Attitude Comparison: Is There Ever a Bandwagon Effect?1

Will exposure to others' attitudes merely stimulate conformity to the observed norm? We predicted-and observed in an opinion polling experiment-that learning others' attitudes can effect a small, but significant, intensification of attitude responses.     

Attitude Change During College: Normative or Informational Social Influence?

Students from a small, tightly knit military college participated in a longitudinal study which assessed attitudes toward sociopolitical issues as well as military attitudes at entrance and three years later. A college-wide change in a conservative direction was predicted and observed (p < .001). While a normative influence explanation argues that peer group pressure is responsible for such attitude change, an explanation based on informational influence would argue that the knowledge communicated by faculty also plays a role. The results confirmed the existence of peer group influence on measures of military attitudes but not on measures of sociopolitical attitudes. Rather, and consistent with a process of informational influence, the academic major pursued by the students emerged as a significant predictor of change in sociopolitical attitudes, regardless of reference group identification.     

Roommate Compatibility: Is There An Ideal Relationship?1

Three theories of interpersonal attraction were tested for their ability to predict roommates' compatibility. The similarity hypothesis (that we are attracted to and compatible with people who are similar to our self-concepts) received moderate support; the social desirability hypothesis (that we are attracted to and compatible with people who possess socially desirable traits) received scant support. The ideal hypothesis (that we are attracted to and compatible with people who are similar to our ideals) received strong support. The utility of these theories in terms of preinteractionally matching students in order to maximize compatibility was found to be minimal because it could not be assumed that students peiceive their roommates in the same manner as their roommates perceive themselves.     

Is Character Fate,or Is There Hope to Change My Personality Yet?

Different perspectives on personality development propose a range of possible degrees to which traits are free to change, from hardly at all to very much. This essay reviews the empirical evidence on just how consistent and changeable personality traits are across the life course. To gain a thorough perspective on personality trait development, we review developmental studies that focus on three different types of change: rank‐order consistency, mean level change, and individual level change. Starting in late childhood, personality traits exhibit modest levels of rank‐order consistency that increase with age. In addition personality traits show mean level changes, especially in young adulthood, that are consistent with the idea of increasing maturity. Finally, despite these general trends in personality continuity and change, there is evidence that individuals may change in ways that contradict general trends and that these individual differences in change are related to life experiences.     

Counseling Past and Present: Is There a Future?

Major criticisms directed at counseling are identified and prominent suggestions for their elimination are described through an analysis of the counseling literature of the past 10 years. A brief outline of the history of counseling offers a historical perspective to the discussion. One suggestion to improve counseling, that counselors become change agents in their institutions, is examined and described with steps for its implementation. The implementation of the change-agent role for counselors would address much of the substantive criticism directed at counseling, and would remold the profession to more effectively meet today's needs.     

Is There Really a Beauty Premium or an Ugliness Penalty on Earnings?

Purpose

Economists have widely documented the “beauty premium” and “ugliness penalty” on earnings. Explanations based on employer and client discrimination would predict a monotonic association between physical attractiveness and earnings; explanations based on occupational self-selection would explain the beauty premium as a function of workers’ occupations; and explanations based on individual differences would predict that the beauty premium would disappear once appropriate individual differences are controlled. In this paper, we empirically tested the three competing hypotheses about the “beauty premium”.

Design/Methodology/Approach

We analyzed a nationally representative and prospectively longitudinal sample from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (Add Health).

Findings

The results contradicted the discrimination and self-selection explanations and strongly supported the individual differences explanation. Very unattractive respondents always earned significantly more than unattractive respondents, sometimes more than average-looking or attractive respondents. Multiple regression analyses showed that there was very weak evidence for the beauty premium, and it disappeared completely once individual differences, such as health, intelligence, and Big Five personality factors, were statistically controlled.

Implications

Past findings of beauty premium and ugliness penalty may possibly be due to the fact that: 1) “very unattractive” and “unattractive” categories are usually collapsed into “below average” category; and 2) health, intelligence (as opposed to education) and Big Five personality factors are not controlled. It appears that more beautiful workers earn more, not because they are beautiful, but because they are healthier, more intelligent, and have better (more Conscientious and Extraverted, and less Neurotic) personality.

Originality/Value

This is the first study to show that: 1) very unattractive workers have extremely high earnings and earn more than physically more attractive workers, suggesting evidence for the potential ugliness premium; and 2) the apparent beauty premium and ugliness penalty may be a function of unmeasured traits correlated with physical attractiveness, such as health, intelligence, and personality.

     

Demonstrating “Reasonable Fear” at Trial: Is it Science or Junk Science?

This paper explores how scientific knowledge is used in a criminal case. I examine materials from an admissibility hearing in a murder trial and discuss the dynamics of contesting expert scientific opinion and evidence. The research finds that a purported form of “science” in the relevant scientific community is filtered through, tested by, and subjected to legal standards, conceptions, and procedures for determining admissibility. The paper details how the opposing lawyers, the expert witness, and the judge vie to contingently work out what will count in court as appropriate scientific authority, methods and evidence, and as a scientifically valid and legally admissible account of “reasonable fear.” When science becomes enmeshed in legal controversies, science does not trump law. Rather, it is the court’s canons of proper procedure and measures of substantive adequacy that take precedence.

In Experiential Sessions, There Is No Therapist or Client: There Is a “Teacher” and a “Practitioner”

In virtually every kind of psychotherapy, therapist and client attend mainly to one another throughout almost the entire session. If each experiential session is to be successful in enabling the person to become the whole new person that the person can become, and to become free of the painful feeling in the painful situation, the radical alternative is for the experiential teacher–therapist and the person to attend mainly to the third thing that is the important center of attention for the person. An even more radical glimpse into the future includes the person having one's own sessions by oneself, complemented by skill-development sessions with the experiential teacher.     

Intergroup discrimination in the minimal group paradigm: categorization, reciprocation, or fear?

H. Tajfel's (1970) minimal group paradigm (MGP) research suggests that social categorization is a sufficient antecedent of ingroup-favoring discrimination. Two experiments examined whether discrimination in the MGP arises from categorization or processes of outcome dependence, that is, ingroup reciprocity and outgroup fear. Experiment 1 unconfounded categorization from outcome dependence. Categorized men discriminated only when dependent on others. Categorized women discriminated regardless of the structure of dependence. Experiment 2 examined dependence on the ingroup versus the outgroup as the locus of male-initiated discrimination. Consistently with an ingroup reciprocity effect, men discriminated when dependent on ingroup, but not outgroup, members. Sex differences are discussed in regard to women's heightened ingroup dependence produced by biological or environmental constraints.     

Can Virtual Reality Increase the Realism of Role Plays Used to Teach College Women Sexual Coercion and Rape-Resistance Skills?

The present study evaluated whether virtual reality (VR) can enhance the realism of role plays designed to help college women resist sexual attacks. Sixty-two female undergraduate students were randomly assigned to either the Role Play (RP) or Virtual Role Play (VRP) conditions, which were differentiated only by the use of VR technology in the VRP condition. A multimethod assessment strategy was used to evaluate the effects of VR on the experienced realism of sexually threatening role plays. Realism was assessed by participant self-reports of negative affect and perceptions of realism, direct observation of participants' verbal displays of negative affect during the role plays, and measurements of participant heart rate during the role plays. Results indicated that VR can indeed heighten the realism of sexually threatening role plays. Discussion focuses on issues regarding the use of VR-enhanced role plays for helping college women resist sexual attacks.     

Perception of Easy–Difficult: Attitude or Self‐Efficacy?

This study investigates the semantic-differential item easy-difficult in order to evaluate whether it can be considered a measure of attitude or self-efficacy in relation to consistent condom use with sex partners. Using confirmatory factor analysis and comparing a set of logically nested models, our findings suggest that easy-difficult acts most like an attitude item in relation to this particular behavior, especially for males rating condom use with their main sex partners. However, for females and to a less extent males with nonmain sex partners, easy-difficult acts as a measure of both attitude and self-efficacy. Therefore, the use of easy-difficult items should be avoided or used with caution in this research context.     

Text Comprehension in Middle Aged Adults: Is There Anything Wrong?

Two experiments tested text comprehension skills in adults varying in age from 20 to 69 years. A coherence judgment task (n = 39), in which the pragmatic connection of two sentences had to be evaluated, did not yield any age effects. Both error rates and reaction times were largely independent of age. In a word recognition paradigm (n = 60), testing the strength of different text representation levels, there was a gradual, linear decrease in performance with age, accompanied by a similarly gradual increase in processing times. The results confirm that aging affects comprehension under high memory demands, but spares the conceptual, situation-based levels. Most importantly, it was shown that these changes become apparent during middle age already. Implications for education and neuropsychology are discussed.     

Evaluating Gender Discrimination Claims: Is There a Gender Similarity Bias?

A rich literature exists that examines individuals' perceptions of affirmative action in organizations. However, little is known regarding the evaluation of reverse gender discrimination claims arising from gender-based preferential treatment. This study investigated the possible existence of a gender similarity bias in evaluations of gender discrimination allegations using a laboratory experiment in which the strength of evidence against the defendant company and the gender of the plaintiff were manipulated. Our sample consisted of 120 undergraduate students (60 men, 60 women) from diverse racial/ethnic groups (35% Asian, 6% African American, 18% Hispanic, and 41% Caucasian). Results suggested that female mock jurors favored female plaintiffs over male plaintiffs. In contrast, there were no gender-related differences in perceptions of male plaintiffs. Thus, although women did not disadvantage male plaintiffs, there was a tendency for them to be favorably biased in favor of female plaintiffs. As expected, this tendency was greatest under conditions of evidential uncertainty about the company's guilt.     

Whose Disgust Is It Anyway?: Projection and Projective Identification in the Couple Relationship

In this commentary on Josephs’s paper on Oedipal disgust, I emphasize that disgust is best viewed as a symptom of an interpersonal dynamic that may reflect a range of underlying unconscious issues beyond threats to attachment. Disgust, like all affective experience, doesn’t only arise in response to interpersonal experience; it is also created interpersonally through projection and projective identification. In my view, disgust signals a breakdown, a failure in the couple’s capacity to engage in the communicative processes essential to all intimate relationships for negotiating the fragile balances between separation and merger, love and hate, creativity and destruction.     

Spiritual Psychology and Psychotherapy: Is There Theoretical and Empirical Support?

This paper provides a meta-theoretical context for a spiritually oriented psychotherapy, namely Constructivism. It also presents some empirical and theoretical support for this Constructivist position which is consistent with cognitive psychology and concepts from both Western and Eastern traditions. It summarizes the work of Mahoney on Constructivism and integrates it with Personal Construct Psychology. It then provides the perceptual, theoretical, and empirical underpinnings for an integrative, holistically oriented clinical model that focuses on how clients construct their realities. The paper concludes with a discussion of the levels of therapeutic work that clients contract for, placing them in charge of their lives. The goal, for clients who chose the deepest path, is the philosophical understanding that they create the relative realities to which they respond, causing both their suffering and potential liberation. The ultimate choice is theirs, and not the therapist's.