Attractiveness of own-race, other-race, and mixed-race faces

Averaged face composites, which represent the central tendency of a familiar population of faces, are attractive. If this prototypicality contributes to their appeal, then averaged composites should be more attractive when their component faces come from a familiar, own-race population than when they come from a less familiar, other-race population. We compared the attractiveness of own-race composites, other-race composites, and mixed-race composites (where the component faces were from both races). In experiment 1, Caucasian participants rated own-race composites as more attractive than other-race composites, but only for male faces. However, mixed-race (Caucasian/Japanese) composites were significantly more attractive than own-race composites, particularly for the opposite sex. In experiment 2, Caucasian and Japanese participants living in Australia and Japan, respectively, selected the most attractive face from a continuum with exaggerated Caucasian characteristics at one end and exaggerated Japanese characteristics at the other, with intervening images including a Caucasian averaged composite, a mixed-race averaged composite, and a Japanese averaged composite. The most attractive face was, again, a mixed-race composite, for both Caucasian and Japanese participants. In experiment 3, Caucasian participants rated individual Eurasian faces as significantly more attractive than either Caucasian or Asian faces. Similar results were obtained with composites. Eurasian faces and composites were also rated as healthier than Caucasian or Asian faces and composites, respectively. These results suggest that signs of health may be more important than prototypicality in making average faces attractive.     

An assessment of the contributions of general mental ability and personality characteristics to management success

This study investigated the relationship of general mental ability and a select set of personality characteristics to a constructed criterion of management success which reflected relative rate of career progress. Data were collected in the context of an operational individual assessment program from a total of 296 persons in nonmanagement up through top management positions in a variety of service and manufacturing organizations. Primary (n=148) and hold-out (n=148) samples were identified and a stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed on the primary sample. Cross-validation indicated that a two-variable linear composite accounted for 20.9% of the variance in the dependent variable.     

Attitudes toward rape: Gender and ethnic differences across Asian and Caucasian college students

Previous research has demonstrated that males have a greater tendency to hold erroneous beliefs about rape than females. However, limited cross-cultural studies, particularly of Asians, have been done in this area. The present investigation examined attitudes toward rape victims and belief in rape myths across 302 Asian and Caucasian college students. Subjects were recruited from two college campuses in Orange County, California, and were from predominantly middle-income backgrounds. None of the Caucasian students and a minority (36.25%) of the Asian subjects identified their particular ethnic group(s) of origin. Of the Asian subjects who specified their ethnicity, the majority were of Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander descent. Results indicated significant differences across ethnicity and gender. Asians were more likely to endorse negative attitudes toward rape victims and greater belief in rape myths than their Caucasian counterparts; males endorsed greater negativity toward rape victims and more acceptance of rape myths than did females. Asian subjects who endorsed greater acculturation (Western affiliation) differed significantly from low acculturated subjects on all dependent variables. Results are discussed in regard to cross-cultural differences and gender. Culturally sensitive rape awareness outreach targeting potentially high risk groups, such as Asian college students, is encouraged.This study was in part supported through an Affirmative Action Grant awarded to the first author by the Affirmative Action Faculty Development Program, California State University, Fullerton. Findings of the study were previously presented at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, August 1994, Los Angeles, California. The authors wish to thank the undergraduate and graduate research assistants who served as experimenters.     

Mindfulness: A Proposed Common Factor

Mindfulness is proposed as a core psychotherapy process. It is defined as a state of psychological freedom that occurs when attention remains quiet and limber, without attachment to any particular point of view. It can be shown that this process is collaborativefy employed by psychotherapist and patient within all psychotherapy orientations, and also by the integrative psychotherapist when making optimal choices among orientations. This article addresses (1) the defining attributes of mindfulness, (2) relevant conceptual approaches that lend theoretical support for a mindfulness factor, (3) two attentional forms of mindfulness that seem to have particular correspondence with either psychodynamic or cognitive-behavioral therapy, (4) clinical applications, and (5) the role of mindfulness for the integrative decision-making process.     

Brain Indices of Nonconscious Associative Learning

Using a classical conditioning technique, this study investigated whether nonconscious associative learning could be indexed by event-related brain activity (ERP). There were three phases. In a preconditioning baseline phase, pleasant and unpleasant facial schematics were presented in awareness (suprathreshold). A conditioning phase followed, in which stimuli were presented outside awareness (subthreshold, via energy masking), with an unpleasant face (CS+) linked to an aversive shock and a pleasant face (CS−) not linked to a shock. The third, postconditioning phase, involved stimulus presentations in awareness (suprathreshold). Evidence for acquisition of a conditional response was sought by comparing suprathreshold pre- and postconditioning phases, as well as in the subthreshold conditioning phase itself. For the pre-postconditioning phase analyses, significant ERP component differences differentiating CS+ and CS− were observed for N1, P2, and especially P3. For the conditioning phase, significant differences were observed in the 100–400 ms. post-stimulus region reflecting a CS+ processing negativity. Brain activity does indeed index the acquisition of a conditional response to subthreshold stimuli. Associative learning can occur outside awareness.     

Correspondence programs for smoking cessation and weight control: a comparison of two strategies in the Minnesota Heart Health Program

Mailed invitations to participate in weight loss and/or smoking cessation correspondence programs to 31,400 households in a suburban community. Two programs were offered to randomized subsets of households, a 6-month correspondence program costing +5 and the same program for free but requiring a +60 deposit to be refunded based on success in weight loss or smoking cessation. Overall, sign-up included 1,304 people for weight loss and 142 for smoking cessation. The +5 program was about 5 times as popular as the incentive program. Validated weight change after 6 months averaged about 4 lb for the +5 program and 8 lb for the incentive program. Corresponding rates of smoking cessation were about 9% and 20%, respectively. We conclude that correspondence programs for the promotion of weight control and smoking cessation are potentially cost-effective methods for reaching individuals in the community at large, many of whom would not be interested in clinic-based programs. Issues meriting further research include recruitment, especially of smokers, and evaluation of the relative trade-offs in recruitment success versus efficacy of differing treatment approaches.     

The influence of symbolic and motor rehearsal in observational learning

The experiment investigated the effects of the mode and patterning of rehearsal on the acquisition and retention of modeled activities varying in organizational complexity. Subjects observed a filmed model construct two configurations, containing high or low organizational requirements. Immediately after exposure they rehearsed the modeled activities either mentally, motorically, mentally and then motorically, motorically and then mentally, or engaged in a distracting activity that prevented rehearsal of what they had see. Performance tests were conducted immediately after the rehearsal phase and again 1 week later. Subjects who rehearsed the modeled behaviors symbolically, whether singly or in conjunction with motor practice, reproduced both configurations more accurately than those who rehearsed motorically or not at all. Motor rehearsal increased speed on the organizationally simple task, but did not enhance response acquisition over and above observation alone. The overall results are interpreted as supporting the social learning view that modeled behaviors are best acquired when demonstrated activities are first organized symbolically and then refined on the basis of performance feedback.