Analyzing Additional Variables in the Theory of Reasoned Action

This study examined the convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity of several variables proposed to augment the theory of reasoned action (TRA), using both principal components analysis (PCA)/multiple regression and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)/structural equation modeling (SEM) among a sample of the UK population regarding their intention to have a child. PCA revealed good convergent and discriminant validity for attitude vs. anticipated regret, subjective norm vs. moral norm vs. social relations, but not for intention vs. desire or perceived behavioral control. Multiple regression analyses showed that the additional variables predicted a significant increment in the variance in intention. CFA, however, showed moderate convergent validity and poor discriminant validity and the structural model comprised the 2 predictors from the TRA only.     

Deliberative and Automatic Bases of Suspicion: Empirical Evidence of the Sinister Attribution Error

This research explores perceptions of interpersonal influence in the form of flattery that occurs in a consumer retail setting. Across 4 experiments, results demonstrate empirical evidence of a sinister attribution error (Kramer, 1994), as consumer reactions to flattery were more negative than warranted by the situation. Results across 3 experiments demonstrated that there are 2 types of information processing occurring when consumers make trust judgments in response to flattery. Depending on when flattery occurs, consumers engage in either automatic or deliberative processing of information provided by the sales context. The final experiment further suggests that the automatic processing occurred through categorization based on social cues.     

Adaptive training leads to sustained enhancement of poor working memory in children

Working memory plays a crucial role in supporting learning, with poor progress in reading and mathematics characterizing children with low memory skills. This study investigated whether these problems can be overcome by a training program designed to boost working memory. Children with low working memory skills were assessed on measures of working memory, IQ and academic attainment before and after training on either adaptive or non‐adaptive versions of the program. Adaptive training that taxed working memory to its limits was associated with substantial and sustained gains in working memory, with age‐appropriate levels achieved by the majority of children. Mathematical ability also improved significantly 6 months following adaptive training. These findings indicate that common impairments in working memory and associated learning difficulties may be overcome with this behavioral treatment.     

The sad truth about depressive realism

In one form of a contingency judgement task individuals must judge the relationship between an action and an outcome. There are reports that depressed individuals are more accurate than are nondepressed individuals in this task. In particular, nondepressed individuals are influenced by manipulations that affect the salience of the outcome, especially outcome probability. They overestimate a contingency if the probability of an outcome is high—the “outcome-density effect”. In contrast, depressed individuals display little or no outcome-density effect. This apparent knack for depressives not to be misled by outcome density in their contingency judgements has been termed “depressive realism”, and the absence of an outcome-density effect has led to the characterization of depressives as “sadder but wiser”. We present a critical summary of the depressive realism literature and provide a novel interpretation of the phenomenon. We suggest that depressive realism may be understood from a psychophysical analysis of contingency judgements.*     

The dark side of normal: A psychopathy-linked pattern called aberrant self-promotion

These studies investigate a personality and behavior pattern called aberrant self-promotion, conceptualized as a subclinical form of psychopathy. Aberrant self-promoters (ASPs) are theoretically defined as individuals characterized by a narcissistic personality configuration in combination with antisocial behavior. The first study verifies the existence of persons who manifest the ASP pattern. The second study validates the pattern, using as criteria the Revised Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-R) interview and records of antisocial behavior. In the first study a 179-item questionnaire, composed of five personality instruments, was administered to two separate samples of normal subjects (N = 214 and 367). ASPs were targeted by three methods: cluster analysis, item factor analysis, and person factor analysis. In Sample 1 the three methods demonstrated a convergence of 92 per cent in identifying the same individuals as ASPs; in Sample 2 the convergence rate was 94 per cent. In the second study 32 ASPs targeted in Study 1 were compared to 30 non-ASPS. The ASPs had significantly higher scores on the PCL-R and had committed significantly more antisocial acts than the non-ASPS. The general discussion focuses on the practical, theoretical, and measurement implications of considering aberrant self-promotion a distinct psychological motif.     

Representation of structure in similarity data: Problems and prospects

Conclusion After struggling with the problem of representing structure in similarity data for over 20 years, I find that a number of challenging problems still remain to be overcome—even in the simplest case of the analysis of a single symmetric matrix of similarity estimates. At the same time, I am more optimistic than ever that efforts directed toward surmounting the remaining difficulties will reap both methodological and substantive benefits. The methodological benefits that I forsee include both an improved efficiency and a deeper understanding of discovery methods of data analysis. And the substantive benefits should follow, through the greater leverage that such methods will provide for the study of complex empirical phenomena—perhaps particularly those characteristic of the human mind.Presidential address delivered before the annual meeting of the Psychometric Society at Stanford University on March 28, 1974 (in a somewhat revised form necessarily, for purposes of publication, with more words and fewer pictures). Much of the work surveyed in this paper was supported by the Bell Telephone Laboratories, during my eight years as a member of the technical staff there, and by grants (principally, GS-1302, GS-2283, and GB-31971X) from the National Science Foundation, during my subsequent eight years at Harvard and at Stanford. I wish to acknowledge, too, the important contributions to this work made by my many students and associates during these 16 years including, particularly, Doug Carroll, Jih-Jie Chang, Steve Johnson, and Joe Kruskal (at the Bell Laboratories) and Phipps Arabie, Glen Crawford, and Jim Cunningham (at Stanford). Finally, I am indebted to Sherry Huntsberger for suggestions and extensive help in connection with the preparation of the paper itself, and to Bert Green for useful editorial comments.     

A nonmetric variety of linear factor analysis

The numbers in each column of ann ×m matrix of multivariate data are interpreted as giving the measured values of alln of the objects studied on one ofm different variables. Except for random error, the rank order of the numbers in such a column is assumed to be determined by a linear rule of combination of latent quantities characterizing each row object with respect to a small number of underlying factors. An approximation to the linear structure assumed to underlie the ordinal properties of the data is obtained by iterative adjustment to minimize an index of over-all departure from monotonicity. The method is “nonmetric” in that the obtained structure in invariant under monotone transformations of the data within each column. Except in certain degenerate cases, the structure is nevertheless determined essentially up to an affine transformation. Tests show (a) that, when the assumed monotone relationships are strictly linear, the recovered structure tends closely to approximate that obtained by standard (metric) factor analysis but (b) that, when these relationships are severely nonlinear, the nonmetric method avoids the inherent tendency of the metric method to yield additional, spurious factors. From the practical standpoint, however, the usefulness of the nonmetric method is limited by its greater computational cost, vulnerability to degeneracy, and sensitivity to error variance.     

The analysis of proximities: Multidimensional scaling with an unknown distance function. I.

A computer program is described that is designed to reconstruct the metric configuration of a set of points in Euclidean space on the basis of essentially nonmetric information about that configuration. A minimum set of Cartesian coordinates for the points is determined when the only available information specifies for each pair of those points—not the distance between them—but some unknown, fixed monotonic function of that distance. The program is proposed as a tool for reductively analyzing several types of psychological data, particularly measures of interstimulus similarity or confusability, by making explicit the multidimensional structure underlying such data.     

An Examination of the Connections Between Eating Disorder Symptoms,Perceived Burdensomeness,Thwarted Belongingness,and Suicide Risk Among Undergraduate Students

Suicide attempts and premature mortality due to suicide are elevated in people with eating disorders. Informed by the interpersonal theory of suicide, two studies examined the role of perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness in explaining the association between eating disorder symptoms and suicide risk. Results indicated that various eating disorder symptoms had an indirect effect on suicide risk through perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness. Targeting perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness may be useful for decreasing suicide risk among undergraduates with eating disorder symptoms.