Self-Esteem Among Young Adults: Differences and Similarities Based on Gender, Race, and Cohort (1990–2012)

The major purpose of this study was to examine the joint effects of race and gender on the self-esteem of young adults. Data came from a large sample of undergraduate students (N?=?7,552; 2,785 men and 4,767 women) enrolled at a Midwestern U.S. University over the period 1990–2012. Consistent with prior research, we found that men had higher self-esteem than women and that Blacks had higher self-esteem than Whites, Hispanics, and Asians. The analyses, however, revealed that the gender differences in self-esteem were not found among Blacks and that the higher self-esteem of Blacks relative to other races was greater among women than among men. The effects of race and gender did not change controlling for social class and other demographic variables, did not differ across domains of self-esteem, and were not affected by period of time. This study deepens our knowledge of social group differences in self-esteem, providing evidence that the higher self-esteem of men (relative to women) and of Blacks (relative to other races) persisted across the past two decades.     

A Trust-Based Home Intervention for Special-Needs Adopted Children: A Case Study

Research on the effects of abuse, neglect, and other traumas in early childhood has consistently demonstrated severe deficits that can be prevalent across the life span. Costs associated with addressing such deficits in special-needs children can strain families and are an immense financial burden to society. Trust-Based Relational Intervention® is an intervention modality that targets the attachment system as part of a dynamic system of development. Presented is a summary of the costs of addressing the sequelae of childhood abuse and neglect, a brief overview of Trust-Based Relational Intervention, and a case study demonstrating the efficacy of this intervention with an adopted special-needs child in a home-based setting.     

The Beck Depression Inventory: Item Order and the Impact of Response Sets

The lack of subtle content in the item groups of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the consistency in the ordering of the items from least to most pathological make this instrument unduly susceptible to either defensive or malingering response sets. Two experimental forms were developed for the BDI: a backwards version (a simple reversal of the order of items within each group) and a random-order version. These forms, together with the original item order, were given to college undergraduate women along with the Depression scale from the MMPI and the Burks-Martin Questionnaire covering recent life changes and current stressful situations. The random order BDI results in a significantly higher depression score than did either the original or backwards version. Correlations with the other instruments were comparable for all three forms. The random order of items within each set appears to break up a response set to endorse either the first or last item and is, therefore, recommended.     

Not just war: Eisikovits on A Theory of Truces

More work has gone into thinking about the philosophical justifications for starting a just war than bringing political violence to an end. The papers in this special section explore themes in Nir Eisikovits’s groundbreaking book A Theory of Truces and why truces deserve greater philosophical attention. This introduction briefly raises these issues and provides an overview of the papers.     

Child and adolescent conduct disorder substantially shares genetic influences with three socioemotional dispositions

In a representative sample of twin children and adolescents, we tested the hypothesis that a substantial proportion of the genetic and environmental influences underlying conduct disorder (CD) are shared with three socioemotional dispositions: Prosociality, Negative Emotionality, and Daring. Caretaker ratings of each dispositional dimension were uniquely associated with a latent CD dimension that included both caretaker- and youth-reports of CD as indicators. Behavior genetic analyses indicated that moderate-to-high additive genetic and moderate nonshared environmental influences underlie all three dispositions and CD, with modest shared environmental influences on Prosociality. Forty percent of the additive genetic influences and all of the nonshared environmental influences on the latent CD dimension were shared in common with the three socioemotional dispositions. The finding that CD shares a substantial proportion of its genetic influences with three distinct socioemotional dispositions suggests new perspectives on the heterogeneous etiology of CD and new approaches to exploring its specific etiological mechanisms.     

Information quality in personality judgment: The value of personal disclosure

We examined the relative quality of different types of information and its effects on accuracy in personality judgment. Three hundred and forty-four unacquainted undergraduates participated in a small group round-robin rating scheme. In one condition, participants were asked to disclose three things that were very important to them in life. In a second condition, participants were asked to disclose three distinctive personal facts: things that differentiated them from others. We found that (a) people believed values information was more personality-relevant than facts information and (b) although there was no clear advantage for one condition over the other in terms of generalized accuracy, there were some differences across conditions for specific traits. Implications for the study of information quality in personality judgment are discussed.     

No role for lightness in the perception of black and white? Simultaneous contrast affects perceived skin tone, but not perceived race

Faces of individuals with African and European heritage (henceforth referred to as Black and White respectively) feature two major differences: those of skin tone and morphological characteristics. Although considerations of perceived race are important to various psychological subdisciplines, to date the relative influence of morphological versus photometric characteristics has not been investigated. We attempted to influence the perceived racial typicality of a central target face by manipulating perceived skin tone using the well-known lightness contrast illusion. As expected, ratings of skin tone were influenced by surround faces, yet ratings of perceived racial typicality were not, suggesting a dissociation between the two judgments. Surprisingly, skin tone contributes little to perceived race, leaving facial morphology as the dominant cue. These results may shed light on failures to find effects of racial typicality in studies of prejudice where judgments were based on photographs with altered skin tone alone.     

Monitoring same/different discrimination behavior in time and space: Finding differences and anticipatory discrimination behavior

Discrimination behavior in a standard, two-alternative forced choice same/different task is usually measured by the pigeon’s pecking one or the other of two arbitrary report areas. We found that pigeons make anticipatory, discriminative responses to the visual display during the stimulus observing period prior to the availability of the report areas; the spatial distribution of these anticipatory discriminative responses strongly correlated with the upcoming choice response. These anticipatory pecks provide evidence that the process of discrimination occurs well before the moment of choice and that key aspects of this process can be revealed by looking at the distribution of observing responses. We also manipulated the variability of the displayed items to study the nature of these anticipatory responses; again, the spatial distribution of responding during the stimulus observing period strongly correlated with the upcoming choice response. The distribution of these prechoice pecks supports the theory that pigeons search for differences in the displayed items. If differences are found, then pigeons prepare to report “different”; if not, then they report “same.”