Habit and persistence

Voluntary behaviors (operants) can come in two varieties: Goal-directed actions, which are emitted based on the remembered value of the reinforcer, and habits, which are evoked by antecedent cues and performed without the reinforcer's value in active memory. The two are perhaps most clearly distinguished with the reinforcer-devaluation test: Goal-directed actions are suppressed when the reinforcer is separately devalued and responding is tested in extinction, and habitual behaviors are not. But what is the function of habit learning? Habits are often thought to be strong and unusually persistent. The present selective review examines this idea by asking whether habits identified by the reinforcer-devaluation test are more resistant to extinction, resistant to the effects of other contingency change, vulnerable to relapse, resistant to the weakening effects of context change, or permanently in place once they are learned. Surprisingly little evidence supports the idea that habits are permanent or more persistent. Habits are more context-specific than goal-directed actions are. Methods that make behavior persistent do not necessarily work by encouraging habit. The function of habit learning may not be to make a behavior strong or more persistent but to make it automatic and efficient in a particular context.     

Measurement and interpretation of situational and dispositional attributions

Four problems with the measurement of situational and dispositional causality are reviewed. These are: the assumption that dispositional and situational causality are inversely linked; the diversity of the causes considered within the situational and dispositional categories; the difficulties of differentiating between causes internal and external to the actor; and the low convergent validity of various closed-ended attribution measures. A study reaffirms the lack of convergence among closed-ended measures and between closed and open-ended measures as well. In a second study, subjects' ratings of closed-ended attributions are taken as indicators that a freely chosen to not freely chosen dimension may better represent subjects' attributional thought than the internal/external dimension does. Open-ended data from the convergence study are recoded using this scheme and achieve significantly better convergence with closed-ended data. The implications of this redefinition for solving the various measurement problems are discussed.     

Conceptualizing and testing random indirect effects and moderated mediation in multilevel models: new procedures and recommendations

The authors propose new procedures for evaluating direct, indirect, and total effects in multilevel models when all relevant variables are measured at Level 1 and all effects are random. Formulas are provided for the mean and variance of the indirect and total effects and for the sampling variances of the average indirect and total effects. Simulations show that the estimates are unbiased under most conditions. Confidence intervals based on a normal approximation or a simulated sampling distribution perform well when the random effects are normally distributed but less so when they are nonnormally distributed. These methods are further developed to address hypotheses of moderated mediation in the multilevel context. An example demonstrates the feasibility and usefulness of the proposed methods.     

Counselling Psychologists and Counsellors: New Challenges and Opportunities

The next three or four years are likely to see the emergence of a new professionally recognised group of British counsellors. They will be known as counselling psychologists. The developments that will lead to the establishment of this new professional group are outlined and some of the ways in which counsellors and counselling psychologists may complement each other's work are examined. Some anxieties are voiced about how overlapping professional boundaries might produce friction between the two groups, and a few ideas about how this may be avoided or minimised are suggested.     

Variances and Covariances of Kendall's Tau and Their Estimation

We generalize the formulas derived by Daniels and Kendall (1947) for the variance of the sample tau correlation. It is assumed that multivariate data are sampled from a population, and sample taus between pairs of variables are being used to estimate their population counterparts. Expressions for the variance of tau-a are generalized to allow for ties on either variable, and we further provide an expression for the covariance between two taus, including the special case where there is a variable in common. Unbiased estimators of the variance and the covariances are also derived for use in small samples. The variances and covariances of tau-a are used to provide asymptotic variances for tau-b and Somers' d.     

Hardiness and health: a critique and alternative approach

Recent research has suggested that individual differences in the personality variable of hardiness are related to health and illness. Despite some success at predicting health outcomes, there are several theoretical and empirical problems that must be addressed before research on this topic can proceed. Most critical are (a) how hardiness is to be measured; (b) whether hardiness should be treated as a unitary phenomenon or as three separate phenomena associated with commitment, control, and challenge; and (c) whether hardiness has direct effects on health or indirect effects by virtue of buffering the impact of stressful life events. After reviewing the literature and presenting our own study of the psychometric properties of the Hardiness Scale and its subcomponents, we draw the following conclusions: (a) Hardiness is not a unitary phenomenon, but should be treated as involving three separate phenomena; (b) of the three subcomponents of hardiness, only commitment and control have adequate psychometric properties and are systematically related to health outcomes; (c) lack of control and lack of commitment have direct effects on health because they are psychologically stressful; and (d) if there are buffering effects of commitment and control, they are in addition to these direct effects and are situation specific. Such a systematic consideration of the problems and prospects of the hardiness literature should facilitate research on this important topic.     

Object and action picture naming in English and Greek

When two orthographically similar words are displayed using rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP), the repeated letters in the second critical word (W2) are not detected, leading to a deficit in reporting this word known as repetition blindness (RB). In Turkish, letters containing diacritic markings (e.g., y, ö) are considered separate letters, yet are visually highly similar to their non-diacritic analogues (s,o). Two experiments used the phenomenon of RB to investigate whether diacritic letters are represented as more similar to their non-diacritic analogues than are two unrelated letters. In Experiment 1, substantially more RB was found for words differing in just a diacritic (i y im-isim) compared to orthographic neighbours (words differing in a visually non-similar letter, such as ilim-isim). In Experiment 2, the amount of RB for identical words (isim-isim) was comparable to words that differed by a single diacritic marking (i y im-isim). We conclude that diacritic letters are mentally represented as variants of their non-diacritic analogue. Letter / word recognition researchers may be interested in pursuing these findings using standard techniques such as backward masking and orthographic priming.     

Generalized concepts of syntactically and semantically trivial differences and instant-based and period-based time ontologies

It is argued that there are interesting cases in which two axiomatic systems syntactically and semantically non-trivially different in the standard sense are rather to be classified as only trivially different. For a strict comparison of the systems of such a kind the generalized concepts of syntactically and semantically trivial differences are formally defined. As an example, it is shown that an instant-based time system and a period-based time system sketched in the paper are just trivially different in the defined sense in spite of the fact that, contrary to Quine's famous requirement, the variables of the two systems can never range over the elements of one and the same basic set. What is the same in relation to both systems is time topology.     

Now and then,them and us,this and that: Studying relationships across time,partner, context,and person

Personal relationships are frequently studied using methods and analyses that reflect an interest in relationships as between-persons phenomena. Although informative, there is much to be learned from examining relational phenomena from a within-persons perspective. The present article reviews the application of within-persons approaches to both the conceptualization and investigation of relational phenomena. The benefits of studying variation in psychologically meaningful constructs across multiple relationships, across different contexts within a relationship, and across time are outlined. Moreover, combinations of between- and within-persons strategies that can examine how relational, contextual, and temporal variation differs across people are discussed. Methodological and statistical considerations important to such designs are also outlined, and their limitations are discussed.

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Acquiescence as a source of bias and model and person misfit: A theoretical and empirical analysis

In personality and attitude measurement, the presence of acquiescent responding can have an impact on the whole process of item calibration and test scoring, and this can occur even when sensible procedures for controlling acquiescence are used. This paper considers a bidimensional (content acquiescence) factor‐analytic model to be the correct model, and assesses the effects of fitting unidimensional models to theoretically unidimensional scales when acquiescence is in fact operating. The analysis considers two types of scales: non‐balanced and fully balanced. The effects are analysed at both the calibration and the scoring stages, and are of two types: bias in the item/respondent parameter estimates and model/person misfit. The results obtained theoretically are checked and assessed by means of simulation. The results and predictions are then assessed in an empirical study based on two personality scales. The implications of the results for applied personality research are discussed.     

Tau-equivalence and equipercentile equating

Test scores that are not perfectly reliable cannot be strictly equated unless they are strictly parallel [Lord, 1980]. This fact implies that tau-equivalence can be lost if an equipercentile equating is applied to observed scores that are not strictly parallel. Seventy-two simulated testing conditions are produced to simulate equating tests with different difficulties and discriminations. Number-correct and trait metrics are examined. When an equipercentile equating is applied to these data, locally biased (i.e., non-tau-equivalent) results are produced for tests of unequal difficulty. Differences between the criteria of tau-equivalence and equipercentile equivalence are discussed.     

Gay and Lesbian Speaker Panels: Implementation and Research

Speaker panels are educational interventions in which lesbian women and gay men share their personal stories and respond to questions and comments. The panels are frequently used with college and community groups to reduce homophobic attitudes. Counselors, student development professionals, and other human services professionals are given practical information on effective panel presentations. Then the empirical findings concerning panels are discussed, and recommendations are made to human development professionals for research to expand empirical knowledge about this intervention.     

Social and Emotional Loneliness Among Divorced and Married Men and Women: Comparing the Deficit and Cognitive Perspectives

Data from the 1998 survey “Divorce in the Netherlands” (N = 2,223) are used to analyze differences in loneliness among divorced and married men and women. The results indicate that it makes sense to distinguish social from emotional loneliness. This is consistent with the deficit perspective, which posits that the absence of specific types of relationships is associated with specific forms of loneliness. Whereas social loneliness is largely attributable to support network deficits, emotional loneliness is associated with the absence of a partner. In line with the cognitive perspective, the results show that greater insight into loneliness is obtained when discrepancies in relationships are considered. Divorcees who attach great importance to having a partner and people whose marriages are conflict ridden tend to have the highest levels of emotional loneliness. Our study shows that to explain loneliness, one should take not only characteristics of people's relationships into consideration, but also their relationship preferences. The investment hypothesis, which also follows from the cognitive perspective, is not supported by the data. There is no indication that those who attach greater importance to having a partner invest less in relationships with friends, relatives, and colleagues and therefore show high levels of social loneliness. Consistent gender differences are observed: Men, regardless of partner status, tend to attach greater importance to having a partner than do women, and they tend to have smaller support networks and higher levels of social loneliness. Among the divorced, men are more apt to suffer from emotional loneliness than are women.     

Continuities and Discontinuities in Self-Regulatory and Self-Evaluative Processes: A Developmental Theory Relating Self and Affect

This article presents a developmental theory of the relation between self and affect. Self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987) is used as a framework for considering developmental and individual differences in children's self-concepts, self-regulation, and self-evaluation. Developmental changes in children's representational capacities are described that produce developmental shifts in this self-system. Different modes of caretaker-child interaction are distinguished in terms of how features of the interaction impact psychologically on the child. The implications of these differences for children's self-system and emotional/behavioral vulnerabilities are discussed. The development of self-regulatory and self-evaluative processes are distinguished with respect to developmental continuities and discontinuities. Patterns of sex differences in socialization, conduct, and emotional problems are described to exemplify the need for distinguishing these two processes developmentally. The question is raised whether children can be socialized to maximize the positive conduct valued by society and the positive self-regard valued by individuals.     

Traumatic Loss: Conceptual and Empirical Links Between Trauma and Bereavement

Abstract

This article focuses on conceptual issues and empirical studies regarding the topic of traumatic loss (i.e., loss that occurs suddenly and under violent circumstances) as a method for linking the field of trauma, and that of grief and bereavement. Several definitions of trauma are presented that include the concept of loss, and additional concepts are suggested that may be helpful in thinking about the two areas together. Also, modes of death associated with poor recovery are noted, and it is argued that these modes are those that make a bereavement more “traumatic”. Some empirical studies on the psychological outcomes associated with traumatic loss are reviewed, and preliminary findings from a new study of traumatically bereaved women are briefly presented     

Visual detection and perceptual independence: Assessing color and form

Visual stimuli are multidimensional. One important perceptual problem is to determine how the dimensions are combined. One important aspect of dimensional combination is whether the dimensions are perceptually independent or perceptually correlated. A new task is presented—the visual detection task—that directly assesses the degree of perceptual correlation between any two dimensions. Two experiments were conducted that assess the degree of perceptual correlation between form and color during the early stages of perceptual analysis. The results show that form and color are not perceptually independent. In addition, the pattern of perceptual correlation found indicates that form and color are not processed independently. The pattern of results constrains all models of early vision. A model of early vision based on active signal modulation is proposed.     

Assessment and Diagnosis in Marriage and Family Counseling

Assessment in marriage and family counseling is discussed conceptually and then illustrated in a review of techniques covering 10 topic areas related to marital and family functioning. Overviews of specific methods of assessment are presented. Assessment and its relationship to diagnosis, with special reference to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual series, are examined. Implications for counselors are considered. An extensive list of references is also presented.     

Mindfulness and Contemplation: Secular and Religious Traditions in Western Context

This article considers the growth of mindfulness as a secular practice embedded in a culture that is pluralistic but still primed by Western religion and spirituality. Eastern and Western meditational practices are compared and contrasted for greater understanding of the strengths of each. Western contemplative practices are described as an attentional training process with common factors related to mindfulness. Even as Eastern and Western meditational forms are distinguished, the shared concerns of those who value a religious–spiritual perspective in counseling are raised. Ethical implications are discussed related to informed consent, competence, and multicultural awareness.     

The Conceptualisation and Measurement of Vocational and Work Aspect Preferences

Attention to values/preferences related to work in the research and practice of guidance counselling has been restricted by at least two factors: firstly, Holland's theory that values are subsumed under vocational preferences; and secondly, the fact that comparatively few adequate measures of values are available to the guidance practitioner. Data are presented comparing measures of vocational and work aspect preferences, which clearly indicate that the two do not overlap substantially. In addition, further data are presented on the validity of the Work Aspect Preference Scale, with respect to course choice. The results of this study suggest that previous theoretical and psychometric obstacles to the research and counselling use of values/preferences related to work are no longer valid.