Some historical dimensions of commonsense knowledge about depression and antidepressive behaviour

Ss of the present study were asked to endorse one member of each of 10 forced-choice pairs of propositions representing the main principles of the neoclassical tradition of thought on the prevention and treatment of melancholy and to estimate the percentage of the group that they thought would endorse each proposition. Comparison of observed and mean predicted percentages showed a high correlation for two of three groups. All three groups gave very similar mean predictions, which suggested that they possessed an a priori schema of the distribution of consensus regarding these beliefs amongst peers. The results are examined as an empirical demonstration of quantitative dimensions of common culture and of the continuity of classical traditions in the contemporary social stock of knowledge. The recent general revival of scientific and popular interest in the role of factors traditionally regarded as contributory to health and disease is briefly considered as a wider context in which the present findings should be viewed.     

Beauty Is Only "Name" Deep: The Effect of First-Name On Ratings of Physical Attraction

College students ( n = 197) voted to select a beauty queen from among six photographs equivalent in physical attractiveness, as determined by rankings of 35 students from a separate university. Half the photographs bore a desirable first-name and half were assigned an undesirable first-name. As predicted, firstname had a significant effect on physical attraction: Girls with desirable firstnames received 158 votes to 39 for those with undesirable names. These data were discussed in terms of an additive, rather than an interactive, effect, due to the nature of the task. The strength of these findings was related to the study's ecological validity.     

The spiritual experience index: A measure of spiritual maturity

The Spiritual Experience Index was developed to measure spiritual maturity in persons of diverse religious and spiritual beliefs. The scale was constructed from a developmental rather than a multidimensional conceptualization of faith. Initial findings from a religiously heterogeneous college sample indicated good reliability for the SEI and supported its use as a unidimensional measure. Higher scores on the SEI were significantly related to lower dogmatism and intolerance of ambiguity. The SEI was also moderately related to higher religious participation and positively correlated with intrinsicness and quest. However, compared with the intrinsic and quest scales, the SEI emerged as the strongest indicator of adaptive spiritual functioning. Directions for future research are suggested.     

Computer-Assisted Careers Counselling: A New Approach

This paper describes the outcome of a research and development project concerned to construct a computer aid for careers advisers and career decision-makers which differs in basic philosophy and design from others currentiy in the field. The resulting Careers Decision Aiding System (CDAS) is principally concerned with improving the quality of the decision-making strategy employed by clients by raising their awareness of the way in which their career choice is made, ratherthan with employing computer technology to attempt to match people to careers. The use of the CDAS by clients and careers advisers is illustrated by two case-studies.     

Feedback and performance expectancies in an academic setting

College students in two psychology courses estimated their confidence in passing and their anticipated score for three examinations. On the first examination the results from both courses supported the prediction that women, compared to men, would be less confident of passing, would predict lower scores, and would underestimate their obtained scores. These sex differences disappeared, as predicted, on the second and third examination for the course, in which the situation remained relatively constant over the term. However, contrary to predictions, the sex differences were maintained over all three examinations for the second course, which involved different instructors for each exam. Thus, the effects of feedback on performance expectancies seem to be vulnerable to situational changes.