Children's strategies for controlling affective responses to aversive social experience

It was hypothesized that one mechanism of self-control that children develop is the strategic capacity to select the experiences they encounter. This hypothesis led to the prediction that children would deal with certain aversive social experiences by seeking out or taking advantage of opportunities for nurturant experiences. Young children were exposed to an aversive social experience in which they received less nurturance than a peer, a positive experience in which they received more nurturance, or a neutral experience in which nurturance was equal. Subsequently, an opportunity was provided for children to control the length of time they watched a highly nurturant television program. As predicted, boys experiencing an aversive social encounter increased the length of time they exposed themselves to the nurturant television show, and their level of reduced positive affect was related to how long they watched the nurturant content, further supporting the interpretation that they did so in response to their own affective state. Girls did not adopt the strategy of self-exposure to nurturant television but did appear to engage in self-distraction during the aversive social experience. Despite the apparent use of control strategies, there was no indication that these strategies were effective for the amelioration of reduced positive affect resulting from the aversive social experience. Discussion focuses on the sex differences observed in the adoption of strategic behavior and factors contributing to the ineffectiveness of the control strategies. A general model is proposed for personal and environmental factors requisite for the selection, employment, and effectiveness of strategies to control experiences and their affective consequences.     

The effects of therapist-client age similarity on pretherapy expectations

The present study investigated the effects of similarity between psychotherapist age and client age on client's preference for a therapist, willingness to disclose, expected therapeutic climate, and perceptions of therapist competence. Similarity theory provided a rationale for the hypothesis that prospective clients would perceive a psychotherapist similar in age more favorably than a therapist dissimilar in age. Support for the hypothesis was obtained on the dimensions of client preference, willingness to disclose, and therapist competence. Also, consistent with previous research, high experienced therapists were viewed more favorably than low experienced therapists.This research is based on a doctoral dissertation submitted by Kathleen M. Tall under the direction of Michael J. Ross to Saint Louis University.     

Parent-Offspring and Sibling Adoption Analyses of Parental Ratings of Temperament in Infancy and Childhood

A first step toward understanding the etiology of personality is to investigate the relative impact of genetic and environmental factors using twin and adoption designs. Twin studies of infants and young children indicate substantial genetic influence for parental ratings of temperament in the preschool years. Adoption studies, however, have not previously been reported during the early years of life. We present parent-offspring comparisons for temperament (emotionality, activity, sociability, and impulsivity) for adopted and nonadopted children yearly from 1 to 7 years of age and their biological, adoptive, and nonadoptive parents. Also presented are correlations for adoptive and nonadoptive siblings when each child was 1, 2, 3, and 4 years of age. In contrast with twin results, little evidence is found for genetic influence. The average correlation between biological parents and their adopted-away children for data averaged over the 7 years is only .03. Similarly, the average parent-offspring correlation in nonadoptive families (.08) is no greater than in adoptive families (.12). Results for nonadoptive and adoptive siblings also indicate little genetic influence. The difference between the twin and adoption results may be due to environmental effects or to nonadditive genetic variance.     

Fine-tuning theory to the needs of the world: Responding to Heller et al.

Comments on the Heller et al. telephone intervention with isolated elderly women are presented. The importance of addressing contextual factors involved in assessments of social support in community samples is discussed. Comparisons are drawn between the assessment of social support among an elderly sample and an assessment of social support among a sample of chronic illness patients. Three key issues are discussed: (a) Is a little support better than no support and is a little all we really need? (b) Is family support more important than friend support, at least to this population? (c) Can long-term relationships be replaced?     

Attitudes toward women and their work roles: Effects of intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientations

This study examined the effects of personal religious orientation, religious denomination, and gender on attitudes toward women and their work roles using a sample of 263 single undergraduate university students. Subjects with a high intrinsic religious orientation put significantly more emphasis on family than career in their anticipated general lifestyle relative to those with a low intrinsic religious orientation. Subjects with a high intrinsic religious orientation were also more likely to anticipate the female spouse spending less time in a profession during the children's early years. Males showed more traditional attitudes toward women than females, but there were no gender effects on measures of preferred general lifestyle, preferred child-care distribution, or preferred career involvement for the wife. Subjects belonging to mainline and conservative denomination did not differ significantly in their attitudes toward women or their work roles.     

Rater information acquisition processes: Tracing the effects of prior knowledge, performance level, search constraint, and memory demand

Research on performance ratings has tended to neglect factors affecting raters' acquisition of ratee performance information. The present research examined the dynamic effects of this rater information acquisition process. Study 1 examined the effects of prior ratee knowledge (familiarity) and ratee performance level on subsequent acquisition of ratee performance information under varying levels of constraint. After exposure to prior ratee information, raters acquired additional information concerning a set of ratees using a computer controlled information board procedure. The results indicated significant effects on the amount of search for prior knowledge, search constraint, and the interaction between prior knowledge and performance level. Study 2 extended the research by including a memory component (time delay) between the exposure to prior information and subsequent search. Results were congruent with Study 1. They indicated significant main effects on the amount of search for prior knowledge, ratee performance level, search constraint, and on the interaction between prior knowledge and performance level. In addition, the results indicated a significant interaction between memory demand and prior knowledge. Implications of these results, limitations, and extensions of this research approach are discussed.