Cross-Community Contact, Perceived Status Differences, and Intergroup Attitudes in Northern Ireland: The Mediating Roles of Individual-level versus Group-level Threats and the Moderating Role of Social Identification

We tested a model which examined the relationship between contact quantity and quality, relative ingroup status, and intergroup attitudes in Northern Ireland. Intergroup anxiety was considered an individual-level mediator and realistic and symbolic threat as group-level mediators in the model. We examined the idea that the strength of ingroup identification moderates the predictive power of individual- versus group-level variables. Both contact and relative ingroup status predicted anxiety and perceived threats to the ingroup, which were significant mediators in the model. Our results also suggest that while anxiety predicts attitudes for low but not high identifiers, symbolic threats to the ingroup are more important for high than for low identifiers. There was also some evidence indicating that status perceptions moderate contact effects. We discuss these results in terms of their implications for intergroup relations in Northern Ireland.     

A longitudinal study on transactional relations between parental marital distress and adolescent emotional adjustment

Using a cross-lagged effect model with 3 waves of data from a 6-year longitudinal study with 3-year intervals, transactional relations between parental marital distress and adolescent emotional adjustment were examined. The sample consisted of 531 parent-adolescent dyads. Results showed that marital distress as reported by parents and emotional adjustment as reported by adolescents were reciprocally related in a transactional model over time. This was principally true for girls and for late adolescents and young adults. For older adolescent girls, an almost full transactional model was found, whereas associations between marital distress and emotional adjustment were less strong for younger girls and were absent for boys.     

The value-congruence model of memory for emotional experiences: an explanation for cultural differences in emotional self-reports

In 3 studies, the authors found support for the value-congruence model that accounts for cultural variations in memory for emotional experiences. In Study 1, the authors found that in the made-in-the-U.S. scenario condition, European Americans were more accurate than were Asian Americans in their retrospective frequency judgments of emotions. However, in the made-in-Japan scenario condition, European Americans were less accurate than were Asian Americans. In Study 2, the authors demonstrated that value orientation mediates the CulturexType of Event congruence effect. In Study 3 (a daily event sampling study), the authors showed that the congruence effect was explained by the importance of parental approval. In sum, emotional events congruent with personal values remain in memory longer and influence retrospective frequency judgments of emotion more than do incongruent events.     

Autobiographical memory specificity and emotional disorder

The authors review research showing that when recalling autobiographical events, many emotionally disturbed patients summarize categories of events rather than retrieving a single episode. The mechanisms underlying such overgeneral memory are examined, with a focus on M. A. Conway and C. W. Pleydell-Pearce's (2000) hierarchical search model of personal event retrieval. An elaboration of this model is proposed to account for overgeneral memory, focusing on how memory search can be affected by (a) capture and rumination processes, when mnemonic information used in retrieval activates ruminative thinking; (b) functional avoidance, when episodic material threatens to cause affective disturbance; and (c) impairment in executive capacity and control that limits an individual's ability to remain focused on retrieval in the face of distraction.     

The use of faces as stimuli in neuroimaging and psychological experiments: A procedure to standardize stimulus features

In psychological experiments involving facial stimuli, it is of great importance that the basic perceptual or psychological characteristics that are investigated are not confounded by factors such as brightness and contrast, head size, hair cut and color, skin color, and the presence of glasses and earrings. Standardization of facial stimulus materials reduces the effect of these confounding factors. We therefore employed a set of basic image processing techniques to deal with this issue. The processed images depict the faces in gray-scale, all at the same size, brightness, and contrast, and confined to an oval mask revealing only the basic features such as the eyes, nose, and mouth. The standardization was successfully applied to four different face databases, consisting of male and female faces and including neutral as well as happy facial expressions. An important advantage of the proposed standardization is that featural as well as configurational information is retained. We also consider the procedure to be a major contribution to the development of a de facto standard for the use of facial stimuli in psychological experiments. Such methodological standardization would allow a better comparison of the results of these studies.     

Dietary patterns and intelligence in early and middle childhood

The association between intelligence and diet at 3.5 and 7 years was examined in 591 children of European descent. Approximately half of the children were born small-for-gestational age (birth weight ≤ 10th percentile). The relationship between IQ and diet (measured by food frequency) was investigated using multiple regression analyses. Eating margarine at least daily was associated with significantly lower IQ scores at 3.5 years in the total sample and at 7 years in SGA children. For all children, eating the recommended daily number of breads and cereals was associated with significantly higher IQ scores at 3.5 years, and those who ate fish at least weekly had significantly higher IQ scores at 7 years than those who did not. The consumption of fish, breads and cereals commeasurable with nutritional guidelines may be beneficial to children's cognitive development. In contrast, consuming margarine daily was associated with poorer cognitive functioning. Further research is needed to identify the nutrients that may underlie this association.     

Facing the Pariah of Science: The Frankenstein Myth as a Social and Ethical Reference for Scientists

Science and Engineering Ethics - Since its first publication in 1818, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus has transcended genres and cultures to become a foundational myth...