Exploring a Predictive Model

The purposes of this study were (a) to explore the utility of a model for predicting reporting of sexual harassment and (b) to collect data on the incidence of sexual harassment using the Sexual Experiences Questionnaire (SEQ; Fitzgerald et al., 1988). The sample included 214 tenuretrack faculty women and 276 women graduate students. The full model postulated that age, marital status, feminist ideology, and frequency of behavior would be directly related to perceived offensiveness at the behavior. In turn, perceived offensiveness, normative expectations for reporting, and perceived outcomes of reporting would directly influence reporting. As predicted, perceived offensiveness showed a direct influence on reporting, and feminist ideology and frequency of behavior were significant predictors of perceived offensiveness. Incidence data showed that the most frequently experienced situations involved gender harassment and seductive behaviors. Results suggest that educating women about the offensiveness of sexual harassment might increase frequency of reporting. Also, further exploration of the model seems warranted.     

Hemispheric specialization for emotional expression: a reexamination of results from intracarotid administration of sodium amobarbital

Emotional and behavioral responses to sodium amobarbital injection were examined in 44 epilepsy surgery candidates. Thirty-three emotional reactions occurred in 26 patients, 44% of the reactions following right hemisphere injection and 32% after injection of the left hemisphere. Among all patients examined, laughter/elated mood was statistically more frequent following right hemisphere injection while crying was statistically associated with left hemisphere injections. These observed effects were not related to amobarbital dose, sex, bilateral hemispheric inactivation (angiographic crossflow), general cognitive status, or side of seizure onset. These results support differing specialization of emotional expression in the right and left cerebral hemispheres and their subcortical connections.     

A BASIC program for computing Cronbach’s accuracy components

Accuracy is a measure of the extent of agreement between a rater’s ratings and the ratings of experts or the responses of ratees. Cronbach (1955) argued that accuracy research should focus on components of accuracy rather than on an overall measure. However, complex calculations are required to compute Cronbach’s accuracy components. A program is presented that provides a convenient way of computing all four components of accuracy (elevation, differential elevation, stereotype accuracy, and differential accuracy), as well as the associated correlation components, on an Apple Macintosh computer. The standard Macintosh interface is used to obtain all necessary information. The program will read data in a standard text file and will run faster on computers with math coprocessors.     

The suppression of visualization by reading

Four experiments are described which demonstrate a conflict between reading verbal messages and imagining the spatial relations described by those messages. Listening to the same messages did not produce comparable interference with visualization. The conflict between reading and visualizing was obtained even when the subject previously had seen the referent of the message. In contrast, when the subject was induced to treat the messages as rote strings of words instead of visualizing their referents, reading was a more effective means of presentation than was listening.

Two interpretations of these results were proposed. (a) Visualization and reading compete of the use of neural pathways specialized for visual perception. (b) The process of reading hinders the conversion of input material into any non-verabl form; that is, reading forces the subject to deal with information in a more exclusively verbal form than does listening. It was suggested that regardless of interpretation this method provides a means of investigating the internal processes underlying concrete verbal reference.     

Interview training with adolescents—A controlled group study incorporating generalization and social validation

Ten school-leavers were allocated either to an interview-training group (E) or a discussion control group (C) for three sessions. For E group a combination of modelling, coaching, roleplay, feedback and discussion was used to train both verbal and non-verbal interview skills. An attempt was made to programme generalization of treatment effect into training and subjective evaluations of interview skill were made by an experienced Personnel Officer to assess the social importance of the skills trained. After C group had completed three sessions to control for the non-specific effects of being in therapy, they received the same training as E group. Subjects were assessed using videotaped roleplayed interviews at the beginning and end of each training phase. After training E group showed significant improvements on both global and specific ratings of interview skill compared to C group; there was evidence of generalization and maintenance of treatment effect and the social importance of the skills trained was substantiated by the subjective evaluation data. C group then went on to replicate the changes in E group.     

On the difficulty of noticing obvious features in patient appearance

Medical students and experts were given head-and-shoulder photographs of patients, each showing a key feature of the patient's problem. Three quarters of these pictures were taken from textbooks. Noticing these supposedly obvious features was difficult and strongly influenced by contextual factors. Both experts and students gained about 20% in diagnostic accuracy by having the key features verbally described for them, although these were clearly visible on the photographs. Conversely, both experts and students reported seeing more of these features when the correct diagnosis was suggested to them. This facilitation resulted from an increase in sensitivity to depicted features, rather than a response bias. The properties of these features that allow such failures of noticing are discussed.     

Beyond family‐level adversities: Exploring the developmental timing of neighborhood disadvantage effects on the brain

A growing literature suggests that adversity is associated with later altered brain function, particularly within the corticolimbic system that supports emotion processing and salience detection (e.g., amygdala, prefrontal cortex [PFC]). Although neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage has been shown to predict maladaptive behavioral outcomes, particularly for boys, most of the research linking adversity to corticolimbic function has focused on family‐level adversities. Moreover, although animal models and studies of normative brain development suggest that there may be sensitive periods during which adversity exerts stronger effects on corticolimbic development, little prospective evidence exists in humans. Using two low‐income samples of boys (n = 167; n = 77), Census‐derived neighborhood disadvantage during early childhood, but not adolescence, was uniquely associated with greater amygdala, but not PFC, reactivity to ambiguous neutral faces in adolescence and young adulthood. These associations remained after accounting for several family‐level adversities (e.g., low family income, harsh parenting), highlighting the independent and developmentally specific neural effects of the neighborhood context. Furthermore, in both samples, indicators measuring income and poverty status of neighbors were predictive of amygdala function, suggesting that neighborhood economic resources may be critical to brain development.     

Status Seeking and Manipulative Self‐presentation

Three studies examine the relation of dispositional status‐seeking with workplace self‐presentation behaviors. The first study showed that the status‐seeking motive provided incremental prediction, over and above narcissism and self‐monitoring, in self‐reported exaggerating, faking, and fabricating in job search. The second study showed that, after controlling for the traits from the five factor model of personality, status‐seeking predicted the undesirable job‐search behaviors, as well as use of impression‐management tactics at work. A field study showed that employee status seeking explained supervisor impressions of employee supplication and ingratiation, even after controlling for task and contextual performance. Male status‐seekers were also more likely to engage in intimidation. Status‐seeking appears to be an important motive for understanding manipulative self‐presentation at work.