Lawrence S. Meyers

Greed, Death, and Values: From Terror Management to Transcendence Management Theory

Research supporting terror management theory has shown that participants facing their death (via mortality salience) exhibit more greed than do control participants. The present research attempts to distinguish mortality salience from other forms of mortality awareness. Specifically, the authors look to reports of near-death experiences and posttraumatic growth which reveal that many people who nearly die come to view seeking wealth and possessions as empty and meaningless. Guided by these reports, a manipulation called death reflection was generated. In Study 1, highly extrinsic participants who experienced death reflection exhibited intrinsic behavior. In Study 2, the manipulation was validated, and in Study 3, death reflection and mortality salience manipulations were compared. Results showed that mortality salience led highly extrinsic participants to manifest greed, whereas death reflection again generated intrinsic, unselfish behavior. The construct of value orientation is discussed along with the contrast between death reflection manipulation and mortality salience.

Psychometric Properties of Four 5-Point Likert Type Response Scales

One hundred and twenty eight subjects responded to one of four differently labeled 5-point Likert-type response scales. Although no significant differences in test means and in reliability estimates were found among response scales, the scales did differ on measures of variability. Subjects using scales with more nearly absolute endpoints tended to concentrate their responses on the middle scale steps; those responding to scales with less nearly absolute endpoints tended to use the scale steps in a more balanced manner. Greater item variance was associated with scales having less rather than more nearly absolute endpoints.

Computer recognition of the speech of adults with cerebral palsy and dysarthria

Ten speakers with cerebral palsy and dysarthria and 13 nondisabled speakers were tested using a Shadow VET/2 speech recognition system installed in an Apple Ile computer. The speakers each produced four types of stimuli: 12 consonants followed by a neutral vowel, 12 vowels in an h-d environment, 12 words defined as easy and 12 words defined as difficult for dysarthric speakers. Using all four types of stimuli, the dysarthric speakers had scores above chance, but they had significantly fewer stimuli recognized by the computer than the nondisabled speakers. For the dysarthric group, vowels in an h-d environment and both types of words were recognized significantly more often than the consonants followed by a neutral vowel. For the nondisabled group, the vowels in an h-d environment were recognized significantly more often than consonants followed by a neutral vowel, and both types of words were recognized more often than vowels. Confusion matrices and a discussion of item errors were used to further compare...

Jealousy in sexual and emotional infidelity: An alternative to the evolutionary explanation

In an effort to make unequivocal the boundaries of infidelity, the present study used three infidelity scenarios (sexual infidelity, emotional infidelity, and the combination of sexual and emotional infidelity). Two other variables, gender of the participants and the extent to which they reported either few or several jealous tendencies, were included to generate a 3 × 2 × 2 independent groups design. Reactions of 317 undergraduate college students (165 women and 152 men) to the scenarios were assessed using both Smith and Ellsworths (1985) six cognitive dimensions of emotion and a measure of emotional upset. A multivariate analysis of variance yielded significance for two of the main effects, the nature of the infidelity scenario and the gender of the participant. Univariate analyses indicated that women experienced more emotional distress over all of the conditions of infidelity, and, for women and men alike, conditions of infidelity involving a sexual component, whether alone or together with emotional infidelity, proved to be more upsetting than those involving only an emotional component.

Validation of a New Test of Locus of Control: The Internal Control Index

A new locus of control test, the Internal Control Index (ICI), was examined. 259 subjects completed the ICI, the Rotter Internal-External Scale of locus of control, the Beck Depression Inventory, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Eysenck Personality Inventory, and the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory. Both locus of control tests showed that internals demonstrated less depression, anxiety, and neuroticism, and more self-esteem than externals. Neither locus of control test correlated with the extroversion measure. Based partly on item analyses, it was suggested that the ICI was a better measure of locus of control than the Rotter scale.

Distractor similarity and item stem structure: Effects on item diffculty.

This article examined two item-writing guidelines: the format of the item stem and homogeneity of the answer set. Answering the call of Haladyna, Downing, and Rodriguez (2002) for empirical tests of item writing guidelines and extending the work of Smith and Smith (1988) on differential use of item characteristics, a mock multiple-choice drivers license examination was administered to high school students with items having item stems that were either open-ended or in question form and with distractors structured to be either similar or dissimilar to the correct answer. Analyses at the test level indicated that the similarly structured distractors raised the mean difficulty level by .12. No effect was found for item-stem format. Differential item function analyses on each of the test items further supported the effect of distractor similarity on test performance. Implications of this study for item writing and standard setting, as well as implications for future research, are discussed.

Validity and reliability of the revised California Psychological Inventory's Vector 3 scale

This study examined the validity and reliability of the revised California Psychological Inventorys (CPI) Vector 3 (v.3) self-realization scale by administering it and other personality questionnaires to 528 introductory psychology students. Coefficient alpha for the v.3 scale was .85 for the entire sample, and was .84 and .86 for males and females, respectively. V.3 correlated .47 with the Inner Directed scale of the Personal Orientation Inventory, the most widely used measure of self-actualization. In addition, subjects who were more self-realized had higher self-esteem, more internal locus of control, fewer neurotic symptoms, lower trait and state anxiety, and were more assertive than those who were less self-realized. It was concluded that v.3 is a valid measure of Goughs self-realization construct.

Self-Related Consequences of Death Fear and Death Denial

This study explores self-related outcomes (e.g., esteem, self-concept clarity, existential well-being) as a function of the interaction between self-reported levels of death fear and death denial. Consistent with the idea that positive existential growth can come from individuals facing, rather than denying, their mortality (Cozzolino, 2006), the authors observed that not fearing and denying death can bolster important positive components of the self. That is, individuals low in death denial and death fear evidenced an enhanced self that is valued, clearly conceived, efficacious, and that has meaning and purpose.

An analysis of the Multicultural Assessment Intervention Process model

Multiple regression models linking client counselor preferences, client-provider ethnic/racial match and provider self-perceived cultural competence to clinical outcome was developed with samples of African American, Latino American and White American adult outpatient community mental health clients (n=1153). The models tested hypothesized relationships of cultural factors predicted by the Multicultural Assessment Intervention Process model. Measured variables included clients’ preferences for the language in which mental health services were to be provided and the culture (race/ethnicity) of the provider, client-provider ethnic/racial match, self-perceived provider cultural competence and clinical outcome as measured by Global Assessment of Functioning scores at Time 2 statistically controlling for client scores at Time 1. Results indicated that lack of a client-provider ethnic/racial match and higher levels of provider self-perceived sensitivity predicted African American clinical outcome. These same results plus higher levels of provider self-perceived awareness of cultural barriers predicted Latino American clinical outcome. None of the cultural variables were found to predict White American clinical outcome. Multicultural Assessment Intervention Process model implications are discussed.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Acculturation Rating Scale–II Scale 2 The Case for Measurement of Marginality

The present study compared the dimensionality and viability of Cuéllar, Arnold, and Maldonado’s 18-item Marginality Scale to the recently proposed 17-item revision of this scale by Gutierrez, Franco, Powell, Peterson, and Reid. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that a 15-item 3-factor solution based on Cuéllar et al. and a 17-item 2-factor solution based on Gutierrez et al. both produced adequate fits to the data. However, MANOVA results using Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans–II (ARSMA-II) Scale-1 acculturation typologies (separation, assimilation, integration, and marginalization) to form separate groups showed more sensitive differentiation with the Cuéllar et al. three-subscale structure (Anglo Marginalization, Mexican Marginalization, and Mexican American Marginalization) than the Gutierrez et al. two-subscale structure (Dominant Culture Marginality and Native Culture Marginality). Implications for future research were discussed.