Emotions in memories of success and failure: a cultural perspective

Americans and Chinese tend to behave differently in response to success and failure: Americans tend to persist on a task after success, whereas Chinese tend to persist after failure. This study examined whether cultural differences in emotional reactions to success and failure account for these differences. American and Chinese students recalled personal success and failure events, evaluated the primary emotion evoked by the event, and responded to measures of concerns, appraisals, and willingness to try the same task again. Americans were more likely than Chinese to report that their success enhanced their self-esteem. Chinese were more likely than Americans to estimate that their success would make others jealous and enhance others' respect for their family. Chinese, compared to Americans, viewed failures as more tolerable, as less problematic for their goals, and as less damaging to their self-esteem. Culture moderated the relations between these components of emotion and willingness to try the task again. In short, culturally framed emotional reactions to success and failure result in different patterns of anticipated self-regulation.     

Appearance of the Moss-Harlow effect with stimuli equated for novelty

An experiment tested for the Moss-Harlow Effect in 3- and 5-year-olds with stimulus novelty equated. Experimental groups familiarized themselves with each pair of test objects by sorting them, then received a P or N information trial and test trials. The Effect was found after the equation for novelty. Age did not interact with type of information trial. The Effect appears better interpreted in terms of an exploratory tendency than of stimulus novelty.     

An empirical investigation of adolescent suicidal ideation.

Four hundred nine high school students were surveyed to determine the percentage who had experienced suicidal ideation. The sample was then divided into high- and low-suicidal-risk groups. High-risk subjects were found to have significantly poorer quality friendships, lower self-esteem, and had experienced more life stress in the previous year.     

Temporal necessity and the conditional

In [12] Richmond Thomason and Anil Gupta investigate a semantics for conditional logic that combines the ideas of [8] and [9] with a branching time model of tense logic. The resulting branching time semantics for the conditional is intended to capture the logical relationship between temporal necessity and the conditional. The central principle of this logical relationship is Past Predominance, according to which past similarities and differences take priority over future similarities and differences in determining the comparative similarity of alternative possible histories with respect to a given present moment.In this paper I will use ordinary possible worlds semantics (i.e. Kripke frames) to solve the completeness problem for a system of logic that combines conditional logic with temporal necessity in the context of Past Predominance. Branching time models turn out not to be necessary for the articulation of Past Predominance, and this means that one can axiomatize Past Predominance without first having to solve a much more difficult problem: the completeness problem for the logic of temporal necessity in the context of branching time.Thomason and Gupta argue in [12] that in addition to Past Predominance, temporal necessity and the conditional are logically related, by what have become known as the Edelberg Inferences, whose apparent validity motivates the very complicated theory presented at the end of [12]. I will conclude this paper by examining how the Edelberg inferences would be incorporated into the possible worlds based system presented in the earlier sections of this paper.This article is based on the second chapter of my doctoral dissertation Studies in the Semantics of Modality, University of Pittsburgh, 1985. I thank my adviser Richmond Thomason for his patient help throughout the course of that project.     

Stimulus range,number of categories,and the “virtual” exponent

Three different stimulus modalities (line length, number, and sound pressure) were judged by magnitude scaling techniques and by 7-, 15-, 31-, and 75-point category scales. All of the 40 subjects were given the same number stimuli, but two different sound-pressure ranges were presented (each to 20 subjects) and four different line-length ranges were presented (each to 10 subjects). Analyses of lack of fit for various simple functions were performed to determine bestfitting functions. The simple power function was often found to be an adequate fit to the data for all the response modalities used, although all of the response modalities were sensitive to changes in stimulus range. For simple power functions, the category-scale exponent was a function of both the range of stimuli and the number of categories provided. Category scales did not always produce exponents smaller than those obtained with magnitude estimation, which calls into question the concept of a virtual exponent for category scales.     

A signal detection analysis of the rod and frame test

To help determine hut what Witkin’s Rod and Frame Test measures, the task was modified by presenting the luminous rod in one of two fixed positions, either vertical or not vertical, within a titled frame. S responded on a four-category scale representing his certainty that the rod was vertical Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were calculated for each of 17 Ss and compared to traditional measures of titer field dependence-independence. The results showed that Witkin’s test is not contaminated to any great extent by response bias. However, the ROC analysis did reveal significant differences between field dependents and independents, not only in their sensitivity to verticality, but also in their- characteristic manner of responding.     

A Study of Church Members During Times of Crisis

The purpose of the current study was to understand what church members experience during a situational crisis and identify the resources of social support that are helpful for them. By identifying the degree to which personal religious beliefs and participation in a particular congregation help people in crisis, this study sought to provide a foundation from which religious as well as mental health professionals can understand the psychological benefits of religious involvement. For the purposes of this research the investigators developed the Crisis Appraisal and Coping Interview Protocol. The research team collected interview data from 26 members of one Southern Baptist congregation within two weeks of a crisis event. Qualitative analysis identified several key themes that appeared which are discussed.