Signaling threat: how situational cues affect women in math, science, and engineering settings

This study examined the cues hypothesis, which holds that situational cues, such as a setting's features and organization, can make potential targets vulnerable to social identity threat. Objective and subjective measures of identity threat were collected from male and female math, science, and engineering (MSE) majors who watched an MSE conference video depicting either an unbalanced ratio of men to women or a balanced ratio. Women who viewed the unbalanced video exhibited more cognitive and physiological vigilance, and reported a lower sense of belonging and less desire to participate in the conference, than did women who viewed the gender-balanced video. Men were unaffected by this situational cue. The implications for understanding vulnerability to social identity threat, particularly among women in MSE settings, are discussed.     

Teaching African Philosophy in African institutions of higher learning: The implications for African renaissance

In the not-so-distant past, colonial European scholarship denied the existence of African philosophy. In reaction, indigenous African scholars assiduously strove to prove its existence. While Africans succeeded in demonstrating the existence of African philosophy, another denial—deliberate or otherwise—manifested and continues to manifest itself in the non-existence or peripheral existence of African philosophy in institutions of higher learning. It is argued in this article that African philosophy should be at the core and centre of teaching in African institutions of higher learning. It is anticipated that such a move could help Africans in their quest for self-rediscovery and reconstruction, otherwise known as ‘African renaissance’. Simultaneously this move could help to reverse the psychological damage that many Africans continue to experience as a result of two unresolved issues: 1) some outside the African cultural community, continue to distort—insultingly—African culture, and 2) some inside the African cultural community—particularly the powerful ruling African elite—make self-serving statements in the name of African culture in pursuit of their selfish interests.     

Social Relationships in the Church During Late Life: Assessing Differences Between African Americans,Whites, and Mexican Americans

The purpose of this study is to see if there are differences in the social relationships that older African Americans, older whites, and older Mexican Americans form with the people where they worship. Data from two large surveys are pooled to see if race differences emerge in eleven different measures of church-based social relationships. These measures assess social relationships with rank-and-file church members as well as social relationships with members of the clergy. The findings reveal that older African Americans tend to have more well-developed social relationships in the church than either older whites or older Mexican Americans. This is true with respect to relationships with fellow church members as well as relationships with the clergy. In contrast, relatively few differences emerged between older Americans of European descent and older Mexican Americans. However, when differences emerged in the data, older whites tend to score higher on the support measures than older Mexican Americans.     

Advances in stereotype threat research on African Americans: continuing challenges to the validity of its role in the achievement gap

Over the past two decades, there have been significant advances in stereotype threat research on African Americans. The current article reviews general issues of internal validity and external validity (or generalizability) beyond college laboratories in stereotype threat studies, and as they are revealed specifically in the context of advances in research on African Americans. Research suggests an internally valid operational definition of stereotype threat relevant to the African American students’ experience is the expectation of, and reactions to, interviewer or teacher bias. The external validity of laboratory research on stereotype threat is very limited. Effect sizes and variance explained in multivariate models in most survey and field studies of stereotype threat variables are very small. Advances in stereotype threat research emphasize the relatively greater importance of school racial climate and faculty diversity in efforts to reduce the achievement gap. Interventions to improve the educational experiences of African American students should address situational factors of school racial climate, faculty diversity, and cultural competence training for non-African American instructors and interviewers.     

The discipline gap and African Americans: Defiance or cooperation in the high school classroom

African Americans are over-represented in school suspensions, yet little is known about the underlying contributing dynamics. Study 1 reviewed a high school's annual discipline data and 442 students referred for defiance. African Americans were over-represented in referrals for defiance and most students received referrals from one or several teachers. This suggests that defiance referrals are specific to the classroom situation. Examining the situational specificity of referrals, Study 2 used repeated measures and multilevel modeling with a sub-sample of 30 African American students. Attendance, grades, and teacher reports showed that students behaved more defiantly and less cooperatively with teachers perceived as having untrustworthy authority. Predictors of African American student trust in teacher authority included teacher caring and high expectations, offering implications for lowering the discipline gap.     

The identity status of African Americans in middle adolescence: a replication and extension of Forbes and Ashton (1998)

This study is a replication and extension of the work of Forbes and Ashton (1998). Seventy-seven African American high school students completed the revised version of the Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status. Most of the students were found to be in uncommitted identity statuses. Similar results were found in both the ideological and interpersonal domains.     

Addressing Spiritual and Religious Issues in Counseling African Americans: Implications for Counselor Training and Practice

Addressing spiritual and religious issues in the context of counseling relationships may be beneficial to many African American clients. The authors discuss various roles and functions of spirituality and religion in the lives of many African Americans, with particular attention to the impact of these issues on their mental health functioning and willingness to seek formal mental health services. The importance of academic training programs that prepare counselors to address potential spiritual and religious issues with their clients, is also highlighted.     

Video reminders in a representational change task: memory for cues but not beliefs or statements

Two experiments investigated the effect of video reminders on 3-year-olds' performance in a representational change task. In Experiment 1, children in a video support condition viewed videotapes of their initial incorrect statements about a misleading container prior to being asked to report their initial belief. Children in a control condition viewed an irrelevant videotape. Despite reporting what they had said on the videotape, children in the video support condition typically failed the representational change task. Experiment 2 replicated the main findings from Experiment 1 and also revealed that a video reminder failed to increase the likelihood that children would correctly report what they had said about the object. Results are discussed in terms of the processes whereby mnemonic cues might affect performance on tasks assessing theory of mind.     

‘Too black or not black enough’: Social identity complexity in the political rhetoric of Barack Obama

The election of the first African‐American President of the United States, Barack Obama, has been widely recognised as an extraordinary milestone in the history of the United States and indeed the world. With the use of a discursive psychological approach combined with central theoretical principles derived from social identity and self‐categorisation theories, this paper analyses a corpus of speeches Obama delivered during his candidacy for president to examine how he attended to and managed his social identity in his political discourse. Building on a social identity model of leadership, we examine specifically how Obama mobilises political support and social identification by building an identity for himself as a prototypical representative of the American people, notwithstanding the protracted public debate within both the White and Black American communities that had questioned and contested Obama's identity. Moreover, we demonstrate how Obama managed the dilemmas around his identity by actively crafting an in‐group identity that was oriented to an increasingly socially diverse America—a diversity that he himself exemplified and embodied as a leader. As an ‘entrepreneur’ of identity, Obama's rhetorical project was to position himself as an exceptional leader, whose very difference was represented as ‘living proof’ of the widely shared collective values that constitute the ‘American Dream’. Drawing on social identity complexity theory, we suggest that by providing more inclusive and complex categories of civic and national identity, Obama's presidency has the potential to radically transform what it means to be a prototypical in‐group member in America. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Diversity in the person,diversity in the group: Challenges of identity complexity for social perception and social interaction

Social psychological research is increasingly coming to grips with the complexity of social identity within the individual, both from the perspective of perceivers trying to form impressions and make judgments about multiply categorizable targets, as well as from the perspective of actors using their different self‐aspects as a framework for guiding their interactions with the social world. I review several contributions to the effort to better understand these issues and then explore some of their possible implications for understanding the nature and consequences of diversity within the group. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Diversity is in the eye of the beholder: how concern for the in-group affects perceptions of racial diversity

The reported studies suggest that concern for the in-group motivates Asian Americans and African Americans to define diversity specifically, that is, as entailing both minorities' numerical and hierarchical representation, while motivating White Americans to define diversity broadly, that is, as entailing either minorities' high numerical and/or hierarchical representation in an organization. Studies 2-4 directly assess if a concern for the in-group affects conceptions of diversity by measuring Black and White participants' racial identity centrality, an individual difference measure of the extent to which individuals define themselves according to race. These studies suggest that the tendency to conceive diversity in ways protective of the in-group is especially pronounced among individuals who identify strongly with their racial in-group.     

Shock as a signal for shock or no-shock: a feature-negative effect in conditioned suppression.

Rats were trained in conditioned suppression discriminations where shock at the beginning of a trial signaled either shock or no-shock at the end of the trial. In the shock-positive condition, shock at the beginning of a presentation of white noise signaled that noise would end with shock; noise that did not begin with shock did not end with shock. In the shock-negative discrimination, shock at the beginning of noise signaled that noise would not end with shock; presentations of noise that did not begin with shock ended with shock. In shock-random training, shock at the beginning of noise did not reliably signal whether the noise presentation would or would not end with shock. Most subjects in shock-negative training quickly developed a differential pattern of suppression on positive (shock reinforced) trials and no suppression on negative (nonreinforced) trials. The shock-positive discrimination was much more difficult to establish and was not acquired by the majority of the rats. This "feature-negative" effect is a clear exception to the general superiority of feature-positive learning commonly observed in discriminations based on a single distinguishing feature. The results are discussed in terms of Pavlovian stimulus-shock contingencies in the shock-positive and shock-negative paradigms, which appear to favor rapid development of the shock-negative discrimination.     

Childhood Trauma Predicts Positive Expressive Suppression During Social Affiliation in Adults With Anxiety and/or Depression: Implications for Social Functioning

Experiencing childhood trauma (CT) can create barriers for developing relationships and is a risk factor for anxiety and depression. Expressive suppression (ES; i.e., reducing expression associated with experiencing emotions) might explain the link between CT and relationship formation difficulties. We examined the association between (1) CT and ES during a dyadic paradigm intended to facilitate connectedness between unacquainted partners and (2) ES and desire for future interaction (DFI). Individuals with an anxiety or depressive disorder diagnosis (N = 77) interacted with a trained confederate; partners answered a series of increasingly intimate questions about themselves. Participant ES for positive and negative emotions, and participant and confederate DFI were collected during the task. Participants completed global anxiety, depression, and CT measures. CT correlated with positive (r = .35, p = .002), but not negative, ES (r = .13, p = .273). In a multiple linear regression model, CT predicted positive ES beyond symptom variables and gender, β = .318, t = 2.59, p = .012. Positive ES correlated with participant (r = ?.38, p = .001) and confederate DFI (r = ?.40, p<.01); and predicted participant DFI beyond symptom variables and ethnicity, β = ?.358, t = ?3.18, p = .002, and confederate DFI, β = ?.390, t = ?3.51, p = .001, beyond symptom variables. Mediation analyses suggested positive ES accounted for the relationship between greater CT severity and less desire for future interaction from participants, 95%CI [?0.26, ?0.02], and confederates, [?0.38, ?0.01]. Positive ES may be an important factor in the reduced capacity to form new social relationships for individuals with a history of CT, anxiety, and depression.     

The effects of a signal for free or for earned reward: Implications for the role of response-reinforcer associations in instrumental performance

Pearce and Hall (1978) investigated the effects of making a brief flash of light contingent upon response in rats lever-pressing for food on a variable-interval (VI) schedule. When this signal occurred in conjunction only with reinforced responses the response rate was lowered with respect to a condition in which an equal number of light flashes occurred uncorrelated with reinforcement. The experiments reported here compared these effects with those produced by signalling “free” food deliveries in a similar way. Experiments I and II compared the effects of presenting correlated and uncorrelated schedules of light and food to rats given no opportunity to lever-press. The different schedules did not produce differences in response rate when the levers were made available. In Experiment III, free food was delivered to rats responding on a VI schedule. Signalling the delivery of earned food pellets produced a low response rate in comparison with a condition in which the free pellets were signalled. It is concluded that signalling food delivery is effective only when the rat must respond to earn the food and it is argued that the signal has its effect by overshadowing a response-reinforcer association.     

Measuring social change preferences in African American adolescents: development of the Measure of Social Change for Adolescents (MOSC-A)

Studies addressing Black adolescents' social change strategies are nonexistent and might be associated with the absence of social change measures for Black adolescents. In an effort to begin addressing this concern, the 30-item Measure of Social Change for Adolescents (MOSC-A) was designed to measure Black adolescents' first- (i.e., within the system) and second- (outside of the system) order social change strategies. Factor analysis of responses that 226 Black adolescents gave to the MOSC-A revealed first- and second-order social change factors. Item response theory analyses revealed that 65% of the items on the former factor adequately discriminate across different trait levels, but those of the latter were less promising. Scaffolded on this study, future research might refine the MOSC-A's psychometric properties and improve its utility.     

Physical,Psychological and Social Adaptation of African American Nuns to Their Religious Communities as They Age: Implications for Aging in Place

ABSTRACT

This study examined the association between health status, stress, depression, satisfaction with the relationship with the religious community, alienation from significant persons, racial/cultural identity and “aging in place,” as measured by length of time in the same religious community, for a purposive sample of 72 African American nuns. Aging in place was significantly associated with perceptions of better health status, less stress and depression and greater satisfaction with relationships with the religious community. However, the study also found that the longer the nuns lived in their respective communities, the less racially/culturally identified they became. These findings underscore the need for finding ways to keep nuns in their religious communities as they age and to provide avenues of racial/cultural expression for African American nuns.     

Exploring Perceived Social Support from Peer Facilitators in an HIV Treatment Adherence Intervention for African American Patients: A Content Analysis of Participant Perspectives

HIV treatment adherence interventions increasingly rely on peer facilitators to promote treatment adherence and improve patient retention, yet little is known about how participants perceive the role performed by peer facilitators. The present study examined participant perceptions in terms of the social support from peer facilitators in a hospital‐based intervention in Chicago. Content analysis was conducted with reference to four types of social support (instrumental, informational, emotional and affiliational) on exit interviews with 11 participants enrolled in the intervention that targeted African‐American patients living with HIV/AIDS. We examined how the type of social support perceived by participants was related to their self‐reported behaviours in three domains: adherence, sexual safety and general coping. Our analysis revealed that most participants perceived informational and emotional support from their peer facilitators, followed by instrumental support. Affiliational support was the least frequently perceived type of social support. We found that perceived informational support from peer facilitators with regard to adherence had greater impact and credibility amongst participants than the same type of support from medical providers. Informational support was cited most frequently with regard to influencing adherence and sexual safety behaviours, whereas perceived emotional support was cited primarily with helping participants cope with HIV. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

To Brexit or not to Brexit: The roles of Islamophobia,conspiracist beliefs,and integrated threat in voting intentions for the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum

We used an identities approach to examine voting intentions in the June 2016 UK referendum on membership of the European Union (EU). In April 2016, 303 British adults (58.7% women, age M = 34.73) indicated their voting intentions for the referendum and completed measures of identification with the national in-group, perceived threat from Muslim immigrants, belief in Islamophobic conspiracy narratives, Islamophobia, general conspiracist beliefs, ambiguity tolerance, and belief in a clash of civilizations. Path and mediation analyses indicated that greater belief in Islamophobic conspiracy theories mediated the link between Islamophobia and intention to vote to leave. Islamophobia and Islamophobic conspiracist beliefs also mediated the effects of perceived threat from Muslims on voting intentions. Other variables acted as antecedents of perceived threat or Islamophobic conspiracy narratives. These findings highlight the role that identity-based cognitions may have played in shaping voting intentions for the UK EU referendum.