Wanting to Be Boss and Wanting to Be Subordinate: Effects on Performance Motivation

Does dyad members' motivation to take on a high or low power position influence the dyad's performance motivation when assigned to hierarchical roles? Participants in 69 dyads (33 all‐women, 36 all‐men) indicated whether they preferred the high‐power role (owner of an art gallery) or the low power role (assistant to the owner). Power roles were then randomly assigned. The dyad's interaction during task solving was videotaped. Uninvolved coders rated performance motivation as the degree of quality of the superior's and the subordinate's task contributions and effort put into the task. Performance motivation was better if the boss preferred the high power to the low power role, irrespective of the subordinate's role preference. Leadership effectiveness is thus affected by the superior's power motivation.     

Individual differences in the acceptance of stereotyping

Previous research has documented individual differences in a range of constructs relating to social stereotyping, prejudice, and intergroup attitudes. However, research has not sought specifically to measure a general acceptance of social stereotyping. In the present research, we explored attitudinal, cognitive, emotional, and personality correlates of a person’s self-reported willingness to rely on stereotypical information when interacting with people of different social and cultural groups. In six studies (N = 1080) we found that more acceptance of stereotyping was associated with more explicit and implicit stereotyping of particular groups, less liberal gender-role values, more authoritarian attitudes, preference for hierarchies, higher social dominance orientation, less universal outlook, less complexity in describing others’ emotions, less utilization of emotional information, and more utilization of social categories (gender and race) when rating the similarity of faces, less agreeable and more agentic personality, and more rigid and simplistic cognitive style (all independent of one’s gender). Female and African-American participants were less accepting of stereotyping than male and Caucasian participants. The general tendency to accept stereotyping in daily life is a measurable individual difference that may prove useful in social-personality research.     

Student teachers’ competence and career certainty: the effects of career anxiety and perceived control

In comparison to other professional faculties, student teachers are less certain about their career decisions. Consequently, examining the factors that influence their perceptions of career competence and certainty may be beneficial for their professional development. We examined how student teachers’ (n = 194) gender, grade of instruction, practicum, career anxiety, and perceived control affected their career competence and certainty. Anxiety had large and negative effects on competence and certainty. In contrast, primary control enhanced competence whereas secondary control enhanced certainty. High-practicum ratings were also associated with greater competence and certainty; however, these effects were mediated by anxiety and perceived control. These findings help us understand the transition that student teachers make from studentship to becoming professional teachers.     

Developing Character Identity: A New Framework for Counseling Adults in Transition

Counselors working with adults in transition can integrate the principles of character development with talk therapy, creating a framework for dialogue about the relationship between clients' character identity and their personal struggles and successes. Intervention strategies are proposed focusing on developing character identity for more effective decision making and authentic living.     

Backward Sensory Preconditioning When Reinforcement Is Delayed

In two experiments rats received an initial phase of training in which two neutral stimuli were presented as a serial compound (A-X). In a second phase, Awas established as a signal for a shock reinforcer, the shock being presented immediately after the termination of A (the immediate condition) or after a 5-sec interval (the trace condition). A final test phase showed that not only A but also X was capable of evoking conditioned suppression (a backward sensory preconditioning effect). The degree of suppression evoked by X was not correlated with that evoked by A. In both experiments the A trained with immediate reinforcement was more suppressive than that trained with the trace procedure, but in Experiment 1 the trace and immediate groups did not differ in the response they showed to X, and in Experiment 2 (which allowed a within-subject comparison) the trace procedure resulted in more suppression to X than did immediate conditioning of A. These results disconfirm the suggestion that the backward sensory preconditioning effect depends on the formation of an associative chain: X-A-shock. They are consistent with the proposal that the associatively activated representation of X is able to form a direct association with the reinforcer during A-shock training.     

Images of natural evil

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion -     

Taste aversion after ingestion of lithium chloride: An associative analysis

In five experiments with rats we examined the aversion established by consumption of a solution of lithium chloride (LiCl). Experiment 1 showed that consumption of LiCl established an aversion to saline (NaCl). Experiment 2 showed that the size of the aversion was reduced in rats given pre-exposure to saline (a latent inhibition effect). Experiment 3 showed that experience of a sucrose-saline compound prior to consumption of LiCl generated an aversion to sucrose (a sensory preconditioning effect). Experiments 4 and 5 examined the effects produced by consumption of a sucrose-LiCl compound and demonstrated reciprocal overshadowing between the two tastes. These results confirm that consumption of LiCl establishes an aversion to the taste of this substance. Their implications for the use of orally consumed LiCl as a technique for the control of predatory behaviour are discussed.