Development of differences in response latencies to right and left visual fields

Robust lateralization developed in right-handed adults who were asked to judge letter pairs as "same" or "different" during 4608 trials. By the end of the first two blocks (768 trials) "same" responses were favored when presented in the RVF (transmitted directly to the left hemisphere) and "different" responses were favored when presented in the LVF (transmitted direction to the right hemisphere). This gradually reversed over sessions with "same" responses becoming faster for letters presented in the LVF, and "different" responses becoming faster for stimuli presented in the RVF. The laterality acquired under these conditions was cumulative and reproducible, appeared in all 16 subjects, and was preserved between sessions a week apart. The data suggest that laterality is a flexible and reversible characteristic of the human brain even when stimulus and task remain constant.     

The influence of information redundancy upon the use of traits and persons as organizing categories

The following question is addressed: How do multiple, simultaneously present cognitive structures influence the representation and recall of social information? In an empirical study examining both free and cued recall, we found the variable information redundancy to influence both the organization and accuracy of subjects' recollections of trait-related behaviors. Redundancy was defined in terms of the degree of person/trait overlap in a social information ensemble. Some evidence indicated that this effect is attributable to an increase in the discriminability of the organizational structures during encoding. The implications of these findings for understanding the formation of integrated cognitive representations of individuals and the spontaneous use of traits in social information processing are discussed.     

Causal attribution and dispositional inference: Evidence of inconsistent judgments

Two experiments examined whether individuals who ascribe the disparity in the performances of two actors to situational constraints adequately adjust their dispositional inferences to reflect their own perceptions of causality. Using the quiz-game format of L. D. Ross, T. M. Amabile, and J. L. Steinmetz (1977, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35, 485–494), the effects of the subjects' awareness of the role-determined, self-presentation advantage of the questioner on their dispositional inferences concerning the quiz-game participants are noted. It is hypothesized that subjects who indicated full awareness of the determining force of the situation would nevertheless draw more favorable dispositional inferences about the questioner than about the contestant. The prediction is confirmed. Although the situationally aware subjects rate the questioner and contestant more similarly than do the other subjects, they still rate the questioner higher in knowledge, memory, and education. The results of Experiment 2 indicate that increasing the salience of the subjects' assessment of the situational advantage of the questioner does not eliminate the disparity. It is proposed that the fudamental attribution error represents more a failure to adjust trait inferences for causal attributions than a misperception of causality. Implications concerning the relationship between knowledge of causality and social judgment and the utility of the distinction between “perceived causality” and “higher order causal inferences” are discussed.     

Context effects on the perceived physical attractiveness of faces

Four experiments were conducted to study the nature of context effects on the perceived physical attractiveness of faces. In Experiment 1, photos of faces scaled on attractiveness were presented in sets of three, with target faces appearing in the middle flanked by two context faces. The target faces were of average attractiveness, with the context faces being either high, average, or low in attractiveness. The effect of the context was one of assimilation, rather than contrast, regardless of whether the persons in the photos were portrayed to be associated. This result was interpreted in terms of a “generalized halo effect” for judgments of the physical attractiveness of stimuli within a group. Presenting the persons of a set as friends enhanced the perceived attractiveness of the target face but only when the context did not contain a face of low attractiveness. In Experiment 2, the assimilation effect was observed to carry over to influence ratings of the target faces several minutes after the context faces had been removed. Experiment 3 showed the assimilation effect to be robust regardless of whether the context was composed of two faces or one, but Experiment 4 showed the assimilation effect to be evident only when the context faces were presented simultaneously with the target.     

Self-efficacy,nicotine-fading/self-monitoring and cigarette-smoking behaviour

An attempt to replicate and extend the successful results of Foxx and Brown's (1979) nicotine-fading, self-monitoring procedure for smoking abstinence or controlled smoking was undertaken using a combination of their procedure and cognitive-behavioural interventions. The latter consisted of: (1) a variation of Meichenbaum's (1977) self-instructional training and (2) a simple, direct manipulation of Bandura's (1977) concept of self-efficacy. Evidence was found to support Foxx and Brown's (1979) procedure with respect to reduced smoking rate and nicotine/tar intake. Combinations of treatments did not result in an enhancement of these effects. However, with respect to smoking abstinence, comparable results were only found in groups receiving specific training in self-efficacy. It was suggested that the variability of findings in this study as well as those in the literature subsequent and relating to Foxx and Brown's (1979) procedure might be accounted for using Bandura's (1977) self-efficacy concept.     

The behavioural treatment of school refusal—A comparative study

A consecutive series of 30 school refusers received behavioural treatment (BTA). Their outcome is compared with that of 16 school refusers who were hospitalized and 20 who received psychotherapy and home tuition. The BTA group showed superior outcome compared to the other two groups. The Home-tuition group did very badly. There was no evidence of symptom substitution in the 28 cases treated successfully by behaviour therapy.     

Poisson models for assessing rater agreement in discrete response studies

In this paper we discuss a method for assessing agreement among raters who are scoring the number of times, a specified event occurs. In such cases, it seems reasonable to define agreement in terms of raters' behaviours in correctly identifying responses which have in fact occurred, and in their falsely counting responses which have not. We exploit the discrete nature of the response variable, and examine a class of models for mean response assuming an underlying Poisson distribution. Test statistics are given for deciding on the applicability of the models, and whether there is agreement with respect to correctly detecting responses, as well as with falsely scoring responses.     

Structural complexity and the quality of stepfather-stepchild relationships

This research examined the effects of structural complexity and sex of stepchild on the quality of stepfather-stepchild relationships. Sixteen simple stepfather families (the wife had custody of a child from a previous marriage, but the stepfather has no biological children) and 16 complex stepfather families (the wife had custody of a child from a previous marriage, and the stepfather was a noncustodial biological parent) with half of each type (N = 8) having a male and half having a female, 9-12-year-old target child participated in a multimethod-multimeasure assessment of the stepfather-stepchild relationship. Families were recruited from marriage license records, and data collection was accomplished in a single three-and-a-half-hour home visit. Dependent variables included: (a) questionnaire measures of love and detachment relationship dimensions independently obtained from parents, stepparents, and (step)children, and (b) proportions of positive and negative stepparent and stepchild communication behaviors derived from videotaped interaction tasks. Findings revealed that simple and complex stepfather families did not differ on any questionnaire or behavioral measures. Girls, however, engaged in a lower proportion of positive verbal and greater proportion of negative problem-solving behaviors toward their stepfathers than boys did. Stepfathers did not differ on proportions of communication behaviors emitted toward boys and girls. No sex-of-child differences were obtained on the questionnaire measures. Directions for future research on structural complexity and stepfather families are discussed.     

Dialectical Metatheory in Family Therapy

This paper addresses the controversy in family therapy over basic philosophical issues in terms of a historical opposition between demonstrative and dialectical metatheories. It argues that advances in family therapy are indicative of the growing prominence of dialectical forms of understanding in the social sciences. Several family therapy concepts are explored as representative of the dialectical categories of motion, form, relationship, and transformation.