Steven J. Scher

How Effective Are the Things People Say to Apologize? Effects of the Realization of the Apology Speech Act

The Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Project (Blum-Kulka, House, & Kasper, 1989a) has identified five components of an “apology speech act set”: five strategies that speakers use to apologize. This study examines the effects of four of those strategies (illocutionary force indicating device, expression of responsibility, promise of forebearance, and offer of repair) on the judgments made by hearers about the speaker and about the apology. Each of the strategies is shown to have an independent effect in improving reactions to the speaker. Further, the magnitude of these effects appear to be roughly similar for each of the strategies. The things people say to apologize do seem to be effective in accomplishing the self-presentational goals of apologizers.

Motivational basis of dissonance: The singular role of behavioral consequences.

This article provides the first empirical test of the idea that discrepancy is not needed in order to arouse cognitive dissonance. Dissonance was aroused when Ss felt responsible for some aversive consequence, regardless of whether their behavior was consistent (writing a proattitudinal essay) or inconsistent (a counterattitudinal essay) with beliefs. The data demonstrate that in both situations, dissonance is aroused. This result, based on the dissonance motivation model of Cooper and Fazio (1984), strongly suggests that the motivational basis for dissonance is the felt responsibility for aversive consequences. The theoretical implications of this outlook are explored, including a discussion of the many ways that it expands the applicability of dissonance theory.

Toward an understanding of academic and nonacademic tasks procrastinated by students: The use of daily logs

For five consecutive days, at either the beginning or the end of a term, college students (30 women, 7 men) listed daily academic and nonacademic tasks they intended to complete and whether they actually completed them. Students reported nonacademic tasks (e.g., household chores, making telephone calls, exercising, and playing sports) as completed most often regardless of the time within the term. Results from 2 (early vs. later sessions) by 2 (completed vs. not completed tasks) by 2 (academic vs. nonacademic tasks) ANOVAs found that procrastinated tasks early in the term were more effortful and anxiety provoking than any other task during the term. Procrastinated academic tasks (e.g., homework, reading assignments, studying) in the early part of a term were rated as unpleasurable, while students reported later in the term that pleasantness of the task did not affect whether it was procrastinated or completed. These results imply that academic and nonacademic tasks should be challenging, yet fun, to heighten the likelihood that they are completed by students.

Evolutionary Psychology: Alternative Approaches

Acknowledgements. Contributors. Alternative approaches to evolutionary psychology: introduction F. Rauscher, S.J. Scher. Nature read in truth or flaw: locating alternatives in evolutionary psychology. S.J. Scher, F. Rauscher. The evaluation of competing approaches within human evolutionary psychology. T. Ketelaar. Evolution, morality, and human potential. D.S. Wilson. Repeated assembly: prospects for saying what we mean. L. Caporael. Human triangles: genes, sex and economics in human evolution. N. Eldredge. The optimal number of fathers: evolution, demography, and history in the shaping of female mate preferences. S. Blaffer Hrdy. Dancing in the dark: evolutionary psychology and the argument from design. K.C. Stolz, P. Griffiths. Adaptationism and psychological explanation. D. Murphy. Toward a developmental evolutionary psychology: genes, development, and the evolution of cognitive architecture. S. Quartz. Modules, brain parts, and evolutionary psychology. W. Bechtel. Evolutionary psychology and the information-processing model of cognition. J. Mundale. Evolutionary psychology and artificial life. D. Parisi.

Measuring the Consequences of Injustice

The factor structure of measures of consequences of distributive injustice was explored. Study I reports confirmatory factor analyses of two samples of data in which university student subjects read vignettes about a student who worked at a particular job and was paid a low wage. Judgments of fairness and of happiness were clear and measurable consequences of underpay injustice. A Justice Emotions factor (anger and guilt) was also present, although this factor was not psychometrically sound. A method factor was also required to obtain an adequate fit to the data. In Study 2, the Justice and Happiness factors were replicated. Anger and Guilt formed separate factors. In an overpay situation, this structure did not fit the data. Exploratory factor analysis suggested the presence of two second-order factors (Happiness/Anger and Fairness/Guilt). Implications for both theoretical and methodological issues in the study of distributive justice are discussed.

A Lego Model of the Modularity of the Mind

In this paper I propose that the dominant form of evolutionary psychology (which I term “cognitive adaptationism”) can be improved by adopting an alternative version of the concept of mental modularity. I suggest a metaphor of mental modules as Lego blocks. The Lego blocks represent a relatively small set of elementary operations that the mind/brain can carry out. These Lego blocks are repeatedly assembled in different ways to execute a wide variety of different functions. These repeated assemblies correspond more closely to the things that cognitive adaptationists have asserted are modules. Arguments in favor of the Lego model include the fact that the localized neural systems identified in the brain appear to carry out elementary operations, rather than higher-level functions, and the fact that evolution by natural selection occurs by the gradual modification of small-level features.

Nature Read in Truth or Flaw

Evolutionary psychology is a powerful new methodology in psychology. Its practitioners claim success in reading human nature where previous methods in psychology have failed. But whether nature is read in truth or with flaws depends in part on a serious study of the exact methods used in evolutionary psychology.