A multimethod analysis of selected self-esteem measures

This study investigated the convergent and discriminant validity of selected measures of global self-esteem and social self-esteem, using the multitrait-multimethod design. Orderliness was included as the third trait for appraising the discriminant validity of the self-esteem measures. Each trait was measured by three different methods: true-false self-report inventory, multipoint self-report inventory, and simple self-ratings. The Tennessee Self-Concept Scale and the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (short form) were the selected measures of global self-esteem. The revised Janis-Field Feelings of Inadequacy Scale and the Self-esteem scale of the Jackson Personality Inventory were included as measures of social self-esteem, while orderliness measures included the Order scales from the Personality Research Form and Comrey Personality Scales. Results from the multitrait-multimethod matrix and the multimethod factor analysis of data based on 93 males and 103 females provided strong evidence for the convergent and discriminant validity of the various trait measures.     

Measurement of muscle reflex time in radicular disorders of the lumbosacral region]

The results of studies performed by the authors show that time measurements of proprioceptive muscular reflexes (triceps surae and tibialis posterior reflexes) may be considered a valuable addition to methods of topical diagnosis of radicular disturbances in the lumbosacral region. The reflexes were tested in twenty normal subjects. There were found an intraindividual constancy of the respective reflex time with a maximum deviation of 2 ms as well as a lateral variability up to 1.3 ms. Radicular compressions resulted in an increase in reflex time by 2 to 66 ms or failure of the reflex potential to be recorded. The pathological cases were compared with clinical and neurological studies, positive myelographies using radiopaque substances, and results of surgical operations. Compared with the results of surgical operations, changes in reflex time indicated damage to the reflex arc in ninety percent of the cases.     

Judging interevent relations: From cause to effect and from effect to cause

Stimulus competition was studied in college students' correlational judgments in a medical decision-making setting. In accord with prior findings, subjects making cause-to-effect (predictive) judgments discounted a stimulus event that was moderately correlated with a target event when rival stimuli were more highly correlated with the effect. However, subjects making effect-to-cause (diagnostic) judgments were not at all disposed to discount a stimulus event which was moderately correlated with a target event when rival stimuli were more highly correlated with the cause. The theoretical implications of these results are considered in connection with associative and mentalistic models of causal attribution.     

Judging risk behaviour and risk preference: The role of the evaluative connotation of risk terms

Two experiments investigate the impact of the evaluative connotation of risk terms on the judgment of risk behaviour and on risk preference. In the first experiment we focus on (1) the evaluation congruence of the risk terms with a general risk norm and (2) with subjects' individual risk preference, and its effects on the extremity of judgments of risk behaviour. In the second experiment we address (3) the effects of evaluative connotation of risk terms on risk preference. In the first experiment subjects were presented with four decision problems, each with a risky and a cautious decision option, and were required to judge options. Results showed that the judged discrepancy between the risky and cautious option was larger on scales which were evaluatively congruent with the general risk norm for that specific decision problem or with subjects' individual preference. More specificly, in decision problems for which there was considerable consensus about the risk-norm judgments were more extreme on scales which were congruent with the risk norm, in those problems lacking a clear-cut risk-norm judgments were more extreme on scales congruent with subjects' individual risk preference. In the second experiment we studied the reverse relation between the evaluative connotation of risk terms and risk preference. This experiment demonstrates that using evaluatively biased risk terms can affect risk preference. Using terms which imply a positive evaluation of risk-taking and a negative evaluation of risk avoidance led to increased risk preference, and vice versa. Results are discussed in the context of accentuation theory.     

Modeling Nontraditional Career Choices: Effects of Gender and School Location on Response to a Brief Videotape

Effects of an 18-minute videotape promoting nontraditional career choices of 986 eighth-grade and 11th-grade girls and boys from rural and urban schools were examined. Models were women and men in occupations traditionally held by the opposite sex. Posttreatment realistic, investigative, and social interests of the treatment group who viewed the videotape were compared with a control group that received a minimal intervention. There was not a main effect for the brief videotape treatment. Boys in the treatment group expressed significantly higher social interests at posttest than did control group boys. Findings indicate that brief interventions promoting nontraditional careers have limited impact.     

Goal attainment scaling: An idiosyncratic method to assess treatment effectiveness in agoraphobia

Goal attainment scaling (GAS) is an individually tailored way to measure treatment gains, using a highly standardized procedure. An advantage of the method is that it takes into account individual characteristics of the patients, and at the same time the data are suitable for quantitative analysis and comparable across patients. Despite the wide acceptance and use of the method in the evaluation of psychotherapy, data on its psychometric properties are rather scarce. In the current study, GAS was used as one of several outcome measures in a research project on the effectiveness of various treatments for panic disorder with agoraphobia. Guidelines for GAS are presented as well as data on the reliability and validity of the procedure. Results indicate that the procedure is reliable, valid, and sensitive to the improvement of patients during treatment. Comparison of GAS with standardized measures revealed considerable concordance, although the clinical end status of patients diverged somewhat dependent on the measure considered.     

Is the brain an effective Turing machine or a finite-state machine?

Summary A theorem presented by Hornik, Stinchcombe, and White (1989) suggested the possibility that connectionist networks could be effectively Turing machines. Levelt (1990) argued that the theorem of Hornik et al. only implies that networks are finite-state machines and are therefore not capable of generating the very unlimited productivity of symbol systems. Yet it can be argued that all real machines, including the brain, are finite-state machines. If so, no real machine actually possesses the very unlimited productivity of symbol systems. So any model of actual behaviour should capture the limitations on productivity inherent in the situation. Thus connectionist networks can be valuable models in psychology, precisely because they are finite-state machines.     

Both perceptual and conceptual factors influence taste-odor and taste-taste interactions

Observers are often asked to make intensity judgments for a sensory attribute of a stimulus that is embedded in a background of “irrelevant” stimulusdimensions. Under some circumstances, these background dimensions of the stimulus can influence intensity judgments for the target attribute. For example, judgments of sweetness can be influenced by the other taste or-odor qualities of a solution (Frank & Byram, 1988; Kamen et al., 1961). Experiments 1 and 2 assessed the influence of stimulus context, instructional set, and reference stimuli on cross-quality interactions in mixtures of chemosensory stimuli. Experiment 1 demonstrated that odor-induced changes in sweetness judgments were dramatically influenced when subjects rated multiple attributes of the stimulus as compared with when they judged sweetness alone. Several odorants enhanced sweetness when sweetness alone was judged, while sweetness was suppressed for these same stimuli when total-intensity ratings were broken down into ratings for the sweetness, saltiness, sourness, bitterness, and fruitiness of each solution. Experiment 2 demonstrated a similar pattern of results when bitterness was the target taste. In addition, Experiment 2 showed that the instructional effects applied to both taste-odorand taste-taste mixtures. It was concluded that the taste enhancement and suppression observed for taste-odor and taste-taste mixtures are influenced by (1) instructional sets which influence subjects’ concepts of attribute categories, and (2) the perceptual similarities among the quality dimensions of the stimulus.     

A blueprint of ELI: A new method for eliciting subjective probability distributions

A blueprint of a new method for eliciting uncertain knowledge about continuous quantities is presented. The direct realization of a proper scoring rule in a graphically oriented interactive computer program is one of the central features of the new elicitation methodology. Uncertain knowledge is internally represented through subjective probability distributions. However, in its interaction with assessors, the elicitation method uses a score representation. A proper scoring rule is applied to transform probability density functions into score functions. In order to study its merits, central ideas for the new method were implemented in an experimental version of the elicitation technique ELI. The results were promising and encouraged further development of the technique.     

SIDE EFFECTS OF THERAPEUTIC PUNISHMENT ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AND EYE CONTACT

The effects of therapeutic punishment delivered following inappropriate behavior on the academic responding and eye-to-face contact of 2 persons with developmental handicaps was examined using a counterbalanced alternating treatment design. Each subject was sequentially taught by two therapists each day. While one of the therapists taught the subject, the second therapist stood in close proximity directly behind the subject. During baseline, neither therapist delivered punishment following inappropriate behavior. During the treatment condition, one of the therapists delivered all punishment regardless of whether she was teaching or standing behind the subject. The therapist who delivered all punishment for 1 subject did not deliver any punishment for the other subject. During the last condition, the therapist delivering all punishment was reversed for 1 of the subjects. The results indicated that the task being taught was mastered by each subject only when the therapist delivering punishment was teaching. Data collected also indicated that each subject made more eye-to-face contact when the therapist delivering all punishment was teaching. Although neither therapist had to deliver punishers often, punishment had to be administered less often when the therapist teaching the subject was also the therapist delivering punishment.