Attitudes to new technology in relation to social beliefs and group memberships: A preliminary investigation

Though the term “new technology” is widely used and discussed, there has been very little systematic study of attitudes to technology and their relation to other beliefs and group memberships. This article describes an initial investigation into the nature of attitudes towards new technology (n=534 undergraduates) and demonstrates that, as yet, these attitudes are only weakly structured and are not fully integrated with other social beliefs. General evaluations of the benefits of technological advance appear to be almost unrelated to beliefs about the inevitability of these advances or the desire to acquire training to deal with them. Contrary to popular expectations, evaluations of video games are unrelated to other beliefs about technology while other social beliefs are, as yet, only weakly integrated with these attitudes. This study also identifies gender differences in the assessment of potential benefits and highlights other differences attributable to academic group memberships. These finding are discussed with reference to the literature on sex-role stereotyping and group socialization processes.     

Observer bias in scoring boys' and girls' aggression

In order to examine the possibility that the attribution of more aggression to boys may be in part a function of observer bias, 40 adults were asked in Study 1 to record the degree of aggression in a series of line drawings that showed children interacting. It was found that a significant subset of both males and females recorded more aggression for boys than for girls when they scanned scenes that showed numerous children interacting. When they rated a series of drawings of two children interacting, males rated boys as significantly more aggressive than girls. Study 2 examined 48 adults' responses under one of three instruction conditions. The findings of Study 1 were replicated. Additionally, it was found that some forms of instruction eliminate sex-typed biases while others yield significant biases among both male and female untrained observers. These results are interpreted in light of the literature on schematic processing. Implications pertaining to the socialization of aggression and to research on sex differences in aggression are discussed.     

Child of divorce: An overview

Children of divorce represent a diverse population at risk for subsequent psychological problems, whose interests are insufficiently understood or protected by the legal system or the mental health community. Although many children weather the stress of marital breakdown without psychopathological sequelae, a significant number show lasting difficulties. Information concerning the psychological adaptation of these children has increased rapidly during the past decade, but it remains unequel to the task of guiding family policy in this arena. Current knowledge identifies child gender and developmental stage as crucial factors that interact with the chronic stresses of postdivorce family life to produce short-and long-range impediments to the maturation of these vulnerable young people. There is a critical need to facilitate understanding and cooperation between the behavioral sciences and the legal profession on behalf of children in divorced families. The major research tasks relevant to enlightened public policy lie ahead.     

Measuring the activity of severely and profoundly mentally-handicapped adults in ordinary housing

Earlier work on the quality of care in settings for severely and profoundly mentally-handicapped adults raised the question whether any useful purpose is served by promoting the extensive use of simple recreational materials to occupy people. Data were collected by direct observation on the activity of 6 adults living in a staffed house organized to promote engagement in household activities. Observations were taken over 5 weekdays from 07.00 to 10.00 and 15.00 to 23.00hr. The results showed that Ss spent between 22 and 67% of available time in purposeful activity. Between 27 and 65% of purposeful activity was engagement in domestic or housework tasks. Even the most handicapped people spent more time engaged in housework than in leisure and recreational tasks. The implications of these data are commented on and measurement issues which arise in ordinary housing as opposed to institutional settings are discussed.     

A process analysis of the effects of performance-contingent rewards on intrinsic motivation

In this study, the effects of performance-contingent rewards on intrinsic motivation were examined in comparison to no-reward controls receiving identical performance feedback. A path analytic process analysis was conducted to examine the mediation of reward effects on subsequent task interest. It was hypothesized that competence valuation, or the personal importance of doing well, would be an important mediator of interest in situations where performance feedback was available. Rewards were predicted to affect interest by influencing an individual's valuation of competence, and by altering the competence valuation mediation process. In addition, achievement orientation was hypothesized to interact with reward in affecting importance and the mediation process. Prior to performing an interesting puzzle, high school students were offered a performance-contingent reward, and then indicated how personally important it was to do well. After doing three puzzles, all subjects received positive feedback regarding their performance. Multiple regression analyses indicated that importance was affected by the experimental variables, and had a positive causal impact on subsequent intrinsic motivation. It was found that the promise of performance-contingent reward positively affected importance for low achievers relative to high achievers, and that the mediation of subsequent intrinsic interest by importance differed according to reward by achievement combinations. Additionally, a direct effect revealed that performance-contingent rewards significantly enhanced interest, relative to no-reward controls receiving identical performance feedback.     

Assertiveness and cognitive processing in interpersonal situations

This study examined social skills components that precede the delivery of a skilled overt interpersonal response. Using a cognitive-behavioral systems approach to assertiveness, a task analysis of how women receive and process information in interpersonal situations requiring an assertive response to men was performed. Forty women were assigned to high- or low-assertive groups based on their Rathus Assertiveness Schedule scores. In small group sessions, each woman viewed four videotaped problem situations requiring an assertive response to both pleasant and angry males. After viewing each scene, each woman completed three questionnaires: (a) receiving information, (b) processing-generation of alternatives and decision making, and (c) processing-generation of consequences. High- and low-assertive participants were found to differ in their evaluation of consequences, for response options, particularly how a male would likely to behave to them. High-assertive participants were judged to evaluate more correctly than low-assertive participants the likely behavior of males if response options were implemented. All participants generated more complex alternatives and more assertive responses to situations involving an angry male as compared to a pleasant male. No differences were found between groups in their ability to receive information accurately. Correlational results were supportive of a cognitive-behavioral systems approach of assertion, that is, the emission of a skilled response depends on a chain of preceding responses.Thanks are due to Vida Dyson and Lenard Jason for their comments on an early draft of this paper.     

Training of fast tapping with reduction of kinaesthetic, tactile, visual and auditory sensations

Five subjects were trained to tap on a light Morse-key during nerve compression block. The training sessions lasted for 40 sec., with a 5 sec. rest after the first 20 sec. work period. The group learning curve reached 89.5 per cent. level of normal performance by the eighth training session. In the ninth, the testing session, subjects tapped with visual and auditory sense reduction superimposed on the kinaesthetic and tactile impariment of the training condition. Performance in the testing session reached 40.9 per cent. of normal.

The sixth subject was trained in the same task as the other five subjects, but the training condition included elimination of cues from all four sensory channels. He reached 79.09 per cent. of his normal tapping performance in the seventh session.

These results show that the motor skill of tapping can be relearned in the absence of kinaesthetic cues. Furthermore when the subject has no conscious knowledge of any peripheral sensory cues connected with the ongoing motor activity, learning can nevertheless take place. These findings lead to the hypothesis, that skilled motor activity can be monitored by central processes alone.

During the training sessions subjects showed a tendency of tapping in groups of gradually increasing length. It is hypothesized that increased number of taps forming a group gives an indication to the possible mode of action of these central processes.     

Arguers as editors

People use editorial criteria to decide whether to say or to suppress potential arguments. These criteria constitute people's standards as to what effective and appropriate arguments are like, and reflect general interaction goals. A series of empirical investigations has indicated that the standards fall into three classes: those having to do with argument effectiveness, those concerned with personal issues for arguer and target, and those centered on discourse quality. The essay also sketches the affinities certain types of people have for the different criteria.