A Test of the Consensus and Distinctiveness Attribution Principles in Victims of Disaster1

The present research was designed to test the hypothesis that perceptions of consensus about the collective experience of psychological problems, as well as the distinctive presence of a community disaster, would affect attributions of externality about such problems. Specifically, it was hypothesized that (1) higher levels of consensus would be associated with greater external attributions of causality, (2) attributions would be more external if the problem began after the disaster (high distinctiveness) than before the disaster, and (3) the occurrence of the disaster would magnify the positive relationship between high consensus and external causality attributions, because of the presence of a distinctive and salient external event. These hypotheses were tested with victims of a flash flood. Results supported the interaction prediction (Hypothesis 3) for the problem of depression, but not for anxiety. In addition, for depression and anxiety, greater consensus was indirectly associated with greater externality, regardless of distinctiveness (Hypothesis 1). However, for somatization, none of the hypotheses were supported. The results are discussed in terms of the applied implications for postdisaster intervention programs to reduce psychopathology.     

Spacing judgments as an index of integration from context-induced relational processing: Implications for the free recall of ambiguous prose passages

The effect of information integration on the recall of ambiguous prose passages was investigated. In Experiment 1, subjects read ambiguous passages that were difficult to comprehend without titles. In judging the relative positions in the passages of pairs of test sentences, subjects performed better when they read passages headed by a suitable title than when they read untitled passages or received a title at the time of testing. In Experiment 2, subjects provided with a title at encoding also better discriminated complete old sentences from foils composed of fragments of two different old sentences than did subjects provided with no titles or with titles at the time of testing. These two tests index the degree of inter- and intrasentence information integration, respectively. Two findings indicated that integration affected free recall of an ambiguous passage. First, when the degree of integration of the passage's propositions was controlled, free recall of the passage was no different for subjects who did or did not know the passage's title at encoding. Second, inducing subjects to comprehend the passage's sentences individually, without relating them to one another, reduced free recall of the passage.     

Extraversion and attitude towards capital punishment

Male and female Canadian undergraduate students identified as extraverts or introverts on the basis of the Eysenck Personality Inventory were administered a questionnaire measuring attitude towards Capital Punishment. Both effects of sex and personality were significant, males and extraverts reporting stronger beliefs in Capital Punishment than females and introverts. These results were interpreted as providing support for Eysenck's proposal that the social attitude dimension of Toughmindedness reflects the personality trait of Extraversion.     

Direct and continuous measurement of relational learning in human pavlovian conditioning

Three experiments were conducted employing a continuous measure of conditional stimulus/unconditional stimulus (CS/US) contingencies as perceived by the subject (i.e., subjective contingency or SC). It is argued that direct measurement of relational learning, as indexed by SC, can lead to a better understanding of Pavlovian conditioning processes. The first two experiments applied this approach to a methodologic controversy, raising the debate from a procedure-based argument to testing what the subject actually learns about CS/US relationships. While the issue was not resolved, testable hypotheses for future research were generated from the data. The third experiment contrasted the contingency stimulus-stimulus (S-S) account of Pavlovian conditioning with an earlier stimulus-response (S-R) continguity-reinforcement account. In this experiment, both SC and skin resistance were measured. Evidence for the existence of both cognitive-propositional and response-learning processes in conditioning was obtained.     

Authoritarian personalities in the natural and social sciences

This research is an extension of a previous finding, that authoritarian personalities are predisposed to the social sciences and nonauthoritarians to the natural sciences. Two hypotheses were tested: (1) Within the social sciences, more authoritarian personalities enter economics and geography than psychology, social work, or sociology; and (2) between the first and last years in college, in “authoritarian departments” there is an increase, while in “nonauthoritarian departments” there is a decrease in the students' authoritarianism.     

The effects of alcohol and extreme provocation on the use of a highly noxious electric shock

Intoxicated and nonintoxicated subjects were given the opportunity to administer a potentially injurious level of shock to an opponent who behaved in either a provocative or an extremely provocative manner. The provocative opponent attempted to administer high-intensity shocks to the subject. The extremely provocative opponent attempted to administer high-intensity shocks and the potentially injurious level of shock. The intoxicated subjects in the extreme provocation condition evidenced the greatest increase in the use of the potentially injurious shock. It was concluded that aggression is a function of the interaction of alcohol consumption and level of provocation.     

Situational Cues and Crime Reporting: Do Signs Make a Difference?1

Two field studies were conducted to assess the effect of signs describing how to report a shoplifting on bystander intervention to a staged theft. In the first study, signs providing directions and one of three rationales for reporting had a small effect on attitudes toward reporting and no effect on intervention. In the second study, a definition of the situation as a shoplifting by a confederate had a strong influence on subjects reporting, but presence or absence of signs describing how to report had no impact. Differences between interpersonal and nonpersonal influences are described, and implications for informational campaigns to increase crime reporting are discussed.     

Drug use and deviation from self-concept norms

The more the deviation from a sex-and-grade, self-concept score norm (as indexed on a pair-comparisons, adjectival inventory), the greater the incidence of reported drug use. This assertion applies (a) to both sexes (teenagers) for beer and wine, cigarettes, hard liquor, and marijuana, and (b) to males alone for speed and LSD.The first-named author developed the deviancy scale; both authors processed data. In the latter task, they were assisted by Mrs. Edith P. Ferguson, wife of second-named author.