Commitment to Particiation in Musical Activities: An Extension and Application of the Investment Model1

Recently, an investment model integrating several interdependence-type variables has been proposed to explain commitment in social and organizational settings. The model includes the components of costs, rewards, investments, and alternatives, and has served well in predicting specific outcomes such as job turnover and romantic commitment. The purpose of the present study was to determine the degree to which the investment model can be extended to a new area—commitment to musical activities—and to assess the extent to which commitment profiles generated by the model vary across musical preference groups. Results from a sample of 87 musical devotees demonstrated that the investment model is a valid means of accounting for commitment to participation in musical activities. In addition, distinctive profiles for each group—classical and nonclassical—were identified.     

College student risk-taking from three perspectives

This study addressed college student risk-taking from three perspectives: dispositional trait, decision-making, and environmental. One hundred ninety-six college students provided information on sensation-seeking, locus of control, perceived risks, perceived benefits, risk involvement, peer influence, perceived peer participation, and social desirability, and responded to risky behavior scenarios. Results showed that sensation-seeking, perceived peer participation, and perceived benefits were associated with risk involvement. In the risk-taking decision-making process, the certainty of the decision was related to participation. In addition, the likelihood of consequences occurring influenced students' responses regarding participation in unprotected sex. Further, students most frequently considered consequences that affect them personally when considering risk-taking.     

Does avoidance‐attachment style attenuate the benefits of being listened to?

We tested both Rogers's hypothesis that listening enables speakers to experience psychological safety and our hypothesis that the benefit of listening for psychological safety is attenuated by avoidance‐attachment style. We tested these hypotheses in six laboratory experiments, a field correlational study, and a scenario experiment. We meta‐analyzed the results of the laboratory experiments and found that listening increased psychological safety on average but that the variance between the experiments was also significant. The between experiment variance in the effect of listening manipulation on psychological safety exposes a methodological challenge in choosing a research paradigm of good‐versus‐normal listening, as opposed to normal‐versus‐poor listening. More importantly, we found, as expected and across all designs, that the higher the avoidance‐attachment style was, the lower the effect of listening on psychological safety. This finding has implications both for practice and for placing a theoretical boundary on Rogers's theory.     

Classification and validation of family climate subtypes in Kibbutz fathers of disabled and nondisabled children

The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of disabled children on their fathers. Perceptions of family climate, sense of coherence, and satisfaction from family life were measured among 66 fathers of disabled children and among 74 fathers with nondisabled children in an Israeli kibbutz. The fathers of disabled children showed lower sense of coherence, derived less satisfaction from family life, and viewed their families as less encouraging of personal growth among family members. Four subtypes of family climate patterns, perceived by fathers of disabled children, were identified by cluster analysis and validated by the sense of coherence and global family satisfaction measures. Cluster analysis for the fathers of nondisabled children replicated the subtypes identified. The four subtypes were conceptualized as families with a (a) personal growth orientation, (b) conflict orientation, (c) conflict avoidance orientation, and (d) recreation avoidance orientation. Significant differences were found between the subtypes with regard to the family climate variables and satisfaction and coherence measures. Results demonstrated that different patterns of family climate characterized the two groups of fathers: In almost every cluster the measures of personal growth were lower for the fathers of disabled children.The authors would like to acknowledge the editorial assistance of Dee M. Bargteil.Special Education, Kibbutzim Movement, Tel Aviv, Israel 61400.     

Nocebo: The psychologic induction of pain

More than two-thirds of an unselected sample of 34 college students reported mild headaches when told that a (nonexistent) electric current was passing through their heads. These reports appeared independent of whether the instructions emphasized the headache-producing effect of the current or whether the emphasis was on a perceptual task, with headache as only a possible side effect. The results are consistent with a view of pain as localized stress. They provide additional grounds for the suspicion that clinical focusing on pain may itself be a cause of pain.     

Selective listening and threshold for tones appearing on a relevant and on an irrelevant input channel

Threshold scores for tones appearing on shadowed and on nonshadowed messages were obtained in order to test whether input presented on an irrelevant channel is attenuated when Ss attend to another channel. Comparisons were made between threshold scores obtained for each ear, when Ss shadowed messages appearing on that ear and when Ss shadowed messages appearing on the contralateral ear. The threshold scores in the two conditions were highly similar. Data are evaluated in the context of auditory target detection, with targets identified by their verbal content vs their physical characteristics.