Rewarding elementary schoolchildren for their use of safety belts

This study reports on the application of reward procedures to elementary schoolchildren to increase their use of seat belts en route to two schools. Following strict rules for assessing buckle-up compliance, all passengers in a car had to be safely secured in order for the schoolchildren to receive rewards. Compliant children received paper slips as they arrived at schools, which were redeemable for stickers, bumper stickers, and coloring books. The slips were also used in weekly drawings for pizza dinners. The mean compliance rate for School 1 was 4.3% during baseline, 66.2% for the reward phase across 4 weeks, 60% for return to baseline, 17.2% for Follow-Up 1, and 8.5% for Follow-Up 2. For School 2, the mean percentage was 5.3% at baseline, 69.8% for the reward phase, 68.5% for return to baseline, 40.1% for Follow-Up 1, and 20% for Follow-Up 2. These results indicate that rewarding the schoolchildren increased their own seat-belt use as well as that of their adult drivers and other passengers. Decreases in usage were observed after the rewards were removed.     

Intraindividual variability in perceived locus of control in adults: P-technique factor analyses of short-term change

Multivariate correlational methods such as P-technique factor analysis provide a way to structure intraindividual change by identifying dimensions of covariation in intensive longitudinal measurements. For example, for 20 years or more researchers have acknowledged that some major personality constructs such as anxiety exhibit both trait (relatively stable, interindividual) and state (intraindividual) variability. However, the consideration that state variability might be quite general and can “intrude” in the measurement of putatively more stable attributes has not generally entered into construct validation work and other manifestations of theoretical development. Locus of control, as with many personality constructs, is considered to be a dimension of relatively stable interindividual differences. Levenson's three-dimensional locus of control scale was adapted for use in a measurement-intensive P-technique study involving 10 participants (5 mothers and fathers who were expecting their first child) to examine the extent to which responses manifested systematic liability. The data indicated that perceived locus of control exhibits coherent, day-to-day variability; especially the dimensions identified as internality and powerful others. Such state variation manifestations are discussed in relation to their important implications for measurement, long-term prediction, and theorizing about the nature of personality.     

Sex differences in reactions to evaluative feedback

Two studies tested the influence of various types of verbal evaluative feedback men's and women's self-evaluations of their performance in achievenment situations. We tested a theory that women perceive evaluative feedback, particularly negative feedback, to be more informative about their abilities than do men. Because of this, women's self-assessments of their abilities are more straightforwardly influenced by evaluative feedback than are men's. In contrast, men take a more self-promotional approach to evaluative situations, and therefore are more selective in their responses to feedback. Results from our questionnaire study showed that women's self-evaluations were influenced by both positive and negative evaluative statements. Men allowed positive feedback to influence them more than negative feedback, and were less influenced overall by negative feedback than women. Furthermore, women reported that evaluative feedback, particularly negative feedback, contained more information relevant to their abilities than men. Our laboratory study showed that women's actual self-evaluations were impacted differently by positive and negative feedback, whereas men's were not. In addition, we found some evidence to indicate that women were more negatively influenced by feedback that was positively toned, yet irrelevant with respect to their performance, than men. This finding underscores the fact that the focus, and not just the valence, of evaluative feedback plays an important role in men's and women's responses to it.     

Group-analytic psychotherapy.

Group analysis is a flexible and effective method of providing group psychotherapy, thereby promoting maturation and symptom relief. Its metapsychology remains incompletely worked out but provides potentially exciting interfaces with biological and physical sciences, through Foulkes's (1973) seminal concept of the group matrix.     

Vulnerable self-esteem and depressive symptoms: prospective findings comparing three alternative conceptualizations.

Across diverse theoretical orientations, vulnerable self-esteem (SE) is thought to act as a diathesis for depression after life stress. In the present study, the roles of trait-level SE, low SE primed by depressed mood, and labile SE in prospectively predicting changes in depressive symptoms in a nonclinical sample (n = 192) were examined. Results indicated that labile SE predicted increases in symptoms. Furthermore, a 3-way interaction (Labile SE x Academic Stress x Initial Depression) suggested that in Ss who were initially asymptomatic, lability made Ss differentially vulnerable to increases in depressive symptoms after stress. In contrast to labile SE, trait-level SE and priming of low SE were relatively weak predictors of changes in depressive symptoms and did not interact with stress.     

Assessment and Prediction of Stress-Related Growth

This article reports the development of the Stress-Related Growth Scale (SRGS) and its use in a study examining determinants of stress-related positive outcomes for college students. Study 1 analyses showed that the SRGS has acceptable internal and test-retest reliability and that scores are not influenced by social desirability. Study 2 analyses showed that college students' SRGS responses were significantly related to those provided by friends and relatives on their behalf. Study 3 analyses tested the determinants of stress-related growth longitudinally. Significant predictors of the SRGS were (a) intrinsic religiousness; (b) social support satisfaction; (c) stressfulness of the negative event; (d) positive reinterpretation and acceptance coping; and (e) number of recent positive life events. The SRGS was also positively related to residual change in optimism, positive affectivity, number of socially supportive others, and social support satisfaction, lending further support to the validity of this new scale. Results have implications for current theory on stress-related positive outcomes.