Self-perception and characteristics of premanipulation attitudes: A test of Bem’s theory

In a study to provide evidence for the assumption of self-perception theory that premanipulation attitudes are not salient to postmanipulation phenomenology, Bem and McConnell (1970) performed two forced-compliance experiments. One experiment was a typical forced-compliance experiment in which Ss indicated their postmanipulation attitudes. In the other experiment, the Ss were asked to recall their premanipulation attitude after the essay writing task. It was found that the recall ratings were essentially the same as the postmanipulation attitude ratings. The present study was a partial replication of the Bern and McConnell experiment. The results of this study indicate that premanipulation attitudes are salient to the postmanipulation phenomenology of Ss for whom these attitudes are highly relevant.     

Gall's psychophysiological concept of function: the rise and decline of "internal essence".

Gall did not employ the term "function" to refer to adaptive mental processes or to observable behavior. To the contrary, he and the phrenologists took a traditional concept of function regarding the contribution or duties of a part within the overall "animal economy" and argued that the "faculties" of the soul are among the functions of the nervous system. In particular, he brought this psychophysiological use of the term into his Enlightenment perspective when he aligned it with internal essence, juxtaposed it to its external sign, and argued that the cerebral organs are the material instruments through which the internal faculties manifest themselves in behavior and in the shape of the skull. Gall did not believe that the faculties are a product of the organs but that the organs, being material incarnations of the internal functions, contain the power to express the faculties externally. Purely psychological uses of function are infrequent among the works of Gall and his followers. It was not until the functionalists at the turn of the century that the word was applied to the adaptive utility of mental processes in relation to the environment and not until the advent of behaviorism that it was employed to refer to the end or adaptive utility of a particular behavior.     

Models of Trajectory Formation and Temporal Interaction of Reach and Grasp

Our goal was to create a principled account of a body of behavioral kinematic data on reaching and grasping. We show how to transform an optimality principle for overall hand transport into a feedback control law and then incorporate look-ahead modules in the controller to compensate for delays in sensory feedback. This model describes the kinematics of hand transport under a variety of circumstances, including target perturbations. We then develop a model for the temporal coordination of reach and grasp. We provide an optimization principle for hand preshaping that trades off the costs of maintaining the hand in an open position and the cost of accelerating the change in grip size. This yields a control system for preshaping. We then show that a model that uses only expected duration for coordination, rather than kinematic or dynamic variables, can describe the kinematics of interaction of hand transport and preshape under a variety of circumstances, including perturbations of object position and object size.     

The intersecting-overlapping self: Contemporary psychoanalysis reconsiders religion—Again

Heinz Kohut's psychoanalytic psychology of the self advances a distinctive interpretation of human nature that has significant implications for the study of religion. It presents a gestalt through which data otherwise not seen may be observed, and known data may be observed from a new angle of vision. To illumine particular features of this distinctive gestalt, as well as how and why it evolved, the discussion turns to the context within which all psychoanalytic theorizing emerges: the clinical situation. A clinical vignette is presented. An interpretation of the vignette from a classical psychoanalytic perspective exposes how Freudian categories, and our colloquial language, mistakenly collapse all data to fit within the boundaries of a subject-object model. Certain clinical data contribute to the formulation of a selfobject model, re-presented in terms of the root metaphor intersecting-overlapping self. Methodological, orientational, and normative implications of the selfobject model for the study of religion are presented.     

EFFECTS OF SELF-MANAGEMENT TRAINING AND REINFORCEMENT ON THE TRANSFER OF IMPROVED CONDUCT IN THE ABSENCE OF SUPERVISION

The instruction, maintenance, and transfer of training of social skills of 3 seriously emotionally disturbed adolescents were accomplished by a self-management training and reinforcement package. During baseline sessions these students, who were covertly filmed in their classroom, averaged over 90% off-task or socially inappropriate behavior while their teacher was out of the room. They showed similar behaviors when walking between classes, unattended by their teacher. Treatment was introduced in the classroom and consisted of social skills and self-management training and reinforcement. Treatment procedures included instruction, modeling, and role playing of social skills, as well as self-assessment, self-recording, and self-reinforcement for correct approximations of these skills. After 5 weeks of training, all subjects demonstrated substantial improvements in the classroom during the teacher's absence and when distracted by other students; however, transfer of social skills did not occur to the between-class setting until students were given explicit instruction to initiate self-managing procedures in this setting.     

Managing data entry of a large-scale interview project with optical scanning hardware and software

A hardware and software system for the cost-effective preparation of interview data is described. Scantron optical scanning hardware and DataBlocks software were used to prepare ASCII data files from structured interviews and questionnaires. These data were then edited for analysis with SPSS-X Data Entry software. Three different processes for preparing interview data were compared. Time, personnel, hardware, and software costs were projected for each process, as well as comparative risks to the integrity of data. A scanning procedure saves time and money, and it reduces the risk of errors.     

The helping process in couples

This study examined couples' informal helping interactions, that is, how partners helped each other with their psychological problems. Fifty-three couples participated in a communication sampling task in which they took each of two roles, discloser and helper (analogous to client and therapist). Audiotapes of the interactions were subsequently categorized according to helper response modes and rated on global measures of problem solving, understanding, and supportiveness. The most frequent helper response modes were question, advisement, and interpretation; reflection was infrequently used. There were no differences in helping communication associated with gender or sex-role self-concept. The important characteristic of the helpers' communication was not the type of response used, but the evaluative quality of the response. Helpers who were more satisfied with their relationships tended to be more understanding and supportive. Also, interactions rated as more understanding and supportive tended to be experienced as more helpful by the disclosers.     

Precocious conservation in context: The solution of quantity tasks by nonquantitative strategies

C. Sinha and B. Carabine's (1981, Journal of Child Language, 8, 109–129) claim of a U-shaped course to the development of quantitative knowledge with an early stage of conservation based on functional significance was tested in two experiments. Children at three age groups from 3 to 6 years were presented with the original procedure or control versions in which the display was slightly altered. Results showed that although Sinha and Carabine's result was replicable, their interpretation is unwarranted. Performance in the younger groups was best interpreted as the use of nonquantitative possession or position strategies.