Depression-related distress in Mauritian and South African adolescent girls: an exploratory investigation

Self-reports of depression-related distress were obtained from girls of 14 to 17 years of age living in communities of low socioeconomic status in Mauritius (n = 198) and South Africa (n = 275). Of the girls in the two samples, 26.3 and 21.5%, respectively, had thought about self-harm during the past 5 yr., while between 14.6 and 16.7% had made self-harm attempts. Also, 39.9% of the Mauritian girls and 31.0% of the South Africans reported being sad and tearful every day for more than 2 wk. over the past year. Of the girls, Mauritians (54.0%) and South Africans (32.1%) felt their problems were too much to cope with, while 20.4% of the South African girls and 44.4% of the Mauritians knew of no place to go for help when feeling sad or depressed. The findings highlight the extent of depression-related symptoms and issues related to access to mental health services. Increasing mental health services and awareness programmes are indicated.     

The exploitation of Gestalt principles by magicians

Magicians exploit a host of psychological principles in deceiving their audiences. Psychologists have recently attempted to pinpoint the most common psychological tendencies exploited by magicians. This paper highlights two co-occurring principles that appear to be the basis for many popular magic tricks: accidental alignment and good continuation.     

Raphael Meldola and the Nineteenth-Century Neo-Darwinians

Raphael Meldola (1849–1915), an industrial chemist and keen naturalist, under the influence of Darwin, brought new German studies on evolution by natural selection that appeared in the 1870s to the attention of the British scientific community. Meldola’s special interest was in mimicry among butterflies; through this he became a prominent neo-Darwinian. His wide-ranging achievements in science led to appointments as president of important professional scientific societies, and of a local club of like-minded amateurs, particularly field naturalists. This is an account of Meldola’s early scientific connections and studies related to entomology and natural selection, his contributions to the study of mimicry, and his promotion in the mid-1890s of a more theory driven approach among entomologists.     

The impact of reemployment on access to the latent and manifest benefits of employment and mental health

This study focused on the impact of reemployment on access to both the latent and manifest benefits of employment, and mental health. Existing theories predicted that reemployment would positively affect these variables. One hundred and fifteen unemployed participants in South East Queensland, Australia, completed two paper‐and‐pencil surveys administered 6 months apart that included measures of financial hardship, financial strain, access to the latent benefits (collective purpose, social contact, status, activity, and time structure), and mental health (as measured by the 12‐item General Health Questionnaire). Participants who gained employment (N = 58) were better off financially, reported greater access to social contact and time structure and had significant improvements in their mental health at Time 2. Participants who remained unemployed showed no change over time. Whilst these results highlight that there is a strong positive impact of reemployment, it is acknowledged that the picture is much more complex than what we have reported here. We recommend that structured programmes be available before unemployment is experienced, particularly those that have a beneficial preventive effect on mental health among those participants most at risk of psychological disorders.     

Sexual dimorphism of male face shape,partnership status and the temporal context of relationship sought modulate women's preferences for direct gaze

Most previous studies of face preferences have investigated the physical cues that influence face preferences. Far fewer studies have investigated the effects of cues to the direction of others' social interest (i.e. gaze direction) on face preferences. Here we found that unpartnered women demonstrated stronger preferences for direct gaze (indicating social interest) from feminine male faces than from masculine male faces when judging men's attractiveness for long‐term relationships, but not when judging men's attractiveness for short‐term relationships. Moreover, unpartnered women's preferences for direct gaze from feminine men were stronger for long‐term than short‐term relationships, but there was no comparable effect for judgements of masculine men. No such effects were evident among women with romantic partners, potentially reflecting different motivations underlying partnered and unpartnered women's judgements of men's attractiveness. Collectively these findings (1) complement previous findings whereby women demonstrated stronger preferences for feminine men as long‐term than short‐term partners, (2) demonstrate context‐sensitivity in the integration of physical and social cues in face preferences, and (3) suggest that gaze preferences may function, at least in part, to facilitate efficient allocation of mating effort.     

What Matters in Social Accounts? The Roles of Account Specificity,Source Expertise,and Outcome Loss on Acceptance

Although we know that social accounts favorably affect fairness outcomes, we still do not know what makes them work. An experimental design was used to assess the impact of message specificity, source expertise, and outcome loss on account acceptance. Also examined was how account acceptance mediates the relationship between these factors and a range of fairness outcomes. Specificity had a main effect on acceptability, but interacted with expertise across levels of loss. Expertise had a slight positive effect on acceptance under low loss conditions, but its effect turned sharply negative under conditions of higher loss. Acceptability partially mediated the relationship between specificity and all fairness outcomes, and fully mediated the impact on commitment to the trainer.     

A daily diary investigation of Latino ethnic identity, discrimination, and depression

The objectives of the current study were to document the effects of discrimination on Latino mental health and to identify the circumstances by which ethnic identity serves a protective function. Instances of discrimination and depressive symptoms were measured every day for 13 days in a sample of Latino adults (N = 91). Multilevel random coefficient modeling showed a 1-day lagged effect in which increases in depression were observed the day following a discriminatory event. The findings also revealed differential effects of ethnic identity exploration and commitment. Whereas ethnic identity exploration was found to exacerbate the influence of daily discrimination on next-day depression, ethnic identity commitment operated as a stress buffer, influencing the intensity of and recovery from daily discrimination. The findings are discussed within a stress and coping perspective that identifies appropriate cultural resources for decreasing the psychological consequences associated with daily discrimination.