The Continuation of Perpetrator Behaviors that Influence Perceptions of Sexual Harassment

This study was designed to investigate sexual harassment perceptions based on continuation of unwanted sexual attention following victim resistance. Participants were 504 undergraduates who responded to statements regarding a sexual harassment scenario, in which the perpetrator continued or discontinued attention, which varied in severity according to nonphysical, physical, or restraint contact. Results showed that continued attention and any type of physical contact strengthened harassment perceptions, although men’s perceptions were weaker unless restraint was present. No sex differences were observed in the restraint condition. Women had stronger perceptions than men did in the physical condition, but showed a non-significant trend toward stronger perceptions in the nonphysical condition. Findings suggest that continuation following resistance may clarify for observers that harassment is occurring. Conceptualizations of harassment severity are suggested.     

Further Evidence of the Reliability and Validity of the Multidimensional Anxiety

The psychometric properties of the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC) were examined in adolescent psychiatric inpatient samples. In Study 1 (n = 287), confirmatory factor analyses provided satisfactory fit for the four-factor (comparative fit index; CFI = 0.856) and higher-order (CFI = 0.854) solutions. Using parcels as items, the fit of the four-factor model was improved substantially (CFI = 0.935). Next, in the bifactor analyses, support was attained for a model that included a general factor and four domain specific subfactors. In Study 2 (n = 195 inpatient youths), the MASC showed good scale reliability and concurrent validity. Results of the receiver operating characteristic curve and binary logistic regression analyses provided adequate evidence for discriminative validity. In Study 3 (n = 40), test–retest reliability of scores on the MASC-10 scale over a 3-week period was adequate (r _tt = 0.83, p < 0.001) for children ages 8 to 11 years.     

Unconscious task application

The nature of unconscious information processing is a heavily debated issue in cognitive science (e.g., Kouider & Dehaene, 2007), and neuroscience (e.g., Crick & Koch, 1998). Traditionally, it has been thought that unconscious cognitive processing is restricted to knowledge that is strongly prepared by conscious processes (e.g., Dehaene et al., 1998). In three experiments, we show that the task that is performed consciously can also be applied unconsciously to items outside the current task set. We found that a same–different judgment of two target stimuli was also performed on two subliminally presented prime stimuli. This was true for target and prime stimuli from entirely different categories, as well as for prime and target stimuli at different levels of abstraction. These results reveal that unconscious processing can generalize more widely than previously accepted.     

Misinterpretation of conditional statements in Wason's selection task

Errors may be made on Wason's selection task because either (a) the rule to be tested is misunderstood, or (b) reasoning from that rule is inaccurate, or both. We report two experiments using the experimental paradigm introduced by Gebauer and Laming in which subjects are given six problems in succession. We use the subset of cards selected by each subject as (a) an indication of how the rule is understood and, when that selection is consistent throughout all six problems (so that we can infer a consistent understanding of the rule), as (b) a basis for evaluating the accuracy of the subject's reasoning according to three independent criteria. Experiment 1 adds an exactly parallel contextual version of the task to permit comparison between performances (by the same subjects) on the two versions. Experiment 2 repeats Exp. 1, but with negatives inserted in the conditional rule. Most subjects make a consistent selection of cards throughout all six problems, but typically appear to misunderstand the rule. This is so in both abstract and contextual tasks and replicates the finding by Gebauer and Laming. Most misunderstandings consisted of either (a) reading the simple conditional rule as a bi-conditional or (b) substituting “top/underneath” for “one side/other side”. In Exp. 1 subjects seldom misevaluated the rule they appeared to be testing, but such “errors” of evaluation were common in Exp. 2. Negatives confuse the subjects and should not be used in any conditional application that matters. In Exp. 2 (but not 1) there was a significant correlation between interpretations of the two tasks. We provide an explanation of “matching bias” (it results from the confluence of the two common misunderstandings above) and comment on “mental models” which are, at present, unable to accommodate the variety of results we present here. We also relate our experimental paradigm to the conditional inference task and to truth tables. Received: 26 February 1999 / Accepted: 5 November 1999     

Manifestations of personality in Online Social Networks: self-reported Facebook-related behaviors and observable profile information

Despite the enormous popularity of Online Social Networking sites (OSNs; e.g., Facebook and Myspace), little research in psychology has been done on them. Two studies examining how personality is reflected in OSNs revealed several connections between the Big Five personality traits and self-reported Facebook-related behaviors and observable profile information. For example, extraversion predicted not only frequency of Facebook usage (Study 1), but also engagement in the site, with extraverts (vs. introverts) showing traces of higher levels of Facebook activity (Study 2). As in offline contexts, extraverts seek out virtual social engagement, which leaves behind a behavioral residue in the form of friends lists and picture postings. Results suggest that, rather than escaping from or compensating for their offline personality, OSN users appear to extend their offline personalities into the domains of OSNs.     

Compensatory internet use among individuals higher in social anxiety and its implications for well-being

The social compensation hypothesis states that the internet primarily benefits individuals who feel uncomfortable communicating face-to-face. In the current research, we tested whether individuals higher in social anxiety use the internet as a compensatory social medium, and whether such use is associated with greater well-being. In Study 1, individuals higher in social anxiety reported greater feelings of comfort and self-disclosure when socializing online than less socially anxious individuals, but reported less self-disclosure when communicating face-to-face. However, in Study 2, social anxiety was associated with lower quality of life and higher depression most strongly for individuals who communicated frequently online. Our results suggest that, whereas social anxiety may be associated with using the internet as an alternative to face-to-face communication, such a strategy may result in poorer well-being.     

Subjectivity uncertainty theory of objectification: Compensating for uncertainty about how to positively relate to others by downplaying their subjective attributes

Why do people sometimes view others as objects rather than complete persons? We propose that when people desire successful interactions with others, yet feel uncertain about their ability to navigate others' subjectivity, they downplay others' subjective attributes, focusing instead on their concrete attributes. This account suggests that objectification represents a response to uncertainty about one's ability to successfully interact with others distinct from: instrumentalizing others in response to power; dehumanizing others in response to threat; and simplifying others in response to general uncertainty. Supporting this account: When uncertainty about navigating women's subjectivity was salient, men showed increased sexual objectification to the extent that they desired successful interactions with women (Study 1) and were primed to view such interactions as self-esteem relevant (Study 2). In a workplace scenario, participants made uncertain about their managerial ability felt less confident about their ability to navigate employees' subjectivity and, consequently, role-objectified employees (Study 3).