Optimistic Bias Among Cigarette Smokers1

Smokers, unlike other populations engaging in risky behavior, readily acknowledge that tobacco use increases their susceptibility to smoking-related illness. This study used data from the Adult Use of Tobacco Survey to demonstrate that smokers, while acknowledging increased risk for illness, still show evidence of an optimistic bias in their perception of the hazards of their usual brand of cigarette. Optimism was assessed, first, by grouping respondents by perceived cigarette hazards (higher, lower, or about the same as others), and, second, by comparing Federal Trade Comission (FTC)-calculated and respondent-estimated cigarette tar levels. An optimistic bias was observed in all assessments. Perceived cigarette risk was not related to desire to stop smoking, if an easy way to do so were available, nor was it related to the number of previous quit attempts lasting one week or longer.     

Integrating sociological and psychological perspectives on informal care

In this response to Ungerson we present evidence to support the respresentativeness of the sample and argue that the exclusion of ‘minimal’ carers from caregiving research is not justified. Ungerson's arguments for the consideration of large scale social processes are addressed by examining the role of gender as a determinant or moderator of care outcomes. No support was found for a model in which care work satisfaction mediated associations between gender and willingness to care. Nor did gender moderate associations between care work and appraised impact. Gender was found to moderate associations between two of the seven measures of care work and willingness to care. These findings suggest that the impact of care work on carers is not gender specific, but that women experiencing similar levels of negative impact as men may feel greater obligation to continue caring.     

Filled pauses and gestures: It's not coincidence

Though filled pauses and gestures frequently accompany speech, their function is not well understood. We suggest that it may be helpful in furthering our knowledge of these phenomena to examine their relationship to each other. To this end, we carried out two studies examining whether they tend to occur together, or to occur at separate times. Both faculty colloquium speakers and undergraduate subjects used filled pauses less frequently when they were gesturing than when they were not gesturing. This effect held for 30 out of 31 subjects. We suggest that detailed theories may be premature, but speculate that gestures may be an indication that the speech production apparatus has completed its search for the next word, phrase or idea and is ready to continue.     

The response of South African professional psychology associations to apartheid

Professional psychology associations in South Africa have overtly and covertly furthered the aims of apartheid. Guidance about the ethical obligations of psychologists in the South African context has been singularly lacking, and as a result blacks have not been attracted to the profession of psychology in sufficient numbers to administer to psychological needs of the client population. The political dimension of psychological practice in South Africa needs to be addressed directly so that healing strategies relevant to the burgeoning racial conflict in South Africa can be implemented.     

A cross-cultural test of the personality integration hypothesis1

This study attempted to validate the psychological integration hypothesis by comparing the levels of psychological functioning of individuals from four cultural groups on three dimensions of personality. The personality attributes investigated were field-dependence/independence cognitive style, tolerance of ambiguity (an affective style variable) and machiavellianism (an index of stylistic orientation in interpersonal relationships). Subjects were 218 first-level supervisors from five industrial plants in Auckland, New Zealand. Comparisons of mean group scores on each personality variable showed that a similar rank order among the groups held for each personality variable. It was also found that, for the sample as a whole, there were positive intercorrelations between the personality variables. The symmetrical rank ordering of the groups on the personality variables was considered to indicate that members of each group had attained relatively similar levels of psychological development on each personality attribute. The relatively low levels of intercorrelations between the personality variables were held to indicate that they were measuring separate areas of psychological functioning.     

Choice of extinction-signalling stimuli by rats

Rats in a two-lever situation were exposed to alternating periods of intermittent reinforcement and extinction. Extinction periods were either unsignalled or were signalled by a response-produced stimulus. The signal was sometimes a stimulus paired with food delivery in the reinforcement periods and sometimes a stimulus that occurred only in extinction periods. Both kinds of signal accelerated extinction relative to the unsignalled condition. When the signal was the stimulus paired with food in reinforcement periods, the rats tended to prefer the lever that gave that signal even though the signal accelerated extinction. There was no comparable effect for the stimulus that occurred only in extinction periods; when this signal was contingent on only one of the two levers, the rats either avoided it (Experiment 3) or were indifferent (Experiment 4). It is concluded that a stimulus can be a “secondary reinforcer” as measured by preference, even though it decreases resistance to extinction; the implications are discussed with reference to formal theories of choice behavior.     

A motivational environment for behaviorally deviant junior high school students

A contingency management program was established in a junior high school to better manage and educate students having histories of severe misconduct. School administrators selected 46 eighth-graders having multiple suspensions for misbehavior. Students (N=32) in two of the schools remained in traditional programs, serving as controls, whereas students (N=14) in the third school participated in a token reinforcement program. Reinforcers provided in the afternoon were contingent upon achievement and discipline during morning academic periods. Home-based reinforcers were established to support school behavior. Compared with the control group, significant reductions in negative school behavior as well as greater increases in academic achievement were obtained for the treatment group, thus supporting the efficacy of contingency management for adolescent school misbehavior.Valuable assistance in developing the reinforcement program and curriculum materials was provided by William Brown, principal of the Anne Arundel County Learning Center. Thanks are also due: Dottie Dpwling and Joe Gentile, the teachers in the program; John Jedlicka, principal of Stemmers Run Junior High; and Donnie Williams, research assistant.     

Modifiability of attention: Effects of dimensional salience and overtraining on discrimination shifts

Previous results have shown that there is an increased difference between intradimensional (ID) and extradimensional (ED) shifts when subjects shift to a nonpreferred dimension. Fisher and Zeaman (1973) have indicated that such findings can be explained not only by their attention-retention theory, which assumes that attention is completely modifiable, but also by models which assume that attention has a fixed, nonmodifiable component. The present experiment showed that the larger ID-ED difference with a nonsalient dimension is solely attributable to the improved performance of the ID shift condition, a results which is more consistent with the assumption of complete modifiability of attention.