The overjustification effect: A meta-analysis

This article reports the results of a meta-analysis using 50 experimental studies (256 effect sizes) of the overjustification effect. In general, we found support for the effect across age, dependent measure, and design type in specific situations where it is predicted to occur. Findings are less supportive of the theory for situations where there should be no difference between experimental and control groups (e. g. non-contingent or unexpected reward). Suggestions for future research are made.     

Parent-Child Symbolic Pay: Three Theories in Search of an Effect

In symbolic play, children construct increasingly sophisticated representations of the world as well as relations between symbols and their external referents as they advance upon their developing cognitions about people, actions, and objects. Presumably, more sophisticated partners, like parents, promote children′s development in this domain. Yet the empirical literature to date shows little support for the notion that child solitary symbolic play grows through adult-child symbolic play interactions. This paper first reviews empirical studies that address the role and effects of a more sophisticated partner on children′s early symbolic play. Next, the paper presents three theoretical perspectives that support a view that symbolic play and advance children′s representational competencies more broadly; they include attachment, scaffolding, and ethological theory. Finally, the paper revisits the literature on interactive influences on children′s play reconsidering the nature and role of specific independent and dependent variables in studies of the growth of children′s symbolic play.     

The development of a short Money Ethic Scale: Attitudes toward money and pay satisfaction revisited

In order to measure people's attitudes toward money, a 12-item Money Ethic Scale (MES) was developed based on a sample of 740 subjects. Three factors were identified: Success, Budget, and Evil. Attitudes toward money as related to people's demographic variables, personality variables, and job satisfaction were examined. Those who scored high on the Money Ethic Scale (the overall Money score) tended to have high economic values, low religious values, high Type A behavior pattern, to be older, to have low pay satisfaction, and high political values. Implications related to compensation management are discussed.     

Stakes and risk: Incapacitative intent in sentencing decisions

Measures of seriousness of the conviction offense and prior criminal record are strong correlates of sentences. This is consistent with a desert orientation to sentencing. Competing sentencing theories emphasize concepts of risk and incapacitation, but their roles in sentencing decisions have received less attention. This study focused on judicial risk assessments and on the concept of stakes. Both variables plausibly are related to incapacitative intents of judges. Our hypotheses that the risk and stakes measures used are relatively independent and correlated with, and have an interaction effect on, decision outcomes were supported. Both judges' assessments of risk and our stakes scale accounted for substantial variation in the decision to incarcerate. Time actually served in confinement also was related substantially to stakes, risk, and their interaction. Implications of the stakes and risk concepts for future guidelines development and decision study in criminal justice are discussed.     

Behavioral skills workshop for staff and supervisor in a community residence for developmentally handicapped adults

A behavioral skills workshop for counselors and a supervisor in a community group home was developed and evaluated. The workshop included group skills training, individual supervised in vivo practice, and supervisor training. Supervisor training taught behavioral staff management skills that were delivered in a multiple baseline design across subjects. Positive changes in staff behavior occurred for each group only after supervisor intervention. Significant positive changes occurred by the end of the workshop and were maintained at follow-up for staff self-evaluations of expertise and confidence to resolve problems, severity of client problems, and behavioral observations of positive client behaviors.     

Sex differences in the preferences for specific female body shapes

The purpose of this study was to examine the somatic preferences of males and females for detailed anatomical drawings of female stimulus figures to examine their ability to predict the preferences for members of the opposite sex. The figures were systematically varied on three dimensions (bust, waist, and hips), with three sizes of each (small, medium, and large). The 12 figures were rated by 100 male and female subjects on a 7-point bipolar construct scale, ranging from extremely attractive to extremely unattractive. This was done both for the subjects' personal perceptions and for their predicted ratings of the opposite sex. Multivariate and univariate analyses yielded several sex, rating-perceptive (self vs. other), figure shape differences and interactions. Male subjects displayed a preference for large busts and hourglass shapes, which are accurately predicted by the females. Males predicted that females would rate slimmer figure highly, and females predicted that males would rate larger figures highly. The results are considered in light of related research in this area.     

人格类型对应激反应影响的实验研究(自然应激源部分)

本实验以艾森克人格问卷(EPQ)为依据,测定了高、低神经质。内、外倾被试考试时尿内儿茶酚胺的分泌量,并用考试焦虑调查表(TAI)对被试在考试中的紧张程度及主观体验进行评估。结果表明,高神经质组在紧张性刺激条件下尿内去甲肾上腺素、肾上腺素和多巴胺的分泌量均显著高于低神经质组;平静状态下高神经质组的去甲肾上腺素分泌量高于低神经质组;内倾组在紧张性刺激条件下,多巴胺的增加高于外倾组。另外,高神经质组的TAI分数显著高于低神经质组,内倾组高于外倾组。 上述结果提示,由于人格差异的存在,对同样的紧张性刺激可产生不同的认知评价和主观体验,并引起尿内儿茶酚胺反应的差别,高神经质组的应激反应大于低神经质组,内倾组的应激反应大于外倾组,而以高神经质的应激反应尤为显著。     

Correlates of Vocational Success in Refugee Work Adaptation1

Past research on Indochinese refugees has shown that status inconsistency (loss of socioeconomic status from their last job in Indochina to their most recent job in the United States) has a strong negative effect on acculturation. This study examines refugee adaptation to working in America and the effect of status inconsistency on work performance. After three years in the U.S., there was great improvement in job performance. We had predicted that greater status inconsistency would be associated with poorer vocational performance. The status inconsistency effect was found for those refugees who previously held high-prestige positions in their homeland, but only during the time before they had spent 3 years in America. Previous high-prestige refugees who had lived in the U.S. for less than three years did not stay on their jobs as long as former low-prestige refugees. After three years, however, the former high-prestige refugees outlasted the former low-prestige refugees.