Causal attributions as a function of locus of control, initial confidence, and performance outcomes.

Causal attributions and body movements indicative of tension were recorded while subjects completed an anagrams task that was more extensive than most similar tasks used in attribution studies. Nine trials each containing 10 anagrams were presented such that most subjects succeeded on three sets of relatively simple anagrams, failed on three sets of difficult anagrams, and either succeeded or failed on three sets of intermediately difficult anagrams. Attributions and body movements were predicted by a combination of locus of control, initial confidence, and type of outcome. High-confident internals attributed responsibility for outcomes to themselves more than did low-confident externals, and this difference was most prominent when subjects failed. Tension-indicating body movements were also less common among the former than the latter subjects and were in greater evidence with failure than with success. The data indicate that there is consistency between locus of control and causal attributions obtained during performances. The data also correspond to the findings on helplessness in which aversive agents prove to be more deleterious when individuals perceive themselves as unable to alter their negative circumstances.     

Influence of Sex and Dress on Cooperation: An Instance of "Person" Chauvinism

Male and female experimenters, of college age, who were neatly or sloppily dressed, asked male and female students, who were neatly or sloppily dressed, to sjgn a noncontroversial petition. Results indicated that sloppily dressed students signed the petition as often for a female experimenter as they did for a male experimenter, but neatly dressed (inferentially conservative) students signed the petition less often for a female experimenter then they did for a male experimenter. Interestingly, neatly dressed female students refused to cooperate with a female experimenter as much as did neatly dressed male students. It was concluded that attitudes, rather than quality of dress, similaity of dress, or sex per se, influenced cooperation.     

A developmental study of the effect of familiarity on short-term visual memory

An attempt was made to specify whether previously reported limitations on young children's full-report capacity lay in a smaller amount of available information, in a shorter trace duration of information in visual information storage (VIS), or in poorer coding of information into permanent storage. Five- and 8-year-olds and adults were shown an eight-item array of figures. followed at varying intervals by an indicator signaling the subject to report the figure to which the indicator had pointed. The effects of three levels of familiarity or “labelability” were examined. While no age differences were revealed in amount of information available nor in the trace duration of information in VIS, strong age differences emerged in coding of information into permanent storage. Data on latency to verbal labeling and familiarity suggested that verbal labeling could not account for the age trends. Rather, the differences seemed to lie in the use of organized visual coding and rehearsal strategies by adults and their relative lack of use by children.     

Phobia and counterphobia: family aspects of agoraphobia

Twelve cases with agoraphobic and other phobic symptoms are presented. Their family backgrounds and marital relationships are delineated. A consistent pattern, the phobic-counterphobic system, emerges. This contains five elements. (1) Anxious ambivalent attachment, which characterizes the previous childhood relationships of both partners in the marriage. The future patient has responded to this with a tendency to clinging behaviour, her spouse with a propensity to detachment. (2) A marriage in which, initially, each, through the other, escapes from their childhood difficulties. (3) A precipitating change with challenges the couple's illusionary unity. (4) A period of escalation and failure of reassurance by the husband. (5) The illness, which stabilizes the system and leads to a 'compulsory marriage'. Therapeutic approaches for each of these elements are described.     

Arousal transfer: The influence of fear arousal on subsequent sexual arousal for subjects with high and low sex guilt

Male subjects (N = 128) with high or low sex guilt either were or were not threatened with shock (fear arousal manipulation) and then viewed either an erotic or a neutral film (sex arousal manipulation). Then all subjects viewed and rated slides of attractive women and slides of landscapes (neutral control slides). If fear arousal was specifically transferred to sexual arousal as is often predicted rather than simply causing a general increase in arousal, then it would be expected that subjects who had been exposed to the threat would show high arousal in response to the slides of women and low arousal to the slides of landscapes, whereas subjects who had not been threatened would show low arousal to both the slides of women and landscapes. Physiological (pulse rate, skin resistance), self-report, and word association measures consistently indicated that (a) both of the arousal manipulations were effective, (b) the slides of women were arousing, (c) sex guilt influenced responses as would be expected from previous research, but (d) did not indicate support for arousal transference. These findings (a) provide information concerning the influence of guilt on drives, (b) raise questions about the transfer of arousal that was noted in less controlled investigations, and (c) highlight the need for additional controls in research of this type.     

Effect of Transcendental Meditation versus resting on physiological and subjective arousal

On four successive days, 10 highly trained and experienced meditators were asked to relax for 5 minutes, meditate for 20 minutes, and then relax for 5 minutes. In contrast, 10 other subjects who had no training or experience with meditation were asked to relax for 5 minutes, rest for 20 minutes, and then relax for 5 minutes. Physiological arousal (heart rate, skin resistance, respiration rate, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure) and subjective arousal (cognitive, somatic, relaxation) were measured throughout the experiment. Results indicated that (a) prior to meditating or resting, meditators tended to have higher heart rates and diastolic blood pressure than did nonmeditators, (b) meditation was associated with generally reduced arousal, but (c) while meditating, meditators did not evidence lower levels of arousal than nonmeditators did while resting. This investigation employed controls, which were not used in previous investigations, and the results place qualifications on previously reported results. The results have implications for the study of personality functioning, stress management, and psychotherapy.     

HOMO RELIGIOSUS AND ITS BRAIN: REALITY, IMAGINATION, AND THE FUTURE OF NATURE

Abstract. “Daddy, is God real or is he a part of people's imagination?” The brain constructs reality by bottom-up, genetically programmed mechanisms. Nature selected the human holistic, symbolically thinking, aesthetic brain using a mechanism of brain-language coevolution. Our religious nature and moral capabilities are rooted in this brain, and in the real images it constructs.