Why we are fairer than others

Subjects wrote lists of either fair or unfair things that they or others did. A pervasive tendency was found for subjects to associate themselves with fair behaviors and others with unfair behaviors. When different subjects rated samples of the written behaviors for fairness and frequency we found that fair behaviors were rated as more frequent than unfair behaviors and self-ascribed behaviors were rated as fairer than behaviors ascribed to others. These findings and others are shown to result from a tendency for subjects to perceive a stronger link between the fairness and frequency of their own behavior than between the fairness and frequency of the behavior of other people. A final analysis showed that the subcategories of unfair behavior that subjects associated with others were different from those associated with themselves.     

Ordering and reordering in the auditory and visual modalities

This study investigates the hypothesis that the modality effect (i.e., the often-found recall advantage of the last few items presented in the auditory- rather than visual-input modality) is attributable to a directional auditory trace. Such a directional trace should help performance of forward item-to-item recall, but should hurt performance if mental reordering is required. However, it was found in our Experiment 1 that mental item-to-item reordering of the materials did not affect the modality effect. In Experiment 2, strict control was exercised over the order of recall of chunks of items, as well as over the order of recall within chunks. It was found that the item-to-item reordering of the materials had little effect on the modality effect. However, the larger scale order of recall of the chunks had a large effect on the modality effect. If recall was in a forward order (i.e., first chunk, second chunk, third chunk), there was a dramatic superiority of the auditory materials on the last chunk. If the recall order was backward (third chunk, second chunk, first chunk), the modality effect was inconsequential. These results suggest that the modality effect is related to access to large memorial units rather than to item-to-item associations.     

Conceptual level matching in therapy: A review

It is a common observation that certain kinds of patient-therapy (therapist) pairings are more beneficial than others. Attempts to find out why, through interactional research on therapy, have proven to be difficult. It is often suggested that one reason for this is the absence of an adequate theoretical framework within which such research can be conducted. However, in recent years, one theory, conceptual systems theory (CST), a cognitive personality theory, has developed to the stage where it appears to offer some promise in this regard. This article offers an evaluative review of the empirical studies, with relevance to therapy, which use CST as a basis for interactional research; an analysis of the conceptual and methodological problems inherent in its use; and a discussion of the implication of findings for therapeutic practice. Figures 1 and 2 originally appeared in Short, Edmund C., “Knowledge Production and Utilization in Curriculum: A Special Case of the General Phenomenon.”Review of Educational Research, Summer 1979, pp. 237-301. Copyright 1979, American Educational Research Association, Washington, D.C. Reproduced with permission.     

Helping parents of premature babies: A cognitive-behavioral approach

Having an infant in an intensive care setting is highly stressful for parents and may disrupt the bonding process. This article presents a cognitive-behavioral framework as a useful way of understanding and intervening with parents of normal, healthy, premature babies. Differences are shown between stimulus events experienced by parents of term and premature babies and the consequent differences in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are discussed. Suggestions are made for helping parents of premature babies replace dysfunctional irrational cognitions with more appropriate and rational beliefs.     

Masculinity,femininity, life stress,and depression

This study explored the effects of masculinity, femininity, and life stress on depression. Four hundred and two subjects (266 females and 136 males) completed the Bem Sex Role Inventory, the Life Experiences Survey, and the Beck Depression Inventory. Results of a regression analysis indicated significant effects of life stress, masculinity, and femininity on depression. Although masculinity and, to a lesser extent, femininity, were significant predictors of depression, life stress accounted for a substantially greater proportion of the variance. The implications of the results are discussed with respect to the role of masculinity and femininity as susceptibility factors in depression associated with stressful life experiences.     

The plausibility effect: Lexical priming or sentential processing?

Five experiments are reported that investigated whether the plausibility effect is caused by lexical priming resulting from the higher proportion of related words in plausible than in implausible sentences. In Experiment 1, a plausibility effect was demonstrated that was entirely attributable to the way in which lexical items were combined rather than to the properties of individual lexical items. In Experiment 2, the content words from the sentences used in Experiment 1 were shown to produce a similar reaction-time difference in a task in which syntactic processing was disrupted, supporting a lexical priming explanation of the plausibility effect. However, Experiments 3 and 4 demonstrated that, in another task less prone to task-specific strategies but sensitive to plausibility, the disruption of syntactic processing eliminated the effect. In Experiment 5, it was shown that when lexical priming was eliminated, a plausibility effect still occurred. Thus, two separate lines of evidence suggested that the plausibility effect cannot be fully explained in terms of lexical priming.     

An assessment of the accuracy of self-assessment for career decision making

During the past few years, there has been a marked increase in the number of publications which focus on advice for individuals engaged in the process of career decision making. Most of these publications rely on self-assessment as the major input to the decision making process. This study compared the accuracy of self-assessment to expert assessment based on an assessment center procedure for a sample of potential college graduates. Significant discrepancies were found between the student's and assessor's ratings on 10 of the 13 dimensions assessed. Implications of these results are discussed and suggestions for further study are made.     

Factors contributing to the effectiveness of social and nonsocial reinforcers in the discrimination learning of children from two socioeconomic groups

Middle- and lower-class children who had been treated by E in a warm or aloof manner were given a discrimination learning task under one of six conditions forming a 3 × 2 design: three reinforcement types (Verbalintoned, Verbal-nonintoned, or Symbolic) and reinforcement for correct or incorrect responses. In accordance with Zigler's valence theory of social reinforcement, lower-class girls and middle-class children of both sexes tended to perform better when they had previously received warm treatment. No significant differences among the three types of reinforcers occurred in either SE group, thus failing to support the implications of several theories about the relative effectiveness of social and nonsocial reinforcers and tonality factors related to SES.