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Biomedical subjects

F X Gibbons

Publications and source records attributed to F X Gibbons.

30 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1988

Attitudes toward sex, arousal, and the retention of contraceptive information.

Previous research has suggested that women with a negative emotional orientation toward sexuality (i.e., erotophobia) have difficulty learning and retaining sexually relevant material such as contraceptive information. It has been hypothesized that these women become aroused by this material and that this arousal interferes with their ability to learn it. The importance of this issue led us to conduct the current study. Erotophobic and erotophilic women viewed presentations about contraception while their physiological responses were being monitored. In addition, they were tested on the information contained in the presentation before, immediately after, and again 4-6 weeks after the presentation. The results indicated that the erotophobic women knew less contraceptive information before the presentation and were more aroused by the presentation. This arousal, however, did not interfere with retention of the material. These results are discussed in terms of individual differences in reactions to sexual material and the ability to learn, retain, and use contraceptive information.

Arousal↗
PubMed1985

Self-awareness and self-confrontation: effects of self-focused attention on members of a clinical population.

Research in the area of self-awareness theory has indicated that self-focused attention consistently produces both an increase in perceived intensity of affect and enhanced accuracy of self-reports. The present studies consider these effects in relation to the technique of self-confrontation as used in psychotherapy. In the first study, members of two different clinical populations (alcoholics and general psychiatric patients) either were or were not made self-aware and then were asked to self-report on their psychiatric problems and their mood states. Results indicated that self-awareness did increase the negative mood states for the psychiatric patients, and it also apparently increased the accuracy with which both patient groups reported on their history of hospitalization. In the second study self-awareness once again exacerbated the reported negative affect of a group of depressed psychiatric patients and enhanced the accuracy with which they reported on their hospitalizations. Additional analyses indicated that although the psychiatric patients generally felt worse when self-aware, they were also more accurate in their self-reports, including descriptions of their problems. The effects of self-awareness on members of clinical population are discussed and related to self-confrontation techniques.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Stigma perception: social comparison among mentally retarded persons.

Two studies were conducted in order to determine whether a group concept problem (i.e., relatively unfavorable opinions of other retarded persons; Gibbons, 1981): (a) includes retarded persons' perceptions of their peers' social desirability, such as dating appeal and physical attractiveness; (b) occurs among persons living in community settings; and (c) differs by sex. Results provided affirmative answers for all questions and indicated that the problem is most severe among community women. In addition, there was evidence of self-derogation among both community-based and institutionalized retarded persons in terms of social success (e.g., dating behavior). I suggested that this type of person perception may be interfering with retarded persons' social behavior and their adjustment to community-based and institutional environments.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

Sexual experience, sex guilt, and sexual moral reasoning.

Two studies are described in which the relations between sexual experience, sex guilt, and sexual moral reasoning were examined. Subjects were asked to articulate their opinions on each of six sexual activities, and then choose one of six statements (corresponding to Kohlberg's six stages of reasoning) that most clearly reflected why they had, or had not, engaged in three of those activities. An analysis of the moral reasoning present in each of the six articulated responses indicated that level of reasoning was inversely related to sex guilt. Analysis of the preference data indicated that subjects endorsed reasoning (statements) at a higher stage than they had articulated, and that this "gap" between articulation and preference was much greater for less experienced subjects. Results are discussed in terms of the utility of using situation-specific moral dilemmas when assessing moral reasoning, and in terms of the possible role that lack of sexual experience plays in inhibiting sexual moral development.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Reactions to the criminal behavior of mentally retarded and nonretarded offenders.

College students' attitudes toward mentally retarded criminal offenders and their estimates of the types of crimes most often committed by retarded persons were assessed through a survey. Based on the survey results, an experiment was conducted in which students' reactions to one of two different types of crimes committed by either a retarded or nonretarded person were examined. Results indicated that the retarded offender received a lighter sentence regardless of the type of crime, apparently because the students thought that he had been coerced into committing the crime and also into confessing to it. Implications of these results for cases involving retarded defendants were discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Children's use of the discounting principle: a perceptual approach.

The present study introduced a perceptual analogue technique in a developmental investigation of the discounting principle. Subjects watched animated films depicting the simultaneous movements of two triangles toward a goal--one that was pushed by an external object (facilitative cause present) and one that was not (faciliatative cause absent). Although college students understood the discounting principle (i.e., they perceived that the nonfacilitated triangle was more intrinsically motivated than the facilitated object), kindergarteners, second graders, and fourth graders surprisingly did not. However, because many children (mis) interpreted the "push" as an aversive stimulus, a second experiment illustrated a sequence in which one of two triangles was "carried" toward a goal. For this version, subjects in Grades 2, 4, and 6, and in college all made the discounting-consistent choice, and kindergarteners tended to do the same (p < .15). Age differences thus emerged only in subjects' ability to explain their responses. From these results, the development of the multiple sufficient cause schema is discussed, and methodological implications of the animated film technique are noted.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Effects of the institutional label on peer assessments of institutionalized EMR persons.

The "group concept" of EMR persons was examined in a study in which a sample of institutionalized male and female subjects evaluated a target person either labeled as institutionalized or not labeled. Contrary to expectations, the institutionalized person was rated as favorably as the noninstitutionalized person on all of the adjective traits (e.g., "friendly"); however, all subjects showed a preference for the noninstitutionalized person on two social-distance items ("live near" and "work with"). In addition, when asked in a series of questions to compare an institutionalized and a noninstitutionalized target person, male subjects preferred the noninstitutionalized person. Results were discussed in terms of subjects' reactions to the institutional label.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

Self-directed attention, awareness of bodily states, and suggestibility.

Two studies tested the hypothesis that self-directed attention would cause increased awareness of internal states and would thus reduce suggestibility effects. Experiment 1 applied this reasoning to the experience of an emotion. Males viewed moderately arousing slides of female nudes after being led to expect the slides to be either highly arousing or nonarousing. As predicted, ratings of the slides corresponded less with these experimentally-manipulated anticipations when self-focus was heightened by the presence of a mirror than when it was not. Experiment 2 examined a different internal experience: the perception of taste. Some subjects were led to expect a strong flavor as part of a test series, and other subjects were led to expect a weak flavor. Subjects high in private self-consciousness were less affected by this expectancy manipulation and more accurate in reporting their actual internal state than were subjects low in private self-consciousness. Discussion centers on the theoretical implications of the findings.

Arousal↗
PubMed1979

Evaluations of mentally retarded persons: "sympathy" or patronization?

Subjects evaluated a hypothetical target person after reading a transcript of a bogus interview. The person was either labeled as retarded or was not labeled, and she was presented in a favorable or an unfavorable light. Subjects tended to evaluate the labeled (retarded) person more favorable than they did the nonretarded person on the adjective and social-distance questions, but only in the unfavorable condition. On a series of attribution questions, subjects assigned more responsibility for the retarded person's outcome to situational factors, regardless of how well she was doing. Consistent with this finding, subjects also reported less expectation of future success from the retarded person on various kinds of behavior. This evaluation pattern, of reduced blame after failure and less credit after success, was termed a patronization effect, and the implications of this kind of attitude were discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The influence of neighborhood disadvantage, collective socialization, and parenting on African American children's affiliation with deviant peers.

This study focused on hypotheses about the contributions of neighborhood disadvantage, collective socialization, and parenting to African American children's affiliation with deviant peers. A total of 867 families living in Georgia and Iowa, each with a 10- to 12-year-old child, participated. Unique contributions to deviant peer affiliation were examined using a hierarchical linear model. Community disadvantage derived from census data had a significant positive effect on deviant peer affiliations. Nurturant/involved parenting and collective socialization processes were inversely associated, and harsh/inconsistent parenting was positively associated, with deviant peer affiliations. The effects of nurturant/involved parenting and collective socialization were most pronounced for children residing in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Adolescent↗