A comparison of alternative theoretical approaches to smoking cessation and relapse

Two theoretical approaches to smoking cessation were compared. Participants were randomly assigned either to (a) a traditional treatment program that used contingency contracting and that emphasized the necessity for absolute abstinence (AA) or to (b) a relapse-prevention (RP) treatment that focused on gradual acquisition of nonsmoking skills. It was hypothesized that participants in the RP treatment would be less successful initially but would have better maintenance skills and thus would relapse less during a 1-year follow-up period. Each program was evaluated in two formats: group-based treatment and self-help materials. Results indicated comparable 1-year abstinence rates for all treatments, although more participants dropped out of the self-help formats. Participants in the RP intervention were more likely to lapse sooner after quitting and were more likely to quit again during the 1-year maintenance period. Exploratory analyses of successful participants suggested that women were more successful in the RP program and that men had greater success with the AA approach.     

Aggregate item response analysis

A stochastic postulate is given for the multiple-item, successive-intervals scaling of populations. The logistic equivalent of this postulate provides an aggregate item response model in which a unidimensional submodel may be nested. This reduction provides a subtractive conjoint measurement of several items and stimuli on the same latent scale. Generalized-least-squares methods are used to estimate and test the multiple-item model, and its unidimensional reduction, on aggregate survey responses. The entire procedure is illustrated with an analysis of semantic-differential attitude data. This analysis exhibits an item selection procedure that is applicable to various social constructs.The authors dedicate this paper to the memory and contributions of Clyde Coombs.The programming and data analyses for the present paper were carried out by José Ventura of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, and Jerry Meiten of the Department of Statistics, University of Florida.The study was also supported by the College of Business Administration, University of Florida, and the Faculty of Social Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.     

Effects of observing competitive and violent versions of a sport

Males were randomly assigned to view either (1) a film clip featuring hockey fights or (2) a film of nonaggressive hockey action or (3) a no-film control condition after having first been angered or treated politely by an experimental confederate. The dependent variable was represented by a measure of aggressive mood and a behavioral measure of retaliatory aggression. Analyses revealed that both angered and nonangered subjects exhibited an increase in aggressive mood following exposure to the fight film. However, the analysis involving retaliatory aggression against the confederate yielded an anger x film interaction. While angered subjects were more aggressive than nonangered, only angered subjects retaliated against the confederate after viewing the fight film. The results were discussed in terms of Berkowitz’s (1974) aggressive cue theory. A version of this paper was presented at the meeting of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport, Edmonton, Canada, November 1987.     

Ratings of Orally Presented Verbal Expressions of Probability by a Heterogeneous Sample

Verbal expressions of probability are used in daily conversations, physician-physician and physician-patient communications, and questionnaire and interview responses. To assess the degree of agreement among English-speaking Australian adults in allocating numerical probabilities to these verbal expressions of probability, 966 interviewees provided estimates for 60 isolated expressions of probability and a sequence of seven items placed in a sequence. Means and median scores appeared to be consistent with common sense and with findings from other countries. Mirror-imaged terms were neither symmetrical nor equidistant, with the means and medians for the positive terms being closer to the mid-points of the scale than the means and medians of the negative terms. Items in a sequence of probability terms showed greater symmetry and less variability than isolated expressions. For most items, there was an unacceptably high level of within-subject and between-subject variability. Although subjects with higher levels of education and/ or mathematics education showed less variability, these factors accounted for very little of the variance. The greater variability in Australian results relative to those reported elsewhere was partly attributed to the use of interviews rather than questionnaires. There were no particular stems that yielded greater consistency. It was concluded that the use of these expressions leads to very imprecise communication.     

Developmental amnesia

The concept of developmental amnesia is proposed to describe the impairment of normal memories during a person's school age life. One hundred psychotherapy patients were interviewed and the age of earliest memories ranged from 1–12 years, with a mode of 5 years. Memory was continuous for 53% of patients by 1st grade, while 18% reported life memory was still episodic at age 18 or later. Parental alcohol problems were associated with delay of continuous memories.     

Jungian psychology and pastoral care

This article provides a review of the implications of analytic psychology for pastoral care and the caregiver. Four areas of Jung's thought are examined: (1) his mode of treatment, (2) the process of individuation, (3) his theory of personality types, and (4) his concept of synchronicity. We suggest that Jung's system of thought contains a rich reservoir of insight for the enrichment of pastoral care.     

The Effects of Decision Outcome Dispersion Upon Organizational Decision Making

The effects of varying decision outcome dispersion on organizational decision making were investigated under individual and group decision making conditions. Thirty-six female and pg]36 male subjects made decisions for organizational decision scenarios in which outcomes affected primarily the decision maker, people other than the decision maker, or a group of which the decision maker was a member. Subjects rated their levels of perceived risk and confidence in their decisions and made decisions within a simulated context of either a small or a large organization. Results indicated that subjects perceived significantly less risk and more confidence in their decisions when outcomes affected primarily themselves rather than others regardless of whether the decisions were made individually or by a group. Males perceived their decisions as significantly more risky than females. Induced organizational size did not significantly influence decision making.

     

Work,leisure, and psychological well-being in a sample of young adults

This study of 20 ‘white-collar’ workers aged 20–30 measured motivation, enjoyment and access to various categories of experience in both work and leisure, and examined their relationship with psychological well-being on a number of dimensions. The method used a short questionnaire, psychological scales and the innovatory ‘experience sampling methodology’ (ESM) where respondents answer questions in a diary on the receipt of a signal from a pre-programmed watch or radio pager eight times a day for 1 week. The results show, in line with other studies, that intrinsic motivation in daily life is correlated with happiness but that, not previously reported, when motivation at work is examined both extrinsic motivation and instances where a person had to do the activity but did not wish to be doing something else, i.e. ‘positive motivational change’, are correlated with positive aspects of psychological well-being, while instances where a person wanted to do the activity but wished to be doing something else, i.e. ‘negative motivational change’, correlated with negative aspects. The results also show that enjoyment in both work and leisure correlates with aspects of psychological wellbeing; and that macro ‘flow’ experiences, where high skills and high challenges are perceived as equal, are enjoyable and interesting and come primarily from work. The study also shows that categories of experience considered important for psychological well-being and deemed to come primarily from work can be obtained in leisure. The results are discussed in the context of person—situation interactions and processes, and it is advocated that these should be studied in a variety of samples.     

Apparent motion: evidence of the influence of shape, slant, and size on the correspondence process

Four stimulus elements configured as a notional diamond were flashed in pairs to elicit apparent motion. When the elements were identical (4 Zs), the direction of apparent motion was ambiguous. When the elements were pairs of different letters (Cs and Os, Es and Zs), letters of different sizes (Zs and zs), or oppositely oblique lines, the direction of apparent motion tended to be between identical elements. This was true, however, only for an initial, brief observation period. Subsequently, the direction of apparent motion tended to be determined by the direction of motion perceived at first, regardless of the character of the elements. This quickly established directional set (within 10 sec) largely swamped any tendency to resolve correspondence in terms of a feature of the stimulus. It appears to be based on spatial rather than retinal or egocentric coordinates.     

Obstacle perception by congenitally blind children

The ability to perceive objects from a distance and navigate without vision depends principally on auditory information. Two experiments were conducted in order to assess this ability in congenitally blind children aged 4 to 12 years who had negligible amounts of visual experience or formal mobility training. In Experiment 1, children walked along a sidewalk toward a target location to get some candy. A box was placed along the path on some trials, and the children were instructed to avoid the box if it was present. The children spent more time in the region just in front of the box than in the region just behind it, indicating that they perceived the box and acted so as to navigate around it. In Experiment 2, children attempted to discriminate whether a nearby disk was on their left or on their right. The children performed at above-chance levels, again indicating distal perception of objects. The results of both experiments suggest that blind children with little or no visual experience or formal training utilize nonvisual information, presumably auditory, to perceive objects. The specific nature of this auditory information requires further investigation, but these findings imply that the underlying perceptual ability does not require experience in spatial vision or deliberate training and intervention.