The Structure of Female Subgroups: An Exploration of Ambivalent Stereotypes

The present research concerns the stereotypes associated with subgroups of women. Previous researchers have considered the ambivalent nature of stereotypes, particularly along the dimensions of warmth and competence (Glick, Diebold, Bailey-Werner, & Zhu, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 23:1323–1334, 1997). In Study 1, we looked at the degree to which the superordinate social category of “women” is differentiated into distinct subgroups and whether warmth and competence are the primary dimensions of this differentiation. In Study 2, we assessed the degree to which businesswomen and homemakers are automatically associated with warmth and competence. Results showed that men and women differ in the valence associated with specific subgroups, and it is this valence, rather than stereotype content, that is automatically associated with these female subgroups.     

Processes leading to confidence and accuracy in sentence recognition: a metamemory approach

We propose that memory confidence is based on the processes and products of the just-completed memory task, along with the participants' metamemory beliefs about the relation of these processes and products to memory accuracy. We tested this metamemory approach to confidence by having participants carry out a simple recognition memory task with deceptive and nondeceptive items. The deceptive items were sentences that contained a possible synonym substitution, thus allowing errors based on gist memory. For nondeceptive items, high confidence was associated with high accuracy. For deceptive items the relationship reversed; high confidence was associated with low accuracy. A memory process questionnaire was developed that provided more differentiated phenomenal reports than the traditional know/remember distinction. For nondeceptive items, metamemory beliefs tended to be valid indicators of accuracy, but for deceptive items involving unconscious reconstructive memory processes, they tended to be invalid indicators of memory accuracy. The overall results lend strong support for our metamemory approach to memory confidence.     

Contextual and Individual Predictors of Psychological Disengagement From Sport During a Competitive Event

The present study aims to identify the processes underlying athletes' psychological disengagement during a competitive event. It was expected that goal attainment would predict psychological disengagement through the mediation of physical self‐worth. It was further hypothesized that athletic identity and passion for the activity would be predictors of psychological disengagement. Athletes completed measures of athletic identity, passion, and physical self‐worth before a competition; and perceived goal attainment, physical self‐worth, and psychological disengagement after a competition. Physical self‐worth mediated the relationship between perceived goal attainment and discounting. Obsessive passion and athletic identity were negatively related to devaluing over and above goal attainment and physical self‐worth. The study highlights individual and contextual correlates of psychological disengagement in the sport setting.     

Individual differences in event-based prospective memory: Evidence for multiple processes supporting cue detection

The multiprocess view proposes that different processes can be used to detect event-based prospective memory cues, depending in part on the specificity of the cue. According to this theory, attentional processes are not necessary to detect focal cues, whereas detection of nonfocal cues requires some form of controlled attention. This notion was tested using a design in which we compared performance on a focal and on a nonfocal prospective memory task by participants with high or low working memory capacity. An interaction was found, such that participants with high and low working memory performed equally well on the focal task, whereas the participants with high working memory performed significantly better on the nonfocal task than did their counterparts with low working memory. Thus, controlled attention was only necessary for detecting event-based prospective memory cues in the nonfocal task. These results have implications for theories of prospective memory, the processes necessary for cue detection, and the successful fulfillment of intentions.     

Sport psychologists' perceptions of sport and mental health practitioners

Abstract

This study surveys recently graduated sport psychology (SP) doctoral students' (N = 34) educational backgrounds, work experiences, and perceptions of the professional field of SP inside and outside the realm of academia. Special attention was given to subjects' perceptions and expectations with regard to applied work in SP, actual work experiences, and income. Findings indicate that almost all graduates are spending their time in a variety of work activities, i.e., some combination of teaching, research, consulting, administration, and coaching, with a strong emphasis on teaching in an academic institution. Gender analysis revealed that, in general, females earned 74% of what males earned; females earned 53% of what males earned outside academia. Graduates' personal comments suggest a concern about consumer demand and financial support offered applied professionals in SP as well as the adequacy of their own training to provide applied services. Implications for AAASP and SP program directors are provided.     

Assessing Conventional Wisdom about Religion and Politics: A Preliminary View from the Pews

Given religious leaders’ frequent opportunities to communicate to a large and receptive audience, political messages delivered during religious services have the potential to make a considerable impact on American politics—with particular significance for political education and mobilization. Social scientists routinely conclude that such messages are indeed disseminated, a claim we test in this study. Is it in fact true that church– and temple–going Americans regularly receive political messages from their ministers, priests, and rabbis during worship services? If so, what forms do these pronouncements take? How intense are they? Is this communication limited to messages from the service leader or does it come from other parts of the service, either informal or ritualistic? Existing empirical assessments of this topic depend heavily on survey research, asking congregants (or, less often, members of the clergy) about the frequency and content of political messages. Although such studies are certainly valuable, we approach religious political communications in a more immediate way: by observing them directly. Our conclusions are based on two waves of attendance at weekly services during 1998–1999, varying by religious tradition and denomination, region, and other dimensions. We find that “political” messages, broadly defined, are indeed delivered quite often. However, content analysis of these messages reveals that they typically address matters of social justice and rarely other types of political activity or belief, such as specific public policies or civic involvement (including voting). Political references during services only very occasionally constituted calls to direct political action on the part of the worshiper. Ultimately, our findings suggest that political content does occur relatively frequently during U.S. religious services, supporting the accounts of other social scientists. Our analysis offers new insight as to the content and nature of the political messages Americans are exposed to during religious services.     

Recall of logical and pragmatic implications in sentences with dichotomous and continuous antonyms

Thirty-six subjects recalled sentences containing dichotomous or continuous antonyms in affirmative or negative form. The subjects made a considerable number of meaning-preserving recall errors for both dichotomous antonyms (not alive recalled asdead) and continuous antonyms (not hot recalled ascold). The negation of a dichotomous antonym logically implies its antonym, whereas the negation of a continuous antonym only pragmatically implies its antonym. Thus, the results suggest that subjects hearing sentences containing a logical or pragmatic implication tend to make the logical or pragmatic inference involved. Then, in recall, they do not remember that this was an inference and make the error of recalling the logical or pragmatic implication in place of the presented sentence.     

Memory for ideas: Synonym substitution

Subjects memorized sentences that contained a word with a synonym in English. There were large numbers of synonym substitution responses in recall (varying from 6.0% in Experiment I to 27.7% in Experiment III). Synonym substitution responses tended to be unidirectional and occurred with roughly equal frequency in abstract and concrete sentences. The results were interpreted as opposed to surface structure theories of sentence memory, since explanation in terms of word associations and sequential dependencies proved unsuccessful. The results were also taken to be opposed to image theories of sentence memory, since image theories predict few ff any synonym substitution responses for abstract sentences, while Experiment III found large numbers of synonym substitutions in both abstract and concrete sentences. The results support the position that memory for sentences is in terms of nonlinguistic, nonimage, abstract representations (ideas).     

Application of The APA Practice Guidelines on Suicide to Clinical Practice

This article presents charts from The American Psychiatric Association Practice Guideline for the Assessment and Treatment of Patients with Suicidal Behaviors, part of the Practice Guidelines for the Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders Compendium, and a summary of the assessment information in a format that can be used in routine clinical practice. Four steps in the assessment process are presented: the use of a thorough psychiatric examination to obtain information about the patient's current presentation, history, diagnosis, and to recognize suicide risk factors therein; the necessity of asking very specific questions about suicidal ideation, intent, plans, and attempts; the process of making an estimation of the patient's level of suicide risk is explained; and the use of modifiable risk and protective factors as the basis for treatment planning is demonstrated. Case reports are used to clarify use of each step in this process.