A Decade of Applied Social Psychology: An Editorial

The view of the outgoing editors on applied social psychology and on the past decade of the Journal of Applied Social Psychology is presented. The history of the Journal, conceptualizations of its purpose, assessments of journal quality and evaluation approaches to its achievement are discussed. Finally, questions about the future of applied social psychology and the future of the Journal are raised.     

Economic implications of access to daylight and views in office buildings from improved productivity

Previous research has found significant impacts of daylight and views on the cognitive function of office workers. In this study, we use scores on decision-making performance to estimate the annual economic potential of optimizing daylighting and views in U.S. offices. Cognitive scores were compared against over 100,000 previous test scores to obtain the distributional shift in cognitive performance when working in an office with optimized daylighting and views as opposed to an office with traditional blinds. These changes in performance were then compared to compensation data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Office workers shifted on average from the 52nd percentile to 65th percentile, equivalent to a $11,809 difference in salary per person per year. When conservatively accounting for the number of employees working within 15 ft of a window with blinds, optimizing daylight and views in U.S. offices has the potential to generate $352B ($240B–$464B), or 1.7% of the 2018 U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), in additional productivity. These findings suggest that building developers, architects and tenants should give additional attention to daylight design and façade technology as they consider new building construction, renovation and leasing options.     

Responses to the ELCA “Draft social statement on women and justice”

Social statements are social teaching and policy documents in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Created by task forces composed of ELCA members and supported by ELCA churchwide staff members, social statements are developed through a series of participatory steps. Contributors in this work share their feedback on the “Draft Social Statement on Women and Justice” with the task force as part of the process to create a proposed social statement for an assembly vote.     

The Three Selves of Adulthood: Cultural Conceptions of Self Among Oriya Hindu Women

This essay examines the cultural conceptions of self among Oriya Hindu women who live in the temple town of Bhubaneswar in Orissa, India. It explores the temporal dimension of these conceptions during adulthood. While Hindu understandings about the relative permeability of the human body and its potential for transformation lead to an interdependent conception of the self, each of the three phases of adulthood—young adulthood, mature adulthood and old age—produces its own particular variant. The particularity of each variant derives from the cultural meanings attached to each life-phase and the social context of these women’s lives. The critical variable appears to be the predominant goal of each life-phase. The goals of assimilation in young adulthood, dominance and centrality in mature adulthood and coherence in old age lead to an interdependent conception of the self that changes, during the course of adulthood, from ‘emergent’ to ‘encompassing’ to ‘non-interdependent’.     

Measuring Executive Function Deficits Following Head Injury: An Application of SMS Simulation Technology

The Psychological Record - Neuropsychological tests have limited sensitivity in identifying subtle residual cognitive impairments in patients with good medical recovery from head injury and...     

Individual Differences in Risk Taking1

Risk taking behavior in civilian and military settings often results in unnecessary loss of life and equipment. The present research investigates the contribution of three cognitive styles (Type A., Cognitive Complexity, and GIAL) to risky behavior under varying task load conditions. The research is further concerned with uncovering possible relationships between these cognitive styles and physiological arousal (cardiovascular response) as interactive sources of risky actions. A variety of diverse and combined effects of styles on the propensity to take risks was obtained. These relationships were not generally reflected in arousal levels. In addition, the present findings support the conclusions of Streufert et al. (1983) who suggested that risk taking is primarily an effect of cognitive error. In the absence of an arousal based “thrill” finding, specific “educational” programs, based on a person's stylistic characteristics, may be possible to reduce the propensity for risky actions.     

Not all nonwords are alike: Implications for reading development and theory

Three experiments were designed to examine children's and adults' ability to pronounce consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) nonsense words. Some of the nonwords, like tain and goach, shared their VC unit with a number of real words. Other nonwords, like goan and taich, shared their VC unit with few or no real words. Pooling across items, the very same grapheme-phoneme correspondences occurred in the two types of nonwords. First graders, good and poor third grade readers, and adults all performed better on the nonwords with the more common VC units than on the nonwords with the less common VC units. Although readers appeared to use VC units in the pronunciation of nonwords, we did not find evidence for use of initial CV units. Implications of the results for reading development, dyslexia, and models of nonword pronunciation are discussed.     

Age and management team performance

One hundred eighty male managers participated as age-homogeneous 4-person teams in a validated all-day decision-making simulation. Fifteen teams consisted of 28- to 35-year-old participants (young), 15 teams were in the 45-55 age range (middle-aged), and 15 teams consisted of 65- to 75-year-old (older) persons. More than 40 objective performance measures (loading on 12-15 factors) were calculated on the basis of team decision making, planning, and other indicators. Performance by young and middle-aged teams was generally similar. Older teams made fewer decisions and were less strategic and less responsive to incoming information. Their overview of the task was less broad; action diversity and information search was reduced. However, older teams used opportunities and handled a simulated emergency as effectively as their younger and middle-aged counterparts. Alternative explanations for the obtained differences are presented.     

Misattributions in attribution research: Choices of scientific certainty vs. understanding of reality: A rejoinder

Fincham (1984) has argued that Nogami and Streufert (1983) advanced a thesis which (1) attempts to empirically demonstrate that attributions for an accident are lower with severe as opposed to less severe outcomes and (2) applies these data to account for previous contradictory findings of the ‘defensive attribution’ literature. The present authors show that Fincham's attribution of intent to Nogami and Streufert is in error and that the divergent views of Nogami and Streufert versus those of Fincham and associates reflect legitimate but different approaches toward the problem of attribution theory and research.     

A Laboratory Test of the Mirror Image Hypothesis1

Chinese and American nationals participated in an experimental internation simulation as a test of Bronfenbrenner's mirror image hypothesis. Perceptions of own and opposing nations were measured for (1) a rebel movement, and (2) a large power fighting a rebel movement in a foreign nation. The effects of information availability (relevance), and of increasing threat from a third power were also investigated. It was found that evaluative mirror image perceptions of the opposing nation as “bad” and one's own as “good” were easily established. Mirror image perceptions of “they are the aggressors” were found for Chinese, but not for Americans. Information relevance had only limited effects. Threat from a third power produced, in general, decreased mirror image perceptions for subjects representing the large power, but did not affect subjects representing the rebel movement.