Expansive and contractive communication scope: A construal level perspective on the relationship between interpersonal distance and communicative abstraction

People adopt an expansive relational scope when communicating with psychologically distant audiences and a contractive relational scope when communicating with psychologically near audiences. We review recent research that has adopted a Construal Level Theory perspective to examine the impact of psychological distance of an audience on interpersonal communication. People communicate more abstractly when communicating with a distant audience and more concretely when communicating with an audience that is more proximal; correspondingly, communicating abstractly orients people toward more distant others and communicating concretely toward more proximal others. Furthermore, evidence suggests that the relationship between distance and communicative abstraction is dynamic and is influenced by communication goals and situational contexts. Moreover, a communicator's level of abstraction is consequential, influencing both how the communicator is perceived by observers and the potential effectiveness of the communication. We close by pointing to additional open questions and areas for future research.     

TEACHING SELF-PROTECTION TO CHILDREN USING TELEVISION TECHNIQUES

This study compared the effectiveness of a videotape training program with other methods of teaching children self-protection to prevent child abduction. Subjects were kindergarten and first-grade students. Four experimental conditions were presented: videotape with behavior rehearsal, videotape only, a standard safety program, and no training. Acquisition of self-protective behaviors was measured at posttraining and follow-up by having confederate adults entice the children near their schools and homes. Results revealed that the videotape program with behavior rehearsal was highly effective in teaching children safe responses to potential abductors. The standard safety program was effective with fewer than half of the children. Three fourths of the children who received no training immediately agreed to go with the confederate suspects. The videotape program can be easily used with groups of young children in a classroom setting.     

Bingeing,purging, and estimates of parental attitudes regarding female achievement

A questionnaire measuring respondents' beliefs about the attitudes regarding female achievement held by their parents was distributed to 326 women attending a state university. Women who report frequent bingeing are more likely than other women to report that (1) their parents believed a woman's place is in the home (2) their mothers were unhappy with their own careers, (3) their fathers thought the respondents' mothers were not intelligent, and (4) their fathers treated a male as the most intelligent sibling in the family. Reports of fathers' attitudes regarding mothers' intelligence and the proper role for women are related to respondents' self-reports of purging, but only among those women who are much more concerned with academic achievement than with household skills.     

Effectiveness of the GOFER course in decision making for high school students

The paper describes and evaluates the GOFER course in decision making for high school students (Mann, Harmoni and Power, 1988). The course was based on principles from the conflict theory of decision making (Janis and Mann, 1977) and was designed to provide adolescents with an understanding of factors that produce good and poor decision making as well as knowledge and practice of sound decision skills. Two evaluation studies were conducted to examine effectiveness of the course. Study 1 was conducted with young adolescents (12 year olds). It found a significant difference between students trained in the course and a control group on measures of self-esteem as a decision maker, self reported decision habits and knowledge of decision strategy. Study 2 was conducted with mid-adolescents (15 year olds). It, too, found a significant difference between students who took the course and a control group on measures of self esteem as a decision maker and self-reported decision habits. It is concluded that while the evaluation study fell short of an ideal test, the GOFER course met the criteria of improving student knowledge, raising confidence in decision making and changing self reported decision habits.     

Heart rate--QT relationships during baroreceptor stimulation with diminished autonomic influence on the ventricles. Ventricular autonomic tone and QT interval.

The shortening of the QT interval of the electrocardiogram coincident with acceleration of heart rate and vice versa has been accepted for many years as evidence that the action potential duration and hence QT are necessarily dependent on heart rate. Exceptions to this rule have been attributed to the intervention of counteracting autonomic effects. In order to test this assumption, 26 conscious dogs divided into three groups were tested during baroreceptor stimulation by a bolus injection of phenylephrine. Seventeen dogs had been used in earlier studies in which they had undergone an experimental anterior myocardial infarction with apparent full recovery. A group of those dogs underwent beta-adrenergic blockade by intravenous atenolol 30 min prior to the baroreceptor activation. To test the intactness of the baroreceptor responses in the previously infarcted dogs, a third group of nine dogs that had had no prior myocardial infarction was included. All dogs were adapted to the laboratory environment and were not sedated during experiments. Simultaneous recordings of RR, QT interval, and phasic arterial pressure were made in all dogs before and during baroreceptor stimulation. In the normal group, and the previously infarcted group that received no atenolol, baroreceptor stimulation elicited a small (8/msec), but significant prolongation of the QT associated with a nearly 50% reduction in heart rate. The QT interval of the atenolol-treated dogs, although significantly more prolonged before stimulation, remained unchanged during the reflex. The data indicate that withdrawal of ventricular sympathetic tone may prolong the QT interval, thereby confirming the role of sympathetic innervation in the control of QT.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Predictors of myocardial infarction over a span of 30 years in Roseto, Pennsylvania.

Predictors of myocardial infarction with or without survival were sought in a 30-year study of Roseto, Pennsylvania, a nearly exclusively Italian community of approximately 1,600, compared to the immediately adjacent town of Bangor with a population of approximately 5,000. At the start of the study the death rate from myocardial infarction among men in Roseto was less than half that in Bangor despite an equal prevalence of the usual risk factors, mainly smoking and diet. The communities were followed prospectively for 30 years during a striking social change in Roseto toward less family and community cohesion and more commitment to individual goals and adherence to materialistic values. During this period the prevalence of and mortality from myocardial infarction increased sharply to equal the situation in Bangor. The predictive values of measurements made of Rosetans during individual examinations in 1962-63 were tested against the outcome in 1990. Those who experienced fatal myocardial infarction and those who had a well documented infarction and survived were matched with and compared to controls. Although subjects with cholesterol concentration above 200 were twice as likely to experience myocardial infarction as those with concentrations below 200, less than 20% of those whose cholesterol concentration was above 200 experienced any evidence of myocardial infarction over the nearly 30-year period. Moreover, there were no significant differences between the coronary patients, with or without survival, and their sex, age, and cholesterol matched controls; nor were smoking, evidence of hypertension, diabetes, or obesity predictive of significant differences between the two groups. These data lead to the inference that while those with the conventional risk factors are more likely to develop myocardial infarction than are those without the risk factors, an even larger proportion of the population may have the risk factors and not succumb to myocardial infarction over a period of nearly three decades.     

Sex roles, gender, and fear

Male and female college students classified as masculine, feminine, androgynous, or undifferentiated on the Bem (1974) Sex Role Inventory (N = 199) were given the Wolpe (1969) Fear Inventory. Significant differences in average fear scores were seen between men and women and between the four sex-role categories, with sex role and gender contributing equally to the variability. The argument is raised here that excessive fearfulness or fearlessness might be as much a product of sex-role conditioning as a product of gender.