Vocal frequency and person perception: Effects of perceptual salience and nonverbal sensitivity

Previous research has demonstrated that changes in vocal frequency (pitch) influence judgments made about a speaker, although there is some question as to the relative importance of frequency to message content in person perception. Moreover, these studies have failed to examine the possible joint effect of frequency and individual differences in nonverbal sensitivity on person perception. The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the independent and joint effects of vocal frequency, perceptual salience, and nonverbal sensitivity (assessed by the Profile of Nonverbal Sensitivity) on person perception. Participants were assigned to one of nine experimental conditions and were asked to rate two male and two female speakers on seven unipolar adjective scales. The nine conditions were produced by factorially combining three levels each of salience (content, voice, control) and vocal frequency (decreased, increased, unmanipulated). The results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that variations in frequency did influence evaluative judgments of the speakers (competent, honest, persuasive), but that the magnitude of the influence varied as a function of the participants' levels of nonverbal sensitivity. The analyses, however, yielded no significant effects for participants' affective judgments, nor any significant effects involving perceptual salience.     

The impact of pre-employment integrity testing on employee turnover and inventory shrinkage losses

A major home improvement chain located primarily in the western United States initiated the use of thePersonnel Selection Inventory, a written integrity test, as part of its pre-employment hiring process. For two years only, those job applicants who passed this test and other pre-employment criteria were hired by the chain. Following the introduction of the inventory, there was: (1) a 50% reduction in the number of employee terminations for theft, illegal drug use, and violence over a five year period and (2) a savings in shrinkage losses that amounted to over two million dollars over a two year period.     

Exemplification: The self-presentation of moral character

How do people come to terms with moral self-presentations and disconfirming behaviors? Subjects were exposed to the self-presentation of either an exemplifier (presenting himself as morally virtuous) or a pragmatist (presenting himself as morally adaptable) and then learned whether the self-presenter had or had not cheated for self-serving reasons in an earlier experiment Subjects clearly distinguished between exploitativeness and hypocrisy in their attributions, and considered a cheating exemplifier more hypocritical and self-deluding, but less exploitative and devious than a cheating pragmatist A second experiment manipulated subjects' involvement with the cheating of an exemplifier and a pragmatist by making half of the subjects its victims As in Experiment 1, uninvolved subjects considered the cheating exemplifier more hypocritical and less exploitative than a cheating pragmatist, however, involved subjects (victims) considered a cheating exemplifier more hypocritical but no less exploitative than a cheating pragmatist The results are discussed in terms of strategic self-presentation and the attribution of moral character     

Macrocosm to microcosm: Toward a systemic model of personality

This paper attempts to: (1) provide a paradigm through which to understand the human self and, (2) bring some order out of the variety of theories of personality and strategies of change used in clinical practice today. Drawing on modern physics and general systems theory, a multi-leveled, systemic model incorporating physical, psychological, and spiritual dimensions is proposed and then applied to a representative clinical case. Implications of this model for clinical work and for a spiritual understanding of personality are elaborated.     

Personal identity and brain death: a critical response

The authors contend that there are logical inconsistencies in a theory put forth by Michael Green and Daniel Wikler ("Brain death and personal identity," Philosophy and Public Affairs 1980 Winter; 9(2): 105-133) to justify the brain death concept of death. Green and Wikler had asserted that individuals cease to exist and are dead when the criteria for continuity in their personal identity are not met. Having argued that the theory of personal identity is misguided, Agich and Jones suggest that further research into the ontological foundation of brain death concepts should begin, not by rejecting medical or moral considerations, but by carefully defining the main competing concepts of brain death as brain stem death, cerebral death, death of the brain as a whole, and whole brain death, and then by relating these concepts to the ontological conditions for being a live individual or person.     

Incidental learning,distraction, and sustained attention in hyperactive and control subjects

Thirty-two children designated as hyperactive (ADD) were compared with an equal number of control subjects who were matched for age, sex, and verbal IQ. The subjects were tested on (1) a component selection task, measuring serial memory and incidental learning and (2) a cancellation task, assessing attentional variables and distractibility. No straightforward group differences were found on the component selection task, whereas hyperactive subjects made more omission and commission errors than controls on the cancellation task. It was concluded that a deficit in sustained attention and impulsivity best described the group differences. Age was also found to influence performance on a number of variables, including incidental learning on the component selection task and response rate and omission errors on the cancellation task. Because subjects in the hyperactive group were rated as extreme on a number of subscales not necessarily related to hyperactivity, the data were reexamined by multiple regression analyses. Subscales considered to be related both to hyperactivity and to conduct disorder were associated with different performance variables, indicating that each of these subscales provided some unique information.This study was supported by a grant from the Medical Research Council of New Zeland to the first author. The authors would like to thank the pupils and staff of Mt. Eden Normal Primary School and Newmarket School for taking part in the study, and the Auckland Education Board for granting approval for the study. We also thank Prof. J. S. Werry, Dr. J. Reeves, and Mrs. G. Elkind for assistance in locating some of the control subjects. Special thanks goes to Gail Elkind for assistance with the statistical analysis.     

Effects of body size and body mass on the swimming performance of preschool children

This research examined the relationship between body size and mass and the performance of 3- to 6-year-old children (n=117) on two categories of swimming tasks: Locomotion: Front and Locomotion: Back. The major hypothesis was that body size and mass measurements would be good predictors of children's swimming performance. The function of age/gender also was examined. Stepwise multiple regression was used to select the best predictors of swimming performance after controlling for amount of aquatic training and child's apprehensiveness about water. Body weight was the best predictor of children's swimming performance on each category of tasks (p<0.01). It accounted for at least 16% of performance variation when entered alone, and it accounted for 5% given age. Age was of little importance after body size and mass were taken into account. The major conclusion was that future research should incorporate more complex research designs to account for the network of influencing factors.     

Sex role stereotyping in the sunday comics: Ten years later

The present research replicates Brabant's (Sex role stereotyping in the Sunday comics. Sex Roles, 1976, 2(4), 331–337) analysis of sex role stereotyping in family-oriented Sunday comics. Cartoons were collected for the same six-month period and compared to the 1974 data. Females continue to appear less frequently and to remain in the home more often than males. They also continue to be protrayed in stereotypical roles.