CHILDREN'S IMITATION OF A RIDICULED MODEL

In order to test the effectiveness of ridicule as an educational and social corrective in children's educational television programs, arbitrary activities involving a novel object were performed by a Muppet model, videotaped, and presented to 4- and 6-year-olds. In each of three conditions of type of motivational message (ridicule, command, suggestion), a highly specific action was discouraged, another was encouraged, and a third was neither discouraged nor encouraged. The frequency with which subjects played with the novel object served as a measure of imitation. Four-year-olds consistently responded most effectively to correction when commands were given. In sharp contrast, 6-year-olds were most responsive to ridicule and least responsive to command.     

COMMUNICATION NETWORKS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS An Expansion Of Uncertainty Reduction Theory

This study sought to expand uncertainty reduction theory (Berger & Calabrese, 1975) by exploring network and dyadic correlates of uncertainty and stability in premarital romantic relationships. Respondents completed questionnaires and participated in telephone interviews three months later. Results generally showed that respondents experienced less uncertainty about their romantic partners and were less likely to break up when they communicated more often with their partners' family and friends, received greater support for their romantic relationship from family and friends, communicated more often with their partners, and perceived greater similarity to their partners. Uncertainty combined with the other variables to predict break ups over the three-month period with almost 90% accuracy. However, the presence of collinear lies, the global focus of the study, and the inadequate data base for longitudinal analysis placed several limitations on the findings. These limitations are discussed in terms of the need for more specific research and further theoretical development.     

SELF-MONITORING AS A MODERATOR OF THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PERSONALITY TRAITS AND PERFORMANCE

This study examined the hypothesis that self-monitoring moderates the relationship between Big Five personality traits and interpersonal performance. The findings from a sample of 102 employed Executive MBA students reveal that when self-monitoring was high the relationships between 3 of the Big Five personality traits (Extraversion, Emotional Stability, and Openness to Experience) and supervisory ratings of interpersonal performance were attenuated. These effects were replicated using peer ratings of interpersonal performance for Extraversion and Emotional Stability but not for Openness to Experience. Further, as expected, self-monitoring did not moderate the relationships between personality traits and supervisory or peer ratings of task performance. Implications for future research in the area of personality and other motivational theories are discussed.     

Omnipotence

Recently, many philosophers have supposed that the divine attribute of omnipotence is properly understood as some kind of maximal power. I argue that all of the best known attempts to analyse omnipotence in terms of maximal power are multiply flawed. Moreover, I argue that there are compelling reasons for supposing that, on orthodox theistic conceptions, maximal power is not one of the divine attributes.     

A study of the psychological effects of redundancy and unemployment

This study is an investigation of the psychological and social consequences of redundancy and unemployment. A sample of redundant adults was monitored for the first six months following job loss. They were interviewed every four weeks and data concerning psychiatric symptoms, level and direction of hostility, self-concept, social attitudes, interpersonal relations and family relationships were collected on each occasion. A matched control group of employed workers was also recruited and monitored. Significant differences between the unemployed who remained without work for the duration of the study and employed subjects were found on the measures of symptomatology, hostility, guilt, self-satisfaction, acceptance by others and family role behaviour. In each case the redundant workers manifested the greater personal distress. Although there were no significant differences between the male and female unemployed, unemployment was experienced differently by each sex. Previous writers have suggested a stage theory of unemployment which is characterized by four principal stages: anticipation—optimism—pessimism—fatalism. The results of this study failed to confirm a stage model of unemployment.     

Personal relationships in late modernity

This article is concerned with the significance of personal relationships in contemporary social life, principally drawing on recent British research. After reviewing traditional sociological theories concerning the impact of economic transformations on family and community ties, the author examines the character of couple and family commitment in the context of the radical demographic changes that have been occurring, particularly in patterns of family formation and dissolution. Relating these changes to theories of “late modernity,” the author assesses their implications for the relevance of personal relationships in general, and friendship in particular, in contemporary social formations. The author's argument is that far from becoming socially marginal as dominant theories generally imply, personal relationships are likely to become increasingly significant as social life becomes more fragmented and less predictable.