No abstract

Previous research has suggested that parasuicides are impaired in their ability to generate positive future experiences. This study aimed to look at the relationship between future experiences, cognitive vulnerability and hopelessness in parasuicides and matched hospital controls. Parasuicides (N 5 20) and matched hospital controls (N 5 20) were assessed the day following an episode of deliberate self-harm on measures of hopelessness, depression, anxiety, cognitive vulnerability and future directed thinking. The parasuicides differed from hospital controls on measures of depression, hopelessness and negative cognitive style in the predicted direction. Future positive thinking, depression and negative cognitive style explained 70.5% of the hopelessness variance. Future positive thinking was not correlated with either depression or negative cognitive style, whereas negative cognitive style was correlated with depression and hopelessness. Future directed thinking contributes to hopelessness independently of depression and does not seem to be associated with cognitive vulnerability.

Experimental studies of judgements of personality of speakers suggest that judgements based on vocal characteristics alone tend to be consistent but inaccurate. It appears that when making judgements of speakers with minimal cues, judges tend to draw on stereotypes. Lambert et ul. (1960) found that bilingual Canadian speakers were rated differently depending on whether they spoke French or English, and these differences depended on the languages spoken by the judges. Since the different voices were the same speakers, the differences in judgements are unrelated to real characteristics of the speakers, but must be due to differences The present study uses the matched-guise technique to compare ratings of voices with Scottish and English regional accents.Tape-recordings were made of four drama students (2 male, z female), each reading a standard English passage once with an English and once with a Scottish regional accent (all accepted as native speakers by Scottish and English subjects in a pilot study), and of four other professional-class speakers (male Scottish, male English, female Scottish, female English) reading with their normal voices. These 12 voices were arranged in one order counterbalancing sex and region.There were 1x0 Scottish-born subjects (57 males, 53 female) in Glasgow and 59 Englishborn subjects (26 male, 33 female) in London, consisting of groups of teachers, nurses, businessmen, Young Conservatives and adult further education classes.Subjects were told that the experiment was concerned with judgement of personality from voices, and regional accent was not mentioned. The tape was played and, as each voice spoke, subjects rated it on 21 six-point scales-the 20 used by Lambert et al. (1965) plus 'occupational status'. Each subject finally gave his own age, occupation and place of birth.The 12 voices were paired off appropriately Scottish with English, and a profile of 21 difference scores for each of the six pairs of voices was found for each subject. Differences were analysed by t-tests separately for each scale, each pair of voices and for Scottish and English subjects. Since this involved 252 t-tests, only 0.01 levels of significance or better were considered in view of the high probability of obtaining spurious 0.05 significance values. Table I summarizes the scales for which consistent significant differences occurred between Scottish/English pairs of voices.With male speakers, both Scottish and English subjects rated Scottish accented voices lower than English on several scales which appear to be mainly concerned with status. Scottish subjects also rated Scottish voices higher on several scales suggesting a warmer personality, but with English subjects the only one of these scales showing significant differences was ' friendliness'. With female speakers, differences generally tended to be smaller and occurred for fewer scales, particularly for English subjects. Again English accented voices were rated higher than Scottish on some 'status' scales, but there were no scales where Scottish fem...

This paper reports on a study that was designed to explore computer support for peer‐based learning in methodology tutorials. In particular, software was developed to organise group discussion, with the aim of leaving students free to concentrate on the more productive elements of group dialogue, and in particular discussing their ideas. Forty‐three undergraduate psychology students in groups of 3–4 were given a series of computer‐supported methodology tutorials designed to structure their discussion around issues concerning the design of their Honours dissertation. Students gave individual ratings of their reactions to both the software and the tutorial sessions more generally. A sample of their discussions was videotaped and the dialogues analysed. The written assignments in which they detailed their proposed empirical work (the ‘Design Exercise’) were blind marked and compared to a sample of similar assignments from the previous year. The results demonstrated that the computer‐supported tutorials resulted in better quality Design Exercises, that the students' dialogues were overwhelmingly task‐focussed and substantially transactive, and that their expressed satisfaction was generally high but with a desire for more preparation time before and between tutorials. The implications of the study for the use of computers to support groupwork are discussed.

In a study of children's estimates of occupational incomes Emler & Dickinson (1985) found substantial social class but no age differences in a Scottish sample, a result they interpreted as supporting Moscovici's theory of social representation. The main part of that study was replicated with West German children of the age range 8–12, whose parents were also interviewed. In addition to income children were also asked to make price estimates of common consumer goods. Significant age but no social class differences were found, estimates of both types progressively converging upon true values. There were no significant relationships between the estimates of children and their parents. These contrasting findings are discussed with reference to the theory of social representation.