Examined whether preparation decreases state anxiety and improves therapy outcome. One-half of 138 psychotherapy outpatients viewed preparatory videotape, whereas controls waited equivalent period before first appointment. Prepared clients had more accurate expectations about psychotherapy and lower state anxiety than did controls. At 2-month…

Discusses the impact of affirmative action policies on expectancies and interpersonal relations. Concludes that affirmative action policies offer clear advantages to the members of target groups. (DM)

Assigned moderately to heavily drinking male college students to either expectancy challenge, traditional information, or assessment-only conditions. Expectancy challenge produced significant drinking decreases compared with other groups. Decreases in measured expectancies paralleled drinking decreases in challenge condition. Findings support…

Evaluated relationships among negative-personal functions of drinking, alienation, and perceived discrepancies between valued goals and expected success toward valued goals in 257 college drinkers. Found positive relationship between alienation scores and extent of discrepancies between values and expectations for academic and social success.…

Compared interstimulus interval (ISI) eye movements of 3-month-olds viewing an alternating picture sequence with those of infants viewing an irregular sequence. Found that all infants exhibited shifts during ISIs. Repetitive saccades declined while alternating and anticipatory saccades increased in alternating sequences. ISI shift frequency did…

Two studies examined the positivity bias in children of different ages. Findings indicated that children from grade two and up selected the correct cause(s) when the effect covaried with only one cause, but only at a later age when covariation with two causes was presented. Ability estimations and expectation of success were more positive in…

Examines employers' expectations and perceptions of communication new hires at three points in the school-to-work transition. Focuses on writing and related conceptual abilities. Concludes that broad generalizations about communication abilities of communication new hires may be unwarranted because performance expectations and the level and types…

Investigates differences in friendship expectations between adolescent immigrants from the former Soviet Union and their Israeli-born peers. Results of rating behavioral characteristics of peers indicated that immigrants assign greater importance than their counterparts to all aspects of friendship expectations. Immigrants' friendship expectations…

Tests four alternative models of veracity judgment including a normative expectation model, an expectancy model, an expectancy violation sufficient model, a model based on Expectancy Violation Theory, and a norm violation model. Provides additional evidence of the primacy of behavior over prior expectations in the evaluation of face to face…

Three analyses of data from 197 older employees and their spouses identified work and nonwork factors influencing age of retirement. Finances predicted retirement but health and gender did not. Being tired of working and expecting to work for pay after retirement predicted earlier retirement. (SK)

Describes the relationship between personal and perceived opposite-sex peer expectations and drinking behavior. As compared to themselves, participants believed that their opposite-sex best friend had greater expectations for the effects of alcohol. Perceived peer expectancies added to the prediction of self-reported drinking beyond that which is…

Investigates the extent to which adolescents' marital expectations are related to the marital expectations of their parents. Examines the extent to which the nature of attachment to the parent and the level of adolescent individuation moderate the carryover of marital expectations model from parents to children. Sex differences are discussed.…

Regression analysis of data from 93 college students showed that self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations are more powerful predictors of occupations considered than person-environment congruence. Congruence alone is a weak predictor of occupational considerations. Social Cognitive Career Theory and Holland's Theory of Career Choice…

A survey of 164 marketing majors found that students increasingly value internships less for educational purposes than for the competitive edge it gives them in the job market. They see less value in academic activities (class papers, readings) than in pragmatic work experience. (SK)

Examined the influence of contextual timing manipulations on prospective time judgments through 7 experiments involving a total of 199 college students. Discusses results in terms of various stimulus-based models of prospective time judgments, including those that appeal to attentional periodicities and entrainment. (SLD)