Semantic Polarity Research Articles

Giving bad news: a GPs' narrative perspective.

The purpose of this study was to explore GPs' perspectives on giving bad news during consultations. To this end, 168 GPs were asked to recall, and record on the first page of a questionnaire, an occasion when they had given medically related bad news to a patient. The stories were analysed with a qualitative and interpretative approach. Two axes, each with a semantic polarity, were identified: a relational axis (semantic polarity: escape vs accompanying) and an ethical axis (semantic polarity: the doctor's choice vs the patient's choice). Furthermore, two main topics appeared to be common to almost all the narratives: the need to reassure the patient and the account of the doctor's emotions. Two different relational patterns appear to be described by doctors. A substantial number of GPs implicitly describe a disease- or doctor-centred consultation: in these cases the physicians refer to signs and symptoms, diagnosis and treatments; they decide for themselves whether to tell the truth or not. On the other hand, a smaller number describe consultations that could be defined as patient centred: these doctors consider that their duty of care for the individual ill person is paramount and try to respect the patient's right to decide. In both these relational patterns, GPs feel it is a fundamental professional duty to reassure the patient; furthermore, they feel the most difficult aspect is managing their own emotional responses.

Polarized Semantic Change of Words Associated with Females and Males

The present laboratory experiment was inspired by semantic changes reported in etymological studies: Many words that at one time had a positive or neutral connotation became negative when later applied to females. In contrast to this negativity bias, male-associated words underwent a positivity bias. Miller and Swift (1976) referred to the gender-based biases as gender-related semantic polarization. We developed the concept further by distinguishing between gender-stereotypic and gender-non-stereotypic polarizations, which involved, respectively, gender-stereotypic (e.g., dependent-independent) and gender-nonstereotypic (e.g., honest-deceitful) affective connotations. In the experiment, participants learned four-letter invented words in association with male or female pictures; the connotative meanings that had been acquired during the learning process were later measured and related to respondents' gender schema and gender attitude. The results showed that the acquired connotations of words associated with male pictures were more stereotypically masculine than were those associated with female pictures. This gender-stereotypic polarization was independent of respondents' gender schema and attitude. Gender-non-stereotypic polarization, on the other hand, was a function of respondents' gender attitude: On gender-non-stereotypic connotations, respondents who had unfavorable attitudes toward women downgraded, whereas pro-women respondents upgraded, female-associated words relative to male-associated words. The interaction effect showed that semantic change can occur in favor of women, but not always in favor of men.

Sibling Deidentification Judged by Mothers: Cross-Validation and Developmental Studies

SCHACHTER, FRANCES FUCHs; GILrIZ, GABI; SHORE, ELLEN; and ADLER, MICHELLE. Sibling Deidentification Judged by Mothers: Cross-Validation and Developmental Studies. CmLD DEVELOPMENT, 1978, 49, 543-546. A previous study of sibling deidentification in undergraduates was cross-validated on a new population, mothers judging pairs of their own children; at a new age level, averaging 6.4 years; and using same-opposite as well as alike-different judgments. The design also included a developmental study. Judgments of 95 mothers with 2 children and 45 with 3 cross-validate previous findings. (1) Percentage deidentification was significantly higher for first pairs (first 2 children) than jump pairs (first and third children), with intermediate levels for second pairs (second and third children). (2) Deidentification was higher for samethan opposite-sex siblings among first pairs. (3) Global judgments covary with semantic differential polarization scores. Developmental analysis indicates a linear increment until age 6, when deidentification stabilizes at extremely high levels for first pairs. Opposite and different judgments covary. Results support the hypothesis that deidentification is a defense against sibling rivalry, although an alternative explanation, that mothers impose deidentification on their children, merits consideration.

Differential encoding as a function of semantic polarity and form of visual stimulus presentation

The present study investigated the saliency of form of visual stimulus presentation (printed word or picture) and of the semantic evaluative dimension (positive or negative) as encoding attributes for fifth-grade children. Three short-term memory trials within one visual form of presentation or one pole of the evaluative dimension were followed by a fourth short-term memory trial on which the stimulus material was shifted on one or both attributes (experimentals) or held constant (controls). The recall of the experimental groups consistently exceeded that of the control groups on the shift trial, providing evidence for a release from proaetive inhibition and implying the saliency of both the form of visual stimulus presentation and the evaluative polarity of the stimulus concepts as encoding dimensions.

Incidental Learning of CVC Trigrams as a Function of Polarization and Affectivity

Polarization of CVCs has not been extensively studied (Rychlak, 1966), although the influence of this characteristic on the learning of words has been demonstrated (Winograd, 1966). A related variable, affectivity (as specified by the evaluative dimension on the semantic differential) has also been shown to influence the learning of words (Anisfeld & Lambert, 1966). The present study concerned the effect of semantic differential polarization and affectivity on incidental learning of CVC trigrams. It was hypothesized that more of the trigrams rated high on polarization and affectivity would be incidentally learned than those that were rated low. Forty-one students at the University of Missouri-Columbia were given a booklet containing 33 trigrams of 100% association value (Glaze, 1928). They rated these trigrams on five evaluative semantic differential scales: and were asked to recall them 1 wk. later, though no instruction to learn or remember had been given. The 33 trigrams were ranked on the basis of total polarization and affectivity values and grouped into three categories; high, medium and low. Number of recalls were plotted for each of the three categories, forming two 1 X 3 contingency tables. Significant over-all chi squares were found for each of the independent variables (polarization, X2 = 7.85, df = 2, p < .02; affectivity, X2 = 21.57, df = 2, p < .001). Comparisons of various levels of polarization showed a significant difference between the high-low categories only (x2 = 8.08, df = 1, p < .01). Analysis of the various levels of affectivity revealed significant differences between all levels (high-medium, X2 = 21.45, df = 1, p < .001; medium-low, x2 = 5.89, df = 1, p < .02; high-low, x2 = 5.07, df = 1 , p < .05). These results confirm the hypothesis and support the notion that the emotional qualities of meaningfulness of CVCs affect Ss' ability to learn them incidentally even though association values are held constant.

Semantic effects in mediated transfer

Within the framework of the semantic mediation theory proposed by Osgood, predictions concerning mediated transfer were made. An experiment is reported in which the effects of three levels of semantic polarization of the mediating elements upon transfer in paired-associate learning were investigated in two mediation paradigms. The analysis of the data was divided into three main subanalyses. (1) Polarization and learnability . An analysis of the number of trials taken during learning stage I to reach a criterion of two perfect repetitions showed that as the polarization of the word increases, there is a decrease in the number of trials required to reach the criterion. (2) Meaningfulness and acquisition . The postassociation semantic profiles of the CVC items were found to shift significantly closer to the profile of the associated word from their own initial meaning profiles. Furthermore, a high degree of similarity was found between the terminal profiles of the CVC items and the profile for the associated word. (3.1) Mediation paradigm and transfer . Comparison of the transfer effects for simple chain and response-equivalence paradigms indicated that the former produces greater over-all learning. (3.2) Degree of second-stage learning and mediated transfer . Higher degrees of learning during the second-stage of either a simple chain or a response-equivalence paradigm lead to an increased mediated transfer effect. (3.3) Semantic content of the mediating element and mediated transfer . Increasing levels of polarization of the mediator resulted in significant increasing positive effects upon mediated transfer. It was concluded that semantic polarization of the meaningful element in CVC and WORD pairs has positive facilitative effects on rate and degree of learning and upon mediated transfer.