Self-directed attention and the comparison of self with standards

Several theorists have assumed that self-directed attention causes a comparison between one's present behavior or state and whatever is salient and relevant as a standard of comparison. Indirect evidence bearing on this assumption was gathered in a series of four studies by monitoring subjects' tendencies to access concrete information needed to make such behavior-standard comparisons. Self-focus was varied in two of these studies by experimental manipulations: a mirrored surface, and a live observer. In the other two studies, self-focus was operationalized in terms of subjects' dispositional tendencies to direct attention to themselves (self-consciousness). Consistent with expectations, in Experiments 1 and 2, self-directed attention led to increased frequency of referring to drawings of geometric figures when attempting to reproduce them. In Experiments 3 and 4, self-focused attention increased subjects' tendencies to seek out information about ostensible performance norms reflecting the behavior of other subjects, also as predicted.     

Self-focused attention and reactions to fear

Two studies were conducted to study the effect of self-focused attention on behavioral responses to fear. In Experiment 1, phobics and nonphobics were asked to approach and hold a snake either in the presence of a mirror or with no mirror. In Experiment 2, high and low private self-conscious subjects were asked to submit to a series of either mild or strong electric shock for humanitarian reasons. In each case, self-directed attention caused increased responsivity to the fearful affect and made subjects more likely to withdraw from the situation, regardless of the fact that a behavioral standard existed which called for an opposite response. The theoretical and behavioral implications of the findings were discussed.     

A systems analysis of a campus community mental health facility: A preliminary investigation

Faced with increasing demand and relatively static resources, community mental health facilities need to evaluate their functions in terms of time, cost, and performance effectiveness. For this study, the technology of systems analysis was applied to the functions of a progressive university counseling center. The systems analysis provided a management and information flow analysis and a time and cost analysis, as well as a performance analysis. This study focused on the preliminary results of the time, cost, and performance analysis.Gratitude is extended to the remainder of the systems analysis team for their assistance in the project, as well as the staff of The University of Texas Counseling-Psychological Services Center for their cooperation. This project was partially funded by National Science Foundation grant GJ 509X3, by the Counseling-Psychological Services Center, and by the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs. Special acknowledgement is made of the support of Ronald M. Brown, Vice President for Student Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin. The systems analysis team included T. Bishop, C. Black, J. Byars, R. Byars, P. Caroom, J. Littlefield, A. Nutt, M. Rood, E. Salsbury, and C. Weinstein.     

Favorable Evaluations of Blacks and the Handicapped: Positive Prejudice,Unconscious Denial,or Social Desirability?1

Prior research has shown that subjects in an impression formation setting rated an interviewee more favorably if he was labeled as either black or physically handicapped than if he was not labeled. This seems to contradict common assumptions about the nature of stigma. Three interpretations of these findings are advanced: They may reflect actual positive biases held by college students regarding members of these outgroups; they may represent unconscious distortions of subjects' true feelings; or they may represent conscious distortions of true feelings in order to make socially desirable responses. The present study was undertaken to test the third possibility by means of a so-called bogus pipeline manipulation, in which some subjects were led to believe that the experimenter had access to their actual feelings about the interviewee. The results indicated that the high rating of the black was a social desirability phenomenon, but the high rating of the handicapped person was not.     

Commonalities and differences in characteristics of persons at risk for narcissism and mania

Clinicians have long noted overlap in some of the key features of narcissism and bipolar disorder, including excessively high goals and impulsivity. In addition, empirical findings consistently document high levels of comorbidity between the two conditions. To better understand the similarities and differences in psychological qualities associated with mania- and narcissism-related vulnerabilities, we administered to 233 undergraduates a broad range of measures pertaining to goals and affects (both their experience and their dysregulation) and impulsivity. As hypothesized, tendencies toward both narcissism and hypomania related to elevations on measures of affective and goal dysregulation. In addition, hypomania tendencies were related to higher impulsivity, but that association did not appear for narcissistic tendencies. Results highlight key commonalities and differences between those at risk for mania versus narcissism. Future research should examine these relationships in clinically diagnosed samples.     

The dawning of a past: the emergence of long-term explicit memory in infancy.

The ability to recall information about the past is thought to emerge in the 2nd half of the 1st year of life. Although there is evidence from both cognitive neuroscience and behavioral psychology to support this hypothesis, there is little longitudinal evidence with which the question can be addressed. Infants' memory abilities were tested between the ages of 9 and 16 months using elicited and deferred imitation. Infants' memory for events was tested after delays ranging from 1 to 6 months. The results suggest that at 9 months of age, infants are able to store and retrieve representations over delays of as many as 4 weeks but not over long delays. In contrast, 10-month-olds have at their disposal a system that allows encoding and retrieval of event representations over delays of up to 6 months. These results support the idea that the system that underlies long-term ordered recall emerges near the end of the 1st year of life.     

Associations Between Infant Brain Activity and Recall Memory

Long‐term explicit memory is thought to involve a complex neural circuit including the medial temporal lobe, the medial diencephalon, the prefrontal cortex, and association cortices. When this memory system and associated neural circuitry develops is of great interest to developmental psychologists and developmental cognitive neuroscience researchers. In the present report, we provide evidence of a relation between behavioral and neurophysiological measures of long‐term explicit memory in 9‐month‐old infants. These measures provide converging evidence of the development of long‐term explicit memory at least by the end of the first year of life.     

Threat Sensitivity, Incentive Sensitivity, and the Experience of Relief

ABSTRACT Relief is a positively valenced affect that occurs when a threat is removed or avoided. Among dimensional theories, this experience is accounted for by appealing to one of two different self-regulatory systems. Some hold that an approach system is responsible for all types of positively valenced affect, including this one. Others hold that an avoidance system is responsible for this particular positive affect. Two studies are reported (total N =422) that examined this issue, using a method in which individual differences in overall threat sensitivity and incentive sensitivity were assessed and related to responses to relief-related hypothetical scenarios. Threat sensitivity was the strongest positive correlate of relief in both studies. Reward responsiveness also related positively (independently) to relief. Fun seeking related inversely to relief. Discussion centers on theoretical implications of the findings for viewing effects of threat sensitivity, and on relations between dimensional and appraisal-based views of affective experience.     

12-month-old infants allocate increased neural resources to stimuli associated with negative adult emotion

Young infants use caregivers' emotional expressions to guide their behavior in novel, ambiguous situations. This skill, known as social referencing, likely involves at least 3 separate abilities: (a) looking at an adult in an unfamiliar situation, (b) associating that adult's emotion with the novel situation, and (c) regulating their own emotions in response to the adult's emotional display. The authors measured each of these elements individually as well as how they related to each other. The results revealed that 12-month-olds allocated more attention, as indicated by event-related potential measures, to stimuli associated with negative adult emotion than to those associated with positive or neutral emotion. Infants' interaction with their caregiver was affected by adult emotional displays. In addition, how quickly infants referenced an adult predicted both their brain activity in response to pictures of stimuli associated with negative emotion as well as some aspects of their behavior regulation. The results are discussed with respect to their significance for understanding why infants reference and regulate their behavior in response to adult emotion. Suggestions for further research are provided.