Getting rid of the bad ones: The relationship between group identification, deviant derogation, and identity maintenance

Two studies investigated the impact of the presentation of an undesirable group member on group stereotype judgments among participants with varying degrees of ingroup identification. In Study 1 (N = 67), identification was associated with stereotype change following presentation of an undesirable, but not a desirable, ingroup member. This relationship was mediated by evaluations of the undesirable ingroup member: the stronger the identification, the more negative the evaluation, and the greater the shift towards a more positive ingroup stereotype. In Study 2 (N = 180), identification was positively associated with ingroup stereotype ratings following presentation of an undesirable ingroup member but was negatively associated with outgroup ratings following presentation of an undesirable outgroup member. As in Study 1, the association between ingroup identification and ingroup stereotype ratings was mediated by evaluations of the undesirable ingroup member. Results are discussed in relation to the black sheep effect and identity maintenance strategies.     

Come together: longitudinal comparisons of Pettigrew's reformulated intergroup contact model and the common ingroup identity model in Anglo‐French and Mexican‐American contexts

Both Anglo‐French and Mexican‐American relations are embedded in histories of conflict. Within these intergroup contexts, two longitudinal field studies of contact tested Pettigrew's ( 1998 ) reformulated model of the intergroup contact theory and Gaertner and Dovidio's (2000) Common Ingroup Identity Model (CIIM). In Pettigrew's model, intergroup friendship is accorded a special role and the contact‐bias relation is mediated by changing behaviour, ingroup reappraisal, generating affective ties, and learning about the outgroup. Pettigrew's integration of the three central models of contact generalization into a time‐sequence holds that contact first elicits decategorization, then salient categorization, and finally recategorization. In the CIIM, these three levels of categorization—plus a fourth, dual identity—are conceptualized to be mediators in the contact‐bias relation. Results point to the crucial importance of intergroup friendship and underline the mediating roles of learning about the outgroup, behaviour modification, and generating affective ties, but not ingroup reappraisal in Pettigrew's model. As for the CIIM, in Study 1 interpersonal and intergroup levels were most central, while in Study 2 the dual identity and superordinate group levels were most effective. The implications of the findings are discussed with reference to the likely stability of these effects in different intergroup contexts. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

PERSONAL ATTITUDES OR STRUCTURAL FACTORS? A CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF BREASTFEEDING DURATION

A personal attitudes model (i.e., infant feeding choices are based on personal attitudes primarily) and a structural factors model (i.e., feeding choices are shaped by the structural contexts of women's lives, as much as personal attitudes) of women's breastfeeding behavior were tested by surveying a longitudinal sample of 548 mostly European American women recruited for the Wisconsin Maternity Leave and Health Project. Personal attitudes (enjoyment of breastfeeding, gender-role attitudes, and work and family salience) accounted for half as much variance in breastfeeding duration for women who were employed outside the home compared to those who were not. For women employed outside the home, both structural variables (length of maternity leave and workplace flexibility) and personal attitudes predicted duration. These results have implications for how we construct the issue of women's breastfeeding decisions.     

Gender Differences in the Use of the Internet by English Secondary School Children

Access to the Internet is an important issue in terms of equity and the UK government has stated ‘Our goal is to ensure that everyone who wants it has access to the Internet by 2005.’ (UK Online Annual Report, 2002). This survey of Internet use by 1340 secondary school students from four schools in the Teesside area of England was carried out in order to assess whether the government is realising its ambition of Internet access amongst 11–16 year-olds, and also to determine whether or not gender differences exist in Internet use. Furthermore, the data supplied are intended to inform later studies of more specific aspects of children's Internet use. Generally, it was found that most children used the Internet, were quite comfortable with it, and used it for a variety of applications. However, a considerable minority of respondents also considered themselves non-users of the Internet. There were also some gender differences found in the data which in general suggested something of a male bias towards Internet use. It was concluded that these are issues that need to be addressed for the purposes of equity and if the government is to achieve its goal of Internet access for all by 2005. A number of suggestions for further research into Internet use by children are also suggested in this paper.     

Body Objectification,MTV, and Psychological Outcomes Among Female Adolescents1

In response to the American Psychological Association's Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls, the present study explored the role of sexually objectifying media—in this case, music television—in a host of psychological consequences among a community sample of adolescents girls (M age = 13 years). Objectification theory posits that the consequences of sexual objectification involve the process of self‐objectification. As such, we hypothesized that music television consumption would first and foremost be associated with self‐objectification, which would, in turn, predict a number of body‐related consequences. The findings support a model in which self‐objectification mediates a direct relation between music television viewing and body esteem, dieting, depressive symptoms, anxiety, and confidence in math ability.     

Exploring a taxonomy for aggression against women: can it aid conceptual clarity?

The assessment of aggression against women is demanding primarily because assessment strategies do not share a common language to describe reliably the wide range of forms of aggression women experience. The lack of a common language impairs efforts to describe these experiences, understand causes and consequences of aggression against women, and develop effective intervention and prevention efforts. This review accomplishes two goals. First, it applies a theoretically and empirically based taxonomy to behaviors assessed by existing measurement instruments. Second, it evaluates whether the taxonomy provides a common language for the field. Strengths of the taxonomy include its ability to describe and categorize all forms of aggression found in existing quantitative measures. The taxonomy also classifies numerous examples of aggression discussed in the literature but notably absent from quantitative measures. Although we use existing quantitative measures as a starting place to evaluate the taxonomy, its use is not limited to quantitative methods. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed. Aggr. Behav. 35:462–476, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Attention,competition, and the parietal lobes: insights from Balint’s syndrome

Simultanagnosia (resulting from occipito-parietal damage) is a profound visual deficit, which impairs the ability to perceive multiple items in a visual display, while preserving the ability to recognise single objects. Here we demonstrate in a patient presenting with Balint’s syndrome that this deficit may result from an extreme form of competition between objects which makes it difficult for attention to be disengaged from an object once it has been selected.