Psychology

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    A Comparative Study of Certain Personality Characteristics of College Women Participating in Basketball and Modern Dance
    (1965) Bird, Anne Marie; Johnson, Warren R.; Health Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, MD)
    Twenty-five college women attending the University of Maryland during the spring semester of 1963 were studied in an effort to determine whether or not there were any identifiable personality characteristics among those (14) who chose to participate in basketball, as compared to those (13) who chose to participate in modern dance. The subjects used in this study voluntarily chose the activity in which they participated. The California Psychological Inventory was used to evaluate the personality characteristics of the subjects. Analysis of the data showed that the basketball group scored significantly higher, at the 5 percent level of confidence, on the community scale. The modern dance group scored significantly higher, at the 5 percent level of confidence, on the scales measuring flexibility and femininity. A comparison of the group means for all other scales proved insignificant at the 5 percent level of confidence.
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    THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SENSATION SEEKING, ANXIETY, SELF-CONFIDENCE AND AIDS-RELATED SEXUAL RISK-TAKING IN A COLLEGE STUDENT SAMPLE
    (1994) Isralowitz, Stuart Adam; Teglasi, Hedwig; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, MD)
    The researcher investigated how the personality traits of sensation seeking, anxiety, and self-confidence are associated with AIDS-related sexual risk-taking of college students. It was hypothesized that individuals who exhibited high levels of sensation seeking, low anxiety, and low self-confidence in specific domains would participate in a significant amount of sexual risk-taking. If this were true, then preventive approaches could be geared toward helping risk-takers cope with the characteristics that place them at-risk. The researcher administered the following measures to 313 college students: the Sensation Seeking Scale Form V (SSS V), the Endler Multidimensional Anxiety Scales-Trait (EMAS-T), the Personal Evaluation Inventory (PEI), a modified Sexual Behavior Questionnaire, and a demographic questionnaire. Two aspects of sensation seeking (Disinhibition and Boredom Susceptibility) on the SSS V were significantly associated with AIDS-related sexual risk-taking. High sensation seekers engaged in more sexual risk-taking than low sensation seekers in these areas. In addition, moderate sexual risk-takers only exhibited less anxiety than low risk-takers in the Daily Routines aspect of anxiety on the EMAS-T. Moderate risk-takers displayed greater self-confidence regarding Romantic Relationships than low risk-takers on the PEI. The association between sensation seeking and anxiety was negative. High sexual risk-takers showed a greater worry about getting AIDS and higher perception of AIDS risk than low sexual risk-takers. No gender differences were found in sexual risk-taking. Implications for research included conducting studies regarding sensation seeking and AIDS-related sexual behavior with gay and lesbian college students, and with individuals of college age not attending college. Studies measuring the psychometric qualities of the SSS V and the PEI were also suggested. A practical outcome of this study was the proposed use of an updated measure to assess participation in novel, varied, and risky activities. Clinicians could employ this measure in public schools and college counseling centers, under certain circumstances.
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    Reactions to a Request for a Benefit in Communal and Exchange Relationships
    (1977) Clark, Margaret Snydor; Mills, Judson R.; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, MD)
    Based on a distinction between communal relationships, in which benefits are given in response to the needs of the other, and exchange relationships, in which benefits are given with the expectation of receiving comparable benefits in return, the following hypotheses were proposed: 1) If a person has been aided by another, that other will be liked more when he requests a benefit than when he does not request a benefit, if the person expects an exchange relationship with the other. 2) If a person has been aided by another» that other will be liked more when he does not request a benefit than when he does request a benefit, if the person expects a communal relationship with the other. 3) If a person has not been aided by another, that other will be liked more when he does not request a benefit than when he does request a benefit, if the person expects an exchange relationship with the other. 4) If a person has not been aided by another, that other will be liked more when he requests a benefit than when he does not request a benefit, if the person expects a communal relationship with the other. Under the guise of a study of performance, female college students worked on a vocabulary task while a television monitor showed another female working on a similar task in another room. In order to manipulate the expectation of an exchange or a communal relationship, some of the subjects were told that the other was married, had a child, lived far from the university and that she and the subject would be discussing differences in interests in the second study (Exchange condition). Other subjects were told that the other was new at the university, did not know many people and that she and the subject would be discussing common interests in a second study (Communal condition). The other female finished the task, received one point and gave the subject aid on her task or did not give aid. The other female then requested a point from the subject or did not request a point. Finally, the subject's liking for the other and her expectations concerning the future discussion with the other were assessed. In general the results for the measure of liking provide evidence for the distinction between communal and exchange relationships. In support of the first hypothesis it was found that the other female was liked more in the Exchange-aid-request condition than in the Exchange-aid- no request condition. In support of the second hypothesis it was found that the other female was liked more in the Communal-aid-no request condition than in the Communal-aid-request condition. In support of the third hypothesis it was found that the other female was liked more in the Exchange-no aid-no request condition than in the Exchange-no aidrequest condition. The fourth hypothesis was not supported; there was no difference in liking for the other female in the Communal-no aid-request condition and in the Communal-no aid-no request condition. As would be expected from the distinction between communal and exchange relationships, liking was greater in the Exchange-aid-request condition than in the Exchange-no aid-request condition, marginally less in the Communal aid- request condition than in the Communal-no aid-request condition and less in the Exchange-aid-no request condition than in the Exchange-no aid-no request condition. The results for the measure of pleasantness of the future discussion with the other were also consistent with the distinction between communal and exchange relationships. The results on the liking measure demonstrate that equity principles, which have been useful in understanding a number of different social relationships, do not apply to all relationships.
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    African-Americans and African-English-Speaking West Indians: Relationships Between Racial Identity Attitudes, Self-Attitudes, Self-Esteem, Skin Color Perceptions and Sex-Role Attitudes
    (1994) Murray-Carney, Melita Josephine; Fretz, Bruce; Psychology; Digital Repository and the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)
    This study examined the relationship of racial identity attitudes to skin color perceptions, sex-role attitudes and self-esteem among 106 African-Americans and 102 African-English speaking West Indians. Skin color perceptions were measured by Helms and Carter's (in press) skin color scale and the present author's (1992) skin color chart. Sex-role attitudes were measured by the Bem's Sex-role Inventory and self-esteem by the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale respectively. It was hypothesized that differentially statistically significant relationships would be found among racial identity attitudes, skin color perceptions, sex-role attitudes and self-esteem for African-Americans and African-West Indians . For African-Americans , the results indicated racial identity was associated with self-esteem but was not related to skin color perceptions or sex-role attitudes when gender was controlled. For African-English speaking West Indians, racial identity was associated with sex-role attitudes but was not related to either skin color perceptions or self esteem. Additional exploratory results pointed to a need to include other variables such as socioeconomic status and education in understanding more about racial identity attitudes of African-Americans and African-English speaking West Indians. Research and counseling implications for African-Americans and African-English speaking West Indians are discussed.
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    The Role of Gender, Race and Racial Identity in Relation to Attitudes Toward Interracial Dating
    (1991) Murray, Melita Josephine; Fretz, Bruce R.; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)
    The purpose of this study was to examine whether an individual's gender, race, and racial identity significantly relate to interracial dating attitudes. Two hundred subjects (101 Blacks, 99 Whites) were administered an interracial dating questionnaire and a racial identity measure. Findings indicated that there were no significant main effects for gender, but race was significantly related to interracial dating attitudes with blacks having more positive attitudes. As hypothesized, racial identity was also found to be Significantly related to both Blacks' and Whites' attitudes toward interracial dating.
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    Social Comparison Threat and Interpersonal Attraction
    (1978) Gould, Robert J.; Sigall, Harold; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)
    The self-esteem of 80 male subjects was temporarily either raised or lowered by giving them false feedback on an alleged personality test. Subsequently, subjects were led to believe that their attractiveness to a physically attractive female student would be compared with that of a male stimulus person. The perceived ability of the male stimulus person to be attractive to females was varied and subjects were given an opportunity to indicate their liking for the male target either before learning the outcome of the female's comparative evaluation or after learning that the female had indicated a preference for the stimulus person. From an analysis of self-esteem threat based on Festinger's theory of social comparison processes (1954), a three way interaction was predicted. Under conditions where subjects had received negative comparison feedback it was predicted that low self-esteem subjects would indicate greater liking for the stimulus person than high self-esteem subjects, regardless of the stimulus person's perceived ability. In contrast, under conditions where comparative evaluation feedback was anticipated, it was predicted that low self-esteem, relative to high self-esteem, subjects, would indicate greater liking for the target perceived to have high ability, but would indicate less liking for the stimulus person perceived to have low ability. The results supported these predictions and are discussed in with respect to furthering our understanding the self-esteem construct and the process of self-esteem maintenance, and the extension of the applicability of social comparison principles.
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    Modelling of Heuristic Evaluation Strategies in Game Playing: Linear and Configural Effects in Othello
    (1981) Phillips, Robert Vernon III; Norman, Kent L.; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)
    Psychological research on problem solving began with Thorndike's work on trial and error learning with cats, dogs, and monkeys. Kohler later initiated research with apes which convinced him that problems could be solved with insight. Through the 1940's, the study of human problem solving focused on general principles (following the Gestalt tradition) and S-R mechanisms to explain how people solve problems. The advent of computer technology in the 1950's spurred research in artificial intelligence, game playing, and problem solving. Formal definitions of problems outlined the components of a constituting the problem representation. This provided a framework for computer scientists to mechanize problem Solving with algorithms of search. Computer scientists met with success in developing programs to work on well-defined problems, such as games and puzzles, where the components of the problem representation are easily stated. Once the representation is adopted, solution is a matter of search. It has been shown that the efficiency of mechanized search is aided by the use of a ''heuristic evaluation function" (Nilsson, 1971), which has a form similar to psychological models applied in research on human decision making and judgment (Slovic and Lichtenstein, 1972). Samuel (1959), used a regression model of human judgment based on the knowledge of skilled checkers players in order to produce a heuristic evaluation function for a checkers playing program. Another model which can also be used to provide a heuristic evaluation function is based on Anderson's (1962) technique of functional measurement. This approach allows estimation of subjective scale values for the levels of information components relevant to playing a game. In contrast to these linear models, Edgell (1978) has argued that people can utilize configural information when making judgments, an issue which has been avoided by most decision modelling research. Samuel (1967) showed that use of configural infermation by a heuristic evaluation function can augment the skill of a checkers playing program, but the question of whether human players use such information was not researched. This paper reports one pilot experiment and two other experiments which were conducted to investigate whether people do use configural information when evaluating alternative moves in a game situation. The effects of game experience, learning, and training on use of configural information were examined. In addition, the research was conducted in a game playing situation in order to address the issue of ecological validity (Neisser, 1976) in psychological research. As Newell and Simon (1972) have argued, a good psychological theory of how a good chess player plays chess should play good chess.
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    Social Reinforcement and Diurnal Rhythms in Baboons
    (1966) Thach, John S. Jr; Gollub, Lewis R.; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)
    The frequency with which one monkey opened a door for two minutes of visual and physical contact with another monkey was examined as a function of several experimental procedures. In the first series of manipulations removal of the second monkey allowed a comparison between the effects of the social reinforcing object and the effects of the non-social stimuli incidental to delivery of the social reinforcer. During daily four-hour sessions, reinforcement rates (number of door openings/unit time) with a monkey in the adjacent cage averaged several times those when no monkey was in the adjacent cage. Removal of the second monkey did not significantly affect rates of food and water reinforcement, but removal of food and water contingencies did increase rates of door opening to an empty cage. Idiosyncratic factors contributed to above-zero rates when the cage was empty. For example, one subject's empty-cage rates were halved, and his amount of stereotyped rocking nearly stopped, by a wall placed next to the door. The existence of pertinent variables peculiar to the individual subject and to the particular apparatus directs attention to the necessity of control procedures. In the second set of conditions two baboons lived in the cages 24 hours a day and were under continuous illumination, as they had been for several months. During a short initial period when either monkey could open the door, and in a second longer period when only one could open the door, the monkeys had a very regular day length of approximately 14 hours, which remained synchronous with clock time. The experiment did not identify the pertinent elements entraining the monkeys' activities. This persisting alignment with clock time under reasonably stable conditions suggests that the entraining environmental stimuli were more subtle than those demonstrated in the literature. The monkeys also revealed a distinctive patterning of frequency of social contact as a function of time of day. The distribution had a midmorning peak, a midday low, and a minor afternoon peak, the same pattern recently documented as occurring in troops of wild baboons. This pattern was only barely noticeable in distributions from individual days, and became significant only when averaged across days. To a lesser degree, similar patterns were evident in distributions of food and water reinforcement rates. In the final set of procedures two levels of food deprivation, two levels of social deprivation, and two times of day were produced by alternating the subjects in morning and afternoon sessions, by conducting only morning or only afternoon sessions, and by pre-feeding and "pre-socializing" in a sequence designed to contrast the effect of one condition against another. Regardless of deprivation of social or other reinforcers, the subjects displayed a higher rate of social reinforcement in the mornings than in the afternoons. An early morning "pre-socializing" session slightly lowered the usual morning rate of social reinforcement, but preceding an afternoon session with a morning session, an early morning and a morning session, or by no session since the previous afternoon, had no effect on the afternoon social reinforcement rates. Independence of social reinforcement rates from variations in food deprivation, and low frequencies of eating with the door open implied that the presence of food did not appreciably affect rates of social reinforcement. These studies established social reinforcement under controlled laboratory conditions as a strong reinforcer capable of maintaining behavior over long periods of time, and elucidated a pertinent variable in social reinforcement, that of diurnal rhythms.
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    Cuban Latin Americans: Psychosocial Correlates of Cultural Adjustment
    (1988) Sinclair, Elsa A. Rivera; Magoon, Thomas M.; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)
    The process of adjustment to a new culture-acculturation-- is considered a crucial factor contributing to variations of psychological distress and anxiety among immigrant groups. It is believed that a person's level of distress during the cultural adaptation process is a reflection of the interconnection of the psychological and sociocultural processes of personality functioning. Behavioral scientists' accounts of the psychological effects experienced by Latin Americans during the cultural adjustment process point to maladjustment rather than to the positive aspects of this cultural phenomenon. To a lesser degree the literature reveals that acculturation may have a wholesome effect for some individuals in the long run. Some evidence, however, suggests that biculturalism may be a healthy approach to cultural adjustment. The present study investigated the psychosocial correlates of biculturalism. Two-hundred and fifty four male and female Cuban participants ranging from 18-90 years of age, living in metropolitan Washington, o.c., were administered self-report questionnaires. This field study examined the role played in biculturalism (Bicultural Involvement Questionnaire, BIQ) by age, length of time in the United States, and gender of the participants. The role played by presence of a support group, educational level, income level, ethnic identification, and use of mental health facilities was also explored. The criterion for level of adjustment was the participants' anxiety scores (State Anxiety Scale, SAS). The investigation's assumption is that biculturalism is related to relatively low anxiety levels. A hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis revealed that (a) biculturalism and anxiety are related to the length of time the Cuban participant has been in the United States, (b) biculturalism is associated with the person's age, (c) there is a significant and positive linear relationship between BIQ scores and SAS scores. This means that if a person continues to remain monoculturally Cuban while living in a bicultural community, his/her levels of anxiety will be high. This tested the psychosocial model of adjustment. However, the test for the curvilinear relationship was not significant, and (d) the presence of support group networks, educational level, family income and ethnic identification are significantly associated with the process of biculturalism.
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    PREDICTORS OF PARENT AND CHILD BEHAVIORS DURING DAILY SEPARATIONS AND REUNIONS AT DAYCARE
    (1996) Livesey, Karen Anne; Fein, Greta F.; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)
    To test a model which describes the factors expected to predict parent and child behaviors in separations and reunions in daycare, 88 dual-career mothers (n= 54) and fathers (n= 34) were observed during interactions with their infants and toddlers in this context. Simultaneous regression analyses and path analyses provided mixed support for the model. In general, separation behaviors were predicted better by the model than reunion behaviors. At separation, parent sensitivity was predicted by parent gender and increased levels of child distress was predicted by lower levels of parental involvement in child-care and increased parental separation anxiety. Parents who were less involved in their children's daily care had children who were more distressed at separation as did parents who were anxious about the effect of separation. At reunion, parent sensitivity was predicted by separation anxiety. Parents who were more anxious about employment-related separations were more sensitive in their interactions with their children. Child happiness at reunion was not predicted by any variables included in the model. There were mean differences between mothers and fathers on a number of variables including parent sensitivity (mothers were more sensitive), involvement in child-care (mothers were more involved), and anxiety about employment-related separations (mothers were more anxious). There were no significant differences in regression coefficients between mothers and fathers suggesting that the model held equally well for mothers and fathers. The results are discussed in terms of their support for the model and attachment theory.