Perceived Fairness,Marital Conflict,and Depression: A Dyadic Data Analysis

This study explored associations among perceived fairness, marital conflict, and depression. Data for this study included married participants (n = 401 couples) from the Marriage Matters Panel Survey of Newlywed Couples. This study tested three autoregressive cross-lagged models and hypothesized that fairness would precede marital conflict, and continued conflict would lead to greater depression. The final model found that wives' Time 1 perceived fairness was associated with their husbands' conflict at Time 2, and that husbands' perceived fairness at Time 2 was associated with their wives' depression at Time 3. Findings suggest some support for addressing perceived fairness with couples.     

Inducing Knowledgeability From Niceness: Children Use Social Features for Making Epistemic Inferences

In many ways, evaluating informants based on their features is a problem of induction: Children rely on the assumption that observable informant characteristics (e.g., traits, behaviors, social categories) will predict unobservable characteristics (e.g., future behavior, knowledge states, intentions). Yet to make sensible inferences, children must recognize what informant features are relevant for what types of inferences. The current research investigated whether preschoolers use social features (e.g., niceness) for making epistemic inferences and, conversely, whether they use intellectual features (e.g., expertise) for making social inferences. In the study, 96 preschoolers (M_age = 4.96 years) were asked to attribute knowledge and behaviors to a mean informant, a nice informant, and a neutral informant. Between subjects, we varied which informant had expertise. We found that when attributing knowledge, children used both features: attributing more knowledge to nicer informants, but also attributing more knowledge to an informant when he had expertise. In contrast, when making social inferences, children relied primarily on social features.     

The relationships between perceived control and episodic memory in adulthood: a review

The goal of the current paper is to review the literature on the relationships between perceived control and episodic memory throughout adulthood. More specifically, three major questions are pursued: (1) Are higher levels of perceived control related to better memory performance? (2) Is the relationship between perceived control and memory similar or different as a function of age? (3) Does perceived control moderate memory decline? Although there is a great deal of evidence that perceived control and episodic memory are positively related in adulthood, the current review showed that very few studies have investigated whether age moderated this relationship. Moreover, only a limited number of studies have explored the role of perceived control in memory decline, and the results are inconsistent. We suggest some avenues for future research that could help understand by which mechanisms, and under what circumstances, perceived control and episodic memory are related across the lifespan.     

Electronic Visibility Management of Lesbian,Gay, and Bisexual Identities and Relationships in Young Adulthood

Visibility management is a process the lesbian, gay, and bisexual-identifying (LGB) people use to manage the extent to which they will identify (“out”) themselves in various contexts such as school, work, family, and home-based settings. The purpose of this study then was to explore LGB persons' experiences of electronic visibility in online environments such as social networking sites and the manner in which LGB persons most commonly monitor their electronic visibility as individuals and in couple relationships. Analysis of the survey responses of 61 young adult participants indicated that this sample felt more positive about their identities overall compared with a national sample and that they frequently reported their sexual orientation online, most often on Facebook. In addition, participants reported online disclosure did not have an effect on their relationship satisfaction. Discussion and implications for research and clinical practice are presented.     

Children's developing notions of (im)partiality

This research examines the development of children's understanding that people's judgments may be skewed by relationships, and that situational factors may make it difficult to be impartial. One hundred and seventy-one adults and children between kindergarten and eighth grade heard stories about judges in contests with objective or subjective criteria for winning. In Experiment 1, by fourth grade, children rated a judge with no personal connection (the "neutral judge") as being more likely to be objective than a judge with a personal connection (the "connected judge"). Younger children showed the opposite pattern. Experiment 2 replicated this finding for judges, and also found that children across development have similar ideas regarding the characteristics for being a good judge. Not until eighth grade, however, did children indicate that a connected judge was more problematic in subjective situations than in objective ones.     

An evaluation of the overjustification effect across multiple contingency arrangements

The overjustification effect suggests that external rewards may decrease intrinsically reinforced behaviors; however, this conclusion is often drawn from pre‐ and post‐assessment data. The majority of studies published in this area do not take repeated measures of behavior. In addition, previous research has not distinguished between the use of rewards and reinforcers by demonstrating a reinforcement effect; hence, it is possible that the occurrence of the overjustification effect varies depending on the nature of the stimuli that are used. This study extended previous research by evaluating whether the overjustification effect was relevant to the use of non‐reinforcing stimuli, reinforcers, or both. The effects of verbal praise were also evaluated in relation to the overjustification effect. Results indicated that behavior did not decrease below baseline levels following the contingent delivery of non‐reinforcing stimuli, reinforcers, or verbal praise. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Biased decision‐making: developing an understanding of how positive and negative relationships may skew judgments

The current experiment examines if and when children consider the possibility of relationships skewing judgments when evaluating judgments in different contexts. Eighty‐seven 6‐year‐olds, 8‐year‐olds, 10‐year‐olds, and adults heard stories about judges who made decisions matching or mismatching possible relationship biases (e.g. a judge choosing a friend or an enemy as the winner) in contests with objective or subjective criteria. While even 6‐year‐olds distinguished between subjective and objective contests, neither children nor adults focused on the objectivity of the contest criteria when evaluating a judge's claims. Instead, by age 8, if not earlier, children focused on relationships, trusting judgments that mismatched someone's relationship biases and discounting judgments that matched someone's relationship biases. The findings also suggested that children are better at recognizing that a judgment may have been biased than predicting that one will be, and that they may understand that negative relationships may skew judgments before positive ones.     

Perceptions of childfree women: The role of perceivers' and targets' ethnicity

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of ethnicity on perceptions of voluntary childfree women. We were interested in determining whether mothers were viewed as more stereotypically positive than women without children and how the ethnicity of the participant and the target impacted participants' ratings. We utilized vignettes and manipulated motherhood status and ethnicity of the target. Participants (n = 224) were comprised of female university students in the southwestern region of the United States. Results indicated that women view childfree women negatively. Moreover, women view African American mothers more favourably than childfree African American women. Results are discussed in terms of gender roles in communities of colour. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.