Michael Cowles

A comparison of weight and diet concerns and personality factors among female athletes and non-athletes

Two groups of female athletes, one in sports that provide an advantage to those with a thin body build (TB) and one in sports that demand a normal build (NB), completed a comprehensive inventory that examined eating disorder indicators, weight and diet concerns, and personality factors. They were compared with a group (CG) of similarly-aged university student females who were not engaged in sport beyond the recreational level. The data showed that the TB group, even though they were thin, had greater weight and diet concerns, and were emotionally more labile and dissatisfied than the NB group. The paper also briefly discusses the notions of psychosocial and activity models of eating problems.

Strength of the nervous system and augmenting-reducing: Paradox lost

Abstract Two conflicting viewpoints were identified regarding the relationship between sensation seeking and subjective response to stimulation: (a) that sensory augmenters are high sensation seekers compared with sensory reducers (the view of Zuckerman and Buchsbaum); and (b) that it is the reducer rather than the augmenter who is the high sensation seeker (the view of Petrie and Vando). Proponents of the first approach measure Augmenting-Reducing through the use of the average cortical-evoked response, while advocates of the second position use Petries version of the Kinaesthetic Figural Aftereffects Test or Vandos Reducer-Augmenter Scale. It is argued that the disagreement is semantic and results from the differences in method of measurement. It is further argued that most, if not all, of the research findings may be accommodated within the framework of strength-of-the-nervous-system theory which distinguishes between two dimensions,sensitivity andfunctional endurance. The implications for future research are pointed out.

Relationships between psychometric and experimental measures of arousability

Abstract Subjects (N = 53) responded to the Extraversion Scale of the Eysenck Personality Inventory, the Reducer-Augmenter Scale, the Reactivity Scale, and the Strength of Excitation Scale of the Strelau Temperament Inventory. They then performed visual and auditory magnitude-estimation tasks plus visual and auditory reaction-time tasks. Finally, they set the volume of a stereo tape-recorder to their preferred level while listening to popular music. These procedures enabled us to intercorrelate four psychometric tests and nine experimental indices, all presumably relevant to arousability or ‘strength of the nervous system’. Although the tests intercorrelated highly while the experimental indices were somewhat less univocal, there were few significant cross-correlations between psychometric and experimental measures, all but one quite low (under 0.30). The highest single cross-correlation, that between the Reducer-Augmenter Scale and stereo volume, r(51) = 0.40, P

Some characteristics of the simulated self

Abstract The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, Rotters Internal-External Locus of Control Scale, and the Telic Dominance Scale were administered on three occasions to 28 males and 28 females. At the first and second sessions they completed the inventories as though they were their ideal or their worst self, and, at the third session, were asked to report truthfully and accurately on their real self. In general the worst self was more neurotic, more introverted, more psychotic, more telic dominant and more externally oriented than the ideal self and showed low social desirability and Lie Scale scores. Ideal self report produces a marked tendency towards a need for social approval and virtousness. For extraversion, psychoticism, and locus of control scores, the real self was not significantly different from the ideal self. If real self report reflects the truth, then this finding lends support to the assertion that these scales are not affected by tendencies to idealize the self. There are significant differences in telic dominance scores and (not surprisingly) in Lie Scale and social desirability scores. Significant Sex × Scale interactions produced the suggestion that inviting respondents to complete inventories in accord with a simulated self may offer a way of exploring desired and undesired stereotypical profiles.

Arousability, need for approval, and situational context as factors in pain tolerance ☆

In Experiment I, subjects rated either “standard instructions” (n = 28) for a pain-tolerance experiment or “surgical-analogy” instructions (n = 27), designed to reduce immediate approval-seeking motivation. Subjects rated the standard instructions as carrying more social-evaluation threat (p < .05), but not more physical, unfamiliar, mundane, or overall threat. In Experiment 2, after completing the Reactivity Scale (RS), the Reducer-Augmenter Scale (RAS), and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (SDS), subjects received either standard (n = 45) or surgical-analogy (n = 45) instructions. Each subject then had 2300g of pressure applied to the medial phalanx of his/her dominant index finger. Pain-intensity ratings were elicited at 30 and 60 s, and pain tolerance was defined as how long (up to 5 min) subjects endured stimulation. Contrary to expectation, the SDS failed to correlate with either pain rating or with tolerance under either condition, whereas RS correlated substantially with all three pain measures under both condition. RAS correlated significantly with the 30-s rating and with pain tolerance under the surgical-analogy condition, but not under the standard condition. The difference between conditions was significant in the case of pain tolerance, p < .05.

A laboratory study of temperament and arousal: A test of Gale's hypothesis

Abstract Four groups of 16 people selected for their relatively extreme scores (greater than or equal to 1 standard deviation from the mean) on both the extraversion-introversion and neuroticism-stability scales of the Eysenck Personality Inventory visited the psychophysiological laboratory for four separate but identical testing sessions. Each subject completed self-report inventories on present mood states. Heart rate, basal skin conductance level, spontaneous skin conductance responses, and absolute auditory threshold were recorded. Evidence of an overall decrease in arousal across testing sessions was found for the physiological data and the self-report data. These results support Gales hypothesis that there are arousal properties associated with the psychophysiological laboratory per se that diminish with familiarity. In support of Eysenckian theory, temperament × stimulation level interactions were found. Extraverts displayed a decrease in physiologically measured arousal across days while introverts displayed no appreciable change. These results support Gales hypothesis that arousal differences between introverts and extraverts will only emerge under conditions of moderate stimulation. Only on the first day of testing were there significant differences between neurotics and stable individuals on measured tension/anxiety, a result which could confound performance or behavioral measures used in one-session experiments. The results of this study support the use of measures of temperament in psychological research. Levels of stimulation interact with differences in temperament, and level of stimulation is evidently highest on an individuals first visit to the laboratory.

Chapter 18 The Reversal Phenomenon: Reflections on A Laboratory Study

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the reversal phenomenon. The satiation of a metamotivational state is a key concept in reversal theory and distinguishes the theory from situational-specificity theories of personality, as it explains how people can be in different states, and behave in different ways, even in the same situation at different times. For studying reversal through satiation, three requirements have to be met—namely, (1) the situation in which the subject is placed would have to be unchanging, (2) subjects would have to remain in the situation for long periods of time for satiation to have a chance to build up and display itself in reversal, and (3) there would have to be some way of inferring when a reversal had taken place, through some observable and measurable change in the subjects behavior. Despite using the extreme group design on which reversal theory research is often based, a stratified group design, with an intermediate group, may be considered better.

Relationships between trait measures in groups chosen for their extreme scores on the Eysenck personality inventory

Abstract Four groups of subjects chosen for their relatively extreme scores on the Extraversion and Neuroticism scales of the Eysenck Personality Inventory were tested using Endlers Situation-Response Inventory of General Trait Anxiousness and Strelaus Temperament Inventory subscales of excitation and inhibition. Although many of the differences across groups were predictable it was found that the dimensions tapped by Eysencks scales act as modifier variables on the other measures, producing different degrees of inter-correlation in the various subgroups.