THE RELATIONSHIP OF GENDER AND ETHNICITY TO SELF-SILENCING AND DEPRESSION AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS

This study expands on the initial work with the Silencing the Self Scale (STSS; Jack, 1991) by presenting data using a more diverse, nonclinical sample. Included were both men and women ( n = 604) who were African American, Asian, Caucasian, and Hispanic. It was expected that women would be more self-silencing than men, and that there would be ethnic differences. There were three principal findings: (a) men were more self-silencing than were women on the STSS; (b) there was a main effect for ethnicity on the STSS, with Asians expressing the highest levels of self-silencing; and (c) there was a positive correlation between self-silencing and depression for all ethnic/gender groups.     

An investigation of the effects of comorbid Axis II pathology on outcome of inpatient treatment for unipolar depression

DSM-based research on comorbidity has suggested thatdepression andpersonality disorder frequently occur together and that the combination of syndromes is associated with a poor response to treatment for depression. The present study was designed to explore the effect of comorbid Axis II pathology for a sample of 45 inpatients who received treatment for major depression. Both categorical and dimensional ratings of personality disorder were used in the statistical analysis. Positive categorical diagnosis of Cluster C (anxious-avoidant) disorder, as well as higher dimensional rating of Cluster A (odd-eccentric) pathology, was predictive of a poor response to treatment (p<.05), as measured by change in pre-post clinical ratings on the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale. These results were construed as indicative of a significant Axis II comorbidity effect in the context of an inpatient, multimodal treatment setting for depression. The results also spotlight the influence of techniques of measurement in determining the outcome of statistical analysis.     

An investigation of the relationship between self-efficacy and the communication effectiveness of product manual formats

Product manuals have been virtually ignored in published research despite their relevance to consumer satisfaction and marketplace safety. This study examines self-efficacy (perceptions of capabilities related to operating a product) and how it influences the effectiveness of and is also influenced by three safety message formats commonly used in product manuals (i.e., 1. safety messages presented in list format at the front of the manual; 2; safety messages presented by semantic similarity interspersed throughout the manual—chunked format, and 3. safety messages presented in a combined format—both list and chunked). As anticipated, pre-exposure self-efficacy was a significant covariate which was found to be positively related to post-exposure self-efficacy and negatively related to information evaluation. Further, controlling for pre-exposure self-efficacy, post-exposure self-efficacy was significantly lower in the combined (list plus chunked) condition. Findings of this research have important implications for the practice of repeating safety warnings and future research in the consumer information domain.Authors are listed in alphabetical order. This study was supported by an Illinois State University Research Grant.     

Differences in influence between pitched-from-vertical lines and slanted-from-frontal horizontal lines on egocentric localization

The visual field exerts powerful effects on egocentric spatial localization along both horizontal and vertical dimensions. Thus, (1) prism-produced visual pitch and visual slant generate similar mislocalizations of visually perceived eye level (VPEL) and visually perceived straight ahead (VPSA) and (2) in darkness curare-produced extraocular muscle paresis under eccentric gaze generates similar mislocalizations in VPEL and VPSA that are essentially eliminated by introducing a normal visual field. In the present experiments, however, a search for influences of real visual slant on VPSA to correspond to the influences of visual pitch on VPEL failed to find one. Although the elevation corresponding to VPEL changes linearly with the pitch of a visual field consisting of two isolated 66.5°-long pitched-from-vertical lines, the corresponding manipulation of change in the slant of either a horizontal two-line or a horizontal four-line visual field on VPSA did not occur. The average slope of the VPEL-versus-pitch function across 5 subjects was +0.40 over a ±30° pitch range, but was indistinguishable from 0.00 for the VPSA-versus-slant function over a ±30° slant range. Possible contributions to the difference between susceptibility of VPEL and VPSA to visual influence from extraretinal eye position information, gravity, and several retinal gradients are discussed.     

CONSTRUCT ACCESSIBILITY AND THE MISATTRIBUTION OF AROUSAL:

Abstract— Schachter and Singer (1962) showed that people search the immediate environment for emotionally relevant cues to label and interpret unexplained physiological arousal We investigated how unobtrusively activated cognitions and physiological arousal interact to produce emotional experience when the immediate environment is devoid of relevant cues Subjects were primed with positive, negative, or neutral concepts They then either exercised or sat still and, either immediately or after a delay, rated their emotional state Consistent with what Schachter and Singer found, subjects in the exercise, delayed-rating condition, who lacked an obvious explanation for their arousal, made the most extreme affective self-ratings, which were consistent with the valence of the primed concepts These subjects apparently interpreted their residual arousal in terms of the primed concepts Subjects in the exercise, immediate-rating condition, who had an explanation for their arousal (i e, the exercise), were not influenced by the primes Subjects in the no-exercise condition showed typical priming effects, with prime-consistent self-ratings that decayed over time Implications for emotion formation, misattnbution of arousal, and cognition are discussed     

Temporal discounting and preference reversals in choice between delayed outcomes

Subjects chose between pairs of hypothetical amounts of money available after different delays. When smaller, more immediate amounts were selected over larger, more delayed amounts, the addition of a constant delay to both outcomes resulted in reversals of preference, contrary to the standard discounted utility model of economics. The delays at which preference reversed were determined for three pairs of amounts ($20 vs. $50, $100 vs. $250, and $500 vs. $1,250). The relation between the delay to the larger amount and the delay to the smaller amount at preference reversal was well fit by both linear and quadratic functions. Intercepts increased with amount, strongly suggesting that rate of discounting decreases with amount. The presence of significant negative curvature in the data from the majority of individual subjects poses problems for exponential and hyperbolic models of temporal discounting in self-control, both of which predict a linear relation between the delays to the larger and smaller amounts.     

The effect of gap depth on the perception of whether a gap is crossable

Four experiments were performed in order to examine the effect of gap depth on human observers’ perception of whether or not a gap is crossable. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that as the gap’s depth increased, observers tended to increasingly underestimate the maximum width of a gap they could step across. Experiments 3 and 4 clarified this finding: The observed covariation of perceived gap crossability and gap depth depended on the observer’s direction of gaze, rather than on the physical depth of the gap. The optical relations to which observers might be attending are discussed, as well as the possibility that cognitive-affective processes might have contributed to observers’ underestimation of their actual capabilities.     

CHOICE-MAKING TREATMENT OF YOUNG CHILDREN'S SEVERE BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS

The choice-making behavior of 5 young children with developmental disabilities who engaged in aberrant behavior was studied within a concurrent operants framework. Experimental analyses were conducted to identify reinforcers that maintained aberrant behavior, and functional communication training packages were implemented to teach the participants to gain reinforcement using mands. Next, a choice-making analysis, in which the participants chose one of two responses (either a mand or an alternative neutral response) to obtain different durations and qualities of reinforcement, was conducted. Finally, treatment packages involving choice making via manding were implemented to decrease inappropriate behavior and to increase mands. The results extended previous applications of choice making to severe behavior disorders and across behaviors maintained by positive and negative reinforcement.     

Optimism and Pessimism in Business Leaders1

Male business leaders responded to 3 instruments, the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI-SELF), the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory (KAI), and a measure of optimism and pessimism (O/P). Approximately 5 to 6 (range = 3 to 9) of each of the 48 leaders' direct reports rated their leaders on the LPI (LPI-OBSERVER) and also responded to the O/P instrument. As predicted, both the leaders and their direct reports had lower mean scores on pessimism than a normative group; neither group differed from the norm on optimism. The leader KAI scores were negatively correlated with pessimism, and positively, though not significantly so, with optimism. Optimism was positively correlated with 2 factors of the LPI-OBSERVER, but pessimism was not correlated with any of the five LPI factors.