The effects of fear arousal,fear position,fear exposure,and sidedness on compliance with dietary instructions

Investigated the effects of fear arousal and sidedness variables on compliance with a dietary regimen. Experiments involved 202 women volunteers who were 10 per cent or more overweight, and aged 20-60 years. Experiment 1 involved a 3 (low, medium, high fear) × 2 (single, multiple exposure to fear message) × 2 (one-, two-sided communication) design. The fear levels involved discussing the health hazards of obesity. Experiment 2 manipulated the fear-message position relative to the recommendations (fear-recommendations, recommendations-fear, fear-delay-recommendations). Persuasive impact was measured via follow-up weight checks at 2, 4, 8, and 16 weeks. Results indicate nonsignificant effects from sidedness and pre-standardised fear levels. Using subjects' fear arousal ratings medium fear is significantly better (p < .025), supporting Janis's curvilinear hypothesis. A single exposure to the fear message is superior (p < .025) to multiple exposures, the interaction with time being highly significant (p < .001). Experiment 2 results indicate the optimum position for the fear message as immediately prior to recommendations (p < .025). Results support both cognitive and fear-reduction hypotheses, but the latter is favoured.     

Estimating the Prevalence of Shyness in the “Global Village”: Pluralistic Ignorance or False Consensus?

ABSTRACT Only a minority of those who experience shyness consider themselves to be shy people One explanation for this lies in the possibility that those who so label themselves underestimate the extent to which their feelings are shared by others (i.e, perceive the consensus surrounding their experiences as low [Kelley, 1967]), resulting in an internal rather than external attribution This proposition was tested by asking shy and not-shy followers of two TV soap operas to rate a number of characters from the programs, together with a list of their friends and relatives, for shyness, competitiveness, and optimism Although there were no differences between the groups in their ratings of competitiveness and optimism, the shy subjects reported greater shyness among both the soap-opera characters and their friends and relatives than the not-shy group Whatever the basis for the self-labeling of shyness, therefore, it does not appear to he in the low consensus/pluralistic ignorance notion A number of alternative explanations are discussed, together with the implications of these findings for explanations of the false consensus effect     

An IBM XT-compatible,computer-based,slide-projector laboratory

In the present paper, we describe the software and hardware of an on-line, visual-memory laboratory running under Turbo Pascal on an IBM PC XT-compatible computer. The display system includes one Kodak random access projector and four standard Kodak carousel projectors, all equipped with tachistoscopic shutters and luminance-control devices. The response system consists of eight 16-key response boxes. The laboratory can be used for any experiment in which 35-mm slides are to be used as stimuli, and in which precise display times, stimulus luminances, and reaction times are required. The laboratory is particularly well suited to picture-perception and picture-memory experiments.     

Reaction time correlations with intelligence test scores obtained under either timed or untimed conditions

One hundred and thirteen high school students were randomly assigned to one of two groups that were administered an intelligence test (the Multidimensional Aptitude Battery) under either timed or untimed conditions. Subsequently, all subjects were given a battery of 8 reaction time tests. Multiple regression analyses showed that combinations of RTs were approximately equally good predictors of IQ scores in both groups. Zero-order correlations between each RT test and IQ scores were also approximately equal for timed and untimed Verbal and Full-Scale scores but correlations with Performance scores were higher in the timed condition. The extent to which the different RT tests correlated with timed scores was quite highly related to the tests' loadings on a general speed factor but these loadings were not related to the tests' correlations with untimed scores. Rather, the relative complexity of the RT tests had a stronger influence on their correlations with IQ scores in the untimed condition. It is concluded that timed and untimed intelligence tests impose different information-processing demands on subjects but that the speed with which subjects can cope with these demands is equally important in both conditions.     

Relationship of internal-external locus of control,self-concept,and masculinity-femininity to fear of success in Black freshmen and senior college women

The concepts of locus of control, self-concept, masculinity-femininity, and their relationship to fear of success in Black college women were explored. Scores were obtained from stories written in response to six verbal cues designed to assess fear-of-success imagery. Tabulations ranging from zero (denoting absence of fear) to six (denoting most fear) were correlated with Gurin's I-E Scale, the Modified Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale, and the Modified Gough Masculinity-Femininity Scale. There was no significant mean difference between freshmen and seniors on fear of success. However, an analysis of variance revealed that externals showed significantly more fear-of-success imagery than internals. Significant inverse correlations were located between the measure of self-concept and certain cues eliciting fear of success. Femininity was not shown to be related to any of the fear-of-success measures.     

Masculinity-femininity perceptions of job requirements and their relationship to job-sex stereotypes

Perceived sex appropriateness of the work situation is believed to constrain work opportunities, particularly for women. However, sex appropriateness may be defined either with respect to the entire job or with respect to the tasks which comprise the job. In this study sex appropriateness of job tasks was examined by obtaining subjective estimates of the masculinity-femininity of the job requirement dimensions defined by the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT). Results indicate that interacting with things is perceived as masculine, interacting with people is perceived as feminine, and interacting with data is perceived as falling between the other two. There is less agreement on the masculinity-femininity of specific types of interactions with data, people, and things. Sex appropriateness of specific requirements was found to be only moderately associated with the DOT's assessment of the complexity of those requirements. Further, sex appropriateness of job requirements was not highly related to the job sextypes established by Shinar (Shinar, E. H. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1975, 7, 99–110) and Krefting et al. (Krefting, L. A., Berger, P. K., and Wallace, M. J. Jr. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1978, 13, 181–191). This suggests that sex appropriateness of a job and sex appropriateness of the tasks which comprise the job are distinct, separate concepts.     

The influence of the form of the question on the eyewitness testimony of preschool children

Thirty-two preschool children were questioned after viewing four short films. The form of the question (affirmative-negative, definite-indefinite article, some-any quantifier) was systematically varied in a counterbalanced design. The form of the question did not significantly affect answers to questions about entities actually present in the films; however, it did have significant effects on answers concerning entities which were not in the film. Questions such as Did you see the..., Did you see any..., and Didn't you see some... were answered yes more frequently than other question types. Thus young children are aware of the expectation conveyed by certain linguistic forms, such asthe. The results are discussed in the light of current models of constructive memory as well as their implications for accurate questioning of children.An earlier version of this article was delivered to the Stanford Child Language Research Forum, Stanford University, April 1976.     

Positive parental praise: Increasing reactivity and accuracy of self-observation

The parents of a 6-year-old disruptive boy were observed interacting with their son during 20 assessment-oriented, 10- minute experimental sessions. An experimental design consisting of alternately arranged baseline and self-monitoring conditions was utilized. Following the reversal- to- baseline phase, parents were given specialized training in self-recording positive parental praise. Results indicated that (a) self-monitoring of positive verbalizations was an effective means of producing reactive changes in parental behavior, and (b) training in self-monitoring increased parent-observer accuracy scores to more than acceptable levels of agreement. These findings were discussed with regard to the simplicity of a parental self-observational intervention and recommendations were made for continuing investigations in the area.This research was supported by the University of Montana Research Grant and Fellowship Program.