Reactance and Norm Appeal in Anti-Littering Messages

Although littering is a significant social problem, there is only a relatively small amount of quantitative research on it; there is little systematic theory concerning the variables which influence it. This study presents a theoretical model of how anti-littering messages vary in the kind of social pressure against littering they attempt to impose. Three experiments were performed to test the model. It was found that messages making explicit commands against the act of littering (external pressure) actually generated more littering than messages making appeal to social normative standards concerning littering (internal pressure). Other data relevant to the model and areas in which additional research is needed also are discussed.     

Embodied infant attention

Does real time coupling between mental and physical activity early in development have functional significance? To address this question, we examined the habituation of visual attention and the subsequent response to change in two groups of 3‐month‐olds with different patterns of movement–attention coupling. In suppressors, the typical decrease in body movement at the onset of looks persists into the looks. In rebounders, the initial decrease is more transient and movement quickly returns above baseline. Suppressors and rebounders did not differ on measures of looking during habituation, but when the stimulus changed rebounders looked more than suppressors. When it did not change, they looked less. In addition, during habituation rebounders spent more time looking away from the stimulus. Rapid motor reactivation soon after gaze locks onto a target, characteristic of rebounders, may influence visual foraging and the response to change by keeping attention near a threshold of engagement.     

Reflections on the use of spirituality to privilege religion in scientific discourse: incorporating considerations of self

Many lay writers have claimed that psychologists and other scientists need to integrate something called “spirituality” into their work. This spirituality, usually undefined, is not something the truth of which may be determined by scientific means, yet it should be called upon to guide or govern our actions in certain all-important ways. This paper deconstructs two such calls that, in the end, are based on the notion of revealed, or religiously held, truth. A paradigm by which spirituality can be investigated integrating the individual self with culture is proposed, and use of this paradigm when considering modernization and supply-side theses of religious propagation is suggested.

The regression to right angles tendency,lateral inhibition,and the transversals in the Zöllner and Poggendorff illusions

A new version of the Zöllner illusion is demonstrated. Two different ways in which the regression to right angles tendency might operate are distinguished and considered in relation to the illusion. Experiments are reported which show that the one consistent with lateral inhibition between orientation detectors gives the better explanation of the illusion. The implications of this for the Poggendorff illusion are considered.     

Objects and their locations in exogenous cuing.

Anatomical, physiological, and behavioral studies provide support for separate object- and location-based components of visual attention. Although studies of object-based components have usually involved voluntary attention, more recent evidence has suggested that objects may play an independent role in reflexive exogenous orienting, at least at long stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). In the present experiments, the role of objects in reflexive attentional orienting was investigated by developing a task in which location and object cuing could be separately examined for both short and long SOAs. Typical location cuing effects were obtained, indicating facilitation at short cue-target intervals and inhibition of return (IOR) at longer intervals. In contrast, object cuing resulted in facilitation for cued objects at long cue-target intervals and no object-based IOR. Interestingly, object cuing primarily affected targets at cued locations, and not those at uncued locations. Together, the experiments examine the interactive nature of objects and locations in exogenous orienting and seem most consistent with a location-mediated view of object-based orienting.     

Successful Postgraduate Placement Experiences: What is the Influence of Job and Supervisor Characteristics?

We know little about what determines an effective placement experience, yet vocational placements are an integral part of many professional degree programmes. The aim of this research was to examine the influence of job (task variety, task identity, task significance, feedback, and autonomy) and supervisor (relationship quality and mentoring) characteristics on placement outcomes. The findings were tested on samples from two professions for which placement were a compulsory part of their course. Sample 1 consisted of 266 undergraduate nurses, and sample 2 consisted of 176 postgraduate psychologists. The findings showed that job and supervisor characteristics explained unique variance in professional development and placement satisfaction. Of the five job characteristics examined, skill variety, feedback from the job, and task significance influenced placement outcomes. Mentoring emerged as the most important supervisor characteristic that was associated with professional development and placement satisfaction, and to a slightly less extent, supervisor–student relationship quality was also important. The research and practical implications of the findings were discussed.     

Emotional Expression During Autobiographical Narratives as a Function of Aging: Support for the Socioemotional Selectivity Theory

People communicate personal stories in very different ways. These variations in communication patterns may be affected by many variables, particularly age. Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (SST) predicts young adults are focused on information gathering to function in society, whereas older adults become increasingly motivated to regulate emotions and pursue emotionally salient yet stable goals and activities. What is not understood is whether communication patterns reflect this developmental transition. Younger and older adults (n = 120) completed negative and positive autobiographical narratives that were analyzed with a Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count Program. Results indicated that younger adults utilized more affective words in general, including more positive, negative, and anxious words during autobiographical narratives. In the positive autobiographical task, older adults used a higher percentage of “family” words, whereas in the negative autobiographical task, younger adults more frequently utilized “friend” words. In terms of pronoun use, there was evidence for increased second and third person pronouns among older adults. Results related to affective, social, and pronoun word use are largely supportive of SST. However, other important findings that were not predicted were noteworthy, including the finding that results varied as a function of narrative valence.     

Links between real and virtual networks: a comparative study of online communities in Japan and Korea.

The present study explores how online communities affect real-world personal relations based on a cross-cultural survey conducted in Japan and Korea. Findings indicate that the gratifications of online communities moderate the effects of online communities on social participation. Online communities are categorized into a real-group-based community and a virtual-network-based community. The membership of real-group-based online community is positively correlated with social bonding gratification and negatively correlated with information- seeking gratification. Japanese users prefer more virtual-network-based online communities, while their Korean counterparts prefer real-group-based online communities. Korean users are more active in online communities and seek a higher level of socializing gratifications, such as social bonding and making new friends, when compared with their Japanese counterparts. These results indicate that in Korea, personal relations via the online community are closely associated with the real-world personal relations, but this is not the case in Japan. This study suggests that the effects of the Internet are culture-specific and that the online community can serve a different function in different cultural environments.