Relationships between eating disorder characteristics and love and sex attitudes

The current study explored theories proposing relationship difficulties in women with eating disorder characteristics. Results for the sample of 232 women (82% White-non-Hispanic, 12% White-Hispanic, 4% Black, 2% Oriental and other) indicated that eating disorder characteristics were most consistently positively related to a possessive and game-playing approach to love, and most consistently negatively related to a passionate and companionate love approach. In addition, eating disorder characteristics were positively related to casual and instrumental sexual attitudes, and negatively related to idealistic sexual attitudes. Women who were more endorsing of eating disorders were also lower in sexual self-esteem. Women who were dissatisfied with themselves physically, differed from satisfied women on several measures. Interpersonal features appear to be related to eating disorder characteristics in various ways.     

How do children form impressions of persons? They average

The experiment reported was concerned with impression formation in children. Twelve subjects in each of Grades K, 2, 4, and 6 rated several sets of single trait words and trait pairs. The response scale consisted of a graded series of seven schematic faces which ranged from a deep frown to a happy smile. A basic question was whether children use an orderly integration rule in forming impressions of trait pairs. The answer was clear. At all grade levels a simple averaging model adequately accounted for pair ratings. A second question concerned how children resolve semantic inconsistencies. Responses to two highly inconsistent trait pairs suggested that subjects responded in the same fashion, essentially averaging the two traits in a pair. Overall, the data strongly supported an averaging model, and indicated that impression formation of children is similar to previous results obtained from adults.     

Attention decrement,temporal variation,and the primacy effect in impression formation

Three experiments which tested the attention decrement explanation of the primacy effect in impression formation are reported. A memory-crowding interpretation of attention decrement would predict a decrease in primacy as the interval between traits is increased. Mild support was obtained in Experiment I but not in II or III. Overall. the magnitude of the primacy effect was independent of intertrait temporal variation. Decrement in attention is the most attractive theoretical explanation for the commonly obtained primacy effect. However, the results of the present series of studies suggest that this explanation is not tenable and that other theoretical mechanisms will be required to account for primacy effects.     

Salience of similarity awareness and attraction: A comparison of balance vs reinforcement predictions

Reinforcement and balance theory are both viable explanatory contenders for attraction processes. Differential predictions were derived and tested. Ss rated their attraction toward five strangers who were .00, .25, .50, .75, or 1.00 similax in attitudes. Half of the Ss rated perceived similarity to the strangers prior to making the attraction ratings (similarity]then liking condition) and the other half rated attraction prior to similarity ratings (liking/then similarity condition). Balance theory would predict an interaction between order of rating conditions and proportion of similar attitudes in determining attraction. Results showed that the only significant effect was due to proportion of similar attitudes. Factor analyses of the rating data showed that attraction and similarity ratings loaded on different factors. This result indicates that perceived similarity does not necessarily mediate attraction. Trend analyses suggested that the reverse may hold to some extent; perception of attraction may partially determine perceived similarity. This result suggests that a restricted balance model may be viable. However, the preponderance of the evidence supported reinforcement theory.     

Effect of Musical Accompaniment on Attitude: The Guitar as a Prop for Persuasion

This study examined the effects on attitude, mood, and recall of embedding a communication in different musical art forms. Subjects listened to four folk songs, each of which either had or did not have guitar accompaniment, and which were either sung or dramatically spoken. Results indicated greater positive emotional arousal and greater persuasion with the presence of guitar accompaniment. The sung-spoken variation had few effects. The results were interpreted as supporting a conclusion of Dabbs and Janis (1965) that a pleasant activity such as eating creates a momentary mood of compliance toward a communication's recommendations. The present study generalized Dabbs and Janis' conclusion to a stimulus situation involving instrumental music. An alternative interpretation that the music inhibited counterargument production was discussed and rejected. The implications of the study for a more general arousal-persuasion model were noted.     

Language comprehension and probe-list memory

Experiments were performed using probe-word recognition methodology in which participants read sentences that were presented 1 word at a time and were then shown a probe word and had to make a speeded response indicating whether the word had occurred in the sentence. One experiment showed that response times to probe words increased with the size of the set of candidate probes. The other experiments showed that the effects caused by name repetition in circumstances in which the repeated name was co-referential also occurred when the repeated name was not co-referential and when the order of words in a sentence was scrambled. The results suggest that responses in the task can be based on probe-list memory, a mental representation created to keep track of those words that the participant believes are likely to be probed, and that the use of the task to make inferences about language comprehension should be accompanied by controls ruling out such strategies.