Conceptual structure and social functions of behavior explanations: beyond person--situation attributions

The traditional approach to studying behavior explanations involves treating them as either person causes or situation causes and assessing them by using rating scales. An analysis of people's free-response behavior explanations reveals, however, that the conceptual distinctions people use in their explanations are more complex and sophisticated than the person-situation dichotomy suggests. The authors, therefore, introduce a model of the conceptual structure of folk behavior explanations (the network of concepts and assumptions on which explanations are based) and test it in 4 studies. The modes and features of behavior explanations within this conceptual structure also have specific social functions. In 2 additional studies, the authors demonstrate that people alter distinct features of their explanations when pursuing particular impression-management goals and that listeners make inferences about explainers' goals on the basis of these features.     

Ipsilateral loudness adaptation over multiple intensity levels

Could monaural loudness adaptation be a simple artifact of psychophysical contrast? From adaptation data based on the Ipsilateral Comparison Paradigm (ICP), A. J. Dange, J. S. Warm, E. M. Weiler, and W. N. Dember (1993) concluded that loudness adaptation was not an artifact of psychophysical contrast, but their conclusion was dependent on results from one intensity. This study, involving multiple intensities, re-examined the issue of contrast versus adaptation and generally supported the conclusions of Dange et al. The results also showed an unexpected asymmetry of adaptation based on the direction of the referent modulation used with the ICP technique. Some implications are discussed.     

Prenatal diagnosis, personal identity, and disability

A fascinating criticism of abortion occasioned by prenatal diagnosis of potentially disabling traits is that the complex test-and-abortion sends a morally disparaging message to people living with disabilities. I have argued that available versions of this "expressivist" argument are inadequate on two grounds. The most fundamental is that, considered as a practice, abortions prompted by prenatal testing are not semantically well-behaved enough to send any particular message; they do not function as signs in a rule-governed symbol system. Further, even granting, for the sake of argument, the expressive power of testing and aborting, it would not be possible, contra the argument's proponents, to distinguish between abortions undertaken because of beliefs about the disabling conditions the fetus might face as a child and abortions undertaken for many other possible reasons -- e.g., because of the poverty the fetus would face or the increase in family size that the birth of a new child would occasion. Here, I respond to criticisms of those arguments, and propose and defend another: the expressivist argument cannot, in general, distinguish successfully between abortion and therapy as modalities for responding to disabilities.     

The ties that bind what is known to the recall of what is new

Cued recall success varies with what people know and with what they do during an episode. This paper focuses on prior knowledge and disentangles the relative effects of 10 features of words and their relationships on cued recall. Results are reported for correlational and multiple regression analyses of data obtained from free association norms and from 29 experiments. The 10 features were only weakly correlated with each other in the norms and, with notable exceptions, in the experiments. The regression analysis indicated that forward cue-to-target strength explained the most variance, followed by backward target-to-cue strength. Target connectivity and set size explained the next most variance, along with mediated cue-to-target strength. Finally, frequency, concreteness, shared associate strength, and cue set size also contributed significantly to recall. Taken together, indices of prior word knowledge explain 49% of the recall variance. Theoretically driven equations that use free association to predict cued recall were also evaluated. Each equation was designed to condense multiple indices of word interconnectivity into a single predictor.     

Thought recognition, locus of control, and adolescent well-being

This paper reviews the underlying assumptions and principles of a new psychological paradigm, Psychology of Mind/Health Realization (POM/HR). A core concept of POM/HR, thought recognition, is then compared with locus of control (LOC), a well-known psychological construct. Next, the relationship of LOC to self-reported happiness and satisfaction is examined from the perspective of POM/HR, using a sample of 1,872 at-risk adolescents from 17 nations. The findings support POM/HR predictions that (1) locus of control would account for a slight portion of the variance in adolescent happiness and satisfaction, (2) circumstances that are external in nature would account for additional variance in happiness and satisfaction, and (3) there would be little difference in self-reported happiness and satisfaction between adolescents self-reporting high and low internal LOC. Further, it was conjectured that the adolescents mistook superficial emotions, such as excitement and security, for genuine feelings of well-being. Finally, the implications for prevention and intervention efforts with at-risk adolescents are discussed.     

Young children's use of functional information to categorize artifacts: three factors that matter

Three experiments addressed factors that might influence whether or not young children take into account function, as opposed to overall appearance or shape, when they extend the names of novel artifacts. Experiment 1 showed that 4-year-olds more often extend a name on the basis of a demonstrated function when that function provides a plausible causal account of perceptible object structure. Experiment 2 showed that they more often extend a name by function when they respond slowly, and hence thoughtfully. Experiment 3 demonstrated that they are more likely to take function into account when they extend names than when they judge similarities. Comparisons of lexical and non-lexical conditions in younger children failed to show any differences. Overall, the findings suggest that by 4 years of age, children may learn names as labels for novel artifact kinds rather than perceptual classes, and that the processes by which they categorize may be mindful and reflective, as in adults.     

Seasonal variation in human functional cerebral lateralization and free testosterone concentrations

Men have previously been reported to exhibit seasonal fluctuations on specific types of cognitive performance. It has been speculated that this performance variability is a result of changes in cerebral asymmetry due to lowered testosterone concentrations in the spring relative to the fall. In the present study, functional cerebral lateralization was measured in a group of men and women in the spring and fall. Free testosterone concentrations were assessed for participants to determine what associations might exist between seasonal variability in lateralization and seasonal fluctuations in testosterone exposure. Men and women tested in the spring exhibited exaggerated patterns of asymmetry compared to participants tested in the fall. Lower testosterone concentrations were observed in the spring compared to the fall in women, but not men. No direct associations between testosterone and lateralization were detected for either sex at either season. These results illustrate that seasonal fluctuations in testosterone exposure do not directly influence seasonal changes in functional lateralization patterns.     

Suicide: a 15-year review of the sociological literature. Part II: modernization and social integration perspectives

This article reviews the findings of 84 sociological studies published over a 15-year period. These studies deal with tests of the modernization and/or social integration perspectives on suicide. Research on modernization, religious integration, and political integration often questioned or reformulated the traditional Durkheimian perspective. A major new theoretical development, Pescosolido's religious networks perspective, gained some empirical support in the 15-year period. The strongest support for social integration theory came from research on marital integration, wherein more than three quarters of the research found a significant relationship. Finally, further research on migration, a force lowering social integration, continued to tend to find a positive link to suicide.     

Attributional Style, Self-Esteem, and Human Immunodeficiency Virus: A Test of the Hopelessness and Self-Esteem Theories of Depression

Research on the hopelessness and self-esteem theories of depression (Abramson, Metalsky, & Alloy, 1989; Metalsky, Joiner, Hardin, & Abramson, 1993) suggests that HIV-infected persons with depressotypic attributional style (AS) and low self-esteem (SE) may be at risk for onset of a syndrome referred to as hopelessness depression (HD). In a prospective study conducted to test these theories, measures of anxiety and depression, AS, and SE were administered to 85 HIV+ and 43 HIV– men; symptoms were reassessed 6 months later. Results indicated that: (1) The interaction of AS, SE, and HIV status predicted change in HD symptoms, but not overall depression or anxiety symptoms; (2) HIV+ men with depressotypic AS and high SE had increased HD symptom levels while other men with high SE had decreased HD symptom levels; (3) HD symptoms remained stable over the 6-month interval among men with low SE; and (4) High SE predicted decreases in anxiety symptoms among HIV– men, but not among HIV+ men. Contrary to the study hypothesis, these findings suggest that among individuals with life-threatening illnesses such as HIV infection, those with depressotypic AS and high SE may be at highest risk for onset of HD.