Korean transracial and international adoptees: Ethnic identity and sense of belonging and exclusion in relation to birth and adoptive groups

Past quantitative ethnic identity research on transracial and international adoptees (TRIAs) has focused on their birth culture. Given that adoptees may also identify with their adoptive family’s culture, we examined Korean and White European American ethnic identities in Korean American adoptees. Identity exploration and commitment were significantly positively correlated within each referent group. Results also indicated relatively higher levels of birth group identity exploration and higher adoptive group identity commitment. In addition, we used cluster analysis to create ethnic identity profiles and investigated the relations between identity profiles and sense of belonging and exclusion. Our findings signal a need to support TRIAs to develop inclusive flexible ethnic identities and suggest future research should examine multiple referent groups and the intersection of these identities.     

When social networking is not working: individuals with low self-esteem recognize but do not reap the benefits of self-disclosure on Facebook

The popular media have publicized the idea that social networking Web sites (e.g., Facebook) may enrich the interpersonal lives of people who struggle to make social connections. The opportunity that such sites provide for self-disclosure-a necessary component in the development of intimacy--could be especially beneficial for people with low self-esteem, who are normally hesitant to self-disclose and who have difficulty maintaining satisfying relationships. We suspected that posting on Facebook would reduce the perceived riskiness of self-disclosure, thus encouraging people with low self-esteem to express themselves more openly. In three studies, we examined whether such individuals see Facebook as a safe and appealing medium for self-disclosure, and whether their actual Facebook posts enabled them to reap social rewards. We found that although people with low self-esteem considered Facebook an appealing venue for self-disclosure, the low positivity and high negativity of their disclosures elicited undesirable responses from other people.     

Fearing,not loving,the reflection: Narcissism,self-esteem,and self-discrepancy theory

This study used self-discrepancy theory to explore self-esteem and narcissism. College students (N = 450) completed measures of self-discrepancy, affect, self-esteem, and narcissism. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses found that self-discrepancies explained variance in self-esteem and narcissism beyond that explained by affect. Results also indicated that the actual-ideal and actual-undesired self-discrepancies predicted self-esteem, while the actual-undesired self-discrepancy was the only significant predictor of narcissism. This study provides evidence of incremental validity for self-discrepancies in measuring self-esteem and narcissism. It also suggests that narcissism is associated with an undesired, not an ideal, self-concept.     

Cues to food location that domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) of different ages do and do not use

The results of three experiments are reported. In the main study, a human experimenter presented domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) with a variety of social cues intended to indicate the location of hidden food. The novel findings of this study were: (1) dogs were able to use successfully several totally novel cues in which they watched a human place a marker in front of the target location; (2) dogs were unable to use the marker by itself with no behavioral cues (suggesting that some form of human behavior directed to the target location was a necessary part of the cue); and (3) there were no significant developments in dogs’ skills in these tasks across the age range 4 months to 4 years (arguing against the necessity of extensive learning experiences with humans). In a follow-up study, dogs did not follow human gaze into “empty space” outside of the simulated foraging context. Finally, in a small pilot study, two arctic wolves (Canis lupus) were unable to use human cues to locate hidden food. These results suggest the possibility that domestic dogs have evolved an adaptive specialization for using human-produced directional cues in a goal-directed (especially foraging) context. Exactly how they understand these cues is still an open question. Received: 28 April 2000 / Accepted after revision: 2 September 2000     

Systematic studies of modified vocalization: speech production changes during a variation of metronomic speech in persons who do and do not stutter

The most common way to induce fluency using rhythm requires persons who stutter to speak one syllable or one word to each beat of a metronome, but stuttering can also be eliminated when the stimulus is of a particular duration (e.g., 1 second [s]). The present study examined stuttering frequency, speech production changes, and speech naturalness during rhythmic speech that alternated 1 s of reading with 1 s of silence. A repeated-measures design was used to compare data obtained during a control reading condition and during rhythmic reading in 10 persons who stutter (PWS) and 10 normally fluent controls. Ratings for speech naturalness were also gathered from naïve listeners. Results showed that mean vowel duration increased significantly, and the percentage of short phonated intervals decreased significantly, for both groups from the control to the experimental condition. Mean phonated interval length increased significantly for the fluent controls. Mean speech naturalness ratings during the experimental condition were approximately “7” on a 1–9 scale (1 = highly natural; 9 = highly unnatural), and these ratings were significantly correlated with vowel duration and phonated intervals for PWS. The findings indicate that PWS may be altering vocal fold vibration duration to obtain fluency during this rhythmic speech style, and that vocal fold vibration duration may have an impact on speech naturalness during rhythmic speech. Future investigations should examine speech production changes and speech naturalness during variations of this rhythmic condition.Educational objectives: The reader will be able to: (1) describe changes (from a control reading condition) in speech production variables when alternating between 1 s of reading and 1 s of silence, (2) describe which rhythmic conditions have been found to sound and feel the most natural, (3) describe methodological issues for studies about alterations in speech production variables during fluency-inducing conditions, and (4) describe which fluency-inducing conditions have been shown to involve a reduction in short phonated intervals.     

Signals of threat do not capture, but prioritize, attention: a conditioning approach

Research suggests that threatening information captures attention more rapidly than neutral information. However, in most studies threat stimuli differ perceptually from neutral stimuli and are instrumental to perform the task, leaving the question unanswered whether threat is sufficient to capture attention. In experiment 1, we designed a visual search task with stimuli of equal salience (colored circles) that have the potential to lead to efficient search (10 ms/item). In experiment 2, one of the colors (conditioned stimulus, CS+) was made threatening by means of fear conditioning. Participants responded to a target presented in one of the circles. Overall, the search was faster on congruent trials (where the target was presented in the CS+) than on baseline trials (where the CS + was absent). Furthermore, the search was slower on incongruent trials (where the target was presented in another color than the CS+) than on baseline trials. The search on congruent trials was affected by set size (90 ms/item), but to a lesser extent than on baseline trials (105 ms/item). We conclude that threat prioritizes, but does not capture attention.     

Body-image, personal space, and self-esteem: a field study

In an earlier study, the author reported changes in body boundary perception and interaction distance resulting from the experimental manipulation of self-esteem. The present study attempted to replicate these laboratory findings in a field setting. The test battery included a self-esteem questionnaire and was administered to Army recruits before and after participation in a leadership training course. Results showed that while self-esteem had been modified predictably by performance, interaction distance was only partially affected, and the boundary indices remained unchanged. Results were discussed in relation to immediacy effects on the evaluation of competence, and their implications for field as compared to laboratory research.     

Adoption,attachment, and relationship concerns: A study of adult adoptees

We examined the impact of adoptive status and family experiences on adult attachment security and how attachment predicts relationship outcomes. Adults adopted as infants (N = 144) and a sample of nonadoptees (N = 131) completed measures of attachment security at recruitment and 6 months later; other measures assessed parental bonding and adoptees’ reunion experiences (Time 1), and relationship variables (e.g., loneliness, relationship quality; Time 2). Insecurity was higher for adoptees and those reporting negative childhood relationships with parents. For adoptees only, recent relationship difficulties also predicted insecurity. Attachment dimensions were more important than adoptive status in predicting relationship variables and mediated the effects of adoptive status. The results support the utility of attachment theory in understanding adoptees’ relationship concerns.     

Implicit self-esteem: nature, measurement, and a new way forward

Gaining insight into the nature and consequences of people's global self-evaluations (i.e., their self-esteem) has been fraught with difficulty. Nearly 2 decades ago, researchers suggested that such difficulties might be addressed by the development of a new class of measures designed to uncover implicit self-esteem. In this article, we evaluate the construct validity of the 2 most common measures of implicit self-esteem, the Implicit Association Test (IAT) and Name-Letter Test (NLT). Our review indicates that the research literature has not provided strong or consistent support for the validity of either measure. We conclude that both tests are impoverished measures of self-esteem that are better understood as measures of either generalized implicit affect (IAT) or implicit egotism (NLT). However, we suggest that there surely are aspects of self-esteem that people are unwilling or unable to report and suggest a general approach that may allow researchers to tap these unspoken aspects of self-esteem.     

Sex differences in left-handedness: a meta-analysis of 144 studies

Human handedness, a marker for language lateralization in the brain, continues to attract great research interest. A widely reported but not universal finding is a greater male tendency toward left-handedness. Here the authors present a meta-analysis of k = 144 studies, totaling N = 1,787,629 participants, the results of which demonstrate that the sex difference is both significant and robust. The overall best estimate for the male to female odds ratio was 1.23 (95% confidence interval = 1.19, 1.27). The widespread observation of this sex difference is consistent with it being related to innate characteristics of sexual differentiation, and its observed magnitude places an important constraint on current theories of handedness. In addition, the size of the sex difference was significantly moderated by the way in which handedness was assessed (by writing hand or by other means), the location of testing, and the year of publication of the study, implicating additional influences on its development.     

Genetic and environmental influences on antisocial behavior: a meta-analysis of twin and adoption studies

A meta-analysis of 51 twin and adoption studies was conducted to estimate the magnitude of genetic and environmental influences on antisocial behavior. The best fitting model included moderate proportions of variance due to additive genetic influences (.32), nonadditive genetic influences (.09), shared environmental influences (.16), and nonshared environmental influences (.43). The magnitude of familial influences (i.e., both genetic and shared environmental influences) was lower in parent-offspring adoption studies than in both twin studies and sibling adoption studies. Operationalization, assessment method, zygosity determination method, and age were significant moderators of the magnitude of genetic and environmental influences on antisocial behavior, but there were no significant differences in the magnitude of genetic and environmental influences for males and females.     

Growing up and growing apart: a developmental meta-analysis of twin studies

Developmental change in twin similarity was examined with age contrasts in a meta-analysis of twin studies from 1967 through 1985. Intraclass rs were coded from 103 papers that included data for monozygotic or dizygotic twins, or for both, on personality or intelligence variables. Analyses indicated that there was a general tendency for some intraclass rs to decrease with age. In other words, as twins grow up, they grow apart. There were also developmental differences associated with components of variance for heritability, the shared environment, and the nonshared environment. Mechanisms through which the nonshared environment may operate are discussed.     

The development of perceptual averaging: learning what to do,not just how to do it

The mature visual system condenses complex scenes into simple summary statistics (e.g., average size, location, orientation, etc.). However, children, often perform poorly on perceptual averaging tasks. Children's difficulties are typically thought to represent the suboptimal implementation of an adult‐like strategy. This paper examines another possibility: that children actually make decisions in a qualitatively different way to adults (optimal implementation of a non‐ideal strategy). Ninety children (6–7, 8–9, 10–11 years) and 30 adults were asked to locate the middle of randomly generated dot‐clouds. Nine plausible decision strategies were formulated, and each was fitted to observers' trial‐by‐trial response data (Reverse Correlation). When the number of visual elements was low (N < 6), children used a qualitatively different decision strategy from adults: appearing to “join up the dots” and locate the gravitational center of the enclosing shape. Given denser displays, both children and adults used an ideal strategy of arithmetically averaging individual points. Accounting for this difference in decision strategy explained 29% of children's lower precision. These findings suggest that children are not simply suboptimal at performing adult‐like computations, but may at times use sensible, but qualitatively different strategies to make perceptual judgments. Learning which strategy is best in which circumstance might be an important driving factor of perceptual development.     

The need to win is not adaptive: the need to win, coping strategies, hope and self-esteem

In a previous paper we reported the factor analytic development of a scale that differentiates people, among other things, in terms of their need to win (WIN), their need to perform well (PW) and their preference for difficult tasks (DIFF). This paper presents correlations between WIN, PW and DIFF and various personality/coping measures. The correlations indicate that people with a strong need to win as compared with people who like to perform well or like difficult tasks tend to have poorer coping skills (e.g., tend to engage in denial and become behaviorally and mentally disengaged when stressed), tend to see the world as more hostile (e.g., “it is a dog-eat-dog world”), tend to have an entity view of intelligence/skills (e.g., intelligence is fixed), tend to view the route to success as coming from such things as modeling and appearance. In addition, people with a need to win tend to have poorer self-esteem (SE) and tend to be lower in hope (HOPE) than people who like to perform well (PW) and people who like difficult tasks (DIFF). These results are consistent with the idea that people with a need to win tend to have an ego orientation whereas people who like to perform well and who like difficult tasks tend to have a mastery orientation.     

Determinants of linear judgment: a meta-analysis of lens model studies

The mathematical representation of E. Brunswik's (1952) lens model has been used extensively to study human judgment and provides a unique opportunity to conduct a meta-analysis of studies that covers roughly 5 decades. Specifically, the authors analyzed statistics of the "lens model equation" (L. R. Tucker, 1964) associated with 249 different task environments obtained from 86 articles. On average, fairly high levels of judgmental achievement were found, and people were seen to be capable of achieving similar levels of cognitive performance in noisy and predictable environments. Further, the effects of task characteristics that influence judgment (numbers and types of cues, inter-cue redundancy, function forms and cue weights in the ecology, laboratory versus field studies, and experience with the task) were identified and estimated. A detailed analysis of learning studies revealed that the most effective form of feedback was information about the task. The authors also analyzed empirically under what conditions the application of bootstrapping--or replacing judges by their linear models--is advantageous. Finally, the authors note shortcomings of the kinds of studies conducted to date, limitations in the lens model methodology, and possibilities for future research.     

Toward a comprehensive model of face impressions: What we know,what we do not,and paths forward

A person's impression of another depends upon three sources of variance. The characteristics of the target, the characteristics of the perceiver, and the interplay between the two. Researchers have dedicated different amounts of study to these three sources of variance, and therefore they differ in how well they are understood. The present work will first review the portions of the face impression process that are understood well, then identify and discuss portions of the process less well understood. We will then question to what extent the current state of knowledge will generalize to novel targets and populations. Finally, we will review several modeling approaches that can accommodate relatively unexamined yet important sources of variance in impression formation, suggesting a clear path forward toward a comprehensive understanding of face impressions.     

World culture festivals: Their perceived effect on and value to domestic and international tourism

This study investigated the impact of the festival experience (sensory, cognitive, and behavioural) on the perceived value and loyalty of tourists. The participants were 450 tourists (51.1% domestic; 48.9% international) who attended the 2015 South Korean World Culture festival. Of the international tourists, 44.6% were African (Africans living in Europe and the Americas are partly included). The domestic tourists received a questionnaire in Korean, while the foreign tourists received a questionnaire in English. A regression analysis was used to predict the effect of the festival experience on the tourists’ perceived value and loyalty. Findings suggest that behavioural factors most influenced the perceived value and loyalty of domestic tourists. Cognitive and sensory factors most influenced international and African tourists’ perceptions of value. In addition, the loyalty of African tourists was most influenced by the sensory aspects of the festival.