Relationship between religion-related factors and obsessive compulsive disorder

This exploratory study sought to determine whether selected religion-related factors differentiated between 86 patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), 73 patients with panic disorder, and 292 patients with other psychiatric (non-anxiety) disorders. A standard history questionnaire was used to obtain information from patients concerning religion of origin, involvement in religious activities, religious conflict, and perceived religiousness of parents. It was found that the percentage of patients who reported experiencing religious conflict was significantly higher for the OCD group than for the other two groups. Other findings suggested associations between Catholicism and OCD and between Protestantism and panic disorder, but further research is needed to clarify these relationships. This article is based on a paper presented at the 98th annual convention of the American Psychological Association, Boston, August 1990.     

Effects of cocaine and alcohol, alone and in combination, on human learning and performance.

The acute effects of cocaine hydrochloride (4 to 96 mg/70 kg) and alcohol (0 to 1.0 g/kg), administered alone and in combination, were assessed in two experiments with human volunteers responding under a multiple schedule of repeated acquisition and performance of response chains. Subjects were intermittent users of cocaine and regular drinkers who were not cocaine or alcohol dependent. Alcohol was mixed with orange juice and ingested in six drinks within 30 min; cocaine was administered intranasally 45 min after completion of drinking. In each component of the multiple schedule, subjects completed response sequences using three keys of a numeric keypad. In the acquisition component, a new sequence was learned each session. In the performance component, the response sequence always remained the same. Results were consistent in both experiments, despite variations in the order in which the drugs were tested alone and in combination. Alcohol administered alone increased overall percentage of errors and decreased rates of responding in the acquisition component, whereas responding in the performance component generally was unaffected. Cocaine administered alone decreased rates of responding but did not affect accuracy of responding in the acquisition component, and enhanced accuracy of responding without affecting rates of responding in the performance component. The combined doses of cocaine and alcohol attenuated the effects observed with alcohol and cocaine alone. These results suggest that, under the conditions investigated in this study, (a) alcohol produces greater behavioral disruption than cocaine or cocaine-alcohol combinations, (b) cocaine and alcohol each attenuate effects of the other, and (c) such attenuation is most pronounced for cocaine attenuating the disruptive effects of alcohol.     

On the psychology of time in action: regulatory mode orientations and procrastination

Six studies explored the relations of the regulatory modes of locomotion and assessment to individuals' tendency toward procrastination. Across academic and organizational contexts, and a variety of ways of assessing procrastination, the authors found assessment to be positively related to procrastination and locomotion to be negatively related to procrastination. Discussion considered implications of these findings to task environments that may instill the tendencies toward locomotion or assessment and to task requirements where timeliness and punctuality are (or are not) prioritized.     

Engaging the consumer: The science and art of the value creation process

Regulatory engagement theory [Higgins, E. T. (2006). Value from hedonic experience and engagement. Psychological Review, 113, 439–460.] proposes that value is a motivational force of attraction to or repulsion from something, and that strength of engagement contributes to value intensity independent of hedonic and other sources of value direction. This paper reviews different sources of engagement strength, including dealing with challenges by opposing interfering forces and overcoming personal resistance, preparing for something that is likely to happen, and using “fit” or “proper” means of goal pursuit. We present evidence that each of these sources of engagement strength can intensify the value of something, and we show how stronger engagement can not only make something positive more positive but also make something negative more negative. We also discuss how these effects of stronger engagement on the value of something else are independent of actors' own personal experiences during goal pursuit. We then broaden regulatory engagement theory by describing the nature of these personal experiences from different sources of engagement strength—distinct positive experiences (e.g., feeling “pleasure” vs. feeling “right”) and distinct negative experiences (e.g., feeling “tension” vs. feeling “defiance”)—and consider the science and art of combining them with engagement strength for maximal persuasion and influence.     

Attitudes to Marriage and Sexual Behaviors: A Survey of Gender and Culture Differences in China and United Kingdom

This paper reports a survey carried out among 505 university students in China and 338 students in the United Kingdom. The survey included questions on attitudes toward mate-selection preferences, marriage, and sexual behavior. The findings show that traditional values in mate-selection preferences persist more in China than in the United Kingdom and indicate that, despite a profound social revolution over the last two decades, a relatively conservative sexual culture still exists in China today. Traditional morality and attitudes prevail especially among women. Gender and culture differences are discussed.     

A Study of the Impact of Factor Importance Weightings on Job Satisfaction Measures

This study empirically tests Locke's theory that the importance of a job satisfaction factor to an individual is already reflected in the individual's responses to the specific questions, Responses from a job satisfaction survey carried out by a large Canadian company were analyzed using a second generation causal modeling technique, Partial Least Squares. The results supported Locke's theory in that weighting the responses with the individual's importance factors did not improve the variance explained in the job satisfaction model. Further analysis indicated that there were differences between groups with high job satisfaction and groups with low satisfaction, differences in job satisfaction for different levels of service length, and that the differences in job satisfaction across gender were not large.     

Mapping the color space of saccadic selectivity in visual search

Color coding is used to guide attention in computer displays for such critical tasks as baggage screening or air traffic control. It has been shown that a display object attracts more attention if its color is more similar to the color for which one is searching. However, what does similar precisely mean? Can we predict the amount of attention that a display color will receive during a search for a given target color? To tackle this question, two color‐search experiments measuring the selectivity of saccadic eye movements and mapping out its underlying color space were conducted. A variety of mathematical models, predicting saccadic selectivity for given target and display colors, were devised and evaluated. The results suggest that applying a Gaussian function to a weighted Euclidean distance in a slightly modified HSI color space is the best predictor of saccadic selectivity in the chosen paradigm. Hue and intensity information by itself provides a basis for useful predictors, spanning a possibly spherical color space of saccadic selectivity. Although the current models cannot predict saccadic selectivity values for a wide variety of visual search tasks, they reveal some characteristics of color search that are of both theoretical and applied interest, such as for the design of human–computer interfaces.     

The effect of applicant influence tactics on recruiter perceptions of fit and hiring recommendations: a field study

The present study examined the effect of applicant influence-tactic use on recruiter perceptions of fit. Two tactics, ingratiation and self-promotion, were expected to have positive effects on recruiter perceptions of fit and on recruiter hiring recommendations. In addition, the authors expected recruiter fit perceptions to mediate the relationship between applicant influence tactics and recruiter hiring recommendations. Results suggested that ingratiation had a positive effect on perceived fit and recruiter hiring recommendations (and indirectly, on receipt of a job offer). In addition, perceived fit mediated the relationship between ingratiation and hiring recommendations. The effects of self-promotion on fit and hiring recommendations were generally weak and nonsignificant. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.