Work by Blanchard-Fields has consistently found that older adults are prone to making dispositional inferences in certain contexts (Blanchard-Fields, 1994; 1996; 1999); however mechanisms underlying these tendencies have yet to be explored. The present study assessed the influence that personal belief has on attitude attributions made by both young and older adults. Using the attitude-attribution paradigm, participants made judgments about a targets actual attitude based on an essay that was written by the target. The essay contained a position on a controversial social issue, i.e. prayer in public school, that the target was instructed to advocate. Replicating past research, older adults rated the targets attitude to be more strongly consistent with the content of the essay than young adults did. Personal beliefs did not have a large effect on attitude attributions, however age and belief related differences appeared in both confidence ratings and as a function of attributional complexity. Fluid reasoning was also found to have an impact on attributions.

Based on previous research on cultural differences in analytic and holistic reasoning, I hypothesized that when explaining events, North Americans would be more likely than East Asians to expect causes to resemble events with respect to magnitude (i.e., big events stem from big causes and small events stem from small causes). In addition, I hypothesized that these differences would be explained by cultural differences in the tendency to reason analytically or holistically. In a series of studies, Canadian and Chinese participants judged the likelihood that high or low magnitude events were caused by high or low magnitude causes. Events included a disease outbreak, a delay in a business negotiation, and damage caused by a tornado moving through a city. In two studies, participants from both cultural groups expected events and their causes to correspond in magnitude. More importantly, as hypothesized, Canadians expected events and their causes to correspond in magnitude to a greater degree than did Chinese. In a third study, I ruled out a potential alternative explanation that Chinese may have simply been exhibiting a response bias. In a fourth study, in support of my hypothesis that these cultural differences were due to differences in the reasoning styles of Canadians and Chinese, I found that Canadians primed to reason holistically expected less cause-effect magnitude correspondence than did those primed to reason analytically. These findings have important theoretical implications for the research literature on attributions and on cultural and social cognition, as well as practical implications in the context of judgment and decision making. / Thesis (Ph.D, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2009-08-12 15:41:47.804

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF JAMESON R. PARKER, for the Masters of Arts degree in CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE, presented on MAY 24, 2010, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: DESISTANCE FROM CRIME: AN EXAMINATION OF OFFENDERS ON PROBATION. MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Daryl Kroner Discovering the reasons offenders begin committing crime is the driving force behind much criminological research. However, there is a growing trend to research the reasons why criminals stop offending. The present study aimed to discover if offenders who have highly responsible and less disengaged attribution styles indicate more positive desistance factors. Six convicted offenders serving probationary periods were assessed two different times. Each offender was grouped according to their attribution style and subsequently tested for an increase in desistance factors (peer associations, employment, and family relationships. Independent samples t-tests indicate no significant differences between the two groups on measures of desistance. Additional qualitative analysis confirms the results of the t-tests. Post hoc demographic analysis revealed only minor differences between offenders who completed the research study and those who did not.

No description available.

It has been suggested that how one cognitively appraises his or her victimization experience will influence one's psychological adjustment. In this study, content analysis was conducted on the explanations given for their molestation by 84 female adolescent incest victims. The relationship of these explanations with measures of self-esteem and depression was examined. No relationship was found between self-esteem or depression scores and whether or not subjects found some meaning or explanation for their being molested. However, the type of attribution was related to self-esteem and depression, with subjects significantly more depressed and having lower self-esteem if they attributed the molestation as due to something about self (internal attribution) versus some reason external to self (external attribution). Subjects making internal attributions were more likely to have experienced intercourse.

Previous research has indicated that the Masculine Gender Role Stress (MGRS) scale has been useful in identifying men who are susceptible to appraising threat in situations that challenge their masculine gender roles. Furthermore, Zillmann's excitation-transfer theory has proposed that elevated levels of physiological reactivity may interfere with men's appraisal processes and ability to control their emotions and behavior. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study was to examine the independent and combined effects of men's appraisal of threat and physiological pre-arousal on cognitive, affective, behavioral, and physiological responses to masculine relevant female partner behavior that challenges masculinity. Eighty college men who scored high or low on the MGRS were exposed to cold or room temperature water to induce the arousal or non-arousal conditions, respectively, prior to exposure to vignettes. They then listened to audio-taped vignettes of hypothetical situations involving dating partners who threatened the male's masculinity in the relationship in either masculine gender relevant or irrelevant contexts. Skin conductance level (SCL) and heart rate (HR) were obtained before, during, and after exposure to arousal or non-arousal conditions and each vignette. Measures of anger, negative affect, and appraisal were obtained in response to the different arousal conditions. Cognitive attributions, anger, negative affect, and verbal conflict tactics were obtained in response to each vignette. Results showed that the arousal condition produced greater HR than did the non-arousal condition. High MGRS men reported more negative affect and more negative appraisal in the arousal condition than in the non-arousal condition compared to low MGRS men. In response to the vignettes, high MGRS men reported more state anger, negative intent attributions, and verbal aggression tactics than did low MGRS men. Results also showed that gender irrelevant vignettes produced greater HR in the arousal condition than in the non-arousal condition. Finally, relative to high MGRS men, low MGRS men evidenced greater SCL during both arousal conditions and vignettes. However, results did not support an expected relationship between the effects of MGRS and pre-arousal on cognitive, affective, and physiological responses to gender relevant threats. Implications of these results for future research were discussed. / Ph. D.

In this thesis I argue that negative attributions mediate between attachment insecurity and relationship outcomes. Using a sample of 59 couples the well-documented association between attachment insecurity and relationship satisfaction was replicated. I then tested whether this association was mediated by attributions for hypothetical behaviour for a real partner and a hypothetical potential partner. Attributions for real partner behaviour did mediate between insecure attachment and relationship satisfaction, but not attributions for a potential partner. It was further hypothesised that an association would exist between couple communication and attachment insecurity, which would be mediated by negative attributions. Couples completed two ten-minute problem-solving discussions and participated in a video-mediated recall process, providing a measure of attributions for real events with their current partner. Results supported the hypotheses for self-reported, but not observed, communication. It was concluded that the association between attachment and attributions does not represent a consistent cognitive processing bias, but rather a relationship-specific phenomena. Future research directions were proposed to investigate mediation from a long-term perspective and the therapeutic implications of these findings were discussed.

No description available.

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Student Number : 99112152G - MA dissertation - School of Human and Community Development - Faculty of Humanities / Aviation maintenance is an area where better efficiency is needed to cope with ever increasing workloads. However aviation maintenance has also been identified as one of the major causes of accidents and also where maintenance personnel can sustain injuries. Consequently, if further efficiencies are to be achieved, they cannot come at the cost of reduced safety margins. The present study was concerned with identifying the reasons and attributions of injury incidents in major maintenance operations. Moreover compare team leaders and technicians and also investigate whether human error contributes to injury incidents. Much of previous research in this area has employed human error theory. In the present research the researcher tapped into the mainstream psychological theories to help clarify the mechanism underlying the links between the injury incidents and behaviour. The present study employed attribution theory and the theory of reasoned action to share light on explaining behaviour. The sample consisted of 17 participants, five team leaders and twelve aircraft technicians from different departments in major maintenance. Results of the study indicate that participants experienced different injury incidents in major maintenance. These injury incidents occurred as a result of various contributory factors. Contributory factors cited were equipment deficiencies, pressure, slippery and dirty floors and stands. Team leaders and technicians had similar and different responses towards the research questions asked. Types of errors that contributed to these injury incidents were slips, skill-based, knowledge-based errors and most importantly, violations. Participants made external attributions towards injury incidents. Explanations using reasoned action theory with regard to the reasons and actions that lead to injury incidents were related more subjective norm and also associated with violations and pressure.