Beauty Is Only "Name" Deep: The Effect of First-Name On Ratings of Physical Attraction

College students ( n = 197) voted to select a beauty queen from among six photographs equivalent in physical attractiveness, as determined by rankings of 35 students from a separate university. Half the photographs bore a desirable first-name and half were assigned an undesirable first-name. As predicted, firstname had a significant effect on physical attraction: Girls with desirable firstnames received 158 votes to 39 for those with undesirable names. These data were discussed in terms of an additive, rather than an interactive, effect, due to the nature of the task. The strength of these findings was related to the study's ecological validity.     

The role of proprioception in the perception and control of human movement: Toward a theoretical reassessment

The theoretical role of proprioception in the perception and control of human movement is elusive because of the obvious inability to manipulate experimentally the various receptive systems. Individuals who have had the metacarpophalangeal joint and joint capsule removed and replaced with silastic inserts afford a unique opportunity to evaluate a principal source of proprioception, namely, slowly adapting joint afferents. In a set of experiments, we show that such individuals show no deficits in finger localization following joint replacement. We take this and other complementary findings as a preliminary basis for proposing a dynamic rather than kinematic account of movement production. In addition, we provide a reconceptualization of the function of proprioceptive information in the CNS. Our arguments focus on proprioceptive inputs as tuning or modulating interneuronal pools rather than providing dimension-pecific information to the brain, as is commonly assumed.     

Lay theories of delinquency

This paper is concerned with the range, structure and determinants of lay people's implicit theories of delinquency. The different explicit psychological and sociological theories were reviewed as were studies on lay beliefs about crime and delinquency. After pilot interviews in which people were asked to list what they believed to be the major causes of delinquency, over 350 people completed a questionnaire in which they rated 30 explanations for their importance in explaining delinquency. The results showed numerous sex, age and voting differences. Conservatives tended to blame a person's poor education for his or her delinquency, while Labour voters tended to explain delinquency in terms of societal factors. A factor analysis revealed six clear explanation types for delinquency some of which were clearly related to explicit theories. Results were discussed in terms of the psychology of explanations and the relationship between explicit and implicit theories. Implications of this research were also noted.     

Anxiety disorders research with African Americans: current status

Anxiety disorders are the most common psychiatric disorders in the general population of the United States. Recent findings indicate that the prevalence of certain anxiety disorders may be higher in African Americans. In addition, anxiety disorders in African Americans may be manifested differently. Despite the high prevalence and the suggestion of different patterns of manifestation, a paucity of research exists on anxiety disorders in this population. This may be due in part to the pattern of help-seeking behavior among African Americans, a negative perception of research by members of this community, the small number of African American researchers, and perhaps to some extent a general disinterest on the part of researchers. The available research on anxiety disorders in African Americans is critically reviewed, the need for research in the area is highlighted, and ways to facilitate such research are discussed.     

Massignon,Vatican II and Islam as an Abrahamic religion

The qur'anic material about Abraham corresponds in broad outline to the biblical story although it contains some novel features, including the claim that Islam is the religion of Abraham and that together with Ishmael he rebuilt the Kaaba. The article surveys the largely negative responses of Byzantine polemicists, medieval Western authors, and later orientalists, to Islam's avowedly Abrahamic pedigree. It then examines the work of Louis Massignon and his circle, and discusses the extent to which his conviction that Islam was an Abrahamic religion, like Judaism and Christianity, influenced Vatican II. Some precursors of Massignon are mentioned, his attitude to the qur'anic representation of Abraham is criticized in the light of recent research, and his interest’ in Abraham is shown to have been intimately bound up with the peculiar circumstances of his own life.     

Favouritism,fairness and joint profit in long-term relationships

This study was designed to test a number of hypotheses about the use of FAV and other strategies as measured by the intergroup ‘matrices’ in four long-term relationships-with spouse, child, friend and workmate. Forty subjects filled in matrices giving three measures of self-favouritism (FAV), and one each of fairness (F) and maximum joint profit (MJP), in relation to the allocation of money and time. It was found that FAV was not used for spouse, and was used less for child than for the non-family relationships (p < 0.01, p < 0.05). There was also an influence of altruism (A) against FAV, when time was distributed between spouse (p < 0.01) or child (p < 0.001) and the self. F was used most for spouse, followed by child, friend and workmate (p < 0.001), and was used more by females in distributing money (p < 0.01). MJP was not used at all for money, but was used to some extent for time.     

The good,the bad and the mad: Response bias in self-report measures

This study set out to examine the susceptibility of five extensively used, self-report measures to response set bias. Subjects were requested either to fake good, (give a good impression), fake bad, (give a bad impression), fake mad, (give an impression of mental instability) or respond honestly. Subjects who faked good had significantly higher Extraversion, Lie and Social Desirability scores but lowest Neuroticism, Psychoticism and Social Anxiety scores. Subjects who faked bad had significantly lower Extraversion and higher Psychoticism and Social Anxiety scores. Fake mad subjects scored higher on Self-Monitoring and Locus of Control. Four of the eight scales showed significant differences between subjects faking bad and those faking mad. The results are discussed in terms of questionnaire design and respondent's motivation.     

Psychoticism,social desirability and situation selection

Previous research on personality and activity preference has shown that extraverts have a significantly and meaningfully different pattern of activity preference from introverts. This finding was also true of high and low neurotics but not to the same extent. This study was designed to see whether the traits of psychoticism and social desirability are also related to situational selection. Subjects from a large group were divided first into high P and low P scorers, and then high L and low L scorers. They indicated how much time they had spent in leisure situations over the past week; rank ordered their preferences for activities related to some of Murray's major needs and presses; rated their choice or avoidance of other abstractly described situations; and then stressful, anxiety-provoking, social situations. It was shown that both psychoticism and social desirability are related to situation selection in meaningful and predictable ways. The implications for personality assessment are considered.     

An analysis of the role and trait components of sex-biased occupational beliefs

This study investigated the role and trait components of sex-biased occupational beliefs. A repeated-measures analysis of variance design was used to assess the agreement patterns of 198 female and male undergraduates to three types of sentences: (1) traits necessary for a variety of occupations (job requisites); (2) the relative possession of these traits by men and women (traits); and (3) the relative suitability of women or men for these occupations (roles). A significant sex of subject by sentence type interaction was found, indicating that the sex of the subjects as well as the type of sentence (job, role, or trait) contributed to overall occupational beliefs. Moreover, tests of the simple main effects revealed that sentence type was significant for both females and males, and that sex was significant within two of the three levels of sentence type: job requisites and role statements. The results indicated that greater understanding of occupational stereotyping may be attained through research aimed at distinguishing between role and trait components of job stereotypes.This research was completed as part of the first author's doctoral dissertation research while supported by an NIMH Traineeship at Michigan State University. Use of the Michigan State University computer facilities was made possible in part through support from the National Science Foundation.