Noncompliance with Persuasive Appeals for a Prosocial,Altruistic Act: Blood Donating1

Effects of persuasive messages, responsibility denial (RD), and attitude-accessing on blood-giving attitudes, intentions, moral obligations, and behavior were examined. In Study 1, participants (n= 84) who heard a message emphasizing moral reasons for donating indicated a more favorable postmessage attitude and stronger moral obligation to donate than participants exposed to a message aimed at reducing fear, a combined moral and fear- reduction message, or no message. Combined message participants showed greatest intent to donate, yet only 14% of all participants attended a campus drive. In Study 2, low (n= 52) and high (n= 60) RD individuals heard the message arguments and were asked to access their attitudes. Low compared to high RD individuals stated a stronger sense of moral obligation, particularly when they accessed their thoughts relevant to blood donating, and behavioral intention, especially in the combined message condition. Few participants attended a blood drive (12.5%), yet most were low RD individuals from the nonaccessed attitude condition (83%). Results suggest that few individuals will engage in the altruistic act of blood donating, despite the experimental use of persuasive messages and accessing issue-relevant attitudes.     

Handgun Ownership and the Religion Factor

This article addresses the relationship between religious affiliation and a very specific form of firearms ownership, that is, handgun ownership. Literature is reviewed relative to explanations of gun ownership. A test of the hypothesized relationship between religious affiliation and handgun ownership demonstrated a statistically significant ( p < 0.03) association. Protestants were found to have a disproportionately high level of handgun ownership compared to other religious groups. Speculation for this finding is reviewed relative to other recent research on this topic.     

Developmental amnesia

The concept of developmental amnesia is proposed to describe the impairment of normal memories during a person's school age life. One hundred psychotherapy patients were interviewed and the age of earliest memories ranged from 1–12 years, with a mode of 5 years. Memory was continuous for 53% of patients by 1st grade, while 18% reported life memory was still episodic at age 18 or later. Parental alcohol problems were associated with delay of continuous memories.     

The valuing process: A study of favorite songs and the inner experience of persons diagnosed with schizophrenia

Since valuing is a process grounded in the organizational tendency of human behavior, the characteristics of a highly valued object should reflect the experience of the individual who selects it. This research compared the favorite songs of fourteen individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia to their inner experience as assessed in a standard interview. Many relationships were revealed between the two, often pertaining to important issues identified in theories of schizophrenia. Results may have therapeutic applications and shed light on processes through which psychological difficulties persist.     

Interpersonal underpinnings of request strategies: general principles and differences due to culture and gender.

Several hypotheses derived from P. Brown and Levinson's (1987) politeness theory were tested with Ss from the United States and Korea. Ss imagined themselves in situations in which they were to make a request. They then indicated exactly what they would say in each situation and what their perceptions of the request size, the hearer's power, and the closeness of their relationship with the hearer were. Consistent with P. Brown and Levinson's theory, power, distance, and size contributed significantly to politeness. Significant predictor variable interactions suggested that an additive model is not appropriate. Finally, there was evidence of cultural and gender differences in the weighting of these predictor variables. These differences can partially account for cultural and gender differences in language use.     

Assessing attributions in marriage: the relationship attribution measure.

A brief, simple measure of different types of attributions for partner behavior was examined in 3 studies of married couples. Reliability was established by high internal consistency and test-retest correlations. Causal and responsibility attribution scores correlated with marital satisfaction, attributions for marital difficulties, and attributions for actual partner behaviors generated by spouses. Responsibility attributions were related to (a) reported anger in response to stimulus behaviors used in the measure and (b) the amount of anger displayed by wives during a problem-solving interaction with their partner. The extent to which husbands and wives whined during their discussion also correlated with their responsibility attributions. The results address several problems with existing assessments, and their implications for the measurement of attributions in marriage are discussed.