A CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL DIFFERENTIATION

A cross-cultural study of psychological differentiation of Canadian and Pakistani high school students was undertaken to examine the nature of psychological differentiation in relation to differences in age/grade, gender, and academic programs. The study involved 707 Canadian students from grades 6, 8, 10, and 12; and 349 Pakistani students from grades 8, 9, 10, and 12. The Group Embedded Figures Test was employed as a measure of the field-dependence-independence cognitive style. Analyses of data included two-way and three-way analyses of variance to determine the effects of grade, gender, and academic program upon GEFT scores. Differences in psychological differentiation between high school students in the two cultures were discussed in terms of Berry's eco-cultural model.     

Autism and Accuracy in Adolescent Perceptions of Friends' Sexual Attitudes and Behavior

This study uses data from adolescents matched with data from their friends to examine whether reference group effects on adolescent sexuality should be thought of as operating through the sharing of norms or the modeling of behavior. We observe that perception of attitudes has such a trivial reality component and such a strong autistic component that it cannot serve as a mechanism of peer influence. Perception of sexual behavior has a reality component which is as large as its autistic component, and large enough to serve as a route of influence. We reach two conclusions: (1) Reference group effects on adolescent sexual behavior probably work through behavior modeling rather than through normative influence. (2) Studies which infer peer influence on sexual behavior using only perception of peers will arrive at erroneous conclusions.     

The honeymoon effect in job performance: temporal increases in the predictive power of achievement motivation

Correlations between a job performance criterion and personality measures reflecting achievement motivation and an interpersonal orientation were examined at three points in time after completion of job training for a sample of airline reservations agents. Although correlations between the personality predictors and performance were small and nonsignificant for the 3-month period after beginning the job, by the end of 6 and 8 months a number of significant relationships had emerged. Implications for the utility of personality measures in selection and performance prediction are discussed.     

The matching law applies to wagtails' foraging in the wild

Field data concerning the time budgets and foraging success of pied wagtails (Motacilla alba yarrelli, Gould) are reanalyzed. It is found that the data are well described by the generalized matching law, with a marked bias towards spending time on the territory. In this case matching is not the result of maximizing reward rate, but it remains possible that it results from an allocation of time that maximizes survival.     

Varying response-reinforcer contiguity in a recycling conjunctive schedule

Three experiments describe the effects of manipulating the frequency of response-reinforcer contiguity in a recycling conjunctive schedule. The schedule arranged that a reinforcer was delivered after 30 s provided at least one response had occurred; otherwise the next cycle started immediately. In Experiment 1, this schedule produced the typical pause–respond–pause pattern, with most responses at mid-interval; and, when a limited number of contiguities between responses and food delivery were added, the pattern became more like the monotonic scallop seen on fixed-interval schedules. In Experiment 2, the schedule was initially presented with an additional contingency that allowed contiguity on every trial. Fixed-interval-like behavior occurred and tended to persist as contiguities were gradually eliminated. In Experiment 3, the recycling conjunctive schedule alternated with a condition in which a large number of contiguities occurred. The pause–respond–pause pattern and fixed-interval-like performance occurred with few or many contiguities, respectively. The results of all three experiments illustrate how contiguity interacts with a small number of other variables to determine performance on interval schedules and illuminate previous findings with fixed-interval and fixed-time schedules.     

Belief systems and attitudes toward the death penalty and other punishments

This study focused on the relationship of belief systems as a configural construct and conservatism-liberalism to attitudes toward the death penalty and other punishments for offenses of varying severity Extrapersonalists, the most concretely functioning of the four conceptual or belief systems posited by Harvey, Hunt, and Schroder (1961), were most in favor of the death penalty They also endorsed the most severe punishment for a variety of crimes, to a particularly greater extent than did representatives of either of the two more abstractly functioning systems The belief dimensions of Openness, Evaluativeness, and Complexity, as well as the frequency of church attendance, correlated more highly and consistently with attitudes toward punishment than did either Conservatism-Liberalism or gender Both of the latter variables failed to correlate with a number of the outcome variables and related at only low levels to the others The greater predictive power of a configural conception of personality or belief systems over a unidimensional conception seems to have been demonstrated Configural concepts may additionally be generally superior to multidimensional concepts treated linearly     

The Social Relations Model: An integrative method for personality research

As outlined by Snyder and Ickes (1985), the study of personality can be undertaken using one of three research approaches dispositional, situational, and interactive We show how the Social Relations Model provides an integrative method to estimate simultaneously dispositional, situational, and interactive effects Reviewed are component approaches to the study of personality The Social Relations Model is shown to be a component model (a special case of generalizability theory) applied in a social interaction context In the model, dispositional, situational, and interactive effects are termed actor, partner, and relationship effects, respectively The Social Relations Model can be used to answer a number of important issues in personality research The model can be used to assess reliability, measure the validity of self-ratings, and validate self-report inventories The model requires special designs in winch each person interacts with multiple partners Empirical examples are presented in which social anxiety, sex role inventories, and self-disclosure are studied     

An interactional approach to the study of personality and emotion

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relation between personality and emotional feelings within ecologically valid settings Nineteen subjects rated their emotions in a wide variety of work, recreation, social, and alone situations sampled over a 30-day period They were also administered the Personality Research Form and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Although theoretically predictable relations were found between certain personality traits and specific emotions averaged across situations, it was not until we distinguished chosen from imposed situations that the most meaningful results were obtained Both temperament and nontemperament personality traits were found to be related to specific emotions Implications of the present findings for research on situation selection and the status of personality traits are discussed     

Determinants of sexual and dating behaviors among adolescents

The study of adolescent sexual development has typically focused on the incidence and age of onset of particular behaviors. Recent developments in the analysis of covariance structures permit more powerful simultaneous tests of the determinants of adolescent sexual behavior. These new methods allow the assessment and evaluation of the interrelatedness between unobserved, latent constructs. Data were obtained from 183 males and 193 females ranging in age from 12 to 18 years old, selected from three birth cohorts using a stratified random sample. Eight latent constructs--Sexual and Dating Involvement, Self-Acceptance, Feminist Sex Role Attitudes, Deviant Social Network, Importance of Dating, Lack of Heterosexual Competence, Sexually Active Social Network, and Stressful Change Events--were hypothesized to explain the variance in 26 observed variables. Several causal models were tested that specified structural relationships among the latent constructs. A theoretically meaningful model was arrived at that linked the eight, error-free factors.