Decomposing coronary-prone behavior: Dimensions of type a behavior in the Videotaped Structured Interview

This study examined the factorial structure of data generated in the Videotaped Structured Interview for assessment of Type A behavior. Based on the literature, it was argued that there are at least three distinct concepts of Type A behavior, focused on competitiveness and pressured drive, speech characteristics, and hostility, respectively. These three concepts were clearly represented among the factors from factor analyses based on data from 282 subjects. Three factors represented speech and psychomotor characteristics, where the first reflected interactions between subject and interviewer (e.g., response latency, interruptions), the second tempo of speech (accelerating, dysrhythmic and rapid speech), and the third oral gestures (e.g., expiratory sighs). Hostility was reflected in two factors, one defined by emotional intensity (e.g., anger when recalling paat event) and the other hostility expressed towards the interviewer. Pressured drive dominated a content factor reflecting self-awareness of Type A behavior. Finally, there was one factor related to psychomotor tension. Through further factor and item analyses, it was possible to combine these factors into three homogeneous and moderately intercorrelated subscales of Type A behavior reflecting Hostility, Speech Characteristics, and Self-Awareness of Type A behavior. These scales showed good interrater agreement and stability over two years. The Self-Awareness Scale was highly correlated with self-report measures of Type A behavior. The Hostility Scale, on the other hand, was moderately related to measures of Type A behavior, anger and hostility, but was unrelated to anxiety. The Speech Characteristic Scale, finally, was virtually unrelated to psychometric measures.     

Therapeutic factors in interactional inpatient groups: Results from a Turkish sample

Therapeutic factors in an inpatient group from Turkey are presented. A total of 40 patients were seen over a period of 2 years and each patient was given Yalom's (1983) 60-item therapeutic factor list on discharge. The first four most valued therapeutic factor groups were Catharsis, Existential Factors, Cohesiveness and Hope. There were significant differences in the highly valued factors in different diagnostic groups. Patients with diagnoses of anxiety/somatization and borderline/identity problem preferred factors resembling those in many out-patient studies. The results are discussed in the light of relevant literature.     

Implications of the Elaboration Likelihood Model for interviewer decision processes

One dimension of corporate social performance is concern for employee relations. The selection interview represents one of the earliest points at which employers develop relationships with future employees. The Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986) is useful for predicting when variables which are irrelevant for predicting performance on the job can influence an interviewer's rating of an applicant. Such knowledge is helpful for organizations in terms of improving the validity of their selection interview decisions and enhancing applicants' perceptions of fairness.     

Action and emotion in everyday life

This study of naturally occurring behaviour employed a "beeper technique" to investigate the actions carried out by 152 subjects in eight different groups, viz. adult students, employed students who were also parents, unemployed, art students, doctoral students, alcoholics, retired people and a control group. Actions were sampled for seven subsequent days, five times per day between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. at randomly selected occasions. Each action was rated on a number of variables, shortly after it was sampled (median delay approximately 10 min). Some of the findings were: Time allocation corresponded well with national estimates. Being under situational control was highly aversive. Instrumental and consummatory orientations correlated positively. The background variables were, on the whole, only rather weakly related to action ratings, but it was found that women and retired persons tended to report a higher level of well-being.     

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF INSTRUMENTAL LEARNING BY PRESCHOOL CHILDREN IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA AND AUSTRALIA1

Instrumental learning of preschool children in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Australia (AUST) was compared using two tasks (imitative and nonimitative) and two rewards (social and nonsocial). There were no differences between the two groups in the rate of acquisition measure of trials to criterion. PNG children made more late responses during acquisition and, for nil responses, there were group x task and group x reward x task effects. In the extinction phase, there were two main effects for trials to criterion: PNG children were more resistant to extinction than AUST children, and there was greater persistence in responding after social reward regardless of nationality. Reward x group, reward x task, and reward x group x task interactions also were observed in the extinction trials to criterion. In addition, there were three main task effects during extinction for other responses: on the imitative task, more wrong responses were made, and on the nonimitative task, more extra responses and more paired responses were made. A subsidiary analysis compared the two culturally different but educationally similar groups comprising the PNG sample: no major differences were isolated in acquisition or extinction.     

Effects of Control on the Stress Reactions of Commuters1

The effects of morning, rush hour commuting were examined in a quasi-experimental field study involving government-employed commuters (single and carpool drivers). Commuting stress was measured as a response to variations in how difficult it was for commuters to move from home to work. The mediation of these effects by two sources of control in the commuting situation also were assessed. Control was operationalized as control over the internal environment of the car (single versus carpool driver) and choice over routes taken to get to work. Among commuters with a high impedance route, driving to work was associated with significant increases in systolic and diastolic blood pressure and decreases in behavioral performance. The stress of commuting under high impedance conditions was reduced for single drivers relative to carpoolers. Under similar conditions of high impedance, however, having the option to select more than one route to get to work seemed to be more stressful than having only one route. The practical implications of these results are discussed.     

The consequences of being overweight: A controlled study of gender differences

The consequences of body weight were explored in a sample of 44 women and 40 men who were matched for body size on the basis of judges' ratings and height-weight proportions. Results indicated that the condition of being overweight had a more negative effect on women than on men: Average-weight subjects showed a preference for thin women but not for thin men; the condition of being overweight negatively affected the quantity and quality of women's relationships with men, but had little effect on men's relationships with women; overweight negatively affected the self-attitudes of all subjects, but particularly those of women. Furthermore, average-weight and, particularly, overweight women showed more concern regarding their body size than either average or overweight men. These findings were interpreted in terms of prevailing sex role pressures and expectations.We gratefully acknowledge the help of Alice Carpenter in planning this study and the help of Peggy Nevils during the data-gathering phase of the study.     

Motives and Values to Achieve: Different Constructs With Different Effects

ABSTRACT Motives to achieve and values associated with achievement were conceptualized as distinct and independent personality constructs, one nonconscious, the other conscious, each predictive of a different type of achievement-related behavior It was hypothesized that (a) motive and value measures would be uncorrelated, (b) motives would predict “operant” or spontaneous behaviors while values would predict “respondent” or stimulus-driven behaviors, and (c) motives and values would interact such that subjects with high values relating to achievement would perform better than those with low values, but only when their motives were also high Hypotheses (a) and (b) were strongly supported m two studies, and Hypothesis (c) was supported in Study 2 In that study, the motive for achievement was a particularly strong predictor of operant math performance among those subjects who valued achievement as opposed to affiliation The findings suggest that nonconscious (motive) and conscious (value) measures are both useful in different cases–the former for predicting “real” (doing) activity, the latter for predicting self-report (thinking) responses Questions concerning how motives and values might combine to predict different kinds of behavior are addressed     

Individual response patterns and the effects of different behavioral methods in the treatment of claustrophobia

The importance of individual response patterns in claustrophobic patients was examined in the present study. Thirty-four psychiatric outpatients with a phobia of enclosed spaces were assessed in a small test chamber. During the test their overt behavior was video-taped, heart-rate was measured continuously, and self-ratings of experienced anxiety were made at certain intervals. On the basis of their reactions in the test situation, the patients were divided into two groups showing different response patterns—behavioral and physiological reactors. Within each group the patients were randomly assigned to one behaviorally-focused method (exposure), one physiologically-focused method (applied relaxation) and a waiting-list control group. The patients were treated individually in eight sessions. The between-group comparisons showed that both exposure and applied relaxation were significantly better than the waiting-list condition. Furthermore, exposure yielded better results than applied relaxation for the behavioral reactors, while applied relaxation was better than exposure for the physiological reactors. The improvements were maintained at a follow-up assessment 14 months after the end of treatment. The results support the hypothesis that greater effects are achieved when the method used fits the patient's response pattern than when it does not.     

THE STRUCTURE OF ABILITIES IN THE RETARDED

The ability structure in retarded women was studied on the same lines as with men (Kebbon, 1965). The women, 89 in number, were between 17 and 54, their IQ's between 40 and 90. Factor analysis was done of their scores on 16 tests measuring four factors—verbal, spatial-inductive, numerical and psychomotor. Comparison with the corresponding scores from 89 matched men and 92 normal men indicated that, in terms of these factors, retarded women have the same ability structure as retarded men, and that both have a similar structure to that of persons of average and superior intelligence.