The role of religion in human values: a case study

By helping social norms to be internalized, values are indirectly sources of relationship behaviour. Likewise, cultural traditions, religion and language have different meanings that shape beliefs and influence social life. Thus, it seems important to revaluate the role of values in social life in a society which is extremely distinguishable in religious terms. An adaptation of Schwartz’s (1994a Schwartz, S. H. 1994a. “Studying human values”. In Journeys Into Cross‐Cultural Psychology, Edited by: Bouvy, A., Vijver, F., Boski, P. and Schmitz, P. 239–254. Amsterdam: Swets & Zeitlinger.  [Google Scholar]) value survey was used. MANOVA analysis revealed significant differences between groups in four value types and in three higher dimensions. Overall, results indicate that a combination of Schwartz’ values with insights from individualism/collectivism can be useful in contexts like Mozambique, a nation characterized by divergent religious groups, which can lead to a collision between religious viewpoints and values. Altogether, it seems most important to investigate further the historical and social influences that shape individual and communal identities with regard to questions of religion and values.     

Gender differences in automatic in-group bias: why do women like women more than men like men?

Four experiments confirmed that women's automatic in-group bias is remarkably stronger than men's and investigated explanations for this sex difference, derived from potential sources of implicit attitudes (L. A. Rudman, 2004). In Experiment 1, only women (not men) showed cognitive balance among in-group bias, identity, and self-esteem (A. G. Greenwald et al., 2002), revealing that men lack a mechanism that bolsters automatic own group preference. Experiments 2 and 3 found pro-female bias to the extent that participants automatically favored their mothers over their fathers or associated male gender with violence, suggesting that maternal bonding and male intimidation influence gender attitudes. Experiment 4 showed that for sexually experienced men, the more positive their attitude was toward sex, the more they implicitly favored women. In concert, the findings help to explain sex differences in automatic in-group bias and underscore the uniqueness of gender for intergroup relations theorists.     

Democracy and Fatalism in the Former Soviet Union1

Recent political events in the former Soviet Union suggest that democracy has only a tenuous hold in this region. Underlying many of these events may be psychological values and beliefs ill conducive to the development of democracy. In the 2 studies described in this paper, conducted in 1995 and 1998, 2 large and representative groups of manual workers, students, civil servants, managers, and the retired from 4 former Soviet republics completed measures of fatalism, attitudes toward democracy, and democratic participation (N= 2,672 and 925). Structural equation analyses of the data from both studies find that particular groups (in particular, manual workers and the retired) hold the strongest fatalistic beliefs, which in turn predict democratic attitudes, voting behavior, and political‐party membership. These findings are discussed in the light of possible interventions that might promote democratic participation in the region.     

Presence of administrators differentially impacts eyewitness discriminability for same- and other-race identifications

Best practice guidelines recommend that eyewitness lineup administrators be blind to a suspect's identity, but no research has investigated whether the mere presence of a lineup administrator impacts eyewitness identification decisions. Informed by social facilitation theory, we predicted that the presence of an audience would differentially impact identification accuracy for same- and other-race identifications. Participants (N = 191) viewed same- and other-race lineups either with an audience or alone. Although the presence of an audience did not directly impact identification accuracy, significant indirect effects indicated that the audience provoked evaluation apprehension which hindered other-race identification accuracy and improved same-race identification accuracy. We suggest that using double-blind lineup procedures may not sufficiently protect eyewitness identification accuracy when making other-race lineup decisions in the presence of others.     

The Eye of the Beholder: Romantic Goals and Impression Biases

Four experiments investigated the effects of romantic goals on task and social impression formation. The clouded judgment hypothesis holds that romantic goals encourage positive biases on less relationship-relevant dimensions (e.g., task competence). The default positivity hypothesis holds that romantic goals encourage positivity biases on relationship-relevant dimensions in the absence of relevant information. The selective accuracy hypothesis posits that romantic goals encourage accuracy regarding relationship-relevant attributes (e.g., social competence) when relevant information is available. In four studies, male and female perceivers evaluated opposite-sex targets whom they expected to date (romantic goals) or to meet for nonromantic interaction (baseline). Videotaped targets displayed competence or incompetence on task (Experiments 1 and 2) or social (Experiments 3 and 4) dimensions. All three hypotheses were supported.     

Testing specificity and guidance hypotheses by manipulating relative frequency of KR scheduling in motor skill acquisition.

This investigation tested predictions of specificity and guidance hypotheses by manipulating relative frequency of knowledge of results scheduling using a shuffleboard task. Participants were assigned to either a 100%-KR, three 50%-KR conditions (Constant, Fade, Reverse), or 00%-KR condition. Based on predictions of the specificity hypothesis, it was expected the 00%-KR condition would perform the best on a no-KR retention test. It was also expected the 100%-KR condition would perform poorly on a no-KR retention test based on predictions of the guidance hypothesis. Analysis for 55 men's and 55 women's retention did not support predictions of the specificity hypothesis and provided partial support for the guidance hypothesis.     

The ethics of clinical innovation in psychopharmacology: Challenging traditional bioethics

Objective  

To assess the scientific and ethical basis for clinical innovation in psychopharmacology.