Operate your own World-Wide Web server

Although many researchers wishing to use the World-Wide Web for academic purposes rely on centralized Web services, they should be aware that it is neither expensive nor difficult to operate their own server. Doing so provides research-related benefits such as complete control over their host name and documents provided, the guaranteed ability to execute common gateway interface and server-side include programs, immediate access to their collected data, and the ability to better control who participates in their experiments. This paper surveys Web-server software features likely to be of interest to psychologists and conceptually summarizes their operation and use. The basic steps required to set up a Web server on popular microcomputers are reviewed, and security issues concerning Web-server operation are discussed. An accompanying resource Web page can assist users in setting up their own servers.     

The specific action of different personality risk factors on cancer of the breast, cervix, corpus uteri and other types of cancer: A prospective investigation

We report the results of a prospective study of a random sample of 1353 elderly but healthy men and women who were followed up for a period of 10 yr, when mortality and cause of death were ascertained. Overall results have been reported elsewhere for mortality from cancer, coronary heart disease and other causes; here we are concerned with the personality factors predicting breast cancer, cervical cancer, cancer of the corpus uteri specifically, as well as other types of cancer in women. Ten specific hypotheses were tested, using specially constructed questionnaires for the purpose, and for most of these statistically significant support was obtained. The results justify belief that specific types of cancer may be related to specific stress/personality factors.     

Assessment of retrieval strategy in incidental, intentional, and inclusion tests with word-fragment cues

The purpose of this study was to assess retrieval strategy in incidental, intentional, and inclusion tests with word-fragment cues following a levels-of-processing manipulation at study. The results of Exp. 1 showed small levels-of-processing effects in incidental tests, and most subjects reported involuntary rather than voluntary retrieval of study-list words. In an intentional test, although levels of processing had a much greater effect, quite a few subjects also reported involuntary rather than voluntary retrieval of study-list words, and these subjects showed a smaller effect of levels of processing than subjects reporting voluntary retrieval. These results suggest that subjects given instructions for both voluntary and involuntary retrieval of study-list words in an inclusion test might not in fact attempt voluntary retrieval at all, but simply adopt an involuntary retrieval strategy. The results of Exp. 2 provided evidence to support this suggestion. The general implication is that where test contamination refers to subjects' failure to use retrieval strategies in accordance with test instructions, inclusion tests can be contaminated, as well as incidental or intentional tests, and that it is always necessary to obtain converging evidence about the actual strategies subjects use.     

Bisecting RT with lateralized readiness potentials: Precue effects after LRP onset

Recent work has sought to use the time at which the Lateralized Readiness Potential (LRP) first develops (LRP onset) as a temporal landmark to bisect experimental effects on reaction time (RT). Many studies have found experimental effects on the time between the signal and LRP onset, but few have found effects on the time between LRP onset and RT (LRP-RT interval). The primary goal of this study was to produce an effect on the LRP-RT interval. We employed precuing, a manipulation likely to influence motor-programming processes at the end of the RT interval. Subjects performed a 4-alternative choice-RT task in which a signal prompted a button-press with the index or middle finger on the left or right hand. Precues preceded the signals and were either informative, reducing the set of response alternatives from four to two, or uninformative. Besides RT and LRP, we also measured electromyographic (EMG) activity and the P300 ERP component. RT, P300 latency, and the interval between the signal and LRP onset were all shorter with informative than uninformative precues, but the timing of EMG activity relative to RT remained the same. Most importantly, precuing affected the LRP-RT interval. Implications for bisecting RT with LRPs and the identity of processes affected by precuing are discussed.     

Intuitive Perceptions of Decision-making Strategy: Naive Assessors' Concepts of Integrative Complexity

Although there are measurable differences in integrative complexity among solutions that individuals generate in dealing with problems, it is uncertain to what extent people comprehend, recognize, and have preferences among different levels of complexity. Integrative complexity is a function of differentiation (the perception of several attributes within, or perspectives about, a topic) and integration (combining the differentiated characteristics in an interactive or synthesizing solution). The current paper reports two experiments dealing with how university students perceive, interpret, and choose among solutions differing in complexity. Experiment 1 showed that subjects accurately rated the complexity of described solutions differing along the continuum, but that their assessment of their own responses differed from the results of expert scoring. Their self-estimated complexity was highly correlated with their preferences, and preferred complexity was reliably higher than either expert- or self-assessed complexity of subject-generated solutions. Subjects were able to hypothesize quite accurately about environmental and endogenous factors likely to affect complexity. Experiment 2 found that in response to problem scenarios, solutions selected as being potentially most effective were consistently more complex than solutions that participants considered themselves most likely to use. The idea of complexity seems to be intuitively recognizable and understandable by untrained subjects: They can and do distinguish among problem solutions (self-generated or presented) that vary on that dimension, and are able to assess accurately the effects of relevant variables. Such subjects also share the bias shown by experts in favour of the superiority of more complex approaches.     

Die Bindungstheorie und ihre Relevanz für die Psychotherapie

Zusammenfassung Die ursprünglich von John Bowlby entwickelte Bindungstheorie gewinnt zunehmend an Relevanz im Bereich der Psychotherapie(forschung). Diese übersicht beginnt mit einer Kl?rung der zentralen Begriffe und Annahmen dieser Theorie und fa?t einige Befunde zur Entwicklung und den Korrelaten von Bindung zusammen, die vornehmlich aus entwicklungspsychologischen Untersuchungen stammen. übertragen auf Erwachsene, bedürfen die Konzepte der Bindungstheorie einer Revision, die in dieser Arbeit skizziert wird. Schlie?lich werden auf dieser Basis einige heute übliche Methoden zur Erfassung von Bindungsstilen und Bindungsverhalten im Erwachsenenalter dargestellt, die bei Untersuchungen im klinischen Feld (Inhalt des 2. Teils der übersichtsarbeit) eine wichtige Rolle spielen.      

Controversies over integrity testing: Two viewpoints

In the August 1993 issue ofJournal of Applied Psychology, Deniz Ones, Vish Viswesvaran, and Frank Schmidt published a monograph on the validity of integrity tests as revealed by meta-analysis. They concluded that integrity tests have substantial and generalizable predictive validity for criteria of both overall job performance and counterproductive behaviors on the job (e.g., disciplinary problems, absenteeism, rule breaking, violence on the job, theft, etc.). During the Fall of 1992, the authors sent a preprint of this study to David Lykken of the University of Minnesota, stimulating the exchange of letters that is reproduced here. The doubts, concerns, and feelings about integrity tests expressed by Professor Lykken are likely to be shared by others. The responses by Professors Schmidt, Ones, and Viswesvaran attempt to show that these worries are unfounded.