Self-Favoring Biases, Self-Presentation, and the Self-Other Asymmetry in Social Comparison

ABSTRACT The relationship between self-favoring biases in social comparison, favorable self-presentation, and well-being and the self-other asymmetry effect was examined. Participants gave comparative chance estimations and trait ratings for positive and negative future events and traits. One-half of the participants compared themselves to the average other, while the remainder compared the average other to themselves. All participants completed measurements of two types of desirable responding (self-deception and impression management) and of subjective well-being. Participants who compared themselves to another showed stronger unrealistic optimism and illusory superiority effects for positive (but not for negative) future events und traits than participants comparing another to themselves, demonstrating a self-other asymmetry effect. Unrealistic optimism and illusory superiority concerning positive attributes were related to self-deception, while unrealistic optimism and illusory superiority concerning negative attributes were related to impression management. The relative independence of “positive” and “negative” self-favoring biases was further demonstrated by their differential relationship with self-esteem and subjective well-being.     

Providing grade one students with multiple spelling strategies: Comparisons between strategy instruction,strategy instruction with metacognitive information,and traditional language arts

The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether providing first-grade students with multiple strategy instruction plus metacognitive information would improve their spelling performances relative to providing them with strategy instruction or traditional language arts activities alone. Students in the strategy conditions received explicit instruction in the use of phonetics, imagery, and analogy. Students in the strategy condition with metacognitive information were also provided with information about when and where to use each spelling strategy. The remaining students completed traditional language arts activities. Students' spelling performances were assessed prior to, immediately after and 14 days after instruction using a dictation test, the Developmental Spelling Test, and a writing sample. For the dictation test, students who received multiple strategy instruction with metacognitive information out-performed those who received strategy instruction alone or completed language arts activities, with no differences between students' performances in the latter conditions. All students' performances improved on the Developmental Spelling Test and writing samples as a function of time. The authors concluded that even young students are able to acquire a repertoire of effective spelling strategies if they are provided with explicit instruction that includes metacognitive information.     

A retest method of studying partial knowledge and other factors influencing item response

A method of studying the problem of correction for guessing and other problems associated with behavior in the test situation is described and an illustrative example presented. As far as the writers are aware this method of approach is novel but, at the same time, it covers many of the practical and theoretical points raised by other writers as reviewed in the introduction.The authors wish to acknowledge help received during discussions with Dr. Frederic M. Lord and Professor S. S. Wilks.The death of Mrs. Vera T. Brownless on May 16, 1957, is regretfully announced.     

Brief Counseling With Hispanic American College Students

Sixteen Hispanic American college students met with a Puerto Rican counselor for 2 brief counseling sessions. Brief counseling was a viable and effective approach in helping the students reach their goals. Types of student concerns about and student perceptions of brief counseling were also examined.     

Priming of pop-out: II. The role of position

In an earlier paper (Maljkovic & Nakayama, 1994) we showed that repetition of an attention-driving feature primes the deployment of attention to the same feature on subsequent trials. Here we show that repetition of the targetposition also primes subsequent trials. Position priming shows a characteristic spatial pattern. Facilitation occurs when the target position is repeated on subsequent trials, and inhibition occurs when the target falls on a position previously occupied by a distractor. Facilitation and inhibition also exist, though somewhat diminished, for positions adjacent to those of the target and distractors. Assessing the effect of a single trial over time, we show that the characteristic memory trace exerts its strongest influence on immediately following trials and decays gradually over the succeeding, approximately five to eight, trials. Throughout this period, target-position facilitation is always stronger than distractor-position inhibition. The characteristics of position priming are also seen under conditions in which the attention-driving feature either stays the same or differs from the previous trial, suggesting that feature and position priming operate independently. In a separate experiment, using the fact that position priming is cumulative over trials, we show that position priming is largely object- or landmark-centered.     

Using behavior contracts to improve behavior of children and adolescents in multiple settings

Research has shown that behavior contracts, a form of contingency management, can promote a wide range of behavior changes for individuals in varied populations; however, relatively few studies have been conducted in nonacademic settings. In the context of two service projects, we evaluated the extent to which behavior contracts improved problem behavior for 11 children and adolescents in residential treatment facilities and foster homes using nonconcurrent multiple baseline across participants’ designs with three or more tiers and supplemental statistical analysis for each tier. Practitioners in each setting implemented individualized behavior contracts for 5 to 59 weeks. Results show that behavior improved substantially for six participants but was relatively unchanged for the other five participants. We discuss the limitations of this clinically driven study, as well as clinical implications of our mixed findings.     

Wenn ja,wie lange? – Dauer antiandrogener Behandlung von Sexualstraftätern mit paraphilen Störungen

Background

Since 2010 a total of 15 individually justified, therapeutically accompanied treatment-free intervals from antiandrogenic treatment (ADT) have been carried out in the Forensic Therapeutic Outpatient (FTA) department in Berlin.

Material and methods

This article describes the conditions under which a responsible and legally justifiable cessation of ADT can be carried out.

Results

In all 15 of the investigated stable, forensically rehabilitated patients who had been on long-term psychotherapeutic treatment, no criminally prognostic or clinically relevant destabilization has so far occurred, which would have necessitated cessation of the treatment-free interval with resumption of the antiandrogenic depot medication.

Conclusion

The short-term experiences from the clinical aftercare practice have so far shown that in a strictly structered aftercare setting with continuous clinical monitoring, it is possible to withdraw even long-standing antiandrogenic medication. This is important not least to attest the argumentation for a removal of supervision of conduct in case destabilization does occur. Further long-term longitudinal investigations will be the subject of later publications.

     

Rats take correct novel routes and shortcuts in an enclosed maze

In 3 experiments, rats were allowed to travel selected routes along the internal alleys of a cross-maze that led from one distinctive end box to another. The maze and procedures used were designed to control the rats' ability to use intrinsic and extrinsic cues to their location in the maze; thus, only the internal geometry of the maze could be learned and used to travel between one end box and another. After an initial exploration phase, rats were given novel routes and shortcut tests that involved peripheral alleys not before traveled. Rats chose the correct novel path or shortcut significantly above chance on some tests in Experiments 1 and 2 and significantly better than a control group in Experiment 3. The findings suggest that rats were able to compute novel routes and shortcuts within the maze on the basis of limited experience with the internal geometry of the maze.