Right‐wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation differentially predict biased evaluations of media reports

This study tested the dual‐process motivational (DPM) model, which posits that right‐wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO) differentially predict attitudes toward socially threatening or subordinate groups, respectively. Participants read articles on same‐sex relationships and affirmative action and evaluated the article content and the biases of the article authors. The article conclusions (i.e., pro‐ or anti‐same‐sex relationships and affirmative action) were varied between subjects. As expected, only RWA predicted evaluations of the same‐sex relationships articles and authors, whereas only SDO predicted evaluations of the affirmative action articles and authors. These results extend applications of the dual‐process model by demonstrating that RWA and SDO differentially predict evaluations of political information that pertains to socially threatening or subordinate groups, respectively.     

Impact of social value orientation on energy conservation in different behavioral domains

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between social value orientation and energy conservation over different energy consumption domains. Additionally, the impact of type of energy conservation measure (curtailment vs. energy efficiency) was investigated. Data were derived from a mail survey of Swiss households (N = 1,209). It was expected that social value orientation and type of conservation measure affect conservation behavior. Confirming our hypotheses, prosocials reported more energy conservation—in the housing, mobility, and food domain—compared with individualists and competitors. As assumed, the difference in energy conservation between the three social value orientations was found for curtailment behaviors, but not for energy efficiency behaviors requiring no change in habits. Results and implications are discussed.     

The Influence of Maternal Child-Rearing Attitudes and Teaching Behaviors on Preschoolers' Delay of Gratification

This study was an exploratory examination of the influence of mothers' teaching behaviors, strategies, and child-rearing attitudes on their children's ability to delay gratification. In an externally imposed delay of gratification situation, 30 mothers from a rural university community taught their children strategies that could help them refrain from touching a brightly wrapped present when the mothers left the room. Results showed that mothers of children who did not delay gratification exhibited teaching behaviors and child-rearing attitudes consistent with a permissive parenting style, whereas mothers of children who did delay gratification exhibited teaching behaviors and child-rearing attitudes consistent with an authoritative parenting style. The results of this study are discussed with respect to the development of children's self-control and self-regulatory abilities.     

Prevalence of Anxiety and Depression in Australian Adolescents: Comparisons with Worldwide Data

Data from two Australian studies were combined so that the prevalence of anxiety and depression in a large, normative sample of Australian adolescents could be investigated. The combined sample comprised 1,299 adolescents randomly selected from metropolitan and country schools in Melbourne, a large Australian city. The data were examined in order to ascertain the percentages of adolescents who scored above the clinical cut-off on two self-report instruments-the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (C. R. Reynolds & B. 0. Richmond, 1985) and the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale (W. M. Reynolds, 1986). The results of these analyses were then compared with previously reported prevalence rates from studies worldwide. This comparison revealed striking differences in the prevalence of anxiety and depression across different countries and cultures. Limitations attributable to different self-report measures and imposed-etic approaches are discussed. Issues pertaining to social and political climate are also raised.     

Violent Delinquency: An Examination of Psychopathic Typologies

This study sought to determine the combined effects of psychopathy, low intellectual functioning, and love deprivation on violent delinquency. Low-intellectual-functioning psychopaths were significantly more violent than were low or high-intellectual-functioning nonpsychopaths or high-intellectual-functioning psychopaths. Love deprivation was more strongly related to violence than was psychopathy/intellectual functioning, and severely love-deprived, low-intellectual-functioning psychopaths were the most violent.     

Static and Phasic Cross-Talk Effects in Discrete Bimanual Reversal Movements

The authors examined the hypothesis that the phasic and the static cross-talk effects found in bimanual movements with different target amplitudes originate at different functional levels of motor control, which implies that the effects can be dissociated experimentally. When the difference between the short and the long amplitudes assigned to the 2 hands of 12 participants was decreased, the static effect disappeared. In contrast, the phasic effect, which can be observed only at short preparation intervals, did not disappear; although it became smaller in absolute terms, in relative terms it did not. In addition, the authors compared the time course of amplitude assimilation with the time course of amplitude variability and examined the correlation between left hand and right hand amplitudes. The disappearance of the phasic amplitude assimilation at increasing preparation intervals turned out to be delayed relative to the decline of the correlation between amplitudes. That finding suggests that the assimilation of mean amplitudes and the correlation between left hand and right hand amplitudes are not fully equivalent indicators of intermanual interactions, but may indicate different kinds of inter-limb coupling.     

Sequential Aiming with Two Limbs and the One-Target Advantage

Movement times to the first target in a 2-target sequence are typically slower than in 1-target aiming tasks. The 1-target movement time advantage has been shown to emerge regardless of hand preference, the hand used, the amount of practice, and the availability of visual feedback. The authors tested central and peripheral explanations of the 1-target advantage, as postulated by the movement integration hypothesis, by asking participants to perform single-target movements, 2-target movements with 1 limb, and 2-target movements in which they switched limbs at the first target. Reaction time and movement time data showed a 1-target advantage that was similar for both 1- and 2-limb sequential aiming movements. This outcome demonstrates that the processes underlying the increase in movement time to the 1st target in 2-target sequences are not specific to the limb, suggesting that the 1-target advantage originates at a central rather than a peripheral level.     

Handedness and Hemispheric Asymmetry in the Control Of Movements

This study investigated the influence of hemispheric specialization of function on the motor performance of the hands. Right-handed (n=17), ambidextral (n=21), and ambisinistral (n=12) subjects performed Fitts' (1954) reciprocal tapping task under two conditions with each hand. Conditions had the same index of difficulty but differed in movement precision. The left hand of righthanders was superior in the condition requiring the greatest amount of preprogramming. Conversely, the right hand was not superior in the condition having the greatest demand for feedback control. For ambidextrals, left-hand superiority in the relatively preprogrammed condition was also revealed. Ambisinistrals showed no significant difference between conditions with either hand. The results partially support the hypothesis that the motor performance of the hands mirrors the dominant processing mode of their contralateral hemisphere. Failure to find supportive evidence in ambisinistrals is consistent with the contention that they lack hemispheric specialization of function.     

A Comparison of Obsessive–Compulsive Personality Disorder Scales

In this study, we utilized a large undergraduate sample (N = 536), oversampled for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text revision [DSM–IV–TR]; American Psychiatric Association, 2000) obsessive–compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) pathology, to compare 8 self-report measures of OCPD. No prior study has compared more than 3 measures, and the results indicate that the scales had only moderate convergent validity. We also went beyond the existing literature to compare these scales to 2 external reference points: their relationships with a well-established measure of the five-factor model of personality (FFM) and clinicians' ratings of their coverage of the DSM–IV–TR criterion set. When the FFM was used as a point of comparison, the results suggest important differences among the measures with respect to their divergent representation of conscientiousness, neuroticism, and agreeableness. Additionally, an analysis of the construct coverage indicated that the measures also varied in terms of their representation of particular diagnostic criteria. For example, whereas some scales contained items distributed across the diagnostic criteria, others were concentrated more heavily on particular features of the DSM–IV–TR disorder.     

Book Reviews

Dan Olweus. Prediction of Aggression (On the Basis of a Projective Test). Stockholm: Scandinavian Test Corporation, 1969. Reviewed by A. I. Rabin

F. D. Naylor. Personality and Educational Achievement. New York: Wiley, 1972, 162 pages, $6.95. Reviewed by Frank H. Farley

Hendrik M. Ruitenbeek (Ed.) The Analytic Situation: How Patient and Therapist Communicate. Chicago: Aldine, 1973, 222 pages, $8.50. Reviewed by Emanuel Berman