Predicting interpersonal competence in young adulthood: The roles of family,self, and peer systems during adolescence

The present investigation examines the impact of family, self, and peer systems, evaluated during early adolescence, on the development of interpersonal competence in young adulthood. The participants were 110 Caucasian individuals, their mothers, and one of their teachers. At the first assessment, the participants ranged in age from 11.5 to 15.1 years old. Approximately six years later, the participants completed a second evaluation involving assessment of interpersonal competence. Increased interparental conflict and parental divorce predicted decreased self-esteem. Decreased self-esteem predicted poorer peer-adolescent relationships, which, in turn, forecasted poorer adult interpersonal competence. The results suggest that living in a distressed family leads to diminished self-esteem which can influence the quality of peer relationships and place an adolescent on a trejectory toward difficulties in interpersonal competence during adulthood.     

Where did you go wrong? Errors, partial errors, and the nature of human information processing

Human performance is seldom perfect, and even when an overt response is correct it may be accompanied by partial-error activity that does not achieve the level of a complete incorrect response. Partial errors can be detected in measures of the lateralized readiness potential, of the electromyogram, and of response force. Correct responses accompanied by partial errors tend to have slower reaction times than “clean” correct responses (because of response competition), and condition differences in reaction time can, on some occasions, be explained in terms of differences in the incidence of partial errors. In two-choice reaction time tasks, partial errors are more frequent when the imperative stimulus contains information that favors both responses, than when it contains information that favors only one response. The non-random nature of partial errors supports the inference that partial information about the stimulus is used to guide responses. A similar inference is supported by the observation that, in hybrid choice Go/No-go tasks, the kinds of partial errors that follow a No-go stimulus represent activation of the response that would have been correct had the stimulus been a Go stimulus. Finally, we note that the human processing system is capable of monitoring its own behavior and of initiating remedial actions if necessary. The activity of an error-detection system, as revealed by measures of the error-related negativity, is related to the degree to which responses are slowed after errors.     

Task Performance and Satisfaction: Evidence for a Task- By Ego-Orientation Interaction1

A significant body of research has documented two achievement goal orientations that individuals can adopt prior to performing a particular task. These orientations have typically been referred to as “task-oriented” or “ego-oriented,” each of which has different implications for task performance and related perceptions. The majority of this research has considered individuals either task- or ego-oriented. There is initial evidence, however, that the two goal orientations may be independent and, therefore, that they may interact to predict various outcomes. The central finding of this study was that task- and ego-orientations did interact to influence task satisfaction and performance. Specifically, high task satisfaction was reported by individuals who had at least a moderately high degree of task orientation irrespective of the level of ego orientation. Alternatively, the most effective performance was observed for individuals who had a dominant achievement goal orientation, regardless of whether it was a task- or ego-orientation. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

EMOTIONAL CONTAGION Gender and Occupational Differences

Theorists have proposed that men and women and those in various occupational groups should differ in their susceptibility to primitive emotional contagion. Study 1 was designed to explore the extent to which gender and occupation affected respondents' self-reports of emotional contagion, as measured by the Emotional Contagion (EC) scale. As predicted, women in a variety of occupations secured higher total EC scores than did men. Study 2 was designed to determine the extent to which gender affected self-reports of emotional contagion (again as measured by the EC scale) and actual responsiveness to others' emotions. As predicted, women received higher EC scores, reported sharing the targets' emotions to a greater extent, and were rated by judges as displaying more emotional contagion than did men.     

Can experimentally induced mood affect optimism and pessimism scores?

Subjects experienced one of three mood-induction procedures (music, video, or Velten; positive or negative valence) prior to responding to a recently developed instrument for measuring optimism and pessimism (O/P). Pre- and post-induction mood indices were also obtained via the MAACL-R and the Wessman-Ricks elation-depression measure. All three mood-induction procedures were effective in establishing the desired moods, with the video procedure the weakest. Music and Velten, but not video, affected optimism and pessimism scores, but for women only. The results suggest, contrary to a previous study, that the optimism/pessimism instrument is not impervious to momentary mood states, at least for women, thus somewhat reducing its temporal stability. By the same token, however, the results also lend support to the construct validity of the O/P instrument. This article is based on a thesis presented by the senior author to the Division of Research and Advanced Studies of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the Degree of Master of Arts.     

Cognitive processes in well-defined and ill-defined problem solving

We investigated the relationship between two kinds of problem solving using Kitchener's model of hierarchical cognitive processing. We predicted that performance on well-defined problems (i. e. those with a single, guaranteed solution) would be independent of ill-defined problems (i. e. those with multiple, non-guaranteed solutions). We also predicted that self-reported epistemic beliefs (i. e. assumptions about the nature and acquisition of knowledge) would be related to ill-defined, but not well-defined, solutions. Results confirmed these predictions. We concluded that well-defined and ill-defined problems require separate cognitive processes and that epistemic beliefs play an important role in ill-defined problem solving. These findings supported Kitchener's three-level model of problem solving.     

Competing on all fronts: Achievement orientation and disordered eating

Strikingly high prevalence rates of symptoms of disordered eating among college women have been documented. The question arises as to whether one aspect of the college experience, achievement orientation, is associated with disordered eating. Competing hypotheses may be generated regarding the relationship between achievement orientation and disordered eating, with arguments for either a positive or negative relationship. The Work and Family Orientation Questionnaire (WOFO) and the Disordered Eating Symptoms Scale (DESS) were administered to 668 female undergraduate college students. Multivariate analysis of the WOFO subscales revealed that women with high levels of disordered eating obtained significantly higher scores on the Competitiveness subscale than women with low DESS scores. These findings support hypotheses of a positive relationship between competitiveness and disordered eating.