The Influence of Classmates on Adolescent Criminal Activities in the United States

This article examines the effect of delinquent peers on an individual’s criminal activity by leveraging quasi-experimental variation in exposure to peers, separating confounding and causal effects. In particular, we examine the role of wider peer networks (i.e., classmates) as a critical source of influence on adolescents’ delinquent behavior. Using a combined instrumental variables/fixed effects methodology, we address important methodological challenges in estimating peer effects. Results suggest that increasing the proportion of peers who engage in criminal activities by 5% will increase the likelihood an individual engages in criminal activities by 3 percentage points.     

The psychology of diversity and its implications for workplace (in)equality: Looking back at the last decade and forward to the next

In this British Psychological Society (BPS) landmark paper, we employ an evidence synthesis approach to review the broad range of diversity research published in BPS journals between 2011 and 2021. By focusing on research that investigates stereotypes associated with, and discrimination towards, minority and minoritized groups, we seek to provide readers with a better understanding of the dynamics of a diverse workforce and, going forward, to facilitate the efforts of the psychology research community towards building a body of work that meaningfully addresses workplace inequalities. We thematically analyse and synthesize 25 articles, which fall into four interconnected themes: identity development and management; negative stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination; working in a diverse team; and the broader organizational environment. Highlighting key strengths of this work and areas for future development, we note the absence of overarching theoretical debates and discussions that might facilitate the development of an on-going narrative across diversity-related research published within BPS journals. We outline a future research agenda to bridge methodological divides and to connect with diversity literatures in related disciplines such as human resource development (HRD), human resource management (HRM), and organization studies. In so doing, we advocate for psychologists to move beyond a solely individualistic perspective and instead recognize and account for the context within which diversity-related processes take place.     

GENDER IDENTITY AND ADVERSARIAL SEXUAL BELIEFS AS PREDICTORS OF ATTITUDES TOWARD SEXUAL HARASSMENT

The present study replicates the work of Konrad and Gutek (1986) within a college sample and extends their work by examining the impact of gender identity and adversarial sexual beliefs as predictors of attitudes toward sexual harassment. One hundred seven college students indicated specific aspects of their direct experiences with sexual harassment and then completed several attitudinal measures. Endorsement of adversarial sexual beliefs and experience with sexual harassment significantly predicted negative (less tolerant) attitudes toward sexual harassment for male respondents. Strong gender group identity and the endorsement of adversarial sexual beliefs significantly predicted negative (less tolerant) attitudes toward sexual harassment for female students. Implications for the focus of intervention strategies within an academic environment are discussed.     

Causality and the allocation of attention during comprehension

Recent research has suggested that each statement in a narrative text is understood by relating it to its causal antecedents and consequences and that the text as a whole is understood by finding a causal path linking its opening to its final outcome. Fletcher and Bloom (1988) have proposed that in order to accomplish this goal, while minimizing the number of times long-term memory has to be searched, readers focus their attention on the last clause of a narrative that has causal antecedents but no consequences in the preceding text. As a result, a statement that is followed by a causal antecedent should remain the focus of attention, while the same statement followed by a consequence should not. This prediction was tested and confirmed in three experiments which show that when a target statement is followed by a sentence that includes only causal antecedents, (a) continuation sentences related to it are read more quickly, (b) target words drawn from it are easier to recognize, and (c) subject-generated continuations are more likely to be causally related to it.     

Parental Psychological Control and Childhood Anxiety: The Mediating Role of Perceived Lack of Control

Parental psychological control has been found to relate to the development of childhood anxiety; however, this relation has not been thoroughly examined. The purpose of this study was to understand the nature of the relation between parental psychological control and anxiety symptoms in children, as well as to understand whether this relation is mediated by children’s perceived control. Questionnaires were administered to children ages 8–11. Results indicated a significant relation between parental psychological control and child anxiety symptoms. Results further indicated that this relation was fully mediated by children’s perceptions of how much control they feel they have over events in their lives. These findings suggest that although parental psychological control and a child’s perceived control both contribute to the development of anxiety, it is possible that parental psychological control contributes to the development of anxiety by affecting a child’s perception of control.     

Interpersonal precipitants and suicide attempts in borderline personality disorder

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is often characterized by multiple low lethality suicide attempts triggered by seemingly minor incidents, and less commonly by high lethality attempts that are attributed to impulsiveness or comorbid major depression. The relationships among life events, impulsiveness, and type of suicidal behavior has hardly been studied in BPD and mood disorders. This study compared depressed attempters with and without BPD to identify specific suicide precipitants and risk factors in BPD and their relationship to severity of suicidal behavior. Attempters with comorbid BPD and major depressive disorder (MDD) had a higher number of lifetime suicide attempts; made their first attempt at a younger age; reported more interpersonal triggers; and had higher levels of lifetime aggression, hostility, and impulsivity, compared with attempters with major depression only. Environmental triggers of attempts in BPD are more likely to be interpersonal stressors. Lethality of attempts in BPD plus MDD is equal to that in MDD only, indicating that the seriousness of precipitants is unrelated to the lethality of the suicidal behavior. The differences between groups suggest that risk assessment and treatment should target both depression and personality disorder in those with combined illness.     

The health effects of work and family role characteristics: Gender and race comparisons

Many studies have documented the benefits of work and family roles for both physical and mental health. A number of these studies have suggested that work and family roles are beneficial to the degree that they entail rewarding relationships and activities. Using data from the National Survey of Families and Households (N = 10633; 17 percent African-American), this paper examines three questions: (a) Are gender and race differences in health explained by gender and race differences in work and family roles? (b) How do characteristics of work and family roles contribute to health? (c) Are there gender and race differences in the effects of work and family role characteristics? Simple occupancy of work and family roles does not explain away gender and race differences in health. Several characteristics of work and family roles have significant health effects, but there are few significant gender and race differences in those effects, and role characteristics do not change the pattern of gender and race differences in health.     

Dis/Assembling Schizophrenia on YouTube: Theorizing an Analog Body in a Virtual Sphere

As visual technologies become increasingly networked online, websites like YouTube provide a space to share vlogs (video blogs) online, suggest related content for viewers, and help in/form virtual communities, including those of mental illness. Within this space, vlogs of schizophrenia and comments generated about them by other users can represent transitional, dialogical states of illness that speak back to the analog body and affect a body’s way of being in the world. Moreover, as vlogs create resistance against static definitions of schizophrenia, they may foster a creativity, experimentation, and inventiveness that transforms understandings of schizophrenia within the sciences and humanities.     

Brouwer’s Weak Counterexamples and the Creative Subject: A Critical Survey

Journal of Philosophical Logic - I survey Brouwer’s weak counterexamples to classical theorems, with a view to discovering (i) what useful mathematical work is done by weak counterexamples;...