Nurses' Anxieties about Biohazards as a Function of Context and Knowledge1

Final-year nursing students (N= 96) described their anxieties about biohazards, not only in relation to the occupational context of a hospital ward, but also in relation to their general life context. These contexts were reported to vary in the extent to which they permitted control over exposure to the two particular biohazards chosen for study: human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV). The data showed that nurses' anxiety about contracting HIV infection varied significantly across the two contexts, while anxiety about contracting HBV infection did not. In the general life context, anxiety about HIV was greater than anxiety about HBV for all subjects. This difference was significantly greater for those with incorrect knowledge about objective HIV seroconversion rates than for those with correct knowledge.     

Distinguishing Context Effects From Context Errors in Judgments of Behavior1

Context effects (assimilation and contrast) are examined in relation to accuracy in judgments of stimuli. Context effects are distinguished from context errors. This is shown to depend on one's definition of true scores, rater tendencies (leniency-severity) relative to true scores, and the direction and magnitude of observed context effects. The framework is illustrated empirically in a study of contrast effects involving performance judgments. Implications for reliability, validity, and agreement of behavior judgments in practice are explored.     

Are All Hostility Scales Alike? Factor Structure and Covariation Among Measures of Hostility1

Few studies have examined the correlational and structural relationships between measures of hostility that may predict coronary heart disease. Using data from a population-based study (N= 2,682), we examined the factor structure among the five subscales from Siegel's (1986) Multi-dimensional Anger Inventory, the three subscales from Spielberger et al.'s (1985) anger expression scales, a Cook-Medley (Cook & Madley, 1954) hostility subscale that measures cynicism, and items measuring hostility from four scales that assess Type A behavior. Eight separate factors were identified: hostile anger expression, perceived control over the expression of one's anger, frequency of anger, ease of anger provocation, brooding, hostile outlook, cynicism, and sullenness. These results suggest that the structure of hostility measures is more complex than previous factor analyses have suggested. Our findings point to the dangers in assuming that a factor structure can be generalized beyond the data on which it is based to provide theoretical statements about psychological structure. The new scales appear to be valid because they correlate with demographic variables and indicators of social support in the expected directions.     

The relationship of spiritual maturity to level of object relations development and God image

Several theoretical studies have suggested that spiritual maturity parallels psychological maturity from an object relations perspective in that both involve a relationality that is characterized by mature dependence (Shackelford, 1978; Pingleton, 1984). In addition, previous research has suggested that there is a positive relationship between level of object relations development and God image (Rizzuto, 1979; McDargh, 1983, 1986; Birky & Ball, 1988; Brokaw, 1991). In light of this, the present study theoretically and empirically explored the notion that both level of object relations development and God image are positively correlated with spiritual maturity. The results suggest initial support for the present hypotheses. Theoretical as well as clinical implications of the results are discussed.This paper was presented at the 1994 American Psychological Association Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, CA.     

Human Resource Management Group,University of Nottingham,UK

In a new series of regular reports, research groups active in personnel psychology from a number of countries will present a briefing on work-in-progress. In the first in this series, the HRM Group at the Department of Psychology, University of Nottingham, describe their ongoing work into organization change and training validation, employee socialization, computer-based testing, and personality test construction and assessment centre validation.     

Attentional misguidance in visual search

Previous research has shown that a task-irrelevant sudden onset of an object will capture an observer’s visual attention or draw it to that object (e.g., Yantis & Jonides, 1984). However, further research has demonstrated the apparent inability of an object with a task-irrelevant but unique color or luminance to capture attention (Jonides & Yantis, 1988). In the experiments reported here, we reexplore the question of whether task-irrelevant properties other than sudden onset may capture attention. Our results suggest that uniquely colored or luminous objects, as well as salient though irrelevant boundaries, do not appear to capture attention. However, these irrelevant features do appear to serve as landmarks for a top-down search strategy which becomes increasingly likely with larger display set sizes. These findings are described in terms of stimulus-driven and goal-directed aspects of attentional control.     

Conditioned Inhibition Produced by Extinction of a Conditioned Stimulus

Four experiments used a conditioned taste aversion procedure to examine the potential for CS-alone extinction treatment to produce a conditioned stimulus that possesses inhibitory properties. In Experiment 1, saccharin was paired with LiCl, and then saccharin was presented alone for several trials to produce extensive behavioral extinction. Animals receiving this treatment were retarded in reacquiring conditioned responding to saccharin relative to control subjects receiving conditioning to the flavor for the first time. In Experiment 2, the extinguished saccharin stimulus was shown to decrease conditioned responding to a known excitor when the two stimuli were presented in compound as a summation test. Experiments 3A and 3B replicated the findings of Experiments 1 and 2 while providing evidence that the effects were not due to the differential effects of neophobia during testing. These three experiments revealed that an extinguished conditioned excitor passes retardation and summation tests for conditioned inhibition. Experiment 4 found that extinction of a known excitor was slowed when the excitor was extinguished in compound with a previously extinguished conditioned stimulus. That is, an extinguished CS provided protection from extinction to another CS, a finding also consistent with the view that extinction produces conditioned inhibition.     

Gaze avoidance: Personality and social judgments of people who avoid direct face-to-face contact

Some people maintain direct, face-to-face contact during interaction, whereas others avert their gaze or turn their face while interacting. Research on individual differences in gaze avoidance, while sparse, falls into two areas. One concerns the personality and psychopathology correlates of gaze aversion, and the other concerns social judgments made of people who avert their gaze during interaction. The findings generally show that gaze aversion is associated with unfavorable traits (shyness, social anxiety, risk for schizophrenia) and negative social evaluations (gaze averse people are rated as more deceptive and less sincere). The present study took advantage of an archival data set that contained facial photographs from which gaze avoidance could be scored. The correlates of gaze avoidance were different for men and women. Gaze avoidant men tended to be emotionally inhibited and overcontrolled, and reported a high incidence of various psychosomatic and physical symptoms. Gaze avoidant women, on the other hand, were high on measures of psychopathy, hysteria, and traditional femininity, they tended to have fewer physical symptoms. Gaze avoidant women were also viewed by others in a negative light (as being disagreeable, unconscientious, unattractive, and even somewhat lower on intelligence). In males, none of the social judgment variables correlated significantly with gaze avoidance. Results are discussed in terms of sex differences in the meaning and communicative function of this non-verbal social behavior.     

The psychologist's role in assessing and facilitating patients' knowledge of advance directives in medical settings: A preliminary investigation

In a time of budgetary shortfalls in the medical industry, an aging population, and an increased emphasis on health care choices, psychologists are being called upon to administer advance medical directive programs to patients. This study reports preliminary findings from a program to assess and facilitate patients' knowledge of advance directives (ADs) by the Psychology Service at the Ann Arbor VA Medical Center. The participant pool included 243 male veteran patients admitted to medical and surgical wards at the hospital. The intervention included the use of a computer-generated prompt for consultation, which was sent to the psychology staff in response to a patient inquiry regarding ADs. It also involved an increased emphasis on the delivery of written material on ADs by the admissions clerks. The intervention appeared to result in a modest increase in patients' knowledge of advance directives. Suggestions are offered for areas that should be emphasized in future attempts to increase patients' knowledge and utilization of advance directives.     

The visual perception of rigid motion from constant flow fields

Four experiments investigated observers’ judgments of rigidity for different types of optical motion. The depicted structural deformations were of two types: (1) those with nonparallel image trajectories that are detectable from the first-order spatiotemporal relations between pairs of views; and (2) those with parallel image trajectories that can only be detected from higher order relations among three or more views. Patterns were composed of smooth flow fields in Experiments 1 and 3, and of wire frame figures in Experiments 2 and 4. For both types of display, the nonrigidity detectable from the first-order spatiotemporal structure of the motion sequence was much more salient than the deformation detectable only from the higher order spatiotemporal structure. These results indicate that observers’ judgments of rigidity are based primarily on a two-view analysis, but that some useful information can be obtained under appropriate circumstances from higher order spatiotemporal relations among three or more views.