Stability and Change of Social Goals in Adolescence

This study provides a comprehensive analysis of continuity and change in social goals using the interpersonal circumplex (IPC) model across adolescence (ages 11–16). Five complementary definitions of stability were examined: structural, rank‐order, absolute, individual, and ipsative. Data were taken from a longitudinal study of early adolescent problem behavior. Social goals were assessed during each wave, with data collection occurring at three annual intervals (Wave 1, ages 10–12). A community sample of adolescents (N = 387) was recruited. Adolescents were evenly split on gender, and a majority (82.7%) was White. Results suggest a modest increase in stability across social goals, yet significant interindividual heterogeneity. Although levels of Agentic and Communal factors increase over time, these patterns were driven by decreases in the Submissive and Separate octants. This offers evidence for the utility of examining lower‐order facets of interpersonal dispositions, as it provides a nuanced picture of adolescent personality development. Furthermore, findings suggest that change and continuity in social goals may both be relevant in this developmental period. The difficulty is accounting for trait stability as well as change, and the IPC model may be particularly useful for meeting this challenge.     

There is more to green reading than meets the eye! Exploring the gaze behaviours of expert golfers on a virtual golf putting task

Gaze patterns and verbal reports of golfers at three skill levels (professional, elite amateur and club) were recorded as they read the slope of a virtual golf green from six different positions. The results showed that the professional golfers used a more economical gaze pattern consisting of fewer fixations of longer duration than the amateur and club players. Gaze pattern was accompanied by verbal reports that were not significantly more accurate in terms of aiming accuracy, although the professionals were accurate on 76.5 % of putts compared to 57.1 % for the elite and club groups. Two read positions lead to more accurate predictions by the professional golfers only, suggesting distinctive periods of visual perceptual–cognitive attention may underly higher levels of putting skill. Theoretical implications of these results are discussed in relation to the application of visual attention theory to practise, as well as suggestions provided for further research.     

Books Briefly Noted

Political Freedom By George G. Brenkert Routledge, 1991. Pp. 278. ISBN 0–415–03372–1. £35 hbk.

Wittgenstein: A Bibliographical Guide By Guido Frongia and Brian McGuinness Basil Blackwell, 1990. Pp. x + 438. ISBN 00631–13765–3. £60.00.

Metaphysics By Peter van Inwagen Oxford University Press, 1993. Pp. xiii + 222. ISBN 0–19–8751400. £11.95 pbk.

The Nature of Moral Thinking By Francis Snare Routledge, 1992. Pp. 187. ISBN 0–415–04709–9. £9.99 pbk.

Filosofía analitica hoy: Encuentro de tradiciones Edited by Mercedes Torrevejano Servicio de Publications Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 1991. Pp. 284. ISBN 84–7191–722‐X. $15.5 pbk.

The Puzzle of Experience By J.J. Valberg Clarendon Press, 1992. Pp. 227. ISBN 0–19–824291–3. £25.

Religion and Philosophy Edited by Martin Warner Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement: 31 Cambridge University Press, 1992. Pp. vi + 155. ISBN 0–521–42951‐X. £10.95 pbk.

The Uses of Philosophy By Mary Warnock Blackwell, 1992. Pp. 256. ISBN 0–631–18038–9. £35.00 hbk. £11.95 pbk.

The Disappearance of Time: Kurt Godel and the Idealistic Tradition in Philosophy By Palle Yourgrau Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. x + 182. ISBN 0–521–41012–6. £27.50     

A Comparison of Passive–Aggressive and Negativistic Personality Disorders

Passive–aggressive personality disorder (PAPD) has historically played an important role in clinical theorizing and was diagnosable prior to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed. [DSM–IV]; American Psychiatric Association, 1994), in which the construct was relabeled negativistic (NEGPD), expanded to include negative affective symptoms, and appendicized. In this study we tested the hypothesis that the expansion of PAPD to include content related to negative moods and nonspecific personality pathology compromised its discriminant validity. In an undergraduate sample (N = 1,215), a self-report measure of PAPD was only moderately related to NEGPD and showed less diagnostic overlap with other personality disorders than NEGPD. Furthermore, a conjoint factor analysis yielded a strong first factor (moodiness) that appeared less specific to passive–aggressive behavior than 3 other factors (irresponsibility, inadequacy, and contempt). We conclude that future research on this potentially important clinical construct should focus on core passive–aggressive features and abandon the negativistic content that has been added to it in successive editions of the DSM.     

Integrating Methods to Optimize Circumplex Description and Comparison of Groups

The ‘self-steering behaviour’ syndrome, as measured by the barrier index of the body image boundary, was investigated as a predictor of level of adjustment to stress induced by physical-disability. Rorschach blots were administered to three groups of 24, randomly selected subjects differing in degree of disability, and Barrier scores were derived according to the Fisher and Cleveland technique. It was hypothesized that Barrier score would significantly discriminate between levels of adjustment and degrees of disability, but the results did not support these hypotheses. Results indicated that ‘self-steering behaviour’ as indexed by Barrier score is not a valid technique for predicting typical behavioural patterns of reaction to disability-stress.     

The Theology of Jean Daniélou: Epochs,Correspondences, and the Orders of the Real

After a survey of the life and work of Jean Daniélou considered as the classic theologian of twentieth century 'ressourcement', his theological method is explored under three headings: 'epochs' indicates his reliance on the theology of history as developed by 'biblical theology'; 'correspondences' his cosmic aesthetics, indebted to French Symbolism, and invoked theologically by way of typology; 'orders' his Pascalian emphasis on a distinction between levels of reality and the variety of epistemological approaches they require. The article concludes by applying Daniélou's method, so understood, to the heart of his theological doctrine, his account of God in Jesus Christ.     

Properties of the diversity effect in category-based inductive reasoning

Four experiments investigated how people judge the plausibility of category-based arguments, focusing on the diversity effect, in which arguments with diverse premise categories are considered particularly strong. In Experiment 1 we show that priming people as to the nature of the blank property determines whether sensitivity to diversity is observed. In Experiment 2 we find that people's hypotheses about the nature of the blank property predict judgements of argument strength. In Experiment 3 we examine the effect of our priming methodology on people's tendency to bring knowledge about causality or similarity to bear when evaluating arguments, and in Experiment 4 we show that whether people's hypotheses about the nature of the blank property were causal predicted ratings of argument strength. Together these results suggest that diversity effects occur because diverse premises lead people to bring general features of the premise categories to mind. Although our findings are broadly consistent with Bayesian and Relevance-based approaches to category-based inductive reasoning, neither approach captures all of our findings.     

Alternative antecedents, probabilities, and the suppression of fallacies in Wason's selection task

Three experiments examined the influence of a second rule on the pattern of card selections on Wason's selection task. In Experiment 1 participants received a version of the task with a single test rule or one of two versions of the task with the same original test rule together with a second rule. The probability of q was manipulated in the two-rules conditions by varying the size of the antecedent set in the second rule. The results showed a significant suppression of q card and not-p card selections in the alternative-rule conditions, but no difference as a function of antecedent set size. In Experiment 2 the size of the antecendent set in the two-rules conditions was manipulated using the context of a computer printing double-sided cards. The results showed a significant reduction of q card selections in the two-rules conditions, but no effect of p set size. In Experiment 3 the scenario accompanying the rule was manipulated, and it specified a single alternative antecedent or a number of alternative antecedents. The q card selection rates were not affected by the scenario manipulation but again were suppressed by the presence of a second rule. Our results suggest that people make inferences about the unseen side of the cards when engaging with the task and that these inferences are systematically influenced by the presence of a second rule, but are not influenced by the probabilistic characteristics of this rule. These findings are discussed in the context of decision theoretic views of selection task performance (Oaksford & Chater, 1994).     

Regret as autobiographical memory

We apply an autobiographical memory framework to the study of regret. Focusing on the distinction between regrets for specific and general events we argue that the temporal profile of regret, usually explained in terms of the action–inaction distinction, is predicted by models of autobiographical memory. In two studies involving participants in their sixties we demonstrate a reminiscence bump for general, but not for specific regrets. Recent regrets were more likely to be specific than general in nature. Coding regrets as actions/inactions revealed that general regrets were significantly more likely to be due to inaction while specific regrets were as likely to be due to action as to inaction. In Study 2 we also generalised all of these findings to a group of participants in their 40s. We re-interpret existing accounts of the temporal profile of regret within the autobiographical memory framework, and outline the practical and theoretical advantages of our memory-based distinction over traditional decision-making approaches to the study of regret.