Sexual arousal and interpersonal evaluations

In an attempt to reconcile conflicting results concerning the effects of sexual arousal on interpersonal evaluations, hypotheses based on adaptation level, arousal-need gratification, and labeling of arousal explanations were tested. The variables of sexual arousal, technique of stimulus material presentation, physical attractiveness of the original stimulus female, and physical attractiveness of the final target person being judged were manipulated in a 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 design. A significant three-way interaction (Arousal × Stimulus Attractiveness × Target Attractiveness) obtained on all measures of interpersonal evaluation was interpreted as supporting a labeling of arousal explanation. It is suggested that subjects first interpret their arousal as being caused by their attraction toward the stimulus person. The characteristics of the stimulus person then become a factor used by subjects when they subsequently make judgments of target females. The adaptation-level and arousal-need gratification hypotheses were not supported.     

“Feeling” the pain of those who are different from us: Modulation of EEG in the mu/alpha range

We explored how apparently painful stimuli and the ability to identify with the person on whom the pain is inflicted modulate EEG suppression in the mu/alpha range (8–12 Hz). In a 2 × 2 design, we presented pictures of hands either experiencing needle pricks or being touched by a Q-tip. In the dissimilar-other condition, the hand was assigned to a patient suffering from a neurological disease in which Q-tips inflicted pain, whereas needle pricks did not. In the similar-other condition, the hand was assigned to a patient who responded to stimulation in the same way as the healthy participant. Participants were instructed to imagine the feeling of the person whose hand was shown and to evaluate his or her affective state. Pain conditions elicited greater EEG suppression than did nonpain conditions, particularly over frontocentral regions. Moreover, an interaction between pain and similarity revealed that for similar others, the pain effect was significant, whereas in the dissimilar-other group, suppression was equally large in the pain and no-pain conditions. We conclude that mu/alpha suppression is elicited both automatically, by observing a situation that is potentially painful for the observer, and by empathy for pain, even if the other person is different from oneself.     

Illness perceptions are the main predictors of depression and anxiety symptoms in patients with chronic pain

Depression and anxiety symptoms in chronic pain are associated with adverse clinical outcomes, and appear highly related to patient’s illness perceptions as well as with marital adjustment. This study aimed to investigate the predictive value of pain variables, marital adjustment and illness perceptions on depression and anxiety in patients with chronic pain. Two hundred patients were recruited from a pain unit in a public hospital in the north of Portugal. Patients completed a questionnaire that assessed illness perceptions (IPQ-Brief), marital adjustment (revised dyadic adjustment scale), depression and anxiety symptoms (hospital anxiety depression scale) and pain variables (pain intensity and pain disability index). Depression and anxiety symptoms were associated with pain intensity, pain-related disability, marital adjustment and illness perceptions. Results from hierarchical regression showed that illness perceptions contributed significantly to depression and anxiety symptoms over and above the effects of pain intensity, pain-related disability and marital adjustment, after controlling for gender. In multivariate analyses, pain intensity, pain-related disability and marital adjustment were uniquely related to depression and anxiety symptoms, whereas specific illness perceptions were uniquely related to depression symptoms (identity, treatment control, emotional response and coherence) and to anxiety symptoms (identity, emotional response and concern). Perceptions of greater symptomatology (identity) and of emotional impact, and lesser perceptions of treatment control and understanding of chronic pain (illness comprehensibility) were significantly associated with increased depression symptoms. Perceptions of greater symptomatology (identity), emotional impact and greater concern were associated with anxiety symptoms. These findings indicate that the contribution of illness perceptions was greater than that made by traditional covariates, and may therefore be a useful basis for future psychological interventions.     

The Effect of Defendant's Plea on Mock Juror Decisions

Abstract

The study examined the attributional and attractional effects of admission or denial of a mistake in interaction with the stimulus person's status, the seriousness of the consequences of the mistake, and the certainty of the evidence. The factorial design of the experiment was 2 × 2 × 2 × 3 (Status x Consequences x Evidence x Admission). Male undergraduate college students in Bombay (N = 480) read a passage about a mislabeling incident in a pharmaceutical concern and then rated the stimulus person on several variables. Admission of the mistake elicited the most favorable ratings. The no-statement condition received slightly more negative evaluations than the denial condition. Higher status led to greater responsibility attribution, but seriousness of consequences did not. The most liked stimulus person was the high-status person who admitted his mistake in the condition of serious consequences and ambiguous evidence.     

Social and medical influences on attributions and evaluations of chronic pain

Abstract

Previous research suggests that judgments of pain are subject to social influences, including characteristics of the person in pain, the judge, and the social context in which the judgment occurs. In this experiment, eight vignettes describing a person with chronic low back pain were varied as a function of patient ethnicity (Caucasian vs African-American), litigation status (litigant vs non-litigant), and medical evidence (strong vs weak). Participants (N= 116) read vignettes, made attributions of causality for the person's pain and disability, and evaluated the severity of the pain syndrome. Pain and disability were perceived as more legitimate when the person in pain was a non-litigant and when medical evidence was strong. Evaluations of syndrome severity were more extreme when evidence was strong. A three-way interaction indicated that judgments may have been influenced by ethnic stereotypes. These findings substantiate the influence of social variables in judgments of persons with pain.     

A contextual approach on sex-related biases in pain judgements: The moderator effects of evidence of pathology and patients’ distress cues on nurses’ judgements of chronic low-back pain

Although women report feeling more pain than men, their pain is often underdiagnosed and undertreated. By proposing a gender-based theoretical conceptualisation, we argue that such sex-related biases may be enhanced or suppressed by contextual variables pertaining to the clinical situation, the perceiver or the patient. Consequently, we aimed to explore the moderator role of two clinically relevant variables in a chronic low-back pain (CLBP) scenario: diagnostic evidence of pathology (EP) and pain behaviours conveying distress. One-hundred and twenty-six female nurses (M?=?35.33, SD?=?7.64) participated in an experimental between-subjects design, 2 (patient's sex)?×?2 (EP: present vs. absent)?×?2 (pain behaviours: with vs. without distress). Independent variables were operationalised by vignettes depicting a patient with CLBP. Nurses judged the patient's pain on several dimensions: (1) credibility; (2) disability; (3) severity of the clinical situation; (4) psychological attributions and (5) willingness to offer support. Main findings showed that judgements of women's pain were influenced by EP, while judgements of men's pain were not. Moreover, nurses showed biases against men, but only in the presence of EP. The influence of distress cues was less consistent. Theoretical and practical implications are drawn.     

Effects of Testimonial Inconsistencies and Witness Group Identity on Mock‐Juror Judgments1

We examined the interaction of testimonial consistency and witness group identity on mock jurors' judgments of witness effectiveness, probability that the defendant committed the crime, and verdict. In a 3 × 2 (Witness Group Identity × Testimonial Consistency) between‐groups design, 180 mock jurors heard a trial of a person charged with assault. Although both variables affected judgments, group‐identity effects were weak when testimony was characterized by inconsistencies, and they were stronger when testimony was internally consistent but ambiguous. The judgment patterns were consistent with predictions from Chaiken, Liberman, and Eagly's (1989) heuristic‐systematic processing theory, suggesting that heuristic processing would bias systematic processing when the evidence was not decisive.     

Perceived probability and evaluation of balance,agreement, and attraction: Toward a solution of conflicting results

Fifty-four subjects rated sixteen hypothetical situations on four evaluative and four probability scales. The situations were of the P-O-X type, consisting of two persons and an issue. A2×2×2×2 factorial design was used to test the relative importance of attitude (P to × relation), issue (marijuana or premarital sex), agreement (P to × and O to × relations), attraction (P to O relation), and balance (agreement × attraction interaction) on the evaluation and probability variables. As predicted from a critical review of past research on balance theory, balance was the main determinant of perceived probability. Attraction was the main determinant of evalution. In light of a review of past balance research and of the present data, we propose to restrict the balance hypothesis to cognitive variables, i.e., expectancy and perceived probability. In addition, support was obtained for the hypothesis that the more dogmatic a person is, the more frequently he will perceive balanced relationships as occurring and the more positively he will evaluate balanced situations.     

Perceiving classroom aggression: The influence of setting,intervention style and group perceptions

Background. Violence and aggression in the classroom are often cited as a major concern within the teaching community. Teachers' perceptions of the appropriateness of intervention behaviours during aggressive incidents, however, are less often examined ( Meyer, Astor, & Behre, 2002 ), nor how they compare to the perceptions of training teachers ( John, 2002 ). Aims. This paper examines differences in the perceptions of practising and training teachers after exposure to an account of a violent incident where a school teacher is assaulted. The paper also investigates the relative and combined influence of classroom condition and teacher intervention on perceptions of classroom violence. Sample(s). Participants included 48 practising teachers, and 48 students undertaking a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) also took part in the study. Methods. The study utilized a 2 × 2×2 between‐subjects factorial design, manipulating the impact of classroom condition, teacher intervention, and observer status on evaluations of the teacher, assailant and school following an incident of violence against the teacher. Results. Classroom environment, teacher intervention, and observer status influenced evaluations of the teacher and school, but not the assailant. Conclusions. Implications of these findings and the applied importance of these results are discussed in relation to school policy, teacher training, and classroom maintenance.     

Independent benefits of contact and friendship on attitudes toward homosexuals among authoritarians and highly identified heterosexuals

Although intergroup contact is generally associated with positive intergroup attitudes, little is known about whether individual differences moderate these relations, or how contact might operate among prejudice‐prone individuals. The present investigation explores Person × Contact and Person × Friendship interaction patterns among heterosexual university students. As expected, the positive relations of right‐wing authoritarianism (RWA) and heterosexual identification with prejudice against homosexuals were weakened when participants reported increased contact, more positive contact, direct (personal) friendships, or indirect friendships (i.e., ingroup friends with outgroup friends) with homosexuals. These patterns held after controlling statistically for each person or situation variable. Contact and friendship exerted smaller or negligible effects among low authoritarians or low identifiers. Tests of indirect effects revealed that among high authoritarians or high identifiers, contact and friendship exerted influence on attitudes through group‐level perceptions that homosexuals promote societal values and through increased self–other overlap with gay friends, each otherwise resisted by these individuals. Overall these results suggest that: (a) intergroup contact and intergroup friendship are related but distinct constructs; and (b) past findings underestimate contact effects by collapsing across levels of personal biases. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dynamics of hostile aggression: Influence of anger,hurt instructions,and victim pain feedback

The research basically examined some of the dynamics of hostile aggression by looking at the effects of different Buss procedure instructions and levels of victim pain feedback on the aggressive behavior of angered and nonangered men. In a 2 × 2 × 2 completely crossed factorial experiment, male undergraduates were initially either angered or not by an experimental accomplice. When later given the ostensible opportunity to administer shocks to the same accomplice in a typical Buss procedure, the subjects were either told that longer and more intense shocks would probably interfere with the person's learning as well as causing him more pain (hurt instructions) or given no information about the effects of shocks on learning (standard instructions). Finally, after each shock they administered, the subjects were provided with either high or low victim pain feedback. The angered men were significantly more aggressive than their nonangered counterparts, and a significant interaction between anger and instructions indicated this was especially true for the men given hurt instructions. Significant interactions between the other independent variables and trial blocks revealed that the angered men, particularly those receiving hurt instructions and high victim pain feedback, displayed the greates increases in aggression. The results provide qualified support for the derived proposition about hostile aggression that signs and/or knowledge of victim injury and pain can stimulate more intense aggression from angry individuals.     

Synergistic effects of pain and alcohol use in relation to depressive and anxiety symptoms among Latinos in primary care

Although past work has shown that alcohol use co-occurs with anxiety/depression among Latinos, little work has examined the variables that qualify such associations. The present investigation sought to address whether pain severity (i.e. pain intensity and/or pain-related disability, respectively) moderated relations between hazardous drinking and depressive/anxious arousal symptoms among an economically disadvantaged Latino sample recruited from a primary care medical setting. Participants included 253 adult Latinos (M_age = 38.5 years, SD = 10.8; 86.6% female) who attended a community-based primary care clinic. There was a significant interaction of hazardous drinking with pain intensity in relation to depressive symptoms and significant interactions of hazardous drinking and pain-related disability in relation to depressive and anxious arousal symptoms. Hazardous drinking was associated with more severe depressive/anxious arousal symptoms only when pain intensity/disability was high. This is the first study to demonstrate the moderating role of pain intensity and disability in associations between hazardous drinking and anxiety/depression among Latinos in a primary care medical setting.     

Social categorization and person memory: The pervasiveness of race as an organizing principle

Two studies investigated the pervasiveness of race as a social categorization and whether the organization of information around racial categories is sensitive to contextual factors. Both studies measured accentuation effects (more intra- than inter-race errors) and own-group bias (fewer confusions between own- than other-group members) in person memory, using the paradigm developed by Taylor, Fiske, Etcoff and Ruderman (1978). Experiment 1 studies the generalization of these effects across ethnic group membership (black/white) and topic (categorization-relevant/irrelevant) in a 2 × 2 [× 4] between-subject design, with type of error as a repeated measure. There was a highly significant accentuation effect, which was not affected by either topic or group membership. Experiment 2, using white subjects only, manipulated anticipated future interaction/no interaction, which affected overall accuracy/error rate, but not the strong accentuation effect. Neither study found any support for an own-group bias. Results are discussed in terms of the automaticity of race as a basis for social categorization.     

framing of prenatal screening test results and women's health-illness orientations as determinants of perceptions of fetal health and approval of amniocentesis

Abstract

Framing effects of medical test results and interactions of these effects with personal perspectives were investigated in the context of prenatal screening. Hundred and Thirty-three pregnant women undergoing the ‘triple-test’ were assessed as having health or illness orientations, and were randomly presented with reassuring/moderate/severe diagnoses framed in normal/abnormal terms, forming a 2 × 3 × 2 between subjects design. Evaluations of fetus' health and recommendations to perform amniocentesis were assessed. Findings showed healthier evaluations of the fetus and weaker recommendations to perform amniocentesis in normal versus abnormal framings. An interaction was found between framing, diagnosis, and personal orientations: women with health orientations receiving a moderate diagnosis framed in abnormal terms were significantly more inclined to recommend amniocentesis than illness-oriented women given the same diagnosis; the normal/abnormal framing of severe diagnoses yielded opposite effects on health-oriented versus illness-oriented women. The influences of framing effects and health/ illness orientations on health perceptions and behavioral intentions were discussed.     

The Effect of Anticipated Service Interruptions on Disaster Preparedness Intentions1

This study examined the effects of anticipated service interruptions on natural disaster preparedness intentions. In a 3 × 2 × 2 factorial experiment, students were exposed to scenarios with varied levels of anticipated basic service interruption (no mention, low, high), and person‐relative‐to event (PrE) factors shown to affect preparedness (low, high), across 2 types of disaster (earthquake, flood). Results indicated no main or interaction effects related to type of natural disasters, significant main effects for levels of PrE and service interruption, and a significant PrE × Service Interruption interaction. Anticipated service interruption affected preparedness, regardless of level of PrE. Bringing service interruption into awareness increases willingness to prepare, suggesting that public‐health efforts should include messages regarding potential interruption of services.     

The homicidol effect: investigating murder as a fitness signal

This article extends homicide adaptation theory by investigating signal effects of a murder. In two experiments (N = 299 and N = 161) participants reported their perceptions of a described person. The first study manipulated the information about the person (including or excluding a single sentence stating that the person has committed a murder) and stimulus person/observer sex match (same vs. opposite sex). Results suggest that murder functions as a signal of the described person's fitness that enhances observers' evaluations and inclination to interact with the person. Opposite-sex observers evaluate the murderer's intent more favorably than same-sex observers, but these evaluations of intent produce differential (positive vs. negative) effects between the two groups. The second study replicated the findings and ruled out potential confounds.     

The situated person: Effects of construct accessibility on situation construals and interpersonal perception

Three studies examined the interrelationship between primed constructs, situation construal, and person perception. Previous research on priming and person perception has generally neglected the situational context. We predicted that when rich situational information is included, primed constructs can lead to assimilation effects on situation construals, which can in turn lead to contrast effects in person perceptions. Study 1 demonstrated that when situation information is included in the experimental context, primes lead to contrast in person perceptions. Study 2, employing a subliminal methodology, demonstrated that these effects could not be accounted for via previous explanations of contrast effects, such as correction-based mechanisms, that require overt recognition of the priming stimuli by the participants. Study 3 demonstrated that the contrastive effects of the priming stimuli on person perception obtained in Studies 1 and 2 are in fact due to the intervening assimilative effects of the priming stimuli on situation construal—that is, the primed constructs led to contrast effects on perceptions of the actor via their assimilative effects on perceptions of the situation in which that actor was embedded. Additionally, moderator variables demonstrated that this effect is most pronounced when the target actor’s behavior is described as relatively unambiguous or situation focus is increased.