The significance of social context: the case of adolescent childbearing in the African American community

The persistence of racial differences in US adolescent pregnancy and contraceptive use rates even after traditional indicators of social class (e.g., parental education, income, or occupation) are controlled suggests a need to focus on broader social contextual issues. Important dimensions of the social context neglected in traditional approaches to socioeconomic status include the level of racial discrimination in the community, the percentage of same-race high status workers, the differential incentives of Blacks and Whites to avoid adolescent childbearing, the quality of schools attended, and the ability of families to provide child supervision. In addition, studies comparing the long-term effects of adolescent childbearing have found less severe costs for Blacks than Whites. This finding suggests the salience of psychosocial factors such as individual resiliency and survival. Although amelioration of poverty must be a major emphasis of social policy aimed at preventing adolescent pregnancy, employment programs that prepare teens for low-paying or nonexistent jobs and other interventions that fail to address the broader social context of discrimination are insufficient.     

Discrimination, dispositions, and cardiovascular responses to stress.

OBJECTIVE: Recent research suggests that past exposure to discrimination may influence perceptions of, and physiological responses to, new challenges. The authors examined how race and trait levels of hostility and optimism interact with past exposure to discrimination to predict physiological reactivity and recovery during an anger recall task. DESIGN: A community sample of 165 normotensive Black and White adults participated in an anger recall task while having their cardiovascular function monitored. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Blood pressure and heart rate indicators of physiological reactivity and recovery. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Participants had higher reactivity and slower recovery to the anger recall task when they had high past discrimination, low cynicism, or high optimism. The pattern of effects was similar for both racial groups, but Blacks had more acute reactivity and slower recovery than Whites. These results are consistent with the perspective of discrimination as a chronic stressor that is related to acute stress responses, particularly for Blacks.     

Motivation,personal beliefs,and limited resources all contribute to self-control

What effects do motivation and beliefs have on self-control? We tested this question using a limited resource paradigm, which generally has found that people show poor self-control after prior exertions of self-control. Recent findings have suggested that motivation and even belief in unlimited willpower can render persons immune to ego depletion. We replicated those findings, but also showed they are limited to cases of mild depletion. When depletion is extensive, the effects of motivation and subjective belief vanished and in one case reversed. After performing only one self-control task, the typical pattern of self-regulation impairment was ameliorated among people who were encouraged to regard willpower as unlimited (Experiment 1) or motivated by task importance (Experiment 2). Those manipulations failed to improve performance among severely depleted persons who had done multiple self-control tasks. These findings integrate ideas of limited resources, motivation, and beliefs in understanding the nature of self-control over time.     

Aging, working memory, and discrimination learning

Older adults easily learn probabilistic relationships between cues and outcomes when the predictive event is the occurrence of a cue, but have greater difficulty when the predictive event is the nonoccurrence of a cue (Mutter & Pliske, 1996; Mutter & Plumlee, 2004; Mutter & Williams, 2004). This study explored whether this age-related deficit occurs in a simpler learning context and whether it might be related to working memory (WM) decline. We gave younger and older adults simultaneous discrimination tasks that allowed us to compare their ability to learn deterministic relationships when either the occurrence (feature positive; FP) or the nonoccurrence (feature negative; FN) of a distinctive feature predicted reinforcement. We also included a group of younger adults who performed the discrimination tasks under a concurrent WM load. Both age and WM load had a detrimental effect on initial FP and FN discrimination; however, these effects persisted only in FN discrimination after additional learning experience. Learning predictive relationships requires inductive reasoning processes that apparently do not operate as efficiently in individuals with reduced WM capacity. The impact of WM decline may ultimately be greater for negative cue-outcome relationships because learning these relationships requires more difficult inductive reasoning processes, which place greater demands on WM.     

Aging,working memory,and discrimination learning

Older adults easily learn probabilistic relationships between cues and outcomes when the predictive event is the occurrence of a cue, but have greater difficulty when the predictive event is the nonoccurrence of a cue (Mutter & Pliske, 1996; Mutter & Plumlee, 2004; Mutter & Williams, 2004). This study explored whether this age-related deficit occurs in a simpler learning context and whether it might be related to working memory (WM) decline. We gave younger and older adults simultaneous discrimination tasks that allowed us to compare their ability to learn deterministic relationships when either the occurrence (feature positive; FP) or the nonoccurrence (feature negative; FN) of a distinctive feature predicted reinforcement. We also included a group of younger adults who performed the discrimination tasks under a concurrent WM load. Both age and WM load had a detrimental effect on initial FP and FN discrimination; however, these effects persisted only in FN discrimination after additional learning experience. Learning predictive relationships requires inductive reasoning processes that apparently do not operate as efficiently in individuals with reduced WM capacity. The impact of WM decline may ultimately be greater for negative cue–outcome relationships because learning these relationships requires more difficult inductive reasoning processes, which place greater demands on WM.     

The Impact of Region and Urbanicity on the Discrimination-Cognitive Health Link Among Older Blacks

Little research has examined how the link between discrimination and cognitive health varies by where people live. This study investigates how living in non-urban versus urban areas in different regions in the United States moderates the discrimination-cognitive health link among older non-Hispanic Blacks. Data are from the 2012 and 2014 waves of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS; N = 2,347). Regression analyses indicate that experiencing more everyday discrimination is significantly associated with lower episodic memory when living in urban areas. Among non-Hispanic Blacks, the discrimination-episodic memory link does not significantly vary across U.S. regional contexts. Findings highlight variation in the association between everyday discrimination and cognitive health by where older non-Hispanic Blacks live. Results suggest the importance of socio-environmental factors in shaping how stressful experiences such as discrimination are linked to cognitive health in later life.     

Not yet human: implicit knowledge, historical dehumanization, and contemporary consequences

Historical representations explicitly depicting Blacks as apelike have largely disappeared in the United States, yet a mental association between Blacks and apes remains. Here, the authors demonstrate that U.S. citizens implicitly associate Blacks and apes. In a series of laboratory studies, the authors reveal how this association influences study participants' basic cognitive processes and significantly alters their judgments in criminal justice contexts. Specifically, this Black-ape association alters visual perception and attention, and it increases endorsement of violence against Black suspects. In an archival study of actual criminal cases, the authors show that news articles written about Blacks who are convicted of capital crimes are more likely to contain ape-relevant language than news articles written about White convicts. Moreover, those who are implicitly portrayed as more apelike in these articles are more likely to be executed by the state than those who are not. The authors argue that examining the subtle persistence of specific historical representations such as these may not only enhance contemporary research on dehumanization, stereotyping, and implicit processes but also highlight common forms of discrimination that previously have gone unrecognized.     

Why are attributions to discrimination interpersonally costly? A test of system- and group-justifying motivations

In two studies, Whites' endorsement of system-justifying beliefs predicted increased negativity toward Blacks who blamed negative events on discrimination. Whites' system-justifying beliefs were not associated with negativity toward Blacks who blamed negative events on other internal causes, external causes, or nondiscriminatory unfairness. These negative reactions toward discrimination claimants were mediated by perceptions that the claimant held dissimilar values and failed to take personal responsibility for outcomes. In both studies, participants' White Identification did not moderate the relationship between the Black target's attribution for failure and subsequent negative perceptions of that individual, thus providing evidence against a group-justification explanation of these findings.     

Dissociations among ABA, ABC, and AAB recovery effects

In a human predictive learning experiment, the strengths of ABA, ABC, and AAB recovery effects after discrimination reversal learning were compared. Initially, a discrimination between two stimuli (X+, Y−) was trained in Context A. During Phase 2, participants received discrimination reversal training (X−, Y+) either in Context A (Group AAB) or in Context B (Group ABA, Group ABC). Testing occurred in the reversal context and in a neutral context (Group AAB, Group ABC) or in the reversal context and in the acquisition context (Group ABA). Recovery effects were similar in ABA and ABC procedures, whereas no AAB recovery effect occurred. Furthermore, the rate of discrimination reversal learning during Phase 2 was unaffected by whether training was conducted in the same or in a different context as initial learning. Results indicate that contextual stimuli are processed before interfering information is presented. These representations, however, do not acquire the ability to control performance.     

Beliefs About Willpower Are Related to Therapy Adherence and Psychological Adjustment in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes

Research suggests that self-control, the ability to forego immediate needs for the sake of future rewards, promotes health behavior. The present study examined the role of beliefs about willpower as predictor of self-control in the context of diabetes. Seventy-nine type 2 diabetes patients reported their beliefs about willpower, therapy adherence (i.e., self-care activities, diet, exercise), and psychological adjustment (i.e., emotional distress, well-being, life quality). Endorsing the belief that willpower is a limited versus nonlimited resource was associated with lower therapy adherence and lower psychological adjustment. How people think about their willpower might be crucial for therapy success in diabetes patients.     

Reactions to two versions of affirmative action among whites, blacks, and Hispanics

Houston-area Whites (n = 414), Blacks (n = 392), American-born Hispanics (n = 162), and Hispanic immigrants (n = 177) evaluated a self-defined "typical" affirmative action plan (AAP) and a tiebreak AAP that applies under conditions of equal qualifications and underrepresentation. Whites preferred Tiebreak; Blacks and Hispanics preferred the typical AAP. The groups differed in beliefs about the procedures and fairness of affirmative action (AA), perceptions of workplace discrimination, and political orientations. Perceived fairness predicted support for both AAPs in all American-born groups, but the impact of other predictors varied greatly across AAPs and ethnic groups. The results clarify the bases for Whites' opposition to AA as they construe it. The results also underscore the importance of specifying the AAP procedures, of uncovering the predictors of AA attitudes among target-group members, and of conducting separate analyses in each ethnic community.     

Object perception in 5-month-old infants of clinically depressed and nondepressed mothers

Five-month-old infants of clinically depressed and nondepressed mothers were familiarized to a wholly novel object and afterward tested for their discrimination of the same object presented in the familiar and in a novel perspective. Infants in both groups were adequately familiarized, but infants of clinically depressed mothers failed to discriminate between novel and familiar views of the object, whereas infants of nondepressed mothers successfully discriminated. The difference in discrimination between infants of depressed and nondepressed mothers is discussed in light of infants' differential object processing and maternal sociodemographics, mind-mindedness, depression, stress, and interaction styles that may moderate opportunities for infants to learn about their world or influence the development of their perceptuocognitive capacities.     

Prejudice matters: understanding the reactions of Whites to affirmative action programs targeted to benefit Blacks.

The authors examined, in 2 studies, the effects of equal employment opportunity/affirmative action (EEO/AA) policies on Whites' job-related attitudes. First, in an experiment, White prospective job recruits, as expected, rated a potential employer whose EEO/AA policies were framed as targeted to benefit Blacks as less attractive than a potential employer whose EEO/AA policies were framed more generally. Second. the results of a field study showed that prejudice against Blacks moderated the relationship between Whites' perceptions that their organization's EEO/AA policies were targeted to benefit Blacks and their satisfaction with promotion opportunities. Specifically, among prejudiced Whites, this relationship was negative and considerable in size (r = -.39. p < .01); whereas, among nonprejudiced Whites, it was negligible (r = -.04, ns). The implications of our findings for the study of prejudice in organizations are discussed.     

Early discrimination among small object collections

Two studies are presented which examine the young child's ability to discriminate between two small object collections on the basis of numerosity and to maintain that discrimination across changes in number-related cues. A transfer procedure and counting tasks were also included. In Study 1, 2-, 3-, and 4-year-olds were reinforced for choosing either a two- or three-item array when length-density cues were manipulated across two training phases of 20 trials each. Training was followed by a transfer task in which one- and four-item arrays were displayed. Most 2-year-olds were able to learn the discrimination while at the same time displaying little quantitative ability. Further, their transfer responses were transpositional in nature. In Study 2, 2-year-olds were given a similar discrimination task in which numerosity was contrasted simultaneously with length-density and area-brightness cues. Again, most children learned the discrimination and transferred that learning on the basis of relational cues.     

Perceived racism, discrimination, and acculturation in suicidal ideation and suicide attempts among black young adults

During young adulthood the suicide rate among Blacks rises dramatically and approaches that of the U.S. general population, requiring that prevention efforts include a focus on Black young adults. Although most research on suicidality among Blacks has focused on risk factors observed in the dominant culture, in this study the authors examined associations between perceived discrimination, racism, and acculturation with lifetime suicidal ideation (SI) and suicide attempt (SA) among Black young adults. Two hundred fifty Black or African American individuals aged 18-24 residing in a midsize northeastern city were recruited to participate through advertisements. Participants filled out self-report questionnaires. Logistic regressions were used to examine the association of each predictor with SI and SA. Greater perceived acculturation was associated with SI in univariate and multivariate models. There were no other statistically significant results concerning the predictors of interest. The link between perceived acculturation and SI is consistent with limited available data, indicating the need for further study including the potential mechanism(s) for the association. Limitations include the cross-sectional design and reliance on subjective measures.     

Prototypes of Discrimination: How Status Asymmetry and Stereotype Asymmetry Affect Judgments of Racial Discrimination

This research investigated status asymmetry and stereotype asymmetry features of the racial discrimination prototype. Consistent with status asymmetry predictions, Black observers made greater attributions to discrimination when the victim was Black and the perpetrator was White than when the roles were reversed. In contrast, White observers made similar attributions to discrimination, regardless of status asymmetry. In partial support of the stereotype asymmetry hypothesis, Black and White observers made greater attributions to discrimination for Black victims in a domain where Blacks are negatively stereotyped than positively stereotyped. However, attributions to discrimination for White victims were unaffected by the domain.     

The effects of intradimensional and extradimensional shifts on visual discrimination learning in humans and non-human primates

Human subjects and non-human primates (the common marmoset) were trained on a series of reversals of both a simple (stimuli varying along one dimension) and compound (stimuli varying along two different dimensions) visual discrimination, using computer-generated stimuli. They were then shifted to a third series of reversals using completely novel compound stimuli. Those humans and marmosets for which the previously relevant dimension remained relevant, following the shift (shapes to shapes or lines to lines; intradimensional shift) made fewer errors than those for which the previously irrelevant dimension became relevant (shapes to lines or lines to shapes; extradimensional shift). These findings suggest that both humans and marmosets can learn to attend to the specific attributes or dimensions of a stimulus and use this information in visual discrimination learning.     

Conditional discrimination of series containing either two or three rewarded trials

Series of trials differing only in the number of rewarded trials (2R or 3R series) were used to test rats' ability to learn conditional numerical discriminations. Although the series were conditionally related to initially non-numerical situations, the rats successfully learned the discrimination. It is concluded that these discriminations can plausibly be conceptualized as conditional counting. A pair of transfer tests given after the discriminations were well established suggested that, under these conditions, numerical information will overshadow other non-numerical sources of discrimination made relevant by the transfer shifts.     

Auditory temporal perception, phonics, and reading disabilities in children

Reading-impaired and control children were given an experimental battery of nonverbal auditory perceptual tests which examined discrimination and temporal order perception. Stimulus tones were presented at various rates. There were no significant differences between groups on tests in which stimuli were presented at slow rates. However, when the same stimuli were presented more rapidly, the reading-impaired group made significantly more errors than the controls. The reading-impaired children's ability to use phonics skills (nonsense word reading) was also examined. There was a high correlation between the number of errors made on the phonics reading test and the number of errors made in responding to the rapidly presented stimuli in the auditory perceptual tests. The hypothesis that some reading impairments are related to low-level auditory perceptual dysfunction that affects the ability to learn to use phonics skills adequately is discussed.