The impact of mode of presentation on gender differences in social perception

This research investigated the conditions under which males might perceive sexuality in females in heterosexual interactions (the Abbey effect). Caucasian male and female couples participated in a brief interaction in which they were rated by observers. Interactants also rated themselves as well as their partners. These live interactions were videotaped, audiotaped, and photographed, and subsequently rated by other observers (subjects). Subjects made ratings on a variety of dimensions, including adjectives relating to the sexuality of the interactants as well as the interactants' desire for future interaction with their partners. Results indicated that males attributed more sexuality and a higher desire for future interactions to females they observed or with whom they interacted than females did. Further, the tendency to attribute sexuality was affected by way in which stimuli were presented to the raters. Photos, which had the least amount of information relative to the other methods, produced the highest sexuality and future interaction ratings, suggesting that stereotyping might play a role. Implications of the results and future research are discussed.This research was based on a master's thesis conducted by the first author under the direction of the second author. We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Anthony J. Conger in the design and analysis of this research.To whom reprint requests should be addressed at Purdue University, Department of Psychological Sciences, West Lafayette, IN 47907.     

Beliefs about female and male nonverbal communication

Participants (N= 441) rated from 1 to 10 how frequently or well they believed hypothetical women and men performed each of twenty nonverbal behaviors or skills. Women were believed to use more expressive and involved nonverbal behaviors than men, and to be more skilled at sending and receiving nonverbal messages. Men were believed to be louder and more interruptive, and to display more nervous, dysfluent behaviors. Ratings given to females by females were higher than were ratings in the other gender combinations for over half the variables, which may accurately describe female—female interaction. Perceived gender differences correlated positively with differences reported in observational studies, indicating that beliefs about nonverbal gender differences were generally accurate. The authors wish to thank Tom Leahy for his assistance in data collection.     

Ritual experience and its emergence with story: An experience in meaning

The purpose of this research investigation was to understand the essential features and structures of ritual through the perceptions of 36 women's stories of their families of origin and how this may have had impact on their current sense of affiliation and meaning. Various theoretical perspectives were reviewed with a phenomenological lens. The study utilized findings from previous research in the areas of ritual, gender, and meaning. Results indicated a central theme of high ritual perspective affecting high current affiliation perspective. Ritual was a female-centered experience in the families. An experience of affiliation in one's family of origin seemed to indicate the creation of an affiliation template that allows one to recognize and experience a sense of relatedness in current connections.     

“That reminds me of a story...”: The therapeutic use of cautionary tales

This story about stories illustrates two kinds of cautionary tales and attempts to account for why and how they are useful in therapy.     

Co-constructed narratives around being “sick”: A minimalist model

The amount of physical damage may have no fixed relation to how much and in what ways a patient's life is disrupted. The authors discuss a model which addresses the bio-psycho-social complexity of a patient's illness and the narrative constructions which the patient, family members, and health care professionals influence to co-create the patient's identification with being sick. This minimalist model invites the reader to consider a variety of interrelated variable lenses through which to view the narratives around a patient's illness. Clinical case examples are used to illustrate the dominant story themes.     

Of thorns and roses: The use of the “brier rose” fairy tale in therapy with families of gifted children

Fairy tales have been used successfully in addressing difficult therapeutic issues in indirect ways. This paper describes how the Grimm's tale Brier Rose can help engage families with an academically gifted child in family therapy. The metaphor concepts of derivational search, indirection, and embedded commands are briefly discussed, the fairy tale is summarized, and the story is applied to the three metaphor concepts.     

Availability to peer group treatment in residential care as a function of relational ethics

Forty-five adolescent boys from abusive and depriving homes were not doing well in positive peer culture residential care. Despite their backgrounds, given a modified form of the Relational Ethics Scale, they indicated that their relational life with their families of origin was trustworthy, fair, and worthy of continued devotion. In contrast, on the Firo-B these same boys demonstrated distrust of others outside of their families and an unwillingness to get involved. These results support the inference from contextual family theory that peer group interventions cannot bypass identification and resolution of the injustices that took place in the family of origin.This project was fully supported by Teen Ranch, Inc., Marlette, MI 48453.     

Syntactic form and semantic function

The experiments reported here were designed to investigate the effects on linguistic performance of varying the interaction between the syntactic form of sentences and their semantic function. The experimental task required subjects to decide whether pairs of sentences had the same or a different meaning. The results of Experiment I confirmed the prediction that the times taken to decide about pairs of affirmative and negative sentences would be shorter when the negative was performing its natural function of signalling a change of meaning. To a lesser extent, performance on pairs of active and passive sentences was facilitated when the two sentences meant the same thing. These results were found both with “meaningful” sentence material and with abstract x-y sentences. A second experiment provided a control for the possibility that the results were due to syntactic derivational factors rather than to the semantic function interaction.     

Stimulus complexity,free looking time,and inspective exploration

Fourteen Ss rated 59 objects on a seven point complexity scale. From these ratings 10 objects were chosen at the high, middle, and low levels of complexity, and 35 mm slides were made of these 30 objects. Fifteen Ss manipulated and inspected each of the objects for as long as they wished and a second group of 15 Ss viewed slides of the objects for as long as they wished. Analysis of the time scores from these two groups revealed that both inspective manipulation time and free looking time increased as a function of stimulus complexity. Inspective manipulation time was greater than free looking time except at the low complexity level.     

Divorce in the Kibbutz: Determinants of emotional adjustment

About two-thirds of a representative sample of kibbutz divorced subjects reached a satisfactory emotional and functioning level of adjustment with a high degree of cooperation between the exspouses by the second postseparation year. This outcome appears to be positively influenced both by a process of habituation and desensitization determined by the continuous physical proximity of the former spouses and by the neutralization of parenting and economic issues as subjects for dispute and litigation.