Anxiety and aspects of health behavior among adolescents in Northern Ireland

A sample of 238 15- to 16-year-old secondary school students from Northern Ireland answered a questionnaire in their schools about the level of anxiety and some aspects of their health behavior. Analysis of the findings showed that these teenagers had no higher anxiety than a Northern American sample of teenagers. In addition, anxiety was clearly correlated with a variety of health complaints and with use of the health service. The findings are discussed with reference to previous research on adolescent health and on stress in Northern Ireland.     

Ratings of emotion in faces are influenced by the visual field to which stimuli are presented

This experiment was designed to assess the differential impact of initially presenting affective information to the left versus right hemisphere on both the perception of and response to the input. Nineteen right-handed subjects were presented with faces expressing happiness and sadness. Each face was presented twice to each visual field for an 8-sec duration. The electro-oculogram (EOG) was monitored and fed back to subjects to train them to keep their eyes focused on the central fixation point as well as to eliminate trials confounded by eye movement artifact. Following each slide presentation, subjects rated the intensity of the emotional expression depicted in the face and their emotional reaction to the face on a series of 7-point rating scales. Subjects reported perceiving more happiness in response to stimuli initially presented to the left hemisphere (right visual field) compared to presentations of the identical faces to the right hemisphere (left visual field). This effect was predominantly a function of ratings on sad faces. A similar, albeit less robust, effect was found on self-ratings of happiness (the degree to which the face elicited the emotion in the viewer). These data challenge the view that the right hemisphere is uniquely involved in all emotional behavior. The implications of these findings for theories concerning the lateralization of emotional behavior are discussed.     

Acoustical determinants of the “neurotic pattern” in rats

The Psychological Record - The experiments reported in the present paper show that the peculiar behavior called the “neurotic pattern” by Maier is dependent upon the intensity and the...     

Experimental Tests of Normative Group Influence and Representation Effects in Computer‐Mediated Communication

Two experiments addressed the questions of if and how normative social influence operates in anonymous computer‐mediated communication (CMC) and human‐computer interaction (HCI). In Experiment 1, a 2 (public response vs. private response) × 2 (one interactant vs. four interactants) × 3 (textbox vs. stick figure vs. animated character) mixed‐design experiment (N = 72), we investigated how conformity pressure operates in a simulated CMC setting. Each participant was asked to make a decision in hypothetical social dilemmas after being presented with a unanimous opinion by other (ostensible) participants. The experiment examined how the visual representation of interaction partners on the screen moderates this social influence process. Group conformity effects were shown to be more salient when the participant's responses were allegedly seen by others, compared to when the responses were given in private. In addition, participants attributed greater competence, social attractiveness, and trustworthiness to partners represented by anthropomorphic characters than those represented by textboxes or stick figures. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1, replacing interaction with a computer(s) rather than (ostensible) people, to create an interaction setting in which no normative pressure was expected to occur. The perception of interaction partner (human vs. computer) moderated the group conformity effect such that people expressed greater public agreement with human partners than with computers. No such difference was found for the private expression of opinion. As expected, the number of computer agents did not affect participants' opinions whether the responses were given in private or in public, while visual representation had a significant impact on both conformity measures and source perception variables.     

Understanding supplement use: an application of temporal self-regulation theory

Vitamin and mineral supplement use is increasing worldwide. As evidence of the effects of these practices are equivocal at best, it is important to determine why individuals engage in vitamin and mineral supplement use through the application of a theoretical framework. The aim of this study was to employ temporal self-regulation theory (TST) to establish the determinants of supplement use. A cross-sectional design was used with a sample of 121 individuals who consume vitamins or minerals as dietary supplements. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to determine the influence of intention, habit, self-control, and the interaction between intention and habit and self-control on the frequency of supplement use. The model accounted for a significant proportion of variance in behaviour (R² = .44) with intention and habit significantly related to supplement use. Self-control moderated the relationship between intention and behaviour indicating that intention was not related to behaviour when self-control was low. The TST model offers a satisfactory account of supplement use and provides avenues for interventions aimed at increasing safe and beneficial supplement use and decreasing potentially harmful supplement use.     

Genetic and environmental contributions to loneliness in children

This report presents the results of the first behavioral genetic studies of children's loneliness. Data were collected using both an adoption design and a twin-sibling design. As part of the Colorado Adoption Project, 133 sibling pairs (69 biologically related pairs and 64 unrelated pairs in adoptive families) completed a general loneliness scale when they were 9, 10, 11, and 12 years old. As part of the San Diego Sibling Study, 142 sibling pairs (22 monozygotic twin, 40 dizygotic twin, and 80 full-sibling pairs) between the ages of 8 and 14 years old completed a scale assessing loneliness at school. Both studies showed significant heritability and nonshared environmental influences for children's loneliness.