Hypotheses generated by the precaution adoption process model, a stage model of health behavior, were tested in the context of home radon testing. The specific idea tested was that the barriers impeding progress toward protective action change from stage to stage. An intervention describing a high risk of radon problems in study area homes was designed to encourage homeowners in the model's undecided stage to decide to test, and a low-effort, how-to-test intervention was designed to encourage homeowners in the decided-to-act stage to order test kits. Interventions were delivered in a factorial design that created conditions matched or mismatched to the recipient's stage (N = 1,897). Both movement to a stage closer to testing and purchase of radon test kits were assessed. As predicted, the risk treatment was relatively more effective in getting undecided people to decide to test than in getting decided-to-act people to order a test. Also supporting predictions, the low-effort intervention proved relatively more effective in getting decided-to-act people to order tests than in getting undecided people to decide to test.

Autonomic and affective responses to children were assessed as a function of adult perceptions of interpersonal control. Women (N = 160) interacted with and provided feedback to computer-simulated children who "behaved" responsively or unresponsively on a computer game. Women were categorized as low in perceived control (PC) if they attributed high control to children but low control to self over negative events on the Parent Attribution Test. As predicted, low-PC women were maximally reactive to child characteristics, manifesting peak levels of defensive arousal (increased level of heart rate and electrodermal activity) and negative affect with unresponsive children and minimal levels of arousal and negative affect with responsive children. Intermediate response levels were shown by high-PC Ss. We interpreted results as suggesting mediating factors that may operate in dysfunctional interaction patterns previously found for low-PC caregivers.

Objectives. Taylor & Gollwitzer (1995) suggested that optimistic biases about risk are not an impediment to precaution adoption. Their ‘mindset hypothesis’ proposes that such biases are suspended during deliberation over new behaviours and reappear only later during thoughts about implementing these behaviours. This paper examines the research on which the mindset hypothesis was based and presents new data on this issue from an experiment designed to encourage home radon testing (Weinstein, Lyon, Sandman & Cuite, 1998). Method. Homeowners (N = 1346) in an area of high radon risk watched either a ‘risk’ video that gave information about the need to test, a ‘how to test’ video that focused on the implementation of testing decisions, or both. Risk perception biases were assessed before and after viewing the videos and purchases of radon test kits were determined. Results. No support was found for the mindset‐illusions predictions. In contrast, the data indicated that optimistic biases about personal risk are barriers to action. Conclusion. There are several methodological problems in the design used to support the mindset‐illusions hypothesis. In contrast to this hypothesis, it appears that acceptance of personal vulnerability is an important aspect of progress toward precaution adoption. The adaptiveness of optimistic biases about risk is also discussed.

The paradoxical use of punitive force by adults with low perceived power was explored in teaching interactions. Punitive force was measured by the intensity of physical effort used in operating controls that displayed negative feedback to child trainees. Women who differed in perceived power were assigned to (a) situations in which they had high, low, or ambiguous control and (b) responsive, unresponsive, or ambiguously responsive children. Women with low perceived power--when given ambiguous control--were more likely than other women to (a) use high levels of punitive force and (b) show elevated levels of autonomic arousal. Arousal, in turn, partially mediated the relationship between perceived power and use of force. Women with low perceived power were also more likely to attribute intentionality to children whose behavior was ambiguous. Results were interpreted as having implications for violence within adult-child relationships.

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