Evaluation of Humor: Cognitive and Social Factors

James B. Adams, Marissa R. Battaglia, Joanne S. Higgins, Melissa L. Killeleagh, Tisha G. Miller, Eric J. Sambolec, & Bernard C. Beins
Ithaca College

The humor value of a joke depends on many factors, including the context in which the joke is encountered.  We examined whether people's ratings of the humor value of a set of jokes would change if they learned that others had found the jokes more or less funny.  Participants believed that they would be rating a set of jokes that others had already rated.  They rated the jokes alone, in the presence of three others, or in the presence of seven others.  Ratings of identical jokes changed markedly depending on the message that the participants heard.  A single statement of how others have perceived jokes leads to agreement by naïve participants that the jokes are as funny as earlier raters had said.  At the same time, the size of the group did not affect the evaluation of the jokes.  A simple shift in one’s cognitive framework leads to a dramatic shift in the evaluation of humor.  Group factors may affect emotional responses.

Correlates of Successful Performance on Mastery-Based Quizzes in a Team-Taught Fundamentals of Psychology Course

Heidi Bechtoldt, Katie M. Collura, and James P. Buchanan
University of Scranton

Mastery learning is an instructional technique based upon the notion that practically any student can learn given sufficient resources.  A typical mastery learning program allows students to control their progress by providing them the opportunity to take and retake quizzes until they achieve mastery of each lesson.  This study was designed to investigate the correlates of successful performance on such quizzes.  Data were collected on 32 freshman psychology majors, enrolled in an introductory psychology course.  In addition, each participant completed the Cornell Critical Thinking Test - Level Z, the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI), and the Kolb Learning Styles Inventory (LSI).

Based on average highest quiz score, the ten highest students were assigned to the high-mastery group and the ten lowest students to the low-mastery group.  Results indicate that the high-mastery group scored significantly higher on verbal and math SAT's and on five LASSI sub-scales, including motivation, anxiety, time management, test strategies, and concentration.  Across the LSI scales, the high-mastery group was found to prefer an abstract mode of learning, while the low-mastery group preferred a concrete mode of learning.  The high-mastery group also scored higher on critical thinking than the low-mastery group, with this difference approaching significance.

Gender-Related Slang: Frequency of Use, Connotations, and Relation to Gender Stereotypes

Jessica Boyko, Jacquelyn Malinowski, & Shannon Doorely
College Misericordia

This study explains the connotations and frequency of use of slang terms for men and women.  In phase I, the subjects were asked to list words used today to refer to men and women.  The most commonly occurring words and additionally “woman” and “man”, were used to construct the phase II questionnaire.  Each word was embedded in a sentence and subjects were asked to rate the individual in the sentence on 17 character traits.  In general, results indicated that the word “man” was significantly more strong, dominant, popular, aggressive, and active.  The word “woman” was perceived as significantly more sensitive, nurturing, and thin.  Comparison of the connotations of female slang terms versus male slang terms revealed that female words were perceived as significantly more nurturing, sensitive, and submissive.  Male slang terms were seen as significantly more child-like, independent, athletic, logical, and strong.  In addition, although men were not generally more knowledgeable about gender-related slang, they reported more frequently using slang terms for both men and women.

The Effect of a Gestural Component on Infant Language Acquisition

Theresa Cain, Nancy Rader, & Research Team 4
Ithaca College

A number of psychologists suggest that a variety of factors, including speech patterns and gestures, influence infant lexical acquisition.  Previous research has demonstrated that factors, such as the high frequency and slow temporal patterns of motherese, cause an increase in infant attention.  Recent observational research has added a gestural component to motherese.  To test the effect of this gestural aspect on the development of a lexicon, an experimental study will be conducted.  The study’s participants will be 20 infants, 10 to 14 months of age.  During the learning phase, the infants will be shown two video scenarios.  Each scenario pairs a nonsense word with a novel object.  Half of the video scenarios incorporate a gestural component with the presentation of the word/object pair.  The other half of the video scenarios does not use gestures with the presentation of the word/object pair.  After two scenarios are viewed, one with a gestural component, one without a gestural component, the infant will be asked, via videotape, to look at the named objects.  The objects will be placed on either side of the infant, approximately three feet apart.  The dependent variable for the learning phase will be the total amount of looking time for each scenario.  For the preference trials, the number of looks for each object will be recorded.  The dependent variable for the preference trials will be the number of looks at thee correct object over the total number of looks.  The hypotheses of the study are that infants will look longer at the learning scenario incorporating a gesture and that infants will spend more of their looking time looking at the named object if it was learned with a gesture present.  At the present time, eight infants have been tested.  The results of the study will be presented at the conference.

Human Olfactory Contrast Following a One-Week Inter-Stimulus Interval

Kathleen E. Calaman, Karlin B. Schroeder, Amelia M. Hutnick, & Steven M. Specht
Lebanon Valley College

Previous research from our laboratory has demonstrated immediate successive negative contrast effects for human gustatory and olfactory perception.  That is, research participants who are given a target stimulus rate that stimulus as less intense when it is preceded by a stimulus of higher intensity than when it is preceded by a stimulus of moderate intensity.  Perhaps what is more interesting is the fact that negative contrast for gustatory stimuli is evident even after a long duration (i.e., one-week) inter-stimulus interval.
The purpose of the present study was to determine whether contrast effects would be evident after a long duration (i.e., one-week) inter-stimulus interval for olfactory stimuli.  The importance of investigating the characteristics of olfactory contrast in conjunction with our work in gustation is that both of these chemosensory systems are involved with stimuli which are typically referred to as “flavors”.
The experiment utilized a 2 (Trials) x 2 (Intensity) factorial design.  All research participants were asked to rate the intensity of a target sample of the odor “fougere” (obtained from Hershey Foods Technical Center).  One week prior, participants were presented with either a high intensity sample of “fougere” or the same target intensity of the stimulus.  Following the presentation of each odor, participants were asked to rate the intensity of the odor on a visual analog scale.
A 2 (Trials) X 2 (Intensity) ANOVA performed on these data revealed a significant interaction effect.  Subjects who were initially exposed to the high intensity stimulus subsequently rated the target intensity as less intense than subjects initially exposed to the target intensity.  These data suggest that some type of memorial and cognitive component for contrast effects occur for olfactory stimuli and provide a first step in studying more complex gustatory-olfactory stimuli such as flavors.

Attachment and the Complexity of Differential Diagnosis of Childhood Disorders

Kathy Caruso, Najah DiPaolo-Brown, Lynn Knothe, & Erin Kupstas
Ursinus College

Attachment is the process in which a person bonds or “gets closer” to another person, usually a primary caregiver.  Disruption of any of the stages of attachment can lead to deficits in social and emotional functioning.  A failure to achieve secure attachment can be deeply damaging with a possible result of Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD).  RAD is very rare and the onset is in early childhood.  However, some children exhibit attachment difficulties which may not be as extreme as Reactive Attachment Disorder but can still lead to academic failure.  RAD has many characteristics which overlap with the characteristics of many other disorders making differential diagnosis difficult.  Other possible disorders with similar characteristics include: Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder, Central Auditory Processing Disorder, Sensory Integration Dysfunction, Conduct Disorder, and Oppositional Defiant Disorder.  In order to assess the difficulty with differential diagnosis, students in an Abnormal Psychology class and an Educational Psychology class were given a case study of a child who exhibited characteristics of RAD which overlapped with the characteristics of various other disorders.  The students were given selected items from the Randolph Attachment Questionnaire, Acters Scale, and Connor’s Rating Scale and were asked to make a diagnosis.  It was hypothesized that the Abnormal Psychology students would know more about attachment and be more likely to make a diagnosis of RAD than the Education students.

Romantic Relations and Forgiveness

Julie Cerrito & Marion Mason
Bloomsburg University

This investigation focused on the role of romantic relationships and birth order on forgiveness.  Specifically, this research compared birth order, adult attitudes toward love, adult attachment styles, and conditions one places on forgiveness.  Participants included 51 volunteers (50 females, 1 male) ranging in age from 19-45 (M = 21.30) and were taken from junior and senior level psychology courses.  Data from the one male was eliminated, thus the results reported reflect the responses of the 50 female participants.  The test packet included the Forgiveness Questionnaire by Mason (1998), the Relationship Attitude Questionnaire by Hazan, Shaver, and Brennan, the Attitudes-Toward-Love scale, by Dion & Dion, and a series of questions designed to establish birth order and current relationship status.  Results of this study indicated that 57% of participants were currently involved with a romantic partner, and 92% had been involved with someone in the past five years.  Results also showed that 94% of participants reported forgiving their partner and only 69% reported their partner having had to forgive them.  For the Attitudes-Toward-Love scale, each participants’ love interest was correlated with particular items in the forgiveness inventory.  Birth order was then correlated with attachment style on the Relationship Attitude Questionnaire.  First borns had significantly different scores compared to middle, last borns, and only children.  Of participants that were first borns, 44% had chosen secure attachment styles, viewing themselves as valued, trustworthy, reliable, and had higher levels of trust, commitment, and interdependence in their relationships.  Forgiveness items were not dependent on whether someone was currently involved in a romantic relationship.  In conclusion, conditions for forgiveness seem to be influenced by romantic relationships as well as birth order.  The next phase of this investigation will include male participants and extend the scope to include other conditions placed on forgiveness.

Is There an Association Between Psychological Type and Burnout Among Nurses?

M. DePiano, K. Hasseltine, & E. Rosa
Villanova University

The literature on psychological type, as measured by the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), suggests that certain types are more prone to experiencing stress in workplace situations than others.  It can be argued that those who are high on Extraversion, Feeling and Judging will be most susceptible to stress and burnout.  Extraverted Feeling Judgers need social support, usually preferring to “talk things out”.  Furthermore, they are very concerned with the feelings of others and like to have life planned and orderly.

Nursing is a profession that is well known for experiencing high levels of stress and burnout.  Their numerous contributions to the welfare of others often fail to receive recognition or appreciation.  While they care about their patients, their work lives are seldom orderly, since health crises often disrupt a day that was carefully planned.  These events often lead to a feeling of being out of control and discouraged.

This investigation administered both the MBTI and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) to a sample of Registered Nurses to determine which of the 16 MBTI Types displayed burnout scores that were higher than the other types.  ESFJ and ENFJ were expected to produce disproportionately higher scores on the Maslach Inventory.

Michele Diaz
Pennsylvania State University

Research on language processing in bilinguals suggests that even when bilinguals read in only one of their two languages, the other language may by active and may influence their performance (e.g. Dijkstra et al., 1998).  The purpose of the present study was threefold.  First, we looked at the extent to which bilinguals are sensitive to intrusion from the dominant language (L1) to the non-dominant language (L2) when performing a simple word-naming task.  Second, we asked whether language markings (e.g., accents) serve as a cue to bilinguals to inhibit one of their languages (e.g., English, which has no accent marks).  Third, we compared the performance of monolingual English speakers with English-Spanish bilinguals to determine whether activity of the two languages in bilinguals produces a cost to processing relative to monolingual controls.  English-Spanish bilinguals, dominant in English, performed a simple word-naming task in which they were asked to name words presented on a computer screen.  In one block, they named English words and in another block they named Spanish words.  The words included cognates, words that look alike and have the same meaning in both languages (e.g., dollar-d`olar) and noncognates, words whose translation equivalents do not resemble one another (e.g., heaven-cielo).  Different types of cognate pairs were included, so that some shared identical spelling, and others did not.  Some cognates were also unique in that their spelling pattern and/or the presence of markings, such as accents, only appeared in one language and not in the other.  In addition, some cognates had pronunciations that were similar in both languages and others did not.  Initial results suggest that the degree of activity of the nontarget language is modulated by the presence of language-specific cues.  The implications for models of word recognition in bilinguals will be discussed.

Assessing the Quality of Psychological Healthcare Resources Available on the Internet

Jamie DiBlassio, Danielle Simonin, Anthony DeCarolis, Laura Morse, James Jean, Lauren Vassalotti, Kristin Franks, & Catherine Chambliss, Ph.D.
Ursinus College

The development of the Internet offers an entirely new means of providing psychological healthcare and access to psychological information.  For mental healthcare consumers who possess the necessary cognitive and computer skills, as well as the access to the proper equipment, the Internet literally opens up a world of treatment possibilities previously unimaginable.  For consumers, who are introverted, confined to the home, or for when privacy is a priority, these remote forms of treatment and sources of information are extremely attractive.  Unfortunately, the quality of these sites is not regulated and varies extensively.
This study provides comparative data describing the quantity and quality of 775 Internet sites currently available to those affected by different disorders and/or seeking information related to behavioral healthcare.  A rating scale was used to assess six dimensions of site quality including accuracy, practicality, normalization, and sense of belonging, referral and feedback mechanisms.  One-way ANOVA on the six separate items and the summary scores revealed significant differences in quality ratings across the four target categories (p<.001; F = 16.5; df + 3,771).  Sites addressing the needs of parents consistently received higher ratings, and sites targeting the “worried well” consistently received the least strong endorsements.  Sites addressing health-related concerns and severe mental illnesses received moderate ratings.  The prevalence of commercial motivation affecting sites targeting the worried well seems to have compromised the quality of many of these sites.  In comparison, the quality of information offered by sites developed to assist parents seemed to be less distorted by a marketing agenda.
Overall, the ratings suggested that the average quality of the current sites was not very impressive.  The mean rating across problem topics for all site dimensions was 2.10 (s.d. = 1.09, N = 775) on the 0-4 point scale, where 0 = absent, 1 = extremely inadequate, 2 = somewhat inadequate, 3 = somewhat adequate, and 4 = outstanding.

Effects of Praise Given by a Peer or an Authority Figure on the Subsequent Task Performance of Boys and Girls

Jamie Donsbach, Nancy Rader, & Research Team 4
Ithaca College

The proposed study seeks to investigate the effect praise has on the subsequent task performance of five-year-old children.  Specifically, the study will look at the effects the age of the speaker providing the praise has on the performance of male and female children.  Previous research has shown that boys and girls differ in how they respond to praise.  The participants will be 80 children in kindergarten, five years of age.  Participants will be randomly assigned to one of four conditions.  All of the participants will be asked to perform a simple task which will consist of the completion of six different wooden children’s puzzles.  Prior to the task, half of the children will watch a brief video tape of another child who will give a short description of the puzzle task that will follow.  The other half of the children will watch a video of an authority figure giving the description.  Also, for each age-of-speaker condition, half of the children will view a video in which the dialogue will include personal praise in the form of short, positive, and direct statements; others will receive the puzzle description only.  Our hypothesis is that boys will perform better after receiving peer praise rather than authority praise or no praise at all.  Also, we expect to find that the girls who receive authority praise will perform better than the girls who receive peer praise or no praise at all.  The testing of subjects is currently taking place.  The final results will be available for presentation at the conference in the Spring.

The Effect of Gestures on the Acquisition of a Second Language

Jill D. Fadia, Nancy Rader, & Research Team 4
Ithaca College

Two-year-old children who can construct and comprehend basic sentences, and who have had no prior exposure to Spanish, will be tested to see if gestures play a role in the acquisition of a second language.  The children will be presented with the Spanish names of six common objects via video presentations.  Familiarity of the objects will be confirmed with the children when they first arrive.  Each child will be presented with a gesture and non-gesture condition.  For half the children, Set A will be presented with gestures and Set B with no gestures; the other half will receive Set A without gestures and Set B with gestures.  The combination of set and gesture condition will be randomly determined prior to testing.  The order of gesture and no-gesture condition will be counterbalanced across subjects.  After each video, the children will be asked to perform identification and naming tasks for the words.  I hypothesize that there will be a significant difference in learning between the words presented with and without gestures.  Children will learn more words from the gesture condition versus the no gesture condition.

Adolescent Self-Esteem, Well-Being, and Depression as Related to Religious Fundamentalism, Extra-Curricular Involvement, Family Structure, Family Warmth and Control, and Social Support

Susan Goetz, Eileen Astor-Stetson, & Brett Beck
Bloomsburg University

Positive adjustment in adolescence has been associated with doing well in school, low rates of delinquency and deviance, lower depression, higher confidence in one's abilities, and higher life satisfaction (e.g., Harter, 1987).  The purpose of the present study was to examine predictors of adolescent adjustment as indicated by self-esteem, well-being, and depression.  Three hundred fifty Bloomsburg Universiy general psychology student participants (18% males and 82% females, mean age = 18.29) filled out a survey assessing adolescent adjustment in relation to religious fundamentalism, extra-curricular activities, family structure, family warmth and control, and social support.  As was consistent with previous literature (e.g., Lamborn, Mounts, Steinberg, and Dornbusch, 1991), results indicated that males scored significantly better than femalees on measures of self-esteem, well-being, and depression.  Measures of social support were found as significant correlates to measures of overall adjustment in adolescents.  Family warmth was significantly positively correlated with psychological well-being, and negatively correlated with depression.  Married parents were seen as exerting more warmth and control than divorced parents.  On scales of religious fundamentalism, females scored higher than males, and Protestants scored higher than Catholics.  A negative correlation was found between fundamentalism and total depression.  In terms of activity involvement, the majority reported that the most popular males and females were involved in extracurricular activities.  No relationship was found between activity involvement and measures of adjustment.  The findings from this study have serious implications for the adolescent population and those that come in contact with them.

The Effects of Meditation, Mental Imagery, and Relaxation on the Accuracy of Basketball Free-Throw Performance

Jeffrey M. Hartman
Bloomsburg University

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of meditation, mental imagery, or relaxation on basketball free-throw performance.  Twenty-one general psychology students were randomly assigned to one of the conditions: (a) meditation (n = 6), (b) mental imagery (n = 6), relaxation (n = 5), (d) control (n = 4).  Participants in the meditation group were instructed to concentrate on obtaining a natural breathing rhythm using Zen-breath meditation.  Participants in the internal mental imagery condition were instructed to visualize successful performance of the free-throw task.  The relaxation condition instructed participants in muscle relaxation.  Basketball free-throw performance was measured as the number of free-throws made, divided by the total number of free-throw attempts (n = 25).  Participants were pre-tested for state anxiety, via the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Test, and free-throw performance, and post-tested after two weeks of training.  After analysis, the study was identified to be confounded by a significant gender difference.  Results will be discussed in terms of this gender interaction.

Like Grandfather, Like Me (When I’m Older): An Examination of the Correlates of Projections of Aging

K.R. Herbert, C.M. Phillips, & C.S. Slotterback
University of Scranton
 
   In the present study, we had 60 college freshmen describe their relationships with their grandparents, their perceptions of older adults, and what they think they will be like when they are older.  Results indicate that participants’ relationships with their grandparents are related both to how they view older adults and their own projected aging.  Overall, the less contact the students had with their grandparents, the more negative physical adjectives they provided to describe their own projected aging (r(53)=-.29, p<.05).  The number of activities they report older adults doing is related to the number of things they see themselves doing in old age (r(60)=.31, p<.05), and those who report doing many activities with their grandparents think older adults in general do many things as well (r(60)=.63, p<.001).  Thus, their relationships with their grandparents and the number of things they do with them seems to influence not only their perceptions of older adults in general, but also their own projected aging.

Methodological Influences on Perceptions of Age Norms for Men, Women, and “People”

Elizabeth A. Herrmann & Carole S. Slotterback
University of Scranton

Every society defines roles in part by age expectancies.  Indeed, age is used as the basis for the apportionment of resources, as in social security and senior citizen discounts, and more generally, permission to perform certain activities, such as driving, voting, and drinking alcoholic beverages.  When individuals reach these milestones in the life-span, certain expectations occur as a result of society’s viewing the individual in a different light (Hagestad & Neeugarteen, 1985).  In the past, those studies examining age norms did so by presenting gender of target as a within-subjects design, which may have influenced participants’ responses.  Would similar results have been obtained if questions regarding men and women were asked as a betweeen-subjects factor?  The present study used target gender as a between-subjects variable, and included a third target, "older people" for comparative purposes.  103 undergraduates answered questions about age norms.  The age norms survey in the present study was based on the work of Zepelin, Sills, and Heath (1986-87).  Their questions, 19 in all, were taken and refined in a betweeen-subjects design, such that all questions on any given survey instructed the participant to think only of individuals of one gender (i.e., either men, women, or “people”).  Both manipulations (target gender as between-subjects and “older people”) influenced responding.  It would appear that the design of the study (between-subjects vs. within subjects) does have an influence on perceptions of others.

Reliability Methods: Frequency of Use of Various Types

Thomas P. Hogan, Amy Benjamin, & Kristin Brezinski
University of Scranton

Elementary educational and psychological testing textbooks generally include a highly standarrdized treatment of reliability.  Most textbooks provide definitions of the various forms of reliability (e.g., test-retest, inter-rater) and basic formulas for their calculation.  However, there is usually no indication of the actual frequency of usage of the different methods of determining reliability.  Thee current study attempts to answer, within the context of one well-defined population of tests, this question of frequency of use.
The Directory of unpublished experimental measures, Vol. 7 (Goldman, Mitchel, & Egelson, 1997), defines the population of tests examined in this study.  From the 2,078 entries in the directory, we drew a systematic sample of every third entry for coding, yielding a sample of 696 tests.  For each test in this sample we recorded chapter, type of reliability reported, and the reliability coefficient(s).
The frequency of occurrence for various methods of reporting reliability was calculated.  The majority of tests reported only one type of reliability while about 20% of the cases reported using two or more types.  A cross-tabs analysis was also completed for alpha coefficients because of their preponderance among the various types of coefficients.
The most evident outcome from the study is the overwhelming reliance on coefficient alpha for reporting reliability.  Somewhat surprising was the disuse of certain types of reliability coefficients routinely covered in textbooks on testing (e.g., KR-20 and KR-21).  We encountered no reference to generalizability coefficients nor to the functions that arise from item response theory.
Based on the results of this study, we formulate recommendations for authors of journal articles and textbooks, journal editors, and compilers of future editions of the directory.

Two Measures of Public Speaking Skill: Inter-Rater Reliability and Convergent Validity

Thomas P. Hogan, Elizabeth Herrmann, Rina Desai, Rebacca Mikesell, & Darla Germeroth
University of Scranton

Public speaking skill is identified as one of the desired outcomes of college education but measurement procedures for this skill are relatively undeveloped.  Perhaps this is due to the fact that other widely-desired skills are amenable to group-administered paper-and-pencil testing whereas public speaking, by its nature, requires individual evaluation; such individual evaluation is time-consuming and expensive.  Two instruments designed specifically to assess public speaking skill in setting such as classroom presentations are widely cited in the literature: The Competent Speaker (CS; Morreale, 1990) and the Communication Competency Assessment Instrument (CCAI; Rubin, 1982).  These instruments were applied to a random sampling of subjects’ videotaped speeches, obtained through an introductory public speaking course.  Inter-rater reliabilities and convergent validity for total scores, as well as for some subscales, were adequate but were clearly inadequate for other subscales.  Recommendations for scale clarification and development are made.

The Effect of Emotion on Task Performance in 6-7 Year-Olds

Erin Hughes, Amy Parker, Nancy Rader, & Research Team 4
Ithaca College

As teachers often observe, moods can get in the way of academic performance.  We designed our study to see if we can temporarily induce mood states in 6-7 year olds, and whether or not, under laboratory conditions, these moods affect the children’s ability to perform a task.  In this study, subjects are read a story which contains a sad event and a happy ending.  In the “sad” condition, subjects are asked to complete a block task after the sad event.  Then they are read the rest of the story.  In the “happy” condition, they complete the block task after the happy ending of the story.  In order to determine whether or not we can effectively manipulate mood, we have the children color in a facial affect scale after the sad part of the story and the happy ending.  We will analyze the facial affect scales to see if they correspond with the time in the story at which they were administered.  To determine whether the children’s temporarily-induced mood affects their performance, we administer a series a block tasks.  Efficiency is defined as the time it takes the subject to complete the task.  The study’s hypothesis is that the subjects in the “happy” condition will perform more efficiently on the block task than those in the “sad” condition.  Thirty-four subjects have been tested and the testing of an additional twenty-six subjects is planned.  The results of the study will be presented at the conference in the spring.