Racial Identity and Body Image Among Black Female College Students Attending Predominately White Colleges

This study examined attitudes about body image and racial identity among Black women at a predominately White college in the United States. We conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with 34 women about their school experiences, family, racial identity, self-esteem, and body image. We found that early childhood influences including family and school environment had profound impacts on their racial identity and body image. Through a qualitative analysis based in grounded theory, we found that participants’ identification with White and/or Black culture produced levels of body satisfaction and a set of beauty ideals that generally corresponded to four racial identity groups: identification with White or Black culture, floating between both, or having a diverse self-identity.     

Culturally contingent situated cognition: influencing other people fosters analytic perception in the United States but not in Japan

Interpersonal influence and interpersonal adjustment play crucial roles in structuring social interactions. However, not much is known about whether their consequences are culturally contingent. We hypothesized that in order to effectively influence others, people need to employ a perceptual style that serves their cultural imperative. Specifically, we predicted that in the United States, interpersonal influence fosters an analytic, context-independent perceptual style that helps people focus on their goal; however, in Japan, where the cultural imperative is to attend to other people and fit into social contexts, this pattern may be absent or reversed. In two studies, we tested this hypothesis by measuring interpersonal interactions (Study 1) and then by manipulating interpersonal interactions (Study 2). Overall, the findings support a culturally contingent situated-cognition approach, which highlights not only interpersonal underpinnings of perceptual styles but also the role that culture plays in ascribing meaning to interpersonal interactions.     

The effect of gender stereotype activation on challenge and threat motivational states

The effect of gender stereotype activation on challenge/threat motivational states was examined. Male and female participants completed a difficult math test described as either gender-biased or gender-fair, while continuous cardiovascular data were recorded. During the math test, women in the gender-biased condition exhibited a threatened motivational state, whereas women in the gender-fair condition exhibited challenge. The cardiovascular pattern of data was reversed for men, with men exhibiting challenge when a gender bias was implied, but threat when it was not. Motivational implications of stereotype threat and psychophysiological measurement are discussed.     

A friend is a present you give to your “Self”: Avoidance of intimacy moderates the effects of friends on self-liking

The current research proposes that thinking about friends improves feelings about the self and does so differentially depending on avoidance of intimacy. Based on previous findings that individuals who avoid intimacy in relationships (avoidant individuals) contrast their self-concepts with primed friends whereas those who pursue intimacy in relationships (non-avoidant individuals) assimilate their self-concepts to primed friends [Gabriel, S., Carvallo, M., Dean, K., Tippin, B. D., & Renaud, J. (2005). How I see “Me” depends on how I see “We”: The role of avoidance of intimacy in social comparison. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 156-157], we predicted that friends who embody negative aspects of self would lead avoidant individuals to like themselves more, whereas friends who embody positive aspects of self would lead non-avoidant individuals to like themselves more. A pretest determined that good friends were seen as more similar to positive and ideal aspects of the self, whereas friends about whom participants had more mixed feelings (ambivalent friends) were seen as more similar to disliked and feared aspects of the self. Four experiments supported the main hypotheses. In Experiment 1, non-avoidant individuals like themselves more when good friends were primed. In Experiment 2, avoidant individuals like themselves more when ambivalent friends were primed. In Experiment 3, non-avoidant individuals liked themselves better after thinking about a friend’s positive traits, whereas avoidant individuals liked themselves better after thinking about a friend’s negative traits. In Experiment 4, all individuals under self-esteem threat strategically brought friends to mind who would help them like themselves more.     

Blushing during social interactions in people with a fear of blushing

Changes in facial blood flow were investigated during an introductory conversation, delivering a speech, and listening to the speech afterwards in 16 people with a fear of blushing and 16 controls. It was hypothesized that fear of blushing would be associated with high ratings of self-reported blushing intensity and embarrassment during the tasks, and with persistence of the blushing reaction between tasks. Embarrassment and self-reported blushing intensity were greater in the fear-of-blushing group than in controls throughout the experiment. Increases in facial blood flow were similar in the two groups during each of the tasks. However, blushing dissipated more slowly after each task in the fear-of-blushing group than in controls, resulting in an incremental increase in facial blood flow over the course of the experiment. The slow recovery after an episode of blushing might result in physiological or social cues that help to maintain a fear of blushing.     

The Role of Death Qualification in Capital Trials Involving Juvenile Defendants1

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of death qualification in capital trials involving juvenile defendants. Two hundred residents of the 12^th Judicial Circuit in Florida completed a booklet of stimulus materials that contained the following: One question that measured participants' level of support for the death penalty; One Witt death‐qualification question; a summary of the guilt and penalty phases of a capital case involving either an adult or a juvenile defendant; sentence preference; the Revised Legal Attitudes Questionnaire (RLAQ); and standard demographic questions. Results indicated that death‐qualified participants were more likely to sentence both defendants to death. In addition, death‐qualified participants were more likely to recommend the death sentence for the juvenile defendant. Legal implications are discussed.     

Gender identity and adjustment in black, Hispanic, and white preadolescents

The generality of S. K. Egan and D. G. Perry's (2001) model of gender identity and adjustment was evaluated by examining associations between gender identity (felt gender typicality, felt gender contentedness, and felt pressure for gender conformity) and social adjustment in 863 White, Black, and Hispanic 5th graders (mean age = 11.1 years). Relations between gender identity and adjustment varied across ethnic/racial groups, indicating that S. K. Egan and D. G. Perry's model requires amendment. It is suggested that the implications of gender identity for adjustment depend on the particular meanings that a child attaches to gender (e.g., the specific attributes the child regards as desirable for each sex); these meanings may vary across and within ethnic/racial groups. Cross-ethnic/racial investigation can aid theory building by pointing to constructs that are neglected in research with a single ethnic/racial group but that are crucial components of basic developmental processes.