A content analysis of the conversational behavior of accepted and rejected children

The present study was designed to assess whether the conversational behavior of children separated into accepted, rejected, and mixed-status dyads differed along the dimensions of listening to, paying attention to, and indicating interest in their dyadic partner. Conversations of 40 third-grade dyads were analyzed as they occurred in a 2- min waiting period and a 4- min conversation period. Seventeen categories of verbal behaviors that indexed these dimensions were used as content codes. Multivariate analyses of variance performed on the observational data yielded significant main effects for status, sex, and experimental condition. Results are interpreted in terms of previous social skills research, and suggestions for future research are offered.     

The impact of confederate responsivity on social skills assessment

The current investigation examined the degree to which judges' ratings of skill, anxiety, and attractiveness are influenced by the responsivity of the confederate. High-, medium-, and low-skilled subject-pool groupings, as well as self-referred clinical groups, were exposed to either a moderately or a minimally responsive confederate. Results indicated that subjects were rated as more skillful when interacting with a moderately responsive confederate than when interacting with a minimally responsive confederate. Further, there was a groups × condition interaction for anxiety ratings such that both the high- and the medium-skilled groups appeared more anxious under the minimal condition, whereas the low-skilled and self-referred groups did not. Self-referred subjects received significantly lower attractiveness ratings than did the high- or medium-skilled groups. Implications of these results and future directions for research are discussed.This research is based on a M.S. thesis carried out by the first author under direction of the second author.     

Toward a further understanding of the intuitive personologists: Some critical evidence on the diabolical quality of subjective psychometrics

Despite significant advances over the past three decades in our understanding of the implicit dangers in ad hoc psychometric procedures, some important questions remain, particularly as regards the nature of the underlying reasoning process by which subjectively meaningful theoretical impressions are formulated and expressed. The present article seeks to address this issue, with particular attention being given to the distinction between demonstrative and dialectical reasoning. Evidence is offered to show that, at least under certain conditions, intuitive psychometricians formulate and express theoretical impressions on the basis of a reasoning process that is essentially dialectical in nature. Some major implications of this point of view for the study of personality theory are discussed. The limitations of the evidence presented, and the need for further research, are forgone.     

Multimodal classical conditioning of fear: contributions of direct, observational, and verbal experiences to current fears

The authors propose that a multimodal classical conditioning model be considered when clinicians or clinical researchers study the etiology of fears and anxieties learned by human beings. They argue that fears can be built through the combined effects of direct, observed, and verbally presented classical conditioning trials. Multimodal classical conditioning is offered as an alternative to the three pathways to fear argument prominent in the human fear literature. In contrast to the three pathways position, the authors present theoretical arguments for why "learning by observation" and "learning through the receipt of verbal information" should be considered classical conditioning through observational and verbal modes. The paper includes a demonstration of how data, commonly collected in research on the three pathways to fear, would be studied differently using a multimodal classical conditioning perspective. Finally, the authors discuss implications for assessment, treatment, and prevention of learned fears in humans.     

Pathways of Economic Influence on Adolescent Adjustment

An important part of a science aimed at the prevention of human dysfunction involves the development of empirically based models that identify processes of risk for or protection from emotional distress or behavioral problems over time. The present study developed and evaluated such a model that proposed two pathways through which family economic pressure was expected to influence change in adolescent internalizing symptoms (depression and anxiety) during the period from the eighth to the tenth grades. A total of 377 rural families in a midwestern state provided data for the analyses. The results were generally consistent with the conceptual model in that family economic pressure increased adolescent perceptions of family economic hardship, which, in turn, reduced the adolescent's sense of control or mastery over time. Lowered mastery was associated with increases in emotional distress. Also consistent with the model, prior levels of mastery appeared to reduce the magnitude of economic stress experienced by the adolescent, whereas prior emotional distress intensified the economic stress process. Although gender differences were found in these processes, the overall pattern of results suggests that girls and boys are both at risk for internalizing problems when families experience economic pressure. Implicatios of the findings for the dvelopment of effective preventive interventions with financially stressed families in rural areas are discussed.     

Adolescent family experiences and educational attainment during early adulthood

In this study, the authors investigated the degree to which a family investment model would help account for the association between family of origin socioeconomic characteristics and the later educational attainment of 451 young adults (age 26) from 2-parent families. Parents' educational level, occupational prestige, and family income in 1989 each had a statistically significant direct relationship with youths' educational attainment in 2002. Consistent with the theoretical model guiding the study, parents' educational level and family income also demonstrated statistically significant indirect effects on later educational attainment through their associations with growth trajectories for supportive parenting, sibling relations, and adolescent academic engagement. Supportive parenting and sibling relations were linked to later educational attainment through their association with adolescent academic engagement. Academic engagement during adolescence was associated with educational attainment in young adulthood. These basic processes operated similarly regardless of youths' gender, target youths' age relative to a near-age sibling, gender composition of the sibling dyad, or gender of parent.     

The effects of context on the correspondence between observational ratings and questionnaire reports of hostile behavior: a multitrait, multimethod approach.

Scholars who study close relationships often measure the same concept with both observational ratings and questionnaire items. In studies where this has been done, the correlations between the two measures have often been low, and one reason may be a "context by measurement" confound. Observational ratings are usually based on behaviors during a specific task, whereas most questionnaire responses are based on a broader context such as "during the past month." In 2001, a total of 292 young couples were videotaped during a discussion task and asked to report on their own behavior and that of their partner during the discussion task and during the past month. The data were configured as a multitrait, multimethod matrix, and the magnitudes of the correlations were estimated with confirmatory factor analysis. The resulting correlations between observer ratings and questionnaire reports of hostile behavior during the videotaped discussion were roughly twice the magnitude of the correlations between observer rating and questionnaire reports during the past month. This suggests that the correspondence between behavioral categories and the content of questionnaire items is greater than previous studies have indicated.     

Psychological Distress and Help Seeking in Rural America

The implications of exposure to acute and chronic stressors, and seeking mental health care, for increased psychological distress are examined. Research on economic stress, psychological distress, and rural agrarian values each point to increasing variability within rural areas. Using data from a panel study of 1,487 adults, a model predicting changes in depressive symptoms was specified and tested. Results show effects by size of place for men but not for women. Men living in rural villages of under 2,500 or in small towns of 2,500 to 9,999 people had significantly greater increases in depressive symptoms than men living in the country or in larger towns or cities. Size of place was also related to level of stigma toward mental health care. Persons living in the most rural environments were more likely to hold stigmatized attitudes toward mental health care and these views were strongly predictive of willingness to seek care. The combination of increased risk and less willingness to seek assistance places men living in small towns and villages in particular jeopardy for continuing problems involving depressed mood.     

Measures of reliability for profiles and test batteries

A general index of reliability, termed “canonical reliability,” is developed for use with profiles, or more generally, for use with vectors of random variables. Canonical reliability is defined as the ratio of the average squared distance among true scores to the average squared distance among observed scores. Based on Mahalonobis distances, canonical reliability is shown to be consistent with multivariate analogues of parallel form correlations, squared correlation between true and observed scores, and an analysis of variance formulation. The index of reliability based on Cronbach and Gleser'sD ² is also derived from the general formulation. A comparison of the Mahalonobis andD ² approaches indicates that score vectors usingD ² distances are more reliable; however, both methods of comparing profiles are useful depending on the nature of the information that is desired. Transforming the observed variables to independent canonical variates provides a basis for comparing profiles on maximally reliable profile dimensions. For illustrative purposes, profile reliability is calculated and interpreted for the WISC subscales for a 7 1/2 year age group.     

Behavioral components of social competence in females

This study examined behavioral components used by peers to judge heterosocial competence in females. Thirty-five female undergraduates participated in two interactions with a naive male partner. Judges provided global ratings for female subjects on attractiveness, skill, anxiety, guidance, listening, and smoothness of response. Behavioral counts of smiles, gestures, self-manipulations, talk time, and gaze were also obtained from the videotapes of the interactions. Although many specific behaviors correlated with judgments of social competency, talk time and gaze best predicted social competency in women. Implications of the results and future research directions are discussed.This study was conducted as part of the first author's master's thesis while a student at Purdue University.