PSYCHOLOGY AND HEALTH: CONTRIBUTIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY TO THE IMPROVEMENT OF HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE

Psychology as both a science and a profession has been closely identified with other disciplines in the broad field of health since the turn of the century. Recent advances in health care have reinforced the growing belief that the promotion of health and the prevention and treatment of illness can be greatly enhanced by incorporating the scientific findings and modern technology of psychology into everyday practices. Outlining the contributions of psychology to health care throughout the world is the primary purpose of this report. In this brief survey, only some of the most timely and relevant issues can be mentioned, together with examples of current work in the field. The reader interested in pursuing these psychological contributions more thoroughly is encouraged to review pertinent references from the citations at the end of this report. After an introductory overview, special attention is given to each of the major areas within the broad field of health care where psychological applications have been particularly useful.     

Temporal integration and vibrotactile backward masking

Subjects were presented with vibrotactile target patterns to their left index fingertips. The target patterns varied in the number of line segments that they contained and were presented in the presence or absence of a backward-masking stimulus. The stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between the target and masker was varied. In an identification task, subjects' errors indicated that the effect of the masker at brief SOAs was to increase the perceived number of line segments in the target. This effect diminished with increasing SOA, and at the longest SOAs subjects confused targets with patterns containing the same number of line segments but varying in how the line segments were related. In an estimation task, the effect of the masker was to increase the number of line segments estimated to be contained in the target pattern. The effect of the masker at brief SOAs is discussed in terms of an integration theory of vibrotactile backward masking. At longer SOAs, the results suggest that the masker may interfere with the extraction of relational information in the target pattern.     

Modeling feature perception in brief displays with evidence for positive interdependencies

Recent studies have begun to test certain fundamental assumptions underlying popular models of feature perception. This research is continued here. It was discovered that every basic assumption that was open to test in the present study was disconfirmed. However, several new characteristics of line and curve feature perception were discovered: (1) Feature perception sensitivity was inversely related to the number of features present in a stimulus pattern, and the decision criteria for reporting a feature decreased with the number of features contained in a pattern; (2) the decrements in sensitivity reported in (1) were greater for features lying inside a pattern than for those on the exterior; and (3) feature perception sensitivity actually improved if another feature was known to be correctly perceived during the same trial. Likewise, feature sensitivity decreased if another feature was missed on any trial. At the present time, a system that first extracts global and then local (more detailed) featural information provides a basis that qualitatively accounts for our findings and is also compatible with several other studies in the literature.     

Information processing abilities in twins reared apart

A battery of information processing measures and psychometric tests of specific and general cognitive abilities was administered to a sample of 105 individuals which included 34 monozygotic and 13 dizygotic reared apart twin pairs or triplets. Correlations between information processing parameters and psychometric abilities as well as twin resemblances for the information processing parameters were examined. In a principal components analysis of the information processing parameters, three components were identified which accounted for 67% of the total variation; Overall Speed of Response (OSR), Speed of Information Processing (SIP), and Speed of Spatial Processing (SSP). OSR was significantly correlated with WAIS IQ, and psychometric measures of verbal reasoning, spatial ability, and perceptual speed and accuracy. SIP was significantly correlated with WAIS IQ, measures of verbal reasoning, and one of the perceptual speed and accuracy measures. SSP was significantly correlated with measures of both spatial ability and perceptual speed and accuracy. Due to the small size of the dizygotic twin sample, no strong conclusions could be drawn regarding the magnitude of their resemblance. The correlation between component scores of reared apart monozygotic twins was significant for OSR, but not for SIP or SSP.     

Self-reinforcement: Impact of instructions,criterion setting,and tangible rewards

This investigation was designed to ascertain the effects of instructions, criterion setting, and the presence of tangible rewards on the self-reinforcement process. Fifty-two third- and fourth-grade subjects were assigned to one of four treatment groups: (a) stringent instructions/criterion setting/tangible reward, (b) stringent instructions/criterion setting/no tangible reward, (c) nonstringent instructions/criterion setting/tangible reward, and (d) nonstringent instructions/no tangible reward. In the stringent-instruction conditions, subjects received social reinforcement for selecting stringent performance criteria, whereas in the non-stringent-instruction conditions, social reinforcement was withheld. Subjects in the tangible-reward groups were allowed to select a prize following the successful completion of their self-selected work performance. Subjects in the no-tangible-reward groups received no prizes for their work. All subjects performed an arithmetic task in which the number of correct problems completed, number of problems attempted, and time at task served as dependent variables across five reinforcement and two extinction trials. The results suggest that the condition of stringent instructions, criterion setting, and tangible reward was more effective in producing behavior change than the other three conditions. Perceived task difficulty and previous achievement on arithmetic task performance were shown to affect criteria selected and mathematical performance. The results are discussed in light of the contributory role of instructions, criterion setting, and tangible rewards on the self-reinforcement procedure.This study is based on a doctoral dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh by Helen L. Evans. Dr. Russell T. Jones was the dissertation committee chairperson. It was partially funded by an American Psychological Association Minority Fellowship awarded to the first author. Special thanks are extended to the committee members, Drs. Lloyd Bond, Robert Glaser, Johnny Matson, and Samuel M. Turner, for their assistance. The authors would like to thank Thomas DeVoge, Paul Karoly, and Samuel M. Turner for reading and commenting on an early draft of this study. Portions of this paper were presented at the 1982 APA convention.     

Deconstructing the declaration: A case study in pragrammatology

I would like to thank Jonathan Lee, Terry Pinkard, Steven S. Schwarzschild, Jill Petzall, Bob Gibbs, Bill Hamrick and Jim Bohman for their very helpful criticisms of earlier drafts of this paper.