Showing papers in "Genetic Social and General Psychology Monographs in 1997"

Mental time travel and the evolution of the human mind.

Abstract: This article contains the argument that the human ability to travel mentally in time constitutes a discontinuity between ourselves and other animals. Mental time travel comprises the mental reconstruction of personal events from the past (episodic memory) and the mental construction of possible events in the future. It is not an isolated module, but depends on the sophistication of other cognitive capacities, including self-awareness, meta-representation, mental attribution, understanding the perception-knowledge relationship, and the ability to dissociate imagined mental states from one's present mental state. These capacities are also important aspects of so-called theory of mind, and they appear to mature in children at around age 4. Furthermore, mental time travel is generative, involving the combination and recombination of familiar elements, and in this respect may have been a precursor to language. Current evidence, although indirect or based on anecdote rather than on systematic study, suggests that nonhuman animals, including the great apes, are confined to a "present" that is limited by their current drive states. In contrast, mental time travel by humans is relatively unconstrained and allows a more rapid and flexible adaptation to complex, changing environments than is afforded by instincts or conventional learning. Past and future events loom large in much of human thinking, giving rise to cultural, religious, and scientific concepts about origins, destiny, and time itself.

The structure of empathy during middle childhood and its relationship to prosocial behavior

Abstract: This study was an investigation of the structure and development of dispositional empathy during middle childhood and its relationship to altruism. A sample of 478 students from 2nd, 4th, and 6th grades completed an altruism questionnaire and a social desirability scale, both created for this study, and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1980), adapted for this study. Teachers also rated the students on prosocial behaviors, such as sharing. In addition, as an experimental part of the study, the children could make monetary donations and volunteer time to raise funds. Results of a confirmatory factor analysis on the Interpersonal Reactivity Index supported Davis's (1980) findings that empathy comprises four components: perspective taking, fantasy, empathic concern, and personal distress. Factor intercorrelations, however, were not the same as those reported by Davis. MANOVAs were used to examine gender and age effects on empathy. Girls were more empathic in general than boys, and older children showed more empathic concern than younger children. Only empathic concern and perspective taking were significant predictors of prosocial behavior.

A comparison of general self-efficacy with self-esteem

Abstract: General self-efficacy (GSE) is defined as the global confidence a person has to successfully perform tasks. GSE is theorized to be linked to task-specific self-efficacy (TSSE). The GSE concept is controversial because some researchers claim that it is the same as self-esteem. In this study, 165 undergraduates were administered five GSE scales, a self-esteem scale, a locus of control scale, a TSSE scale, a sample-performance test, and a performance test. Results of multiple-regression analyses indicated that the GSE scales are measuring self-esteem and are poor predictors of performance.

Emotional correlates of preferences for situation-activity combinations in everyday life.

Abstract: Emotional correlates of preferences for everyday situation-activity combinations were explored using the PAD (Pleasure-Arousal-Dominance) Emotion Model. Preferences were assessed using a comprehensive sample of emotionally balanced situations, given in its entirety in the Appendix, because of its potential utility to investigators. Results for all situations and also for only the subgroup of pleasant situations showed that pleasure and dominance were positive correlates of preference. Specifically, for pleasant situations, preferences did not differ for exciting versus relaxing situations; also, exciting and relaxing situations were preferred more than amazing or protecting ones. Results for only the subgroup of unpleasant situations showed negative arousal/preference and positive dominance/preference relations. Specifically, situations that elicited disdain were preferred to those that produced anger and those that elicited boredom; boring and anger-eliciting settings were preferred to those that engendered distress.

Dimensions of marital relationships as perceived by Turkish husbands and wives.

Abstract: In this study, the basic underlying dimensions and interrelationships of Turkish urban marriages were explored. Both husbands and wives from 456 marriages of different types, lengths, and socioeconomic status (SES) groups completed the extensive Turkish Marriage Questionnaire (Russell, Wells, & Imamoglu, 1989). First-order factor analysis yielded 9 factors that were then reduced to 4 second-order factors: Extent of Socioeconomic Development, Marital Satisfaction, Harmonious Relations With the Extended Family, and Desire for Sexual Possessiveness. The frequency of self-selected marriages increased with higher SES and decreased with length of marriage, implying a trend toward modernism. Within this context, husbands' marital satisfaction and wives' desire for sexual possessiveness, extent of socioeconomic development, and relations with the extended family were significant predictors of wives' marital satisfaction; husbands' marital satisfaction was predicted by wives' satisfaction and husbands' relations with the extended family.

Self-esteem and causal attributions.

Abstract: The relationship between self-esteem and causal attributions of success and failure in achievement-related behavior was examined among undergraduate students. An integration of a self-consistency model of causal attribution and self-enhancement theory was attempted. Self-esteem and performance outcome conditions of success and failure served as independent variables. Success and failure conditions were created via feedback regarding the participants' performance on an anagram task. The participants' attributions of six causal elements (ability, effort, immediate effort, task difficulty, luck, and mood) were categorized and combined with three causal dimensions (internal-external locus, stability, and controllability), which served as dependent variables. Participants' expectations regarding performance also served as a dependent variable. The relationship between self-esteem, expectancies of success and failure, performance, and stable causality were reported. In terms of causal dimensions, internal, stable, and controllable dimensions were explained by self-enhancement.

Card-sort performance and syndromes of schizophrenia.

Abstract: The performance of subgroups of schizophrenic patients on the Wisconsin Card Sort Test was investigated. Factor analyses of positive and negative symptom ratings confirmed that ratings described three groups similar to those reported by several other researchers. These symptom groups were labeled psychomotor poverty, cognitive disorganization, and reality distortion. Coaching and incentives resulted in significant improvement in the card-sort performance for patients characterized by symptoms of psychomotor poverty and reality distortion. Patients with symptoms of disorganization, however, had impaired ability to improve card-sort performance after coaching and incentives. Results indicate that symptoms of disorganization appear to differentiate learners from nonlearners on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and may be correlated with different underlying deficits.

The structure of ethnic attitudes: the effects of target group, region, gender, and national identity.

Abstract: The present study was an assessment of attitudes of 410 ethnically Dutch adolescents toward three ethnic minority groups living in the Netherlands. Stereotypes, symbolic beliefs, affective associations, and the evaluation of possible interactions were used to predict the global evaluation of ethnic outgroups and accounted for much of the variance in ethnic attitudes. The relative importance of the four predictors varied by target group and location. Gender differences were found in the structure of attitudes; symbolic beliefs played a greater role in the attitudes of boys, whereas emotions played a more central role in the attitudes of girls. The evaluation of Dutch identity was related to the favorability of ethnic attitudes and also to the underlying structure. Respondents with a positive national identity had less favorable ethnic attitudes, and emotions were more predictive of their attitudes, whereas symbolic beliefs were most predictive among respondents with a less positive national identity.

The psychological repercussions of the sociocultural oppression of Alaska Native peoples

Abstract: Issues of the mental health of arctic and subarctic Alaska Natives are explored. Their sociopolitical history is described to familiarize psychologists with the special circumstances of several groups of peoples in Alaska that have been ignored in psychological literature. This history demonstrates how intervention by European Americans in Alaska has prompted a self-alienation of Native peoples that has contributed to exorbitant suicide rates, increasing levels of addiction, high rates of interpersonal violence, and high teenage pregnancy. These developments are contrasted with traditional lifestyles. Recommendations are made about the role of psychology in the facilitation of the recovery process of Alaska Native peoples.

English children as personality theorists: accounts of the modifiability, development, and origin of traits.

Abstract: Forty-eight children, 4, 6, 7, and 10 years old, were interviewed to assess their accounts of the modifiability, development, and origin of four character traits (grumpy, shy, mean, fussy) and two physical traits (fat, thin). The youngest children described traits as moderately controllable and usually stable, whereas for the 2 middle groups, physiological traits in particular were highly modifiable and less stable. Six-year-olds frequently cited preferences as sources of individual differences, possibly as a precursor to a fuller understanding of traits as internal, partly uncontrollable, and idiosyncratic attributes. Seven-year-olds were more likely to mention cognitively mediated accounts of personality change, as were 10-year-olds, who were also more aware of the interactive and variable nature of influences on personality. All age groups showed coherent patterns of trait explanation and used different models of explanation for different traits. The results suggest that a monolithic model of trait understanding is misleading, because the children used a variety of different models of development.

Establishing a link between cultural evolution and sexually transmitted diseases

Abstract: It is argued that archaic sexually transmitted diseases influenced cultural traditions by reducing multiple sexual partners within communities. In this article, the adverse consequences of current sexually transmitted diseases are surveyed: Such infections decrease fertility of women and increase infant mortality; those adverse consequences are especially potent when antibiotics are not readily available. Cultural (cross-generational transmission of learned) responses to the threat of widespread infertility and elevated infant mortality rates are hypothesized to include the implementation of expectations for restricted numbers of sexual partners. These expectations, formal or informal, have been instituted within the context of biological predispositions, the "certainty of paternity" model, already-established traditions, and the need for a social father to be aligned with the mother-child dyad. A case study of the contemporary United States is offered as a heuristic example of how and why cultural choices may be developed and sustained.

Metaphor, symbolic play, and logical thought in early childhood

Abstract: Development of the ability to understand diverse types of metaphor was examined in terms of play context (symbolic vs. constructive-object play), Piagetian operational level (preoperational vs. concrete-operational), and medium of presentation (pictures vs. words). Forty 4-year-olds and 80 6-year-olds (40 preoperational, 40 concrete-operational) were presented with six different types of metaphorical relationships (color, shape, physiognomic, cross-modal, psychological-physical, and taxonomic matches) in both pictures and words in a match-to-sample design. Results indicated that (a) constructive-object play, rather than symbolic play, facilitated the understanding of perceptual and taxonomic metaphor, suggesting differences in early styles of metaphoric usage; (b) despite previous findings, the study failed to replicate a relationship between operativity and metaphoric understanding; and (c) younger children did significantly better in the pictorial medium, suggesting a picture-superiority effect for more perceptible metaphorical relations (perceptual and physiognomic), whereas older children showed a word-superiority effect for more conceptual metaphors (psychological-physical and taxonomic).

The performance of hearing-impaired children on handedness and perceptual motor tasks.

Abstract: The present study was designed to test for differences, if any, in children with impaired hearing compared with a control group of children with normal hearing (7-11-year-olds) in handedness, drawing, categorization, facial recognition, and play. Results indicated age differences in the performance of all the tasks. The children with hearing loss had more left-hand responses than the normal children did. For drawings, those whose hearing was impaired used more space and color. Both groups performed similarly on tasks of categorization and facial recognition. For play, children with hearing loss were more clumsy and accident prone than children in the control group. The results suggest that children with impaired hearing differ from those with normal hearing in tasks that are influenced by language processes and motor ability.

The impact of mood on information use in judgments of relationship satisfaction.

Abstract: The hypothesis in Study 1 was that positive mood leads people to rely on both central and peripheral features of relationship quality when making global satisfaction judgments concerning their relationship with a spouse or partner, whereas sadness leads people to focus more exclusively on central features. For German university students, correlational analyses, within mood condition, of feature ratings with satisfaction judgments, both obtained following mood induction, revealed results consistent with the hypothesis. Study 2 again addressed the differential breadth of feature processing, by having a different group of German students categorize features of relationship quality after mood induction. As expected, participants in the positive mood condition used the fewest categories, whereas those in the neutral and sad mood conditions used the most categories.