Help,Likability, and Social Influence1

What factors affect an aid-giver's perceived helpfulness and likeability and the amount of positive and negative social influence he is able to exert? In experiment I, subjects performing a difficult task expected or did not expect to receive help which they subsequently received or did not receive. No significant differences were found in reactions to the aid-giver in the two expectancy confirmation conditions. However, reactions were markedly different in the two disconfirmation conditions-very positive when unexpected help was received and very negative when expected help was not received. The two hypothesized main effects were found (p < .05) on the negative social influence, or counter-conformity, measure. In experiment II, the perceived nature of the task was varied. Subjects received or did not receive unexpected help on a relatively unimportant task which yielded only extrinsic rewards or on an intelligence test which yielded only intrinsic, ego-rewards. This time, social influence and counter-conformity measures both showed predicted interaction effects (p < .05), while attitudinal measures did not.     

Psychotherapy with the adolescent children of concentration camp survivors

Summary The offspring of people who have experienced overwhelming physical and mental trauma may themselves manifest some of the aftereffects of their parents' trauma. Some children of survivors manifest aspects of their parents' survivor syndrome. These children appear depressed, withdrawn and have difficulty establishing and maintaining interpersonal relationships. In psychotherapy, an important focus is helping the patient establish an identity that is free of the persecutory and depressive elements of the survivor syndrome. Crucial aspects of psychotherapy with survivors' children involve helping the patient deal with the emotional impoverishment and depression of his parents and alleviating resulting guilt feelings. A therapeutic approach that is both nurturant and firm seems essential to provide restitution for the affectional deprivation and to set limits for the survivors' child. Of important concern for the therapist are countertransference attitudes which may lead to rejecting the adolescent.     

Comparisons of intervals between subjective numbers

Fifty Ss compared the subjective magnitudes of adjacent, objectively equal intervals between numbers by the method of triads. The numbers investigated were the integers from 1 to 10. For every comparison, the interval between the larger integers was more frequently judged closer, which supported previous findings that, for numbers used in magnitude estimation, subjective number is a negatively accelerated function of objective number. The nature of the psychological and physical variables in a number psychophysical function was discussed.     

Temporal factors influencing performance in the missing scan paradigm

Sixty Ss were each presented 120 random sequences of 9 of the 10 digits (0–9); their task on each trial was to supply the missing digit. Two stimulus input rates and two response time limits were combined factorially to yield four experimental conditions. Contrary to expectation, evidence seeming to support the use of a strategy based on the ordinal properties of the stimuli was found only when rapid (1-sec) responses were required, regardless of input rate. It is suggested that this result is most reasonably attributed to the operation of a guessing bias for numbers in the middle of the ordinal sequence. Differences in the constitution of the stimulus series may account for the failure to confirm previous findings of an ordinal strategy.     

Eye movements and decrement in the Oppel-Kundt illusion

Two groups of 15 Ss each observed the Oppel-Kundt illusion, in which a divided extent appears longer than an undivided extent. The group which made saccadic eye movements over the figure showed significant decrement of the illusion, while the group which maintained steady fixation showed no decrement. These results support an interpretation which maintains that information from eye-movement errors provides data as to the nature and extent of the illusion, thus leading to decrement.     

The Pied Piper of Hamelin: Folklore Encounters Malevolent Cults

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

Dedication and Acknowledgments

Dedication

Dedication and Acknowledgments     

Applying the Visions of Reality to a Case of Brief Therapy

The visions of reality refer to assumptions about the nature and content of human reality and have been used to describe different genres of literature as well as psychoanalytic, behavioral, and humanistic modes of therapy. In this paper, four visions—the tragic, romantic, comic, and ironic—are applied to a single case, spelling out the way in which each can direct the focus of a therapist's attention to different aspects of a client's problems. Each vision can also influence the process of therapy and its goals. Keeping the several visions in mind can broaden both the therapist's and the client's view of the client's life situation and problems, thereby opening up possibilities for integrative work. The paper also spells out the shift in visions of reality that is necessary when conducting brief versus long-term therapy.