Isolation-induced aggression in newly hatched ducklings.

Newly hatched Khaki Campbell ducklings (Anas platyrhynchos domesticus) were initially housed in pairs and subsequently transferred to isolated housing conditions. Subjects living with another bird displayed filial behavior and little aggression upon encountering another duckling in a test arena. In contrast, ducklings housed in isolation exhibited aggressive pecking in addition to filial behavior when another duckling was subsequently encountered. In Experiment 2, ducklings were housed with an imprinting object (i.e., an object that elicits attachment behavior), but they were otherwise isolated from other birds. These subjects displayed little aggression when they were subsequently reunited with a conspecific, indicating that the aggression-precluding effects of social housing are not limited to the particular social stimulus with which the ducklings are housed. In Experiment 3, ducklings were again housed with an imprinting object, but this time the object was behind glass, thereby precluding tactile contact with it. Since these birds also exhibited little aggression when reunited with a conspecific, it is apparent that visual stimulation from an imprinting object is sufficient in itself to preclude subsequent aggression. These findings suggest that stimulation that elicits attachment behavior is the critical factor mediating isolation-induced aggression.     

Hierarchical stages in the processing of visual information

Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics - Previous research had indicated that when subjects are instructed to report one of a number of visually displayed items, both the number and spacing of...     

Attributional Bias in Counselors' Diagnoses: The Effect of Resources1

Three experiments were conducted to test a model of attributional bias in counseling diagnosis. The model predicted that (a) available helping resources influence diagnostic attributions and (b) this effect is mediated by the effect resources have on the diagnostician's perception of his or her helping role. In each experiment, undergraduates served as diagnosticians in a simulated referral agency. Referral resouces for half of the subjects were oriented toward dealing with personal problems; resources for the other half were oriented toward dealing with situational problems. In referring each client, subjects indicated whether they perceived the problem to lie with the client (a dispositional atrribution) or with his social environment (a situational attribution). As predicted, subjects with person-oriented resources were more likely to perceive clients' problems to be dispositional than were subjects with situation-oriented resources. Results of Experiment 3 indicated that this effect was mediated by the influences resources had on subjects' perception of their helping role.     

Sex Role and Attitudinal Correlates of Desired Family Size

A survey conducted in 1971 with college students as respondents tested the hypothesis that persons approving of a relatively equivalent pattern of sex roles desire to have smaller families than do persons approving of less equivalent sex roles. Though the hypothesis was confirmed for the number of children that Ss desired to procreate, approval of sex role equivalence appeared to be only one component of a more general pattern in which Ss who desired to procreate fewer children were nontraditional in their attitudes. Thus, to the extent that Ss approved of equivalent sex roles, favored Women's Liberation, opposed conservatism, favored liberalism, and considered themselves nonreligious, they tended to have smaller family size goals for biological parenthood. However, the role and attitudinal predictors related less strongly to the total number of children desired (i.e., the sum total of the number of children desired as a biological parent plus the number of adoptions desired).