Contingency judgments by depressed college students: sadder but not always wiser

We examined depressed and nondepressed college students' perceptions of control over outcomes in a task similar to the one introduced by Alloy and Abramson (1979, Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, when subjects completed a contingency learning task with no one else present, nondepressed subjects perceived themselves to have more control over frequently occurring response-independent outcomes than did depressed subjects, which replicated Alloy and Abramson's finding. When subjects completed the task in the presence of an observer, depressed students perceived themselves to have more control than did nondepressed students. In Experiment 2, the observer effects found in Experiment 1 were replicated, and we extended those results by showing that when response-independent outcomes occurred relatively infrequently, depressed and nondepressed subjects who completed the task in the presence of an observer did not reliably differ in their estimates of personal control. In Experiment 3, which included minor procedural variations from the other experiments, the pattern of results found in Experiments 1 and 2 was replicated under conditions in which observers were present while subjects received frequently occurring outcomes. Together, the results of the three experiments demonstrate that the consistently accurate personal control estimates of depressed subjects that have been found across a variety of situations break down when subjects complete a contingency learning task in the presence of an observer, and outcomes occur independently of response at a high frequency.     

Thoughts on the emergence of the sense of self, with particular emphasis on the body self

In trying to trace the emergence of the sense of self during the first fifteen months of life--in particular the formation of the bodily self--we used, on the one hand, severe dissociations of the integral parts of the body self such as occurs in psychosis, in the Gilles de la Tourette syndrome, and in phantom-limb disturbances and, on the other hand, data from our normative study of the separation-individuation process as inferred from mother-infant interaction in general and the infant's behavior in front of the mirror in particular. The infant's behavior in front of the mirror strongly suggests that feelings about himself only gradually become integrated with perceptual and cognitive awareness of himself. All the data, furthermore, indicate that it is not possible to study the development of the self separate from the development of the object. All inferences contained in our paper about the emergence of the sense of self were made from the point of view of the central organizing, integrating, and synthesizing institution of the mind, that is, the ego. We agree with other authors that the developing self has both experiential and structural aspects. We titled our paper "Thoughts on the Emergence of the Sense of Self" to indicate that this paper is meant to be an initial and quite tentative communication about the vast and elusive area of personality development concerning the emergence of our bodily self, and thus of the core of our personal identity.     

Health care involvement preferences and social-emotional recovery of male coronary-artery-bypass patients.

Examined how the preferences of male coronary-bypass patients either for information or behavioral involvement, respectively, predicted social and emotional recovery during the year following hospital release. Preferences for health care involvement were assessed prior to surgery. Outcome measures were collected at 1-, 4-, and 13-month follow-ups. Results indicated that patients who preoperatively had a high relative to a low desire for behavioral involvement experienced less ambulation dysfunction, fewer social interaction problems, and less emotional upset during the initial 4 months following hospital release. Also, patients who had a high relative to a low desire for information involvement experienced more social interaction and emotional problems during this period. At the final follow-up, these involvement-group differences for social interaction and emotional status had disappeared, and no differences in cardiac health were found. However, there were systematic differences in use of medical services. Results are discussed with reference to recent considerations about the potential benefits of more active patient involvement in the health care process. Possible mechanisms and clinical implications are also discussed.     

Long-term effects of appearance-based interventions on sun protection behaviors.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the longer term efficacies of exposure to UV photographs and photoaging information (e.g., wrinkles and age spots) for increasing sun protection intentions and behaviors of young adults. DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial with 4- to 5-month and 12-month follow-ups. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Participants' self-reported sun protection intentions assessed immediately after the interventions, and both self-reported sun protection behaviors and an objective assessment (via spectrophotometry) of skin color change measured at the end of summer (4-5 months following interventions) and 1 year following interventions. RESULTS: Both interventions resulted in immediate positive effects on future sun protection intentions. Both interventions showed objective evidence of less skin darkening at the postsummer follow-up, with those in the photoaging information condition also reporting more sun protective behavior and continuing to show less skin darkening 1 year after intervention. There was also evidence that effects of photoaging information on subsequent skin color change were mediated by the earlier positive effect photoaging information had on participants' intentions to sun protect and their subsequent sun protection behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: UV photo and photoaging-information interventions each show promise as a brief and relatively inexpensive approach for motivating sun protection practices that may reduce skin cancer risk.     

THE EFFECTS OF HAIR COLOR AND COSMETIC USE ON PERCEPTIONS OF A FEMALE'S ABILITY

This experiment examined whether a female applicant's hair color and use of cosmetics might affect perceptions of her ability for a professional position. One hundred thirty six college students reviewed the identical professional resume of a female applicant for the position of a staff accountant. Attached to the resume was a photograph of the stimulus female applicant either wearing or not wearing cosmetics and depicted with brunette, red, or blonde hair color. The results demonstrated significant main effects of both hair color and cosmetic use. Specifically, the applicant was rated more capable and was assigned a higher salary both when depicted with brunette hair color and when depicted without cosmetics. There were no interactions between hair color and cosmetic use. The findings demonstrate that biases regarding personal appearance may affect judgments about a female applicant's ability.     

Infidelity, race, and gender: An evolutionary perspective on asymmetries in subjective distress to violations-of-trust

Asymmetries in subjective distress were observed among African American and white (N = 191) men and women who were asked to imagine a partner being emotionally and sexually unfaithful, and a partner committing other paired, gender-linked viola-tions-of-trust. More women than men were distressed by imagining a partner forming a deep emotional attachment to another person and more men than women were distressed by imagining a partner enjoying passionate sexual intercourse with another person. In addition, more men than women were distressed by male-linked violations, such as a partner no longer trying to look attractive, and more women than men were distressed by female-linked violations, such as a partner no longer wanting to work. The results contribute to a growing body of cross-cultural research reporting gender differences in distress to emotional and sexual infidelity. The results also provide cross-cultural validation of the extension of an evolutionary perspective to under-standing gender differences in subjective distress to other biologically relevant viola-tions-of-trust.     

Health status, perceptions of risk, and prevention interest for health and nonhealth problems

Healthy and acutely ill college students indicated their risk compared to their peers for 10 health and nonhealth problems. Participants as a whole showed clear evidence of optimistic bias. However, whereas healthy participants showed an equal tendency to be biased optimistically for health and nonhealth problems, ill participants felt significantly more vulnerable to future health relative to nonhealth problems. This was the case even though the future health problems were objectively unrelated to their current illnesses. Perceptions of the preventability of the health and nonhealth problems paralleled the comparative risk judgments. Finally, those who were ill expressed relatively little interest in receiving prevention information. Possible mechanisms and implications are discussed.