Navigating joint projects with dialogue

Dialogue has its origins in joint activities, which it serves to coordinate. Joint activities, in turn, usually emerge in hierarchically nested projects and subprojects. We propose that participants use dialogue to coordinate two kinds of transitions in these joint projects: vertical transitions, or entering and exiting joint projects; and horizontal transitions, or continuing within joint projects. The participants help signal these transitions with project markers, words such as uh‐huh, m‐hm, yeah, okay, or all right. These words have been studied mainly as signals of listener feedback (back‐channel signals) or turn‐taking devices (acknowledgment tokens). We present evidence from several types of well‐defined tasks that they are also part of a system of contrasts specialized for navigating joint projects. Uh‐huh, m‐hm and yeah are used for horizontal transitions, and okay and all right for vertical transitions.     

Memory for information about sex differences

To test the selective recall hypothesis, male and female adolescents listened to a tape recording of 30 “findings” about sex differences. Fifteen of the findings were pro-female and 15 were anti-female. After being given free recall and then cued recall tests, the subjects completed the British version of the attitudes towards women scale. Multiple regression analysis supported the prediction that males, and those with more negative attitudes to wards women, recalled less pro- and more anti-female items, and vice versa. The importance of selective recall to studies of social cognition is discussed.     

Predicting one’s own and others’ 16 PF scores

This study examined the relationship between subjects’ actual test derived scores and their estimates of what those scores would be. Sixty subjects completed the 16 PF (form D) and then estimated the scores on each dimension for themselves and another person they knew well. The results showed significant positive correlations on 9 of the 16 dimensions for themselves. The dimensions they were best at estimating were Desurgency-Surgency, Untroubled adequacy-guilt proneness and Threctia-Parmia. Only two correlations (both negative) reached significance concerning their ability to predict another known person’s scores. Whereas subjects believed they were like the other person they nominated (13 of the 16 correlations were significantly positive), in actual fact their test derived scores showed only two significant findings, one positive and the other negative. Results are discussed in terms of lay theories of personality and their relationship to personality assessment.     

Tolerance of ambiguity: A review of the concept, its measurement and applications

This paper reviews the scattered and diffuse literature on the tolerance of ambiguity construct (AT). The work by Frenkel-Brunswik (1948) is considered in some detail to help explain the origin of the concept as well as its diffusion to many areas of psychology. Second, thirty years of correlational research, which looks at the studies correlating AT measures with a variety of psychological variables, are reviewed. Third, evidence for the differential distribution of AT among particular groups is reviewed. Fourth, the psychometric properties of the various self-report AT measures are considered in some detail. The two final sections look at organizational and cultural correlates of AT (the areas currently most interested in the AT concept). The conclusion attempts to explain varying patterns of interest in the AT construct and its current status.     

Young people's theories of anorexia nervosa and obesity

One hundred and forty-seven participants completed a 108-item questionnaire, based on that used by Fumham and Hume-Wright in 1992 aournal of Clinical Psychology, 48, 20-36) that looked at their beliefs about the causes and cures of anorexia neruosa and obesity. The four parts of the questionnaire were individually factor analysed and an intevretable factor structure emerged for each. while age and knowing someone with anorexia neruosa or obesity did not correlate with the factors obtained, sex, actual body size, estimated body size and having experience of an eating disorder were found to correlate significantly with a number of factors. Factors of cause and cure were not correlated regarding anorexia neruosa, but were for obesity. Several correlations within cause and cure, across both disorders, were also significant. The implications of these jindings and how they relate to the theories described in the Introduction are considered in the Discussion.     

VALUE SYSTEMS AND ANOMIE IN THREE CULTURES

The Rokeach Value Survey was administrated to three equivalent groups of South Africans - Africans (Blacks), Indians (Browns), and Europeans (Whites) - along with the Srole Anomie Scale. It was hypothesized that a number of differences would occur between these groups based on socio-economic structure of the country, their respective affluence, and traditional cultural differences. Values assigned relatively high importance by the Africans concerned equality and peace, while the Europeans place higher value on friendship and love. Although there were large significant differences between the Black and White groups on anomie, these scores did not correlate very highly with the instrumental or terminal values. These results were interpreted in terms of the history and culture of the three groups and the socio-political structure of the society in which they live. Limitations of research of this kind are also noted.     

Learned helplessness and IQ differences

Two groups of adult Ss differing in verbal IQ were compared in a learned helplessness experiment involving cognitive tasks and non-contingent rewards. The mean IQs for the two groups were 131 and 117. As predicted, the higher IQ Ss performed better overall and showed greater awareness of the response-outcome contingency. Their test-task performance was also more affected by the contingency manipulation although this occured only with success feedback. Implications of the results for cognitive accounts of human helplessness are discussed.     

Personality and the perception of TV violence

An experiment was carried out to investigate relationships between individuals' personality characteristics and their perceptions of violent TV portrayals. A panel of 40 viewers rated brief violent episodes from five categories of programming, contemporary British crime-detective series, American police series, westerns, science-fiction series and cartoons on eight scales. These responses were then related to viewers' scores on the N, E and P dimensions of the EPQ. Results showed that violent scores from contemporary settings were rated as more serious than scores from non-contemporary and fantastic settings. In addition, viewers exhibited individual differences in ratings of TV violence which were related to certain of their EPQ scores. In particular, high N scorers tended to perceive violence generally, but especially that from contemporary British drama, as more serious than did low N scorers. This study indicates the need to include personality measures in the analysis of audience reactions to TV violence.     

Accepting personality test feedback: A review of the Barnum effect

This article attempts a comprehensive and critical review of the by-now fairly extensive literature on the Barnum effect—the approval/acceptance by subjects of bogus personality interpretations supposedly derived from standard tests. Since the last major review eight years ago various methodological extensions have occurred and various rival hypotheses for established findings have been proposed. The present review is divided into three major sections: client and clinician characteristics; feedback statements and test format; and implications for personality assessment and measurement. Nearly 50 studies on the acceptance of personality interpretations are systematically reviewed and criticized.