Defensiveness, intimacy, and heterosexual attraction

A previous study by Dion and Dion (1975) revealed that highly defensive individuals were less likely to report having experienced romantic love than less defensive persons. The hypothesis that this finding might reflect differential reactions to interpersonal intimacy was directly examined in the present study using a self-disclosure paradigm. To assess subjects' defensiveness, undergraduate women first completed the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. In a second session, subjects were exposed to high and low disclosing targets of the same and opposite sex and chose discussion topics for each target. On intimacy of self-disclosure, a “reciprocity effect” occurred: subjects chose more intimate topics for high vs low-disclosing targets. However, highly defensive women gave a less favorable self-presentation to male vs female targets. They also expressed less liking for high compared to low intimate targets and males vs females than less defensive subjects. The implications of these results for heterosexual attraction were discussed.     

Valence and instrumentality contributions to understanding occupational preference

Studies on the expectancy model have presented conflicting results concerning the usefulness of valence ratings. There has been some support for valence as significantly adding to the predictability of occupational preference, while other studies have indicated that instrumentality ratings alone are sufficient.     

The propensity to recall another's completed and uncompleted tasks as a consequence of varying social relationships

Two laboratory experiments are reported. Each investigates the bias that social relationships exert on a subject's propensity to recall another's completed and uncompleted tasks. Using closed circuit television, subjects in both experiments observed a bogus other working on a set of puzzles. The person working completed only one-half of the puzzles. In three of the six experimental conditions in both experiments, subjects believed that the remaining puzzles could be completed at a later time. In the first experiment, a subject's relationship to the other was determined by cooperative, competitive, or individualistic economic incentives. In the second, the relationship was determined simply by their similarity or dissimilarity on a bogus personality test. Utilizing a combination of Lewinian assumptions and contemporary theory about memory, we hypothesized that the opportunity to resume work would result in an increased propensity to recall uncompleted tasks in the competitive (or dissimilar) conditions and a decreased propensity to do so in the cooperative (or similar) conditions. Results confirmed this hypothesis. Additional data in both experiments suggest that subjects' relationships with the bogus other altered the accessibility of this information. Theoretical implications of these findings and their relationship to research on prosocial behavior are discussed.     

Increased Reinforcer Immediacy can Promote Employment-Seeking in Unemployed Homeless Adults with Alcohol Use Disorder

The Psychological Record - Unemployment, homelessness, and substance use are interrelated. The present study took place as part of a clinical trial intended to promote employment and abstinence...     

Sex Differences in Referral Rates of Children with Gender Identity Disorder: Some Hypotheses

From 1978 through 1995, a sex ratio of 6.6:1 of boys to girls (N = 275) was observed for children referred to a specialty clinic for gender identity disorder. This article attempts to evaluate several hypotheses regarding the marked sex disparity in referral rates. The sexes did not differ on four demographic variables (age at referral, IQ, and parent's social class and marital status) and on five indices of general behavior problems on the Child Behavior Checklist; in addition, there was only equivocal evidence that boys with gender identity disorder had significantly poorer peer relations than girls with gender identity disorder. Although the percentage of boys and girls who met the complete DSM-III-R criteria for gender identity disorder was comparable, other measures of sex-typed behavior showed that the girls had more extreme cross-gender behavior than the boys. Coupled with external evidence that cross-gender behavior is less tolerated in boys than in girls by both peers and adults, it is concluded that social factors partly account for the sex difference in referral rates. Girls appear to require a higher threshold than boys for cross-gender behavior before they are referred for clinical assessment.     

Social support from a friend,perceived support,and social problem solving

This research combined experimental and correlational methods to investigate the effects of social support on social problem-solving effectiveness and perceived stress. During a wait period, college students were given the opportunity to work on practice items from a mildly stressful social problem-solving task, either alone or in the company of a close friend. Participants and friends were allowed to talk about the practice items but were not required to do so, and supportive transactions were tape recorded and content analyzed. All students then completed social problem-solving and perceived stress items alone. Participants who waited with friends did not show superior problem-solving effectiveness unless companions provided particular supportive behaviors. Participants with high perceived support scores rated the experiment as less stressful than those with low scores, but perceived support was not related to companions' actual supportive behaviors. The results were discussed in terms of implications for understanding the mechanisms of social support.     

Trajectories of Social Withdrawal from Middle Childhood to Early Adolescence

Heterogeneity and individual differences in the developmental course of social withdrawal were examined longitudinally in a community sample (N = 392). General Growth Mixture Modeling (GGMM) was used to identify distinct pathways of social withdrawal, differentiate valid subgroup trajectories, and examine factors that predicted change in trajectories within subgroups. Assessments of individual (social withdrawal), interactive (prosocial behavior), relationship (friendship involvement, stability and quality, best friend’s withdrawal and exclusion/victimization) and group- (exclusion/victimization) level characteristics were used to define growth trajectories from the final year of elementary school, across the transition to middle school, and then to the final year of middle school (fifth-to-eighth grades). Three distinct trajectory classes were identified: low stable, increasing, and decreasing. Peer exclusion, prosocial behavior, and mutual friendship involvement differentiated class membership. Friendlessness, friendship instability, and exclusion were significant predictors of social withdrawal for the increasing class, whereas lower levels of peer exclusion predicted a decrease in social withdrawal for the decreasing class.