The personality bases of ideology: a one-year longitudinal study

The cross-lagged effects of the Big-Five personality dimensions on Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) and Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) were examined over 1 year (N = 112). Consistent with the Dual Process Cognitive-Motivational Model, SDO and RWA exhibited markedly different personality bases. Low Agreeableness and unexpectedly high Extraversion predicted change in the motivational goal for group-based dominance and superiority (SDO), whereas Openness to Experience predicted change in the motivational goal for social cohesion and collective security (RWA). Neuroticism and Conscientiousness did not predict change in SDO or RWA over time. These findings extend previous cross-sectional (correlational) research and indicate that key dimensions of personality (primarily Agreeableness and Openness to Experience) are an important temporal antecedent of the group-based motivational goals underlying individual differences in prejudice.     

Are problems prevalent and stable in non-clinical populations? Problems and test-retest stability of a patient-generated measure,PSYCHLOPS (Psychological Outcome Profiles), in a non-clinical student sample

In straightened times counselling must evidence the changes it promotes on reputable measures. Patient-generated measures complement nomothetic measures and may be nearer the ethos of counselling in eliciting individuals' problems. Scores from such measures from non-clinical samples are rarely reported, making their test-retest stability uncertain. We report the prevalence and stability of self-reported problems using PSYCHLOPS (Psychological Outcome Profiles) in a non-clinical student population. PSYCHLOPS is a four-item, self-administered, patient-generated instrument. PSYCHLOPS was completed twice, 7–10 days apart. A wide range of problems was reported and showed satisfactory test-retest stability: Pearson, 0.66; Spearman, 0.68; intra-class correlation coefficient, 0.70. This is reassuring as instability would undermine PSYCHLOPS as a sensitive change measure.     

An Opposing Process Model of Benevolent Sexism

An Opposing Process Model outlining the pathways through which individual differences in Benevolent Sexism (BS) simultaneously enhance and attenuate support for gender equality of income and employment opportunity is presented. Results from a New Zealand electoral sample (N?=?336) indicated that BS predicted Hostile Sexism (HS), and thus indirectly opposition toward gender-related policies (a hierarchy-enhancing effect). For women, BS also directly predicted attitudes toward gender equality in the opposing, supportive direction (a hierarchy-attenuating effect). Analyses of a 9-month longitudinal sample of undergraduate women substantiated these results (Study II; N?=?170). In stable societies, the dual opposing effects of BS seem to form a system where hierarchy-enhancing and hierarchy-attenuating processes tend toward homeostasis or equilibrium within the population.     

How the behavioral approach system predicts everyday life outcomes

This study tested crucial components of Gray's reinforcement sensitivity theory that have generally been overlooked in the literature. We tested whether the perceived amount of reward moderates the behavioral approach system (BAS) and the importance of reward mediates BAS in the prediction of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Results from 514 participants employed in part-time and full-time jobs provided support for our model, such that the indirect effect of BAS through the importance of reward was strongest when reward was provided. This model advances our understanding of reinforcement sensitivity theory and offers a solid foundation for predicting outcomes in everyday life.     

Is manipulation of mood a critical component of cognitive bias modification procedures?

This paper investigates whether changes in mood state are an important component of cognitive bias modification (CBM) procedures. In a novel CBM procedure participants read either positive or negative statements relating to social issues for 5 min. Interpretation bias was measured by means of a scrambled sentence test, which was presented both before and after the CBM procedure. Participants who read the positive statements made more positive resolutions to the scrambled sentences, while participants who read the negative statements made more negative resolutions. Thus, the appropriate positive and negative interpretative biases were induced by the CBM procedure. However, significant mood changes also occurred following CBM. In Experiment 2, a musical mood induction procedure was presented with depressing or elating music. As before, a scrambled sentence test was presented both before and after the musical mood induction. Mood changed in accordance with the valence of the music to the same extent as with CBM. Critically however, performance on the scrambled sentence task did not change for both groups. This demonstrates that a change in mood state is not sufficient for a change in cognitive bias to occur.     

Prejudiced People Perceive More Community Support for Their Views: The Role of Own,Media, and Peer Attitudes in Perceived Consensus

People often overestimate others' support for their views (false consensus effect). Recent research has shown that this is particularly marked in the relation between perceived consensus and prejudice. The current research asked whether this partly arises in an in‐group stereotype of the community as prejudiced. We investigated relations between different sources of normative information (self, media, peers), estimates of community attitudes, and perceived consensus in a sample of 135 community members. Media prejudice predicted community attitudes, and this further predicted consensus. However, strongest was a direct relation between own prejudice and perceived consensus. The results indicate a desire to appear nonprejudiced, relative to others. Confronting prejudiced people with information about community norms is a promising intervention under these circumstances.     

Exploring lexical co-occurrence space using HiDEx

Hyperspace analog to language (HAL) is a high-dimensional model of semantic space that uses the global co-occurrence frequency of words in a large corpus of text as the basis for a representation of semantic memory. In the original HAL model, many parameters were set without any a priori rationale. We have created and publicly released a computer application, the High Dimensional Explorer (HiDEx), that makes it possible to systematically alter the values of these parameters to examine their effect on the co-occurrence matrix that instantiates the model. We took an empirical approach to understanding the influence of the parameters on the measures produced by the models, looking at how well matrices derived with different parameters could predict human reaction times in lexical decision and semantic decision tasks. New parameter sets give us measures of semantic density that improve the model’s ability to predict behavioral measures. Implications for such models are discussed.     

“Our Revolution Has Style”: Contemporary Menstrual Product Activists “Doing Feminism” in the Third Wave

An in-depth content analysis of five web sites and eight paper zines (self-produced and distributed magazines) was conducted to uncover the inspiration, content, and unique strategies associated with text -based contemporary menstrual product activism. Menstrual product activism is loosely defined as various attempts to expose the hazards of commercial “feminine protection” to both women's bodies and the environment and the promotion of healthier, less expensive, and less resource-intensive alternatives. This activism's discourse draws on many traditions to produce its resistance to mainstream menses management. The movement, first and foremost, is the legacy of several decades of related activism, dating to the mid1970s. Contemporary menstrual product activism updates and modifies this tradition with the “do it yourself” ethic and anti-corporate philosophy of Punk culture and Third Wave feminist ideals of anti-essentialism, inclusion, humor, irony, and reappropriation. To date, this activist agenda has received little scholarly attention, yet it promises to yield meaningful insight into so called Third Wave feminist theory and practice and reveal the resilience of a woman-centered modern history of resistance.     

Social skills and negative life events: Testing the deficit stress generation hypothesis

People who possess poor social skills have been hypothesized to experience negative events and consequently become vulnerable to psychosocial problems. This is characterized as the social skills deficit stress generation hypothesis. Two studies were conducted to examine this hypothesis. In study 1, 677 university students completed measures of social skills and negative life events that had occurred over the past three months. In study 2, 142 students participated in a 9 month, 3 wave longitudinal study that assessed social skills at times 1 and 3 and negative life events at times 2 and 3. Results of the investigations indicate generally negative associations between social skills and negative life events, but these associations were stronger concurrently than prospectively. Although social skills were predicted to be associated with negative life events that are social in nature, in most cases they were equally predictive of nonsocial negative life events. The associations between the social skills and life events were consistently small in magnitude. This research was supported in part by University of Kansas General Research allocation 3011-20-0038 and 3825-20-0038. The author expresses gratitude to Jeanne Flora, Clark Henry, and Michelle Menees for their assistance with coding.