The Illusion of Transparency: Assessment of Sex Differences in Showing and Hiding Disgust

The illusion of transparency occurs when one overestimates the ability of others to discern one's internal states, including emotions. Two experiments demonstrated this illusion using the emotion of disgust. Male and female tasters were given drinks, including one that was very unpleasant tasting. Tasters either displayed spontaneous facial expressions (Experiment 1) or tried to conceal their expressions (Experiment 2). Male and female observers rated tasters' expressions and tried to identify the disgusting drink based on the tasters' facial expressions. Results demonstrated the illusion of transparency (e.g., tasters overestimated the percentage of observers who correctly identified the disgusting drink) and suggested that the illusion was partly attributable to the inability of people to set aside their own knowledge when considering the perception of others who do not share this knowledge. Females were less successful than males at hiding their disgust but there was no sex difference in the susceptibility to the illusion.     

Causal attribution and punishment for crime

This paper analyzes survey respondent's perceptions of the causes and prescribed punishment for crimes described in 25 vignettes. Respondents’ sociodemographic characteristics, chiefly race, affect the perceived cause, whether personal or environmental. Perceived cause in turn affects severity of punishment, with heavier punishment for crimes attributed to personal traits.     

Application of the Theory of Signal Detectability to Kinesthetic Discrimination Tasks

The psychophysical methods of the theory of signal detectability were applied to the measurement of kinesthetic recognition sensitivity. Subjects (n = 12) were tested on a kinesthetic discrimination apparatus, and were randomly assigned to one of four treatment conditions. Each subject operated under five response criteria which were imposed through a priori probabilities of high and low kinesthetic stimuli. The fundamental assumptions of the theory of signal detectability were tested and the basic premises of normality and equality of variance observed in most cases. A subproblem investigated the relationship between kinesthetic recognition sensitivity and the two independent variables of direction and extent of forearm movement, but no relationship was observed. This study was conducted at Kansas State University under the direction of Richard H. Cox with technical assistance from Harold L. Hawkins. The study was funded by a Faculty Research Grant awarded by Kansas State University.     

Measuring Virtues in Marital Education Programs and Marital Therapy

Traditional marriage evaluations typically focus on marital satisfaction and communication. However, other indicators of marital quality can be used to assess interactions within relationships. The current paper presents an evaluation of the Marital Virtues Profile (MVP), a brief and easy to understand assessment designed to measure virtues in marital relationships. Exploratory factor analysis was used to examine the hypothesized structure of the MVP and confirmatory factor analysis was used to explore its specific measurement properties. Results indicate that the 15 item MVP is an efficient and reliable measure of both specific marital virtues and an overall marital virtue. Limitations of the current study and applications of the MVP to marital education programs and therapeutic settings are discussed.     

Using Multilevel Mixtures to Evaluate Intervention Effects in Group Randomized Trials

There is evidence to suggest that the effects of behavioral interventions may be limited to specific types of individuals, but methods for evaluating such outcomes have not been fully developed. This study proposes the use of finite mixture models to evaluate whether interventions, and, specifically, group randomized trials, impact participants with certain characteristics or levels of problem behaviors. This study uses latent classes defined by clustering of individuals based on the targeted behaviors and illustrates the model by testing whether a preventive intervention aimed at reducing problem behaviors affects experimental users of illicit substances differently than problematic substance users or those individuals engaged in more serious problem behaviors. An illustrative example is used to demonstrate the identification of latent classes, specification of random effects in a multilevel mixture model, independent validation of latent classes, and the estimation of power for the proposed models to detect intervention effects. This study proposes specific steps for the estimation of multilevel mixture models and their power and suggests that this model can be applied more broadly to understand the effectiveness of interventions.     

Stereotype distinctiveness: how counterstereotypic behavior shapes the self-concept

Three experiments examined the relationship between distinctiveness and self-schematicity. Experiment 1 revealed that people were more likely to be self-schematic in domains of strong performance when they felt distinct from family and peers in those domains. Experiments 2 and 3 extended this finding into the arena of stereotypes by demonstrating that people were more likely to be self-schematic in domains of strong performance when their performance was counterstereotypic rather than stereotypic. In particular, African Americans and women were more likely to be schematic for intelligence than Caucasians and men if they performed well academically, whereas Caucasians-especially men-were more likely than African Americans to be schematic for athletics if they performed well athletically. These results suggest that counterstereotypic behavior plays a uniquely powerful role in the development of the self-concept.     

Aging, exercise, and attention.

The authors investigated the relationship among aging, attentional processes, and exercise in 2 experiments. First they examined age differences on 2 attentional tasks, a time-sharing task and an attentional flexibility task. Young adults alternated attention between 2 sequenced tasks more rapidly and time-shared the processing of 2 tasks more efficiently than older adults. They then investigated the effects of aerobic exercise on the same 2 attentional tasks in older adults. Following the 10-week exercise program, older exercisers showed substantially more improvement in alternation speed and time-sharing efficiency than older controls. Interestingly, this exercise effect was specific to dual-task processing. Both groups of subjects showed equivalent effects on single-task performance. These results indicate that aerobic exercise can exert a beneficial influence on the efficiency of at least 2 different attentional processes in older adults.     

IS SOCIAL VALIDITY WHAT WE ARE INTERESTED IN? ARGUMENT FOR A FUNCTIONAL APPROACH

It is argued that neither the term social nor the term validity is best to identify the processes used or the results obtained in questioning consumers about the goals set, procedures employed, or outcomes achieved in habilitative programming. The term consumer satisfaction acknowledges the fact that it is essentially a collection of consumer opinions. The underlying intent of the process might be called habilitative validation, a name that seems to better guide our validation efforts. More important, in carefully considering consumer satisfaction assessment, it becomes clear that not only does consumer satisfaction itself need to be validated, but also that more objective methods can be used for assessing habilitative validity. However, legitimate uses still remain for consumer satisfaction measurement, as long as we do not mistake it for strong evidence of the habilitative validity of our goals, procedures, or outcomes.     

Decision support systems effectiveness: Conceptual framework and empirical evaluation

Decision Support Systems (DSS) are designed to help human beings in solving problems more efficiently or making better decisions. While an increasing number of DSS have been and are developed, the effectiveness of such systems has not yet been demonstrated. This study proposes a conceptual framework for measuring the effectiveness of DSS and reports the results of a before-and-after study designed to compare two experimental groups of problem solvers assisted by one of two technologies for conflict resolution with a control group without any technology. The two technologies that are examined in this paper consist of a computerized DSS for conflict resolution, Resolve(!), and a videotape on conflict resolution, Video. Various measures of the problem solving episode were recorded, including both process and outcome measures. Overall, the groups with access to the technologies perceived a significantly better resolution of the problem they addressed than their control group counterpart. The two technologies differed essentially on two out of 11 variabales: subjects assigned to the computerized DSS technology generated more alternative solutions to the problem they tried to solve and reported a higher perceived progress in the resolution of the problem, than did subjects who were assigned to the videotape technology.