Social knowledge and goal-based influences on social information processing in adulthood

Effective social functioning is reflected in the ability to accurately characterize other people and then use this information in the service of social goals. To examine this type of social functioning, the authors conducted two studies that investigated potential influences of social experience and chronic socioemotional goals on adults' social judgments in an impression formation task. In line with a social expertise framework, middle-aged and older adults were more sensitive to trait-diagnostic behavioral information than were younger adults. Relative to younger adults, older adults paid more attention to negative than to positive information when it related to morality traits. Increasing the salience of the social context, and presumably activating socioemotional goals, did not alter this pattern of performance. In contrast, when more global social evaluations were examined (e.g., suitability as a social partner), older adults were less likely than younger or middle-aged adults to adjust their evaluations in response to situational goals. Consistent with a heightened focus on socioemotional goals, older adults' judgments were more consistently influenced by their attributions of traits that would likely impact the affective outcomes associated with interpersonal interactions. The results demonstrate the interaction between social knowledge, situational social goals, and chronic socioemotional goals in determining age differences in social information processing.     

The next generation of psychological autopsy studies: part 2. Interview procedures

The psychological autopsy (PA) is a systematic method of assessing the psychological and contextual circumstances preceding suicide. The method requires interviews with one or more proxy respondents (i.e., informants) of suicide decedents. Procedural challenges that need to be addressed to conduct PA interviews are described in this article and recommendations for meeting these challenges in future PA investigations are made. Procedures addressed include determining the timing of PA interviews after suicide, designing the structure and flow of interviews, selection of proxy respondents, integrating interview data with information gathered from records, and selecting and training interviewers. This methodological article is the second in a two-part series-the first article focused on interview content.     

Bias in the Reporting of Family History: Implications for Clinical Care

Family history of cancer is critical for identifying and managing patients at risk for cancer. However, the quality of family history data is dependent on the accuracy of patient self reporting. Therefore, the validity of family history reporting is crucial to the quality of clinical care. A retrospective review of family history data collected at a community hospital between 2005 and 2009 was performed in 43,257 women presenting for screening mammography. Reported numbers of breast, colon, prostate, lung, and ovarian cancer were compared in maternal relatives vs. paternal relatives and in first vs. second degree relatives. Significant reporting differences were found between maternal and paternal family history of cancer, in addition to degree of relative. The number of paternal family histories of cancer was significantly lower than that of maternal family histories of cancer. Similarly, the percentage of grandparents' family histories of cancer was significantly lower than the percentage of parents' family histories of cancer. This trend was found in all cancers except prostate cancer. Self-reported family history in the community setting is often influenced by both bloodline of the cancer history and the degree of relative affected. This is evident by the underreporting of paternal family histories of cancer, and also, though to a lesser extent, by degree. These discrepancies in reporting family history of cancer imply we need to take more care in collecting accurate family histories and also in the clinical management of individuals in relation to hereditary risk.     

Assessment of Parental Disclosure of a 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome Diagnosis and Implications for Clinicians

Most children with chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS) have an IQ in the range that may allow them to be capable of understanding a genetic diagnosis despite mild intellectual disabilities. However, there are no publications that relate to the disclosure of a 22q11DS diagnosis to the affected child, or the factors that influence parents’ disclosure to the child. A pilot study was conducted including eight semi-structured interviews with caregivers of children with 22q11DS, 10 to 17?years of age, to investigate the factors that influence how parents inform their children of the diagnosis. Six of eight participants had disclosed the diagnosis to the child, and most of these parents felt they could have benefited from additional advice from professionals to increase their confidence and success, as well as the child’s comprehension of the information. Those who had not informed the child were uncertain about the words to use, how to initiate the conversation, or were concerned about the child’s level of understanding. Our results demonstrate that genetics professionals should help prepare caregivers for conversations with their children about the diagnosis of 22q11DS, monitor the understanding of the diagnosis over time, and provide ongoing support.     

Social presence and service satisfaction: The moderating role of cultural value‐orientation

Two studies examine the role of the cultural value orientation, self‐construal, as a moderator of the relationship between social presence and service satisfaction. Cross‐cultural data are collected in China and the USA to maximize variation on self‐construal. Results suggest that social presence effects vary depending on the consumer's independent self‐construal. Regardless of whether the service encounter is positive or negative, social presence increases the strength of satisfaction or dissatisfaction for low independents but not for high independents. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Estimating linear effects in ANOVA designs: The easy way

Research in cognitive science has documented numerous phenomena that are approximated by linear relationships. In the domain of numerical cognition, the use of linear regression for estimating linear effects (e.g., distance and SNARC effects) became common following Fias, Brysbaert, Geypens, and d'Ydewalle's (1996) study on the SNARC effect. While their work has become the model for analyzing linear effects in the field, it requires statistical analysis of individual participants and does not provide measures of the proportions of variability accounted for (cf. Lorch & Myers, 1990). In the present methodological note, using both the distance and SNARC effects as examples, we demonstrate how linear effects can be estimated in a simple way within the framework of repeated measures analysis of variance. This method allows for estimating effect sizes in terms of both slope and proportions of variability accounted for. Finally, we show that our method can easily be extended to estimate linear interaction effects, not just linear effects calculated as main effects.     

Visual nesting impacts approximate number system estimation

The approximate number system (ANS) allows people to quickly but inaccurately enumerate large sets without counting. One popular account of the ANS is known as the accumulator model. This model posits that the ANS acts analogously to a graduated cylinder to which one ??cup?? is added for each item in the set, with set numerosity read from the ??height?? of the cylinder. Under this model, one would predict that if all the to-be-enumerated items were not collected into the accumulator, either the sets would be underestimated, or the misses would need to be corrected by a subsequent process, leading to longer reaction times. In this experiment, we tested whether such miss effects occur. Fifty participants judged numerosities of briefly presented sets of circles. In some conditions, circles were arranged such that some were inside others. This circle nesting was expected to increase the miss rate, since previous research had indicated that items in nested configurations cannot be preattentively individuated in parallel. Logically, items in a set that cannot be simultaneously individuated cannot be simultaneously added to an accumulator. Participants?? response times were longer and their estimations were lower for sets whose configurations yielded greater levels of nesting. The level of nesting in a display influenced estimation independently of the total number of items present. This indicates that miss effects, predicted by the accumulator model, are indeed seen in ANS estimation. We speculate that ANS biases might, in turn, influence cognition and behavior, perhaps by influencing which kinds of sets are spontaneously counted.     

Effects of Directed Thinking on Intentions to Engage in Beneficial Activities: Idea Generation or Mental Simulation?

How might people best persuade themselves to engage in beneficial activities, such as dieting, exercise, and studying? One strategy is to think about actions. Another strategy is to think about reasons. In previous research, students who were directed to think about actions increased their study intentions more than did students who were directed to think about reasons. The present experiment tested whether thinking about actions was effective because of idea generation (coming up with the thoughts) or because of mental simulation (imagining the scenarios). In immediate and delayed measures, directed thinking about actions (but not reasons) proved generally more effective when students focused on mental simulation than when they focused on idea generation. Theoretical and applied implications are discussed.     

Is that a “No”? The Interpretation of Responses to Unwanted Sexual Attention

In this study, we used an interactive perspective to address the issue of responses to sexual harassment. We examined the effect of the consistency across time, consistency across types of advances, and assertiveness of a rejecting response on its perceived effectiveness. Participants were presented with scenarios that described responses to unwanted sexual attention and were required to rate the effectiveness of the responses for their clarity, content, and estimated effect on the future behavior of the perpetrator. The results show significant effects of consistency across time, consistency across types of advances, and assertiveness on perceived effectiveness of the response. As expected, an assertive response that was consistent across time and types of advances was perceived to be the most effective. This effect was found to be stronger for women than for men.