R. Glen Hass

Racial ambivalence and American value conflict: correlational and priming studies of dual cognitive structures

Des methodes correlationnelles et experimentales sont utilisees pour mesurer les differences individuelles dans les orientations et attitudes raciales chez des etudiants de race blanche

Lay People's and Health Care Personnel's Perceptions of Cancer, Aids, Cardiac, and Diabetic Patients

Although some writers assume that negative attitudes toward cancer and other chronic disease patients are prevalent, systematic data have been scarce. Perceptions of patients and their illnesses were assessed for college students, nurses, medical students, and chiropractic students. Subjects rated cancer, AIDS, diabetes, and heart disease patients, as well as the nonill, on 21 bipolar trait items, selected to measure competence, moral worth, dependence, depression, and morbidity. There were also measures of social distance, cancer anxiety, disease beliefs, and ascribed illness responsibility. With minor exceptions, all subsamples perceived cancer victims less favorably than diabetics, heart patients, and the nonill on competence, dependence, depression, and morbidity. Cancer patients were always seen as even more depressed than AIDS sufferers but were rated just as favorably as well people on moral worth. People with AIDS were generally the most negatively evaluated and most rejected group. Cancer was consistently described as the most painful condition and, next to AIDS, the least understood medically and most deadly. Cancer anxiety was moderately predictive of perceptions of cancer victims, and ratings of illness responsibility were moderately predictive of moral worth ratings for the cancer and AIDS groups. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

Temporal delay, type of forewarning, and resistance to influence ☆

Abstract Previous researchers have manipulated forewarning by providing premessage information about the topic and position of the upcoming communication, or the communicators persuasive intent. Subjects in the present experiment were force-warned either 10 min prior to the communication, or just before the message began of the speakers topic and position, persuasive intent, or topic only. As hypothesized, forewarning of the communicators persuasive intent inhibited persuasion regardless of the length of the delay period, but forewarning of the topic and position required a delay in order to confer resistance to subsequent persuasion, suggesting that although both manipulations have been called “forewarning they may lead to reduced persuasion through different mechanisms. Foreknowledge of the sources topic, but not his position also increased resistance to persuasion when followed by a delay period. The results were discussed in terms of both cognitive and motivational mechanisms that may underly the persuasion inhibiting effects of forewarning.

The effects of self-focused attention on perspective-taking and anxiety

Evidence is examined that pertains to two of the basic assumptions underlying self-awareness theory: that self-focused attention causes one to adopt an external perspective in which one views oneself like an observer; and that self-focus leads to self-dissatisfaction and negative affect. Experimental evidence is reviewed and found to offer convincing support for the perspective-taking assumption. An experiment that used a disguised measure of mood to test the negative affect assumption is reported. As predicted by self-awareness theory, subjects who saw their reflection in a mirror while completing the disguised mood measure were found to have more negative affect than subjects who did not face the mirror.

The relationship between the theory of evolution and the social sciences, particularly psychology.

Abstract: The application of the theory of evolution to human social behavior has, along with some illumination, produced friction that occasionally bursts into flame. In this paper we will examine the relationship between the theory of evolution and the social sciences, psychology in particular. We will identify some of the sources of friction between proponents and opponents of applying evolutionary theory to the social sciences, and we will suggest that listening carefully to both sides in the debate points the way to an enriched understanding of human social behavior.

WHEN A TEACHER DIES: A School‐Based Intervention with Latency Children

The behavior and emotional adjustment of latency-age children following the sudden death of their teacher are described. Observational and interview data demonstrate the importance of play and ritual as coping mechanisms. The childrens reactions to a replacement teacher, and to expectations that they establish a relationship with the new teacher, are considered.