Research has shown that females gaze more than males while speaking and listening regardless of the sex of their partner. To determine if these differences are due to biological sex or sex role, 24 dyads, in which subjects were matched on sex and sex role, conversed for 10 minutes while patterns of speech and gaze were recorded by two judges.…

Protection motivation theory proposes that a perceived threat to health activates cognitive appraisals of the severity of the threatened event, the probability of its occurrence, and the efficacy of a coping response; a recent reformulation of the theory incorporates self-efficacy expectancy as a fourth mediating cognitive process. To test the…

Although research has examined the content of alcohol-outcome expectancies and also the role of alcohol use in aggressive and sexual behaviors, few studies have linked the two lines of inquiry. To examine the efficacy of outcome expectancies for predicting actual behavior, 64 male social drinkers, aged 21 to 25 years, completed questionnaires and,…

Approximately 500 people participated in a study that examined the relationship between generalized uses-and-gratifications statements and specific magazine reading behaviors. The subjects responded to a telephone survey that elicited information concerning demographics, media usage, and reactions to 14 uses-and-gratifications statements that had…

Clinicians need to know the likelihood of a condition given a positive or negative diagnostic test. In this study a Bayesian analysis of the Clinical Behavior Checklist for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities (CBCPID) to predict depression in people with intellectual disability was conducted. The CBCPID was administered to 92 adults with…

Analysis of questionnaires completed by parents of young children with either Prader-Willi syndrome (N=84), Down syndrome (N=56), or typically developing (N=86), found children with Prader-Willi exhibited more compulsions, skin-picking, and tantrums than did the other groups. Discriminant analysis identified two functions (developmental milestones…

Recent approaches to empirical derivation and validation of alcoholic subtypes which involve cluster analysis wihin a single multivariate assessment domain have been questioned. To investigate more clinically meaningful subtypes in a sample of 245 male alcoholics, cluster analysis was performed on a combination of variables from four assessment…

Longitudinal research has shown that communication deficits (negative interaction) precede the development of relationship distress. To investigate the antecedents of relationship stability and adjustment 31 couples who were seriously considering marriage participated in a longitudinal study. The couples initially completed the Marital Inventories…

Alcoholism research has independently focused on background characteristics and alcohol-related expectations, e.g., social and physical pleasure, reduced tension, and increased assertiveness, as important variables in identifying high risk individuals. To assess the utility of alcohol reinforcement expectations as predictors of drinking patterns,…

Three different organizations were surveyed and the results compared to the responses of a sample of Sierra Clubs to investigate predictors of responsible environmental behavior. Perceived skill in using environmental action strategies, level of environmental sensitivity, and locus of control were identified as the most important predictors. (CW)

Examined the accuracy and validity of self-reports and their effect on tests of attitude-behavior relationships. Self-reports were reasonably accurate, but they produced results different from actual behavior in attitude-behavior tests. Concludes that self-reports and actual behavior should be measured, tested, and modeled separately. (Author/LS)

Research on interpersonal influence within counseling psychology has focused primarily on the characteristics of the counselor. There is a need to study the role of client characteristics in resistance or noncompliance. A review of the literature indicates that most client characteristics associated with noncompliance in therapy can be narrowed…

Changes in patterns of maladaptive behavior related to age-associated adaptive declines were investigated in 529 adults with mental retardation (ages 30 to 84), 202 with Down syndrome. Certain maladaptive behaviors were related to the onset of adaptive declines, (e.g., lack of boundaries). Findings suggest similarities in the course of…

Reports a study that examined the influence of authoritarianism on the formation of behavioral intentions by female college students. High authoritarians took subjective norms less into account relative to low authoritarians, providing support for the theory that personal and subjective norms can be distinguished empirically. (LS)

The relation of moral reasoning to moral behavior has been the subject of a substantial number of empirical studies; it may be more productive to employ a configuration of characteristics to predict moral behavior. To investigate the relation of moral reasoning and personality variables to moral behavior, 74 undergraduates, 30 males and 44…