Using direct and indirect measures to study perception without awareness

Many studies directed at demonstrating perception without awareness have relied on the dissociation paradigm. Although the logic underlying this paradigm is relatively straightforward, definitive results have been elusive in the absence of any general consensus as to what constitutes an adequate measure of awareness. We propose an alternative approach that involves comparisons of the relative sensitivity of comparable direct and indirect indexes of perception. The only assumption required by the proposed approach is that the sensitivity of direct discriminations to relevant conscious information is greater than or equal to the sensitivity of comparable indirect discriminations. The proposed approach is illustrated through an evaluation of Avant and Thieman’s (1985) recent claim that an indirect measure of perception based on judgments of apparent visual duration provides a more sensitive indicator of perception than does a direct measure based on forced-choice recognition. Contrary to this claim, when direct and indirect indexes are measured under comparable conditions, an indirect measure based on judgments of perceived duration provides a less sensitive index of perceptual processing than do comparable direct measures. The proposed approach provides a general conceptual/methodological framework for using the dissociation paradigm in studies directed at establishing unconscious processes.     

The relative autonomy of schools and educational interventions for substance abuse prevention, sex education, and gender stereotyping.

This paper evaluates intervention programs in schools using the theoretical framework of the critical sociology of education, and most specifically, the extent to which schools are autonomous from the larger society. Three different types of intervention programs are reviewed: drug abuse prevention, sex education, and programs to change gender stereotypes, all of which were found to have limited effectiveness. Schools appear unable to change behaviors which are prevalent in a culture because they themselves are strongly influenced by that culture, and because adolescents are influenced by forces outside school. To be effective, such interventions would seem to require governmental agencies, community groups, and the media to work with the schools in order to influence the culture and thus produce behavioral changes in individuals.     

A comparison of the psychological profiles of teenage mothers and their nonmother peers: I. Ego development.

Two projective techniques were employed to explore the psychological characteristics of teenage mothers who were found, in a previous study, to have experienced more traumatic childhoods than the nonmother control group. Part I, presented here, investigated ego development using the Loevinger Sentence Completion Test. (Part II, responses to a set of TAT cards, will appear in a subsequent issue of Adolescence.) In comparison with the nonmothers, teenage mothers demonstrated more mature ego development. This is in distinct contrast with most reports in the literature, and the ramifications of these results are discussed. In addition, content analyses of the responses to the Sentence Completion Test confirm the highly involved mother-daughter and negative father-daughter relationships found in the previous study with this sample.     

Runaway girls in distress: motivation, background, and personality.

This paper deals with girls aged 13 to 21 who have run away from home. Social workers who work with such girls point out that they are not a homogeneous population and that their motives can be very different. This study divides their motives for running away into two types, "running from" and "running to," and describes the specific personality traits associated with each. Findings indicate that girls who "run to" are younger, more impulsive, have an internal locus of control and a history of more runaways and longer periods of staying away from home. Girls who "run from," on the other hand, are older, more reflective, have an external locus of control and a history of fewer runaways and shorter periods away from home.     

Neutrality, interpretation, and therapeutic intent.

Neutrality is a central concept within the theory of psychoanalytic technique. We spell out the major controversies in which the concept has become embroiled, and provide a definition that we believe coincides with actual psychoanalytic practice. We discuss its merits and weaknesses, noting also the negative consequences of relying on older definitions. We relate neutrality to the interpretive process, indicating ways interpretation protects neutrality and is made more effective by it. We discuss the complex and controversial relation between neutrality and the analyst's therapeutic intent.     

Selecting a best multiattribute alternative with partial information about attribute weights

Use of approximate weights would greatly simplify decision analysis under certainty since detailed weight elicitation could be avoided. This paper examines the degree to which rank order information about weights can be used to identify a best alternative, or falling uniqueness prescribes an easily implemented rule for selecting a ‘best’ alternative. The prescribed rule uses as weights the centroid of the feasible region defined by the rank order information. In conjunction with the rule, the value of the rank order information can be determined using an ‘expected gain from weight precision’ (EGWP) measure, analogous to ‘expected value of perfect information’ in decision analysis under uncertainty.     

Risk and behavior: The mediating role of risk appraisal

The main issue of this paper concerns the mediating role of risk appraisal in the relation between past and future behavior. We expected previous risky behavior to heighten risk appraisal, which, in turn, should stimulate preventive behavior. Results ofthree tests of this mediation hypothesis showed that past behavior was strongly related to future behavior; people who behaved hazardously in the past indicated that they tend to do so in the future. Generally, the expected relation between past behavior and risk appraisal was supported. More risky behavior in the past was associated with a heightened risk appraisal. Results also indicate a relation between risk appraisal and future behavior, but in the opposite direction as predicted. Heightened risk appraisal was related to increased levels of risk in future behavior. When predicting future behavior by both risk appraisal and past behavior the effect of risk appraisal on future behavior disappeared, while past behavior remained a strong predictor of future behavior. In a few cases risk appraisal still predicted future behavior when past behavior was controlled for. Unfortunately, these cases showed the opposite relation; i.e., heightened risk appraisal was related to more risky future behavior. Implications of these findings for research on the role of risk appraisal will be discussed.