Popular Versus Skinnerian Views on the Relation Between Human Freedom and Dignity

This study evaluated Skinner's (1971) contention that the function relating the degree to which a person's behavior is ascribed to voluntary choice and the level of dignity ascribed to that person originates at zero dignity for zero choice. In Study 1, 91 American college students answered questions about themselves, their beliefs about voluntary versus environmental control of behavior, and their bases for judging dignity. Then they attempted to describe their views of the functional relationship between perceived human dignity and perceived voluntary control of both prosocial and antisocial behaviors. Most indicated belief in voluntary choice, and some in intrinsic (unearned) dignity, but few could relate them quantitatively. A second study used 27 students in an advanced class, for whom the theoretical implications of various functional relationships were discussed before the functions were drawn. Both studies refuted Skinner's pragmatic argument against the concepts of freedom and intrinsic dignity.     

Engaging in Less Protective Self-Presentation: The Effects of a Friend's Presence on the Socially Anxious

To cope with their fear of negative evaluation, socially anxious people use protective self-presentation strategies. We hypothesized that the presence of a close friend (vs. being alone) would lead socially anxious people to engage in more acquisitive self-presentation tactics. Results supported the hypotheses. With a friend present versus not, socially anxious participants presented themselves more positively to and selected more self-disclosing topics to discuss with a stranger they believed they would meet face-to-face. Friendship strength moderated some of the effects. Results suggest that friends’ support may allow socially anxious people to satisfy safety needs while engaging in less protective self-presentation.     

How children use drawing to regulate their emotions

We examined two ways in which drawing may function to elevate mood in children—venting (expressing negative feelings) and distraction (expressing something unrelated to the negative feelings). We examined the effectiveness of drawing as an emotion regulator when drawing is used to vent versus distract (Study 1) and tested whether the effects found are specific to the activity of creating one's own drawing or generalisable to a drawing activity in which children had to copy another's drawing (Study 2). To induce a negative mood, we asked children to think of a disappointing event. Mood was assessed before and after the assigned activity. In both studies, mood improved significantly more in the distract than in the vent or copy condition. Study 1 demonstrates that drawing improves mood in children via distraction and not via venting. Study 2 demonstrates that this effect is specific to a drawing task in which an image is freely constructed. When a copying task is used, the effect disappears.     

Special Abstract Section: 2009 National Conference in Sales Management

Each year, Pi Sigma Epsilon sponsors the National Conference in Sales Management (NCSM) in conjunction with its annual convention. JPSSM is pleased to present this special section containing the abstracts of the papers presented at the 2009 NCSM, which was held March 26–28 in Norfolk, VA.     

Effects of Presentation Format and List Length on Children's False Memories

The effect of list length on children's false memories was investigated using list and story versions of the Deese/Roediger-McDermott procedure. Short (7 items) and long (14 items) sequences of semantic associates were presented to children aged 6, 8, and 10 years old either in lists or embedded within a story that emphasized the list theme. Subsequent tests of recognition memory revealed different effects of length for lists and stories across development. Longer lists produced more false alarms to critical lures for 8- and 10-year-olds only, and longer stories produced more false alarms to critical lures for 6-year-olds only. These results demonstrate that increasing the number of items presented at study increases false recognition for younger as well as older children when the theme of the items is made salient.     

Looks Aren't Everything: 24-Month-Olds' Willingness to Accept Unexpected Labels

A label can efficiently convey nonobvious information about category membership, but this information can sometimes conflict with one's own expectations. Two studies explored whether 24-month-olds (N = 56) would be willing to accept a category label indicating that an animal (Study 1) or artifact (Study 2) that looked like a member of one familiar category was actually a member of a different familiar category. Results showed that children were receptive to these unexpected labels and used them as the basis for inference. These findings indicate that linguistic information can lead even toddlers to “disbelieve their eyes.”     

Let it be: expatriate couples' adjustment and the upside of avoiding conflicts

This research examines the moderating effect of conflict avoidance on the relationship between conflict and psychological adjustment among 45 expatriate couples at two points in time. We propose a model based on the actor–partner interdependence model, which assumes both intrapersonal and interpersonal effects, to address simultaneously the effects of one's own and the other's avoidance behavior. We found substantial support for our model, especially for expatriate spouses. As expected, and only for expatriate spouses, avoidance moderated the conflict–adjustment relationship such that both one's own and one's counterpart's avoidance behavior diminished the negative effect of conflicts. Because these effects were observed only at T2 and psychological adjustment decreased from T1 to T2, our research suggests that the impact of expatriation-associated interaction particularly manifests itself in the long run.     

When and why creativity‐related conflict with coworkers can hamper creative employees' individual job performance

We examined when and why focal employees' creativity-related conflict with coworkers is related to their individual job performance. As hypothesized, a survey among 113 employees in 14 manufacturing work groups showed that creativity-related conflict with coworkers escalates into dysfunctional relationship conflict when focal employees have low rather than high trust in those coworkers. In its turn, relationship conflict with coworkers was found to be negatively associated with focal employees' individual job performance when they lack support from their supervisor. Finally, the indirect effect of creativity-related conflict on job performance through relationship conflict was found to be significant when both the first stage moderator of coworker trust and the second stage moderator of supervisory support were low rather than high.     

Length,frequency, and predictability effects of words on eye movements in reading

We tested the effects of word length, frequency, and predictability on inspection durations (first fixation, single fixation, gaze duration, and reading time) and inspection probabilities during first‐pass reading (skipped, once, twice) for a corpus of 144 German sentences (1138 words) and a subset of 144 target words uncorrelated in length and frequency, read by 33 young and 32 older adults. For corpus words, length and frequency were reliably related to inspection durations and probabilities, predictability only to inspection probabilities. For first‐pass reading of target words all three effects were reliable for inspection durations and probabilities. Low predictability was strongly related to second‐pass reading. Older adults read slower than young adults and had a higher frequency of regressive movements. The data are to serve as a benchmark for computational models of eye movement control in reading.     

Development of Academic Skills from Preschool Through Second Grade: Family and Classroom Predictors of Developmental Trajectories

Children's experiences with their parents and teachers were related to the acquisition of academic skills from preschool through second grade. Individual and group growth curves were estimated, and individual patterns of change were predicted from selected demographic, family, and classroom characteristics to identify multiple pathways to early academic competence. Standardized assessments of language and academic skills and parent and teacher surveys were collected on 511 children beginning in the second-to-last year of child care through the third year of elementary school. As expected, children tended to show better academic skills across time if their parents had more education and reported more progressive parenting beliefs and practices. Statistical interactions between family background and teacher-child relationships indicated that a closer relationship with the teacher was positively related to language skills for African-American children and to reading competence for children whose parents reported more authoritarian attitudes. These results provide further evidence that social processes in classrooms are important for academic competence for children considered at risk for academic problems.