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This study investigated burden in a convenience, nonrandom sample of 120 spousal caregivers of cardiac patients, who resided at home in the Richmond, VA area, had health insurance, and received medical care from private providers. Using Vitaliano's theory that burden is a function of stressors and personal vulnerability moderated by psychological resources and social supports, the study examined the relationships between those five constructs.;Burden was measured by the Brief Symptom Inventory and Montgomery's Scales of Objective and Subjective Burden. The Hassles and Uplifts Scales was used to measure stressors; demographic data and the Self control, Responsibility, Socialization, Psychological Mindedness, Tolerance, Flexibility, Self acceptance, and Achievement via conformance scales of the CPI, to measure personal vulnerability; the Ways of Coping Questionnaire, psychological resources; Vaux's SS-B, the availability of social supports; and ORIENT, the willingness to utilize social supports.;Four research hypotheses based on Vitaliano's theory were investigated. Although the data conclusively supported only one, i.e., that low vulnerability scores would have positive correlations with high scores on social support, they did appear to support a multicausal explanation for the development of burden. Variables within each of the constructs had practical and statistical significance in correlation with the burden variables. Significant relationships existed between the three burden measures and certain variables: the appraised severity of the stressors; age, education, and income; the personality traits of responsibility, self-acceptance, flexibility, self control and psychological mindedness, as measured by those CPI scales; the use of escape/avoidance and/or planful problem solving as coping styles; the availability of social supports; and the willingness to use those supports. Personal vulnerability also had a significant relationship with how stressed individuals used their social supports. The data suggested that the three types of burden were affected differently by the variables. One unexpected finding was that frequency of hassles had a weak, but significant, negative relationship with burden. Despite that finding, it was concluded that the biopsychosocial model offered a valid explanation for the development of burden.

In this dissertation, three studies investigate how a person's beliefs about the cues that indicate deception are related to actual accuracy in detecting deception. Based on social cognition research, it was hypothesized that people with accurate beliefs about the cues that predict deception are better at detecting deception only when those beliefs are cognitively available and activated. In contrast, without activation of appropriate beliefs, detection will be no better than for those with inaccurate beliefs. Study I tested this hypothesis in a laboratory study, where participants viewed video fragments of people who are either being honest or dishonest. A questionnaire measured participants' beliefs and the activation of these beliefs was accomplished by manipulating suspicion. Study I provided clear evidence for the main hypothesis, where suspicious participants who had accurate beliefs were better at detecting deception compared to other participants. In Study II, a modified belief questionnaire was administered to 669 undergraduate participants in order to have a better understanding of the attributes of a scale that attempts to measure people's beliefs about the cues that predict deception. Study III attempted to conceptually replicate Study I in a field study. Undergraduate participants watched a video of actual passengers who either were or were not attempting to pass contraband past an experimenter. This study did not show the same pattern of results as Study I, but did show that suspicious participants were better at detecting deception. Study IV attempted to teach and activate the beliefs about cues that predict deception. Either correct or incorrect beliefs were taught to the participants and participants, involvement was manipulated. The main test of the hypothesis in this study did not show an increase in accuracy for participants who were highly involved and given the correct cues, but indirect evidence suggest that belief accuracy may be related to participant's detection accuracy.

An effective nonverbal delivery style is generally recognized as vital to the success of persuasive communications. However, surprisingly little research has examined the role of nonverbal behavior in actual attitude change. The current research investigated whether the nonverbal behavior closely associated with communication influenced message processing and attitude change. In two studies, participants were exposed to videotaped persuasive messages about an issue of low involvement. These messages varied in verbal content and nonverbal delivery style. In Experiment 1, participants were exposed to strong or weak arguments delivered expressively or unexpressively. The effects of these message factors on impressions, attitudes, and message memory were assessed. In Experiment 2, participants either high or low in need for cognition (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982) were exposed to the target message and a distractor message. Their impressions, attitudes, message related thoughts and message memory were assessed. Converging evidence from both studies indicated that the nonverbal behavior of a speaker acted as a message processing cue which influenced the motivation of observers to thoughtfully process the persuasive messages. This effect was moderated by individual differences in need for cognition in a manner consistent with the idea that a speaker's nonverbal behavior affects motivation to process message related information.

The study investigated the effects of changes in environmental cues on habitual behaviors. In the first stage, the researcher developed a procedure to form a habit based on past theoretical formulations. Participants sorted title pages containing the word attitude into a blue box and those containing the word habit into a red box until they were able to do so quickly. In the second stage, the disruptive effects of cognitive load (counting backwards in twos), changes in goal-relevant environmental cues (i.e., cues that are necessary to achieve a goal) and changes in goal-irrelevant environmental cues (i.e., cues that are not necessary to achieve a goal) on the habit formed in the first stage were examined. Changes in goal-relevant cues had a disruptive effect on habit while changes in goal-irrelevant cues did not. Cognitive load also disrupted habit. However, it was the joint effect of changes in goal-relevant cues and cognitive load that caused the greatest disruption. It is concluded that habits should be conceptualized as mindless skills guided by slightly controlled processes.

In recent years, the American Academy of Pediatrics (1999) has urged parents to avoid exposure to screen media for children under 2 years of age. Despite this recommendation, producers of children's videos have begun to target younger audiences than ever before. One way that media may have a positive impact on very young children is by demonstrating and encouraging the types of parent-child interaction known to be beneficial to healthy cognitive, social, and emotional growth. The research described here examines the effectiveness of videos from two series for infants and toddlers, both claiming to promote parent-child interaction. In this study, parents and children were asked to watch two videos either from the Baby Einstein video series or the Sesame Beginnings video series for two weeks at home prior to visiting the laboratory. Home viewing was followed by two laboratory sessions, separated by approximately one week. Session 1 was 30 minutes with the television off, while Session 2 consisted of a 30-minute segment of video viewing followed by a 15-minute segment with the television off. Quality and type of parent-child interaction were assessed for both sessions. Results revealed that active involvement with the child was relatively high when the television was off. Only for the Sesame Beginnings group, however, did coviewing at home predict high-quality parent-child interaction in the laboratory. This suggests that familiarity with videos that specifically model appropriate parent-child interactions may improve the overall nature of such interactions. During video viewing, there was a decrease in amount of active parent-child engagement regardless of video condition. However, the amount of high-quality parent-child interaction during video viewing was substantial, with active involvement occurring almost half of the time the video was on. Thus, at least in a laboratory setting, video viewing was generally not used as a replacement for involvement with the child. In all, this study indicates that parents can capitalize on the opportunities that baby videos provide and use them as a basis for parent-child interaction. With repeated exposure, some content may even have a more general positive impact on the quality of interaction with the child.

This study examines the time perspective (TP) and intertemporal choice biases that exist among professional financial advisors, and the extent to which those biases impact their decision making. Certified Financial Planners (CFP®) from various types of firms (accounting, insurance, securities, and general financial planning) responded to two established time perspective instruments, the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI) and the Consideration of Future Consequences Scale (CFC). These responses were factor analyzed and used to measure the dimensions of TP that exist among financial planners. The planners also responded to demographic measures and a number of financial planning cases that included some intertemporal choice scenarios. The cases were used to examine the impact of TP on decision making and also to investigate the delay effect, the magnitude effect, and preference reversal. A factor analysis of the TP items yielded multiple future and present factors beyond what has been found in prior research. This suggests that different dimensions exist among financial planners and thus, the standard TP scales used in prior research (i.e., the CFC and ZTPI) may not be adequate for measuring TP among different types of decision makers. Importantly, financial planners generally tended to be future oriented. While some minor differences existed between groups, there were no differences between the advisors based on firm type for most TP measures. The results also suggest that the characteristics of the task were more important than individual TP biases in determining planners' decisions. That is, even though financial planners were more future oriented, they made client recommendations that were future oriented in some cases and present oriented in other cases. This is consistent with the literature indicating the importance of task characteristics on decision making and suggests that task characteristics are more important than individual characteristics in determining the behavior of financial planners. A link was also found between various TP scales and average discount rates that measure impulsiveness in intertemporal choice scenarios. However, contrary to expectations, the planners did not uniformly display the intertemporal choice biases found in prior research. The implications of these results and directions for future research are discussed.

Theories of emotion and intergroup relations predict a link between fear, outgroup perception, and behavioral intentions toward specific groups. However, surprisingly, past research has not empirically tested the impact of actually experiencing incidental fear on appraisals of in- and outgroups and socially impactful decision-making. Accordingly, the goals of this dissertation were three-fold: (1) to determine whether the experience of incidental fear increases biased decision-making targeted at racial outgroup vs. ingroup members; (2) to investigate whether some individuals are more impacted by fear than others; and (3) to explore the psychological mechanism underlying the biasing impact of fear. In Study 1, fear increased race biased decision-making for female (but not male) participants, and for those who chronically believe the world is a dangerous place. In Study 2, fear shunted attention selectively towards Black over White faces for female (but not male) participants; however, it did not produce race biased decision-making. In Study 3, fear did not modulate attention to danger-relevant stimuli or intergroup decision-making. The implications of these findings and future research directions are discussed.