Type and frequency of praise as determinants of favorability of self-image: an experiment in a field setting

An experiment was conducted in a skills training center with a sample of 28 Black female trainees The effects of variations in type (person- vs. achievement-oriented) and frequency (75% vs. 25%) of praise were ascertained on favorableness of selfimage and task performance. It was found that, in general, lower frequencies of praise produced more positive self-evaluations than high frequencies of praise, and that person-oriented praise was more effective than achievement-oriented praise in enhancing self-evaluation A significant interaction found for “myself as male friends see me” demonstrated that (a) at a 75 percent frequency of reinforcement, person-oriented praise was significantly more effective than performance-oriented praise, and (b) performance-focused praise delivered at a 25 percent frequency enhanced subjects' self-image significantly more than performance-oriented praise given at a 75 percent level. No significant effects were found for the accuracy-type tasks (work recognition, visual perceptiveness) On the task which involved a simple, speeded response (manual dexterity) there were significant effects (a) achievement-oriented praise was more effective than person-oriented praise, (b) a significant interaction between type and frequency of praise occurred, indicating that performance-oriented praise is most effective when given at a 25 percent level     

Negative ions and behavior: impact on mood, memory, and aggression among type A and type B persons

Individuals scoring high (Type As), intermediate, or low (Type Bs) on the Jenkins Activity Survey were given an opportunity to aggress against a stranger who, previously, had either provoked or not provoked them. The opportunity to aggress (as well as all other aspects of the study) took place in the presence of (a) a high concentration, (b) a moderate concentration, or (c) a low (ambient) concentration of negative air ions. Results indicated that exposure to moderate or high levels of negative ions significantly enhanced aggression by Type A subjects, but not by other participants. In addition, we found that negative ions produced positive shifts in subjects' reported moods in the absence of provocation, but negative shifts in moods in the presence of provocation. These findings suggest that moderate or high concentrations of negative ions serve as a source of heightened activation, thus enhancing individuals' dominant reactions or tendencies in a given situation.     

Do Not Revise Ockham's Razor Without Necessity

Ockham's razor asks that we not multiply entities beyond necessity. The razor is a powerful methodological tool, enabling us to articulate reasons for preferring one theory to another. There are those, however, who would modify the razor. Schaffer (2010: 313—our italics), for one, tells us that, ‘I think the proper rendering of Ockham's razor should be ‘Do not multiply fundamental entities without necessity’’. Our aim, here, is to challenge such re‐workings of Ockham's razor.     

Foundations of infants' social group evaluations

Previous research has suggested that infants exhibit a preference for familiar over unfamiliar social groups (e.g., preferring individuals from their own language group over individuals from a foreign language group). However, because past studies often employ forced‐choice procedures, it is not clear whether infants' intergroup preferences are driven by positivity toward members of familiar groups, negativity toward members of unfamiliar groups, or both. Across six experiments, we implemented a habituation procedure to independently measure infants' positive and negative evaluations of speakers of familiar and unfamiliar languages. We report that by 1 year of age, infants positively evaluate individuals who speak a familiar language, but do not negatively evaluate individuals who speak an unfamiliar language (Experiments 1 and 2). Several experiments rule out lower‐level explanations (Experiments 3–6). Together these data suggest that children's early social group preferences may be shaped by positive evaluations of familiar group(s), rather than negative evaluations of unfamiliar groups.     

How serious are expressions of protected values?

People think that some things that they value should be protected from trade-offs with other things. For example, people think that no economic gain is great enough to justify clear-cutting old-growth forest. The authors probed the stability of these protected values (PVs) in several ways. Subjects were asked to think of counterexamples, and this had some effect on PVs. Subjects were then asked how they would resolve conflicts between 2 PVs. Resolutions did not differ from those between other values, but subjects tended to feel that conflicts between PVs did not occur in reality. Despite people's claims that PVs are unchanged by variation in quantity, expression of PVs was reduced when the magnitude or probability of the violation of a PV was smaller. In summary, PVs appear to be labile and amenable to challenge. Despite earlier concerns, apparent PVs may not always preclude the use of valuation measures in cost-effectiveness analysis or negotiated agreement on controversial issues.     

The development of implicit attitudes. Evidence of race evaluations from ages 6 and 10 and adulthood

To understand the origin and development of implicit attitudes, we measured race attitudes in White American 6-year-olds, 10-year-olds, and adults by first developing a child-oriented version of the Implicit Association Test (Child IAT). Remarkably, implicit pro-White/anti-Black bias was evident even in the youngest group, with self-reported attitudes revealing bias in the same direction. In 10-year-olds and adults, the same magnitude of implicit race bias was observed, although self-reported race attitudes became substantially less biased in older children and vanished entirely in adults, who self-reported equally favorable attitudes toward Whites and Blacks. These data are the first to show an asymmetry in the development of implicit and explicit race attitudes, with explicit attitudes becoming more egalitarian and implicit attitudes remaining stable and favoring the in-group across development. We offer a tentative suggestion that mean levels of implicit and explicit attitudes diverge around age 10.     

Human sensitivity to reinforcement: A comment on Kollins, Newland, and Critchfield's (1997) quantitative literature review

In a quantitative review of human operant experiments, Kollins, Newland, and Critchfield (1997) found that humans are less sensitive to reinforcement contingencies than nonhumans are. Human performances were not as consistent with the matching law, and they were more variable from subject to subject. Some of the variables correlated with reduced human sensitivity were surprising. These included collection of the data under more controlled conditions (laboratory rather than naturalistic settings), and inclusions of discriminative stimuli correlated with alternative sources of reinforcement. We discuss these unexpected findings in the light of criticisms that have been leveled against meta-analytic literature reviews (e.g., the wisdom of grouping studies with widely diverse methods), and we suggest ways of improving future analyses of the behavior-analytic literature.     

Heightened sexual arousal and physical aggression: An extension to females

In order to examine the effects of heightened sexual arousal upon aggression by females, subjects were first angered or not angered by a female confederate, next exposed to one of four types of stimuli (nonerotic scenes; pictures of seminude young males; pictures of nude males; pictures of couples engaged in various acts of lovemaking), and finally provided with an opportunity to aggress against the confederate by means of electric shock. In accordance with previous research conduced with males, it was hypothesized that exposure to mild erotic stimuli would inhibit subsequent aggression, while exposure to more arousing stimuli of this type would facilitate such behavior. Results offered support for both predictions. In addition, it was found that females responded with increased aggression to types of erotic stimuli previously found to inhibit such behavior by males.