The PrE Model of Coping and Tornado Preparedness: Moderating Effects of Responsibility

The person-relative-to-event (PrE) model of coping with threat was used to investigate the impact of fear arousing or negative threat appeals on tornado preparedness behavior. It was predicted that negative threat appeals using combinations of levels of factors that cause a person to appraise their resources as sufficient in quantity and quality to obviate or minimize the negative consequences of the threatening event would increase levels of preparedness behavior to a greater extent than communications that do not. Furthermore, this prediction would only hold true for those individuals who felt personally responsible for preparing for tornadoes. Results indicated a significant pattern of behavior change that fit predictions generated by the model.     

Leadership styles and Deming's behavior factors

Although total quality management scholars, including W. Edwards Deming, consider leadership to be important, there has been little work which considers linkages between specific leadership styles and TQM behaviors/policies. This paper examines the relationship between a full range of leadership styles (Bass & Avolio, 1994) including laissez-faire, management-by-exceptionpassive, management-by-exception-active, transactional and transformational leadership, and five specific TQM behavior factors derived from Deming's (1986) Fourteen Points, i.e., change agency, teamwork, trust-building, short-term goal eradication and continuous improvement.The authors gratefully acknowledge the helpful suggestions of Boas Shamir, Don Spangler, Bruce Avolio, Francis Yammarino, and Susan Kang to earlier versions of this paper.     

Feminism as a predictor of mass media use

The mass media habits of men and women who hold discrepant attitudes toward traditional female sex-role expectations were assessed. From a random sample of more than 500 citizens of Santa Barbara, California, high feminists (respondents who agreed with women's movement ideals) were found to differ significantly in several respects in their uses of media from low feminists (individuals who did not agree with movement ideals). Feminism differentially predicted the amount of television viewing for highly educated audience members. Significant differences were also found between high and low feminists for television program and radio format preferences, but not for newspaper reading habits.     

Stigma,staring, and discomfort: A novel-stimulus hypothesis

Three experiments were conducted in order to assess the validity of the novel-stimulus hypothesis as an explanation for why people who are physically different (i.e., novel) are avoided. The hypothesis states that avoidance is mediated by conflict over a desire to stare at novel stimuli and a desire to adhere to a norm against staring when the novel stimulus is another person. In the first two field experiments, subjects viewed photographs of novel (handicapped or pregnant) and familiar (physically normal) people under conditions where staring was sanctioned or not. It was found that staring increased with novelty when staring was unobserved (sanctioned); however, the reverse obtained when an observer was present. In the third experiment, subjects interacted with a crippled, pregnant, or physically normal partner. Half of the subjects were first given the opportunity to observe their partner through a one-way mirror. The reduction in stimulus novelty for this group resulted in reduced avoidance. The question of whether such avoidance of the disabled results from feelings of dislike or disgust as previously suggested, or from discomfort created by novelty, is discussed.     

Sociability and Social Withdrawal in Childhood: Stability and Outcomes

The stability and long-term correlates of both social withdrawal and sociability were investigated in a longitudinal study of normal children in kindergarten through the fifth grade. Both observational and peer assessment indices of withdrawal and sociability were considered; furthermore, a distinction was made between observed active versus passive solitude. Of particular interest was whether social withdrawal in early childhood was predictive of subsequent internalizing problems, as assessed by self-reports of social competence, overall self-worth, loneliness, and depression as well as teacher ratings of shy/anxious behavior, in later childhood. Results indicated a modest degree of stability for observed social withdrawal but not for observed sociability, nor for active or passive forms of solitude. Somewhat higher stability correlations were obtained for peer assessments of both sociability and withdrawal. In terms of predictive outcomes, significant relations were found between early social withdrawal in kindergarten and Grade 2 and subsequent internalizing problems in Grades 4 and 5, although the pattern of results was mixed. These data suggest that social withdrawal in early childhood may be predictive of risk for internalizing difficulties in later childhood.     

Semantic aphasia: A neglected entity

Three cases of semantic aphasia are reported. Computerized brain tomography showed bilateral temporo-parieto-occipital junction hemorrhages in one patient, and left parieto-occipital junction infarctions in the other two patients. The auditory comprehension defect of the three patients was characterized by preserved understanding of single words and impaired understanding of grammatically complex constructions. It is suggested that this comprehension defect reflects an inability to fully grasp the meaning of words and grammatical constructions imbued with spatial or quasi-spatial significance. Each of the three patients showed a complex spatial disorder that included constructional apraxia, spatial agnosia, and elements of Gerstmann's syndrome. The aphasic as well as the spatial disorder of semantic aphasics may be manifestations of a common defect in the perception of spatial relationships produced by left temporo-parieto-occipital region damage.     

Viral videos and virtue: Moral elevation inductions shift affect and interpersonal goals in daily life

Laboratory studies suggest that witnessing virtuous acts triggers moral elevation, an emotion characterized by feeling uplifted and increased prosocial motives. However, it remains unknown whether regular inductions can increase elevation and prosocial motives in daily life without being vulnerable to habituation or adaptation effects. Participants (total N = 181) were randomly assigned to elevating vs. neutral or amusing inductions (video or recall tasks) for seven days (Study 1), ten days (Study 2), or 12 days over one month (Study 3). Multilevel growth models showed that relative to comparison conditions, elevation inductions increased daily elevation, positive affect, and prosocial outcomes (compassionate goals and affiliation), and decreased self-protective motives (self-image goals). Adaptation effects occurred for immediate responses when exercises occurred daily, but not when spaced out over time, and not for outcomes measured later each day. Results suggest benefits of brief, regular elevation experiences and have implications for interventions targeting specific emotions.