Need for affiliation,self-esteem,and social distance of black Americans

One hundred three undergraduate men at Howard University were administered a projective measure of the need for affiliation, a self-esteem scale, and a modified version of the Bogardus Social Distance Scale that compared the subject's social distance from his own ethnic group with his social distance from the average of 20 other American ethnic groups. High need for affiliation and high self-esteem were related to small social distance between own and other ethnic groups. Low need for affiliation and low self-esteem interacted to produce the largest social distance. Implications for occupational mobility are discussed.     

Choice for others and the perception of control

There has been an increasing emphasis in psychology on the perception of control over one's environment and its effect on behavior and performance. In the present experiment, subjects were allowed to choose material they would like to learn if given the opportunity, or allowed to choose material for others to learn. Their learning of a nonchosen (forced) set of materials was then examined and compared with that of subjects given no opportunity to choose at all. It was found that the choice-for-self condition led to better performance than either the choice-for-other condition or the nochoice (forced) condition. However, when an additional group of subjects was given the opportunity to choose for others and their personal involvement was augmented by emphasizing their willingness to choose, their performance was enhanced relative to subjects offered no choice. The results were discussed in terms of motivational benefits stemming from perceived control.This report is based on a thesis submitted by the first author to the Graduate School at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the M.S. degree. The research was supported in part by a grant from the U.S. Army Research Office to the second author and by the Behavioral Research Directorate of the U.S. Army Human Engineering Laboratory. It may be reproduced in full or in part for any purpose of the United States Government.     

Asymmetric integrality with dimensions of visual pattern

Subjects performed speeded classification tasks with visual patterns that varied in two dimensions: the elements used to construct the patterns (the letters X, Y, V, and 0) and the configurations formed by the spatial arrangement of the elements. Neither dimension could be attended to selectively without interference from the other, indicating that the dimensions are integral. But the amount of interference between the two dimensions was asymmetrical; irrelevant variation of elements (while classifying by configuration) was harder to ignore than irrelevant variation of configuration (while classifying by elements). This held true whether the element or the configuration discrimination was easier in tasks with no irrelevant variation. It is concluded that the asymmetry is due to attentional strategies in the processing of these patterns and not to the discriminabilities of the dimensions used.

     

Positive life events and social support and the relationship between life stress and psychological disorder

Conclusion In conclusion, the present research demonstrated the deleterious effects of negative life events. Number of negative events was a significant predictor of psychological disorder even when initial disorder was statistically controlled. The cross-sectional regression findings provided some support for the stress-buffering effects of positive life events, but these effects were nonsignificant when initial disorder was statistically controlled. The cross-sectional and prospective regression findings suggest that received social support, as measured by the ISSB, does not have a direct or stress-buffering effect on psychological disorder. These analyses, however, demonstrated the direct and stress-buffering effects of perceived social support, as measured by the ISEL, and the data suggest that the ISEL is a promising measure of this construct.The authors thank Sheldon Cohen who provided helpful comments on an earlier version of this article.     

From the private I to the public ear: Effective learning groups for college-age students

This paper addresses the problem of organizing and conducting groups at a college counseling center. It focuses on the importance of a therapist learning from his/her errors, of appropriately matching a client with a particular group and of preparing clients and group leaders for work with a group. The concept of boundary management is used as a way to understand group events and to make sense of group leader errors. Throughout the paper, attention is given to how best to develop groups within the unique framework of a college community.This paper was presented at Brandeis University's Conference on Psychological Work with College Students, November 6, 1982. It was written in the memory of Eugenia Hanfmann, Ph.D., who as Director of the Brandeis University Counseling Center encouraged the author to appreciate the value of learning from his errors! In writing this paper the author is grateful for the support and for the suggestions offered by his colleagues, Bruce Weiss, Ph.D., and E. Martin Schotz, M.D.     

Social impact of attack on a president: Its public reverberations

Recent assassinations in U.S. history are reviewed and the medical and legal responses that follow such events are covered, as are conspiratorial theories. The question as to whether or not American assassins actually were conspirators is discussed and the reasons for the prevalence of conspiratorial theories are covered, as are the origins of these theories.     

Conceptual issues in network therapy

This paper presents three concepts developed within the context of a project to study and conduct network therapy. The concepts discussed are: (1) the need for balance in participant composition, specifically in terms of support systems for core members, and the participant levels of affective involvement; (2) the therapeutic use of polarization of the network members against the therapist; and (3) the shared leadership role within the team of therapists. Case illustrations are included to demonstrate the concepts presented; and other areas for future study are suggested.     

Belief discrepant behavior and the bogus pipeline: Impression management or arousal attribution

Based on recent studies impression management theorists conclude that following belief discrepant behavior, persons will feign attitude change on paper measures, but report their “true” beliefs when attached to a lie detector (the bogus pipeline). A dissonance arousal explanation of these bogus pipeline results suggests that subjects may attribute their arousal to the bogus pipeline equipment instead of to dissonance and therefore may not be motivated to change their attitudes. The present study examined these competing interpretations and yielded results which support the dissonance arousal attribution explanation. Subjects who were attached to a (bogus pipeline) lie detector exhibited attitude change if given the opportunity to get accustomed to the equipment (which made attribution of arousal to the equipment less plausible), but showed no attitude change if no habituation experience was provided.