How does exposure to masked individuals affect White Americans' attitudes toward Asian American and Pacific Islanders?

Across three studies, conducted between Spring 2020 and Spring 2021, we tested whether exposure to an Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) target person wearing a face mask would increase or decrease White Americans' perceived threat from and positivity toward AAPI individuals. Although results varied by study, a single-paper meta-analysis revealed that the masked (compared to unmasked) AAPI target resulted in greater positivity toward AAPIs, due to reduced perceptions of both symbolic threat to group values and realistic threat to group health. Positivity toward AAPIs did not reliably differ after exposure to a masked versus unmasked White target. Implications for interventions that encourage COVID-safe behaviors and combat anti-AAPI attitudes are discussed.     

Recruitment Strategies for a Home-Based Physical Activity Intervention for Breast Cancer Patients

Recruiting cancer patients for randomized trials investigating psychosocial interventions presents several unique challenges. This paper describes the challenges and yields for different recruitment methods used in Moving Forward, a randomized trial of a home-based moderate-intensity physical activity program for early-stage breast cancer survivors. Recruitment methods included letters sent to patients by their oncologists, direct referrals from oncologists, in-person recruitment in oncology clinics, referrals from nurses and medical assistants, passive recruitment, other mailings, and community outreach strategies. Of the 424 screenings completed, 86 (20.3%) participants were randomized. Physician letters yielded the greatest number of initial screenings (147; 34.7%) and participants randomized (28; 32.5%). In-person recruitment also proved to be a productive recruitment strategy; 14 (16.3%) of the participants were recruited via this strategy. Community outreach efforts did not provide as great a yield and were labor intensive. We discuss suggestions for recruitment of cancer patients in future trials.     

Victim Blaming in Young, Middle-Aged, and Older Adults: Variations on the Severity Effect

It has been long known that people blame victims for the bad things that happen to them, and that people blame victims more when the victims experience severe difficulties than when they experience minor difficulties, even if the victims were not particularly irresponsible. Little previous research has examined victim blaming in middle-age and older adults. One hundred and forty-five adults in 3 age groups (18–34, 35–59, and 60–84) read 4 scenarios (2 accidents, 1 crime, and 1 fire) imbedded in other scenarios. The scenarios were varied so that the victim is either very irresponsible or not very irresponsible, and the outcome is mild or severe. The oldest group of participants blamed the victims more than the other groups. However, in contrast to the typical severity effect, the oldest group blamed the very irresponsible victim more when the outcome was mild than they did when the outcome was severe.     

Institutional Constructions of Medical Stigma and Its Perception by Multiply Body-Modified Individuals Seeking Treatment

In a recent research project on the lived experience of body modifiers—identified as those with piercings, tattoos, scarification/branding, and/or suspension/hook pull experiences—the researcher documents synergistic resistance on the part of participants, and the institutional review board. This dynamic reflects a long history of problematic academic publications. The real world impact of this is felt by those bearing modification that desire health care. Discussion focuses on post-colonial methods, snowball sampling, findings of institutionally constructed medical bias, and the first known reports of stigma impacting medical care delivery for those who have body modifications.     

An Integrative Review of School-Based Mental Health Interventions for Elementary Students: Implications for Occupational Therapy

Occupational therapy for children and youth experiencing mental health conditions is often overlooked in current school-based services, as the traditional role within the system is often limited to physical health issues. The purpose of this integrative review is to investigate current psychosocial interventions within school settings to understand the effects of services provided and to determine potential roles for school-based occupational therapists. The findings of this review support occupational therapists in facilitating interventions that target mental health in school settings. Psychotherapy presented the strongest evidence for reducing psychosocial symptoms in school settings.     

Comparing Job Applicants to Non‐applicants Using an Item‐level Bifactor Model on the HEXACO Personality Inventory

The present study evaluated the ability of item‐level bifactor models (a) to provide an alternative explanation to current theories of higher order factors of personality and (b) to explain socially desirable responding in both job applicant and non‐applicant contexts. Participants (46% male; mean age = 42 years, SD = 11) completed the 200‐item HEXACO Personality Inventory‐Revised either as part of a job application (n = 1613) or as part of low‐stakes research (n = 1613). A comprehensive set of invariance tests were performed. Applicants scored higher than non‐applicants on honesty‐humility (d = 0.86), extraversion (d = 0.73), agreeableness (d = 1.06), and conscientiousness (d = 0.77). The bifactor model provided improved model fit relative to a standard correlated factor model, and loadings on the evaluative factor of the bifactor model were highly correlated with other indicators of item social desirability. The bifactor model explained approximately two‐thirds of the differences between applicants and non‐applicants. Results suggest that rather than being a higher order construct, the general factor of personality may be caused by an item‐level evaluative process. Results highlight the importance of modelling data at the item‐level. Implications for conceptualizing social desirability, higher order structures in personality, test development, and job applicant faking are discussed. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Infant learning is influenced by local spurious generalizations

In previous work, 11‐month‐old infants were able to learn rules about the relation of the consonants in CVCV words from just four examples. The rules involved phonetic feature relations (same voicing or same place of articulation), and infants' learning was impeded when pairs of words allowed alternative possible generalizations (e.g. two words both contained the specific consonants p and t). Experiment 1 asked whether a small number of such spurious generalizations found in a randomly ordered list of 24 different words would also impede learning. It did – infants showed no sign of learning the rule. To ask whether it was the overall set of words or their order that prevented learning, Experiment 2 reordered the words to avoid local spurious generalizations. Infants showed robust learning. Infants thus appear to entertain spurious generalizations based on small, local subsets of stimuli. The results support a characterization of infants as incremental rather than batch learners.     

Helping Others Shows Differential Benefits on Health and Well-being for Male and Female Teens

Objectives Adults who engage in altruistic social interest behaviors experience better mental health and have lower mortality rates than non-altruistic adults. The present study investigated the relationship between altruism and health and well-being in teens, and demographic and lifestyle variables. Methods A cross-sectional survey was implemented with a national sample of teens recruited through the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Measures included the PedsQL, the Ryff Psychological Well-Being Scale, and a new self-report scale of Altruism (subscales: Receiving/ Providing Emotional Support, Family Helping Behavior, General Helping Behavior, and Helping Orientation). Results Data were collected from 457 teens (M age = 15.6, sd 1.2). Psychometric analyses revealed that a five-factor model fit the altruism data well. Multivariate regression revealed no association between providing emotional support and psychosocial health. There were, however, many associations between altruism and well-being, and differential associations by gender. Family helping was the most salient aspect of altruism for males, showing associations with positive social relations, purpose in life, and self-acceptance. For females, General Helping Behavior was associated with positive social relations, and Helping Orientation was associated with better purpose in life. Family Helping was associated with better physical health in females, but not for males. The only correlates of altruism were higher age, more physical activity, and engaging in positive religious coping. Conclusions Altruism is positively associated with health for females and with well-being for both males and females. Different gender-specific interventions to guide teens in doing more altruistic activities may have to be designed to capitalize on these different associations.

ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL CORRELATES OF STIMULUS EQUIVALENCE PROCESSES

Research reported here concerns neural processes relating to stimulus equivalence class formation. In Experiment 1, two types of word pairs were presented successively to normally capable adults. In one type, the words had related usage in English (e.g., uncle, aunt). In the other, the two words were not typically related in their usage (e.g., wrist, corn). For pairs of both types, event‐related cortical potentials were recorded during and immediately after the presentation of the second word. The obtained waveforms differentiated these two types of pairs. For the unrelated pairs, the waveforms were significantly more negative about 400 ms after the second word was presented, thus replicating the “N400” phenomenon of the cognitive neuroscience literature. In addition, there was a strong positive‐tending wave form difference post‐stimulus presentation (peaked at about 500 ms) that also differentiated the unrelated from related stimulus pairs. In Experiment 2, the procedures were extended to study arbitrary stimulus—stimulus relations established via matching‐to‐sample training. Participants were experimentally näive adults. Sample stimuli (Set A) were trigrams, and comparison stimuli (Sets B, C, D, E, and F) were nonrepresentative forms. Behavioral tests evaluated potentially emergent equivalence relations (i.e., BD, DF, CE, etc.). All participants exhibited classes consistent with the arbitrary matching training. They were also exposed also to an event‐related potential procedure like that used in Experiment 1. Some received the ERP procedure before equivalence tests and some after. Only those participants who received ERP procedures after equivalence tests exhibited robust N400 differentiation initially. The positivity observed in Experiment 1 was absent for all participants. These results support speculations that equivalence tests may provide contextual support for the formation of equivalence classes including those that emerge gradually during testing.