The effects of punishment of repetitions and the acquisition of “stutter-like” behaviors in normal speakers

The purpose of this study was to determine if a punishing stimulus, presented contingent upon repetitions, would cause normal speakers to develop behaviors that are “stutter-like,” resembling the secondary reactions often observed in stutterers. Ten normal-speaking adult males spoke spontaneously during a 15 minute A-B-A (base rate-punishment-withdrawl) single subject experiment. Repetitions decreased when the stimulus “you repeated” was made contingent upon their occurrence, but several other behaviors, “stutter-like” in nature, surfaced. As a less spontaneous speaking style was adopted, speech rate decreased significantly. Within a few minutes, the subjects developed some avoidant behaviors that may be characteristic of stuttering. The results were interpreted as having at least one therapeutic implication that could be particularly troublesome. The data seem to indicate that when clinicians focus solely on the reduction of repetitions in stuttering therapy, they may be generating avoidance behaviors that facilitate the development of stuttering.     

Considering the role of early discrimination experiences and the parent–child relationship in the development of disruptive behaviors in adolescence

Discrimination has been shown to be related to diminished psychological adjustment and greater risk for substance use when personally experienced by adolescents and when their caregivers experience discrimination. Our research considers the impact of primary caregiver experiences of racial- and socioeconomic-based discrimination in early (age 3–5 years) and late childhood (age 9½) on adolescent disruptive behaviors (age 14) with a large sample of diverse caregiver–child dyads (N = 634). In addition, we examine the potential protective effects of parent–child relationship quality in early and late childhood in buffering the effects of caregiver discrimination on adolescent disruptive behaviors. We also explore possible gender differences in children's vulnerability to engage in disruptive behaviors in the context of caregiver experiences of discrimination. The findings from this study indicate that at trend level, early childhood experiences of primary caregiver discrimination (ages 3–5) predicted adolescent disruptive behaviors, accounting for the effects of more recent (age 9½) caregiver discrimination. In addition, parent–child relationship quality at age 9½ years was found to buffer the effects of late childhood (age 9½) primary caregiver discrimination on adolescent disruptive behaviors for both male and female youth. The findings highlight the need for prevention and intervention techniques that foster healthy and positive primary caregiver–child relationships.     

Can harmful intergroup behaviors truly represent the self?: The impact of harmful and prosocial normative behaviors on intra-individual conflict and compartmentalization

This research investigates how group members subjectively feel about their prosocial vs. harmful intergroup behaviors, and whether these behaviors can represent who they are more globally as a person. Three experiments tested how group norms (pro-merit/parity vs. pro-discrimination) and congruence with these norms predicted compartmentalization of these intergroup behaviors in the self and intra-individual conflict. Experiment 1 (N = 122) revealed that participants who conformed to a pro-discrimination norm reported compartmentalizing this behavior to a greater extent than participants who conformed to a pro-merit norm. Experiments 2 (N = 149) and 3 (N = 222) replicated and extended these findings in real and conflictual intergroup settings, also over and above the effect of relevant superordinate norms. Mediated moderation analyses also revealed that following discriminatory norms was associated with more intra-individual conflict, and that this conflict in turn predicted higher compartmentalization.     

Children’s judgments of social interactive behaviors with peers: the influence of age and gender

Participants (138 children; 7–12 years of age) rated how often nice and not nice behaviors occurred when (a) participants (boys/girls) were the actor and peers (males/females) were the target and (b) when participants were the target of peers’ actions in a school setting. Children indicated they were nicer to their same-gender peers than to their opposite-gender peers. Also, older boys, in comparison to young boys, indicated that not nice interactions occurred more often among them and male peers. Nice (e.g., helping) and not nice (e.g., verbal aggression) behaviors were also generated, which also differed by age and gender. Finally, this study has important implications for educators in that from children’s point of view these are the types of behaviors that are occurring during their time at school. Although there are programs in schools that are aimed at decreasing physical aggression, more attention should be given to the more indirect or subtle forms of aggression, such as social manipulation and verbal. At the same time, programs that encourage nice behaviors, such as helping and sharing, should be expanded.     

Want information? How mood and performance perceptions alter the perceived value of information and influence information-seeking behaviors

Currently, it is not well understood when positive and negative moods would encourage and discourage the process of identifying and seeking out valuable information. Building upon the mood-as-a-resource hypothesis and the mood-behavior-model, this project reconciles mixed findings by investigating and finding support for the hypothesis that positive moods encourage seeking instrumental information when performance is perceived to be weak; whereas negative moods encourage it when performance is perceived to be strong. These effects are due to mood influencing the perceived value (i.e. instrumentality) of information and cannot be explained by arguing that mood altered the affective costs/benefits associated with the information. Overall, these results indicate that positive moods may help individuals acquire information to resolve an existing problem, whereas negative moods may help individuals acquire information when there is no apparent problem.     

Why do narcissists take more risks? Testing the roles of perceived risks and benefits of risky behaviors

Much prior research demonstrates that narcissists take more risks than others, but almost no research has examined what motivates this behavior. The present study tested two potential driving mechanisms of risk-taking by narcissists (i.e., heightened perceptions of benefits and diminished perceptions of risks stemming from risky behaviors) by administering survey measures of narcissism and risk-taking to a sample of 605 undergraduate college students. Contrary to what might be expected, the results suggest that narcissists appreciate the risks associated with risky behaviors just as much as do less narcissistic individuals. Their risk-taking appears to instead be fueled by heightened perceptions of benefits stemming from risky behaviors. These results are consistent with a growing body of evidence suggesting that narcissists engage in some forms of potentially problematic behaviors, such as risk-taking, because of a surplus of eagerness rather than a deficit of inhibition.     

Does distress tolerance moderate the impact of major life events on psychosocial variables and behaviors important in the management of HIV?

Living with HIV involves management of multiple stressful disease-related and other life events. Distress tolerance may provide a functional, individual-based context for qualifying the established relationships between major life events and psychosocial variables important in the management of HIV. The present study provided a preliminary test of the hypothesis that distress tolerance moderates the impact of major life events on these predictors of disease progression. HIV-positive patients (n=116) completed psychosocial and medical questionnaires. Results indicated that major life events interacted with distress tolerance such that lower distress tolerance and higher life events were associated with significantly higher levels of depressive symptoms, substance use coping, alcohol and cocaine use, and medication adherence. In addition, distress tolerance was directly related to self-reported HIV-related symptoms. These results suggest that low distress tolerance, particularly in the face of major life events, may present significant challenges to adaptive management of HIV. Distress tolerance assessment may help to specify targets for cognitive-behavioral and stress management treatments for people living with HIV.     

Is the privacy paradox a relic of the past? An in‐depth analysis of privacy attitudes and privacy behaviors

The privacy paradox states that online privacy concerns do not sufficiently explain online privacy behaviors on social network sites (SNSs). In this study, it was first asked whether the privacy paradox would still exist when analyzed as in prior research. Second, it was hypothesized that the privacy paradox would disappear when analyzed in a new approach. The new approach featured a multidimensional operationalization of privacy by differentiating between informational, social, and psychological privacy. Next to privacy concerns, also, privacy attitudes and privacy intentions were analyzed. With the aim to improve methodological aspects, all items were designed on the basis of the theory of planned behavior. In an online questionnaire with N = 595 respondents, it was found that online privacy concerns were not significantly related to specific privacy behaviors, such as the frequency or content of disclosures on SNSs (e.g., name, cell‐phone number, or religious views). This demonstrated that the privacy paradox still exists when it is operationalized as in prior research. With regard to the new approach, all hypotheses were confirmed: Results showed both a direct relation and an indirect relation between privacy attitudes and privacy behaviors, the latter mediated by privacy intentions. In addition, also an indirect relation between privacy concerns and privacy behaviors was found, mediated by privacy attitudes and privacy intentions. Therefore, privacy behaviors can be explained sufficiently when using privacy attitudes, privacy concerns, and privacy intentions within the theory of planned behavior. The behaviors of SNS users are not as paradoxical as was once believed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Coincidence or cascade? The temporal relation between locomotor behaviors and the emergence of stranger anxiety

Two infant milestones, self-propelled locomotion and stranger anxiety, tend to emerge at a similar age in development. An adaptive relation may exist in which the onset of one influences the development of the other in individual children. We examine whether these milestones systematically co-occur and whether one reliably precedes the other. In the current study, 104 parents completed weekly online surveys between 6 and 12 months, noting milestones as they occurred. Onset ages for locomotor behaviors were correlated with onset of stranger anxiety over and above a milestone in a third domain, namely consonant-vowel babbling. These data suggest that infants’ earliest locomotor behaviors may play a role in galvanizing the development of stranger anxiety.     

Analysis of the factors affecting drivers’ queue-jumping behaviors in China

In China, drivers’ queue-jumping behaviors are very common. To explore the factors affecting drivers’ queue-jumping, first, a driving attitude scale, a risk perception scale and a queue-jumping behavior scale were designed, and an existing Type A behavior pattern scale and a driver skill scale were also introduced. Second, these scales were used to collect empirical data, and 202 valid samples were obtained. Third, the reliability and validity of the developed scales were verified, and a structural equation model of drivers’ queue-jumping behaviors was established to explore the interrelationships among the Type A personality trait, cognitions (including attitudes and risk perception), driver skills (including driving skill and safety motivation) and queue-jumping behaviors. The results showed that drivers’ cognitions significantly affected their queue-jumping behaviors; specifically, drivers’ attitudes toward queue-jumping and traffic violations positively correlated with their queue-jumping behaviors (β = 0.323, t = 3.470; β = 0.277, t = 3.072), while drivers’ risk perception toward queue-jumping negatively correlated with their queue-jumping behaviors (β = −0.297, t = −3.889). Drivers’ driving skill and safety motivation also significantly affected their queue-jumping behaviors (β = 0.198, t = 2.385; β = −0.355, t = −4.101). Although Type A personality trait had no significant effects on drivers’ queue-jumping behaviors, it had significant effects on drivers’ attitudes toward queue-jumping and traffic violations (β = 0.336, t = 4.720; β = 0.215, t = 2.873) and their risk perceptions toward queue-jumping (β = −0.232, t = −3.279). In other words, the Type A personality trait can indirectly affect drivers’ queue-jumping behaviors through drivers’ attitudes and risk perceptions toward queue-jumping. The results provided offer traffic administration departments a theoretical foundation for governing this behavior.     

What do people think about changes in health behaviors? Differential perceptions of consequences of increases and decreases in health behaviors

Most health decision-making models posit that cost-benefit analyses underlie decisions to make changes in health-related behavioral practices. In a series of studies, participants imagined either increasing or decreasing the frequency of a variety of health behaviors and estimated the consequences of those changes. In Studies 1 and 2, individuals consistently estimated that increasing a health behavior produced greater consequences than did decreasing the behavior by an equivalent amount. The results of Study 3 demonstrated that this effect is due to differences in how individuals judge the impact of health behavior changes which involve not engaging in the behavior at all versus other types of changes. Taken together, these findings suggest that perceptions of the outcomes afforded by health behavior changes depend on both the behavioral frequency and direction of changes in behavior an individual is considering. This asymmetry has the potential to help explain patterns of behavior in a range of important health domains and may impact the effectiveness of behavior change interventions.     

What mediates the impact of response alternatives on frequency reports of mundane behaviors?

Previous research demonstrated that respondents assume that the range of precoded response alternatives reflects the researcher's knowledge of the distribution of opinions or behaviours in the population. This assumption may influence respondents' reports in two ways: respondents may either use the range of the response alternatives as a frame of reference in estimating their own behavioural frequencies, or they may be reluctant to report frequencies that appear extreme in the context of the scale. Three experiments using reports of mundane behaviours, namely watching TV and drinking beer, were conducted to differentiate between the frame of reference and the self-presentation hypothesis. The results of all studies favour the frame of reference hypothesis, and suggest that the impact of response alternatives is the more pronounced the less episodic information about the behaviour is accessible in memory. Specifically, proxy-reports were found to be more affected by the range of response alternatives than self-reports (Experiments 1 and 2), and respondents with dispositionally low access to self-related information were found to be more affected than respondents with dispositionally high access to self-related information (Experiment 3). Implications for questionnaire construction are discussed.     

Do diagnostic patterns exist in the sleep behaviors of normal children?

We investigated the factor structure of the Children's Sleep Behavior Scale in an unselected sample of children (N=838), ages 6 to 12.5 years, drawn from an elementary school population. Although no factor emerged that corresponded exactly to the parasomnias, as described by the Association of Sleep Disorders Centers (1979), all of the variables that loaded on Factor 1 were behaviors characteristic of the parasomnias, with the exception of recalled nightmares. Variables that were expected to load on this factor, but did not, were sleeptalking, teeth grinding, and enuresis. Enuresis was not related to any of the sleep behaviors assessed, and teeth grinding shared less than 9% of the variance with any of the other variables. Many of the variables loaded on more than one factor. The second factor, which was labeled bedtime resistance, was the only clearly unambiguous factor. Of the five factors that emerged, the third reflected positive affect, the fourth was a motor factor, and the fifth was an anxiety factor. Nightmares loaded on the anxiety factor as well as the first factor. The results of the study offered no support for the category of Disorders of Initiating and Maintaining sleep (DIMS), which has a childhood onset.This research was supported by a grant from the University of New Brunswick Research Fund.     

Similar situations—Similar behaviors?: A study of the intraindividual congruence between situation perception and situation reactions

A basic assumption in an interactional model of behavior is that individual behavior is more similar across situations which are perceived and interpreted as similar by the individual than across situations which are perceived as less similar or not similar at all. This proposition was investigated using a psychophysical scaling method for the study of perceived similarity between situations and measures of similarity between reaction profiles as expressions of cross-situational similarity in reactions. Individual data from 39 adolescents were analyzed. Hypothetical anxiety-evoking situations, and self-reported anxiety reactions, were used. The overall outcome of the comparison was in the predicted direction. For about 77% of the subjects the relationship was in the expected direction and for about 40% the relationship was statistically significant.     

Evaluating the influence of approaching vehicles on pedestrian’s visual patterns and crossing behaviors at an uncontrolled crosswalk

The visual behaviors and movement characteristics of pedestrians are related to their surrounding potential safety hazards, such as approaching vehicles. This study primarily aimed to investigate the visual patterns and walking behaviors of pedestrians interacting with approaching vehicles. Field experiments were conducted at two uncontrolled crosswalks located at the Cuihua and Yanta roads in Xi’an, China. The visual performance of pedestrians was assessed using the eye tracking system from SensoMotoric Instruments (SMI). Moreover, motion trajectories of the pedestrians and approaching vehicles were obtained using an unmanned aerial vehicle. Subsequently, the visual attributes and movement trajectories of pedestrians and motion trajectories of approaching vehicles were statistically analyzed. The results showed that approaching vehicles distracted the fixation of crossing pedestrians significantly, and occupied 29.5% of the total duration of fixation; that is, pedestrians always directed more fixation points to the approaching vehicles compared to other stimuli. As a vehicle approached, pedestrians’ fixation shifted from other areas of interest to the vehicle. Moreover, an increase in the velocity of the vehicle and a closer distance between pedestrian and the vehicle resulted in an increase in the pedestrians’ duration of fixation on the approaching vehicle, and they implemented more saccades. Furthermore, approaching vehicle’s velocity and distance between pedestrian and approaching vehicle are not significantly associated with pedestrian’s movement attributes. These findings provide insights into the crossing behavior of pedestrians during pedestrian-vehicle interactions, which could assist future researchers and policy makers.     

What counts in externalizing behaviors? The contributions of emotion and behavior regulation

The aim of this study was to examine the distinct roles of emotion and behavior regulation in externalizing behavior problems of elementary school children. Parents and teachers of 104 seven-year-old children living in Istanbul were given the Emotion Regulation Checklist and the Children’s Behavior Questionnaire. The Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory was used to measure children’s externalizing behaviors. Results revealed that emotion and behavior regulation are modestly related to each other, and in general, both abilities are linked to externalizing behaviors. Low emotion and low behavior regulation significantly predict externalizing behaviors. Interaction between the two regulatory abilities predicts externalizing behaviors. Emotion and behavior regulation appear to be separate dimensions operating together in relation to children’s behavior problems.     

Speaking of grief and the grief of speaking: martyrs’ speech and the perils of translation

In Derrida’s Monolinguism of the Other, a theory about the universal and constitutive alienation of the speaking subject from language finds its exemplary grounding in Derrida’s own experience as an Algerian Jew, one whose relationship to the French language is both totalizing and exiled (‘I have only one language, it is not mine.’). He equates speaking not only with contingent citizenship and a divestment of what one never really had in the first place, but also with the extreme experiences of torture, threat and physical violence. He indeed uses the words ‘passion’ and ‘martyr’ to describe his experience. In this paper, I will read Derrida ‘backwards,’ and against the universalizing move Derrida and those following him make in order to suggest a way of reading some scenes of violent death as scenes about diasporic cultural divestment. I’ll specifically attend to martyrs’ speech, and do so reading them as archives of the perils and inescapable expenses of entering dominant cultural ‘languages.’     

Situational moderators of leader reward and punishment behaviors: fact or fiction?

One assumption shared by many contemporary models of leadership is that situational variables moderate the relationships between leader behaviors and subordinate responses. Recently, however, R. J. House and J. L. Baetz (1979 in B. Staw & L. Cummings, Eds., Research in Organizational Behavior (Vol. 1), Greenwich, Connecticut, JAI Press) have suggested that the effects of some leader traits and behaviors may be relatively invariant; that is, have the same effects in a variety of situations. One possible class of leader behaviors which may have relatively consistent effects across situations are those known as leader reward and punishment behaviors. The first goal of the research reported here was to increase our understanding of the relationships between leader contingent and noncontingent reward and punishment behaviors and subordinate responses. Contingent reward behavior was found to have the most pronounced relationships with subordinate performance and satisfaction, followed by noncontingent punishment behavior. Neither leader noncontingent reward nor contingent punishment behavior were found to be related to either subordinate performance or satisfaction, with the exception that noncontingent reward behavior was negatively related to subordinates' satisfaction with work. The second goal of the research was to examine the effects of a variety of potential moderators on the relationships between leader reward and punishment behaviors and subordinate responses. The results of this study suggest that the relationships between leader reward and punishment behaviors and subordinates' performance are relatively free of moderating effects.     

Feelings or cognitions? Moral cognitions and emotions as longitudinal predictors of prosocial and aggressive behaviors

There is debate regarding the roles of sociomoral cognitions and emotions in understanding moral development. The short-term longitudinal relations among perspective taking, sympathy, prosocial moral reasoning, prosocial behaviors and aggression in adolescents were examined. Participants were 489 students (M age = 12.28 years, SD = .48; 232 boys) in public and private schools from predominantly middle class families in Valencia, Spain. Students completed measures of perspective taking, sympathy, prosocial moral reasoning, prosocial behaviors, and aggressive behaviors. Overall, structural equation modeling analyses showed that moral reasoning and emotions were interrelated and predicted both prosocial behaviors and aggression. Discussion focuses on the relevance of both social cognitions and emotions in moral development.