Thwarting the Need to Belong: Understanding the Interpersonal and Inner Effects of Social Exclusion

The need to belong is a powerful motivational basis for interpersonal behavior, and it is thwarted by social exclusion and rejection. Laboratory work has uncovered a destructive set of consequences of being socially excluded, such as increased aggressiveness and reduced helpfulness toward new targets. Rejected persons do, however, exhibit a cautious interest in finding new friends. Theory and intuition associate social exclusion with emotional distress, but laboratory research finds instead that the first response is a reduced sensitivity to pain and an emotional insensitivity that hampers empathy and may contribute to a variety of interpersonal behaviors. Self-regulation and intelligent thought are also impaired as a direct result of being rejected.     

Body dissatisfaction and body comparison with media images in males and females

This study examined the role of media body comparison as a mediator of the relationships between psychological factors and sociocultural pressures to be thin and body dissatisfaction in both females and males. Participants were 1,386 females (mean age = 19.37 years) and 1,130 males (mean age = 19.46) from diverse backgrounds who completed a self-report questionnaire. Path analysis was used to test a cross-sectional model in which media body comparison mediated the impact of self-esteem, depressive mood, parent dieting environment, friend dieting, TV exposure, magazine message exposure, weight teasing and body mass index (BMI) on body dissatisfaction. In females, media body comparison partially or fully mediated relationships between self-esteem, depressive mood, friend dieting, magazine message exposure and BMI, and body dissatisfaction. In males, media body comparison was not a significant predictor of body dissatisfaction. This research particularly highlights the need to further examine processes that are involved in the development of body dissatisfaction in males.     

Human search procedures and the use of expert systems

Four experiments are reported. These experiments compare the effects of two different forms of machine advice on performance on a complex search task. The task involves determining which of a set of factories is responsible for polluting a river by testing the river for the presence or absence of various pollutants. Subjects either receive a suggestion as to which pollutant they should test for on each go, or following testing for a pollutant they are told which of the factories could possibly be polluting the river at that stage, or they receive a combination of the two forms of advice. The experiments show that suggesting to subjects which pollutant they should test for on each go is of no benefit, whereas providing a list of possible factory names after testing for each pollutant significantly benefits performance. Only subjects who receive both types of advice simultaneously, however, maintain an improved performance level when the advice is withdrawn. This research was supported by the Alvey Directorate. Mr. E.C. Portman of ICL, West Gorton, acted as “industrial uncle” to the project.     

Brand character as a function of brand loyalty

This study investigated the relationship between self-image, brand image, and brand loyalty by asking whether people use products to enhance self-image. Subjects described themselves on an adjective checklist, then listed product brands to which they consider themselves loyal or not loyal. One month later, using the same adjective checklist, subjects described the type of person who would buy a particular brand to which they are loyal and a brand to which they are not loyal for both gender and non-gender related products. Significant differences between the two groups and a high correlation between self and product user ratings, were found.     

Chess expertise in children

This paper reports several studies of chess expertise in children who play competitive chess. The first study examines (1) the relationship between experience and skill among 113 school-age children (grades 1 through 12); and (2) the relationship between chess skill and scores on various spatial and logical abilities tests among the top 15 players. Improvement in skill is related to experience, and chess players score higher than average on the Raven's Progressive Matrices. Also, scores on a chess-specific test, the Knight's Tour, correlate with scores on the Raven's. The second study reports three experiments with 59 Ss involving chess-specific tasks in memory, perception, and similarity judgements. The first two experiments replicated and extended Chase and Simon (1973). The third experiment, which asked Ss to judge similarities of chess positions, demonstrated that similarity judgements become more global and abstract with increased skill. The final section describes qualitatively how children's chess expertise compares to that of adults. Drawing upon Anderson (1985), we focus on some distinctive features of children's chess play and on some successful techniques in coaching young players.     

Metatraits

ABSTRACT A metatrait is the trait of having versus not having a trait It refers to whether a given trait dimension or construct can be used to describe a particular personality Using attitudes as an analog to traits, we argue that the study of personality may benefit from considering metatraits Implications for the nature of traits and for the formation and disappearance of traits within a personality are discussed We review strategies for measuring metatraits and conclude that at present it seems best to use interitem variance in responses to specific, familiar trait scales Metatraits will most commonly moderate trait effects, especially such that hypotheses about traits are appropriately tested only with trailed individuals Untraited individuals may be susceptible to fluctuating states and situational manipulations Sometimes metatraits may predict behavior directly, independently of trait level Two studies are reported to illustrate metatrait moderation of trait effects and direct prediction of behavior by metatrait     

Detection and identification thresholds for consonant-vowel syllables

Detection and identification thresholds were obtained for 6- and 10-year-old normal children and normal adults using five-formant synthesized consonant-vowel ([baHdflrfea]) stimuli. Sixyear-old children were found to have poorer detection than adults, just as they do for pure tones. For the identification task, the slopes of the performance-intensity functions were more shallow for 6-year-old children than for 10-year-olds and adults. Consequently, compared with 10-yearolds and adults, 6-year-old listeners require a greater increase in stimulus intensity above detection threshold to identify these stimuli at a high performance level. The influence of acoustic characteristics of the stimuli on all listeners is also discussed.