The left digit effect in a complex judgment task: Evaluating hypothetical college applicants

A left digit effect has been broadly observed across judgment and decision-making contexts ranging from product evaluation to medical treatment decisions to number line estimation. For example, $3.00 is judged to be a much greater cost than $2.99, and “801” is estimated strikingly too far to the right of “798” on a number line. Although the consequences of the effects for judgment and decision behavior have been documented, the sources of the effects are not well established. The goal of the current work is to extend investigations of the left digit effect to a new complex judgment activity and to assess whether the magnitude of the effect at the individual level can be predicted from performance on a simpler number skills task on which the left digit effect has also recently been observed. In three experiments (N = 434), adults completed a judgment task in which they rated the strength of hypothetical applicants for college admission and a self-paced number line estimation task. In all experiments, a small or medium left digit effect was found in the college admissions task, and a large effect was found in number line estimation. Individual-level variation was observed, but there was no relationship between the magnitudes of the effects in the two tasks. These findings provide evidence of a left digit effect in a novel multiattribute judgment task but offer no evidence that such performance can be predicted from a simple number skills task such as number line estimation.     

The longitudinal relationship between fear of positive evaluation and fear of negative evaluation

Available research suggests that fear of negative evaluation and fear of positive evaluation are related but distinct constructs that each contribute to social anxiety, implying a need to focus on these fears in treatment. Yet, this research is almost entirely based on cross-sectional data. We examined the longitudinal relationship between fears of positive and negative evaluation over three time points in a sample of undergraduate students. We tested competing models consistent with two basic positions regarding these fears: (1) that fear of positive evaluation only appears to affect social anxiety because it arises from the same, single underlying trait as fear of negative evaluation, and (2) fears of positive and negative evaluation are correlated, but clearly distinct, constructs. The best-fitting model was an autoregressive latent-trajectory model in which each type of fear had a separate trait-like component. The correlation between these trait-like components appeared to fully account for the relationships between these constructs over time. This investigation adds to the evidence in support of the second position described above: fear of positive evaluation is best interpreted as a separate construct from fear of negative evaluation.     

Women as victims of corporate crime: A call for research on a neglected topic

Criminologists have paid less attention to white‐collar than to street crime, to victims than to offenders, and to women than to men, either as victims or as offenders. In fact, we have been unable to locate even a single study that focuses specifically on women as victims of corporate crime. We present several case studies that indicate that women are indeed often victimized by corporate activities. We argue that research on this topic is both necessary and timely. Feminist analysis may explain why little attention has been paid to this issue so far and also provides a theoretical framework for future research.     

Using Participatory System Dynamics Modeling to Examine the Local HIV Test and Treatment Care Continuum in Order to Reduce Community Viral Load

Achieving community‐level goals to eliminate the HIV epidemic requires coordinated efforts through community consortia with a common purpose to examine and critique their own HIV testing and treatment (T&T) care system and build effective tools to guide their efforts to improve it. Participatory system dynamics (SD) modeling offers conceptual, methodological, and analytical tools to engage diverse stakeholders in systems conceptualization and visual mapping of dynamics that undermine community‐level health outcomes and identify those that can be leveraged for systems improvement. We recruited and engaged a 25‐member multi‐stakeholder Task Force, whose members provide or utilize HIV‐related services, to participate in SD modeling to examine and address problems of their local HIV T&T service system. Findings from the iterative model building sessions indicated Task Force members’ increasingly complex understanding of the local HIV care system and demonstrated their improved capacity to visualize and critique multiple models of the HIV T&T service system and identify areas of potential leverage. Findings also showed members’ enhanced communication and consensus in seeking deeper systems understanding and options for solutions. We discuss implications of using these visual SD models for subsequent simulation modeling of the T&T system and for other community applications to improve system effectiveness.     

The Functional Analytic Psychotherapy Rating Scale: a Replication and Extension

Few theories of psychotherapy give direction to the therapist on a moment-to-moment level or make predictions about how specific therapist techniques change client behavior in session. Functional analytic psychotherapy (FAP, Kohlenberg and Tsai in Functional analytic psychotherapy: a guide for creating intense and curative therapeutic relationships. Plenum, New York 1991) provides this direction and prediction. Specifically, FAP claims that client problem behaviors will be displayed in the therapeutic relationship and that the therapist can improve client in-session behavior through differential, contingent responding. Further, it is assumed that these improvements in session can be generalized to out of session relationships. The FAP rating scale (FAPRS) was developed for the purpose of coding in-session client and therapist behaviors in an effort to test FAP’s purported mechanism of change. The current study seeks to replicate and extend initial FAPRS findings (Callaghan et al. in J Contemp Psychother 33:321–339, 2003) regarding mechanism of change and to address transportability. FAPRS coding data from a single successful case of an individual diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder and treated with FAP is presented. Results indicate that the FAPRS system is transportable and are generally supportive of the claim that therapist contingent responding leads to client improvement.     

A second look at the impact of nontraditional vocational role models and curriculum on the vocational role preferences of kindergarten children

During a 10-week period 24 kindergarten children in a treatment group were exposed to nontraditional vocational role models and curricular materials, and a control group, consisting of 24 kindergarten children, was exposed to a curriculum unrelated to vocational or sex roles. Using a t test for related measures, the pretest and post-test scores were compared. The results were that the children in the treatment group were only slightly less traditional in their vocational role preferences at the end of the 10-week treatment. None of the t values were significant. These findings are compared to an earlier study in which one of the authors was involved and which used a similar, shorter term treatment (2 weeks). The results of this study are discussed in the context of L. Kohlberg's (E. Maccoby (Ed.), The Development of Sex Differences. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press, 1966.) Cognitive Developmental Theory of Sex Roles. Some possible implications for role-related education and further research are suggested.     

Uncritical inference making and intellectual functioning

The relationship between uncritical inference making and intelligence has been uncertain. In the present study a group of 30 advanced undergraduate students were administered the Uncritical Inference Test and the Otis-Lennon Test of Mental Ability. A significant Pearson correlation of .52 indicates that this measure of intellectual functioning is associated with uncritical inference making. Further research needs to be conducted using standard intelligence measures of specific kinds of intellectual processes.     

Sex differences in dual-task interference between speaking and a manual force-production task

12 male and 12 female right-handed adults performed a unimanual force-production task alone and while sound-shadowing high frequency words. The secondary speech task disrupted right-hand performance by men and left-hand performance by women. The implications of these findings for intrahemisphere-interference models of dual-task performance are discussed.     

Of scapegoats,strawmen, and scarecrows

The thesis of this paper is that much pathology derives from our inability to deal with our feelings of hurt. The inability to deal with hurt results in the externalization of responsibility which in turn creates victims and dysfunctional behavior. The drama of the externalization of responsibility involves the same individual, the victim, or identified patient, playing three successive dysfunctional roles: the scapegoat, the strawman, and the scarecrow. This view of pathology is basically transactional because the process occurs in a familial context where all the parts of the system are intrinsically related in producing a victim.