A constructive process view of decision making: Multiple strategies in judgment and choice

A viewpoint that has recently emerged in decision research is that preferences for objects of any complexity are often constructed — not merely revealed — in generating a response to a judgement or choice task. This paper reviews a program of research that traces the constructiveness of preferences to the use of multiple strategies in decision making, contingent on task demands. It is argued that individuals often build strategies opportunistically, changing their processing on the spot depending upon the information they encounter during the course of solving the decision problem.     

Buffalo Creek Survivors in the Second Decade: Comparison with Unexposed and Nonlitigant Groups1

This study investigated the second-decade effects of the Buffalo Creek dam collapse and flood that occurred in West Virginia in 1972. One hundred twenty-one survivors who had participated in an earlier lawsuit against the coal company that built the collapsed dam were compared to 78 nonlitigant survivors on self-reported symptoms, clinical ratings, and diagnoses. A nonexposed sample from a geographically and culturally similar neighborhood was investigated as well. Findings showed no differences between the litigant and nonlitigant survivor groups. The survivor groups together showed higher rates of anxiety, depression, and hostility symptoms and diagnoses than the nonexposed sample. The findings were discussed in the context of the nature of the traumatic event, social and cultural influences on recovery, and the constellation of symptoms which differentiated the groups.     

Multivariate analyses of cognitive and cognitive style variables based on hemisphere specialization theory predictive of success in a college developmental studies program

Right and left cerebral hemisphere and limbic scores derived from the Herrmann Brain Dominance Profile, Scholastic Aptitude Test Verbal and Mathematics scores, and High School Grade Point Average were correlated with grades in college developmental courses in reading, English, and mathematics for 146 students. Pearson correlations ranged from -.27 to .42. Multiple correlations with seven predictors ranged from .45 to .55, and from .14 to .37 for the profile scores alone. Discriminant analyses yielded hit-rates (predictive of classification of success and failure/actual classification) of 69%/72% in Reading, 76%/75% in English, and 66%/71% in Mathematics.     

Goal instability and later life adjustment

A series of analyses on the goal instability personality construct, as measured by the Goal Instability Scale (GIS), was conducted to establish the construct validity of goal instability as it relates to older adults. This construct was derived from Heinz Kohut's psychology of the self. The sample consisted of a total of 157 voluntary early retirees representing a cross section of worker types from a manufacturing industry. In the first analysis, a series of confirmatory factor analyses supported the hypothesis that the 10-item GIS measures a unitary construct. In the second analysis, GIS was found to be similar across age groups. These findings enhance the conceptual clarity of the goal instability construct and its relevance with regard to older adults. Goal instability may represent 1 negative aspect of a quest for self-continuity.     

The relaxation word of the day: A simple technique to measure adherence to relaxation

A new procedure of assessing adherence to home practice of relaxation is presented. The technique involved the subject identifying one of four possible relaxation words of the day at the end of a taped relaxation session. The method was employed to assess the relationship between adherence to relaxation and decline of blood pressure during a 10-session/8-week relaxation program involving 17 hypertensive subjects. No statistically significant relationship was found on either a short-term or a long-term basis. An advantage of the assessment technique is that it appears easily integrated into the overall therapeutic objective for relaxation therapy; a disadvantage is that the subject needs to comply not only with the relaxation schedule but also with the monitoring procedure.This research study was funded by NIH Grant HL27159.     

Job demands,supports, and constraints as predictors of psychological strain among schoolteachers

The literature on occupational stress contains two relatively independent bodies of literature, one of which shows that stress results from high work demands and the other which indicates that stress is associated with low levels of autonomy/discretion. Recent work has also shown that social support moderates the relationship between environmental stress and psychological strain. This paper uses a model of stress which assumes that stress is a function of the balance of demands, supports, and job constraints. The model is tested on a homogeneous professional group of workers because a previous study had suggested that models of this kind are powerful enough to detect differences in psychological strain when unskilled groups are compared with managers, but not when managers are compared with managers. The empirical results of this study of teachers show very modest support for the model, but confirm that the percentage of variance accounted for by these sorts of measures is rather small.