A META-ANALYSIS ON THE MALLEABILITY OF AUTOMATIC GENDER STEREOTYPES

This meta-analytic review examined the efficacy of interventions aimed at reducing automatic gender stereotypes. Such interventions included attentional distraction, salience of within-category heterogeneity, and stereotype suppression. A small but significant main effect ( g  = .32) suggests that these interventions are successful but that their scope is limited. The intervention main effect was moderated by publication status, sample nationality, and intervention type. The meta-analytic findings suggest several issues worthy of further investigation, such as whether (a) other categories of intervention not yet identified or tested could be more effective, (b) suppression necessarily produces ironic effects in automatic stereotyping, (c) various indirect measures are differentially sensitive to stereotype change, and (d) automatic stereotypes about men differ in their malleability from those about women.     

Cognitive biases in the perception of discrimination: The importance of format

Previous work has shown that people seem less able to perceive sex discrimination on a personal level than on a societal level. The present experiment was performed to test the hypothesis that this phenomenon is in part an information-processing bias; that is, the perception of discrimination is more difficult when one makes case-by-case comparisons than when one encounters information in aggregate form. The experiment demonstrated the importance of formatting for the perception of discrimination. Among subjects with little or no emotional investment in the issue of sex discrimination, the format of the pertinent information has a large effect on information processing: subjects perceived less discrimination when they encountered the relevant information in little chunks than when they saw the total picture at a single shot.     

Clarifying and measuring the concept of traditional vs. egalitarian roles in marriages

To clarify and develop a measure of the concept of traditional vs. egalitarian marriages, a 13-item scale was developed and administered to two traditional groups (N=35) and three egalitarian groups (N=51), and then to four cross-validation groups (N=52). Two distinct factors or dimensions were identified. In both analyses the traditional and egalitarian groups were significantly different on the first factor, designated “the leader,” and not on the second, socioemotional factor. Reliability and initial validity of the scale in measuring leadership in the marital dyad are thus demonstrated. However, the concept of traditional vs. egalitarian marriages either needs to be narrowed to refer to leadership only or there needs to be empirical demonstration that other dimensions can be fruitfully included.     

The relationship between speed of information processing and cognitive ability

Speed of information processing as measured by various reaction time and inspection tasks has been shown to correlate with psychometric intelligence, and it has been suggested that general intelligence (g) is determined to some degree by the speed that information is processed. If this is so, then various measures of speed of information processing should correlate substantially with each other, and each should also correlate with a wide range of psychometric tests that load on g. Alternatively, intelligence may be considered to be a multi-faceted complex of partially related abilities with specific abilities being dependent upon specific cognitive processes. If this is the case, it should be possible to discover independent cognitive processes, some of which correlate with one facet or broad ability and some with another. This paper presents three experiments in which the relationship between intellectual ability and four speed of information processing measures was examined. These were rate of memory scanning, rate of retrieval of information from long term memory, speed of stimulus-response mapping and inspection time (IT). Results showed that correlations between IT and most reaction time measures of speed of information processing were low, and that correlations between different versions of IT were negligible. In addition, some cognitive tasks with verbal material (memory scanning rate for digits and Posner letter matching IT) correlated most substantially with Verbal Reasoning whereas non-verbal (two-line) IT consistently correlated with tests loading on g. It was thus suggested that while non-verbal IT may be a measure of a perceptual speed attribute that contributes to mental functioning, other “speed of information processing” parameters may be more specific to a subset of abilities.     

Basic human values: The ethos for methodology

This paper draws on the personal experiences of part of a research project where the original methodology was flawed and needed to change to properly encompass the lives and experiences of the people who the research was for, namely users of mental health services living in supported housing. The change in methodology involved a recognition that the research could not be termed ‘value-free’; that researchers are not objective. It is argued that it was important to demonstrate that the information obtained in the research was ‘valid’, and that despite the subjective nature of the research, there are steps that can be taken to convince others that the information received is ‘real’. It is further argued that the traditional approach to research of separating theory (or knowledge) from practice was not only inappropriate in this sort of research, but is a false notion in any sort of action research that aims to promote change. The importance of the influence and power of service providers in action research is recognised, as well as the constraints placed on short-term funded projects. It was important for the methodology to be non-oppressive so that researchers adopted an open and honest approach and for researchers to become involved with the research participants. The implications of this ‘involvement’ are discussed. There is a concluding discussion about whether non-users of mental health services can be considered as allies in research. It is argued that all oppressed groups need their allies and if the research is led by basic human values, then working alongside people who depend on services can lead to emancipatory outcomes.     

School-Based Secondary Prevention for Children with Disruptive Behavior: Initial Outcomes

First through fourth graders from 22 suburban elementary schools were screened for cross-setting disruptive behavior as eligibility criteria for participation in a longitudinal secondary prevention study aimed at reducing the risk for serious externalizing behavioral disorders. Three hundred nine subjects participated in either a multicomponent competence enhancement intervention (MCEI) or an information/attention control (IAC) condition over a 2-year period. Following baseline measurements, initial intervention effects were assessed at the end of intervention Year 1, at the beginning of intervention Year 2 (fall of the next school year), and at the end of intervention Year 2. Multisource assessments were not supportive of the efficacy of the MCEI over the IAC condition. Children in both groups rated themselves as improved over time in terms of increased adaptive skills and decreased school problems and internalizing symptoms. Teacher and parent ratings of externalizing behavior did not yield evidence of positive change, but teachers noted improved problem solving and observers noted a decrease in behavioral interference in both groups over time, possibly as a result of maturation.     

BEHAVIORAL ASSESSMENT AND TREATMENT OF CHRONIC FOOD REFUSAL IN HANDICAPPED CHILDREN

In this study, we examined the eating behavior of four handicapped children, none of whom exhibited self-feeding skills. All children had a history of food refusal and were nutritionally at risk; one child received all nourishment by way of a gastrostomy tube. Baseline data taken during mealtimes indicated that all children accepted very little food, expelled food frequently, and engaged in a number of disruptive behaviors. Treatments consisted of one or more of the following contingent events: social praise, access to preferred foods, brief periods of toy play, and forced feeding. Results of multiple-baseline and reversal designs showed marked behavioral improvement for each child and increases in the amount of food consumed. Further improvements were noted at follow-up, which ranged from 7 to 30 months posttreatment.     

Discontent Among Male Lawyers, Female Lawyers, and Female Legal Secretaries

Female lawyers, female legal secretaries, and male lawyers were interviewed about their feelings of grievance and three grievance-related attitudes. The working women, like the men, are generally content with their personal situations at work and at home. The women are significantly more upset than are the men about the plight of working women.     

Developing the Individual: Life Skills and Family Therapy

Two bodies of literature on life skills and on family therapy have developed from different sources but have interesting similarities. Life skills comes from training and educational thinking, and concentrates upon the skills of and strategies for coping. Family therapy focuses upon the disturbance of an individual as symbolic of the dynamics of the family, but has at its roots a more-or-less explicit model of what constitutes an effective family, where the interactions can be readily understood in life-skill terms. The two approaches are compared and contrasted.