Pre-service teachers’ implicit and explicit attitudes toward obesity influence their judgments of students

Obese children experience disadvantages in school and discrimination from their teachers. Teachers’ implicit and explicit attitudes have been identified as contributing to these disadvantages. Drawing on dual process models, we investigated the nature of pre-service teachers’ implicit and explicit attitudes, their motivation to respond without prejudice, and how attitudes influence their judgments of an obese student. Results showed that implicit anti-obesity bias might stem from an implicit positivity toward thinness rather than from an implicit negativity toward obesity. Explicit attitudes were mixed: positive attitudes toward achievement, a dislike of obese persons, and neutral attitudes concerning blame and health responsibility emerged. Implicit and explicit attitudes affected judgments of language proficiency and intelligence: pre-service teachers with more positive attitudes judged the obese student more favorably. The results of multiple regression analyses suggest that attitudes might exert a greater influence when pre-service teachers must draw inferences to derive the judgment.     

Religious outlook and students’ attitudes toward the environment

This paper reports the results of a survey study on attitudes towards religion and the environment, carried out with 1000 undergraduate students enrolled in two universities in Bangkok and Chiangmai, Thailand. There is a positive relationship between students’ religious outlook and their attitudes towards the environment, a finding that underlines the educational significance of general epistemological stances.     

Finnish parents’ attitudes toward entrepreneurship education

This study set out to investigate parental attitudes toward entrepreneurship education as evaluative directing components of social representations. A nationwide sample of parents (N = 625) was asked to indicate their opinions on a set of statements about entrepreneurship education. The parents’ attitudinal orientation suggested that they would rather avoid entrepreneurship education than approach it. Additionally, parental evaluations contained indecision and polarised opinions, and most parents saw it as unlikely or were unsure whether their children would become entrepreneurs. Parental attitudes correlated with the established representations of education and subsequent policy stands, suggesting that entrepreneurship education has been made familiar by anchoring attitudes in the field of educational debates. It was suggested that current trends in educational policy and work life may stimulate the formation of polemical social representations pertaining to entrepreneurship education.     

Changing Polish university students’ attitudes toward cluttering

PurposeThis quasi-experimental design study in Poland explored the extent to which attitudes toward cluttering of university students could be changed or improved after a series of activities dedicated to attaining deeper recognition of problems associated with fluency disorders.MethodUniversity students were assigned to either an Experimental or a Control group, with 39 in each (total = 78). They all completed the Polish version of the Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes–Cluttering (POSHA–Cl) on two occasions up to eight weeks apart.Participants in the Experimental group attended the following intervention activities: watching and discussing an educational video on cluttering, participating in a workshop on the nature of cluttering, and watching and discussing a documentary on the life experiences of people struggling with fluency disorders. The Experimental group also filled out an open-ended questionnaire at the end of the study.ResultsPre-intervention comparisons indicated that participants assigned to either of the Experimental or Control groups differed significantly on 2 of the 15 summary ratings (13 %) of their pre-POSHA–Cl attitudes toward cluttering. For the Experimental group, the intervention resulted in significant positive changes in cluttering attitudes on 8 of the 15 summary ratings (53 %). In contrast, pre- and post- POSHA–Cl scores for the Control group were essentially unchanged (0 of 15 ratings).ConclusionsThis quasi-experimental study demonstrated that it is possible to positively modify the cluttering attitudes of university students. This has implications for the length, content, and experiential components of interventions designed to improve public attitudes toward fluency disorders.     

Influencing Republicans’ and Democrats’ attitudes toward Obamacare: Effects of imagined vicarious cognitive dissonance on political attitudes

The field of experimental social psychology is appropriately interested in using novel theoretical approaches to implement change in the social world. In the current study, we extended cognitive dissonance theory by creating a new framework of social influence: imagined vicarious dissonance. We used the framework to influence attitudes on an important and controversial political attitude: U.S. citizens’ support for the Affordable Care Act (ACA). 36 Republicans and 84 Democrats were asked to imagine fellow Republicans and Democrats, respectively, making attitude discrepant statements under high and low choice conditions about support for the ACA. The data showed that vicarious dissonance, established by imagining a group member make a counterattitudinal speech under high-choice conditions (as compared to low-choice conditions), resulted in greater support for the Act by Republicans and marginally diminished support by Democrats. The results suggest a promising role for the application of vicarious dissonance theory to relevant societal issues and for further understanding the relationship of dissonance and people’s identification with their social groups.     

Youth sport motivational climate and attitudes toward migrants’ acculturation: The role of empathy and altruism

Previous research has shown that an empowering motivational climate in organized sport has been linked to attitudes favoring migrants’ integration. The purpose of the present study was to further test the relationship between motivational climate and acculturation attitudes, and to explore the role of prosocial skills as potential mediators of this relationship in adolescent athletes from the host population. Participants were 338 (13.61 ± .95 years of age) Greek adolescents (167 girls) participating in organized sport. Participants’ acculturation attitudes, prosocial skills, and perceptions of the coach-created motivational climate were measured. Analysis of structural models revealed that an empowering motivational climate was positively related with prosocial skills, reflecting empathy and altruism, which in turn were positively linked with acculturation attitudes favoring migrants’ integration. The results of the present study replicate previous findings regarding the links between empowering motivational climate and acculturation attitudes, and further, provide evidence that prosocial skills such as empathy and altruism mediate this relationship.     

Between a rock and a hard place? Locus of control,religious problem-solving and psychological help-seeking

Drawing on a college and community sample, this study utilised hierarchical multiple regression to examine the relative contributions of demographic variables, psychological treatment experience, religious service attendance, locus of control, and religious problem-solving style in predicting attitudes towards psychological help-seeking. Women, those holding a graduate degree, and those with treatment experience held more positive attitudes towards psychological help-seeking. While neither the locus of control nor religious problem-solving scales alone were related to help-seeking, several significant interaction effects were observed. God-centred locus of control was a positive predictor of psychological help-seeking, but only for older participants. Chance locus of control was a negative predictor, but only for graduate degree holders. Last, self-directing religious problem-solving style was a negative predictor, especially for individuals also endorsing a deferring religious problem-solving style. Perhaps the composition of the sample – largely educated, religious African-American women – gives some insight into the complex nature of these results.     

Parents’ attitudes toward the perceived usefulness of Internet-related instruction in preschools

Integrating Internet-related applications into preschool instructional activities can enable children to develop multiple aspects of their learning abilities as well as their cognitive, affective, and relevant skills. Because of the trends toward an Internet society and parents’ expectations from preschools, many teachers have considered parents’ perceptions about the usefulness of the Internet in daily life and in workplace settings. This study examined the impacts of parents’ attitudes toward Internet use and their expectations of preschools to use Internet-related applications. We administered a questionnaire in Taiwan comprising five factors: usefulness, work value, preschool expectations, teacher competence, and learning performance. The survey data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The findings revealed that parents perceived the Internet as an innovative and useful tool that enhances their lives and improves their work performance. Their perceptions toward the usefulness and work value of Internet-related practices positively influenced their attitudes toward preschool expectations, and acknowledge the pedagogical advantages associated with integrating Internet-related applications into teaching for developing young children’s learning abilities. The implications of the findings are also discussed in this paper.     

An exploratory study of early childhood teachers’ attitudes toward gender roles

This study explored the relationship between early childhood teachers’ adult gender role beliefs and their attitudes about children’s gender role behavior. The teachers, most of whom were women, expressed nontraditional beliefs regarding gender roles for adults. This feminist orientation appeared to be related to perceptions about child rearing in that teachers who espoused nontraditional gender role beliefs for adults also did for children. In addition, it was found that teachers were more accepting of cross-gender role behaviors and aspirations from girls than boys, and that this difference was related to homophobia. There were strong relationships found between child rearing gender role beliefs and attitudes toward gay men and lesbians. This study is based on a doctoral dissertation completed by the first author under the direction of Nancy Barbour and Beth Swadener. We wish to thank them for their support, comments, and suggestions.     

Changing people’s attitudes and beliefs toward driving through floodwaters: Evaluation of a video infographic

Despite awareness of campaigns such as ‘Turn Around, Don’t Drown’ and the Australian state of Queensland’s ‘If It’s Flooded, Forget It’, people continue to drive through floodwaters, causing loss of life, risk to rescuers, and damage to vehicles. The aim of this study was to develop a video infographic that highlights the dangers of driving through floodwaters and provide safety tips to reduce the risk, and to evaluate its effectiveness in changing the beliefs and intentions of Australian adults toward this risky driving behaviour. This study adopted an online three-wave non-controlled pretest–posttest design. Australian licensed drivers (N = 201, male = 41, female = 160; M_age = 34.10) self-reported their demographic and psychological variables (intention, attitude, subjective norm, barrier self-efficacy, risk perception, anticipated regret, perceived susceptibility, and perceived severity) at baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2), and at a one-month follow-up (T3). Messages in the video infographic were developed based on psychological theory and empirical evidence, using data on causal factors derived from coronial records and the findings of behavioural research. Results indicated that men had significantly higher intentions and attitudes and significantly lower barrier self-efficacy, risk perception, anticipated regret, perceived susceptibility, and perceived severity with respect to driving through floodwater than women. Statistically significant time x gender interaction effects were also found; attitude and subjective norm were significantly lower between T1 and T2 for both men and women but scores between T2 and T3 remained significantly lower for women only. In addition, perceived susceptibility and perceived severity scores were significantly higher in women across T1 and T2, with the difference maintained at T3. In contrast, there were no differences in scores across the three-time points for men. The implications of these findings for road safety and drowning prevention messages targeting drivers during floods are discussed.     

Classroom justice and psychological engagement: students’ and teachers’ representations

This article presents the results of a study carried out with the aim to: (1) analyze secondary school students’ and their teachers’ ideal representations of classroom justice, (2) deepen the topic of students’ sense of injustice, and (3) explore the links between students’ perceived injustice and their psychological engagement in school, measured on different aspects (identification with one’s own class, learning motivation, dialogue with teachers). A questionnaire was distributed to 400 Italian secondary school students and their 79 teachers. Results show that the representations of ideal classroom justice refer to communication, principle of equality and principles of effort/need, and that the positions of teachers and students on these representations differ. Moreover, students report a rather diffuse and shared feeling of being treated in an unjust manner by their teachers, and this affects their psychological engagement in school. Results are commented on their theoretical, methodological and applicative implications.     

Teachers’ attitudes toward homosexuality and the lesbian,gay, bisexual,and queer community in the United States

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) students are a substantial minority group within U.S. elementary, middle, and high schools. Many LGBQ students face harassment and discrimination, which can contribute to educational and psychological problems. Teachers play key roles in students’ school experiences, and their attitudes about homosexuality can influence their behavior toward LGBQ students. The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of teachers’ positive and negative LGBQ-related attitudes, potential changes in attitudes over time, and demographic and social variables that may be related to teachers’ attitudes. This study uses data from 305 pre-kindergarten through 12th grade teachers, collected in waves 2006–2014 of the General Social Survey. Results indicate that teachers’ attitudes toward homosexuality have become more favorable over time; however, many teachers still hold negative attitudes. Just under half of teachers exhibited at least one negative LGBQ-related attitude. Age, political conservativeness, religious attendance, and carryover of religious beliefs were significantly associated with negative LGBQ attitudes. Teachers with a fundamentalist religious orientation tended to have more negative attitudes about homosexuality than teachers with more progressive religious orientations. Negative attitudes were more often found among teachers of color, compared to White teachers, and teachers in the South, Midwest, and Mountain regions tended toward more negative attitudes than teachers in the Northeast and Pacific regions. Teachers have an ethical responsibility to see that all students, regardless of sexual orientation, receive a quality education. Education and training are needed to address problematic attitudes that may negatively affect LGBQ students.

     

Mutual friends’ social support and self-disclosure in face-to-face and instant messenger communication

In the present study, we investigated long-term effects of self-disclosure on social support in face-to-face and instant messenger (IM) communication between mutual friends. Using a representative sample of 583 German IM users, we explored whether self-disclosure and positive experiences with regard to social support would dynamically interact in the form of a reinforcing spiral across three measurement occasions. If mutual friends self-disclose today, will they receive more social support 6 months later? In turn, will this affect their willingness to self-disclose another 6 months later? We further analyzed spill-over effects from face-to-face to IM communication and vice versa. We found that self-disclosure predicted social support and vice versa in IM communication, but not in face-to-face communication. In light of these results, the impact of IM communication on how individuals maneuver friendships through the interplay between self-disclosure and social support are discussed.     

Individual problem‐solving styles and attitudes toward divergent thinking before and after training

ABSTRACT:

Afield experiment was conducted to examine the mediating effect of individual creative problem‐solving style on the impact of training in creative thinking. This intensive hands‐on training emphasized a specific three‐phase process which synchronizes divergence and convergence in problem‐finding, problem‐solving, and implementation. Two attitudes associated with divergent thinking were measured before and after training. The sample was comprised of a mixture of organizational members representing both managers (n = 90) and non‐managers (n = 66) and a variety of functional specialties, hierarchical levels, and types of business organizations. The most significant finding was that the optimizer style of creative problem‐solving improved more than the other three styles (generator, conceptualizer, and implementor) on measures of both creative thinking attitudes.     

Tattoo or taboo? Tattoo stigma and negative attitudes toward tattooed individuals

Tattoos are common in the United States; however, tattooed persons may be perceived as having more negative character and as more deviant than people without tattoos. College students (Study 1) and community members (Study 2) viewed images of men and women with tattoos or the same images with the tattoos digitally removed and rated the targets’ characteristics. Half of the participants viewed a target with a tattoo, and half viewed that target without it, allowing for both within- (participants all rated one male and one female target with a tattoo and another without) and between-participants (participants rated either the tattooed or non-tattooed version of a single target) comparisons. Tattooed targets, especially women, were rated as stronger and more independent, but were rated more negatively on other character attributes than the same target images with the tattoos removed. The stigma associated with tattoos appears to still exist, despite the prevalence of tattoos in modern culture.     

“Penis envy” and attitudes toward castration-like punishment of sexual aggression

Psychoanalytic hypotheses that relate the construct of “penis envy” to the enactment of castration responses toward sexual aggressors were examined by requiring females to evaluate an anthropological film that presented multilations of male genitals. High or low penis envy was determined from responses to Blacky Cartoon VI; the mutilations were presented as cultural rites de passage or as tribal punishments for sexual misconduct. Evaluations of the film showed that interactions predicted by psychoanalytic theory were obtained for subjects' approval of the mutilations, approval of their adoption in the United States, belief that other women should view the film, and desire to see the film again. The analog suggests that penis envy leads to the punishment of sexual aggression, and several psychoanalytic hypotheses for further experimentation on this construct are presented.     

Do parents’ collectivistic tendency and attitudes toward filial piety facilitate autonomous motivation among young Chinese adolescents?

The present study investigates the association of Chinese parents’ collectivistic tendency, attitudes towards filial piety (i.e., children respecting and caring for parents (RCP) and children protecting and upholding honor for parents (PUHP)), parenting behaviors (i.e., autonomy granting (AG) and psychological control (PC)) with young adolescents’ autonomous motivation. Participants were 321 Chinese parents and their eighth-grade children who independently completed a set of surveys. Results showed that parents' collectivistic tendency indirectly and positively contributes to children's autonomous motivation through the mediation of AG and PC, respectively. Parents' attitude toward RCP has an indirect and positive contribution to children's autonomy motivation through the mediation of AG while parents' attitude toward PUHP shows an indirect and negative contribution to children's autonomous motivation through the mediation of PC. The findings suggest that different cultural emphases in collectivist-based societies play different roles in adolescents’ autonomy development. The implications of the findings are discussed.     

Public attitudes toward—and identification of—cluttering and stuttering in Norway and Puerto Rico

PurposeThe study sought to compare public attitudes toward cluttering versus stuttering in Norway and Puerto Rico and to compare respondents’ identification of persons known with these fluency disorders.MethodAfter reading lay definitions of cluttering and stuttering, three samples of adults from Norway and three from Puerto Rico rated their attitudes toward cluttering and/or stuttering on modified versions of the POSHA-Cl (for cluttering) and POSHA-S (for stuttering). They also identified children and adults whom they knew who either or both manifested cluttering or stuttering.ResultsAttitudes toward cluttering were essentially unaffected by rating either cluttering only or combined cluttering and stuttering on the same questionnaire in both countries. The same was also true of stuttering. Attitudes were very similar toward both disorders although slightly less positive for cluttering. Norwegian attitudes toward both disorders were generally more positive than Puerto Rican attitudes. The average respondent identified slightly more than one fluency disorder, a higher percentage for stuttering than cluttering and higher for adults than children. Cluttering–stuttering was rarely identified.ConclusionGiven a lay definition, this study confirmed that adults from diverse cultures hold attitudes toward cluttering that are similar to—but somewhat less positive than—their attitudes toward stuttering. It also confirmed that adults can identify cluttering among people they know, although less commonly than stuttering. Design controls in this study assured that consideration of stuttering did not affect either the attitudes or identification results for cluttering.Educational objectives: The reader will be able to: (a) describe the effects—or lack thereof—of considerations of stuttering on attitudes toward cluttering; (b) describe differences in public identification of children and adults who either clutter or stutter; (c) describe differences between attitudes toward cluttering and stuttering in Norway and Puerto Rico.     

Parents’ perceptions of the Family Climate for Road Safety: Associations with parents’ self-efficacy and attitudes toward accompanied driving,and teens’ driving styles

In order to better understand parental influence on teen driving, a series of three studies were conducted among parents of young drivers to examine the association between their scores on the Family Climate for Road Safety Scale (FCRSS; Taubman – Ben-Ari & Katz – Ben-Ami, 2013) and three relevant factors: parental self-efficacy (Study 1, n = 101); parents’ attitudes toward accompanied driving (Study 2, n = 100); and teen’s driving styles (Study 3, n = 235 parents–young drivers pairs). The findings of Study 1 revealed significant associations between parents’ scores on the positive FCRSS dimensions and their self-reported parental competence. In addition, parents’ lack of commitment to safe driving was related to lower parental self-efficacy. Study 2 indicated significant associations between parents’ scores on the positive FCRSS dimensions and the positive attitude of relatedness during the accompanied driving phase. Negative associations were found between these FCRSS dimensions and negative perceptions of the accompanied driving phase (i.e., tension, disapproval, and avoidance). The findings of Study 3 showed significant associations between parents’ scores on the positive FCRSS dimensions and their offspring’s careful driving style, as well as negative associations between these dimensions and offspring’s endorsement of the reckless, angry, and anxious driving styles. Taken together, the results indicate the importance of the family climate as part of a global understanding of the dynamic surrounding youngsters’ driving. Furthermore, they show that the particular driving-related family climate is associated not only with parents’ self-perceptions and conduct in the early stages of their children’s driving (the accompanied driving phase of a GDL), but also impacts the way teenagers ultimately choose to drive, when they are on their own. Implications for interventions are discussed.