bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Attention
Authors: Egeth Howard , Lamy Dominique
Published: November 2003

The amount of information available to our senses greatly exceeds the information processing capacity of our brain. This chapter reviews what is known about how the selectivity of attention allows us to deal with this overload. One major focus of the chapter concerns the efficiency of selection. A discussion of early research that was driven by the question of whether selection was early or late in the information processing stream is followed by a more general consideration of the factors affecting the efficiency of attentional selectivity. The extensive evidence that selection of stimuli appears to be mediated by spatial location is reviewed, as well as more recent research suggesting that other bases for selection may be used. The other major focus of the chapter concerns the extent to which unattended portions of the visual field are processed. We consider here two general approaches to the study of “preattentive” processing: divided attention tasks in which preattentive processes may be performed in parallel with attention widely distributed over the visual field and dual task paradigms in which a preattentive task is one that can proceed when attention is presumably exhausted by some other task. We consider the implications of recent studies on change blindness, inattentional blindness, repetition blindness, and the attentional blink.
Conditioning and Learning
Authors: Miller Ralph R. , Grace Randolph C.
Published: November 2003

The empirical laws of Pavlovian conditioning are summarized for situations with two stimuli and for situations with more than two stimuli. Factors considered include stimulus salience, genetic and experiential predispositions, contiguity, stimulus similarity, contingency, mimetic and compensatory responding, and stimulus generalization. Also reviewed are the consequences of introducing a third stimulus, which include stimulus competition, interference, facilitation, and summation, as well as positive and negative mediation. At the theoretical level, the critical assumptions and variables of acquisition‐focused and performance‐focused models are examined with special attention to retrospective revaluation. Additionally, the basic laws of instrumental responding are summarized with attention to the law of effect, the three‐term contingency, and schedules of reinforcement. Associative structures underlying instrumental responding are also considered, as are hierarchical associations and incentive learning. Finally, a functional analysis of instrumental conditioning is provided with special attention to choice behavior and the matching law, as well as ecological and economic considerations.
Animal Memory and Cognition
Authors: Capaldi E. J.
Published: November 2003

Behaviorism, a dominant movement in animal learning until about 1970, emphasized that the subject matter of psychology is behavior. Originating about 1970 was a concern with animal cognition, a movement that emphasized to a considerable extent laboratory investigations in animals of processes commonly attributed to humans such as serial learning, numerical processes, categorization, inference formation, rule learning, and language learning. This approach, which is very much alive at present, assumes that animal cognition is a less complex version of human cognition. Several other approaches to animal cognition, while not necessarily rejecting the view that animal and human cognition are similar in some respects, seek to identify learning and cognitive processes that may be unique to particular species. This approach, characteristic of, for example, evolutionary psychology, evolutionary biology and cognitive ethology, may employ in addition to laboratory investigations, an examination of behavior in the animals environmental niche. Examples of this approach would include communication in vervet monkeys, navigation over long distances in birds and other animals, social and other behavior in chimpanzees. Each of these broad approaches has something to contribute. On the one hand it is generally agreed that there are some processes common to a variety of species such as the sort of associative learning that occurs under Pavlovian conditioning. On the other hand, others forms of learning and cognition may be species typical, such as echolocation in bats and language learning in humans.
Sensory and Working Memory
Authors: Nairne James S.
Published: November 2003

Memory researchers traditionally distinguish between two types of transient memory: Sensory memory and short‐term (or working) memory. Sensory memories are faithful, veridical, records of original events. They represent literal persistence—the same sensory event simply removed in time. Short‐term memories are the active, but analyzed, contents of mind—the stuff of conscious awareness. This chapter reviews the major empirical properties of sensory and short‐term memory and discusses the various methodologies that are used to study each. Sensory memories—measured through synchrony judgment tasks, backward masking techniques, or by the Sperling partial report task—last for only a few hundred milliseconds and may accrue as a simple by‐product of neural dynamics. Short‐term memories—measured through Brown‐Peterson distractor task and immediate serial recall—probably last for a second or two but can be maintained indefinitely through rehearsal. Traditional accounts of short‐term storage—e.g., the working memory model—have come under attack in recent years. Increasingly, researchers are concluding that remembering over the short‐term is cue‐driven, much like long‐term memory, and that simple notions of rehearsal and decay are unlikely to explain the particulars of short‐term forgetting.
Procedural Memory and Skill Acquisition
Authors: Johnson Addie
Published: November 2003

This chapter discusses the development, maintenance, and exercise of skilled behavior and the roles of explicit, declarative memory and implicit, procedural memory in the development of skill. The development of skill can be considered as a progression from a deliberative, declarative mode of processing to a more efficient, autonomous mode of processing in which performance is based on well‐learned associations. Progress has been made in understanding how perceptual‐motor and cognitive relations, skills, and proficiencies are acquired as a function of experience, and in understanding what sorts of experiences lead to the greatest improvements, retention, and transfer. Increasingly, research efforts have been devoted to understanding the role of attention in acquiring and exercising skill. The nature of the relationship between implicit and explicit learning remains a topic of debate. Some researchers suggest that implicit knowledge provides the basis for explicit knowledge, whereas others maintain that explicit knowledge is converted into procedural knowledge. Recent evidence suggests that implicit learning is independent of explicit learning, and that performance that is initially dominated by conscious mediation may come to rely on implicit knowledge developed as a result of task performance.
Language Comprehension and Production
Authors: Treiman Rebecca , Clifton Charles , Meyer Antje S. , Wurm Lee H.
Published: November 2003

This chapter reviews current research and theory on the comprehension and production of language by fluent language users. The chapter focuses on core linguistic processes such as word recognition, the nature of the mental lexicon, the comprehension of sentences and discourse, and the generation of words and sentences in language production. In each area, we review research on spoken language processing and research on written language processing, highlighting the similarities and differences between the two modalities. Many of the studies reviewed in this chapter were carried out in English, but studies with other languages are also considered. Interwoven into the review of research findings is discussion of theoretical issues such as the debate between modular and interactive views of language processing, the balance between computation and storage, and the use of rules versus statistical patterns. The role of linguistics in the study of psycholinguistics is also addressed. The chapter concludes by pointing to the need for closer ties between work on language comprehension and work on language production and by outlining other directions for future research.
Reading
Authors: Rayner Keith , Pollatsek Alexander , Starr Matthew S.
Published: November 2003

This chapter examines how words are identified — both in normal silent reading of text and in isolation — and how word identification affects the progress of eye movements through text. Contrary to some views, the data indicate reading is a process in which the eyes land on (i.e., fixate) a majority of words and only a narrow region of text (at most three words) is processed on a given fixation. There is clear evidence that the time to identify a word is affected both by its frequency in the language, by how well it is predicted by the prior context, and whether the word is semantically ambiguous. Furthermore, these variables affect both the time a word is fixated and whether it is skipped. There is also now clear evidence that coding words into sound codes is a normal part of word identification in reading and in isolation. It is argued that a model in which the progress of the eyes through text is largely driven by word encoding is reasonable, and that processes such as parsing and discourse integration may only intervene to control the eyes when a possible miscomputation has been detected.
Text Comprehension and Discourse Processing
Authors: Butcher Kirsten R. , Kintsch Walter
Published: November 2003

How do you comprehend language? What factors will influence your immediate understanding of what you hear or read? Will you remember the information in two weeks? Will you be able to use the information for another purpose? This chapter concerns all of these questions—more specifically it reviews what we know about comprehension, what we hope to know in the future, how we can improve or support comprehension, and how psychologists have attempted to model comprehension processes. Research has partially unraveled the complexity of comprehension processes; comprehension performance ultimately is determined by multiple factors internal and external to the individual. Internal variables range from the well‐studied influence of memory (especially short‐ and long‐term working memory) on comprehension to the more uncertain impact of a comprehender's goals and emotions. External variables also are diverse, ranging from the format or content of a printed text to contributions of other participants in conversation. Research on these factors has uncovered a variety of ways to support and improve comprehension; some aspects of comprehension even have been modeled with success. Although this chapter discusses the considerable knowledge that comprehension research has generated, it also discusses future challenges to developing a complete model of comprehension.
Concepts and Categorization
Authors: Goldstone Robert L. , Kersten Alan
Published: November 2003

Whenever people think of an object as something (e.g. that Fido is a dog, a pet, or loyal), they are categorizing it using their internal concepts. A concept is a mental representation that allows different things to be treated equivalently for some purpose. People learn concepts to facilitate communication, to make useful predictions about their world, to create mental building blocks for expressing more sophisticated thoughts, and to form efficient representations for objects and situations. We discuss five approaches to how concepts are learned and represented: rules, prototypes, exemplars, category boundaries, and theories. Whereas some of these approaches leave the impression that concepts are isolated mental structures, connections between concepts are also critically important. We discuss connections between concepts and perception that link categorization to object recognition and serve to ground concepts in the world. Consistent with this connection, concepts and perceptual processes mutually influence one another. We also describe connections between concepts and language that allow concepts to subserve abstract communication, and for language needs to reciprocally affect concepts. Finally, we predict future directions for concept learning research, including formal computational modeling and educational applications.
Reasoning and Problem Solving
Authors: Leighton Jacqueline P. , Sternberg Robert J.
Published: November 2003

In this chapter we present what is known about reasoning and problem solving, what is currently being done, and in what directions future conceptualizations, research, and practice are likely to proceed in the psychological literature. In our discussion, we attempt to clarify the distinction between reasoning and problem solving, present major theories of reasoning and problem solving, and emphasize the importance of background knowledge in both of these forms of thinking. In discussing the importance of knowledge in reasoning, for example, we offer evidence from studies of expert problem solving that illustrate the importance of background knowledge in facilitating the selection of strategies for successful performance. Moreover, we identify a recurring challenge for theories of reasoning and problem solving, namely, the frame problem (Dennett, 1990; Fodor, 1983). The frame problem involves deciding which beliefs from a multitude of different beliefs to consider when solving a task or when updating beliefs after an action has occurred. Finally, we conclude by suggesting that successful reasoning might be akin to expert problem solving—an iterative and systematic process of pattern detection and classification. Connectionist models can provide an avenue for investigating such a pattern classification account of reasoning.
Evolution: A Generative Source for Conceptualizing the Attributes of Personality
Authors: Millon Theodore
Published: November 2003

This first of twocontextualchapters of the personality and social psychology volume relates to what we might term the “context of time;” the second chapter deals with what may best be thought of as the “context of space.” The initial chapter concerns the longitudinal, historical, orevolutionaryfoundations of the volume's topics, the second relates to the cross‐sectional, contemporaneous, orculturalbackground of its subjects.

The present chapter details a rationale for employing evolutionary theory as a basis for explicating and generating a wide range of personality attributes; it seeks initially to characterize features that represent the essential aims of life or existence; secondly, the fundamental modes or ways in which living organisms adapt to their environments; third, the major strategies they employ to procreate and replicate their species; and finally, the informational sources toward which humans are oriented and the processes by which the knowledge they gain is transformed to construct cognition and abstract thought.

Three polarities are proposed as psychological parallels for what are termed the universal principles of evolution, that is, functions that are found to be operative in all living organisms, namely, life preservation and life enhancement, ecological accommodation and ecological modification, and reproductive nurturance and reproductive propagation. A fourth set of polarities is proposed as a psychological framework for cognitive attributes that are notably, if not distinctively, operative in the human species, namely, choices between external vs. internal orientations, tangible vs. intangible dispositions, ideational vs. emotional preferences, and integrating vs. innovating biases.

Numerous personality attributes are derived from the several polarities noted above, for example, danger‐avoidance, reward‐seeking, environmental‐mastery, constructive‐loving, affective‐preference, and imaginative‐bias.
Genetic Basis of Personality Structure
Authors: Livesley W. John , Jang Kerry L. , Vernon Philip A.
Published: November 2003

This chapter examines the potential contribution of behavior‐genetics to resolving some of the long‐standing problems regarding the phenotypic structure of personality. Despite the emergence of the five‐factor structure as the domain taxonomy of traits, problems remain concerning the number of higher‐order domains required to explicate individual differences and the contents of each domain. It is argued that evidence that all self‐report measures of personality have a substantial heritable component and that the phenotypic structure of personality closely resembles the underlying genetic architecture provide the basis for a ration approach to delineating the trait structure of personality. Etiological criteria offer a potentially more objective way to determine the structure and contents of domains to supplement traditional psychometric criteria based on phenotypic analyses. With this approach, each level of construct within the personality hierarchy would be determined on the basis of etiological rather than phenotypic analyses. Domains would be defined by traits that share the same etiology and each trait would consist of a genetically homogeneous set of behaviors.

It is also argued that behavior‐genetic analyses can contribute not only to clarifying contents of domains but also to understanding the hierarchical structure adopted by most trait theories. The evidence suggests that that the genetic basis of personality is complex: multiple genetic dimensions contribute to personality phenotypes. These dimensions differ in breadth: some influence a single trait whereas others influence multiple phenotypically distinct but co‐varying traits. These broader genetic dimensions appear to exert a direct effect on traits rather than an indirect effect mediated through higher‐order entities. Although these findings require replication, they suggest that it is not necessary to postulate higher‐order latent constructs to explain trait covariation. That is, the higher‐order domains merely represent the pleiotropic action of genes and they are not distinct entities but rather heuristic devices to represent clusters of traits that covary because of a common genetic effect.
Psychodynamic Models of Personality
Authors: Bornstein Robert F.
Published: November 2003

This chapter discusses the evolution of psychodynamic models of personality, and the place of these models within contemporary psychology. After reviewing the core assumptions of psychoanalysis—primacy of the unconscious, psychic causality, and the critical importance of early experiences—the basic elements of Freud's classical psychoanalytic theory are described, including the drive model, topographic model, psychosexual stage model, and structural model. Neo‐analytic theories, object relations theory, self‐psychology, and contemporary integrative psychodynamic frameworks are then discussed in relation to the classical psychoanalytic model. Common threads linking these disparate psychodynamic perspectives are highlighted, including personality processes and dynamics, insight and awareness, coping and defense, and normal and pathological functioning. Evolving psychoanalytic views of motivation, mental structure, and personality stability and change are emphasized. Finally, key issues in twenty‐first century psychoanalysis are discussed, including the importance of testing psychoanalytic hypotheses empirically, cognitive and developmental contributions to psychodynamic personality theory, recent developments in psychoanalytic health psychology, and the opportunities and challenges of neuroscience.
A Psychological Behaviorism Theory of Personality
Authors: Staats Arthur W.
Published: November 2003

The psychological behaviorism (PB) theory of personality is part of a larger overarching theory that includes a philosophy of science. Applied to personality the philosophical analysis shows the field to be in a primitive state methodologically and in content. There are no rules of theory construction, no goal of unification, and a plethora of different, unrelated theories, studies, and tests. The analysis serves as a foundation for general discussion of theory needs in the field and for the particular description of the PB theory of personality.

The PB theory began in research extending learning principles to the study of human behavior and was one of the originating foundations of the field of behavior therapy. It is different in method and content than any other theory in the field, following an explicit science methodology. Thus, there is an explicit, empirical definition of personality, as learned
basic behavioral repertoires
(BBRs). The task then is identification of the personality repertoires, how they are learned, and how they function in the determination of the individual's behaviors. The PB theory and its findings serve as a unifying bridge between traditional personality theory (and personality tests) and behaviorism's rejection of those efforts.

The last part of the chapter describes how the PB theory provides a program for different avenues of research for the personality field, just as the approach did in beginning the behavior therapy field.
Cognitive‐Experiential Self‐Theory of Personality
Authors: Epstein Seymour
Published: November 2003

Cognitive‐experiential self‐theory (CEST) is a psychodynamic theory of personality that achieves a high degree of integration through a synthesis of the psychodynamic, emotional unconscious of psychoanalysis, the affect‐free unconscious of cognitive science, and principles of learning theory. According to CEST, people operate by two information‐processing systems, a predominantly conscious, verbal, rational system and a predominantly preconscious, automatic, experiential, learning system. The two systems operate in parallel by different rules and are interactive. The influence of the experiential system on the rational system can account for everything that the psychoanalytic unconscious can and, unlike the latter, to do so in a manner consistent with evolutionary principles and cognitive science. An extensive research program is described that provides support for many of the assumptions in CEST, including the operating principles of the experiential system and the interaction of the two systems. The implications of the theory are discussed for psychotherapy and psychological research. According to CEST, there are three basic ways in which psychotherapeutic change can occur: by using the rational system to correct the experiential system, by learning directly from emotionally significant experience, and by communicating with the experiential system in its own medium (e.g., fantasy, imagery, metaphor). It is important in research to take into account the two processing systems and their influence on each other, rather than following the more customary procedure of assuming there is a single, unified system.
Structures of Personality Traits
Authors: Hofstee Willem K. B.
Published: November 2003

Over the past decades, the concept of personality has been subject to implicit redefinition through a set of operations labeled “Big‐Five Taxonomy” or “Five‐Factor Model” of personality. A first module of the set of operations that constitute this paradigm consists of the questionnaire construction of personality, whereby someone's personality is defined through answers to standardized questions. A second, more specific, operational module contains the lexical approach that consists of selecting items from acorpusof language, particularly a dictionary of that language. A third operational characteristic consists of reliance on the linear model, particularly principal component analysis of Likert item scales. This is probably the most constitutive operation of the paradigm. A fourth set of operations contains models for structuring, interpreting, and communicating trait information. The major rivals are the hierarchical and the circumplex models of personality structure. I judge structure models by their capacity to produce clear and communicable trait concepts. I conclude with sketching a family of models that may serve as a base for capturing personality structure. It consists of a hierarchy of generalized semicircumplexes, with one generalp‐component of personality at the top and including 2‐D circumplex, giant three, 5‐D, and other‐dimensional structures.
Social Cognition
Authors: Bodenhausen Galen V. , Macrae C. Neil , Hugenberg Kurt
Published: November 2003

Social cognition research studies the cognitive structures and processes that shape our understanding of social situations and that mediate our behavioral reactions to them. The fundamental assumption of social cognition research is the idea that internal mental representations of other persons and of social situations play a key causal role in shaping behavior. The central task of social cognition research is thus to provide a specification of the nature of these mental structures and the processes that operate on them. Stated at the most general level, a social cognition analysis incorporates a consideration of: (1) the informational cues that are currently experienced in the social environment; (2) mental representations that are constructed on the basis of current or previous experience; (3) the ways these representations are manipulated and the processes through which they influence other aspects of attention and cognition; and (4) the decisions, judgments, intentions, and behaviors that result from the application of these processes. We review competing theoretical views of the nature of mental representation and describe the automatic as well as deliberative processes that act on these representations. We conclude by considering the effects of the motivational and affective contexts within which social cognition occurs.
Emotion, Affect, and Mood in Social Judgments
Authors: Fernández‐Dols José‐Miguel , Russell James A.
Published: November 2003

We first outline researchers' different implicit philosophical positions on the issue of the relation between language and emotion. Does language accurately describe emotion? Influence emotion? Constitute emotion? Or does everyday language conceal and obscure emotion?

One position, that we call “ontological realism” assumes that emotions are pre‐existing entities and words such as “anger” or “sadness” are simply labels for these entities. A second position, that we call Nominalism, assumes that emotion and language about emotion are a same cultural product. A third position, that we call Conceptualism, assumes that emotions are pre‐existing entities but words like “anger” or “sadness” are concepts rather than labels for these entities. A fourth position, that we call Formalism, assumes that language about emotion consists of some universal semantic primitives.

An alternative to “emotion” is “affect”, a concept that is mostly related to the pleasure‐arousal theory of emotion but has also been independently developed as a concept with broad applications in social psychology. In this chapter affect is considered as the basic, elemental component of emotion in an emerging paradigm that does not relegate emotion to a particular philosophical position. This paradigm includes various psychological mechanisms—including attribution, automatic and controlled processing, affect as information, appraisal, and core affect—that underlie specific emotional episodes.
Attitudes in Social Behavior
Authors: Olson James M. , Maio Gregory R.
Published: November 2003

The social psychology literature on attitudes is reviewed. The structure of attitudes is examined in terms of two conceptual issues: whether attitudes are made up of one or three components and whether the evaluative aspect of attitudes is unidimensional or bidimensional. The possible functions of attitudes are considered, and the relations between attitudes and higher‐order constructs such as values and ideologies are discussed. Numerous characteristics of attitudes are defined, including accessibility, ambivalence, and strength. The processes involved in attitude formation are summarized, and the effects of attitudes on information processing are discussed. Finally, the issue of attitude‐behavior consistency is examined, focusing on the conditions under which attitudes predict behavior strongly.
The Social Self
Authors: Baumeister Roy F. , Twenge Jean M.
Published: November 2003

The self has a significant interpersonal component, and indeed a principal function of the self is to enable the person to maintain interpersonal relationships. The need to belong is a fundamental motivation that shapes the self. Rejection and social exclusion elicit destructive consequences. This chapter reviews extensive research on the interpersonal dimension of selfhood, including reflected appraisals, self‐esteem and narcissism, self‐presentation, social identity, interpersonal influence, self‐evaluation maintenance, self‐monitoring, expectancies, self‐handicapping, and how self‐views affect a person's treatment of others. Cultural and historical variations in selfhood are also discussed.
Persuasion and Attitude Change
Authors: Petty Richard E. , Wheeler S. Christian , Tormala Zakary L.
Published: November 2003

This chapter reviews contemporary issues in attitudes and persuasion. We describe controversies regarding the underlying bases of attitudes and the debate over whether attitudes are stored memorial representations or constructed on the spot. We review the notion of implicit attitudes with particular attention paid to the various ways in which researchers conceptualize this construct. Next, we review current research on attitude change using the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) as an organizing framework. The ELM postulates that various motivational and ability factors affect the likelihood of thinking about a persuasive message in either a relatively objective or a biased way. When the likelihood of thinking is low, processing such as classical conditioning, affective priming, mere exposure, balance, self‐perception, persuasion heuristics influence. When the likelihood of thinking is high, more cognitively effortful processes are responsible for attitude change. When thinking is high, the number, valence, and confidence in thoughts are important determinants of persuasion. Attitude change can occur in the absence of an explicit persuasive message as research on role playing, mere thought, and dissonance processes demonstrate. A number of theories describe the processes by which information is integrated and combined into an overall summary evaluation. The chapter concludes with a discussion of whether attitudes literally change, or whether old and new attitudes can coexist and jointly influence behavior.
Social Influence and Group Dynamics
Authors: Nowak Andrzej , Vallacher Robin R. , Miller Mandy E.
Published: November 2003

Social influence is fundamental to group dynamics and is arguably the core feature of interpersonal relations generally. This chapter outlines the key aspects of social influence and depicts their manifestation in dyadic, group, and societal contexts. We first distinguish among influence processes based on external control (e.g., differential power, reward and punishment), manipulation (e.g., flattery, commitment, reciprocity), and interpersonal coordination (e.g., conformity, suppression of individuality). We then discuss how global properties of a social system (e.g., norms, public opinion) emerge from influence processes operating between individuals, and how these group‐level properties in turn influence individual thought and behavior. This reciprocal influence between the individual and society is discussed in terms of recent developments in the study of complex systems and illustrated in research employing models of cellular automata. Different scenarios of societal change (e.g., incremental vs. catastrophic) are documented in terms of the complex systems perspective, as are basic dimensions of cultural variation (e.g., individualism vs. collectivism, stability vs. change). In a concluding section, we suggest that although the various forms of social influence can be understood and investigated in terms of distinct mechanisms and consequences, they all represent manifestations of a press toward coherence in mental and social systems.
Environmental Psychology
Authors: Moser Gabriel , Uzzell David
Published: November 2003

This review of environmental psychology looks to the past, present, and future of this growing and important area of psychology. The environment, far from being a silent witness to human actions, is an integral part of the plot. The interdisciplinary origins and applied emphasis of environmental psychology have both conspired to prevent a straightforward and uncontentious definition of the discipline. Recent definitions adopt an inclusive, holistic, and transactional perspective on people‐environment relations. Various theories have been developed in environmental psychology: arousal theory, environmental load, adaptation level theory within a behaviorist and determinist paradigm; control, stress adaptation, behavioral elasticity, cognitive mapping, and environmental evaluation within an interactionist paradigm; and behavior settings, affordance theory, and theories of place, place identity, and place attachment within transactionalism. Environmental psychology deals with people's homes, the workplaces and leisure settings, the visual impact of buildings, the negative effects of cities, the restorative role of nature, and environmental attitudes and sustainable behavior. The issues at the forefront of the political and environmental agenda at the beginning of the twenty‐first century—human rights, well‐being and quality of life, globalization, and sustainability—need to be addressed and tackled by environmental psychologists in a way that incorporates both cross‐cultural and temporal dimensions.
Close Relationships
Authors: Clark Margaret S. , Grote Nancy K.
Published: November 2003

This chapter begins with a discussion of contemporary views of what constitutes a high‐quality close relationship. The presence of interpersonal processes that facilitate the well‐being of the members emerges as the defining element. These processes appear when the members are responsive to one another's needs, i.e., communal rather than exchange or distributive justice norms predominate. From this perspective all relationships can be profitably characterized as involving differing strengths of communal ties, ranging from virtually none with strangers, more with neighbors and then even more with friends, eventuating in the strongest with one's spouse and children. A longitudinal panel study of married couples supports the hypothesis that the perception of unfairness in relationships appears as a symptom of prior conflicts rather than as a prior cause. The evidence presented in this chapter leads to the conclusion that recordkeeping of contributions and outcomes together with the emphasis on fairness in the relationship can lead to the erosion of trust and responsiveness to one another's needs that are essential for the members of close relationships sense of well‐being.
Altruism and Prosocial Behavior
Authors: Batson C. Daniel , Powell Adam A.
Published: November 2003

Prosocial behavior covers the broad range of actions intended to benefit one or more people other than oneself—actions such as helping, comforting, sharing, and cooperation. Altruism is motivation to increase another person's welfare; it is contrasted to egoism, the motivation to increase one's own welfare. There is no one‐to‐one correspondence between prosocial behavior and altruism. Prosocial behavior need not be motivated by altruism; altruistic motivation need not produce prosocial behavior. Over the past 30 years, the practical concern to promote prosocial behavior has led to both a variance‐accounted‐for empirical approach, which focuses on identifying situational and dispositional determinants of helping, and the application of existing psychological theories. Theories invoked to explain prosocial behavior include social learning, tension reduction, norm, exchange or equity, attribution, esteem‐enhancement, and moral reasoning theories. In addition, new theoretical perspectives have been developed by researchers focused on anomalous aspects of why people do—and don't—act prosocially. Their research has raised the possibility of a multiplicity of social motives—altruism, collectivism, and principlism, as well as egoism. It has also raised questions—as yet unanswered—about how these motives might be most effectively orchestrated to increase prosocial behavior.
Social Conflict, Harmony, and Integration
Authors: Dovidio John F. , Gaertner Samuel L. , Esses Victoria M. , Brewer Marilynn B.
Published: November 2003

This chapter examines psychological perspectives on intergroup relations, their implications for reducing bias and conflict, and their potential applications for enhancing social integration. Psychological research on social conflict, harmony, and integration has adopted one of two general perspectives. One perspective places an emphasis on functional relations between groups, typically pointing to competition and consequent perceived threat as a fundamental cause of intergroup prejudice and conflict (e.g., realistic group conflict theory). Another approach focuses on the roles of social categorization and collective identity, indicating that whereas different group identities tend to promote conflict, a common ingroup identity promotes harmony (e.g., social identity theory). Although functional and social categorization theories propose different psychological mechanisms, these approaches offer complementary rather than necessarily competing perspectives. For example, within the context of the Contact Hypothesis, appropriately structured intergroup contact can reduce bias and conflict by creating cooperative relations between groups while producing more individuated and personalized perceptions of others (decategorization) or creating a shared sense of identity (recategorization). Pragmatically, understanding the nature of bias and the processes that underlie it can suggest ways that these forces can be harnessed and redirected to promote social harmony.
Prejudice, Racism, and Discrimination
Authors: Dion Kenneth L.
Published: November 2003

This chapter organizes the psychology of prejudice, racism, and discrimination under two main rubrics: (1) the psychology of the bigot, which seeks to understand why some people are prejudiced and discriminatory toward certain groups and their members and (2) the psychology of the victim of prejudice and discrimination, which focuses on the psychological correlates and consequences of perceiving oneself to be an object or target of prejudice and/or discrimination. Under the first rubric, classic and contemorary theories of prejudice are considered, including theories of the authoritarian personality, just world theory, belief congruence theory, ambivalence approaches (e.g., aversive racism, symbolic and modern racism, ambivalence amplification, ambivalent sexism, and blatant vs. subtle prejudice), automatic and controlled processing (e.g., the dissociation model and critiques of this model), and integrative approaches (social dominance theory, integrated threat theory, and the multicomponent approach to intergroup attitudes). Under the second rubric, the topics include attributional ambiguity perspectives, the personal‐group discrimination discrepancy, perceived prejudice and discrimination as stressors, stereotype threat, and relative deprivation and perceived discrimination as predictors of victims' desires to take protective action.
Applied Developmental Science
Authors: Wertlieb Donald
Published: November 2003

Developmental psychology's emergent identity as an applied developmental science reflects the field's rich and complex history and forecasts significant challenges and opportunities as we begin our second century of science, practice, and promoting human welfare. A brief history of developmental psychology documents how the “applied developmental science” umbrella and framework foster progress in multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary scholarship consistent with contemporary contextual and bioecological theories. Several examples of substantive areas of inquiry and action articulate theoretical, empirical, and professional issues. These include parenting and early care and education, as well as developmental psychopathology and developmental assets. Applied developmental science requires and provides special methods (e.g., outreach scholarship, innovative community partnerships), ethical imperatives, and considerations for training and credentialing. As part of applied developmental science, developmental psychology is increasingly well poised to realize its potential for enhancing the well‐being of children, adolescents, and their families.
Infant Perception and Cognition
Authors: Cohen Leslie B. , Cashon Cara H.
Published: November 2003

This chapter examines methods, theories, and research on infant perception and cognition. The focus is on developmental changes during the first two years of life, and no sharp distinction is made between perceptual development and cognitive development. The chapter emphasizes a set of information‐processing propositions, according to which early perceptual and cognitive development is a constructive, nonlinear process involving successive levels of information integration over age. Several popular techniques for assessing infant perception and cognition are described, including visual preferences, habituation, and conditioning. Similarities and differences among these techniques are mentioned along with a number of misconceptions regarding them. Several theoretical approaches are outlined, including Piagetian theory, dynamical systems, connectionist modeling, and cognitive neuroscience. Specific research topics covered in the chapter include infant perception of color, form, size, and shape and the development of perceptual constancies. Next discussed are topics related to infants' perception of entire objects, including object permanence, object unity, object identification, and the special case of infant face perception. How infants group multiple objects into categories is covered next. The final section describes research on individual differences and the degree to which one can predict childhood performance from scores on infant tests.
Social and Emotional Development in Infancy
Authors: Thompson Ross A. , Easterbrooks M. Ann , Padilla‐Walker Laura M.
Published: November 2003

This chapter highlights the importance of studying and understanding social and emotional development in the early years of life. Significant person (e.g., temperament) and context (e.g., caregiving environment) concepts are examined, particularly as they intertwine in emergent intra‐and interpersonal constructs and processes such as attachment relationships, self‐understanding, and emotion regulation. The chapter begins by setting socioemotional development in context: psychobiological, relational, and cultural. The review of research in this burgeoning field focuses on advances in the understanding of the development of emotional expression, sensitivity to others' emotions, and emotion regulation. In each of these areas social relationships are key, as illustrated in the review of the construct of attachment, considered a hallmark of socioemotional development in infancy. Transitions beyond infancy are noted in a discussion of representation, and self‐and other‐understanding. The chapter concludes by highlighting the implications of recent developments in theory and research in social and emotional development in infancy for public policies and practices and calls for an expanded and integrated research agenda that will inform these applications.
Stress and Emotion in Early Childhood
Authors: Gunnar Megan R. , Davis Elysia Poggi
Published: November 2003

Stress is a fact of life. Beginning before birth, successful adaptation requires responding to stressors and regulating stress reactions. Stress reactivity and regulation changes during development and differs among individuals. These differences affect our physical and emotional health. Because the neural systems underlying emotions influence the activation and regulation of behavioral and physiological stress responses, developmental psychobiological research on stress is intimately related to neuroscience research on emotions and temperament. Stress results when the demands exceed immediately available resources. Such conditions threaten homeostasis and require a shifting of resources from those supporting growth and repair (future oriented) to those need to immediately needed to maintain viability (present oriented) to fuel the processes needed to maintain organism viability. This shifting of resources to maintain organism viability is termed allostasis or stability through change (McEwen, 1998). The capacity to respond to stress through allostatic adjustments is necessary to survival. However, there are costs, which if frequent or prolonged may undermine health and development. In this chapter we describe the physiology and neurobiology of the stress system, the development of stress reactivity and regulation during early development, the interaction between children's emotional dispositions and social relationships in regulating stress, and the potential effects of stress physiology on brain and behavioral development.
Diversity in Caregiving Contexts
Authors: Fitzgerald Hiram E. , Mann Tammy , Cabrera Natasha , Wong Maria M.
Published: November 2003

This chapter focuses on nonparental child care as an important factor in understanding the developmental context of infants in the United States. It begins with a discussion of systems theory as an organizing framework for understanding the role of child care in the lives of children and families. Several key empirical studies and evaluations of child care programs are highlighted (the NICHD Study of Early Child Care, the ACYF Study of Early Head Start, the Carolina Abecedarian Project, Parent‐Child Development Centers, and the Goteburg Child Care Study). These initiatives provide evidence of the positive effects of high‐quality supplemental care on early child development. The next section underscores the importance of considering mediating or moderating factors that influence outcomes in early child care research: infant temperament, the mother‐child relationship, and father involvement in child development. The chapter concludes with a discussion of issues of child care quality, cost, and policies.
Cognitive Development in Childhood
Authors: Feldman David Henry
Published: November 2003

This chapter examines the area of cognitive development from primarily theoretical and historical perspectives. Beginning with three “revolutions” in the 1950s (cognitive, language, and Piaget), the main lines of cognitive developmental theorizing and research formed and reformed during the subsequent half century. Piaget's theory dominated the field through the 1960s and 1970s, followed by efforts to deal with some of the problems of the Genevan approach (e.g., neo‐piagetians, contextualists). In recent decades, the field has become more diverse and multifaceted, and now includes theories that attempt to integrate individual differences into universal cognitive development, dynamic systems approaches to change and the emergence of novelty, evolutionary robotics frameworks, and brain imaging and other brain‐based techniques that may provide a systematic physical foundation for observed cognitive developmental changes.