An integrative typology of personality assessment for aggression: implications for predicting counterproductive workplace behavior

This study presents an integrative typology of personality assessment for aggression. In this typology, self-report and conditional reasoning (L. R. James, 1998) methodologies are used to assess 2 separate, yet often congruent, components of aggressive personalities. Specifically, self-report is used to assess explicit components of aggressive tendencies, such as self-perceived aggression, whereas conditional reasoning is used to assess implicit components, in particular, the unconscious biases in reasoning that are used to justify aggressive acts. These 2 separate components are then integrated to form a new theoretical typology of personality assessment for aggression. Empirical tests of the typology were subsequently conducted using data gathered across 3 samples in laboratory and field settings and reveal that explicit and implicit components of aggression can interact in the prediction of counterproductive, deviant, and prosocial behaviors. These empirical tests also reveal that when either the self-report or conditional reasoning methodology is used in isolation, the resulting assessment of aggression may be incomplete. Implications for personnel selection, team composition, and executive coaching are discussed.     

Postural change effects on infants' AB task performance: visual, postural, or spatial?

Smith and colleagues (Smith, L. B., Thelen, E., Titzer, R., & McLin, D. (1999). Knowing in the context of acting: The task dynamics of the A-not-B error. Psychological Review, 106, 235-260) demonstrated that 10-month-olds succeed on a Piagetian AB search task if they are moved from a sitting position to a standing position between A and B trials. These authors explained this result by suggesting that because the reach must be executed by different muscle forces from the standing position, an appropriate reach to B is programmed without the memory of the previous reach interfering with the current reach. In the main study reported here, the influences of postural and spatial factors are separated by adding a condition in which the table containing the hiding wells is moved up at the same time as the infant is shifted to standing, thereby allowing a postural change without a change in the spatial relations between the hand and hiding locations. Results showed that in both a standard control condition and the sitting-to-standing condition in which the table also moved up, performance was poor. Only in the sitting-to-standing condition in which the spatial relation between the hand and apparatus was altered were infants successful. These outcomes demonstrate that perseveration effects are likely to occur at the level of reach planning rather than at the level of execution, thereby narrowing the gap between explanations of improvements in AB performance with age that emphasize prefrontal maturation as opposed to improvements in reaching ability.     

Shyness, sociability, and the use of computer-mediated communication in relationship development.

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) offers its users a reduced-cues environment, a chosen degree of identifiability to others, and a forum to express facets of one's self. Previous research suggests CMC is more appealing than traditional forms of communication to certain individuals whose desires to be sociable with others are prohibited by social inhibitions. The present study predicted that individuals who indicated higher levels of both shyness and sociability would be able to express their true-selves to a greater extent online. Their relationships online would grow more quickly and be more satisfying relative to others. The pattern of results supports our hypotheses, except for the predicted relationship between true-self expression and CMC use. Suggestions for future research as well as implications for the application of CMC use in therapy for certain populations are addressed.     

Suppression effects on musical and verbal memory

Three experiments contrasted the effects of articulatory suppression on recognition memory for musical and verbal sequences. In Experiment 1, a standard/comparison task was employed, with digit or note sequences presented visually or auditorily while participants remained silent or produced intermittent verbal suppression (saying "the") or musical suppression (singing "la"). Both suppression types decreased performance by equivalent amounts, as compared with no suppression. Recognition accuracy was lower during suppression for visually presented digits than during that for auditorily presented digits (consistent with phonological loop predictions), whereas accuracy was equivalent for visually presented notes and auditory tones. When visual interference filled the retention interval in Experiment 2, performance with visually presented notes but not digits was impaired. Experiment 3 forced participants to translate visually presented music sequences by presenting comparison sequences auditorily. Suppression effects for visually presented music resembled those for digits only when the recognition task required sensory translation of cues.     

Discrimination Reversal Conditioning of an Eyeblink Response is Impaired by NMDA Receptor Blockade

In the present study we examined the effects of the specific NMDA receptor antagonist CPP on discrimination reversal learning in rabbits. We report two primary findings. First, the institution of NMDA receptor blockade had no effect on a learned discrimination. Second, after stimulus reversal, CPP treatment impaired acquisition of the discrimination reversal. This impairment manifested itself early in training as a retardation in acquisition of a CR to the new CS+ and late in training as an inability to suppress responsiveness to the new CS-. Given the comparability of the present results with previously published results for phenytoin-treated rabbits, we suggest that the effects of phenytoin on learning in this paradigm is at least in part mediated by its effects on NMDA receptors. We further suggest that these findings emphasize the need to better define the role of NMDA receptor activation and hippocampally-mediated circuits in a variety of associative learning paradigms.     

The Relationship Between Attitudinal Ambivalence and Desire to Quit Smoking Among College Smokers1

Growing evidence shows that attitudes can exist on a bivariate rather than a bipolar plane. This conceptualization provides a more dynamic approach to studying how attitudinal ambivalence (i. e., evaluating an attitude object as both positive and negative) affects smoking‐related behaviors. Based on a sample of 157 college smokers, we obtained preliminary validational support for a smoking‐specific felt attitudinal ambivalence scale. Felt attitudinal ambivalence correlated positively with potential for ambivalence, negative attitudes, and negative as well as positive outcome expectancies related to smoking. Smokers who felt more ambivalent reported a greater desire to quit and were more likely to be contemplators, as defined by the transtheoretical model of behavioral change. In multivariate analyses, felt ambivalence toward smoking predicted desire to quit after controlling for positive and negative attitudes and negative smoking consequences. These results provide promising support for the smoking‐specific felt‐ambivalence scale, and suggest that attitudinal ambivalence should be investigated further as a motivational mechanism to affect smoking cessation.