Alcoholism and memory: broadening the scope of alcohol-expectancy research

Current biopsychosocial research on the etiology of alcoholism has begun to focus on memory processes as a possible common pathway for drinking decisions. The alcohol-expectancy construct is rooted both in cognitive psychology and alcohol research and can serve as a vehicle for this study. Reexamination of one recent review of issues in alcohol-expectancy research provides an opportunity to broaden the scope of this research with theoretical and methodological alternatives to those suggested in that review. Most importantly, this article shows that expectancy findings, discussed by Leigh (1989a) as reflecting "psychometric" limitations, are instead quite consistent with recent network models of memory structure. Such models can provide an informative guide to future research activities. It is also recommended that alcohol-expectancy research remain open to inputs from expectancy theories already developed in several psychological domains, as well as to theories of social cognition and attitude structure in addition to those advanced by Leigh.     

Coca-Cola, caffeine, and mental deficiency: Harry Hollingworth and the Chattanooga trial of 1911

Harry Hollingworth's 1911 investigation of the behavioral effects of caffeine is one of the earliest examples of psychological research contracted by a large corporation. The research was necessitated by a federal government suit against the Coca-Cola Company for marketing a beverage with a deleterious ingredient, namely, caffeine. Although Hollingworth's research played little role in the outcome of the Coca-Cola trials, it was important as a model of sophistication in experimental design. As such, it set a standard for psychopharmacological research. It also was particularly important in directing Hollingworth toward a life-long career in applied psychology.     

Effects of a prosocial television soap opera in promoting women's status

The effects of exposure to "Hum Log," India's first long-running television soap opera, on viewers' beliefs about women's status, freedom of choice, and family planning were assessed in a survey of 1170 respondents from three geographic areas. The soap opera is intended to promote prosocial beliefs about the role of women in India. A structural equation model was developed to measure the impact of awareness, involvement, and television dependency on personal beliefs. Viewers who were most exposed to "Hum Log" were more involved with its characters and more dependent on Indian television for education and entertainment, but were no more aware than their less exposed counterparts of the prosocial beliefs promoted by the soap opera. There was no significant association between viewers' involvement with the characters and their beliefs about women's equality, freedom of choice, or family planning. Moreover, viewers who were more dependent on television did not exhibit significantly stronger beliefs about these issues. There was a significant association between awareness of the prosocial messages promoted in "Hum Log" and viewer beliefs in freedom of choice and family planning. Overall, it appears that, while "Hum Log" enjoys a large and dedicated audience, its messages regarding women's equality are not being assimilated on a large scale. An analysis of the female characters in the soap opera reveals that, in many cases, the self-sufficient, career-oriented women experienced negative social consequences, while characters who pursued more traditional female roles were rewarded. Thus, while there is no evidence that "Hum Log" is making a significant contribution toward changing the way women are viewed in India, its popularity paves the way for future prosocial programming     

Desynchrony following the treatment of pain behaviour

Preliminary evidence is presented concerning the relationship of measures of subjective pain experience, negative mood state and activity levels of 12 patients severely disabled with chronic pain behaviour. Prior to treatment there was a high positive correlation between pain intensity and negative mood state, and a negative correlation between pain intensity and levels of activity. Following a standardized behavioural treatment programme both these correlations were reduced, suggesting that some elements of the treatment induced desynchrony. The correlation of activity and negative mood state showed little change. The clinical and theoretical implications arc considered.     

Hyperbolic modeling and assessment of hypothetical health behaviors during a viral outbreak using crowdsourced samples

The COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity to investigate factors related to public response to public health measures, which could help better prepare implementation of similar measures for inevitable future pandemics. To understand individual and environmental factors that influence likelihood in engaging in personal and public health measures, three crowdsourced convenience samples from Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) completed likelihood-discounting tasks of engaging in health behaviors given a variety of hypothetical viral outbreak scenarios. Experiment 1 assessed likelihood of mask wearing for a novel virus. Experiment 2 assessed vaccination likelihood based on efficacy and cost. Experiment 3 assessed likelihood of seeking health care based on number of symptoms and cost of treatment. Volume-based measures and three-dimensional modeling were used to analyze hypothetical decision making. Hypothetical public and personal health participation increased as viral fatality increased and generally followed a hyperbolic function. Public health participation was moderated by political orientation and trust in science, whereas treatment-seeking was only moderated by income. Analytic methods used in this cross-sectional study predicted population-level outcomes that occurred later in the pandemic and can be extended to various health behaviors.     

Psychotherapists' efforts to increase awareness of social privilege

Understanding the role of privilege in systemic oppression positions psychotherapists to engage in culturally oriented practice. Twenty-five practising psychotherapists were asked: ‘How can psychotherapists increase their awareness of social privilege?’ Participants sorted 68 unique responses into six concepts. The concepts included: make yourself uncomfortable; embrace humility; learn from the community; involvement in social action; seek critical knowledge; and find like-minded others in the profession. Recommendations for student training are offered.     

Race,Religion, and Black Lives Matter: Assessing the Association between Sermon Content and Racial Justice Attitudes and Behaviors

We use the 2020/2021 National Politics Study to examine two central questions: 1. How do religious beliefs and clergy sermons about race associate with support for Black Lives Matter (BLM) and racial justice work? And 2. Is the relationship between religion and BLM-related attitudes and activism similar or different across race groups? We found the following: In the months following the summer of 2020 protests in response to George Floyd's murder, African, Hispanic, and White American worship goers who heard sermons about race and policing were more likely than were their co-ethnics to approve of BLM and to engage in racial justice work. Identifying with the religious left and believing that social justice is a core part of one's religaious beliefs is also associated with these groups approving of BLM and engaging in racial justice work. That said, race matters. These forms of religion tend to maintain stronger relationships with White BLM-related attitudes and activism than they do for African Americans and Hispanics.     

Categorization and intergroup anxiety in contact between British and Japanese nationals

Two studies examined the relationship between categorization, intergroup anxiety and intergroup attitudes (intergroup bias and negative affect). Study 1 consisted of a survey of 236 British and Japanese nationals. Study 2 was a longitudinal study of 54 Japanese students studying in the UK. Of the three categorization variables (interpersonal, superordinate and intergroup), only intergroup categorization was shown to have a relationship to generalized intergroup attitudes. In addition, intergroup anxiety and quality of contact were associated with ingroup bias and negative affect to the outgroup. Study 2 revealed an interaction between intergroup categorization and quality of contact in predicting negative affect. Intergroup anxiety was also associated with increased intergroup categorization. It is concluded that the effects of categorization during contact are still poorly understood, and that intergroup anxiety is a far more powerful variable in contact than the current literature acknowledges. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.