The influence of the victim on shock induced aggression in rats.

In two studies, free-roaming male rats (aggressors) were shocked in the presence of male target rats restrained in either an upright or a supine posure. In addition, in Experiment II, two levels of aggressor shock intensity (0.8 mA or 2.0 mA) were used while targets received one of three levels of shock (0.5 mA, 1.5 mA, or 2.5 mA). In both studies, upright targets were attacked less than supine targets. Frequency of aggression was directly related to level of aggressor shock intensity in Experiment II. Also, attack by 0.8-mA aggressors against supine targets was inversely related to level of target shock intensity. The low level of attack against upright targets was interpreted in terms of a threat diaplay. Similarily, it was concluded that the target shock-intensity effect in Experiment II was due to specific threat behaviors displayed by those supine rats that received the highest-intensity shocks.     

Factors affecting reactions to a rape victim.

We examined the influence of the sex of the subject reacting to the rape victim, the type of rape (stranger vs. acquaintance), the location of the rape (inside vs. outside the victim's home), and the victim's attribution concerning the cause of the rape, on undergraduates' reactions to a rape victim. American undergraduates (264 women, 230 men) read a Rape Crisis Center Intake Form, watched a videotape of a rape victim (an actress) describing her psychological and behavioral reactions to the rape, and completed three questionnaires assessing their reactions to the victim. Women were more supportive of the rape victim than were men, and the stranger rape evoked more chance and characterological attributions than did the acquaintance rape. A rape outside the home evoked more chance attributions than did an "inside" rape. The rape victim was rated as having been more traumatized by the experience if she made any causal attribution than if she made no attribution at all.     

Using HyperCard to administer a figural test on the Apple Macintosh

To date, applications of automated assessment techniques in personality testing have largely been limited to objective personality instruments with text stimuli; few assessment applications have involved graphic stimuli. Although projective personality instruments generally include ambiguous graphic or pictorial stimuli, computer applications with these procedures have been limited to automated scoring and interpretation, administration of sentence completion devices employing text stimuli, and the use of mechanical methods rather than computer graphics to display visual stimuli. In the present report, we describe a Macintosh HyperCard application for administering an objective personality test with visual stimuli, the Barron-Welsh Revised Art Scale of the Welsh Figure Preference Test. This test consists of a series of figural stimuli and a binary “like”/“dislike” response format, and it thus represents an administration procedure between standard objective self-report inventories involving text stimuli and a “true”/“false” response or variant, and tests such as the Rorschach or TAT that are both figural and free-response. The HyperCard language provides a variety of promising techniques useful for microcomputer test administration.     

Impulsivity, fight history, and camaraderie as predictors of a willingness to escalate a disturbance

This field study examined the relationships between six predictor variables and a self-report measure of spectators' likelihood of joining in a crowd disturbance. Subjects were males (N = 78) found in attendance at an ice hockey game. The variables jects were males (N = 78) found in attendance at an ice hockey game. The variables related to the likelihood of escalating a disturbance included subjects who were more impulsive, had a history of fighting, were younger, saw provocations as more volatile, liked to watch player fights and attended with others. A multiple regression analysis yielded a solution that accounted for 52.9% of the variance. The results were discussed against the background of previous research examining the factors associated with spectators' propensity for involving themselves in crowd disorders. The authors wish to thank the Medicine Hat Tigers Hockey Club for their cooperation.     

Impulsivity, fight history, and camaraderie as predictors of a willingness to escalate a disturbance

This field study examined the relationships between six predictor variables and a self-report measure of spectators' likelihood of joining in a crowd disturbance. Subjects were males (N = 78) found in attendance at an ice hockey game. The variables jects were males (N = 78) found in attendance at an ice hockey game. The variables related to the likelihood of escalating a disturbance included subjects who were more impulsive, had a history of fighting, were younger, saw provocations as more volatile, liked to watch player fights and attended with others. A multiple regression analysis yielded a solution that accounted for 52.9% of the variance. The results were discussed against the background of previous research examining the factors associated with spectators' propensity for involving themselves in crowd disorders. The authors wish to thank the Medicine Hat Tigers Hockey Club for their cooperation.     

Why worry? Worry, risk perceptions, and willingness to act to reduce medical errors.

Through the domain of medical errors, the role of worry and perceived risk in precautionary behaviors was examined in a convenience sample (N = 195, mean age = 42 years, 71% female). Worry was linked to fatality estimates. A model of the antecedents and consequences of worry also was tested. Risk characteristics such as dread and preventability, negative reactivity, and vulnerability to medical errors appeared to motivate worry about medical errors. Worry about medical errors was a better predictor of intentions to take precautionary actions than were risk perceptions. An understanding of how worry influences preventive efforts will help in building communication strategies to the public and in effectively engaging patients in the role of vigilant partner in care.     

Clustering of diet,physical activity and smoking and a general willingness to change

Addressing multiple health behaviours are important in preventing disease and mortality. The present study investigated the clustering of health behaviours, cognitive determinants and stages of change in 2827 adults for the lifestyle factors of physical activity, fruit, vegetable and fat consumption and smoking. The results showed that only 3% of the total population met recommended guidelines for all of the five behaviours. Behaviours were found to be weakly associated. Behaviour-specific cognitions and stages of change for the behaviours clustered more strongly, however. With respect to diet and physical activity, respondents in the preparation stage for one behaviour were likely also to be preparing to change another behaviour. Possible mechanisms for the apparent general willingness to change multiple behaviours are discussed, as well as potential implications for health promotion practice.     

Role and justice considerations in the attribution of responsibility to a rape victim

This study was designed to assess the extent to which social role and “just world” considerations would affect perceptions and attributions of responsibility to a rape victim. The rape victim was either a topless-bottomless dancer, a social worker, or a Catholic nun, and she was either acquainted or unacquainted with her assailant. In the acquainted condition, the dancer was attributed the greatest and the nun the least amount of responsibility, indicating that social role factors can govern the range of attributional judgments which might be made in any given instance. However, unacquainted victims were ascribed more responsibility for the rape than were acquainted victims, a difference which was significant when the victim was the nun. The latter findings are discussed in terms of Lerner's just world hypothesis. Significant sex differences were found in subjects' perceptions of and responses to the rape incident and, contrary to earlier findings, no relationship was found between victim attractiveness and punitiveness toward the wrongdoer.     

Listening, not watching: situational familiarity and the ability to detect deception

In 4 experiments, the authors investigated the influence of situational familiarity with the judgmental context on the process of lie detection. They predicted that high familiarity with a situation leads to a more pronounced use of content cues when making judgments of veracity. Therefore, they expected higher classification accuracy of truths and lies under high familiarity. Under low situational familiarity, they expected that people achieve lower accuracy rates because they use more nonverbal cues for their veracity judgments. In all 4 experiments, participants with high situational familiarity achieved higher accuracy rates in classifying both truthful and deceptive messages than participants with low situational familiarity. Moreover, mediational analyses demonstrated that higher classification accuracy in the high-familiarity condition was associated with more use of verbal content cues and less use of nonverbal cues.     

The promotion of self-forgiveness,responsibility, and willingness to make reparations through a workbook intervention

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a workbook intervention designed to promote self-forgiveness, acceptance of responsibility, and willingness to make amends/reparations in a university student sample. The intervention manual consisted of three parts: (a) promoting prosocial and responsible attitudes, (b) reducing barriers to self-forgiveness, and (c) promoting healthy thinking and behaviors. Outcome measures included acceptance of responsibility, motivation to make reparations, and state and trait self-forgiveness. Measures were administered pre-intervention and immediately post-intervention. Participants were randomly assigned to an intervention group (N = 50) or a control group (N = 43). The control group studied materials for their university courses instead of completing the intervention. Following the intervention, the intervention group had significantly a higher state and dispositional self-forgiveness post-test compared to the control group. Changes in acceptance of responsibility and willingness to make reparations did not reach statistical significance as compared to the control group.     

Pain,emotion, and the situational specificity of catastrophising

Two studies were designed to explore the cross-situational nature of catastrophising and the emotions associated with pain and catastrophising. The crosssituational consistency of catastrophising in response to a finger-pressure procedure and during an episode of headache pain was examined in the first study. The second study examined differences between catastrophisers and noncatastrophisers with respect to state and trait measures of positive and negative emotions. Results of study one indicated that almost half of the subjects remained consistent in their classification as catastrophiser or noncatastrophiser in both pain situations. The majority of subjects that switched classification changed from being classified as catastrophisers during the headache experience to noncatastrophisers during the finger-pressure procedure. Results of the second study indicated that catastrophisers experienced significantly greater fear, sadness, anger, hostility, guilt, disgust, and shame during the finger-pressure procedure as compared to noncatastrophisers. Unexpectedly, catastrophisers were not a homogeneous group in regard to the pattern of negative emotions reported. Catastrophisers with headaches experienced greater sadness in response to finger-pressure pain than catastrophisers without headaches. Theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Development and validation of the situational self-awareness scale.

This article discusses the manipulation and measurement of levels of situational self-focus, which is generally labeled "self-awareness." A new scale was developed to quantify levels of public and private self-awareness. Five studies were conducted to assess the psychometric properties, reliability, and validity of the Situational Self-Awareness Scale (SSAS). The SSAS was found to have a reliable factor structure, to detect differences in public and private self-awareness produced by laboratory manipulations, and to be sensitive to changes in self-awareness within individuals over time and across situations. The SSAS can be used as a manipulation check of laboratory self-awareness manipulations and as a means of assessing naturally occurring fluctuations in public and private self-awareness in order to clarify the relation between self-awareness and other variables (e.g., mood and memory).     

Identification with an aggressor or a victim and its relation to creativity

Studied identification using a meta-contrast design. The first stimulus was the word 'I'. The second stimulus depicted an aggressor and a victim facing each other. The subliminal 'I' was flashed on either the victim or on the aggressor, or completely withheld. The subjects were 33 school children, aged 10–12 years. They also took a percept-genetic (PG) test of creativity, measuring willingness to return to and recognize early conceptions of a stimulus picture (a still-life). The results showed that the creative children reacted with less anxiety and defense when manipulated to identify with the aggressor than with the victim. The uncreative children showed the opposite reaction, namely a preference for the passive, surrendering victim.