THE UTILITY OF ASSESSING MUSICAL PREFERENCE BEFORE IMPLEMENTATION OF NONCONTINGENT MUSIC TO REDUCE VOCAL STEREOTYPY

We conducted a modified paired‐choice preference assessment and used a multielement design to examine the effects of noncontingent access to high‐ and low‐preference music on vocal stereotypy exhibited by children with autism. For 3 of the 4 participants, high‐preference music (a) produced lower levels of vocal stereotypy than low‐preference music and (b) reduced vocal stereotypy when compared to a no‐interaction condition. Results underscore the potential importance of assessing musical preference prior to using noncontingent music to reduce vocal stereotypy.     

Trends in Graduate Training in Social Psychology: Training Social Psychology's Trainers

We examine social psychology graduate training in the United States by analyzing the faculty members in doctoral degree-granting programs, using archival sources. About 500 full-time faculty work in the 105 social psychology doctoral programs in the United States. These faculty hold Ph.D.'s from 74 different U.S. (and 11 non-U.S.) social psychology programs, with a median degree receipt date of 1983. Increasing numbers of women faculty attain positions in doctoral programs in social psychology; in our sample, 48% of women received Ph.D.'s after 1990, compared to 30% for men. We examine 29 programs that provided 2 or more training faculty, from 1950–1990 and 1991–2004. The data demonstrate both stability and change in graduate training—programs that produced the majority of graduate trainers during the post-WWII period continue to produce new graduate trainers (ρ = .40, p < .05), though the creation of graduate trainers currently spreads across a larger array of programs. Average GRE scores of a training program's students does not predict a given program's likelihood of placing students in training positions.     

Personality,Parental, and Media Influences on Aggressive Personality and Violent Crime in Young Adults

Debate remains regarding the interaction between predictor variables for aggression, including family environment, media violence, and personality. The current study examined the contributions of gender and personality, exposure to physical abuse and violence in the family, and exposure to media violence in both television and in video games on violent criminal activity. Data from young adults (n = 355) indicated that personality characteristics and direct physical abuse significantly predicted violent crime. Exposure to television and video game violence were not significant predictors of violent crime. These results elucidate the complex interplay between multiple factors related to the etiology of violent crime. These results also call into question the belief that media violence is involved in the etiology of violent crime.     

Religion,trauma and non-pathological dissociation in Northern Ireland

This study assessed the relationships between non-pathological dissociation, trauma and religion in members of the Northern Irish diaspora in England. One hundred and seventy-nine opportunity sampled participants completed the non-pathological absorption and imaginative involvement items from the Dissociative Experiences Scale, the Age Universal Intrinsic-Extrinsic Religious Orientation Scale, and a measure of exposure to traumatic events in the form of political violence derived from the Irish Social Mobility Survey (1973), the Social Attitudes Survey (1978), the Social Identity Survey (1995) and the Northern Ireland Referendum and Election Survey (1998). Analysis indicated that non-pathological dissociative experiences were not significantly predicted by intrinsic religiosity, extrinsic religiosity, direct exposure to political violence or indirect exposure to political violence, but were significantly predicted by some specific religious practices. Findings are discussed with specific reference to research on dissociation, trauma, and religion.     

The Use of Early Recollections for Assessing Life Style and Diagnosing Psychopathology

Early Recollections (ER) were studied within the context of Adlerian theory. ER were obtained from 10 psychotics, 10 neurotics, and 10 normals. Three Adlerian clinicians wrote Life Style (LS) summaries on the basis of these ER. Matching LS summaries to ER records, these three Adlerians plus seven other clinicians (Freudian, eclectic, Adlerian) attained significant matching accuracy, several beyond the .0001 level of significance. LS formulations based on ER are thus shown to be reliably communicable to a wide range of professional workers. However, none of the five clinicians (three Adlerians and two eclectics) who made diagnoses of psychopathology on the. basis of the ER records were able to attain above chance accuracy of diagnosis. Results were interpreted within the framework of Adlerian theory.     

Asian culture in transition: is it related to reported parenting styles and transitivity of simple choices?

Does culture shape reported parenting styles and cognitive processes like transitive reasoning, of choosing A over B, B over C, and then A over C (transitivity)? Asian‐American, Caucasian‐American, and Indian university students differed significantly in transitivity and in reported parental styles. India participants were more intransitive and, contrary to traditional findings in the literature, reported their parents as more laissez‐faire, individualistic, and competitive than did Caucasian‐Americans. Recent technological and industrial advances in India likely explain some of these obtained differences. Predictions from Adlerian theory and work of Kurt Lewin, that parenting styles would relate to transitivity of choices, were indirectly supported. Stronger evidence was found that culture impacts both reported parental styles and transitivity of simple choices.     

Difficulty of refusal to assist the outgroup nonmonotonically affects the intensity of prejudiced affect

Building on emotional intensity theory (Brehm in Pers Soc Psychol Rev 3:2–22, 1999), we propose that difficulty of engaging in prejudiced behavior should nonmonotonically influence prejudiced affect. In two experiments, we informed anti-gay participants about a gay and lesbian student organization’s need for assistance. We operationalized refusal to help the organization as a behavioral tendency motivated by the experienced prejudiced affect. To manipulate difficulty of refusing to help, in Study 1, participants were offered an opportunity to help by volunteering either 6 h (easy to refuse to help), 2 h (moderately difficult to refuse), or ½ h (very difficult to refuse) per week. In Study 2, we used the same manipulation except that the participants in the very difficult to refuse condition were asked to volunteer ½ h every other week. In both experiments, participants in the control condition were asked to help but no amount of time was specified. As predicted, prejudiced affect was a cubic function of difficulty of refusal to help: affect decreased from the control to the easy condition, increased from the easy to the moderately difficult condition, and, in Study 2, decreased from the moderate to the very difficult condition. Implications of the findings and future directions for research are discussed.     

Extrinsic Value Orientation and Affective Forecasting: Overestimating the Rewards, Underestimating the Costs

ABSTRACT We examined affective forecasting errors as a possible explanation of the perennial appeal of extrinsic values and goals. Study 1 found that although people relatively higher in extrinsic (money, fame, image) compared to intrinsic (growth, intimacy, community) value orientation (REVO) are less happy, they nevertheless believe that attaining extrinsic goals offers a strong potential route to happiness. Study 2's longitudinal experimental design randomly assigned participants to pursue either 3 extrinsic or 3 intrinsic goals over 4 weeks, and REVO again predicted stronger forecasts regarding extrinsic goals. However, not even extrinsically oriented participants gained well-being benefits from attaining extrinsic goals, whereas all participants tended to gain in happiness from attaining intrinsic goals. Study 3 showed that the effect of REVO on forecasts is mediated by extrinsic individuals' belief that extrinsic goals will satisfy autonomy and competence needs. It appears that some people overestimate the emotional benefits of achieving extrinsic goals, to their potential detriment.