The effect of mood and incentives on helping: Are there some things money can't buy?

Happy, guilty, and neutral mood states were induced in participants who were then provided with an opportunity to donate blood for free, to donate in exchange for $5, or to choose between donating for free or for $5. As expected, there was a significantly higher incidence of helping when subjects felt happy and guilty as opposed to emotively neutral. Contrary to predictions, helping was unaffected by the type of incentive (donate for $5, donate for free, choose $5/free) subjects were offered in interaction with their mood state. However, the type of incentive did seem to influence the postdonation emotions of subjects: Guilty subjects who donated for money felt significantly less guilty following donation than prior to it and happy subjects felt more self-altruistic (kind and generous) following donation when they helped for free. The results are discussed in terms of Cialdini's negative state relief model (for negative moods) and the intrinsic qualities of helping (for positive moods).     

Children's strategies for controlling affective responses to aversive social experience

It was hypothesized that one mechanism of self-control that children develop is the strategic capacity to select the experiences they encounter. This hypothesis led to the prediction that children would deal with certain aversive social experiences by seeking out or taking advantage of opportunities for nurturant experiences. Young children were exposed to an aversive social experience in which they received less nurturance than a peer, a positive experience in which they received more nurturance, or a neutral experience in which nurturance was equal. Subsequently, an opportunity was provided for children to control the length of time they watched a highly nurturant television program. As predicted, boys experiencing an aversive social encounter increased the length of time they exposed themselves to the nurturant television show, and their level of reduced positive affect was related to how long they watched the nurturant content, further supporting the interpretation that they did so in response to their own affective state. Girls did not adopt the strategy of self-exposure to nurturant television but did appear to engage in self-distraction during the aversive social experience. Despite the apparent use of control strategies, there was no indication that these strategies were effective for the amelioration of reduced positive affect resulting from the aversive social experience. Discussion focuses on the sex differences observed in the adoption of strategic behavior and factors contributing to the ineffectiveness of the control strategies. A general model is proposed for personal and environmental factors requisite for the selection, employment, and effectiveness of strategies to control experiences and their affective consequences.     

Hierarchical factor solution of coding and planning processes: Any new insights?

Hierarchical factor solution was used in the present paper in order to examine if two coding processes, simultaneous and successive, would load on a general 2nd level factor. It was further used to test if the coding processes and a factor representing planful behavior will not share the same general factor, revealing their relative independence as expected from a theoretical model of cognitive functions. Results supported the grouping of the coding tasks within a general factor, as well as the emergence of two general factors, one each for coding and planning. Further correlational evidence supported the relative independence of these two kinds of cognitive processes. These findings were discussed in the context of a general factor of intelligence.     

Fluid and crystallized intelligence and primacy/recency components of short-term memory

Primacy and recency recall measures, obtained from both free and probed-recall tasks, were included in a battery of tests which also contained markers for fluid intelligence, crystallized intelligence, and cognitive speed factors. Our results confirmed previous findings that for subjects within the normal range of abilities, recency recall from probed-recall tasks is more closely linked to intelligence than is primacy recall. A new finding was also obtained: that primacy recall is correlated more with measures of cognitive speed than is recency recall. These results are discussed in terms of the concept of working memory and its relation to intelligence.     

Temperamental factors in human development

The initial dispositions to approach or to avoid unfamiliar events are 2 temperamental characteristics of children--among the many that have been described--that appear to be moderately stable over time and associated with distinct, physiological profiles that may be under partial genetic control. The display of high versus low levels of both motor activity and crying to unfamiliar in 4-month-old infants predicts these 2 temperamental profiles in the 2nd year. This fact implies, but does not prove, that variation in the excitability of those brain areas that mediate motor activity and crying participates in the actualization of the temperamental categories called inhibited and uninhibited to the unfamiliar.     

Psychologists' role in family-centered approach to practice, training, and research with young children

Family-centered, community-based, coordinated care for children with special needs is presented as the best practice model for providing services to children and families. Psychologists must learn to play an active role in this frame-work that both integrates psychology with other health and education disciplines and uses the broad spectrum of psychological knowledge about families, development, community organization, and intervention strategies. Key principles of family-centered child psychology affect practice research and training. The psychologist becomes part of a team created to support families as the primary care-givers of their children. Training programs must reorganize the types of experiences both in the classroom and the field to train new psychologists within this model. As mandates for family-centered care affect policies at the state and federal levels, research will remain a critical factor in understanding the effects of these policy shifts on child and family functioning and the delivery of services.     

The process of pregnancy resolution among adolescent mothers

This paper reports on in-depth interviews with black and white unmarried adolescent mothers, from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds, about their pregnancy resolution. They revealed the importance of family members and other significant adults in the decision process. The analysis also indicated that personal, familial, and religious values were primary considerations in deciding to bear and keep their children.     

Primordial Image and the Archetypal Design of Art

This paper extends Jung's work on the relationship of art to (postulated) archetypes of the collective unconscious. Archetypes of the collective unconscious, according to Jung, are revealed to ego consciousness only by way of images--images of a specific form. Jung suggests that archetypes, primordial images, combine two aspects in a single form and are therefore paradoxical. The wise old man and youth and hermaphrodites illustrate Jung's definition of a primordial image. My study of Jung's illustrations concludes that he is referring to what I term double-figures as the design form of primordial imagery. I elaborate upon the design form of double-figures, and illustrate my conception of archetypal imagery through comparative analysis of nine cases of double-figure imagery from selected prehistoric and contemporary societies. Double-figures, as archetypal primordial imagery of the collective unconscious, are spontaneously generated, autonomous, and known to a wide variety of societies. I distinguish between form and content in the study of primordial imagery, and conclude with a summary of the importance of Jung to the cross-cultural study of art.     

Psychological Peculiarities and Acoustical Environment Changes

In this paper all psychological aspects of global change that concern acoustical environment changes are discussed. It is revealed that an acoustical environment has undergone essential qualitative changes: Human auditory perception is now mostly mediated by technical means and modern technologies. The general aspects of the research approach and some results are outlined. The problem of acoustical environment pollution is discussed and proposals for international cooperative research are made.