The consequences of abortion legislation

This article examines the consequences of the 1973 US Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion as well as potential implications of proposed legilation aimed at nullifying this decision. In addition to giving women the right to determine their own reproduction, legal abortion had had beneficial health effects for both mothers and infants. The partial reversal of abortion gains due to restrictions on public funding and limitations on how and where abortions can be performed has produced a slight increase in abortion mortality, but the impact has not been dramatic. Moreover, each year since 1973, women have been obtaining abortions earlier in pregnancy. Abortion may be experienced as a loss by the mother, but there is no evidence of serious psychological sequelae. In contrast, a large body of evidence supports the physical, psychological, and social benefits of legal abortion to women, children, and families. However, proponents of the proposed Human Life Amendment place protection of the rights of the fetus over all other considerations. Their antiabortion actions have challenged the medical tradition of privacy and the confidentiality of the doctor-patient relationship. Most supporters of legal abortion would prefer that there be fewer abortions; such a decrease is more likely as a result of better education and contraceptive methods rather than coercion.     

The consequences of being overweight: A controlled study of gender differences

The consequences of body weight were explored in a sample of 44 women and 40 men who were matched for body size on the basis of judges' ratings and height-weight proportions. Results indicated that the condition of being overweight had a more negative effect on women than on men: Average-weight subjects showed a preference for thin women but not for thin men; the condition of being overweight negatively affected the quantity and quality of women's relationships with men, but had little effect on men's relationships with women; overweight negatively affected the self-attitudes of all subjects, but particularly those of women. Furthermore, average-weight and, particularly, overweight women showed more concern regarding their body size than either average or overweight men. These findings were interpreted in terms of prevailing sex role pressures and expectations.We gratefully acknowledge the help of Alice Carpenter in planning this study and the help of Peggy Nevils during the data-gathering phase of the study.     

Praying to stop being an atheist

In this paper, I argue that atheists who think that the issue of God’s existence or non-existence is an important one; assign a greater than negligible probability to God’s existence; and are not in possession of a plausible argument for scepticism about the truth-directedness of uttering such prayers in their own cases, are under a prima facie epistemic obligation to pray to God that He stop them being atheists.     

The cognitive antecedents and motivational consequences of the feeling of being in the zone

The feeling of being in the zone (related to “flow”) is marked by an elevated yet effortless sense of concentration. Prior research suggests that feelings of being in the zone are strongest when the demand posed by a task matches one’s level of ability (i.e., the balance hypothesis). In the present article, we tested this hypothesis using a novel experimental paradigm. By collecting numerous zone judgments for each participant, we were able to examine intra-individual sources of variance that explain why people often feel more or less in-the-zone on the same task from one moment to the next. The results of two experiments provide support for what we have termed the balance-plus hypothesis, which posits that zone experiences are strongest (Experiments 1–2) and have the greatest motivational force (Experiment 2) when the balance between task demand and ability is accompanied by positive assessments of one’s own performance.     

The benefits of being disadvantaged: performance‐related circumstances and consequences of intergroup comparisons

People are likely to evaluate their group's standing on an ability dimension by comparing the performance level of their own group with that of an outgroup. However, in addition to contrasting performance outcomes, they may also compare the specific circumstances under which both groups have performed. From a related attributes perspective, we argue that the outcome of such a comparison is a crucial determinant of the extent to which the relative success or failure of one's group can be ascribed to its superior or inferior ability respectively, and hence of the degree to which the relative position of one's group on the performance dimension in question can be perceived as legitimate and stable (i.e. as justified and unlikely to change). Accordingly, the present research shows that information concerning performance‐related circumstances has an impact on a wide range of reactions to the relative performance of one's group, varying from the experience of positive and negative affect, to motivational responses such as changes in collective efficacy beliefs for performance improvement, individual effort on behalf of the ingroup, and the tendency to hinder the future performance of an outgroup. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The consequences of language proficiency and difficulty of lexical access for translation performance and priming

Repetition priming was used to assess how proficiency and the ease or difficulty of lexical access influence bilingual translation. Two experiments, conducted at different universities with different Spanish–English bilingual populations and materials, showed repetition priming in word translation for same-direction and different-direction repetitions. Experiment 1, conducted in an English-dominant environment, revealed an effect of translation direction but not of direction match, whereas Experiment 2, conducted in a more balanced bilingual environment, showed an effect of direction match but not of translation direction. A combined analysis on the items common to both studies revealed that bilingual proficiency was negatively associated with response time (RT), priming, and the degree of translation asymmetry in RTs and priming. An item analysis showed that item difficulty was positively associated with RTs, priming, and the benefit of same-direction over different-direction repetition. Thus, although both participant accuracy and item accuracy are indices of learning, they have distinct effects on translation RTs and on the learning that is captured by the repetition-priming paradigm.     

The consequences of failing to imitate

Infants were shown three modeled acts presented in sequence. Imitation of one, two, or three of the modeled acts or failure to imitate was then observed. Distress was assessed prior to and following modeling. Infants who failed to imitate at least one act displayed a high level of distress. As a control, the same infants on another day observed the random manipulation of the stimuli. Distress failed to occur when the infants failed to imitate the scattering procedure. These results are discussed in terms of the child's development of internal standards. That is, during the latter part of the second year of life, infants show considerable distress when they fail to imitate coherent modeled acts. Since distress did not occur when the model simply scattered the stimuli, we assumed that interruption of play was not an incentive for distress. Deferred imitation was noted for older but not the younger cohorts.     

The effect of video game violence on physiological desensitization to real-life violence

Past research shows that violent video game exposure increases aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, physiological arousal, aggressive behaviors, and decreases helpful behaviors. However, no research has experimentally examined violent video game effects on physiological desensitization, defined as showing less physiological arousal to violence in the real world after exposure to video game violence in the virtual world. This experiment attempts to fill this gap. Participants reported their media habits and then played one of eight violent or nonviolent video games for 20 min. Next, participants watched a 10-min videotape containing scenes of real-life violence while heart rate (HR) and galvanic skin response (GSR) were monitored. Participants who previously played a violent video game had lower HR and GSR while viewing filmed real violence, demonstrating a physiological desensitization to violence. Results are interpreted using an expanded version of the General Aggression Model. Links between desensitization, antisocial, and prosocial behavior are discussed.     

The causes and consequences of an avoidance-focus for interracial interactions

The current work examined the causes and consequences of non-Black people's desire to avoid interracial interactions (an avoidance-focus). Expecting to respond with racial bias in inter-racial interactions was argued to result in an avoidance-focus for such interactions, which was hypothesized to have negative implications for the quality of interracial interactions. Across three studies, feedback indicating that non-Black participants would respond with racial bias in interactions with Black people resulted in anxiety and the desire to avoid the interaction. In addition, when participants with an avoidance-focus interacted with a Black confederate (Study 2), they had shorter interactions that were rated as less pleasant by the confederate and participant as compared to those without an avoidance-focus. Avoidance-focused participants were less interested in future interactions and came across as more avoidant and biased to their partner than less avoidance-focused participants. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for racial relations.