Differential validity of the Gottschalk-Gleser Anxiety Scales: is gender a moderator variable?

It can be hypothesized that affects like anxiety can be measured by content analysis of speech due to the phenomenon of mood congruent memory, which is found predominantly in females. To assess the effect of gender on the validity of the Gottschalk-Gleser Anxiety Scales, the standard procedure for obtaining verbal samples was followed and self-report measurements of comparable emotional constructs were applied concurrently. Measures of state and trait emotions were administered to 25 female and 25 male university students. In the female group 18 significant convergent validity coefficients were found. For males, content analytic anxiety scores showed four significant correlations with concurrent self-report scales. These results suggest that content analytic anxiety scores from female subjects may allow a more accurate prediction of state and trait emotions than anxiety scores from male subjects. Thus, gender might have a differential effect on the validity of the Gottschalk-Gleser Anxiety Scales.     

On the inconclusiveness of “crucial” cognitive tests of dissonance versus self-perception theories

Several recent experiments are claimed to have tested conflicting predictions of cognitive dissonance and self-perception theories. It is argued that these claims fail to take into account the capacity of each formulation to account adequately for results “predicted” by the other. This argument is then continued, at a metatheoretical level, to reach the conclusion that the two theories are not capable of producing unequivocally contradictory predictions of cognitive consequences of experimental procedures.     

Anomie and vocational-technical education

Graduates from a public, postsecondary vocational-technical school are compared with a control group of individuals without such education in order to assess differences in level of anomie (via Srole Scale).While differences in some cases were minimal, vocational-technical graduates generally revealed a more positive attitude about the present and future. It is suggested that since their education is more job-centered, and they have already experienced some occupational “success”, they are more likely to have internalized and reflect traditional societal norms. The control group, while possessing similar demographic backgrounds, still are in transition-attending college, looking for work, etc.     

Retrieval processes in fifth graders and adults

This research was concerned with retrieval processes which underlie conceptual clustering. In a free recall task with categorized lists, fifth graders' and adults' retrieval was examined temporally by means of interword response times. List organization and retrieval cue factors were manipulated in order to assess the developmental relevance of an hypothesized three component retrieval model. The results indicated that both age groups used a qualitatively similar retrieval strategy, involving search for and decoding of higher-order memory units. Providing retrieval cues eliminated the category search component, but also increased the likelihood of exhaustive recall attempts under random presentation conditions. The results were discussed in terms of the inter-relationships between storage and retrieval strategies. Age-related differences in retrieval time were attributed to insufficient reorganization during input and failure to attempt to recall all of a category's members.     

Extinction of avoidance behavior and the problem of residual fear

According to two-factor theory, avoidance responding is predicated on a conjoint relationship between Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning. Recently a variety of evidence has indicated that these processes are independently subject to experimental manipulations, both during acquisition and extinction. The latter finding is paralleled in the clinicial literature by the observation that the elimination of an avoidance response does not adequately reflect concurrent changes in autonomic and verbal behavior. These findings suggest the need for multiple measures of anxiety in assessing the effect of experimental and therapeutic operations on avoidance behavior. This paper also calls attention to the discriminative and reinforcing properties of the CS in an attempt to account for these findings.     

Wyckoff's observing response: Pigeons learn to observe stimuli for free food but not stimuli for extinction

Four pigeons received periods of free food delivery alternating with periods of extinction. The experimental chamber was divided in half. Initially the subjects could produce stimuli selectively associated with these schedules by standing on the right side of the chamber and later by standing on the left side. In both phases, subjects produced the free food stimulus most of the time it was available but did not increase above baseline the time spent producing the extinction stimulus. Thus, when alternative stimuli are available, the pigeon prefers the stimulus associated with the greater frequency of reinforcement although the choice results in no biological advantage.     

Self-monitoring in communicative interactions: Social cognitive consequences of goal-directed message modification

The hypothesis was examined that previously demonstrated message modification and its subsequent social cognitive effects would be more characteristic of high than low self-monitors. Subjects first read an essay describing a stimulus person and were then requested to communicate a referential message concerning him to a listener who supposedly either liked (positive audience condition) or disliked (negative audience condition) the stimulus person. Subjects were subsequently given, after both a brief and long delay interval, a reproduction, impression, and attitude measure. The results indicated that high self-monitors were more likely to modify their message in a manner that was evaluatively consistent with their listener's attitude. In addition, this message modification had the predicted social cognitive consequences in that it affected the high self-monitor's subsequent impressions of (but not necessarily attitude toward) the target person. The results suggested that the responses obtained from high self-monitors in many experimental contexts may themselves be the results of a self-monitoring strategy. The implications of these results for research examining the effects of “self-monitoring” are discussed.     

Three theories of self-disclosure exchange

The present study tested predictions derived from equitable exchange, social attraction, and normative information theories of self-disclosure. Variables relevant to each theory were manipulated orthogonally in the following factorial design: (1) intimate vs. superficial vs. no confederate disclosure, (2) positive vs. negative evaluation delivered by the confederate, and (3) intimate vs. non-intimate disclosure as normative for the experimental situation. Groups in which the subject was exposed to one of the independent variables in the absence of the others were included, to yield 18 cells with 10 female subjects per cell. The findings conformed to equitable exchange theory, in that subjects were more willing to disclose to a high- than a low-revealing partner. However, disclosure appeared to be suppressed in response to low disclosure, rather than enhanced by intimate disclosure. Also, true reciprocity of disclosure did not occur, in that subjects did not completely match the intimacy of the confederate. Normative information proved to be a potent determinant of disclosure tendency. No support was found for social attraction theory. Although confederate evaluation was the best predictor of interpersonal attraction, it was the poorest predictor of intent to disclose. Attraction was not found to parallel disclosure level.     

Concurrent validity of Holland's theory for college-degreed black women

This study, using the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) and the Self Directed Search (SDS), explored the concurrent validity of Holland's theory for employed college-degreed black women. The VPI and SDS were administered to 93 black women workers in occupational environments consistent with Holland's six vocational environments. The results revealed that four scales of the VPI and five scales of the SDS successfully differentiated the occupational groups consistent with Holland's theoretical notions. In general, the findings lend some support to the concurrent validity of Holland's theory for employed college-degreed black women.     

An investigation of two measures of career indecision

The present study compared two recent scales developed to measure career indecision, the Career Decision Scale and the Vocational Decision-Making Difficulty Scale. The subjects were 857 male and female undergraduates. The scales were factor analyzed, the total scores were correlated, and the factor structures were examined for similarities and differences. Test-retest correlations were performed on the items, the total scores, and the factor scores of both measures. Subjects who were satisfied with their career choices were compared with subjects who were unsure, dissatisfied, or undecided about their career choices using the items, total scores, and factor scores. The results are discussed along with the implications for the future development of the scales.