Coping with a threat to life: A longitudinal study of self-concept,social support,and psychological distress

The relationship of self-concept (self-esteem and mastery) and social support to psychological distress was studied among 68 Israeli women immediately prior to undergoing biopsy for suspected cancer (acute stress) and 3 months later for the noncancer group (everyday stress). It was predicted that women with stronger self-concepts and more social support would experience less state depression and state anxiety during the acute crisis than women with weaker self-concepts and less social support. It was further predicted that self-concept would be more critical than social support due to the acute nature of the event. Finally, self-concept was predicted to be related to psychological distress both during the acute and everyday stress situations (a direct effect), while social support was predicted to be related to psychological distress only during the acute stress situation (a buffering effect). The hypotheses were generally confirmed. However, self-concept and social support were seen as complexly related to psychological distress during the acute phase, one not necessarily being more critical than the other. The selective employment of available resistance resources to fit the situation and implications for preventive intervention were discussed.     

Stimulus selection in passive avoidance learning and retention: weanling, periadolescent, and young adult rats

Periadolescent rats exhibit a number of behavioral differences in comparison with younger or older animals. For instance, periadolescents tend to show enhanced acquisition of simple active avoidance tasks, but impaired acquisition of more complex appetitive and aversive discriminations. In this experiment, rats were trained on a simple passive avoidance task at one of three ages, as weanlings (25 days), periadolescents (35 days), or young adults (45 days). Training occurred in the presence of both a redundant discriminative stimulus and a specified, redundant contextual stimulus. The periadolescents did not differ from either younger or older rats in rate of learning the passive avoidance task. The retention performance of these animals was then tested following a change in either, neither, or both of the redundant cues. When a measure of performance that controls for baseline activity was used, it was observed that periadolescents were not disrupted by a change in the redundant discriminative stimulus, a cue change that clearly disrupted performance in 25- and 45-day-old animals, and tended to be more disrupted by the contextual change than younger or older rats. It is hypothesized that the alterations in performance exhibited by periadolescents may be related to an ontogenetic alteration in stimulus selection modulated by the catecholaminergic systems.     

Self-efficacy,nicotine-fading/self-monitoring and cigarette-smoking behaviour

An attempt to replicate and extend the successful results of Foxx and Brown's (1979) nicotine-fading, self-monitoring procedure for smoking abstinence or controlled smoking was undertaken using a combination of their procedure and cognitive-behavioural interventions. The latter consisted of: (1) a variation of Meichenbaum's (1977) self-instructional training and (2) a simple, direct manipulation of Bandura's (1977) concept of self-efficacy. Evidence was found to support Foxx and Brown's (1979) procedure with respect to reduced smoking rate and nicotine/tar intake. Combinations of treatments did not result in an enhancement of these effects. However, with respect to smoking abstinence, comparable results were only found in groups receiving specific training in self-efficacy. It was suggested that the variability of findings in this study as well as those in the literature subsequent and relating to Foxx and Brown's (1979) procedure might be accounted for using Bandura's (1977) self-efficacy concept.     

Non-accidental injury to children—I: A review of behavioural interventions

The history of the growth of interest in child abuse in the Western World over the last two decades is described chronologically. Problems of definition of a phenomenon which is a deviation from social norms are discussed, including the problem of distinguishing acceptable discipline from abuse. The literature on parent-training approaches to the treatment of abusive parents is reviewed. It is argued that researchers in the U.S.A. and the U.K. are working within different statutory frameworks, from different definitional criteria and with different conceptualizations of successful outcome. The need for multiple outcome measures, in terms of quality of life for the abused child, and for long-term follow-up is stressed, together with the importance of clinical experience in the planning and execution of evaluative treatment research.     

Infant sensitivity to figural coherence in biomechanical motions

Two experiments assessed infant sensitivity to figural coherence in point-light displays moving as if attached to the major joints of a walking person. Experiment 1 tested whether 3- and 5-month-old infants could discriminate between upright and inverted versions of the walker in both moving and static displays. Using an infant-control habituation paradigm, it was found that both ages discriminated the moving but not the static displays. Experiment 2 was designed to clarify whether or not structural invariants were extracted from these displays. The results revealed that (1) moving point-light displays with equivalent motions but different topographic relations were discriminated while (2) static versions were not, and (3) arrays that varied in the amount of motion present in different portions of the display were also not discriminated. These results are interpreted as indicating that young infants are sensitive to figural coherence in displays of biomechanical motion.     

The efficient assessment of need for cognition

A short form for assessing individual differences in need for cognition is described.     

Considering the opposite: a corrective strategy for social judgment

It is proposed that several biases in social judgment result from a failure--first noted by Francis Bacon--to consider possibilities at odds with beliefs and perceptions of the moment. Individuals who are induced to consider the opposite, therefore, should display less bias in social judgment. In two separate but conceptually parallel experiments, this reasoning was applied to two domains--biased assimilation of new evidence on social issues and biased hypothesis testing of personality impressions. Subjects were induced to consider the opposite in two ways: through explicit instructions to do so and through stimulus materials that made opposite possibilities more salient. In both experiments the induction of a consider-the-opposite strategy had greater corrective effect than more demand-laden alternative instructions to be as fair and unbiased as possible. The results are viewed as consistent with previous research on perseverance, hindsight, and logical problem solving, and are thought to suggest an effective method of retraining social judgment.