Temporal self-appraisal and attributional focus

Temporal self-appraisal theory (Ross & Wilson, 2002; Wilson & Ross, 2001) states that individuals evaluate their past selves in a way that makes them feel good about their current self. The present studies tested the degree to which differences in attributional focus influence feelings of closeness to positive life events. In Study 1, participants recalled a recent positive life event before thinking about how either they personally or others were responsible for the event’s occurrence. As expected, participants felt temporally closer to the event when they had thought about internal attributions. In Study 2, after recalling a recent positive life event, participants recalled one (or six) reasons describing how they personally (or others) produced the event. The results revealed that participants used the content of retrieved attributions in deriving their temporal judgment. The implications of the findings for tenets of temporal self-appraisal theory are discussed.     

Depressive realism and attributional style: implications for individuals at risk for depression

Prior research has found that depressed individuals are more realistic in their interpretations of certain events than nondepressed individuals. However, the implications of this finding for the etiology of depressive disorders have never been clarified. The current investigation sought to remedy this situation by exploring realism in the context of a well-validated, cognitive diathesis-stress theory of the etiology of a subtype of depression: hopelessness theory (Abramson, L. Y., Metalsky, G. I., & Alloy, L. B. (1989). Hopelessness depression: A theory-based subtype of depression. Psychological Review, 96, 358-372). A sample of 239 college students, including groups of participants with depressogenic versus nondepressogenic attributional styles, recorded the causes they assigned to events; the extent to which their attributions were objectively realistic was evaluated. A comparison of the degree of objectivity was also made between dysphoric and nondysphoric individuals. Contrary to expectations derived from the depressive realism hypothesis, dysphoric individuals exhibited less realistic attributions as compared to nondysphoric individuals. Further, individuals at risk for depression evidenced a pessimistic bias, while individuals not at risk evidenced an optimistic bias.     

Immediate attributional effects of success and failure in the field: Testing some laboratory hypotheses

Investigated how team success and failure are attributed to dispositional and situational factors as a function of immediate outcome of the group performance, past success of the team, and individual performance of team members within the group. 150 Little League baseball players' attributions for the team's outcome were taken separately with regard to team- and self-factors immediately after the conclusion of a game. The results reveal that success, independent of the margin of victory, is primarily assigned to effort and ability, while clear-loss is attributed to both effort and task difficulty. Conversely, bare-loss is seen to be mainly due to task difficulty and secondarily to low effort. The results are interpreted as supporting the notion of ego-centered causal judgments, but not necessarily the motive to enhance one's self, on the basis of the new proposition that effort has a different attributional meaning in the cases of success and failure; when losing effort is treated as an external factor, and when winning, effort tends to be interpreted as an internal factor. No differences with respect to attributions exist between individual players who perform poorly and those who excell within the team performance.     

Facial feedback hypotheses: Evidence,implications, and directions

This review evaluates four facial feedback hypotheses, each proposing a certain relation between the face and emotions. It addresses criticisms of the data, considers implications for emotional and social processes, and advises directions for future research. The current data support the following: Facial actions are sensitive to social context, yet correspond to the affective dimension of emotions; matches with specific emotions are unlikely. They modulate ongoing emotions, and initiate them. These two claims have received substantially improved support, in part due to studies controlling for effects of experimental demand and task difficulty. Facial action may influence the occurrence of specific emotions, not simply their valence and intensity. Facial action is not necessary for emotions. There are multiple and nonmutually exclusive plausible mechanisms for facial effects on emotions. Future work must focus on determining the relative contributions of these mechanisms, and the parameters of their effects on emotions.I appreciate the helpful comments of Harry Gollob, Greg McHugo, Catherine Reed, Craig Smith, and R. B. Zajonc on earlier drafts of this paper.     

The effects of focus of attention on attributional bias in patients experiencing auditory hallucinations

Cognitive models suggest that auditory hallucinations occur as the result of internal events attributed to an external source. The present study represents an attempt to evaluate the source monitoring performance of people who experience auditory hallucinations, specifically in terms of the suggested links between source monitoring, emotionality of stimuli and self-focused attention. The source monitoring performance of a group of 30 patients with a diagnosis of a schizophrenia spectrum disorder who experience auditory hallucinations was compared following successful experimental manipulation of their attention, designed to increase and decrease their levels of self-focused attention. The inclusion of words previously rated as emotionally salient by schizophrenic patients assessed the effect of emotionality on source monitoring performance. This study demonstrated that participants' ratings of both internality and control of their responses to the word association task were lower in the external focus condition than the internal focus condition. Furthermore, it was found that ratings of internality and control were lower for responses to both positive and negative stimuli compared to responses to neutral stimuli, and the magnitude of these differences was amplified in the internal focus condition relative to the external focus condition. Focus of attention has a significant effect on source monitoring performance in people experiencing auditory hallucinations. The theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Inaccuracy of family health information: implications for prevention

There is a conflict between the rest of the family's right to medical confidentiality and the individual's need to know about health risks for which she or he may show increased susceptibility. Research has shown increased risk in the development of a variety of disorders for those with a positive family history. In many cases the familial predisposition appears to interact with alterable environmental factors (e.g., diet). This suggests a need for targeting of preventive efforts at those at highest risk. As success of early detection and prevention programs increase, there will appear an increased need for accurate family health history information as an aid in early identification. Research on accuracy of family health information (Hastrup, Hotchkiss & Johnson, this issue) shows extensive inaccuracy. Implications of inaccurate information for self-directed and public health prevention are described. Research and progress in prevention will likely accelerate, continuing to alter the traditional view from one of the individual with a personal health history to one in which individuals share a familial (genetic + shared environment + similar behavior patterns) risk with others, who may also benefit from preventive programs.     

Promotion and employee turnover: Critique,meta-analysis,and implications

Qualitative reviews of the withdrawal literature have reached inconsistent conclusions regarding the strength of the relationship between promotion and turnover. Several issues were addressed in this study which may account for these inconsistencies. First, we differentiate among three distinct operationalizations of promotion: (1) promotion satisfaction; (2) perceptions of promotional opportunity; and (3) actual promotion. We then conduct quantitative reviews using meta-analytic procedures on turnover and the three operationalizations of promotion. We found no significant relationships between promotion satisfaction and turnoveror between perceived promotional opportunities and turnover. However, a significant negative relationship was found between actual promotion and turnover. Theoretical implication of these findings are presented.     

Counterfactual thinking and regulatory focus: implications for action versus inaction and sufficiency versus necessity

Counterfactual thinking is associated with regulatory focus in a way that explains previous empirical incongruities, such as whether additive counterfactuals (mutations of inactions) occur more or less frequently than subtractive counterfactuals (mutations of actions). In Experiment 1, regulatory focus moderated this pattern, in that additive counterfactuals were activated by promotion failure, whereas subtractive counterfactuals were activated by prevention failure. In Experiment 2, additive counterfactuals evoked a promotion focus and expressed causal sufficiency, whereas subtractive counterfactuals evoked a prevention focus and expressed causal necessity. In Experiment 3, dejection activated additive counterfactuals, whereas agitation activated subtractive counterfactuals. These findings illuminate the interconnections among counterfactual thinking, motivation, and goals.     

A review of the worst performance rule: Evidence, theory, and alternative hypotheses

This paper reviews evidence, theory, and alternative hypotheses for the worst performance rule (WPR), which states that on multitrial cognitive tasks, worst performance trials predict general intelligence (g) better than best performance trials. A review of the relevant evidence indicates that the WPR has been found for a variety of participants, tasks, and measures. A review of relevant theories reveals that the WPR appears to be related to cognitive factors (e.g., lapses in working memory) as well as biological factors (e.g., individual differences in neural oscillations). A review of alternative hypotheses shows that the WPR cannot be attributed to statistical or data artifacts such as outliers, unreliable measurement, or variance compression. The preponderance of evidence supports the hypothesis that the WPR holds for cognitive tasks high in g saturation but not for cognitive tasks low in g saturation. The paper ends with a call for research on the causes of the WPR and for research on the correlates of best performance.     

Adolescent pregnancy: implications for prevention strategies in educational settings

Over 1 million teenagers become pregnant each year in the U.S. The most alarming increases have occurred among adolescents who are younger than 15 years of age. Variables strongly associated with teen pregnancy include minority status, low socioeconomic status, low academic achievement and occupational aspirations, and growing up in a single- parent household. A majority of teenage pregnancies are unintended, and pregnancy is the largest contributor to school dropout rate for U.S. adolescent females. During pregnancy, adolescent mothers suffer higher rates of health complications, and after childbirth they receive less education, have more children, and are more likely to be dependent on welfare. Psychologists employed in educational settings are in a unique position to be involved in adolescent pregnancy prevention efforts, and schools are increasingly considered to be appropriate environments for this purpose. Progressive school-based family planning programs have been established by the St. Paul/Ramsey Medical Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, and by the Johns Hopkins University Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland. Both programs emphasize the distribution of contraceptives. An increasing number of school programs focus their efforts on helping adolescents become more responsible in their approach to sexual relationships, though they do not distribute contraceptives. A number of innovative community-based programs have also been formed that utilize multiple strategies to provide positive alternatives to pregnancy. Before setting up teen pregnancy prevention programs, school psychologists should try to learn from the lessons offered by established programs. They should also consult with teachers, administrators, students, and parents, and they should decide what instructional approaches are appropriate for their own situations.     

Promotion and prevention choices between stability and change

Two situations involving choice between stability and change were examined: task substitution, which deals with choosing between resuming an interrupted activity and doing a substitute activity, and endowment, which deals with choosing between a possessed object and an alternative object. Regulatory focus theory (E. T. Higgins, 1997, 1998) predicts that a promotion focus will be associated with openness to change, whereas a prevention focus will be associated with a preference for stability. Five studies confirmed this prediction with both situational induction of and chronic personality differences in regulatory focus. In Studies 1 and 2, individuals in a prevention focus were more inclined than individuals in a promotion focus to resume an interrupted task rather than do a substitute task. In Studies 3-5, individuals in a prevention focus, but not individuals in a promotion focus, exhibited a reluctance to exchange currently possessed objects (i.e., endowment) or previously possessed objects.     

Cultural practices of Hispanics: implications for the prevention of AIDS

Hispanic Americans have one of the highest rates of HIV seroprevalence among all ethnics groups in the US, with high rates being especially noticeable among women and children. Were it known which cultural factors have the most influence on whether Hispanics engage in high-risk behavior for HIV transmission, prevention interventions could be targeted accordingly. To that end, this study was mounted to identify which Hispanic cultural factors relate to condom use. 117 males and 73 females aged 17-56 years of mean age 25.67 were surveyed in Washoe county, Nevada. These mostly young adults had recently immigrated to the western US. It was initially posited that fate orientation, male- female relationships, family relationships, machismo behavior, and religion would have equal influence with respect to condom use. Analysis found that condom use was largely associated with and determined by men who are the principal buyers of condoms. A machismo attitude toward protecting women by using condoms was also associated with condom use. Neither fate orientation with respect to AIDS, nor religion were important determinants of condom use, even though 86.5% of the respondents were Catholic. The degree to which respondents adhered to traditional Hispanic cultural values was influenced by the degree of education and acculturation. On the basis of these findings, the authors suggest targeting AIDS prevention messages to males, while emphasizing the protection of women through condom use. They also suggest that both education and acculturation levels be assessed before implementing prevention programs.     

Community responses to a suicidal crisis: implications for suicide prevention

We conducted a cross‐sectional, random‐digit‐dial survey to evaluate public responses to a hypothetical question: “If someone you knew was suicidal, what would you do first?” Younger people were more likely to call a suicide hotline, and less likely to go to an emergency room (ER) or call 911; immigrants (in the U.S. <15 years) were more likely to call 911, and less likely to call a suicide hotline; African Americans were more likely to go to the ER and call 911; Hispanics were more likely to call 911 but less likely to call a suicide hotline. These results suggest that public messages about hotlines and emergency options for suicidal patients need to be tailored to relevant population characteristics including age, education, ethnicity, and language preferences.     

Using epistemic ratios to evaluate hypotheses: an imprecision penalty for imprecise hypotheses

According to Bayesians, the null hypothesis significance-testing procedure is not deductively valid because it involves the retention or rejection of the null hypothesis under conditions where the posterior probability of that hypothesis is not known. Other criticisms are that this procedure is pointless and encourages imprecise hypotheses. However, according to non-Bayesians, there is no way of assigning a prior probability to the null hypothesis, and so Bayesian statistics do not work either. Consequently, no procedure has been accepted by both groups as providing a compelling reason to accept or reject hypotheses. The author aims to provide such a method. In the process, the author distinguishes between probability and epistemic estimation and argues that, although both are important in a science that is not completely deterministic, epistemic estimation is most relevant for hypothesis testing. Based on this analysis, the author proposes that hypotheses be evaluated via epistemic ratios and explores the implications of this proposal. One implication is that it is possible to encourage precise theorizing by imposing a penalty for imprecise hypotheses.     

Strength and safety in numbers: considering the social implications of regulatory focus

The present article examines how individual and situational differences in individuals' regulatory focus on nurturance and gain (promotion) and on security and safety (prevention) may have significant, and distinct, social and interpersonal implications. We first review recent research examining how significant others affect goal pursuit and how individual differences in regulatory focus may moderate the various behavioral, evaluative, and experiential manifestations of social identification. We then consider how regulatory focus moderates the way in which people "size up" their social world in terms of the efficiency in which they identify and appraise motivationally relevant aspects of their social environment. Finally, we explore how regulatory focus moderates people's deliberate and automatic reactions to the beliefs, expectations, behavior, and emotions of other individuals and social groups.     

Outcome interdependence shapes the effects of prevention focus on team processes and performance

Although the effects of regulatory focus on individual-level performance have often been studied, relatively little is yet known about team-level effects. Filling this void, we integrate the notion that promotion-focused individuals are concerned with progress and achievement, whereas prevention-focused individuals are concerned with security and vigilance, with the insight that team processes and performance depend on outcome interdependence (individual versus team rewards). The hypothesis that prevention-focused teams react more strongly than promotion-focused teams to differences in outcome interdependence was tested among 50 teams performing an interactive command-and-control simulation. Regulatory focus and outcome interdependence were both manipulated. The results showed that prevention-focused teams working for team rather than individual rewards reported higher work engagement and less error intolerance, coordinated more effectively, and performed better. Promotion-focused teams were not influenced by outcome interdependence. We discuss the implications of our results for theory and effective team management.     

Personal social networks as a focus for primary prevention of child mistreatment

This article explores the nature and functions of social networks as support systems, and the relationship between social networks and early child rearing. The rationale and operational design of a primary prevention program which seeks to strengthen the social networks of parents of very young children are presented. It is concluded that personal social networks are important not only in mediating general life stress, but also support parental child-rearing responsibilities and, therefore, can serve as primary preventives of child abuse.     

Comparison of contrast sensitivity functions across three orientations: implications for theory and testing.

The contrast sensitivity functions of a large group of observers (N = 71) were determined for three orientations of test gratings: vertical, oblique, and horizontal. Comparison of group means indicated that, consistent with previous findings for the 'oblique effect', sensitivity was poorer for the oblique orientation-but only for the mid-high spatial frequencies. Correlation analyses indicated that contrast sensitivity for a particular spatial frequency at a given orientation was highly correlated with contrast sensitivity for that same frequency at the other two orientations. Factor analysis of the intercorrelations revealed two strong factors, a low frequency factor, and a mid-high frequency factor. Results are discussed in terms of: (a) the implications for contrast-sensitivity testing across orientations, (b) the basis for the oblique effect, and (c) a different type of evidence for a dichotomy among spatial-frequency channels that may reflect the distinction between X cells and Y cells or between the parvocellular and magnocellular systems.     

Behavioral and electrical brain measures of semantic priming in patients with Alzheimer's disease: implications for access failure versus deterioration hypotheses

This study investigated the nature of anomia and semantic memory deficits in patients with Alzheimer's disease (DAT). We measured reaction time (RT) and the N400 event-related brain potential (ERP) in a word-picture semantic priming paradigm for DAT patients and elderly controls. For patients, pictures were classified as a function of the individual's naming ability to determine whether naming deficits reflected a failure to access a picture's name or reflected a deterioration of its semantic representation. As expected, DAT patients had significantly poorer naming performance than controls. For successfully named pictures, robust RT and ERP priming effects were obtained in both groups. In DAT patients, priming for unnamed pictures was heterogeneous. The results are discussed in terms of current hypotheses of semantic memory deficits in DAT.