Conflict over emotional expression: psychological and physical correlates

This study addresses the construct of conflict or ambivalence over emotional expression. Ambivalence is seen as an important mediator in the link between emotional styles and psychological and physical well-being. Using the "personal striving" framework, a questionnaire measure of ambivalent emotional strivings (AEQ) was designed. In Study 1, 292 Ss completed this measure along with questionnaire measures of expressiveness, social desirability, and intense ambivalence. Women scored significantly higher than men on both the AEQ and expressiveness. In Study 2, scores on the AEQ were found to be negatively correlated with self-reported and peer-rated expressiveness. In Study 3, 48 Ss participated in a 21-day study of mood and health. Expressiveness was positively correlated with some measures of well-being and with daily negative affect. Ambivalence was positively correlated with several indices of psychological distress. Although the AEQ correlated with questionnaire measures of physical symptomatology, neither the AEQ nor the expressiveness measures correlated with daily symptom reports. Results support the contention that conflict over emotional expressiveness is a variable worthy of study in its own right, having implications for research on personality and health.     

Religion and health relationships: A review

This review examines various studies showing the relation between religiosity (religious beliefs and/or practices) and health. It also includes church attendance and its relation to drug use. The role of the church in health promotion is discussed, with examples of church intervention model programs. Several attempts have been made to measure religiosity and religious commitment, but as yet little has been done to identify specific dimensions of religion as they relate to health behaviors. Even though the literature indicates that religion is generally associated with health behaviors, health status, and longevity, further research on the specifics of this relationship is needed.He has been doing research on the relation between religion and health for the past five years.     

The role of brain stimulation priming effects in self-deprivation

Choice of brain stimulation reward (BSR) over biologically necessary substances in some self-stimulating animals is referred to as self-deprivation. In several recent papers, it has been argued that this phenomenon is produced by the rewarding aspects of the brain stimulation. This conclusion is partially based on data showing that self-deprivation and brain stimulation reward increase and decrease in a similar manner in response to changes in the brain stimulation parameters. However, the priming aspects of the brain stimulation also fluctuate with changes in stimulation parameters. Therefore, changes in the priming rather than the rewarding aspects of the brain stimulation could be responsible for self-deprivation. To determine whether the priming effects of brain stimulation play an important role in self-deprivation, rats with bipolar stimulating electrodes were given the choice between BSR and food. Time-outs were enforced within each BSR/food competition session. Since priming effects decay over time, increasing time-out length should have decreased self-deprivation due to decay of priming. It was found that time-out length did not affect the degree of self-deprivation. It was concluded that self-deprivation is not mediated by the priming aspects of brain stimulation.     

Petitioning: Dress Congruence Versus Belief Congruence1

“Hip” and “straight” Es asked 240 passersby, who were also classified as “hip” or “straight”, to sign a petition. Each E received more signatures from S s of like dress only when the petition was neutral. There were no significant differences between the E s or S s for the two politically stronger petitions. It is proposed that dress congruence will override belief congruence only when the beliefs involved are of little significance to the S.     

Hypothesis analysis of sameness-difference learning-set by capuchin monkeys

Sameness-difference discriminations were presented to capuchin monkeys and hypothesis analysis was applied to the data. Learners and nonlearners evidenced differences in overall performance and in relative strengths of hypotheses. Learners initially displayed markedly more random than position responding whereas nonlearners evidenced more position than random responding and remained particularly prone to position habits. Stimulus preference and aversion, suppressed by learners by the end of training, reemerged at the onset of two-object discriminations containing previously preferred and aversive stimuli. Hypothesis analysis indicated that when preferred stimuli were positive the correct hypothesis was more evidenced, and stimulus preference or aversion as well as random hypotheses were less evidenced, than when aversive stimuli were positive.     

Behavior modification consultation in a Mexican-American school

Following consultation by two psychologists with an elementary school populated primarily by Mexican-American students, absenteeism was chosen as the first problem area to attempt to change. A between-groups experimental design was used to evaluate the effect of contigent rewards on the students' attendance. Analysis of the data showed no improvement in attendance. The results of the study were discussed in terms of (1) a more thorough behavior analysis of the absenteeism problem, (2) methodological restraints of a between-groups experimental design, (3) the need for consultants to be familiar with the community in which they work, and (4) relatedly, the success of the local school psychologist in implementing behavior modification programs.     

Absence of binocular interaction between spatial and color attributes of visual stimuli

The hypothesis that induction of the McCollough effect (spatially selective color aftereffects) entails adaptation of monocularly driven detectors tuned to both spatial and color attributes of the visual stimulus was examined in four experiments. The McCollough effect could not be generated by displaying contour information to one eye and color information to the other eye during inspection, even in the absence of binocular rivalry. Nor was it possible to induce depth-specific color aftereffects following an inspection period during which random-dot stereograms were viewed, with crossed and uncrossed disparity seen in different colored light. Masking and aftereffect in the perception of stereoscopic depth were also nonselective to color; in both cases, perceptual distortion was controlled by stereospatial variables but not by the color relationship between the inspection and test stimuli. The results suggest that binocularly driven spatial detectors in human vision are insensitive to wavelength.     

Shape constancy and a perceptual bias towards symmetry

In attempting to judge whether a briefly presented rotated figure was symmetrical (circle or square) or asymmetrical (ellipse or rectangle), a bias towards perceiving symmetry was evident. This bias appears to be perceptual rather than judgmental in origin in that it was affected neither by variations in the probability of occurrence of symmetrical figures nor by familiarization with the stimuli. A characterization of the stimulus similarity space based on the shape-slant invariance hypothesis is presented, and a model which incorporates both the similarity space and the symmetry bias is proposed. The model can account for our paradoxical finding that the more asymmetrical some projected images, the more likely they will be perceived as symmetrical. This model can also account for Massaro’s (1973, 1975) results on shape constancy. However, Massaro’s theory was not supported in that extension in depth did not account for increased difficulty of shape judgments.