摘要:

The laboratory experiments were designed to examine the effects of commitment to a performance goal on the level of effort exerted to achieve the goal. In both experiments, college students worked on two memorization tasks and, after receiving performance feedback on the first task, commitment to either an easy or a more difficult goal for the second task was varied. In the first experiment, goal commitment was manipulated either by giving the students perceived choice over setting their goal or by assigning them to one of the two goal levels. In the second experiment, goal commitment was manipulated by publicly identifying students' goals or by keeping the goals private. To assess effort, participants were allowed to spend as little or as much time as they desired studying for the second task. In both experiments, the commitment manipulations (high choice or public identification) led to significantly greater persistence in studying, regardless of the goal level. In addition, high‐commitment subjects tended to be more successful in reaching their goals than low‐commitment subjects. These experiments suggest that commitment to a goal has motivational properties that prompt an increase in eff

ISSN:0021-9029    

DOI:10.1111/j.1559-1816.1987.tb00323.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1987

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

This study examined the effects of a television documentary about the safety of the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in the Northwest of England upon public attitudes. In a study of 805 respondents from four districts in the Southwest of England, we assessed attitudes and beliefs both before and after the documentary about Sellafield. Results indicated a significant attitude change in a more antinuclear direction. Respondents who had seen or heard about the events at Sellafield tended to be more antinuclear after the broadcast. Finally, respondents living close to the existing nuclear power stations in the Southwest of England tended to see the events at Sellafield as less serious than the remaining respondents. Furthermore, this difference in perceived seriousness between respondents living near a nuclear power station and the remaining respondents was much more pronounced in ratings of the environmental risks of thelocalnuclear power stations in Southwest England.

ISSN:0021-9029    

DOI:10.1111/j.1559-1816.1987.tb00324.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1987

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

This study explored the possibility that widely held beliefs that cancer is uncontrollable underlie the public's negative attitudes toward this disease. One‐hundred‐and‐sixty undergraduates read a paragraph describing a disease that was labelled either as cancer or as “Haltmar's Disease,” a fictitious disease. The descriptions were designed to manipulate subjects' perceptions regarding both the degree to which the disease could be controlled through preventive behaviors (disease preventability) and the likelihood that it could be controlled through treatment (disease treatability). Subjects then completed a questionnaire on which they indicated their attitudes toward the described disease as well as toward a patient with that disease. Results generally supported the hypothesis that when a disease is perceived as controllable it is evaluated less negatively than when it is perceived as uncontrollable. Perceptions of control also influenced attitudes toward patients with the fictitious disease. As predicted by the Just World hypothesis, attitudes toward patients with the fictitious disease were more negative when the disease was described as uncontrollable. Attitudes toward cancer patients, however, were positive regardless of level of control. Overall, cancer was described significantly more negatively than the fictitious disease and cancer (vs. Haltmar's) patients were described significantly more p

ISSN:0021-9029    

DOI:10.1111/j.1559-1816.1987.tb00325.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1987

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

There are conflicting views expressed in the literature about whether and under what conditions attributions of self‐responsibility or self‐blame for one's health affect such variables as distress, emotional adjustment, and adaptive coping. This study examined the impact of attributions of blame and responsibility for the cause and course of disease in 103 persons with the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and AIDS‐related complex (ARC). Attributing thecauseof disease to the self was significantly positively correlated with dysphoria (a combined measure of depression, anxiety, and negative mood) in persons with ADS, whereas possible improvement attributed to the self was significantlynegativelycorrelated with dysphoria in the ARC group. Persons with AIDS who attributed more responsibility for improvement to themselves also made more health behavior changes. Conversely, in the ARC group, health behavior change was not associated with attributing possible improvement to the self. We found no relationship betweenself‐blameand any of the distress or behavior measures. Our findings that the pattern of association between attribution of responsibility are different between persons with AIDS and ARC underscores the need to examine psychological processes within the context of particular health conditions. The results also suggest that attributing self‐responsibility for improvement does not have the negative psychological effects of “blaming the victim” as does attributing responsibility for the cause of AID

ISSN:0021-9029    

DOI:10.1111/j.1559-1816.1987.tb00326.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1987

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Public opinion about electronic media coverage of rape trials was examined using a cross‐sectional random probability survey sample of the Minneapolis‐St. Paul metropolitan area. Public beliefs about the legal and constitutional issues, the psychological effects of the media on trial participants, and the extended effects of media coverage on the public were examined. Descriptive results indicated that the public generally disapproved of electronic media coverage of courtroom trials. More importantly, women reported that they would be less likely to report a rape knowing that other rape trials had been televised. A multiple regression analysis relating beliefs to approval of televising rape trials showed that disapproval was most closely related to respondents' views of the symbolic constitutional issues. A second multiple regression analysis indicated that believing that “televising rape trials would increase a rape victim's trauma” was most highly related to women's behavioral intention to report

ISSN:0021-9029    

DOI:10.1111/j.1559-1816.1987.tb00327.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1987

数据来源: WILEY