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In analyzing various moral and legal philosophies, two perspectives emerge, absolute moral rules/higher law, and situationally-specific moral rules/legal positivism. From these two perspectives, four types of individuals emerge in accordance with their degree of adherence to ideological tenets: (1) situationists (high on idealism and relativism); (2) subjectivists (low on idealism, high on relativism); (3) absolutists (high on idealism, low on relativism); and (4) exceptionists (low on idealism and relativism). The Ethics Position Questionnaire (EPQ), a 9-point Likert-type instrument, was developed to identify ordinary people according to one of the four categories. Subsequently, subjects representing the four ethical types were participants in various research studies judging contemporary issues, moral vignettes, classical psychological experiments, responses to accusations regarding a possible lie, and moral behavior. Across all studies, absolutists were concerned with rigid adherence to traditional moral guidelines; exceptionists, though concerned with moral rules, conceived of circumstances whereby these rules might be suspended. Situationists made moral evaluations with the situation as their central focus. Subjectivists allowed personal values and concerns to affect their moral evaluations. The Ethics Position Questionnaire is appended. (BL)

If overattribution--the tendency for observers to think actors' attitudes match their behaviors even when behaviors are not freely performed--results from the fundamental attribution error, then observers must believe the coerced behavior is attributionally informative. This assumption was tested by (1) investigating the extent to which attitude attributions made after observing the behavior differed from prior estimates of attitude and (2) assessing the diagnosticity of the behavior setting through examination of the Bayesian likelihood ratio. After measuring estimates of the distribution of favorable and unfavorable attitudes toward seatbelts, observers read either a pro- or anti-seatbelt essay that had supposedly been written under high or low choice conditions. Results supported the fundamental attribution error interpretation of overattribution since observers, rather than relying on prior estimates of attitudes and discounting coerced behavior, continued to assume that attitudes matched behavior even under low choice conditions. (Author)

An attributional approach to social behavior traces problems in personal adjustment back to the assumptions individuals formulate about the causes of behaviors and events. Attributional information presented during counseling may have therapeutically beneficial consequences. The effectiveness of attribution therapy was investigated in a factorial experiment which varied controllability and internality of causal factors. Pairs of subjects (N=82), who had previously completed Rotter's Internal-External Locus of Control Scale were given negative interpersonal evaluations followed by one of four types of therapy (internal/controllable, internal/uncontrollable, external/controllable, or external/uncontrollable) or no therapy at all. Results indicated that internal/controllable therapy produced more positive affective reactions and performance evaluations for internal locus of control respondents; externals were more variable in their responses. Findings suggest that the negative effects of stressful life events may be reduced by modifying individuals' attributional inferences. (Author/NRB)

Although recent reviews of the effectiveness of male versus female leaders reveal little evidence of male superiority, evaluative and perceptual biases (beliefs about what constitutes good leadership, and stereotyped beliefs about men and women) among group members persist. To examine attributional biases against female leaders, 85 college students (41 males, 44 females) worked on a task under a female leader. Subjects, with either a stereotyped (conservative attitude) or a nonstereotyped (liberal attitude) toward women, as measured by the Attitude Towards Women Scale, worked under the guidance of a female leader, who adopted either a task-oriented or a relationship leadership style. After working on the tasks, subjects completed questionnaire measures of the leader's abilities, their perceptions of the leader, and a checklist adapted from the SYMLOG method of group observation (Bales, 1980). An analysis of the results showed that biases against female leaders based on subordinates' intuitive prescriptive "theories" about leadership and their stereotyped expectations concerning men and women do exist. In general, more conservative group members rejected the task-oriented female leader, while more liberal group members preferred a leader with a strong focus on the task. (BL)

To examine the impact of ethical ideology, i.e., situationism (high relativism and idealism), subjectivism (high relativism/low idealism), absolutism (low relativism/high idealism), and exceptionism (low relativism and idealism), as well as the saliency of moral norms, and the situational consequences on moral behavior, 112 male and female college students were asked to mislead a confederate in a testing situation. Subjects were selected on the basis of their responses to the Ethics Position Questionnaire. After rating the confederate, subjects were asked to give him negative feedback suggesting that he had a low IQ (clearly a lie). Subjects were told that the information was simply feedback (nonsalient moral norm) or was a lie (salient moral norm). In addition, one half of the subjects were offered money for giving the information, while the other half were told the feedback would improve the test-taker's later performance. Subjects' compliance with the request was measured and self-evaluations were taken. An analysis of the results showed that, although positive consequences for self and salient moral norms led to decreased lying, highly idealistic subjects unexpectedly behaved the most immorally. Situationists and absolutists usually lied no matter what the consequences or the salience of moral norms. Exceptionists were less likely to lie if they would benefit personally. Subjectivists were less likely to lie if they stood to gain from the lie and the action was labelled a lie. (Author/BL)

Identifies ways to create more interaction between social and counseling psychology. Argues that social and counseling psychology coincide in seven distinct domains: educational, professional, practical, methodological, theoretical, metatheoretical, and epistemological. Makes recommendations regarding ways to develop and strengthen the connections between the two disciplines. (RJM)