Remembrances of parental rejection are associated with loneliness as mediated by psychological maladjustment in young Bangladeshi men but not women

Loneliness is a significant public health issue that affects young adults. This investigation drew from interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory to understand how remembrances of parental rejection contributed to psychological maladjustment and loneliness in Bangladeshi college students (N = 300; 50% female). Students reported their remembrances of mothers' and fathers' acceptance-rejection, their current psychological maladjustment, and loneliness. Remembrances of rejection by parents in childhood were associated with psychological maladjustment (hostility/aggression, negative self-esteem, negative self-adequacy, emotional unresponsiveness, emotional instability, and negative worldview) for young adult men and women. Psychological maladjustment, in turn, was associated with feelings of loneliness in young adulthood for young men, but not women. Remembrances of parental rejection were also associated with greater hostility and aggression over and above general psychological functioning among both men and women. Findings are discussed in the context of different social and structural features of young adulthood for women and men in Bangladesh.     

Cumulative consequences of stigma: Possessing multiple concealable stigmatized identities is associated with worse quality of life

Large health disparities exist between stigmatized and nonstigmatized groups. In addition to experiencing and anticipating greater discrimination, members of stigmatized groups also tend to demonstrate greater ruminative tendencies in response, which may lead to these poor health outcomes. Even among stigmatized groups, differences in the visibility of stigma lead to different mechanisms through which stigma takes its toll. Previous work has primarily focused on the impact of belonging to a single marginalized group; however, people often belong to multiple marginalized groups, and this likely affects both their health outcomes and their anticipation of stigma. In the current study, we focused on individuals with concealable stigmatized identities (CSIs)—socially stigmatized identities that are not immediately apparent to others—and created a measure of concealable marginalization that captures multiple group memberships. We predicted that those possessing a greater number of CSIs would anticipate more stigma from others, and, in turn, ruminate more about the stigma, which would negatively impact the health. Surveying N = 288 adults with CSIs, we found that possessing a greater number of marginalized concealable identities predicted worse self-reported physical quality of life. These relationships were partially mediated by greater anticipated stigma and brooding rumination in regard to their CSI. This work illuminates a more complete picture of how living with CSIs can take its toll on health.     

False memories and lexical decision: even twelve primes do not cause long-term semantic priming

Semantic priming effects are usually obtained only if the prime is presented shortly before the target stimulus. Recent evidence obtained with the so-called false memory paradigm suggests, however, that in both explicit and implicit memory tasks semantic relations between words can result in long-lasting effects when multiple 'primes' are presented. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether these effects would generalize to lexical decision. In four experiments we showed that even as many as 12 primes do not cause long-term semantic priming. In all experiments, however, a repetition priming effect was obtained. The present results are consistent with a number of other results showing that semantic information plays a minimal role in long-term priming in visual word recognition.     

Configural biases and reversible figures: evidence of multilevel grouping effects

Four experiments sought to identify the processes underlying 2 classes of grouping effects that are readily produced with a hierarchical figure type known as ambiguous triangles. Previous work has shown that aligning small equilateral triangles in particular configurations can both facilitate and interfere with observers' ability to report the pointing direction of the individual triangles. We determined that selectively adapting the observer to low-frequency gratings of the same orientation as the aligned triangles markedly altered the interfering and facilitative effects of the global configuration only when an accuracy measure of performance was used. When a response latency measure was used, no effect of the same adaptation condition was found. Results are discussed in terms of multiple levels of grouping effects in the visual system and the differential sensitivity of these levels to basic neural adaptation.     

Feature-specific perceptual processing dissociates action from recognition

Does visual processing differ for action and recognition? To address this question, the authors capitalized on research showing that color is preferred over binocular disparity in the ventral (recognition) stream, whereas disparity is preferred over color in the dorsal (action) stream. Participants searched for oblique targets among vertical distractors in displays defined only by color or disparity. Action-task participants stamped the target with a handheld block, whereas recognition-task participants lifted the block through a target-compatible gap. Analyses of reaction time and time-varying hand orientation showed that disparity and color displays were processed equally efficiently during action, but disparity was processed less efficiently than color during recognition. The results suggest that visual processing differs for action and recognition.     

A measurement theory of illusory conjunctions

Illusory conjunctions refer to the incorrect perceptual combination of correctly perceived features, such as color and shape. Research on the phenomenon has been hampered by the lack of a measurement theory that accounts for guessing features, as well as the incorrect combination of correctly perceived features. Recently, several investigators have suggested using multinomial models as a tool for measuring feature integration. The authors examined the adequacy of these models in 2 experiments by testing whether model parameters reflect changes in stimulus factors. In a third experiment, confidence ratings were used as a tool for testing the model. Multinomial models accurately reflected both variations in stimulus factors and observers' trial-by-trial confidence ratings.     

Measures of self-efficacy and optimism in older adults with generalized anxiety

This study provides initial psychometric data for the Self-Efficacy Scale (SES) and the Life Orientation Test (LOT) in a sample of older adults with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Participants included 76 adults, ages 60 to 80, who met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.) criteria for GAD. Self-efficacy and outcome expectancies were lower in older adults with GAD relative to published data from younger and older community samples. Both the SES and LOT demonstrated adequate internal consistency. Confirmatory factor analysis provided evidence for optimism and pessimism factors within the LOT and exploratory factor analysis of the SES suggested threefactors that overlap with previous findings. Overall, the data support the potential utility of these instruments in late-life GAD and set the stage forfuture investigations of generalized self-efficacy expectancies and outcome expectancies (or optimism) as they relate to the prediction of affect and behavior in this group.