The hostile media phenomenon: biased perception and perceptions of media bias in coverage of the Beirut massacre

After viewing identical samples of major network television coverage of the Beirut massacre, both pro-Israeli and pro-Arab partisans rated these programs, and those responsible for them, as being biased against their side. This hostile media phenomenon appears to involve the operation of two separate mechanisms. First, partisans evaluated the fairness of the media's sample of facts and arguments differently: in light of their own divergent views about the objective merits of each side's case and their corresponding views about the nature of unbiased coverage. Second, partisans reported different perceptions and recollections about the program content itself; that is, each group reported more negative references to their side than positive ones, and each predicted that the coverage would sway nonpartisans in a hostile direction. Within both partisan groups, furthermore, greater knowledge of the crisis was associated with stronger perceptions of media bias. Charges of media bias, we concluded, may reflect more than self-serving attempts to secure preferential treatment. They may result from the operation of basic cognitive and perceptual mechanisms, mechanisms that should prove relevant to perceptions of fairness or objectivity in a wide range of mediation and negotiation contexts.     

A social relations analysis of nonverbal communication accuracy in married couples

This paper presents a reanalysis of a study (Sabatelli, Buck, & Drever, 1982) that related nonverbal communication accuracy in married couples to marital complaints, using the social relations model developed by Kenny and his colleagues The social relations model allows for the analysis of the communication process in a new and more complete way where, for the first time, the relative contributions of sender, receiver, and unique relationship effects to overall nonverbal communication accuracy can be assessed In addition, each of these factors can be related to marital complaints and the patterns of communication within dyads can be examined for the presence of complementarity/similarity and reciprocity/compensation The overwhelming percentage of variance in communication accuracy was accounted for by sender and unique relationship effects while little variance in communication accuracy was accounted for bv receiver effects In addition, no evidence of complementarity/similarity and only weak support for reciprocity/compensation in the communication abilities of wife and husband was found With regard to marital complaints, the most striking result was the negative correlation between wives' sending ability and husbands' complaints, a finding consistent with the previous report In addition, and consistent with the former analysis, the wives' unique abilities to decode their husbands' expressions were found to correlate negatively with the wives' marital complaints     

Pavlovian second-order conditioned analgesia

Three experiments with rat subjects assessed conditioned analgesia in a Pavlovian second-order conditioning procedure by using inhibition of responding to thermal stimulation as an index of pain sensitivity. In Experiment 1, rats receiving second-order conditioning showed longer response latencies during a test of pain sensitivity in the presence of the second-order conditioned stimulus (CS) than rats receiving appropriate control procedures. Experiment 2 found that extinction of the first-order CS had no effect on established second-order conditioned analgesia. Experiment 3 evaluated the effects of post second-order conditioning pairings of morphine and the shock unconditioned stimulus (US). Rats receiving paired morphine-shock presentations showed significantly shorter response latencies during a hot-plate test of pain sensitivity in the presence of the second-order CS than did groups of rats receiving various control procedures; second-order analgesia was attenuated. These data extend the associative account of conditioned analgesia to second-order conditioning situations and are discussed in terms of the mediation of both first- and second-order analgesia by an association between the CS and a representation or expectancy of the US, which may directly activate endogenous pain inhibition systems.     

New Zealand Maori and European mothers and their 3-year-old children: Interactive behaviors in pre-school settings

The interactive behaviors used by 34 indigenous Polynesian and 41 European mothers were observed during spontaneous play sessions at New Zealand pre-schools. Mothers from higher and lower education-level backgrounds were included in each of the two ethnic groups and the mothers were videotaped with their 3-year-old sons or daughters. Maternal interactive behaviors were subsequently coded using Zegiob and Forehand's (1975) measure. Overall, the incidence of maternal interactions in command form was high. Marked individual differences within groups, and some important between-group differences, were evident on several behaviors, but child gender was not associated with major variations in maternal interactive behavior. The results affirmed, in the New Zealand context, the association between mothers' education levels and their interactive behavior, and here, the control of maternal education level and type of pre-school attended worked against “deficit” interpretations.     

THE TRANSCENDENT FUNCTION OF THE BILATERAL BRAIN

Abstract. A "transcendent function," which integrates conscious and unconscious elements, can be characterized for the human mind. From Carl Jung's model of four basic functions of the psyche—thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuition—a modified compass of the psyche is constructed to conform to the neurobio-logical structure of the bilateral brain. The transcendent function can be correlated with the principal states of consciousness existent between waking and sleep. Dreams, myth, and the experience of deity, of related unconscious content, are manifest in hybrid states of consciousness. The exercise of the transcendent function is of creative value in the arts and sciences and paramount to human survival.     

Understanding the family in multiple cultural contexts: Avoiding therapeutic traps

Developing a balanced picture of a family's functioning is difficult when the family is culturally different from the therapist. Open-minded family therapists often translate culturally different traits and behaviors as culturally appropriate and exclude them from clinical judgment, which can limit therapeutic range and effectiveness. The following case study about an Indian family with a mentally retarded child is especially illustrative of the dilemmas facing the therapist working with families of different backgrounds. Therapeutic traps were avoided by having the family assess its own differences, while the therapist held steadfast to social interconnectedness as essential to healthy family functioning.An earlier and somewhat different version of this material appeared under a different title in Families, published by the Family Institute of Philadelphia.     

Attitudes toward condoms as AIDS prophylaxis in homosexual men: dimensions and measurement

Increases in condom use among homosexually active men are crucial to containing the spread of AIDS. The present study examined the components of attitudes and beliefs toward condom use in homosexual and bisexual men using a modified version of Brown's Attitude toward condoms scale. Factor analysis revealed 5 clear dimensions: viewing condoms as unreliable and unerotic; as protection from infection; as unavailable when needed; as interrupting sex; and viewing condoms as a responsibility and being comfortable with condom use. 5 subscales constructed from these dimensions differentiated significantly between homosexual men who used condoms frequently and infrequently or never. 4 of the subscales (except Protection form Infection subscale) differentiated frequency of oral condom use; only the Responsibility and Comfort with Condom Use subscale differentiated frequency of anal condom use. The Homosexual Attitudes toward Condom use scale demonstrates that: dimensions of beliefs and attitudes toward condom use in homosexually active men differ substantially from those in heterosexual individuals; a reliable and valid scale for measuring such attitudes now exists; factors influencing condom use in this population differ for oral and anal intercourse; and this scale enables further research on determinants of condom use, and effects of modifying attitudes toward condom use in homosexually active men to be carried out.     

Perceived qualifications,resource abundance,and resentment about deprivation

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that perceptions of being well qualified for a desired object will decrease individuals' resentment about deprivation when opportunities for obtaining the object are good (i.e., when the resource is abundant), but increase resentment when the resource is scarce. In the first experiment, unemployed nurses participated in a survey of the job situation for nurses. The initial questions in the survey were designed to manipulate respondents' perceptions of (a) their qualifications for employment, by affecting their perceived similarity to employed nurses (similar vs different), and (b) the job potential for unemployed nurses (improve vs worsen). In the second experiment, subjects competed over a number of trials with other participants for money that they had previously been promised. Some of the subjects had practiced the task ahead of time (qualified subjects), whereas others had not (unqualified subjects). In addition, the number of payments that were allegedly available was varied (many vs few). In both experiments, the manipulation of good qualifications reduced resentment when the resource was abundant, but did not significantly affect resentment when the resource was scarce. The implications of these results for understanding the determinants of resentment about deprivation are discussed.     

Where gamma fails

A major question for the relevant logics has been, “Under what conditions is Ackermann's ruleγ from -A ∨B andA to inferB, admissible for one of these logics?” For a large number of logics and theories, the question has led to an affirmative answer to theγ problem itself, so that such an answer has almost come to be expected for relevant logics worth taking seriously. We exhibit here, however, another large and interesting class of logics-roughly, the Boolean extensions of theW — free relevant logics (and, precisely, the well-behaved subsystems of the 4-valued logicBN4) — for which γ fails.