Illness representations and matching labels with symptoms

Three studies are reported that show that health-relevant information (e.g., blood pressure [BP] or symptoms) initiates an active cognitive search process that results in the construction of an illness representation. Study 1 showed that informing subjects that their BP was elevated affected two attributes of illness representation: identity (label and symptoms), and time line or expected chronology of the health threat. Subjects given a high-BP reading reported symptoms commonly associated with high BP, especially if they attributed the high-BP reading to stress. Study 2 showed that the active search process uses causal information (a third attribute of representations) to give meaning to symptoms. Specifically, subjects used environmental cues to interpret whether familiar, unfamiliar, and ambiguous symptoms were due to illness or to stress. In Study 3 we showed that the constructive process, initiated by a high-BP reading, is directed by prior beliefs about the time line for developing high BP and by the presence of external cues about the stressfulness of the subject's daily life. Subjects who believed BP was labile and that they were under high daily stress or who believed BP was stable and that they were under low daily stress reported more symptoms. The significance of these findings for understanding how people process diagnostic labels and symptom information involved in the construction of illness representations is discussed.     

Gender-related effects in the perception of anger expression

The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of sex of stimulus person, sex type of subject, and sex of subject on the social perception of anger expression. One hundred and sixty-six female and 100 male subjects completed a questionnaire that consisted of 10 vignettes depicting the expression of anger by either a female or a male stimulus person. For each vignette, subjects rated the psychological balance, expected frequency of behavior, perceived degree of anger, and appropriateness of behavior. Overall, female stimulus persons were rated higher on all dependent measures, but only male raters significantly differentiated between male and female stimulus persons. Generally, female subjects gave higher ratings, but viewed angry behavior as less appropriate than did male subjects. Ratings were also found to be related to subjects' scores on Extended Personal Attributes Questionnaire scales that involved socially undesirable traits. Post hoc analysis indicated that the type of anger response (“aggressive” or “nonaggressive”) was also an important variable, especially for the female subjects.     

Self-Ratings of Personality: A Naturalistic Comparison of Normative, Ipsative, and Idiothetic Standards

ABSTRACT The purpose of this research is to examine some of the implicit standards that individuals may use when they rate themselves on personality dimensions Specifically, we compared ratings based on instructions that specified normative, ipsative, or idiothetic creteria with ratings obtained when subjects used their own (implicit) standards In a series of three studies, we found that each of the explicit ratings was highly similar to the implicit-standard ratings and that there were substantial individual differences in the relative similarity of each of the explicit ratings to the implicit ratings However, because the normative instructions elicited less extreme responses than any of the other instructions, there was a small but consistent tendency for them to be less similar to the ratings based on implicit standards than the ipsative or idiothetic ratings The implications of this research for personality assessment and self-evaluation are discussed     

Visual discrimination learning in the killer whale (Orcinus orca)

Trial-and-error and errorless training procedures were used to train two killer whales on a simple visual discrimination problem. Both whales demonstrated difficulties in solving the problem under trial-and-error training. The relative effectiveness of the two training procedures is evaluated.     

Reply to Hauck, et al. concerning nonsexual household transmission of HIV in Zaire

CDC researchers mishandle statistical evidence and overstate case against casual transmission of HIV. Reassessment by Hauck, et al. is statistically inappropriate.     

Paving the Way: The Distinctive Mentoring Style of Janet Taylor Spence

Janet Taylor Spence (1923–2015), a major figure in American psychology, made seminal scientific contributions to the fields of anxiety and gender psychology. In this essay, the authors, both former Spence students, weave a tapestry of her teaching and mentoring by using as the threads Spence’s reflections on her professional life, the authors’ personal experiences with Spence, and findings from the relevant career literature. Three areas of teaching and mentoring are used to illustrate Spence’s distinctive yet highly effective style of mentoring: (a) modeling and insisting on careful thinking, (b) serving as an intentional role model, and (c) assisting in negotiating the hazards of academia. A conceptual explanation is provided for each area, together with specific examples illustrating how Spence employed these strategies.     

Sentences for use in memory research

To investigate the effects of effort toward comprehension on subsequent recall, Auble, Franks, and Soraci (1979) generated a series of 40 sentences which varied in comprehensibility. We presented these sentences along with 60 new sentences to 122 undergraduates at the University of New Orleans. Sentences were rated for comprehensibility both before and after cue presentation. Sentences which appear most useful for research are discussed.