Expectancy Disconfirmation and Negotiator Reactions Across Negotiation Episodes

In the negotiation literature, relatively little attention has been paid to the impact of negotiator goals and expectancy disconfirmations on negotiator behaviors and affective outcomes. We found that negotiators with larger negative expectancy disconfirmations were less satisfied; set lower targets for a subsequent negotiation; and were more likely to settle with the other party in the second negotiation, rather than requiring third-party imposition of a settlement. Those negotiators who settled had more positive feelings and perceptions about the negotiation and set higher targets for a third negotiation. Further, negotiators who experienced repeated high levels of negative expectancy disconfirmation also experienced the greatest decrements in their feelings and perceptions across negotiation episodes. Implications of study findings for future research are discussed.     

Flexible working memory representation of the relationship between an object and its location as revealed by interactions with attention

Working memory (WM) selectively maintains a limited amount of currently relevant information in an active state to influence future perceptual processing, thought, and behavior. The representation of the information held in WM is unknown, particularly the degree of separation between the representation of an object’s identity and its location. The present experiments examined the flexibility of object and location WM representations by measuring reaction times on a visual discrimination task during the delay period of a WM recognition task for object identities, locations, or both. The results demonstrate that during WM delay periods, attention is biased toward information that matches the current contents of WM. Attention is not biased toward information that was present in the encoded memory sample but not relevant for the memory recognition test. This specificity of the interaction between WM and attention applies to both the identity and the location of the remembered stimulus and to the relationship between an object and its location. The results suggest that when this relationship is necessary for task performance, WM represents an object and its identity in an integrated manner. However, if this relationship is not task relevant, the object and location information are represented in WM separately.     

Genetic Library: Grief and Bereavement

As genetic counselors, we frequently encounter families that have experienced a significant loss, be it a pregnancy, a child, or a parent. The purpose of this Genetic Library is to introduce genetic counselors to some of the research that is currently being conducted in the areas of grief and bereavement support, as well as end-of-life care. Of course, it is impossible to capture the richness of these articles in one or two paragraphs. We therefore encourage interested genetic counselors to request and review the full version of these papers.     

iSTART 2: Improvements for efficiency and effectiveness

iSTART (interactive strategy training for active reading and thinking) is a Web-based reading strategy trainer that develops students’ ability to self-explain difficult text as a means to improving reading comprehension. Its curriculum consists of modules presented interactively by pedagogical agents: an introduction to the basics of using reading strategies in the context of self-explanation, a demonstration of self-explanation, and a practice module in which the trainee generates self-explanations with feedback on the quality of reading strategies contained in the self-explanations. We discuss the objectives that guided the development of the second version of iSTART toward the goals of increased efficiency for the experimenters and effectiveness in the training. The more pedagogically challenging high school audience is accommodated by (1) a new introduction that increases interactivity, (2) a new demonstration with more and better focused scaffolding, and (3) a new practice module that provides improved feedback and includes a less intense but more extended regimen. Version 2 also benefits experimenters, who can set up and evaluate experiments with less time and effort, because pre- and posttesting has been fully computerized and the process of preparing a text for the practice module has been reduced from more than 1 person-week to about an hour’s time.     

Spirituality in health-care reform

Much of the discussion about health-care reform has focused on questions of political and economic policies. By contrast, this article contends that this dispute involves deeper questions of meaning regarding the kinds of values, including spiritual values, that we wish to be present in health care. Communities of religious believers have a civic duty of responsibility and a theological duty of stewardship for health-care institutions. Such communities bring to the health-care debate spiritual meaning embedded in themes of humility, justice, and mercy. These virtues provide a moral test of the soundness of reform proposals.     

A skills training approach to the reduction of institutional offending

Offenses committed by those held in institutions can have repercussions at several levels: the individual must suffer the consequences of his or her actions; there may be a victim; and valuable staff time is spent adjudicating the outcome. A number of studies have suggested that an adjunct to behavioural training in institutions is a reduction in institutional misbehaviour—a suggestion which the present study sought to capitalize upon in a direct manner. In a borstal for young male law-breakers, referrals of individuals who received above average numbers of discipline reports in the institution were gathered. These people were then offered a place on a training course designed to attempt to modify behaviour towards authority figures, prison officers in particular. The course was carried out in two forms: a ‘Short’ Course of 4 days duration, and a ‘Long” Course spread over 8 weeks. Assessment of the effects of training was made by monitoring levels of discipline reports, and also by the administration of self-report and personality scales. Compared with No-training and Non-referred Controls, no significant changes in the frequency of receiving discipline reports was found following either mode of training. However, a number of changes on the self-report and personality measures suggested some degree of change after training. Implications for the construction of future courses with similar objectives are discussed.     

DECIDING WHOM TO TELL: EXPECTATIONS AND OUTCOMES OF RAPE SURVIVORS' FIRST DISCLOSURES

In this study, 102 female rape survivors were interviewed regarding their first post-assault disclosure. Qualitative analysis revealed that nearly 75% of first disclosures were to informal support providers and over one third of the disclosures were not initiated by the survivors themselves. Over half of the survivors received positive reactions and less than one third felt the disclosure had a detrimental impact on their recovery. Loglinear analysis suggested that survivors who actively sought help from informal support providers were more likely to receive positive than negative reactions. In contrast, survivors who actively sought help from formal support providers were more likely to receive negative than positive reactions. When disclosure to formal support providers was initiated by the formal support providers themselves, however, survivors received exclusively positive reactions. Implications for future research are discussed.