The Violation of Expectancies

ABSTRACT

The term “violation of expectancies” is derived from empirical studies of early development by Beebe and Lachmann. It referred, in their lexicon, to the interaction of mother and infant, organized by disruptions and efforts to resolve these breaches. This article expands the term's meaning to include a broad range of disruptive experiences, occurring not only in infancy but throughout the life cycle. The author's premise is that a developmental continuity exists between infant states and adult psychopathological states. This requires that we look in infancy for beginnings of states that we recognize as existing later on. The author provides a detailed review of infancy research, so as to give credence and support to the significance of the concept of violation of expectancy, and how these violations play a dominant role in the thematic and nuanced reverberations of our lives and in the intersubjective context of our experience. The concept of trauma derives from a one-person psychology, and is connected to unconscious fantasy, conflict and compromise formation, whereas “violation of expectancy” is a relational concept, based on mother-child interactions and originating within an intersubjective context. The author provides three case examples of violation of expectancy and their reverberations: The first involves early and repeated disruption in infancy, the second occurs in a relatively intact child, and the third derives from an autobiographical character.     

The relativity of time perception produced by facial emotion stimuli

Insults elicit intense emotion. This study tests the hypothesis that one's social image, which is especially salient in honour cultures, influences the way in which one reacts to an insult. Seventy-seven honour-oriented and 72 non-honour oriented participants answered questions about a recent insult episode. Participants experienced both anger and shame in reaction to the insult. However, these emotions resulted in different behaviours. Anger led to verbal attack (i.e., criticising, insulting in return) among all participants. This relationship was explained by participants’ motivation to punish the wrongdoer. Shame, on the other hand, was moderated by honour. Shame led to verbal disapproval of the wrongdoers behaviour, but only among the honour-oriented participants. This relationship was explained by these participants’ motivation to protect their social image. By contrast, shame led to withdrawal among non-honour-oriented participants.     

跨通道情境下双任务范式与计时中断范式中的效应比较*

为了探讨跨通道情境下同一种刺激序列中双任务范式与计时中断范式中位置效应和间断效应的异同,研究设计了实验1和实验2。实验1以2500 ms和4500 ms为目标时距,采用相同的刺激序列(视觉呈现时距信号,听觉呈现干扰信号或中断信号),要求3组被试分别在控制、干扰及中断条件下完成相应任务,结果发现不管2500 ms或4500 ms时,中断条件较干扰条件和控制条件的间断效应更明显;同时发现在2500 ms时,不管控制、干扰还是中断条件下均发现了位置效应,而4500 ms时仅在中断条件下出现了位置效应,这可能由于实验1的控制及干扰任务中的4500 ms时的“晚”位置的时间确定性较高,以致掩盖了位置效应。为了降低“晚”位置出现的确定性,更好地对比两种范式中的效应,实验2将目标时距设置为1500 ms和2500 ms,结果发现在1500 ms或2500 ms时,不管控制、干扰还是中断条件下均发现了位置效应,且中断条件较干扰条件和控制条件下间断效应更明显。上述结果意味着跨通道情境下同一种刺激序列中双任务范式与计时中断范式中位置效应是否相同局限在一定时间范畴;计时中断范式中的中断效应对计时的消弱较双任务范式干扰效应更显著。     

Melatonin and Sleep Qualities in Healthy Adults: Pharmacological and Expectancy Effects

The impact of expectancy on melatonin's effects on sleep qualities was investigated. Both the pharmacological dose of 6 mg of melatonin and the expectation of receiving melatonin were predicted to improve subjective ratings of sleep qualities. The balanced placebo design varied 2 factors within-subjects: actual treatment and expected treatment. Adults (N = 53; 21 men and 32 women) between the ages of 26 and 71 years were administered either 6 mg of melatonin or a placebo for 8 nights. An instructional manipulation directed participants' expectations. Participants rated their nightly sleep experiences. Results revealed that feelings upon awakening differed between genders and that expecting melatonin increased ratings of sleep continuity. Most important, high ratings of “grogginess/tiredness” were associated with receiving melatonin, regardless of expectancy, as well as with receiving placebo when melatonin was expected. Overall, the findings underscore the need to consider expectancy and gender differences in research on melatonin and sleep experiences.     

Response expectancy versus response hope in predicting birth‐related emotional distress and pain

Response expectancies and response hopes have been shown to be two distinct constructs with important implications for nonvolitional outcomes. More specifically, studies show that response expectancies: (1) are sufficient to cause nonvolitional outcomes, (2) are not mediated by other psychological variables, and (3) are self‐confirming while seemingly automatic. A new programmatic research line has differentiated between people's response expectancies and their response hopes regarding nonvolitional outcomes and showed that even if response hope and response expectancy are separate constructs, they are not unrelated. These concepts have not yet been studied in pregnant women. Moreover, determining the causal factors that best explain the variance of emotional distress and pain in pregnancy is of great importance. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the interrelations between response expectancy and response hope in pregnant women with respect to (1) emotional distress prior to giving birth and (2) pain during giving birth. Additionally, self‐reported labor hours were analyzed as a secondary outcome. Results show that response expectancy for pain directly predicts pain, and that the discrepancy between response hopes and response expectancies is a strong predictor of investigated outcomes. Thus, our results support the idea that preventive psychological interventions for pregnant women should emphasize adjusting response expectancies and response hopes regarding the pain and emotional distress associated with giving birth. We believe that the results have both theoretical and practical implications and the topic deserves further investigation.     

Current issues and new directions in Psychology and Health : Bringing basic and applied research together to address underlying mechanisms

Three different studies were conducted to examine the impact of heuristic reasoning in the perception of health-related events: lifetime risk of breast cancer (Study 1, n = 468), subjective life expectancy (Study 2, n = 449), and subjective age of onset of menopause (Study 3, n = 448). In each study, three experimental conditions were set up: control, anchoring heuristic and availability heuristic. Analyses of Covariance controlling for optimism, depressive mood, Locus of Control, hypochondriac tendencies and subjective health, indicated significant effect of experimental conditions on perceived breast-cancer risk (p = 0.000), subjective life expectancy (p = 0.000) and subjective onset of menopause (p = 0.000). Indeed, all findings revealed that availability and anchoring heuristics were being used to estimate personal health-related events. The results revealed that some covariates, hypochondriac tendencies in Study 1, optimism, depressive mood and subjective health in Study 2 and internal locus of control in Study 3 had significant impact on judgment of riskiness.     

The Effect of Previous Experience on Preference of Approach for Effective Counseling

Students in a general psychology class viewed four videotapes of initial vocational-educational and initial personal concern counseling sessions. The sessions were presented from a client-centered approach and from a behavioral approach, and employed the same client and counselor. After viewing the tapes, the students were asked to indicate which approach they thought would be more effective in helping a client. Results showed that students who had previously experienced counseling preferred a behavioral approach for both the vocational-educational concern and the personal concern. Students with no experience of counseling did not exhibit a preference.     

Effect of a Vocationally‐Focused Brief Cognitive Behavioural Intervention on Employment‐Related Outcomes for Individuals with Mood and Anxiety Disorders

Internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can be an effective method for treating major depression, but it often works best when therapist support is provided in the form of e-mail support or telephone calls. The authors investigated whether there were any intraclass correlations within therapists when delivering CBT for major depression via the Internet. They included data from two trials involving 10 therapists treating a total of 103 patients. The results of a nested one-way model in which participants were treated as raters for different therapists indicated that measures pertaining to symptom reductions (Beck Depression Inventory, Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale–Self Report, and Beck Anxiety Inventory) did not support a clustering of data within therapists. However, the outcome on a secondary measure of life satisfaction (Quality of Life Inventory) yielded a significant intraclass correlation coefficient for therapists (r = .24, p = .001). The authors propose that text-based treatments are less sensitive to therapist effects when it comes to the primary symptom measures, but that treatment effects not directly targeted by the specific treatment program may be more dependent on the way the support is given and by whom (therapist effect). Limitations of the study are discussed.     

大学生的角色期望研究

采用自编的大学生角色期望调查问卷和大学生人格健康调查表(UPI),对650名1-3年级大学生进行测试。结果表明:1、大学生角色期望集中体现在9个方面:整合性期望、就业性期望、志向性期望、评价性期望、学业性期望、恋爱性期望、悖离性期望、环境性期望、独立性期望;2、三个年级在角色期望多数因子上的平均分表现出"V"形结构,各年级之间存在显著差异(p<.05);3、就业性期望、学业性期望、独立性期望存在显著的性别差异,女生在前两个因子上的平均分明显高于男生,在后一个因子上的平均分明显低于男生;4、心理健康组在整合性期望因子的平均分显著高于心理不健康组(p<.05),在悖离性期望因子的平均分极显著低于心理不健康组(p<.01)。