Form and variations in negative political advertising

Using a sample of 99 political advertisements from 1990 statewide and federal elections, a content analysis was employed to test whether negative political advertisements exhibited a normative style. Results indicated that negative political advertisements were remarkably similar in substance and style, indicating a normative advertising form. The authors suggest that negative advertisements are used more to “blunt” an opponent's chance of winning the election than to promote the sponsoring candidate's own images or characteristics with their constituency.     

Effect of intermittent normobaric hypoxic exposure at rest on haematological,physiological, and performance parameters in multi-sport athletes

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine whether 3 weeks of intermittent normobaric hypoxic exposure at rest was able to elicit changes that would benefit multi-sport athletes. Twenty-two multi-sport athletes of mixed ability were exposed to either a normobaric hypoxic gas (intermittent hypoxic training group) or a placebo gas containing normal room air (placebo group). The participants breathed the gas mixtures in 5-min intervals interspersed with 5-min recovery periods of normal room air for a total of 90 min per day, 5 days per week, over a 3-week period. The oxygen in the hypoxic gas decreased from 13% in week 1 to 10% by week 3. The training and placebo groups underwent a total of four performance tests, including a familiarization and baseline trial before the intervention, followed by trials at 2 and 17 days after the intervention. Time to complete the 3-km run decreased by 1.7%[95% confidence interval (CI) = ?0.6 – 3.9%] 2 days after, and by 2.3% (CI = 0.25 ? 4.4%) 17 days after, the last hypoxic episode in the training relative to the placebo group. Substantial changes in the training relative to the placebo group also included increased reticulocyte count 2 days (23.5%; CI =?1.9 to 44.9%) and 12 days (14.6%; CI = ?7.1 to 36.4%) post-exposure. The effect of intermittent hypoxic training on 3-km performance found in this study is likely to be beneficial, which suggests non-elite multi-sport athletes should expect such training to enhance performance.     

USING CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES TO ENCOURAGE ACTIVE PARTICIPATION AND CRITICAL THINKING IN THE CLASSROOM

Information is presented on a teaching/learning technique that emphasizes a dialogue approach to critical thinking and learning in the classroom. A point‐counterpoint procedure is used to examine several controversial psychological issues, each considered to be open‐ended and discussable from at least two opposing perspectives. There are no “right” answers to learn; instead, the emphasis is on how to examine and evaluate information from opposing viewpoints.     

A model of properties of compliance‐gaining strategies

This paper intends to induce a set of properties that unify and distinguish compliancegaining strategies and to determine whether coders can reliably classify messages on the basis of the proposed properties. The first goal was accomplished by deriving codified strategies from open‐ended responses of subjects to persuasive situations. Properties that reflected differences in the strategies were induced. The second goal had three coders content‐analyze the original responses in terms of the derived properties. Measures of unitizing and coder reliability and content validity were assessed. In addition, information concerning representational validity was presented. The approach taken in this paper provides us with an assessment of the state of affairs found in a compliance‐gaining strategy.