Measurement of specific interpersonal trust: Construction and validation of a scale to assess trust in a specific other.

Developed scales to assess one individual's trust in another in meaningful interpersonal relationships. For males, the scale included factors of reliableness, emotional trust, and general trust. For females, similar but not identical reliableness and emotional trust factors emerged. The scales demonstrated adequate reliability and were discriminable from the related constructs of liking and love. In Exp I, 435 undergraduates' responses on the Reliableness subscale varied appropriately as a function of the reliable or nonreliable behavior of the target person. In Exp II, 84 undergraduates' responses on the Emotional Trust subscale varied appropriately when the target person either betrayed or did not betray a confidence. In both experiments, the appropriate subscale was more sensitive to experimental manipulations than were the other trust subscales, attesting to the discriminant validity of the trust factors. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Deep smarts

Deep smarts are not philosophical-they are not "wisdom" in that sense-but they are as close to wisdom as business gets. Throughout your organization, there are people with deep smarts. Their judgment and knowledge-both explicit and tacit-are stored in their heads and hands. Their knowledge is essential. The organization cannot progress without it. You will be a more effective manager if you understand what deep smarts are, how they are cultivated, and how they can be transferred from one person to another. Very few organizations manage this asset well, perhaps because it's difficult to pin down and measure. Such neglect is risky.     

Measurement of interpersonal orientation.

The construct of interpersonal orientation (IO) is proposed as useful for understanding behavior in certain social situations. High IOs are interested in and reactive to other people; low IOs are less interested and responsive to others and more concerned with economic features of relationships. A self-report measure of IO was constructed; questionnaire and interview data generally supported the hypothesized parameters of the construct, with females scoring higher than males and high scorers (regardless of sex) indicating greater interest in and responsiveness to interpersonal features of their environments. Two experiments were conducted to assess the utility of IO in social situations. In Exp I (82 Ss), a factorial combination of sex and IO eliminated a previously demonstrated sex difference in favor of an IO difference: High IOs expressed greater liking than did low IOs for a partner who had self-disclosed to them. In Exp II (56 Ss), males and low IOs whose performance was either superior or inferior to a partner allocated rewards in accordance with equity theory; females and high IOs seemed more concerned with equality than with equity. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting the effects of anticipated third party intervention: A template-matching approach.

48 undergraduates played the bilateral monopoly bargaining game against a phantom opponent while a programmed mediator (M) attempted to hasten agreement. The M was described as either dependent or not dependent on the S, whereas the S was either to be dependent or not dependent on the M in the future. Q-sorts of Ss were obtained from roommates and were matched with 6 personality templates hypothesized to relate to concession making. Results indicated that future dependence on an M hastened agreement. Similarity to the template of unambitiousness was highly predictive of concession making in all conditions. The hostile personality was conciliatory in the mutual dependence condition and exploitative when the M was weak. Implications for bargaining research and for the mediation process are discussed. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Resolving the relationships between placebos, misattribution, and insomnia: An individual-differences perspective.

Hypothesized that insomniacs who are more attentive to internal bodily processes would be more apt to yield a reverse placebo effect (i.e., go to sleep faster when given an "arousal" placebo and vice versa), whereas those attentive to external stimuli would be more likely to be directly influenced by the suggested effects of the placebo. 30 insomniac college students completed trait measures of private body consciousness, private self-consciousness, and self-esteem. Ss were given placebos to take before bedtime and were told that the capsules had arousing or relaxing side effects. As predicted, Ss with high private body consciousness exhibited a stronger reverse placebo effect than did Ss low on this dimension. Subsequent analyses revealed that this effect was entirely attributable to the low- rather than to the high-self-esteem Ss. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)