ON THE PROBLEMS OF PERCEIVED DIFFICULTY

BORG, G., BRATFISCH, O. & DORNI'C, S. On the problems of perceived difficulty. Scand. J. Psychol. , 1971, 12, 249–260.–The development and meaning of the concept of "perceived difficulty" is presented. A concise survey of experiments carried out so far is given with regard to the main theoretical, methodological and applied problems at which the investigations aimed. A substantial part of the paper is devoted to the analysis of the concept of perceived difficulty and to the possibilities of measurement. The concept of perceived difficulty is dealt with also in a differential connection and a model for interindividual comparisons is suggested. It is emphasized that a systematic investigation of perceived difficulty is both possible and useful, and that it yields an opportunity to improve and facilitate the construction of psychological tests. Finally, possible future research projects are briefly outlined.     

The variation of hand steadiness with physical stress

The performance of 12 subjects in a hand steadiness task was compared at different work loads. Hand steadiness expressed in the form of values of hand shakiness was found not to increase linearly with work intensity. On the contrary, the relation between hand shakiness and activation level, induced by physical work, was found to be positively accelerated by an exponent of 1.6. Subjective effort measured by a ratio estimation method grew, likewise, according to a positively accelerating function with an exponent of about 1.6, while subjective effort according to the "RPE" category scale like hear rate grew linearly with work load.     

A model and algorithm for multidimensional scaling with external constraints on the distances

A method for externally constraining certain distances in multidimensional scaling configurations is introduced and illustrated. The approach defines an objective function which is a linear composite of the loss function of the point configurationX relative to the proximity dataP and the loss ofX relative to a pseudo-data matrixR. The matrixR is set up such that the side constraints to be imposed onX's distances are expressed by the relations amongR's numerical elements. One then uses a double-phase procedure with relative penalties on the loss components to generate a constrained solutionX. Various possibilities for constructing actual MDS algorithms are conceivable: the major classes are defined by the specification of metric or nonmetric loss for data and/or constraints, and by the various possibilities for partitioning the matricesP andR. Further generalizations are introduced by substitutingR by a set ofR matrices,R _i ,i=1, ...r, which opens the way for formulating overlapping constraints as, e.g., in patterns that are both row- and column-conditional at the same time.     

A teacher-training program to enhance mainstreamed, handicapped pupils'' self-concepts

This study assessed the effectiveness of the Utah State University Self-Concept Protocol Modules in changing teacher behaviors presumed to be related to pupil self-concept. This research focused on teachers and handicapped pupils in mainstreamed intermediate grade classrooms. The modules cover specific teacher behaviors including ways of expressing anger, listening skills and nonjudgemental messages, praising and giving instructions, and ways of fostering positive self-perception statements by pupils. The experimental group contained 15 teachers; 18 teachers were in the control group. Seven hundred and fifteen pupils (251 of which were in the experimental group) from the classrooms of the participating teachers were included. Observational data were collected on the teacher behaviors. The intermediate form of the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale was administered before and after teachers were trained. Analyses of covariance (with prescores as the covariates) in which the experimental treatment was the independent variable and the postscores for the teacher behaviors were the dependent variables revealed a significant difference between the experimental and control group teachers. The experimental group had more favorable postscores than the control group on four of the teacher behaviors. For children's self-concept postscores, a significant treatment X pupil classification interaction was found indicating that experimental group handicapped pupils scored significantly higher (p<.05) than the control group handicapped pupils. Enhancement was not obtained for either the nonhandicapped nonminority or minority group pupils.     

ORGANIZATION OF INFORMATION AND THE DETECTION OF GENDER DISCRIMINATION

Abstract— This report examines several factors that influence the detection of gender discrimination in organizations We presented subjects with information about the qualifications and salaries of women and men in 10 departments of a hypothetical company The information was created so that one or the other gender was undercompensated relative to its qualifications Subjects rated the fairness of salaries and recalled the average qualifications of the women and men Ordinal inequity, which occurred when the gender with the better qualifications received a lower salary within a department, was easily detected Discrimination that did not violate ordinal equity within a department was more difficult to detect The results indicate that the way information is presented to subjects influences the processing of the information and the ease with which unfairness is perceived In addition, subjects judged the discrimination to be more unfair when women, rather than men, were disadvantaged     

Humor Styles Questionnaire: personality and educational correlates in Belgian high school and college students

Studies often treat sense of humour as a unidimensional construct. Recently, however, four different humour styles have been hypothesized and validated by the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ). In the present two studies, first, the HSQ received cross‐cultural validation among French‐speaking Belgian students (94 high school and 87 college students). Second, apart from some similarities (Extraversion, low need for closure), the four humour styles were found to be differently related to personality. Social and self‐enhancing humour styles were positively related to Agreeableness, Openness, and self‐esteem, whereas hostile humour was negatively related to Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. Self‐defeating humour was negatively related to Emotional Stability, Conscientiousness, security in attachment, and self‐esteem. Finally, students' humour styles were neither direct nor indirect predictors of school performance, but self‐defeating and hostile humour styles were typical of students with low school motivation. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Lasting false beliefs and their behavioral consequences

False beliefs and memories can affect people's attitudes, at least in the short term. But can they produce real changes in behavior? This study explored whether falsely suggesting to subjects that they had experienced a food-related event in their childhood would lead to a change in their behavior shortly after the suggestion and up to 4 months later. We falsely suggested to 180 subjects that, as children, they had gotten ill after eating egg salad. Results showed that, after this manipulation, a significant minority of subjects came to believe they had experienced this childhood event even though they had initially denied having experienced it. This newfound autobiographical belief was accompanied by the intent to avoid egg salad, and also by significantly reduced consumption of egg-salad sandwiches, both immediately and 4 months after the false suggestion. The false suggestion of a childhood event can lead to persistent false beliefs that have lasting behavioral consequences.     

Faces are special,but facial expressions aren’t: Insights from an oculomotor capture paradigm

We compared the ability of angry and neutral faces to drive oculomotor behaviour as a test of the widespread claim that emotional information is automatically prioritized when competing for attention. Participants were required to make a saccade to a colour singleton; photos of angry or neutral faces appeared amongst other objects within the array, and were completely irrelevant for the task. Eye-tracking measures indicate that faces drive oculomotor behaviour in a bottom-up fashion; however, angry faces are no more likely to capture the eyes than neutral faces are. Saccade latencies suggest that capture occurrs via reflexive saccades and that the outcome of competition between salient items (colour singletons and faces) may be subject to fluctuations in attentional control. Indeed, although angry and neutral faces captured the eyes reflexively on a portion of trials, participants successfully maintained goal-relevant oculomotor behaviour on a majority of trials. We outline potential cognitive and brain mechanisms underlying oculomotor capture by faces.     

Measurement equivalence of the German Job Satisfaction Survey used in a multinational organization: implications of Schwartz's culture model

The authors tested measurement equivalence of the German Job Satisfaction Survey (GJSS) using structural equation modeling methodology. Employees from 18 countries and areas provided data on 5 job satisfaction facets. The effects of language and culture on measurement equivalence were examined. A cultural distance hypothesis, based on S. H. Schwartz's (1999) theory, was tested with 4 cultural groups: West Europe, English speaking, Latin America, and Far East. Findings indicated the robustness of the GJSS in terms of measurement equivalence across countries. The survey maintained high transportability across countries speaking the same language and countries sharing similar cultural backgrounds. Consistent with Schwartz's model, a cultural distance effect on scale transportability among scales used in maximally dissimilar cultures was detected. Scales used in the West Europe group showed greater equivalence to scales used in the English-speaking and Latin America groups than scales used in the Far East group.