Noncompliance: Medical and Psychological Aspects

Patient noncompliance to oral medication regimens was assessed by interview in a sample of 109 private practice patients at two pharmacies in an outer western suburb of Sydney. Patients were classified into one of the five following groups on the basis of their stated degree of noncompliance to all medications taken (perfect compliance on all medications, occasional noncompliance on all medications, frequent noncompliance on all medications, occasional noncompliance on only some of the medications taken, and frequent noncompliance on only some of the medications taken). Selected medical/phnrmacological, doctor-patient relationship, attitudinal and personality variables were measured and univariate and multivariate analyses of the data undertaken. Contrary to expectations, the total number of medications reportedly taken rind complexity of the regimen were inversely related to noncompliance. Respondents reported satisfaction with the doctor's consultations, skepticism of doctors, attitudes to medication and scores on Rotter's (1966) Internal-External Locus of Control Scale (IEC) did not distinguish the compliant group from the four noncompliant groups combined. The most noteworthy finding concerned the marked ditlerences between the noncompliant groups, especially in relation to the patient's opinion of having to take the medication and the Personal Control scores of the IEC.     

Inferences of mental illness from noninvolvement

These studies continue the exploration of variables related to a person's use of the mental illness categorization. The central concern in the present studies was the effect of perceived variation in a target person's level of involvement in a social situation. While a low level of involvement, as portrayed in videotaped scenarios, prompts attribution of mental illness, other features of implicit personality theories also relate to greater or lesser attribution of mental illness. Those participants who gave evidence of having attributed lower levels of involvement, regardless of filmed information, also attributed higher levels of mental illness. Social workers, compared to general population participants, attributed higher levels of mental illness at all levels of target involvement. We discuss the implications of these findings for dissemination and assignment of the mentally ill role.     

Sex differences: A study of the ear of the beholder

Male and female adult Ss, while performing an unrelated task, heard a single infant awakening. The infant was labeled a girl or a boy. The dependent variable was how quickly Ss responded to the crying infant. Females responded more quickly to the girl than to the boy. Males responded equally slowly to boy and girl. A questionnaire on sex differences in fragility showed that females and males tend to disagree with the proposition that girls are more fragile than boys. Thus, the females' faster response to a crying girl cannot be accounted for by a belief in sex-differential fragility. Correlations between fragility beliefs and response times to an infant indicate that sex-differential belief-behavior relationships are not the same for males and females.     

How one gambles if one must: Effects of differing return rates on multistage betting decisions

In the multistage betting game (MBG), a decision maker (DM) is provided with some capital x which he is required to bet over m (m > 1) mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive alternatives, each of which occurs with probability p_i (p_i > 0, i = 1,…, m; Σ_{i = 1}^mp_i = 1). If y_i is bet on alternative i (y_i ≥ 0, Σ_{i = 1}^my_i = x) and alternative i obtains, the DM's capital for the next stage is y_ir_i, (r_i > 0). The MBG lasts until either the DM loses his capital or N stages elapse, whichever comes first. Each of six subjects participated in six sessions consisting of several hundred 3-alternative MBG stages. A within-subject design assigned negative expected value (EV) bets to the first three sessions and positive EV bets to three more sessions. Significant effects were found due to return rate, capital size, homogeneous runs of either wins or losses, and individual differences. Four maximization of expected utility and two minimization of risk models were presented and tested. A modified logarithmic utility model is proposed, which provides the best fit to the data. The implications of the results and directions for further research are briefly discussed.     

Positive reinforcement of litter removal in the natural environment

Litter is an especially large and costly problem in unsupervised high-use recreational areas. This study investigated procedures to induce visitors to remove litter from an unsupervised U.S. Forest Service area in which signs attached to two litter stations instructed people to pick up and deposit litter. A small sum of money or chances on a larger sum given for participation usually resulted in more bags of litter being picked up per week. Although only a small proportion of the area's users participated in the project, ground surveys indicated the areas sampled were somewhat freer of litter during the payment condition. The results suggest that small monetary rewards may be a promising approach to litter control in unsupervised as well as supervised areas.     

Perceived Success and Competence of the Opponent,or the Laboratory Dien Bien Phu1

The effect of information relevance and information availability on perceptual differences between Chinese and American nationals was investigated. Subjects participated in pairs as decision makers in a complex experimental environment. Participants' perceptions of success, failure, and competence levels for their own team (under conditions where judgments could be based on varying levels of relevant information) and for a supposed opposing team (under conditions where perceptions had to be inferred in the absence of information) were obtained. It was found that Americans and Chinese did not differ in ratings of their own team. Chinese, as opposed to Americans, perceived the opposing team as having more success, less failure, and more competence. The perceptual errors of the French and Viet Minh which led t o the defeat of the French at Dien Bien Phu were replicated in the laboratory for Americans and Chinese. Areas in which such potential cultural (oriental versus occidental) differences might be important are mentioned.     

Optional shift behavior as a function of age and dimensional dominance

An optional reversal-nonreversal shift task for which the relevant color or form cues were either dominant or nondominant was presented to 320 Ss, 6 through 20 years of age. Dominance, as defined in terms of relative cue similarity, was related to initial learning and shift behavior for kindergarten and third-grade Ss; but not for sixth-grade and college Ss. The speed of initial learning and percentage of reversal shifts was related to age when the nondominant dimension was relevant. There were no developmental differences when the dominant dimension was relevant.     

Some stages of information processing in a choice reaction-time task

Eight pigeons were tested for head nystagmus in a rotating drum with vertical black and white bars on the reside. When the birds viewed monocularly, they gave about four times as many responses to nasalward as to temporalward movement. However, no such asymmetry was observed in a discrimination paradigm. Six pigeons were taught binocularly to discriminate moving lines, which moved equally often to left and fight, from stationary fines. They were then tested monoculaxly, and the discrimination was controlled about equally by nasalward and temporalward movement.     

Second-order isomorphism of internal representations of familiar faces

Following a suggestion by Shepard and Chipman (1970), photographs and names of 15 well-known faces were used as stimuli in judgments of similarity. Ss ranked all pairs of stimuli in terms of facial similarity either from memory when presented with pairs of names, or from photographs. There was a highly significant positive correlation between these two types of judgment. A simple classificatory analysis of the 15 faces in terms of the physical features provided evidence that judgments based on the internal representation of the faces utilized pictorial information. These results extend the generality of Shepard and Chipman’s findings and confirm the usefulness of an approach to the problem of mental images based on the concept of second-order isomorphism.