Tell me more: The effects of expressed interest on receptiveness during dialog

Two studies investigated the effect of expressed interest on individuals’ openness to opposing viewpoints and perceptions of debate counterparts. Participants in Study 1 engaged in an online conversation with a purported debate counterpart who did or did not express interest in the participants’ viewpoint by asking an elaboration question—that is, a question geared at soliciting additional information. Compared to control participants, participants who received a question rated their debate counterpart more favorably, were more willing to engage in future interaction with their counterpart, and acted in a more receptive manner. Study 2 tested the effects of instructions to prepare elaboration questions on listeners’ responses to a speaker offering counter-attitudinal arguments. Preparing questions caused participants to be more open to the idea of having a conversation with the speaker, to make more positive attributions about typical proponents of the speaker’s viewpoint, and to judge the conclusions of the speech as more valid. Theoretical and practical implications of this research are discussed.     

The Effects of Choice on the Reading Comprehension and Enjoyment of Children with Severe Inattention and no Attentional Difficulties

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - It has been proposed that enhancing motivation supports the learning of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Less is...     

Sex differences in nonverbal behavior

A variety of nonverbal behaviors was coded from videotapes of 88 dyadic conversations. The 44 male and 44 female subjects were paired so that each participated in one conversation with a stranger of the same sex and one conversation with a stranger of the opposite sex. It was found that sex of subject, but not sex of partner, had a significant effect on many of the nonverbal behaviors displayed during the conversations. Subjects' scores on the behavioral measures were correlated with their scores on several personality measures and on a post-conversation questionnaire. Sex differences in these correlations were used to generate hypotheses linking specific behavioral differences between the sexes to more general differences between the masculine and feminine interpersonal styles.This study was supported in part by NSF grant GS-3033, awarded to Starkey Duncan, University of Chicago; by NSF grant GS-3127, awarded to Donald Fiske, University of Chicago; by a grant awarded to Starkey Duncan and Donald Fiske by the Social Science Divisional Research Committee of the University of Chicago; and by a University of Chicago Humanities Fellowship awarded to the author. The author is grateful to Starkey Duncan and Donald Fiske for the extensive assistance they provided with this study. The author also wishes to express her appreciation to Jeanine Carlson, George Niederehe, Bruno Repp, Thomas Shanks, and Cathy Stepanek, who assisted in coding the videotaped data and in the statistical analysis. This article is based on the author's doctoral dissertation (Beekman, 1973), which may be consulted for further details.Previous drafts of this article have been circulated under the author's former name, Susan J. Beekman.     

Quasi‐Experimental Single‐Subject Design: Comparing Seeking Safety and Canine‐Assisted Therapy Interventions Among Mentally Ill Female Inmates

This repeated measures quasi‐experimental study evaluated the effectiveness of 2 interventions, Seeking Safety and canine‐assisted therapy, with female prisoners with trauma histories on a mental health unit. Results indicate both are effective at reducing anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder.     

Evaluating the Utility of Sluggish Cognitive Tempo in Discriminating Among <Emphasis Type="Italic">DSM-IV</Emphasis> ADHD Subtypes

The objective of the current study was to evaluate how the inclusion of 3 Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT) symptoms in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diagnostic criteria influences the external validity of the ADHD subtypes. The sample comprised 228 children (166 boys, 62 girls) ranging in age from 5–18 years who were referred to clinics for attentional, behavioral, and/or learning problems and diagnosed with DSM-IV ADHD (124 Combined type, 81 Inattentive type, 23 Hyperactive-Impulsive type). Parent ratings of ADHD symptoms were obtained using the Emory Combined Rating Scale (ECRS), which assesses symptoms of the common DSM-IV childhood psychiatric disorders. Regression analyses incorporating planned comparisons were conducted to examine how the inclusion of SCT symptoms affects differences among ADHD subtypes on several external validity indicators (i.e., gender, age-of-onset, and overlapping conditions). The regression analyses did not yield any significant differences in gender ratios, mean age-of-onset, or overlapping externalizing or internalizing problems when the ADHD Inattentive type was subdivided into high- versus low-SCT groups. In conclusion, the current results suggest that the inclusion of parent-reported SCT symptoms in the ADHD diagnostic criteria has limited utility for isolating diagnostically meaningful subgroups of the Inattentive type or for enhancing the external validity of the ADHD subtypes in clinic-referred samples.     

Protective and risk factors in health-enhancing behavior among adolescents in China and the United States: does social context matter?

An explanatory model of adolescent health-enhancing behavior based on protective and risk factors at the individual level and in 4 social contexts was used in a study of school-based samples from the People's Republic of China (n = 1,739) and the United States (n = 1,596). A substantial account of variation in health-enhancing behavior--and of its developmental change over time--was provided by the model for boys and girls, and for the 3 grade cohorts, in both samples. In both samples, social context protective and risk factors accounted for more unique variance than did individual-level protective and risk factors, and context protection moderated both contextual and individual-level risk. Models protection and controls protection were of particular importance in the explanatory account.