Mansur Lalljee

Filled Pauses and Syntactic Complexity

Two studies of syntactic complexity in relation to filled pause rates are described. In the first no relation between proportion of subordinate clauses and FP rate is found. In the second it is found that FPs precede longer than average clauses. It is suggested that FPs reflect processes of syntactic organisation at the clause level, rather than the sentence level.

Lay prototypes of illness: Their content and use

Abstract This paper examines the laypersons “illness prototypes”, their use in interpreting symptoms of illness, and their systematic inter-relationship. The domain of illness was mapped out by analysing the similarities perceived between 35 illnesses. Seven clusters of illnesses were obtained. Next, the content of the prototypes of 12 illnesses from 4 different clusters was investigated. Features investigated included the nature of the typical sufferer of an illness and its typical cause, as well as other elements such as its typical consequences. There was homogeneity of features within cluster and difference between clusters. Finally, subjects were presented with vignettes consisting of typical and atypical combinations of symptom and person/ environmental cause information, and invited to diagnose what illness the person described was suffering from. The importance of illness prototypes in the diagnosis of illness was demonstrated. The nature of the typical sufferers and of the typical causes of illne...

Explanations of extreme and moderate events

Abstract Previous research has not fully resolved the question of how the extremity of an event affects the number of causes included in the explanation. Three studies focused on the issue of whether actions of varying extremity are explained by a conjunction or by single causes corresponding in magnitude to the effect. The studies examined explanations of actions and achievement outcomes of imaginary and actual persons. Unstructured and structured questionnaires were used as measures. The first two studies showed that some extreme actions and achievements were explained by a single cause that corresponds to the effect, whereas others were explained by a conjunction of (less extreme) causes. Moderate events were explained by single causes, alternative causes linked by disjunctions (A or B), or by opposed causes linked by adversative conjunctions (A but B). The third study showed that the preference for single causes for certain achievements applies equally to real and fictional persons. These findings suggest that people respond to some extreme effects by increasing the magnitude of a single cause rather than increasing the number of causes.

Respect for persons in the intergroup context: self-other overlap and intergroup emotions as mediators of the impact of respect on action tendencies

Two studies examined self—other overlap and intergroup emotions as mediators of the effects of respect for persons on action tendencies towards outgroup members. In contexts of both mild (Study 1) and more severe (Study 2) intergroup conflict, respect for persons predicted action tendencies towards outgroup members: those who value the intrinsic worth of others (high respect for persons) expressed less negative and more positive action tendencies towards outgroup members than did those with low respect for persons. These effects were obtained while controlling for Social Dominance Orientation and Agreeableness (Study 1). Further, the effects of respect for persons on action tendencies were shown to be partially mediated by self—other overlap and intergroup emotions. The findings support previous work in suggesting that respect for persons is an important predictor in intergroup contexts, and they highlight potential mechanisms through which respect might operate.

The Role of Event Prototypes in Categorization and Explanation

This chapter examines the processes whereby the lay person classifies events. It examines the relationships between beliefs about events and the relationship between classification and explanation. The notion of “event prototypes” is proposed as a productive vehicle for investigating these processes. Event prototypes are coherent and inter-related sets of characteristics concerning the sort of person who typically features in the event, the typical explanation for the event and so on. The studies carried out concern theft. First, the domain was mapped out by analysing the similarities perceived between 35 thefts. This analysis showed 2 main clusters contrasting “white collar” thefts such as embezzlement with “active” ones. The latter cluster was subdivided into various subclusters, which included violent thefts such as bank robbery and non-violent ones such as picking pockets. Next the content of the prototypes of 12 thefts selected from four different clusters was investigated. The characteristics includ...

Young Persons’ Conceptions of Criminal Events

Abstract The explanations a person may provide of behaviour in everyday life is a central vehicle for clarifying the moral quality of an act. This study is concerned with some aspects of the young persons’ conception of criminal events. Students in the 15‐17 age range were administered a questionnaire asking them to list five crimes they had heard of, their source of information concerning each crime, the appropriate punishment, and the circumstances under which the punishment should be reduced. A wide variety of crimes was cited, and a systematic relationship was found between the type of crime, the source of information about the event and the sort of punishment proposed. Accounts of the circumstances under which the punishment should be reduced were analysed in terms of distinctions made by psychologists interested in attribution processes, and their relationship with the type of crime was examined. Some of the theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed.

The Relationships between Images of God, Explanations for Failure to Do One's Duty to God, and Invoking God's Agency

This exploratory study seeks to relate the tendency to invoke Gods agency as an explanation to (a) the images of God held by the person, and (b) the persons beliefs about why people fail in their duty to God. Brief descriptions of hypothetical events were presented to subjects who were asked to rate how likely it was that the events expressed the will of God. Subjects were also asked to rank the importance of 21 attributes for their conception of God and to rank the plausibility of 10 explanations for a persons failure to do their duty to God. Subjects’ conceptions of God had a significant effect on the tendency to invoke Gods agency. However, beliefs about why people fail in their duty to God seem unrelated to concepts of God or to invoking Gods agency. Furthermore, there is a greater tendency to invoke Gods agency for positive than for negative events. The implications of these results for understanding explanations in terms of God and their role in coping with misfortune as well as for judgements of praise and blame for everyday events are discussed.

The role of gaze in the expression of emotion

Abstract The study reported here relates the semantic dimensions or emotions to one physical aspect of expression, that or direction of gaze. Emotions with high positive and high negative loadings on each of the dimensions of Pleasantness, Control and Activation were chosen for study. Five female subjects with acting experience expressed these emotions in front of a video camera which was to symbolize a person. The dependent variable was the amount of looking at the hypothetical other. Extrapolating from the research on gaze direction in social interaction it was predicted that the amount of gaze would be positively related to the Pleasantness and Activation dimensions and negatively related to the Control dimension. The Target of the emotion (Self vs. Other) was also varied. Predictions concerning the Pleasantness and Control dimensions were supported, but no relationship was found between gaze and the Activation dimension. The Target of the emotion made a significant difference in every case. The study ...

Empowerment in the New Age: A Motivational Study of Auto-biographical Life Stories

This article contributes to the ongoing debate about the motivational goals of New Age practices and beliefs by looking at descriptions of auto-biographical life events. Narratives from New Age, Catholic, and non-religious participants (N = 163) were analysed according to agency and communion types of motivations. New Age respondents were found to have a higher frequency for agency and a lower frequency for communion themes than the other groups, with particular stress on forms of self-referential magical empowerment. This study provides further evidence for the existence of a particular motivational-cognitive pattern in the New Age: holistic individualism. The pattern associates individualistic motivations with a highly abstract holistic style of thinking and sets the New Age individual apart from religious and non-religious people.

A paradoxical prediction from locus of control

Abstract Individual differences in attribution have been little researched. Beliefs about locus of control have been taken to be stable and important differences between people. They may provide some of the background assumptions on which people base their explanations of actions, especially insofar as these explanations imply that the cause of an action was within the agent or his environment, and that the action was or was not under the agents control. Respondents were therefore asked to fill in Rotter and Levenson locus of control questionnaires and to provide explanations or ask questions about several actions. It was hypothesized that internals would be inclined to go for explanations which were personal and implied high control, while externals would not. However, what emerged was the paradoxical finding that internals provided explanations which implied that the causes of the actions lay outside the agent, while externals provided ones which implied that the causes lay within. This result is discussed in terms of the difference between actions and outcomes, and the possibility that an important difference between people may be in the rigidity and simplicity of their beliefs about causality.