Masculinity Ideology and Forgiveness of Racial Discrimination among African American Men: Direct and Interactive Relationships

Forgiveness research has focused almost exclusively on interpersonal transgressions committed in close relationships. Consequently, less is known about factors informing forgiveness of non-intimate actors. The current study addresses these gaps by investigating correlates of forgiveness over racial discrimination among African American men (N?=?171). Specifically, we explore relationships between the endorsement of traditional masculine ideology (e.g., restrictive emotionality), overall forgiveness, forgiveness with positive affect, and forgiveness with the absence of negative affect. Links between personality, religiosity, social support, discrimination experiences, and these forms of forgiveness also are examined. Restrictive emotionality emerged as a barrier to forgiveness of discrimination. However, the relationship between restrictive emotionality and forgiveness was moderated by age, socioeconomic status, personality, and religious coping disposition.     

If you say thee uh you are describing something hard: the on-line attribution of disfluency during reference comprehension

Eye-tracking and gating experiments examined reference comprehension with fluent (Click on the red. . .) and disfluent (Click on [pause] thee uh red . . .) instructions while listeners viewed displays with 2 familiar (e.g., ice cream cones) and 2 unfamiliar objects (e.g., squiggly shapes). Disfluent instructions made unfamiliar objects more expected, which influenced listeners' on-line hypotheses from the onset of the color word. The unfamiliarity bias was sharply reduced by instructions that the speaker had object agnosia, and thus difficulty naming familiar objects (Experiment 2), but was not affected by intermittent sources of speaker distraction (beeps and construction noises; Experiments 3). The authors conclude that listeners can make situation-specific inferences about likely sources of disfluency, but there are some limitations to these attributions.     

The effect of attentional focus on social anxiety

The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of attentional focus on social anxiety in a group of high and low blushing-anxious subjects. One hundred and fourteen psychology undergraduate students were screened using the Fear of Blushing subscale of the Blushing Questionnaire [B?gels, S. M., & Reith, W. (1999). Validity of two questionnaires to assess social fears: The Dutch social phobia and anxiety questionnaire and the blushing, trembling and sweating questionnaire. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 21, 51-66]. Those with the most extreme scores in the top and bottom 20% of the distribution were selected to form a high (n=22) and a low (n=22) blushing-anxious group. Subjects were randomly allocated to either a self-focused attention (SFA) condition or a task-focused attention (TFA) condition. They were asked to engage in a 5 min conversation with the first author, and were instructed to either self-focus (SFA condition) or task-focus (TFA condition). Levels of social anxiety and self-awareness were measured using visual analogue scales. Results suggest that the there was a significant condition by group interaction, with high blushing individuals showing considerably higher levels of social anxiety in the SFA condition compared to the TFA condition while low blushing individuals showed no significant difference across the two conditions.     

The color and texture of hope: some preliminary findings and implications for hope theory and counseling among diverse racial/ethnic groups

To clarify and extend Snyder's (1994, 2002) hope theory to a more diverse population, this study examined variations in agentic and pathways thinking, and their relations with social problem solving, affect, and with life satisfaction across a college student sample of 46 European Americans, 30 African Americans, 33 Latinos, and 46 Asian Americans. Although comparative results indicated variations in levels of hope components across the 4 racial/ethnic groups, correlational results indicated that the manner in which hope components related to measures of behavior and adjustment were similar across groups. Regression results indicated similarities and differences in predictors of hope components across the different racial/ethnic groups. Potential implications for promoting hope in working with diverse college students are discussed.     

The sleep patterns and problems of clinically anxious children

Childhood sleep problems have been associated with a range of adverse cognitive and academic outcomes, as well as increased impulsivity and emotional disorders such as anxiety and depression. The aim of the study was to examine subjective reports of sleep-related problems in children with anxiety disorders during school and weekend nights. Thirty-seven children with clinically-diagnosed anxiety disorders and 26 non-clinical children aged 7-12 years completed an on-line sleep diary to track sleep patterns across school nights and weekend nights. Anxious children reported going to bed significantly later (p = 0.03) and had significantly less sleep (p = 0.006) on school nights compared to non-anxious children. No significant differences in sleep onset latency, number of awakenings or time awake during the night, daytime sleepiness, or fatigue were found between the two groups. On the weekends, anxious children fell asleep quicker and were less awake during the night than on weeknights. School-aged anxiety disordered children showed a sleep pattern that differs from their non-anxious peers. Although the mean 30 min less sleep experienced by anxious children may initially seem small, the potential consequences on daytime performance from an accumulation of such a sleep deficit may be significant, and further investigation is warranted.     

Interelectrode distance and warning signal interval and the evaluation of clinical electrical shock

Contingent shock is used on a small scale for behaviors that may lead to severe damages to one's body or to others. Research efforts focus on exploring variables that control the evaluation of electrical shocks. This study focuses on two practical questions, that is, whether the distance between the electrodes would influence the evaluation of shock and whether using a variable time interval in the administration would influence the evaluation of shock. Results reveal that both investigated variables control the evaluation of shock. Multiple shocks appear to produce a stronger sensation than single shocks, a phenomenon that was also revealed in previous studies. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Co‐speech gesture as input in verb learning

People gesture a great deal when speaking, and research has shown that listeners can interpret the information contained in gesture. The current research examines whether learners can also use co‐speech gesture to inform language learning. Specifically, we examine whether listeners can use information contained in an iconic gesture to assign meaning to a novel verb form. Two experiments demonstrate that adults and 2‐, 3‐, and 4‐year‐old children can infer the meaning of novel intransitive verbs from gestures when no other source of information is present. The findings support the idea that gesture might be a source of input available to language learners.     

An Empirical Study of Future Professionals’ Intentions to Engage in Unethical Business Practices

This paper sought to test whether student demographics (gender, age, religion, type of degree and number of courses done containing ethics) influenced the likelihood of engaging in unethical business practices. The study involved the use of a questionnaire being administered to a sample of 231 undergraduate students in Barbados. It was found that gender, religiousness, type of degree and number of courses taken containing ethics significantly impacted on the intentions to engage in unethical behaviour. It was also found that the impact of age was not conclusive. The study has several limitations including low generalisability due to the use of a non-probability sampling method, and the possibility of social desirability bias. The study informs educators about the need to integrate ethics into the curriculum as an essential component of professional training for future managers and business people. This study makes an important contribution to the ethics literature on small island developing states, since the study was done in the country of Barbados.