GENERALITY AND SIDE EFFECTS OF OVERCORRECTION1

The effects and side effects of overcorrection for self-stimulatory behaviors of two children in a specialized day-care program were evaluated. For one child, a “hand” overcorrection procedure involving arm and hand exercises was introduced contingent upon inappropriate hand movements and later contingent upon inappropriate foot movements. After “hand” overcorrection was withdrawn for inappropriate foot movements, a “foot” overcorrection procedure involving foot and leg exercises was introduced contingent upon inappropriate foot movements. For a second child, the “hand” overcorrection procedure was introduced contingent upon inappropriate hand movements during a free-play period, and later contingent upon inappropriate vocalizations at naptime. “Hand” overcorrection was withdrawn and then re-introduced sequentially for both behaviors. Several concurrent behaviors were measured to assess multiple effects of treatment. Results for both children indicated the “hand” overcorrection procedure suppressed inappropriate hand movements and inappropriate behaviors that were topographically dissimilar. In addition, inverse relationships were observed between the second child's inappropriate hand movements and appropriate toy usage during free play and between his inappropriate vocalizations and inappropriate foot movements during naptime. Results suggest that overcorrection procedures that are effective for one behavior can be used to reduce the frequency of topographically different behaviors. This finding is discussed in terms of its practical implications for therapists.     

Adolescent and adult authoritarianism reexamined: Its organisation and stability over time

This paper, which draws on follow-up data collected from English subjects first tested as adolescents and then, 1I years later, as young inen of 24–25, falls into three parts. Part I examines the structuring of responses to authoritarian statements. No general authoritarian factor could be isolated in either adolescence or in adult life. Instead, four separate authoritarian response tendencies, each with its own antecedents, significance and predictive value, were obtained. Only the adolescent measures correlated significantly with ability level. This, together with the greater stability across time of the responses of the more able 13–14 year olds, led us to hypothesize that some of the variance in adolescent scores was cognitively, not motivationally, determined. Part II reports a series of experimental studies (using additional data from the follow-up investigation) testing the cognitive and developmental hypothesis, which received support. Part III proposes a general model for the consideration of attitudes, in which any given attitudinal response is located in a three-dimensional space of cognitive complexity, personality needs and social structure.     

The Woman Veterinarian

This study was undertaken to determine the professional practice patterns of Michigan State University graduates in Veterinary Medicine and the factors that influenced their choice of profession and satisfaction with the field, so that similarities and differences of men and women practitioners could be compared. None of the 21 accredited schools of veterinary medicine has conducted a study of this kind. The career patterns of women were characterized by interruptions, lower salaries, and participation in only a few of the specialties within the profession, the latter interpreted as an attempt to reduce professional role-sex role conflict. In spite of the limitations and conflicts encountered by women, they are deeply committed to the profession and claim a great deal of satisfaction from their work.     

Mnemic neglect: Selective amnesia of one’s faults

The mnemic neglect model predicts and accounts for selective memory for social feedback as a function of various feedback properties. At the heart of the model is the mnemic neglect effect (MNE), defined as inferior recall for self-threatening feedback compared to other kinds of feedback. The effect emerges both in mundane realism and minimal feedback settings. The effect is presumed to occur in the service of self-protection motivation. Mnemic neglect is pronounced when the feedback poses high levels of self-threat (i.e., can detect accurately one’s weakness), but is lost when self-threat is averted via a self-affirmation manipulation. Mnemic neglect is caused by self-threatening feedback being processed shallowly and in ways that separate it from stored (positive) self-knowledge. The emergence of mnemic neglect is qualified by situational moderators (extent to which one considers their self-conceptions modifiable, receives feedback from a close source, or is primed with improvement-related constructs) and individual differences moderators (anxiety, dysphoria, or defensive pessimism). Finally, the MNE is present in recall, but absent in recognition. Output interference cannot explain this disparity in results, but an inhibitory repression account (e.g., experiential avoidance) can: Repressors show enhanced mnemic neglect. The findings advance research on memory, motivation, and the self.     

The effect of geographic indication in advertising background pictures on product evaluation: The moderating role of familiarity

This study investigates whether geographic indications in the backgrounds of advertising pictures might affect the viewer's evaluation of a product. The findings reveal that participants in the proximal geographic indication evaluated the product more favourably than those in the distal geographic indication when they were exposed to feasibility‐related information. By contrast, participants in the distal geographic indication evaluated the product more favourably than those in the proximal geographic indication when they were exposed to desirability‐related information. However, familiarity with geographic indications eliminated this effect.