Language Switching and Mexican Americans' Emotional Expression

This study examined the effects of counselor language switching and counselor ethnicity on bilingual Mexican American participants' emotional self‐disclosure. Counselor language (English only and Spanish with English) was crossed with counselor ethnicity (Mexican American and European American) to produce 4 treatment conditions. Judges' observations revealed that the European American counselor who language switched elicited the most emotional expression from participants. Este estudio examinó los efectos que un cambio de idioma por parte del consejero y la etnicidad del consejero tienen sobre la auto‐revelación emocional de los participantes México Americanos bilingües. El idioma del consejero (sólo inglés, y español con inglés) se combinó con su etnicidad (México Americano y Euro Americano) para generar 4 condiciones de tratamiento. Las observaciones de los jueces revelaron que el consejero Euro Americano que cambió de idioma obtuvo el mayor número de expresiones emocionales de los participantes.     

Morningness in German and Spanish students: a comparative study

Humans show pronounced individual differences in circadian orientation. Transcultural comparisons are interesting since biological (or environmental) factors together with cultural ones may contribute to differences in morningness–eveningness. We compared Spanish and German undergraduates using the Composite Scale of Morningness (CSM) to assess circadian preferences. Confirmatory and multiple groups confirmatory factor analysis were used to assess factor structure and structural invariance across countries. The results showed that a three‐factor model of morningness best characterises the CSM structure of both samples. Partial factorial invariance (factor loadings) across countries was demonstrated for the factors ‘morningness’ and ‘morning alertness’. Scores of both factors were higher in German students. Potential cultural and biological explanations for the differences are discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Agentic and communal bias in socially desirable responding

This research was designed to investigate Paulhus' communion management (CM) and self‐deceptive enhancement (SDE), socially desirable responding (SDR) scales as measures of general SDR, communal bias and agentic bias. The CM and SDE scales, as well as the Schwartz values survey (SVS), were administered to four samples drawn from different cultures and subcultures (N = 900). Participants completed the questionnaires in ‘honest’ and ‘fake good’ conditions. Although conceptions of which values were desirable varied strongly between samples and instructional sets, the CM scale was consistently related to general SDR and to communal bias. In contrast, the SDE scale was only related to general SDR. Contrary to expectations, neither scale could identify participants who ‘faked good’ under normal instructions. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Social axioms and values: a cross‐cultural examination

The relationships between social axioms, general beliefs that people hold about the social world, and values, defined as desirable goals for life, were examined in five cultural groups. Results show that the correlations between social axioms and Schwartz's (1992) values are generally low, suggesting that they represent two distinct types of construct. Based on a structural equation modelling approach, results further show that generally speaking, the five axiom dimensions are related to the value types in a meaningful and interpretable manner, and that these relationships are generally similar across the five cultural groups. Implications of these results and directions for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Greek special educators' behavior analytic skills

The present study examined the ability of 52 special teachers in determining the underlying function of challenging behaviors in children with developmental disabilities and in linking the identified function with relevant intervention. Participants were presented with three questionnaire vignettes describing behavior maintained by attention, task avoidance and sensory consequences. They were then asked to identify the likely causes of the behaviors from a table of three possible functions and to link them with relevant intervention from a pool of 11 forms of intervention. The results indicated that teachers can reliably identify the cause of the behavior but they are not yet able to link function with relevant intervention without the provision of adequate support. The implications for teachers' in‐service training in the implementation of behavior analytic interventions are briefly discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Spanish version of the Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR) adult attachment questionnaire

A Spanish adaptation of the Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR) measure of the 2 dimensions of adult attachment (K. A. Brennan, C. L. Clark, & P. R. Shaver, 1998) was created using a back‐translation procedure. Called the ECR‐S, the new scale displays the same 2‐factor structure as the English‐language ECR in both university and community samples and is reliable in both the internal consistency and the temporal stability senses. In a sample of married and cohabiting couples, the 2 subscales of the ECR‐S, anxiety and avoidance, are orthogonal and correlate with other theoretically appropriate variables (scores on K. Bartholomew and L. M. Horowitz’s, 1991, measure of adult attachment style, relationship status, and various dimensions of love and couple satisfaction). Cross‐cultural differences between American and Spanish results are briefly discussed.     

Reciprocal and complementary sibling interactions,relationship quality and socio‐emotional problem solving

Associations between reciprocal and complementary sibling interactions, sibling relationship quality, and children's socio‐emotional problem solving were examined in 40 grade 5–6 children (M age = 11.5 years) from middle class, Caucasian, Canadian families using a multi‐method approach (i.e. interviews, self‐report questionnaires, daily diary checklist, narrative task). Findings demonstrated that reciprocal sibling interactions were positively associated with warmth, mutual esteem, happy daily exchanges, and negatively related to rivalry and dominance, whereas complementary interactions were positively related to upsetting daily exchanges. Further, reciprocal and complementary interactions differed significantly in relation to several relationship qualities, with reciprocal interactions emerging as a significantly stronger correlate of happy exchanges. Only reciprocal interactions were positively correlated with socio‐emotional problem solving. Finally, birth order moderated the negative association of reciprocal interactions with rivalry and dominance and the positive association with socio‐emotional problem solving. In each case, the effect was stronger for younger members of the sibling dyad. Findings are discussed in light of recent theory on the sibling relationship and children's development. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Self‐esteem discrepancies and defensive reactions to social feedback

Recent research has provided increasing evidence that discrepancies between implicit and explicit self‐esteem (SE) are related to defensiveness. However, only one pattern, called fragile SE (a combination of high explicit and low implicit SE), has been the focus of research so far. Relatively little attention has been paid to the second possible SE discrepancy (low explicit/high implicit). We propose that both types of discrepancies are maladaptive, because they indicate a lack of integration in self‐representation. We conducted two studies on the correlates of discrepant SE in the sphere of defensiveness. We hypothesized that persons with discrepant SE exhibit more defensive behaviour than individuals with congruent SE. In two student samples, explicit SE was measured by means of the Multidimensional Self‐Esteem Scale. Implicit SE was measured with the Name Letter Technique (Study 1) and an Implicit Association Test (Study 2). In Study 1 (N = 102) we examined effects of implicit and explicit SE on defensive reactions to ambiguous statements. For this purpose, we adapted the Ambiguous Statements Task (AST, Tafarodi, 1998 ), a procedure that measures participants' tendency to interpret ambiguous expressions in a positive vs negative manner. We found that the combination of low explicit SE and high implicit SE was associated with a more positive interpretation of the ambiguous statements. Study 2 (N = 87) investigated the effects of discrepant SE on reactions to SE threat in an experimental setting. The time participants spent reading positive or negative social feedback was used as an unobtrusive measure of defensiveness. We found that people with discrepant SE went through the negative feedback faster than people with congruent SE. In sum, the studies provide converging evidence that both kinds of discrepancies between implicit and explicit SE are related to defensive behaviour.     

The role of information presentation formats in belief updating

The effects of the format by which information is presented on the cognitive processes of belief updating were investigated in the present research. Because of the differences in the affordance of verbal vs. numerical information, it is predicted that the belief updating processes involved in processing verbal and numerical information would be different. Specifically, the additive rule is used to combine information using verbal formats, while the averaging rule is used to combine information using numerical formats. Two experiments were conducted to test these hypotheses. Experiment 1 tested the belief updating process in the positive direction, and Experiment 2 tested the process in the negative direction. Two independent variables were manipulated: information presentation format (verbal vs numerical) and presentation order (strong–weak vs weak–strong). The participants were asked to adjust their purchase likelihood of a consumer product based on the sequential presentations of two experts' opinions. These two opinions varied in their formats (verbal vs. numerical) and strengths (strong vs weak). The two opinions were presented in either the strong–weak order or the weak–strong order. Participants were instructed to first anchor their purchase likelihood at 50%, and then adjust the purchase likelihood, first based on the first expert's opinion, and second based on both experts' opinions. In both experiments the hypotheses that participants employed an additive rule to integrate verbal information and an averaging rule to integrate numerical information were supported.