Effects of Crowding in a Student Environment1

Responses to crowding were examined in two student dormitories (Dorm A and Dorm B). Dorm B had more rooms per floor, smaller sized rooms, and a general layout which seemed conducive to a higher level of social stimulation. Students living in Dorm B reported being less involved with their roommates, being in a worse mmod, and experiencing more crowding. The role of crowding in mediating the relationship between type of dormitory as an independent variable and mood and interpersonal relationship as dependent variables was discussed.     

A validation study of a transferred group intelligence test(1)

The purpose of the research was to conduct a validation study of a transferred group intelligence test. The Lorge-Thorndike Intelligence Test, Level A, Form 1 was translated to Hebrew and administered to an Israeli sample comparable to the original norming group. The results obtained were concerned with variability, reliability, validity, item analysis, intercorrelations among subtests, and factor analysis. While few comparisons of the Israeli sample with the original data were made, the validation of the transferred test was examined in the light of other criteria for evaluating a new test. The suitability of the transferred test for Israeli high achievers from high-status families was supported by the results. The major conclusions were: (1) the total mean IQ scores of Israeli students were approximately the same as the American mean; (2) mean raw scores increased with age; (3) relative difficulty of individual items remained stable through translation and administration in Israeli culture, in three out of five subtests; (4) it appears reasonable to suggest that the factor structure of the translated test is consistent with the intent of the original.     

Belief in a just world and trust

Three studies examined the relationship between belief in a just world and level of trust. Results showed that subjects with a high level of belief in a just world were (a) less suspicious with regard to deception in a social-psychological experiment, (b) less suspicious with regard to the promise of a free gift, and (c) less suspicious with regard to the government's position on several public issues. The same studies also examined the relationships among belief in internal-external control, authoritarianism, and level of trust. In some but not all cases, belief in internal control and high level of authoritarianism were related to more trusting attitudes. It was suggested that the relationship between internality (as measured by the I-E Scale) and trust was mediated by the construct of belief in a just world.     

Posed and spontaneous communication of emotion via facial and vocal cues1

Subjects' facial expressions were videotaped without their knowledge while they watched two pleasant and two unpleasant videotaped scenes (spontaneous facial encoding). Later, subjects' voices were audiotaped while describing their reactions to the scenes (vocal encoding). Finally, subjects were videotaped with their knowledge while they posed appropriate facial expressions to the scenes (posed facial encoding). The videotaped expressions were presented for decoding to the same subjects. The vocal material, both the original version and an electronically filtered version, was rated by judges other than the original senders. Results were as follows: (a) accuracy of vocal encoding (measured by ratings of both the filtered and unfiltered versions) was positively related to accuracy of facial encoding; (b) posing increased the accuracy of facial communication, particularly for more pleasant affects and less intense affects; (c) encoding of posed cues was correlated with encoding of spontaneous cues and decoding of posed cues was correlated with decoding of spontaneous cues; (d) correlations, within encoding and decoding, of similar scenes were positive while those among dissimilar scenes were low or negative; (e) while correlations between total encoding and total decoding were positive and low, correlations between encoding and decoding of the same scene were negative; (f) there were sex differences in decoding ability and in the relationships of personality variables with encoding and decoding of facial cues.     

Can the Simultaneous Experience of Opposing Emotions Really Occur?

Various investigators have proposed that people may feel simultaneous positive and negative affect. However, experimental evidence from tests of a recent theory about the intensity of emotion (J. W. Brehm, 1999) suggests that even when they are invited by the experimental design, positive and negative emotions do not occur at the same time. When people have been instigated to feel a particular emotion, such as happiness, and then are given a reason (e.g., sad news) for not feeling happy, they report continued happiness but no increase in sadness unless the reason for feeling sad is very great, in which case sadness replaces happiness. The present paper briefly reviews the underlying theory and evidence, and discusses implications.