The relationship of coping and its perceived effectiveness to positive and negative affect in sport

This article examined the ability of six different coping strategies and their perceived effectiveness in predicting positive and negative affect in sport. Furthermore, it was investigated whether perceived coping effectiveness moderated the influence of coping strategies on affect. British University athletes (N = 356) were requested to recall a recent important competition in their sport when they had a stressful or challenging experience. They were then asked to rate the extent to which they relied on a number of different coping strategies to deal with the situation and the degree to which they found these effective. In agreement with the theoretical predictions of Folkman (1984), problem-focused coping predicted positive affect whereas emotion-focused coping predicted negative affect. Furthermore, for almost all the coping variables, their perceived effectiveness predicted, in a positive way, positive affect and negatively, negative affect. Moreover, the perceived effectiveness of the coping strategies of seeking social support, venting of emotions, and behavioural disengagement, moderated the influence of those strategies on affect. Lastly, a comparison between high and low effective coping groups showed that the former was associated with more pleasant affective experiences.     

Resolving contradictory findings on sex and social class differences in children's responses to reinforcement

Contradictory results have been reported on the effectiveness of various reinforcers with children of different ages and socioeconomic classes. The present study considered the relative effectiveness of two types of verbal and one type of tangible reinforcement on a two-choice discrimination task (marble-in-the-hole) for preschool children. IQ and operant level were treated as covariates and accounted for the observed differences in performance between the 24 middle-class and 24 lower-class children and between the 24 males and 24 females. Disparate findings of previous studies regarding sex and social class differences might have been reconciled if baseline and IQ had been considered.     

Interpersonal attraction as a joint function of primacy and recency effects

Memory & Cognition - Empirical primacy-recency inconsistencies between Byrne’s reinforcement affect model of attraction and Anderson’s information integration model of personality...     

Prior induced affect and sex differences in attraction

Male (N = 90) and female(N = 90) Ss were shown either 12 humorous or 12 serious TV commercials and were asked to rate each commercial on six 7-point personal feelings scales as well as on a 6-point evaluative (like-dislike) scale. The Ss were then shown the purported evaluative responses of a same-sex stranger which were .17, .50, or .83 similar to their own. Analysis of the personal feelings scales indicated expected differences (p < .001) in affect associated with the two sets of commercials. Females who viewed the serious commercials evidenced greater attraction toward the stranger than did females who saw the humorous commercials (p < .05). The similarity attraction function for males in the humorous condition had a greater slope and a lower y intercept than the similarity attraction function for males in the serious condition. A factor analysis of female affective responses to five socially relevant commercials in the serious set suggested the operation of two affective dimensions, one of which appeared to reflect feelings of social concern.     

Sufficient conditions for the discrimination of motion

When one half of a randomly contoured pattern is displaced in one of four directions between successive exposures, Ss are capable of discriminating the direction of the displacement. Accuracy of discriminating decreases as a function of the relative displacement within the pattern, independent of the visual angle subtended by the pattern. Supplementary data suggest that Ss are unrealistically confident in the accuracy of their discrimination. The results demonstrate that identification of specific contours is not necessary for the discrimination of motion and suggest that some type of correlational process is employed by the visual system in dealing with spatially and temporally displaced patterns.     

Echolocation in the blinded rat

The difference threshold for detection of barriers at different distances using a modified method of limits was found, for four blinded rats, to be 9 in. White noise 20 dB above ambient level reduced discrimination performance to chance, indicating that auditory cues were involved in the discrimination. A second determination, utilizing the method of constant stimuli, confirmed the difference threshold to be 9 in. and reduced individual S variation by further training. Evidence with a black and a white barrier indicated the possibility that infrared heat cues do not enter into the discrimination.     

Temperature reinforcement for visual discrimination training in baby chicks

A fully automated training apparatus, using thermoregulation as performance incentive, was constructed to train baby chicks on visual discrimination and reversal problems. In the base condition, the S is bathed in cold air in a small training cubicle. Two stimuli are back-projected onto two display windows according to a pseudorandom balanced schedule. A peck at the positive stimulus gives convective as well as radiant heat reward with adjustable temperature and duration. A peck at the negative stimulus merely advances the program to the next trial. Permanent printout records give trial-to-trial information on response choice and latency. Performance data of 64 Ss are reported.