An examination of the construct validity of the Social Anhedonia Scale

Two studies bearing on the construct validity of the Social Anhedonia Scale (SA) are reported. Study 1 reported convergent validity coefficients between the SA scale and numerous measures of traits reflecting a generalized attitude toward others (e.g., social interest and empathy) as well as several traits reflecting maladjustment without a social component as a test of discriminant validity (e.g., pessimism and rigidity). Study 1 found impressive convergent validity for the SA scale and mixed discriminant validity. Study 2 found that the SA scale was related to two dimensions of striving for security, one of which is strongly influenced by negative interpersonal tendencies, suggesting support for the validity of the SA scale. Implications for the measurement and concept of social anhedonia are presented.     

The perceived causal structure of loneliness

Two studies examined the way people represent the causes of loneliness as a semantic space and as a causal network. In a multidimensional scaling task, the results of Michela, Peplau, and Weeks (1982) were replicated and the causes wee classified according to locus and stability. In a 2nd study, 44 people judged the likelihood that these causes were interconnected. From these data, a causal network or perceived causal structure (Kelley, 1983) was derived by means of network analysis. The structure revealed a complex lay theory of loneliness in which personality influenced group behavior, which in turn influenced psychological states and beliefs. States and beliefs were also affected by physical features and situational factors.     

Cross-channel effects of vocal and physical attractiveness and their implications for interpersonal perception

Judges' ratings of senders' vocal attractiveness from face-plus-voice (F+V) cues were influenced by senders' physical attractiveness, and ratings of senders' physical attractiveness from F+V cues were influenced by senders' vocal attractiveness. This occurred even when judges were warned not to pay attention to face when rating vocal attractiveness and not to pay attention to voice when rating physical attractiveness. Instructions to judge attractiveness without being told which channel to attend to resulted in ratings influenced by both vocal and physical attractiveness of senders. Because of cross-channel effects, F+V attractiveness ratings should be more highly related to F+V personality impressions than attractiveness ratings based on only face or only voice. The results supported this hypothesis. Implications of cross-channel effects for research on the attractiveness stereotype were discussed.     

Courtesy stigma: the social implications of associating with a gay person

We investigated the operation of courtesy stigma with American male college students who reacted to a fictitious male student described as gay, rooming by choice with a gay male student, involuntarily assigned to room with a gay, or rooming with a male heterosexual. Among respondents who expressed strong intolerance of gays, the voluntary associate of a gay was perceived as having homosexual tendencies and as possessing the same stereotyped personality traits attributed to a gay. No such courtesy stigma was attached to the involuntary associate of a gay by these respondents. Relatively tolerant respondents engaged in no courtesy stigmatization at all. Thus, courtesy stigmatization occurred only under circumscribed conditions and appeared to depend more on the tendency of highly intolerant individuals to infer that a male student who apparently liked a gay individual was himself gay than on a motivation to maintain cognitive consistency.     

Stimulus control of Pavlovian facilitation

Two experiments were conducted using an autoshaping procedure with pigeons to examine whether dimensional stimulus control by a Pavlovian facilitator parallels the control established following operant discrimination training. Facilitation training consisted of the presentation of a black vertical line on a white background as the B stimulus in a feature-positive discrimination in which the A stimulus (white keylight) was followed by grain presentation only if preceded by B. In this way, B facilitates or sets the occasion for pecking at A. Subsequent testing for generalization along the line-orientation dimension produced decremental gradients when the facilitation paradigm incorporated an explicit feature-negative stimulus (B−). These results parallel the decremental control obtained following operant discrimination training and suggest that Pavlovian facilitators and instrumental discriminative stimuli are functionally equivalent.     

Behavioral economics of drug self-administration. II. A unit-price analysis of cigarette smoking.

In behavioral economics, the ratio of response requirement to reinforcer magnitude is referred to as unit price. Previous research with nonhuman subjects has demonstrated that (a) comparable amounts of food are consumed at the same unit price even though different response requirements and reinforcer magnitudes comprise that unit price and (b) increases in unit price decrease food consumption in a positively decelerating fashion. The present study assessed the generality of these findings to the cigarette smoking of 5 human volunteers. During approximately 18 3-hr sessions, various combinations of response requirement (fixed-ratio 200, 400, and 1,600) and reinforcer magnitude (1, 2, and 4 puffs per bout) were arranged. Consumption (i.e., the number of puffs) generally was comparable at the same unit price independent of the response requirement and reinforcer magnitude comprising that unit price. In addition, increasing unit price generally decreased consumption in a positively decelerating fashion. These results extend the generality of the unit-price analysis to human cigarette smoking. Moreover, these results further support the position that reinforcer magnitude and response requirement are functionally equivalent and interact to determine consumption. The concept of unit price, by integrating and summarizing the effects of those two operations, provides a more parsimonious explanation of the results than do separate evaluations of the effects of response requirement and reinforcer magnitude.     

The Stroop congruency effect is more observable under a speed strategy than an accuracy strategy

Naming the ink color of an incongruent color word (e.g., RED printed in green) usually takes longer than naming the ink color of a color bar. However, when the ink matches the word (e.g., RED printed in red), naming tends to be faster. These phenomena are known as the STroop interference effect and the Stroop congruency effect, respectively. Although the interference effect has been robust and reliable across studies, the congruency effect tends to be elusive. It was hypothesized that this variation in outcomes might be related to subjects' response strategy. The experiment conducted to test this hypothesis induced either a speed or an accuracy strategy in two separate groups of subjects. Significant interference effects were found for both groups and the magnitudes did not differ. At the same time, the congruency effect was observed in the speed group but not in the accuracy group. These results suggest that researchers who wish to observe and study the Stroop congruency and interference effects should place special emphasis on speed. Implications of the study for a model of the Stroop effect are also discussed.     

Formant frequency characteristics of children, young adult, and aged female speakers

Previous literature indicates that a difference may exist between formant frequencies (F1 and F2) of children, young adult, and elderly speakers. The purpose of this study was to compare F1 and F2 of 3 young, 6 young adult, and 3 elderly female speakers for the /i/, /ae/, /u/, and /a/ vowels. Analysis indicates a trend towards vowel reduction across the life span. These findings support previous research regarding age-associated acoustic changes as well as support for the possible anatomical and physiological alterations which may influence such changes.