Nutritional misinformation of children: A developmental and experimental analysis of the effects of televised food commercials

This study assessed the accuracy of judgments of 100 school age children as to the presence of real fruit content in 3 sets of cereals and beverages advertised on TV: real fruit, nonfruit, and artificially fruit flavored products. In the baseline session, accuracy was an increasing function of age, but children at each age were deceived about real fruit content of artificial fruit products. In session 2, the experimental group saw TV ads for 6 products embedded in a program (naturalistic viewing). They then judged fruit content for these six advertised products, plus a matched set of six for which ads were not shown. Controls saw toy ads on TV, and then judged the same 12 products. In session 3, subjects in each group saw the same ads they had seen in Session 2, without the program and with instruction to attend very carefully to messages in the ad (intensive viewing). They then judged all 12 products again. After naturalistic viewing, few significant differential changes from baseline were found. But after intensive viewing, accuracy of judgment of advertised artificial fruit products was lower than baseline among experimental group children. By contrast, accuracy was higher than baseline both for control children's judgements of “advertised” prod-     

Motivational Factors Affecting Fluctuations of Female Sexual Activity at Menstruation

The hypothesis was tested that pre-menstrual and post-menstrua I increases in sexual activity are due to anticipation of deprivation and rebound following deprivation (Ford & Beach, 1951). Thirty-five married women completed daily questionnaires about their sexual activity for at least two menstrual cycles. Evidence supported the hypothesis that the post-menstrual peak in intercourse is a rebound phenomenon. There was less evidence to support the hypothesis that a pre-menstrual rise represents anticipation of deprivation. In addition, there was a tendency to increase autosexual activity during periods of sexual abstention, which may represent a compensation phenomenon.     

Comparisons of models of associative recall

We tested three mathematical models of associative recall that differ in the assumed structure of the memory trace (direct or indirect connections between parts) and the interdependence of the connections (independent or correlated). The three models compared are the “horizontal” model with direct, independent connections, the “schema” model with indirect, independent connections, and the “fragment” model with indirect, correlated connections. In Experiment 1, subjects studied quartets of minimally related words and then recalled, using one or two words of each quartet as cues. The horizontal and schema models predicted the data very well, but the fragment model did poorly. In Experiment 2, related word quintets were learned, and recall cues contained one, two, or three words of a quintet. Only the schema model adequately fit these data. Experiment 3 directly tested the fragment model, using sequential tests of unrelated word quartets. Even an augmented fragment model with extra recall failure parameters was decisively rejected by these data. Both the horizontal and schema models gave satisfactory qualitative accounts, although poor quantitative fits. A means of deriving the models through a spreading activation semantic network of preexperimental knowledge is suggested, and related models are discussed.     

Do causal attributions mediate the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic interest?

Many investigators have demonstrated that task-contingent extrinsic incentives can reduce an individual's interest in some intrinsically rewarding task. Although it has been widely assumed that this “undermining effect” is mediated by the individual's causal attributions for engaging in the task, there has been little independent verification of this notion. In the present study subjects were asked to perform an inherently interesting problem-solving task. Half of the subjects were told that they could earn money by solving the task successfully (Money condition), whereas the other half were not (Control condition). Consistent with previous research, Money condition subjects expressed less liking for the task. In addition, Many condition participants attributed their task performance to less internal causes. Furthermore, across conditions, subjects who attributed their behavior to less internal causes were less apt to enjoy the task. The present data, therefore, more convincingly implicate the mediating role of causal attributions in the relationship between extrinsic rewards and intrinsic interest. Alternative explanations are discussed.     

Black-white college student attitudes and expectations in paying for dates

This study examined a black-white sample (N= 173) of university students to ascertain if there is a protocol related to paying for dates. The sample was comprised of 97 blacks and 76 whites. Most of the blacks were from a historically black university and most of the whites were from a predominantly white university, both located in the southeast. Blacks had a slightly lower mean family income when compared with whites. Both racial and gender role related attitudes and expectations related to paying for dates were also explored. African Americans have generally been noted to enact more flexible or nontraditional gender role attitudes and behaviors in some areas. This study sought to ascertain if this pattern followed in the economic dimension of dating. Findings showed race differences on several variables related to paying for dates. Blacks were found to be less flexible or more traditional than whites on several aspects of dating related attitudes and expectations. Whites were more likely to endorse more flexible role patterns and seemed less concerned with a dating protocol. Other important background variables related to more flexible gender role attitudes and expectations were classification, age, and total income of respondents' family of origin respectively.     

ALCOHOL AND DATING RISK FACTORS FOR SEXUAL ASSAULT AMONG COLLEGE WOMEN

American societal norms frequently link alcohol, dating, and sexuality. This cross-sectional study examined the role of alcohol and dating risk factors for sexual assault among a representative sample of female students at a large urban university. Over half of the 1,160 women had experienced some form of sexual assault. Ninety-five percent of these assaults were committed by someone the woman knew and almost half of these assaults involved alcohol consumption by either the man, the woman, or both. Discriminant function analyses indicated that dating, sexual, and misperception experiences and alcohol consumption during these experiences predicted assault group status. Furthermore, alcohol consumption during consensual sex and sexual misperceptions were positively related to alcohol consumption during the sexual assault. The predictors of assault group status were similar for African American and Caucasian women. Theoretical implications are discussed and suggestions are made for combining alcohol and sexual assault prevention programming.     

The Influence of Third Party Power and Suggestions on Negotiation: The Surface Value of a Compromise1

A simulated organizational dispute tested the influence of third party power and settlement suggestions on negotiation. Six different types of third party suggestions were tested: Integrative (highest possible value to both parties), compromise (the prominent solution equally favorable to both parties), unintegrative (lowest possible value to both parties), favorable (more value to subject than to opponent), unfavorable (more value to opponent than to subject), and no offers. Additional subjects bargained with no third party. The results suggest that the potential of a third party to impose a settlement influenced disputant perceptions of power and desire for third party involvement, but had only weak effects on communication processes and little effect on offer proposals. While integrative suggestions led to greater acceptability of the third party, compromise suggestions positively influenced the appearance of fairness and the use of rationality and exchange messages. Receipt of an unfavorable suggestion resulted in less favorable ratings of third party acceptability, greater perceptions of bias, and the use of more assertive messages and fewer upward appeals aimed at the third party than did receipt of a favorable suggestion. Implications for managerial dispute resolution behavior and subsequent perceptions of satisfaction and justice are discussed.     

Dreams of traditional and nontraditional women: Are dream aggression and hostility related to higher levels of waking well-being?

In order to determine whether varying degrees of traditionality would be manifested in specific behaviors that would be present in women's waking and dreaming life, 100 women between the ages of 22 and 79, 12% of whom were African American, were administered a number of self-report measures of psychological well-being and were asked to complete ongoing dream diaries for a 2-week period. These instruments were then scored along with a variety of measures used to determine to what extent traditionality differentiated among the women. Randomly selected dreams from the dream diaries were scored for aggression, anxiety, emotion, hostility, self-efficacious problem-solving, and success/failure. While traditionality was not a significant factor among the self report scales, a number of significant relationships between traditionality and dream content scales were found. As predicted, nontraditionality was positively correlated with a high ratio of achievement-oriented success to failure interactions, self-efficacious problem-solving, and aggressive dream interactions. However, nontraditionality was also significantly correlated with higher overall dream hostility. The results are discussed within the context of recent dream function theory as well as within a broader sociocultural context on shifting gender roles.This research was completed in partial fulfillment of the first author's requirements for the doctoral degree in clinical psychology at Yeshiva University. The authors wish to thank Stan Fevens, Ph.D., for his enthusiastic support and encouragment as well as his invaluable assistance. An amended version of this paper was presented at the June, 1993 meeting of the Association of the Study of Dreams, Santa Fe, NM     

Realism,morality, and liberal democracy

Conclusions The picture of liberal democratic realism that we have presented can withstand a powerful set of criticisms that have emerged in the last two decades. We have argued that realism does not misconstrue the value of the state, it does not justify the ruthless suppression of every domestic threat that could face the state, it does not depend upon a conception of international politics that rules out moral constraints, and it does not misunderstand the relationship between self-interest and morality. The defense of liberal democratic reason of state depends upon the state protecting and securing the values and welfare of individuals and groups living within its domain. Realism cannot be justified if the state has lost its legitimacy.This version of realism, however, generates its own distinctive problems. The most significant of these is that it does not offer a clean, unambiguous solution to the problems raised by the survival of the liberal democratic regime. Unlike extreme realist or idealist conceptions of the role of morality in international relations, we have argued that for the liberal democratic state this problem cannot be settled without moral remainders. On this account, realism presents leaders with a moral dilemma that is theoretically unresolvable. But this is not a failure of realism. Indeed, it is an acknowledgement that the liberal democratic state can be seen as no more, and no less, than a necessary condition of value.