. Canonical analysis was employed to identify items that best predicted CDI, PNID, and CBL-T summary scores simultaneously. Also, the relationship between specific items with similar content was investigated. Results from these analyses generally supported a conclusion that the three types of measures yield scores that are primarily independent and that the use of summary scores is not masking stronger relationships within measures. These findings have implications for clinical practice and construct elaboration.     

The impact of open and closed mindsets on evaluative priming

In the present research, we argue that open versus closed mindsets, accompanying ongoing versus completed mental jobs on the prime, determine the size of congruity effects in the evaluative priming paradigm. More specifically, we hypothesised that disfluent primes that resist an easily completed encoding process should induce an open mindset and thereby result in stronger congruity effects than fluent primes that induce closed mindsets. Across two experiments, we applied two different manipulations of prime fluency: gradual demasking (experiment 1) and colour contrast (experiment 2). As expected, in both experiments we found robust congruity effects, but only on trials with disfluent (vs. fluent) primes. Results of a follow-up experiment suggest that these effects are not due to attentional processes. We conclude that the mindsets resulting from individuals' activities during encoding are crucial in determining the outcome of evaluative priming effects.     

Willingness to fake: Examining the impact of competitive climate and hiring situations

Applicants may be willing to fake in job interviews with the aim of creating a positive impression. In two vignette‐based experiments, we examined if a competitive—versus noncompetitive—climate (Study 1) and hiring situation (Study 2) increased participants' willingness to fake. We also examined if Honesty–Humility and Competitive Worldviews moderated the relation between willingness to fake and how competitive participants believed they must be in order to secure the job. Results demonstrated that a competitive climate and hiring situation increased willingness to fake. Honesty–Humility and Competitive Worldviews were related to willingness to fake, but these relations did not change substantially at different levels of perceived need for competitiveness. Overall, results lend some theoretical support to propositions about applicant faking.     

Relations among measures of trait empathy, empathetic response, and willingness to get involved in customer-contact situations

This study examined anticipated reactions to nonroutine occurrences in the context of emotionally laden customer-contact situations in retail stores. Correlations between measures of the dimensions of trait empathy, anticipated emotional responses to the situations, and self-rated willingness to be involved were examined. Anticipated Compassion mediated the relation of Empathetic Concern on Involvement Willingness in 3 of 4 imaginary compassion-evoking situations. No corresponding effect was observed for Anticipated Distress in the imaginary distress-evoking situations.     

Estimating the impact of variable costs on SDy in complex situations

The inclusion of variable costs when estimating the standard deviation of job performance in dollars has been the basis for a number of highly important advances in utility analysis (e.g. Boudreau, 1983; Boudreau & Berger, 1985). However, no studies have shown the feasibility of incorporating variable costs in situations where multiple types of costs might require global estimation of variable costs. Results obtained from a nationwide sample of insurance personnel indicated that global estimates of variable costs were feasible to obtain in such complex situations but that those costs were not a fixed percentage of the value of job performance. Judges reported that the most important inputs of information into their estimates of the value of job performance in dollars were performance and output as well as initiative of the job holder. Surprisingly, salary related information was not reported as a relatively important input.The authors wish to thank Patricia G. Roth, Bart Osburn, and Jim Phillips for reviewing previous drafts of this work and contributing their valuable comments. The paper has improved as a result of their insights.     

Reevaluating evaluative conditioning: a nonassociative explanation of conditioning effects in the visual evaluative conditioning paradigm.

In 2 studies, the authors investigated whether evaluative conditioning (EC) is an associative phenomenon. Experiment 1 compared a standard EC paradigm with nonpaired and no-treatment control conditions. EC effects were obtained only when the conditioned stimulus (CS) and unconditioned stimulus (UCS) were rated as perceptually similar. However, similar EC effects were obtained in both control groups. An earlier failure to obtain EC effects was reanalyzed in Experiment 2. Conditioning-like effects were found when comparing a CS with the most perceptually similar UCSs used in the procedure but not when analyzing a CS rating with respect to the UCS with which it was paired during conditioning. The implications are that EC effects found in many studies are not due to associative learning and that the special characteristics of EC (conditioning without awareness and resistance to extinction) are probably nonassociative artifacts of the EC paradigm.     

Investitations of the ongoing stressful situations among those with chronic illness

This paper examines methods of adaptation among those faced with stress from chronic health problems. Studies of disabled older adults and those with muscular-skeletal disorders are described with special emphasis on the role of everyday life events, and the threats to well-being imposed by chronic stressors. Attention is paid not only to psychological distress as outcome of a failure to adapt, but also to indices of psychological well-being which provide evidence of the benefits for those who cope successfully with chronic illness. The paper examines evidence for the proposition that everyday stressors can influence physiological processes linked to disease course. The implications of these findings for social interventions are discussed from community and health psychology perspectives. Editor’s Note: Alex Zautra was honored at the 104^th annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in Toronto, Canada, in August 1996. Dr. Zautra received the 1996 Barbara Dohrenwend Memorial Award by the Society for Community Research and Action: the Division of Community Psychology of the American Psychological Association. This work was supported by biomedical grants to the first author from the Arthritis Foundation, and the National Institute on Arthritis and Muscular-Skeletal Diseases (R01 AR41687).     

Self-report measures of child and adolescent psychopathy as predictors of offending in four samples of justice-involved youth

The authors examined the relation between self-report psychopathy measures and official records of offending in four samples of justice-involved youth (total N = 447). Psychopathy measures included the Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD) and a modified version of the Childhood Psychopathy Scale (mCPS). Measures of offending included the total number of preadmission arrest charges for three samples (n = 392) and the total number of offenses in the year following release for two samples (n = 138). Neither measure was a strong correlate of preadmission offenses. Although mCPS scores were associated with postrelease offending in one sample, effects for the APSD were observed only when reoffending was conceptualized as a dichotomous variable, indicating a lack of robustness in this association. The findings suggest caution in the use of self-report measures of psychopathic features for decision making with respect to issues of delinquency risk among justice-involved youth.     

Predicting changes in children's self-perceptions of academic competence: a naturalistic examination of evaluative discourse among classmates

Classroom discourse was examined as a predictor of changes in children's beliefs about their academic capabilities. Kindergarten, first-grade, and second-grade students (N = 106) participated in 2 waves of data collection, approximately 1 year apart. During the 1st year of the study, children's verbal interactions with their classmates were observed and recorded. Children rated their self-perceptions of academic competence during the 1st and 2nd years. Analyses revealed that changes over time in children's competence perceptions could be predicted from the types of statements that children made and had directed toward them by classmates. Examining sequences of child and classmate statements proved helpful in explaining the observed changes in children's perceptions of competence.     

On winnowing: The impact of scarcity on allocators' evaluations of candidates for a resource

It was hypothesized that allocators unwittingly forge a relation between the availability of a resource and the worthiness of the applicants for that resource. In a simulation of an academic job search, graduate students were instructed to hire either 2 or 6 of 12 excellent candidates. Subjects spoke into a tape recordor reporting their initial reactions to each of the candidate's vitae, then made their hiring decisions, and rated the desirability of each of the candidates. Next, they were told they could now hire more of the applicants if they wished to do so. In a control condition, subjects were treated identically to experimental subjects in all aspects of the procedure but one—they did not anticipate and were not required to make hiring decisions. Instead, they rank ordered the applicants in terms of quality with the knowledge that “their department” wished to hire either 2 or 6 people. As hypothesized, subjects anticipating 2 appointments made fewer positive comments about the candidates on the audiotapes than did those anticipating 6 appointments; subjects in the experimental condition evaluated the candidates they hired more favorably than subjects in the control condition evaluated their own top-ranked candidates; subjects who were initially required to hire 2 candidates continued to employ fewer applicants than those who initially hired 6 when external hiring constraints were removed. The implications of the data for the review process in academic psychology journals were discussed.     

Selective exposure among advisors: the impact of impression motivation

Audience confirmation bias (ACB) refers to the extent to which people prefer information supporting (vs. conflicting with) their audience's views. In two studies, we showed that advisors shifted their ACB toward the needs of their advisees (i.e., audience): When advisors were led to believe that their advisees wanted to defend their views, the ACB was higher compared with when advisees were open minded for critique. Study 2 indicated that this pattern occurred because advisors wanted to have a pleasant interaction with their advisees (impression motivation): Whereas impression‐motivated advisors exhibited a stronger ACB when they were asked to give advice to a defensive (vs. open‐minded) advisee, accuracy‐motivated advisors showed a balanced ACB, regardless of their advisee's needs.