Children's beliefs about instances of mechanical and electrical causation

Two main questions were asked regarding young children's beliefs about causal mediation: What sorts of beliefs about causal mediation are reflected by children's incomplete explanations of causal situations? In particular, do children hold a false belief in action at a distance or do they realize that something must mediate between cause and effect? When presented with a non-visible connection between cause and effect (Experiment I), the children's incomplete (Piagetion Stage 1) explanations either reflected the correct expectation of a mediating connection or else merely reflected identification of the causal agent and no concern one way or another with the issue of causal mediation. This was also the case when the mediating connection was visible and present at the outset (Experiment II). In neither experiment (both of which involved mechanical causation) was there evidence of a false belief in action at a distance. A third experiment involved instances of electrical causation in order to maximize the chances of tapping a false belief. The rationale was that, in their everyday lives, although children do have first-hand experience with the mediating connection in instances of mechanical causation, they do not have such experience with instances of electrical causation. The results from the third experiment were analogous to the results in the other two. It was concluded that, with respect to instances of physical causality, young children do not hold a false belief (in action at a distance) that is later relinquished. Rather, their concerns are, at first, restricted to identifying the causal agent and do not include any beliefs, true or false, about the issue of causal mediation. When they eventually do deal with the question of causal mediation, children hold approximately correct beliefs. In terms of school situations, these findings suggest a shift from providing the child with disconfirming data that will aid him in relinquishing his false beliefs to providing him, instead, with additional data that will supplement his existing, approximately correct beliefs.     

Extraversion and exercise addiction

Extraversion has been suggested as a factor associated with addiction. This claim was tested in relation to exercise addiction. Twelve exercise addicts were compared with 12 nonaddicted individuals who were committed to regular exercise and with 12 nonexercising individuals drawn from the same student population. Addicted exercisers did not differ from nonaddicted exercisers in extraversion, although exercisers as a group were more extraverted than nonexercisers. The results are interpreted as evidence against the claim that extraversion is a component of the addictive personality profile.     

Are Written Reports of Suicide and Seeking Help Contagious? High Schoolers' Perceptions1

To assess contagion for suicide and seeking mental health help, 128 high school students read a short vignette about a teen under stress. Half of them were told that this teen knew someone in the community who had similar problems and had committed suicide, and half were told that the teen knew someone in the community who had similar problems and had sought help from a mental health professional. A 2 (Gender of Respondent) × 2 (Gender of Victim) × 2 (Vignette: Response to Stress) analysis of variance indicated a significant main effect for response, and a significant two-way interaction for gender of respondent and response to stress. These high school students thought contagion occurred for suicide as well as seeking mental health help. Girls tended to be more responsive to seeking help, whereas boys were slightly more responsive to suicide. An implication is that publicity about seeking help may ameliorate suicidal contagion.     

Strategies to motivate helpless and mastery-oriented children: The effect of gender-based expectancies

Five studies examined potential determinants of gender differences in helplessness by investigating two major steps in the expectancy confirmation process. The first step, i.e., an examination of gender-based expectancies, was addressed in three studies in which subjects (parents and college students) read vignettes that included either masculine or feminine sex-linked tasks performed by helpless and mastery-oriented children. We hypothesized that across tasks subjects would consider a “helpless” approach toward achievement as stereotypic of girls and “mastery-oriented” behavior as stereotypic of boys. The next step of the expectancy confirmation process, and central question addressed here, centered on the proposed differential treatment prescribed for children who performed inadequately on an academic activity, depending on whether these children's behaviors were consistent or inconsistent with stereotypic expectations. The pattern of data obtained generally supported hypotheses that (1) under conditions in which children's behavior confirmed expectancies, i.e., girls acting helpless and boys showing mastery-oriented behaviors, supportive responses would be prescribed, whereas (2) when children's behavior violated expectancies, i.e., girls acting in a mastery-oriented manner and boys acting in a helpless manner, more controlling techniques would be used. These findings are discussed in terms of consequences of use of these different strategies to remedy helpless behaviors in children.     

A cross-cultural study of the communication of extra-verbal meaning by gestures(1)

English and Italian encoders were asked to communicate two-dimensional shapes to decoders of their own culture, with and without the use of hand gestures, for materials of high and low verbal codability. The decoders drew what they thought the shapes were and these were rated by English and Italian judges, for similarity to the originals. Higher accuracy scores were obtained by both the English and the Italians, when gestures were allowed, for materials of both high and low codability; but the effect of using gestures was greater for materials of low codability. Improvement in performance when gestures were allowed was greater for the Italians than for the English for both levels of codability. An analysis of the recorded verbal utterances has shown that the detriment in communication accuracy with the elimination of gestures cannot be attributed to disruption of speech performance; rather, changes in speech content occur indicating an increased reliance on verbal means of conveying spatial information. Nevertheless, gestures convey this kind of semantic information more accurately and evidence is provided for the gestures of the Italians communicating this information more effectively than those of the English.     

A comparison of flooding and thought stopping in the treatment of obsessional neurosis

Flooding in vivo and thought stopping were compared in patients with obsessional neurosis, in a cross-over design. It was hypothesized that the two techniques would have different effects on symptomatology. However, although both seemed to be effective treatments, there were no significant differences between them. Reasons for this finding are discussed. There was, however, a slight tendency for flooding to produce more overall improvement, and a greater reduction in avoidance behaviour. There was also a tendency for the first treatment to produce more effect. A worthwhile clinical finding was that a fair amount of improvement occurred after only eight out-patient sessions.     

Progressive elaboration and memory for order in children

Three experiments were conducted investigating memory for items and order in a progressive elaboration paired-associates task. For all subjects retention of item information was improved by the use of progressively elaborated interactions relative to a no-elaboration control condition. For second and fourth graders, retention of order information depended upon the type of elaboration. If successive interactions were added in a logical temporal order, retention (of order information) was superior to the case where the successive interactions were added in a random order. This effect was not obtained with kindergarten children. In the second and third experiments, kindergarteners were instructed regarding the sequencing of the successive items, and results similar to those obtained with older children ensued. The data were discussed in terms of Tulving's distinction between episodic and semantic memory.     

The effectiveness of a simulation technique as an integral part of a school psychology training program

A modified Solomon design was employed to study the effects of a school psychology simulation package on the enacted and written response of a group of school psychology preservice students. Fifty-two school psychology students from five training programs enrolled in the last quarter of school psychology training prior to internship were divided into two groups. The experimental group (N=20) received the simulation experience, whereas the control group (N=32) did not. Results generally indicated the superiority of the experimental group and suggested that simulation as an integral part of a school psychology training program is an effective method of instruction. Pretesting in combination with the simulation training improved posttest performance more than simulation training alone.