<p> Modification of self-traits is defined as a user's modification of his or her physical self-description between real life and online dating profiles. Personality traits may impact this modification in online dating. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of gender and modification of self-traits on measures of anonymity, social desirability, and self-monitoring to identify factors that contributed to deception in online dating. The theoretical framework used in this study was Paulhus' social desirability model to explain changes in social interactions with the inclusion of anonymity and the desire to be perceived in a favorable light. The research questions concerned the differences in anonymity, social desirability, and self-monitoring between men and women, and the differences in anonymity, social desirability, and self-monitoring between high- and low-level modified self-traits. Archival data of 80 participants were obtained from a 2008 study conducted by Toma, Hancock, and Ellison. A factorial MANOVA was employed to determine the significance of gender and level of modified self-traits on anonymity, social desirability, and self-monitoring. Nonsignificance was found in anonymity, social desirability, and self-monitoring between gender and high- and low-level modified self-traits. Educators could benefit from the result of this study by informing new online daters of the existing digital landscape to include risky and questionable online dating conditions and predators. Likewise, law enforcement officers could benefit from this study by identifying and pursuing deceptive online daters who commit criminal acts or civil crimes against other online daters. </p>

<p> Many Japanese corporations relocate their employees overseas for a period of time. In some cases, the relocation is for an extended period of time, in which case, employees have the option of moving members of their immediate family with them. This phenomenological study explored how the early adolescent-age children of these employees assimilate to life in the U.S., particularly in regards to making friends and adjusting to their new school. The data fell under 3 broad domains: (a) assimilation to host culture, (b) social inclusion, and (c) disharmony with peers. The fear of the unknown was a common theme reported among the participants, while their mothers expressed less trepidation about the relocation. Despite the initial challenges, all participants now feel they have assimilated and most report enjoying their U.S. experience. Common complaints included missing old friends, needing to rely on their parents for getting around in the U.S., and feeling stressed by academic challenges due to limited fluency in the English language. While none of the participants reported either being bullied or bullying others, the manner in which they described bullying behavior was consistent with previous research. The participants expressed that victimization under certain circumstances might be justified. Moreover, if victimized, there was a tendency to internalize the experience and to look for fault in oneself rather than holding the perpetrator responsible. Advice to other expatriate students and their families include awareness of the academic demands of U.S. schools, recommendations for meeting and making new friends, suggestions for a smoother relocation experience, and the need for parents to become more involved in helping their children succeed academically and personally. The clinical implications of the study findings are discussed, which include facilitating expatriate families' openness to new experiences, providing guidance on issues they might face in the assimilation process, and offering strategies for mitigating these challenges.</p>

Two experiments replicated the results of a series of earlier studies (Sagi and Hoffman, 1976; Simner, 1971). Calm infants cry in response to the tape-recorded crying of other infants. In addition, four new findings were reported: (1) crying infants continue to cry in response to the crying of another infant; (2) crying infants who hear their own cry almost completely stop crying; (3) calm infants who hear their own cry make practically no response; (4) calm infants simply ignore the cries of a chimpanzee and an older child. The response differential between own cry and other cry tapes was taken as evidence in opposition to a conditioning hypothesis. A post hoc explanation of response crying was offered. It was suggested that the observed behavior is based upon the concept of intraspecific rivalry--response crying is an evolutionarily adaptive mechanism by which infants compete for food and physical contact from adult care-givers. The behavior is peer and species specific. Finally, several suggestions for further research were offered. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-08, Section: B, page: 3233. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.

The actor-observer bias in social psychology has been very well documented (Jones, 1976) and states that actors tend to attribute the causes of their behavior to situations while observers tend to attribute the causes of the actor's behavior to personal dispositions. An extension of this bias, termed perspective effects, has recently been demonstrated (Arkin, Gabrenya, & McGarvey, 1978; Regan & Totten, 1975) and indicates that the more similar the roles of the actor and observer, the more similar the observer's attributions will be to those of the actor. / The present study investigated two hypotheses related to perspective effects and causal attributions for behavior. First, it was predicted that inmates would make less internal attributions than prison staff about an offender since their social role is more similar than prison staff's to the offender's. Second, based on Batson's (1975) work it was predicted that causal attributions for criminal behavior would be related to recommended rehabilitative techniques. / A 2 x 2 x 3 factorial experiment was conducted with the factors of role (either inmate or prison staff), attributional condition (either internal-stable or external-unstable), and type of crime (either monetary, monetary involving violence, or violent). Sixty inmate volunteers and 42 institution staff volunteers at the Federal Correctional Institution (Tallahassee) were administered experimental questionnaires consisting of two crime scenarios and 22 Likert type scales. The scales measured crime specific perceptions (e.g., blame for the crime, likelihood of a subsequent crime being committed, internality of the cause of the crime, stability of the cause of the crime, belief in the crime description, intentionality, and seriousness of the crime), human nature perceptions (e.g., the goodness of human nature, the ability to change behavior by oneself or with the help of others), endorsements of rehabilitation programs (e.g., high school diploma program, vocational training, counseling, employment aid, financial subsidy, and religious services), and a decision about the locus of potential change for each program (e.g., either within the offender or within the offender's environment). Each participant rated two different crime scenarios on the 22 Likert items. / Results indicated some support for the hypothesized attributional differences between inmates and staff; staff indicated a greater degree of internality of the cause of the crime than did inmates for the monetary crime and the monetary crime involving violence. Staff also indicated a greater perceived stability over time for criminal behavior than did inmates for the same two crimes. There was no evidence to support the hypothesis that causal attributions were related to recommended rehabilitative techniques; rather role and type of crime seemed to influence the program endorsements such that inmates recommended financial subsidies more strongly than did staff and financial subsidies were more often recommended for the monetary crime. The violent crime received the lowest rating for the vocational training program. When the cause of the crime was seen as highly stable, low inmate education level also seemed to strongly influence recommendations for the General Equivalency Diploma program. Failure to confirm the hypothesized relationship between attributions and rehabilitative recommendations may have resulted from the respondents' vast experience with programs in the institution, unlike Batson's (1975) participants who were generally more naive with respect to their client population and specific programs. Of particular interest, was the positive endorsement of the financial subsidies program by inmates but not by institution staff. This program description was based on the LIFE financial subsidy program (Lenihan, 1977) which has been demonstrated to be somewhat more successful than other programs in reducing recidivism. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-10, Section: B, page: 3937. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.

A study utilizing a questionnaire format was undertaken to compare married, cohabiting and dating individuals on four variables: equity (overbenefitted, equitably treated, underbenefitted), optimism for continuance of the relationship into the future, relationship satisfaction and time with partner. It was proposed that cohabiting individuals would indicate more inequity in their relationships, with male cohabitors more likely to indicate that they were overbenefitted in their relationships than female cohabitors and all married and dating subjects. In addition, it was hypothesized that cohabitors would be less optimistic about their relationships' future, less satisfied with their relationships, and have relationships of shorter durations than married and dating individuals. / No differences for the equity classifications and optimism for the relationship's continuance among the three relationship types (married, cohabiting, dating) were confirmed, and male cohabitors were not found to be more likely to indicate that they were underbenefitted than other respondents. Most respondents in the three relationship types indicated that they were equitably treated and optimistic about their relationships' future. However, dating individuals were found to be slightly less satisfied with their relationships than married and cohabiting individuals, but the subjects in all three relationship types were, on the whole, satisfied with their relationships. Finally, married individuals had been with their partners for greater amounts of time than both cohabiting and dating individuals. / Females were found to be more likely to indicate that they were underbenefitted than males. Underbenefitted individuals indicated that they were less satisfied with their relationships than overbenefitted and equitably treated individuals, with married and cohabiting subjects especially likely to exhibit this tendency. Equity had no effect on the relationship satisfaction of daters. / Long term married respondents were less satisfied with their partners than other married individuals. Underbenefitted marrieds were less satisfied with their relationships and less optimistic about their relationships' future than equitably treated and overbenefitted marrieds. / No single relationship type was found to be more likely to terminate their relationships, and relationship type and equity had no effect on the couples' follow-up assessments of their relationships. Neither cohabitors or daters were more likely to become engaged or get married. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 42-06, Section: B, page: 2604. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1981.

Two experiments investigated whether minority influence and conformity operate by the same or by different processes. It was predicted that subjects who were simultaneously exposed to a majority and a minority condition would move towards the minority in private but towards the majority in public. Eighty-four females with moderate attitudes towards gay rights were selected for Experiment 1 by an attitude pretest. In a 3 x 2 design, subjects either read a summary of a discussion in which four participants opposed and one favored gay rights, or one in which four participants favored and one opposed gay rights, or no summary (control group). Subsequently, half of the subjects responded to an attitude posttest on gay rights in private, the other half in public. A 3 (influence condition) x 2 (private/public) ANACOVAR on the posttest scores with pretest scores as covariate supported the predicted interaction between influence condition and private versus public response. Experiment 2 investigated three hypotheses predicting that (1) the above interaction would be replicated, (2) minorities would trigger more arguments and counterarguments, and (3) cognitive activity could mediate internalization but not compliance. Eighteen males and 30 females were exposed to the same procedure as in Experiment 1, but recorded their own thoughts before responding to the posttest. A 2 (influence condition) x 2 (private/public) x 2 (order) ANACOVAR on the posttest scores with pretest and sex as covariates replicated the interaction of Experiment 1. The second hypothesis was not supported. However, a 2 (influence condition) x 2 (order) x 2 (minority/majority) x 2 (arguments/counterarguments) mixed ANACOVAR with sex as covariate revealed that minorities triggered more arguments and fewer counterarguments than majorities. The third hypothesis was supported in a multiple regression / procedure in which influence condition was either entered before or after the cognitive activity scores. If entered second, the effect of influence condition on attitude change was wiped out for the private but not for the public responses. The results were interpreted as supporting the dual process model. Implications for future research and methodological issues are discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-03, Section: B, page: 0914. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

This questionnaire survey investigated the causal attributions made about outcomes of sexual experiences. Subjects were queried about the extent to which self, partner, the situation and a new dimension--the sexual relationship--were responsible for the results of sexual encounters. / The sample consisted of 233 male and female, graduate and undergraduate students at Florida State University enrolled in Home and Family Life, Business, Sociology, and Psychology courses. / It was hypothesized that attributional differences would be a function of the satisfaction experienced in a given sexual interaction as well as the gender and sexual history of the individual subject. The extent to which persons viewed themselves as satisfied and involved in their general relationship also was hypothesized to predict the kinds of attributions made. / Analysis of variance and hierarchical regression were performed to analyze the data. The results indicated that subjects ascribed significantly more importance to their sexual relationship, their partners, and themselves when making attributions about satisfying sexual outcomes versus unsatisfying ones. There was a significant interaction between outcome and gender for the partner attribution measure. Women made more partner attributions for satisfying sexual outcomes than did men; men made more partner attributions for unsatisfying outcomes than did women. There was also an interaction between outcome and sexual history for the sexual relationship attribution dimension. Women with a problem history of experiencing sexual satisfaction made significantly more attributions to the sexual relationship for current unsatisfying outcomes than did women with a problem free history. / General relationship satisfaction accounted for a consistent but small amount of the variance in predicting causal ascriptions to the sexual relationship for satisfying sexual outcomes, especially for women. Relationship variables did not appear to predict the use of other attributional dimensions. / The results suggest that men and women are quite similar in their attributional patterns about sexual outcomes and that those differences which do appear may be a function of ego-enhancing, ego-protective or role norm consensus biases. Finally, the study strongly advocates that a relationship dimension be included in subsequent attributional research on interpersonal processes. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 42-12, Section: B, page: 4969. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

A social psychological study of fees and their effects on raters' judgements of a therapy session was conducted. A sample of 257 students was comprised of two groups; those students who were therapy trainees and a contrast group; those students who had no training as therapists. / Subjects viewed a videotaped segment of a role-played therapy session and then were asked to evaluate the therapist and the client via a questionnaire. Subjects had been randomly assigned to a high, moderate, or low fee condition, or the control group in which no mention of a fee was made for the session they had viewed. The data collected were used to test four hypotheses concerning the relationship between the amount of fee purportedly charged for the session and the subsequent evaluation of the therapist and the client by subject. Additionally, the interaction between type of rater (therapist trainee or contrast group) and the four fee conditions was examined. Tests of the four hypotheses proposed were carried out utilizing a series of 2 x 4 analyses of variance. / An inverse relationship between fee and positive perceptions of the therapist was found. Subjects in the higher fee conditions saw the therapist as significantly less attractive (F (3,249) = 4.207, p < .01) and in a less positive light overall as measured by the Counselor Rating Form score (F (3,249) = 3.527, p < .05). In the high fee condition, the therapist was rated less positively than in the moderate, low, and control conditions. / When rating the client, therapist trainees rated the client significantly more negatively than did the contrast group irrespective of the fee condition (F (1,238) = 4.596, p < .05). / Implications are discussed for observers of therapy, teaching strategies, and client evaluations. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-02, Section: B, page: 0554. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the cognitive and behavioral consequences of manipulating causal attributions during interpersonal competition. Pairs of female undergraduates (N = 83) "competed" in a novel, best-four-out-of-seven dart tossing contest. The salient cause for success or failure in the contest was manipulated by providing either an ability-oriented or effort-oriented instructional set for the novel task. Competitive outcomes (constant success or failure) and margins of victory/defeat (consistently small or large) were also manipulated by providing false feedback about the results of four competitive trials. The dependent variables of primary interest were expectancies for success, the number of practice throws made prior to competition, and the quality of performance on the competitive throws. / The results of this investigation may be summarized as follows: (1) Expectancies for success were differentially affected by the two attributional orientations but in a manner only partially predicted from theory. Given losing outcomes, expectancies remained more intermediate with an effort orientation than with an ability orientation. Given winning outcomes, the expectancies of effort-oriented competitors tended to be less intermediate than those of ability-oriented competitors. (2) Practice behavior was not significantly affected by the attributional manipulation. However, a significant main effect for margin of victory/defeat indicated that subjects experiencing large outcome margins practiced more than those experiencing small outcome margins. In addition, a significant outcome x trials interaction indicated that winners practiced at a constant level across trials while losers decreased their level of practice across trials. (3) The quality of performance was not affected by the attributional manipulation. However, a significant outcome x margin x trials interaction was obtained. This interaction indicated that there was no difference in performance quality between winners and losers when the margin of victory/defeat was small. When the margin of victory/defeat was large, losers performed better than winners on trials 2 and 3. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-10, Section: B, page: 3409. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

To investigate the viability of littering as a nonreactive assessor of attitudes, an experiment was conducted in which sex of subject (male, female), sex of interviewer (male, female), issue (Equal Rights Amendment, Death Penalty), type of flyer (support the issue, stop the issue), and button condition (interviewer wore a support the issue, a stop the issue or no button) were varied. Subjects' littering and interview responses were compared using a logistic regression analysis. It was concluded that in this study interviews were less cumbersome to conduct and the results easier to predict than the littering measure. Since two other experiments (Cialdini & Baumann, 1981) yielded more encouraging results regarding the littering measure, further investigation is warranted. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-08, Section: B, page: 2739. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.