From rarity to evaluative extremity: effects of prevalence information on evaluations of positive and negative characteristics

Experiments showed a scarcity principle in evaluative judgments such that the identical characteristic is evaluated more extremely the lower its perceived prevalence. In Study 1, Ss evaluated a fictitious medical condition that was described as either beneficial or detrimental to health and as occurring in either 30% or in one half of 1% of a test population. The condition was evaluated more extremely--as as a more positive health asset or a more negative health liability--in the low-prevalence than in the high-prevalence conditions. Study 2 demonstrated the same effect in self-evaluations and with a different manipulation of perceived prevalence. Ss were told that they actually had the fictitious medical condition, that it was either beneficial or detrimental to their health, and either that they were the only 1 of 5 Ss who had it or that 4 of the 5 did. Low-prevalence Ss exhibited more extreme evaluative, affective, and behavioral reactions to the medical condition than did high-prevalence Ss. The origins and validity of the scarcity principle are discussed, as are its implications for uniqueness theory, reactance theory, and social evaluation theories.     

Relation of sympathy and personal distress to prosocial behavior: a multimethod study

Assessed sympathy and personal distress with facial and physiological indexes (heart rate) as well as self-report indexes and examined the relations of these various indexes to prosocial behavior for children and adults in an easy escape condition. Heart rate deceleration during exposure to the needy others was associated with increased willingness to help. In addition, adults' reports of sympathy, as well as facial sadness and concerned attention, were positively related to their intention to assist. For children, there was some indication that report of positive affect and facial distress were negatively related to prosocial intentions and behavior, whereas facial concern was positively related to the indexes of prosocial behavior. These findings are interpreted as providing additional, convergent support for the notion that sympathy and personal distress are differentially related to prosocial behavior.     

The structure of interpersonal traits: Wiggins's circumplex and the five-factor model

Using a sample of 315 adult men and women, self-reports on Wiggins's revised Interpersonal Adjective Scales were jointly factored with self-reports, peer ratings, and spouse ratings on the NEO Personality Inventory to examine the relations between the two models. Results suggest that the interpersonal circumplex is defined by the two dimensions of Extraversion and Agreeableness, and that the circular ordering of variables is not an artifact of response biases or cognitive schemata. Circumplex and dimensional models appear to complement each other in describing the structure of personality, and both may be useful to social psychologists in understanding interpersonal behavior.     

Cardiovascular reactivity and interpersonal influence: active coping in a social context

Previous studies have demonstrated that effortful attempts to secure positive outcomes or avoid negative outcomes produce significant increases in systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and heart rate (HR). Although these effects of active coping on cardiovascular reactivity are central in current psychosomatic theories, virtually all of the research to date has used impersonal, asocial tasks. Our two studies examined the cardiovascular effects of effortful attempts to influence other people. In Study 1, male subjects attempting to influence the opinions of their discussion partner to improve their own chances of winning money displayed significantly greater SBP, DBP, and HR reactivity. In Study 2, we obtained similar effects on SBP and DBP reactivity in men and women, while both preparing an influence attempt and making that attempt. Furthermore, reactivity levels were larger as the magnitude of incentive for successful persuasion increased. Implications of this interpersonal equivalent of active coping for the development of cardiovascular disease are discussed.     

Form and exploration of mechanical stability limits in erect stance

The stability limits of erect stance are described as a geometrical structure in a movement space. Mechanical properties and response latency, a neural property, are determining factors for the stability limits. Standing stability limits of adults and young children are compared, and a simple scheme is suggested by means of which infants can discover the stability limits as they learn to stand. The mechanics of different standing movements are discussed because their spatial temporal properties relate directly to their different stability limits. The combination of the stability limits for different movements gives a total set of stability limits, a different structure for adults than for children.     

The child's perceptions of familial relationships: convergence between two assessment techniques

Children's (N = 28) perceptions of familial relationships were investigated with the Family Environment Scale (FES) and the Network of Relationships Inventory (NRI). The FES assesses overall impressions of the family, and the NRI measures perceptions of individual relationships. Because current family systems theory indicates that positive individual relationships within a dyad (e.g., child-mother) should be related to an overall favorable impression of the family system, we hypothesized that these two instruments should demonstrate convergence on selected dimensions. Results indicated that positive or negative relationships with an individual family member were related to how the child perceived the overall family system, supporting our hypothesis.     

On task and theory specificity

One of the significant limitations of the motor control and skill acquisition domain is that the theories, models, and hypotheses are, in most cases, task specific. Many lines of theorizing fail to hold up under even small changes in task constraints, although clearly the field does have some robust phenomena. It is proposed that a broader consideration of the role of task constraints, which is grounded in the methodology of nonlinear dynamics, may help to formulate a more general action theory of coordination and control.     

Probability of relapse after recovery from an episode of depression

Examined relapse rates in those individuals who have experienced an episode of unipolar depression as a function of the number of previous episodes, gender, age at onset of the episode (less than 40 vs. greater than 40), time since a previous episode, and depression level at time of interview. From of 6,742 participants, 2,046 were interviewed; of these, 1,130 had at least one, 513 reported a second and 173 reported a third episode. The probability for relapse was positively related to number of previous episodes, being female, depression level at time of interview, but not to age at onset (less than 40 vs. greater than 40). Women were also more likely to have more severe episodes. Participants with elevated depression symptoms reported a greater number of previous episodes. Following the first episode, there was a decline in hazard rate for men but not women; following the second episode, there was no change in vulnerability for men; for women, the results were ambiguous.