Public Self-Disclosure and Speaker Persuasiveness1

Two experiments were conducted to examine the conclusion of several rhetorical critics that intimate self-disclosure by high-ranking officials will be viewed by an audience as inappropriate and will result in lowered speaker persuasiveness. In Experiment 1 college students viewed a videotape of a speaker described as either a member of an oratory club, a candidate for Congress, or a congressman. Half of the subjects heard a speech in which the speaker revealed some intimate information about himself. Little disclosure was included in the other speech. It was found that the greater the prestige of the speaker, the more self-disclosure was seen as inappropriate. The audience was least likely to be persuaded by the speaker when he was perceived as a congressman who had disclosed personal information. This effect was replicated in Experiment 2, where individual differences in the audience members' l]evels of perceptiveness about disclosure appre priateness were examined. No significant effects for this individual difference variable were uncovered.     

Sex-role stereotypes and commitment of rape

Sociologists sometimes speculate that sexual offenses are related to the process of sex-role stereotyping of the female while simultaneously over-reacting in the form of “macho” behavior. In order to determine the validity of this proposed relationship, a series of paper and pencil attitude tests were administered to three populations of men. This sample included sex offenders, other offenders, and nonoffenders. A total of 119 subjects participated. The sample was selected from Lima State Hospital (Ohio), Lebanon Correctional Institution (Ohio), and nonincarcerated males working in the private sector of Dayton, Ohio. The testing instruments included the Attitude Toward Women Scale, Bem Sex-Role Inventory, the Macho Scale, and the Open Subordination of Women Scale. A multivariate analysis of variance did not establish statistical significance for either the factors of location, offense committed, or the victim orientation.     

Parent-completed and adolescent-completed CDIs: Relationship to adolescent social and cognitive functioning

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of both young adolescents' scores on the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) and their mothers' ratings of the adolescents' depression (parent-completed CDI) to indices of their social and cognitive functioning obtained from a source outside the home. Subjects consisted of a nonclinic sample of 85 young adolescents (11–15 years of age), their mothers, and their social studies teachers. Recent school grades and teacher-completed measures served as the indices of adolescent social and cognitive competence. The results indicated that both adolescents' and mothers' CDI scores were significantly and negatively correlated with measures of adolescent cognitive and social functioning. Multiple regression analyses, utilizing adolescent- and parent-completed CDI scores as predictors, indicated that both predictor variables entered into the equations for cognitive functioning while only the mother-completed CDI entered into those for social functioning. When maternal depression was also entered into the multiple regressions, the findings regarding mother- and adolescent-completed CDI scores were not altered. The relationship of these findings to other somewhat disparate findings concerning the utility of mother and child reports of child depression is discussed.This research was supported, in part, by the William T. Grant Foundation and the University of Georgia's Institute for Behavioral Research.     

Counseling for Dropout Prevention: Applications From Multicultural Counseling

Although high school dropout rates have declined over the past several years, rates remain high for many segments of our population. Most of the attention devoted to dropout prevention counseling has focused on group counseling or programmatic issues, whereas individual counseling has largely been ignored. This article draws on commonalities between multicultural counseling and dropout prevention to produce a general framework for individual counseling with students who have potential to drop out of high school.     

Reaction time, intelligence, and attention

The roles of attention in reaction time and in the relationships among reaction time, intelligence, and achievement were analyzed. The subjects were 105 seventh-grade children. The results were generally consistent with most studies involving the Hick paradigm: both mean reaction time and the standard deviation of reaction time correlated with the intelligence and achievement measures used. Reaction time measures were correlated with attention and perceptual speed as well as with general intelligence, or g. Implications of these results for current theories linking reaction time and intelligence are discussed.     

An inexpensive CRT terminal controller/computer

An inexpensive CRT terminal controller/computer is described. The board integrates virtually any keyboard and CRT monitor into a work station with firmware-governed intelligence. The system is designed to fill the cost/functionality niche below the Apple microcomputer. It can be configured as a dumb or smart terminal (approximately $100 plus keyboard and CRT monitor), as a self-contained computer that runs ROM-based software such as a small BASIC or an assembler/disassembler fan additional $100 in chips), or as a word processor if aa audio cassette ($50) or dual digital cassettes with controller ($125) are added.     

Students' Preferences for Information About Their Test Performance: A Social Comparison Study1

College students received their test scores and letter grades for an actual examination and were asked to indicate their degree of interest in obtaining information (average score, highest score, etc.) in order to evaluate their performance. Overall, the students were most interested in knowing the average test score and least interested in knowing the lowest test score and the number of others who received worse test scores. There was some evidence supporting Festinger's unidirectional drive hypothesis in that most of the students were moderately interested in knowing how many others obtained better scores. Surprisingly, students who failed the examination displayed the greatest interest in the available information. There was little evidence suggesting defensive comparison on the part of low scorers. The results have implications for the self evaluation of ability, for social comparison research, and for educational practice.     

Priming effects with food and water reinforcers in hamsters

Hamsters were tested in a square maze with either food or water in each corner compartment. A substantial priming effect (runway times increase as intertrial interval increases) was demonstrated using both food and water reinforcers. A lengthy period of free access to food and water (satiation) immediately abolished the priming effect, although runway times in general remained relatively rapid for some time. Extinction of rapid runway times proceeded more slowly under food than under water deprivation. It is concluded that priming is a widespread phenomenon associated with the presentation of a reinforcing stimulus to an appropriately deprived animal.     

CPQ validity: The relationship between Children's Personality Questionnaire scores and teacher ratings

Scores on the Children's Personality Questionnaire (CPQ) were correlated with scores from rating scale items selected by a panel of raters measuring the same behavior as a CPQ scale. Data were obtained on a normal sample of school children in grades three to six and on two referred groups, underachievers and chilren with behavior or social problems. The teachers of the children were asked to complete two rating scales on each child. Correlations between rating scale scores and CPQ scores suggest that, in general, the CPQ does not measure the traits it purports to measure.