Self-efficacy and causal attributions for social feedback

The intent of this research was to determine whether an individual's sense of self-efficacy in a social situation influenced his or her causal attributions for outcomes. Male and female subjects were selected on the basis of high- or low-efficacy expectations for a social interaction and were provided with either positive or negative feedback on their social performance. The predicted self-efficacy-outcome interaction emerged, though only on the most salient causal factors. Feedback that was inconsistent with perceptions of efficacy was more likely to be attributed to external factors than was expectancy consistent information. Perceptions of self-efficacy were also associated with anxiety, raising the possibility that the self-efficacy-attribution relation was mediated by arousal. Causal explanations were collected in an open-ended pilot assessment process. The causal factor that emerged in this social task were compared to those identified in earlier studies of social situations.     

Attitudes and expectations about children with nontraditional and traditional gender roles

Cross-sex behavior in boys generally is viewed more negatively than cross-sex behavior in girls. The two goals of this study were to assess attitudes toward tomboys and sissies, and to explore possible causes for differential evaluations of tomboys and sissies. Eighty undergraduates completed questionnaires assessing their attitudes toward tomboys and sissies, and their expectations for the future adult behavior of typical boys, typical girls, tomboys, and sissies. Results revealed that sissies were more negatively evaluated than tomboys. Women were more accepting of, and perceived more societal acceptance for cross-sex children, than were men. One reason for the negative evaluation of sissies may be that there is more concern for their future outcomes than for tomboys. Analyses of predictions concerning future behavior showed that sissies, more so than tomboys, were expected to continue to show cross-gender behavior into adulthood. Also, sissies were rated as likely to be less well adjusted and more likely to be homosexual when they grow up than other children. The accuracy of these beliefs and their implications for child-rearing practices are discussed.This research was supported in part by a Humanities and Social Sciences grant from the University of British Columbia. Portions of this work were presented as the meetings of the National Council of Family Relations, Philadelphia, November 1988. I appreciate Richard Fabes' comments on an earlier draft.     

Attributional style and self-control behavior in depressed and nondepressed children and their parents

Do the reformulated model of learned helplessness and the self-control model apply to clinically depressed children? Are the related cognitive patterns specific to depression? Are the cognitive deficits associated with depression learned from one's parents? To address these questions this investigation examined three groups of children (ages 8–12) and their parents: nonclinic (n =25),nondepressed clinic (n=22),and depressed clinic (n=15).Children were diagnosed depressed on the basis of Kiddie-SADS interview data. Depressed clinic children self-reported more depression, had a more depressive attributional style, and had more self-control problems. There were more depressed mothers in the clinic than in the nonclinic sample. Depressed clinic children had more depressed mothers than did nondepressed clinic children. There were no differences among the three groups of parents in their cognitive patterns. No relationship was found between the attributional style and self-control behavior of children and their parents.     

Unconscious sensations

D. M. Armstrong proposes to explain the possibility of unconscious sensations by means of a distinction between the perceptual consciousness, which is essentially involved in sensations, and our introspective consciousness of sensations. He holds that unconscious sensations are instances of perceptual consciousness of which we are not introspectively conscious. I contend that, although Armstrong's distinction is plausible and significant, it fails to explain his own examples of unconscious sensation. I argue that the puzzle of how unconscious sensations are possible arises at the level of perceptual consciousness and does not concern our introspective awareness of mental states.This paper grew out of research supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities at Cornell University in 1985. I would like to express my gratitude to the National Endowment, to Cornell, and to Sydney Shoemaker.     

Memories of statements spoken in everyday contexts

This study examined personal memories of statements spoken in everyday contexts. Eighty college students completed a questionnaire in which they recounted the first spoken statement to come to mind, and statements made by a parent, teacher, sibling and friend. Respondents also provided information about the speakers and the circumstances of transmission. Content analyses identified six primary statement types: rules, evaluations, speaker information, pronouncements, unusual phrases and everyday speech. The incidence of different statement types varied across speakers. Memorability of a specific verbalization appears to be related to the statement's communicative function, the listener's reactions to the utterance, the speaker's gender, and the relationship between the speaker and the listener.     

Transference neurosis as a waking dream: notes on a clinical enigma

This paper demonstrates clinically that the interactional features of a transference neurosis are the waking equivalents of a manifest dream. Through analytic investigation of the emerging repetitive extraverbal elements of apparent transference resistance behavior, it is discovered that the systematic analysis of the details of such behavior yields a picture of synthetic construction fundamentally the same as that seen in dreams. By using Freud's technique of systematic dream interpretation, the tightly organized, coded, and camouflaged presence of many key compromise formations determining a neurosis are found to be represented in compact, highly condensed clinical interactions, providing an overall picture of dreamwork in action. The four components of dreamwork are found to be the principal means by which the unconscious genetic and dynamic material is represented in the analytic field.     

The Interaction of Psychosocial and Biological Determinants of Tobacco Use: More on the Boundary Model1

We refine our Boundary Model of the regulation of drug intake and apply it to several examples from cigarette smoking. Our model demands the simultaneous consideration of biological and psychosocial controls. The biological factors include the physiological demand to maintain minimum levels of nicotine, direct rewarding effects of tobacco, and toxic effects of excessive smoking. The psychosocial factors include “voluntary”, self-initiated controls as well as situational influences. In light of the model, we review and consider the problems with techniques commonly used to control smoking, and we discuss the inferential confusions faced by smokers and researchers.     

The Psychology of Restaurant Tipping1

Since its origins in 18th-century English pubs, tipping has become a custom involving numerous professions and billions of dollars. Knowledge of the psychological factors underlying tipping would benefit service workers, service managers, and customers alike. Two studies were conducted to provide such knowledge about restaurant tipping. The percent tipped in these studies was related to group size, the customer's gender, the method of payment (cash or credit), and in some cases, the size of the bill. Tipping was not related to service quality, waitperson's efforts, waitperson's gender, restaurant's atmosphere, or restaurant's food.     

An Adlerian understanding of Hillel's maxim

Hillel, one of Judaism's great scholars and sages, has amongst his many statements, one which is most well known and has withstood the test of time. With this statement, he has shown an insight into human psychology that anticipated today's modern approach toward understanding behavior, particularly when using an Adlerian interpretation of his maxim.Rabbi Steven J. Kaplan, Ph.D. is Hillel Director, University of Southern Florida-University of Tampa. He may be addressed at the University of Southern Florida, CTR 2382, Tampa, Florida 33620.     

Home background,intelligence, personality and education as predictors of unemployment in young people

This study is concerned with the degree to which youth unemployment in N. Ireland can be predicted from a number of antecedent variables. It was found that home background, IQ, personality, school type and educational attainments all had significant effects on unemployment. The magnitude of the effects and the causal mechanisms through which they operate were analysed by path analysis in terms of the Duncan-Jencks path-analysis model. The results show that the model holds well for N. Ireland; the major difference is that school type (grammar vs secondary modern) plays a greater role in N. Ireland than school differences in the U.S.A. The data are considered from the point of view of the intergenerational cycle of deprivation hypothesis. It was found that using the criteria of father-son and father-daughter correlation for unemployment, the cycle is quite weak in N. Ireland.