Clarifying the role of the "other" category in the self-esteem IAT

A. Karpinski (2004) recently criticized Implicit Association Test (IAT) measures of self-esteem, arguing that their measurements of self-associations are compromised by their contrasting self with a putatively extremely negative second category, the nonspecific other. The present data show, to the contrary, that the nonspecific other category in the self-esteem IAT is near neutral in valence. Validity of the self-esteem IAT is most appropriately assessed by examining its correlations with conceptually related measures. That has been done in several previous studies that are reviewed here. The nonspecific other category is only one of several choices for representing the concept of other in self-esteem IATs. Choice of the appropriate other category to contrast with self in self-esteem IATs should be guided by the needs of the research question being addressed.     

Level of functioning and recidivism risk among adolescent offenders

The assessment of offending youth is important in determining the most appropriate disposition for adolescents involved in the justice system. Recent studies have found a relationship between justice system involvement and level-of-functioning (LOF). This study investigated the relationship between LOF and recidivism risk among adolescents involved in a community-based, juvenile justice treatment program. The results document that conceptually similar domains are substantively correlated; however, a range of functioning was found among youth considered to have the same risk of recidivism. Overall, the results suggest that LOF measures may be associated with risk measures due to a convergence of areas assessed and that the two constructs also may have a relationship analogous to LOF and clinical diagnosis.     

Chewing on it can chew you up: effects of rumination on triggered displaced aggression

Ruminating about a provocation increases the likelihood of displaced aggression following a minor annoyance (trigger). In Study 1, provoked participants who ruminated for 25 min were more aggressive toward a fumbling confederate than were distracted participants. Provocation-induced negative affect was positively related to aggression but only among those who ruminated. Study 2 conceptually replicated Study 1 and also found that the more negatively people reacted to the trigger, the more likely the trigger was to increase displaced aggression. Study 3 replicated the findings of Studies 1 and 2 by using an 8-hr rumination period. All 3 studies suggest that ruminating about a provocation increases the likelihood that a minor triggering annoyance will increase displaced aggression.     

Task-dependent modulation of target-flanker lateral interactions in vision

Visibility of a central target Gabor element often improves in the presence of collinear flankers. Such lateral interactions may reflect fundamental mechanisms underlying the perceptual integration of contours in early vision. We recently reported (Freeman, Sagi, & Driver, 2001) attentional modulation of these interactions. Here, we test whether this modulation is task dependent. Subjects had to detect a near-threshold central target while performing a secondary discrimination task on one pair of flankers that could appear with another distractor pair (one pair collinear with the target, the other orthogonal). Central target thresholds were lowered when collinear flankers were judged for the secondary task, but only when this task concerned the global spatial relationship between these flankers (discrimination of their Vernier offset or global orientation). Other secondary tasks involving discriminating the local orientations, contrasts, or colors of the relevant flanker pair produced no such attentional modulation. However, this task-dependent modulation was observed only when two flanker pairs were present, not for displays with only a single flanker pair. Top-down modulation of lateral interactions may function to select between overlapping potential contours whenever the global spatial properties of one are task relevant.     

Violent Video Games Stress People Out and Make Them More Aggressive

It is well known that violent video games increase aggression, and that stress increases aggression. Many violent video games can be stressful because enemies are trying to kill players. The present study investigates whether violent games increase aggression by inducing stress in players. Stress was measured using cardiac coherence, defined as the synchronization of the rhythm of breathing to the rhythm of the heart. We predicted that cardiac coherence would mediate the link between exposure to violent video games and subsequent aggression. Specifically, we predicted that playing a violent video game would decrease cardiac coherence, and that cardiac coherence, in turn, would correlate negatively with aggression. Participants (N = 77) played a violent or nonviolent video game for 20 min. Cardiac coherence was measured before and during game play. After game play, participants had the opportunity to blast a confederate with loud noise through headphones during a reaction time task. The intensity and duration of noise blasts given to the confederate was used to measure aggression. As expected, violent video game players had lower cardiac coherence levels and higher aggression levels than did nonviolent game players. Cardiac coherence, in turn, was negatively related to aggression. This research offers another possible reason why violent games can increase aggression—by inducing stress. Cardiac coherence can be a useful tool to measure stress induced by violent video games. Cardiac coherence has several desirable methodological features as well: it is noninvasive, stable against environmental disturbances, relatively inexpensive, not subject to demand characteristics, and easy to use. Aggr. Behav. 39:64‐70, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Stigmata and negotiated outcomes: Management of appearance by persons with physical disabilities

This paper explores the role of clothing in the management of appearances by persons with disabilities. A negotiated outcomes perspective is used to study the clothing choices of disabled persons, rather than viewing them as passive recipients of the labels supplied by perceivers. A two‐part study of college students with physical disabilities, including comments from a series of focused group interviews and open‐ended responses to a questionnaire with national distribution, resulted in the data presented. The data indicated that most of the students strived to appear as normative as possible through their clothing choices and accordingly used a variety of techniques: “making do” with ingeniously adapted ready‐to‐wear apparel; using clothes to conceal a disability; deflecting attention from a disability toward more normative but slightly discrediting attributes; compensation through fashionable dress or by emphasizing other social roles and abilities; and social inclusion, i.e., the assertion that all persons vary in physical appearance. Some students employed dress to take advantage of their social uniqueness through such techniques as wearing bright or prominent clothing or by displaying humor. Possible directions for future research on the social interactions of disabled persons, particularly involving the implications of normalizing appearance versus emphasizing social uniqueness, are presented.     

Using Attitude Strength to Predict Registration and Voting Behavior in the 2004 U.S. Presidential Elections

This study examined attitude strength in the context of the 2004 U.S. presidential election. Surveys of 299 undergraduates assessed attitudes and attitude strength constructs toward Bush/Kerry. The results suggest that (a) attitude strength constructs, especially importance and value-relevance, predict political behavior, (b) indicators of attitude strength may represent two underlying factors, and (c) attitude strength moderates the attitude-candidate choice relationship. Additional results offered some support for the validity of two new attitude strength constructs: higher order attitudes (participants' attitudes about their attitudes) and polarization of candidate attitudes (the absolute value of the difference in attitudes toward Bush and Kerry).     

Readers' Theater: A Process of Developing Fourth-Graders' Reading Fluency

This study examines the process of fluency development of three fourth-grade readers of varying reading abilities. Participants were selected based on the number of words they read correctly per minute (WCPM) on the Qualitative Reading Inventory and their score on the Multidimensional Fluency Scale (MFS). Students participated in an 8-week intervention using readers' theater for fluency instruction and practice. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used. Students were observed during the literacy block of the school day, interviewed three times each, and provided weekly student self-reports. WCPM and MFS scores were recorded weekly. Findings showed inconsistent accuracy scores but documented the progress of students' development in two of the four MFS categories: pace and expression/volume. Motivation and confidence also increased through use of readers' theater.