Validation of an ipsative personality measure (DISCUS)

The purpose of this study was to examine the construct validity of an ipsative personality test (DISCUS), and various effects of the ipsative format of the test. Both an ipsative and a normative version of the DISCUS test was administered to a sample of undergraduate students (N = 103), along with an adjective based personality test that measures the Big-Five personality traits (5PFa). The results indicated that the normative and the ipsative version of DISCUS are not equivalent, and caution is needed when using the ipsative version for psychometric evaluations as in validation studies. The four DISCUS dimensions (Dominance, Influence, Stability, and Carefulness) represented combinations of the Big-Five traits rather than independent traits as indicated by the correlations with the Big-Five measure.     

Defining Discrimination in the Personal/Group Discrimination Discrepancy

Members of low-status groups typically report that their group experiences more discrimination than they do personally, a phenomenon referred to as the personal/group discrimination discrepancy. It is hypothesized that manipulating the meaning of discrimination affects the personal/group discrimination discrepancy. In three studies, 301 female undergraduates (259 Whites; 42 non-Whites) from a large midwestern university read vignettes depicting discriminatory events that varied according to severity and frequency. Participants in high-frequency conditions perceived both more personal and group discrimination than low-frequency participants, and they showed smaller personal/group discrepancies. This effect was found for work-related discrimination and social sexism. Results indicate that severe and infrequent events are what people typically think of as discrimination and that using the term discrimination affects personal and group judgments. The importance of defining discrimination when investigating the personal/group discrimination discrepancy is discussed.     

Dynamic brain imaging: Event-related optical signal (EROS) measures of the time course and localization of cognitive-related activity

This paper describes the concept of dynamic brain imaging and introduces a new methodology, the event-related optical signal, or EROS. Dynamic brain imaging allows one to study noninvasively the time course of activity in specific brain areas. Brain imaging data can contribute to the analysis of the subcomponents of the human information processing system and of their interactions. Several brain imaging methods provide data that possess spatial and temporal resolution at various degrees and can be used for this purpose. In this paper, we focus on the EROS method, which yields data with millisecond temporal resolution and subcentimeter spatial resolution. We describe the fundamentals of this method and report several examples of the types of data that can be obtained with it. Finally, we discuss the possibility of combining different imaging methods, as well as the advantages and limitations that can be expected in this process.     

The Ideology of Anti-Fat Attitudes1

We surveyed over 1,000 undergraduates about their attitudes toward fatness and fat people. A consistent pattern of attitudes emerged: People who were anti-fat shared an ideologically conservative outlook on life. Those who disliked fatness tended to be politically conservative, racist, in favor of capital punishment, and less supportive of nontraditional marriages. By contrast, negative attitudes toward fatness were not associated with conservative sexual attitudes (which are less likely to be ideologically based), although they were related to less tolerance of sexuality among the handicapped, homosexuals, and the elderly. Antifat attitudes seem to be based on ideology, and not on one's own weight situation: Anti-fat attitudes were virtually unrelated to one's own degree of fatness. The relationship between ideology and anti-fat attitudes was stronger among men than among women, which indicates that a variety of other, perhaps more self-relevant factors, play into the anti-fat attitudes of women. For example, when women held a conservative, anti-fat ideology, and were in the heaviest weight group, they suffered from low self-esteem. This relationship did not hold for men, indicating that the relationship between ideology and self-derogation may be based on the greater self-relevance weight holds for women. In a second study, we found that anti-fat attitudes were substantially correlated with authoritarianism, indicating that prejudice against fat people may be another manifestation of a collection of political and social attitudes predicated on conventionalism and a narrow latitude of acceptance of others' behaviors.     

Neuropsychological assessment in illiterates : II. Language and praxic abilities

A basic neuropsychological examination of language and praxic abilities was administered to extreme educational groups (100 illiterates and 100 professionals). Subjects were matched according to sex and age (16-25, 26-35, 36-45, 46-55, and 56-65). The following tasks were included: language comprehension, phonological discrimination, naming (objects, figures, and body parts), repetition of words, verbal fluency, calculation, buccofacial and ideomotor praxis, finger alternating movements, meaningless movements, cancellation task, coordinated movements with both hands, and motor impersistence tasks. All the differences between the two educational groups were statistically significant. Two of the eight language tests (phonological discrimination and naming figures) and three of the seven praxic tests (buccofacial praxis, coordinated movements, and cancellation task) showed differences between age groups with a better performance in the younger groups. Calculation tasks and ideomotor praxis showed differences between sexes with a better performance in males. Influence of educational factors in performing routine neuropsychological tests is analyzed.     

Indirect majority and minority influence: An exploratory study

In a 2 × 2 design, 85 subjects were asked to estimate the size of angles (direct influence) that were either 90 or 85°, after being confronted with incorrect judgements of a majority (88 per cent) or a minority (12 per cent) of people estimating the angles at 50°. Additionally, pre- and post-test measures were used to establish indirect influence on subjects' judgements pertaining to acute angles (i.e. on the estimation of the length of lines constituting the angles, and on the imaginary weight of figures represented by these angles). Overall, little direct influence is observed. This may partly be due to the introduction of a denial of the credibility of the source in all conditions. In fact, some evidence of direct influence is only found in the majority–85° angles condition. An instance of indirect influence (on the estimation of length of lines) appeared as the result of a majority stance when the angles in the experimental phase were 90°. When these angles were 85°, indirect minority influence (on the estimation of weight of figures) was observed. These effects had been predicted on the basis of the hypothesis stating that indirect majority influence would be possible when subjects expected consensus on the correct response (in the 90° angles condition), without being able to reach consensus at the manifest level (because of the denial and the restriction imposed by the clear shape of 90° angles). Indirect minority influence was hypothesized to be stronger in a situation that allows for diverse responses (i.e. for 85° angles).