Minorities' acculturation and social adjustment: The moderator role of meta‐perceptions of majority's acculturation attitudes

Two studies addressed the role of Black meta‐perception of acculturation attitudes on the relation between minority acculturation attitudes and their social adjustment (school achievement and perceived quality of intergroup relations). Participants in both studies were Black Lusophone adolescents living in Portugal. Study 1 (N = 140) indicated that participants' attitude regarding the host culture was positively correlated with their school achievement and to their evaluation of intergroup relations. It also indicated that participants' meta‐perception of majority attitude add to the explained variance of participants' social adjustment. Study 2 (N = 62) manipulated the perceived majority high/low support of immigrants' learning the host culture. The dependent variable (DV) was perceived quality of intergroup relations. Only in the low support condition were participants' attitudes towards the host culture positively related to perceived quality of Black–White relationships. These results suggest that perceived social context is central to understand the relationship between minority adolescents' acculturation attitudes and key dimensions of their adjustment to host societies.     

Ethnicity,Social Support,and Depression Among Elderly Chilean People

Recent evidence regarding the relationship between social support and depression in elderly people shows the important role of ethnicity. This research describes the characteristics of social support in a sample of elderly people aged 60 and above living in northern Chile (n = 493), and analyzes the differences in the relationship between social support and depression between an indigenous group (Aymara population, n = 147) and a nonindigenous group (white, Caucasian, mestizo, n = 346). Various dimensions of social support were considered: structural elements, functional social support according to source, and community participation. The results show the existence of significant differences in the characteristics and dimensions of social support depending on sex, ethnicity, and marital status. Further, the central role of the family group is observed for both Aymara and nonindigenous elderly people. The hierarchical regression models obtained result in notable differences in the role of the structural, functional, and community elements of support in explaining depression for the ethnic groups considered.     

Reliability Generalization Study of the Yale–Brown Obsessive–Compulsive Scale for Children and Adolescents

The Yale–Brown Obsessive–Compulsive Scale for children and adolescents (CY–BOCS) is a frequently applied test to assess obsessive–compulsive symptoms. We conducted a reliability generalization meta-analysis on the CY–BOCS to estimate the average reliability, search for reliability moderators, and propose a predictive model that researchers and clinicians can use to estimate the expected reliability of the CY–BOCS scores. A total of 47 studies reporting a reliability coefficient with the data at hand were included in the meta-analysis. The results showed good reliability and a large variability associated to the standard deviation of total scores and sample size.     

Resilience and Coping as Predictors of Well-Being in Adults

Well-being is one of the keys to successful and optimal development across the lifespan. Based on the idea that development involves changes in individuals’ adaptive capacity to meet their needs over time, the changes that occur in the second half of life require effort to adapt to the new reality. This study used a structural model to test the effects of coping strategies and resilience on well-being in a sample of 305 mid-life adults. Several constructs were measured: coping strategies, resilience, and well-being. A final model was obtained with good fit indices; psychological well-being was positively predicted by resilience and negatively by emotional coping. Moreover, positive reappraisal and avoidance form part of both coping strategies (problem-focused and emotion-focused). Considering the characteristics of the model, educational intervention programs could be developed to promote skills that favor good adaptation at this stage in the life cycle and contribute to promoting successful aging.     

Warmth and competence in animals

Social‐perception dimensions may explain human‐animal relationships because animals show intent toward humans (social perception's warmth dimension) and, consequently, their potential effect on humans is relevant (competence dimension). After reviewing current literature about perceptions of animals’ ascribed intentions and abilities, three studies tested the Stereotype Content Model (SCM) (Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, & Xu, 2002) and the Behaviors from Intergroup Affect and Stereotypes Map (Cuddy, Fiske, & Glick, 2007) regarding animal targets. Study 1 found a four‐cluster SCM structure. Warmth and competence judgments predicted specific emotions and behavioral tendencies toward animals (Study 2). Study 3 supported associations between animals and social groups based on their respective perceived warmth and competence. Taken together, results showed the relevance of SCM dimensions for social perception of animals.     

Don't judge a living book by its cover: effectiveness of the living library intervention in reducing prejudice toward Roma and LGBT people

In Hungary, prejudices toward Roma and the LGBT community are highly salient and explicit in public opinion, the media, and in the political discourse. The present study examined the effectiveness of the Living Library prejudice reduction intervention—in which participants as “Readers” have engaging contact with living “Books” who are trained volunteers from the Roma and LGBT communities. In a pre‐post intervention study with high school students (N = 105), results suggest that the Living Library intervention reduced participants’ scores on multiple measures of prejudice. The Living Library intervention appeared to be effective among both those participants whose friends endorsed prejudice or more tolerant attitudes toward Roma and LGBT people. In sum, Living Library appears to be a useful method for reducing prejudice in contexts which are characterized by strong negative attitudes toward these different groups.     

Perceiving emotions: Cueing social categorization processes and attentional control through facial expressions

Individuals spontaneously categorise other people on the basis of their gender, ethnicity and age. But what about the emotions they express? In two studies we tested the hypothesis that facial expressions are similar to other social categories in that they can function as contextual cues to control attention. In Experiment 1 we associated expressions of anger and happiness with specific proportions of congruent/incongruent flanker trials. We also created consistent and inconsistent category members within each of these two general contexts. The results demonstrated that participants exhibited a larger congruency effect when presented with faces in the emotional group associated with a high proportion of congruent trials. Notably, this effect transferred to inconsistent members of the group. In Experiment 2 we replicated the effects with faces depicting true and false smiles. Together these findings provide consistent evidence that individuals spontaneously utilise emotions to categorise others and that such categories determine the allocation of attentional control.