Verbal labelling and learning strategies in normal and severely subnormal children

The effects of verbal labelling of colours in a simple colour sorting task were examined in an experiment in which the subjects were severely subnormal and normal children of equivalent mental age levels. It was found that the effects of verbal labelling are relatively specific with severely subnormal subjects in comparison to their normal controls. It was also shown that this effect can be explained in terms of the relative independence with which the two responses in a sorting discrimination are learned by severely subnormal subjects both with and without verbalization.     

Competing on all fronts: Achievement orientation and disordered eating

Strikingly high prevalence rates of symptoms of disordered eating among college women have been documented. The question arises as to whether one aspect of the college experience, achievement orientation, is associated with disordered eating. Competing hypotheses may be generated regarding the relationship between achievement orientation and disordered eating, with arguments for either a positive or negative relationship. The Work and Family Orientation Questionnaire (WOFO) and the Disordered Eating Symptoms Scale (DESS) were administered to 668 female undergraduate college students. Multivariate analysis of the WOFO subscales revealed that women with high levels of disordered eating obtained significantly higher scores on the Competitiveness subscale than women with low DESS scores. These findings support hypotheses of a positive relationship between competitiveness and disordered eating.     

Physical fitness and enhanced psychological health

A great deal of attention has been given to the association between physical fitness and psychological health. The purpose of this view is to examine recent developments in the burgeoning exercise and psychological health literature and to explore avenues for future research. The current review focuses on research that has examined enhancement of psychological health and well-being among nonclinical populations since 1980. Four areas of psychological functioning are reviewed: (1) psychological well-being and mood, (2) personality and self-concept, (3) physiological stress responsivity and (4) cognition. Exercise appears to improve mood and psychological well-being as well as enhancing self-concept and self-esteem. Exercise appears to do little for personality functioning. Furthermore, mixed empirical support exists to suggest that exercise influences stress responsivity and cognitive functioning. However better research designs and procedures are still needed. Theories regarding the connection between exercise and psychological functioning as well as suggestions for future research are offered.     

Leadership Perceptions in Relation to a Presidential Vote1

In the 1988 American presidential election, leadership perceptions and perceived platforms were used to predict votes for one of the two final candidates (Governor Michael Dukakis and Vice President George Bush). Both leadership perceptions and perceived platforms were found to be related to voting. However, political involvement moderated the relationship between the perceived platforms and the votes, while leadership perceptions were found to be a consistent predictor of voting across levels of political involvement. Leadership perceptions, perceived platforms, and the interaction between involvement and perceived platforms predicted voting above and beyond the voters’ political affiliations. Consistent with a categorization model of leadership perceptions, the prototypicality of perceived leader traits was found to be strongly related to a tendency to vote for a candidate who was perceived to possess those traits. In comparing general favorability of characteristics versus prototypicality with respect to an effective political leadership category, general favorability played a larger role in uninvolved voters’ decisions than in involved voters’ decisions. Differences in mean leadership prototype ratings were also explored as a function of political affiliation and political involvement. The implications of these findings for campaign strategies and for leadership in organizational contexts are discussed.     

Evaluation and Comparison of Three Instruments Designed to Measure Organizational Power and Influence Tactics

The purpose of the present study is to assess the internal consistency and construct validity of three instruments measuring the use of influence tactics. Instruments by Frost and Stahelski (1988) and Hinkin and Schriesheim (1989) had been developed to be psychometrically sound measures of the French and Raven (1959) bases of power. Kipnis and Schmidt (1982a) developed a new typology to measure organizational influence, the Profile of Organizational Influence Strategies (POIS). Four hundred seventy-nine undergraduate students completed these instruments to describe the influence tactics used by their supervisor. Results indicated that the Hinkin and Schriesheim instrument has greater internal consistency and a more precisely defined factor structure than the Frost and Stahelski instrument. The corresponding scales of the two instruments measuring the French and Raven power bases are not highly correlated, suggesting that the two instruments are not equivalent. Furthermore, the pattern of correlations between scales of the three instruments suggests that neither the French and Raven not the POIS typology fully represents the structure of influence tactics.     

Beholding the beholder: The reception of “Dutch” painting

While a lucid and understandable interpretation can be given for most pictures, typically Dutch paintings (i.e. seventeenth-century genre and still-life pictures) seem to allow for or even demand some measure of freedom for the beholder. The cause of this ambiguity lies in the typically Protestant disregard for works of art and in a concomitant characteristic of these works: they address the viewer in an ethical manner.In memoriam Sixten Ringbom, 1935-1992     

A Four-Factor Model of Perceived Control: Avoiding, Coping, Obtaining, and Savoring

ABSTRACT This study provides evidence that people evaluate their control over events and over feelings separately with respect to both positive and negative experiences Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that subjects made separate self-evaluations of control regarding their ability to (a) avoid negative outcomes, (b) cope with negative outcomes, (c) obtain positive outcomes, and (d) savor positive outcomes In addition, beliefs about avoiding and obtaining were more highly correlated (r = 50) than were beliefs about coping and savoring (r= 27) It is argued that coping and savoring involve different sets of cognitive and behavioral skills Multiple regression analyses generally indicated that beliefs about avoiding and coping related more strongly to measures of subjective distress, whereas beliefs about obtaining and strongly related more strongly to measures of subjective well-being These four control beliefs are discussed in relation to other conceptual models of control, and ways in which savoring may promote perceived control are described     

THE COPYING OF UPRIGHT AND TILTED SQUARES BY SWAZI CHILDREN AND ADULTS

Children aged 5–12, and adults from a rural area of Swaziland, along with urban based adults were assessed on their copying ability for a square orientated in two ways, squarely and obliquely; and under five different conditions. The children and rural adults experienced significant difficulties in copying the obliquely orientated shape, while the urban adults produced the shape without difficulty, although they all easily perceived the shapes and programmed the required movements. The results indicate that the process of planning the fine movements for drawing is learned, improves with age, and practice is necessary. Where planning is more complex, in the production and combination of oblique lines, it appears that the lack of practice in Swazi rural schools, and generally little requirement to use the skills, results in a delay of those particular drawing abilities.