Evidence that blatant versus subtle stereotype threat cues impact performance through dual processes

An experiment tested three competing hypotheses for how blatant and subtle stereotype threat cues influence the performance of female sports participants on a golf-putting task. A “predominant” model predicts that blatant threat cues have a more negative effect on performance than subtle threat cues, whereas an “additive” model predicts that both cues combine to have a greater negative effect than either threat cue alone. However, a “dual process” model predicts that each threat cue has an independent negative influence through separate mechanisms. To test these predictions, we varied the presence of blatant (e.g., the task frame) and subtle cues (e.g., the gender of the experimenter) for negative stereotypes about female athletes, and then measured both the number of strokes required to finish the course and accuracy on the last putt of each hole. The results supported the dual process model prediction: females required more strokes to finish the golf task when it was framed as measuring gender differences compared to racial differences in athletic ability, and females performed less accurately on the last putt of each hole in the presence of a male versus a female experimenter. The discussion focuses on how the presence of multiple stereotype threat cues can induce independent mechanisms that may have separate but simultaneously deleterious effects on performance.     

Ruminative self-focus and negative affect: an experience sampling study

The authors conducted an experience sampling study to investigate the relationship between momentary ruminative self-focus and negative affect. Ninety-three adults recorded these variables at quasi-random intervals 8 times daily for 1 week. Scores on questionnaire measures of dispositional rumination were associated with mean levels of momentary ruminative self-focus over the experience sampling week. Concurrently, momentary ruminative self-focus was positively associated with negative affect. Cross-lagged analyses revealed that whereas ruminative self-focus predicted negative affect at a subsequent occasion, negative affect also predicted ruminative self-focus at a subsequent occasion. Decomposition of the dispositional rumination measure suggested that brooding, but not reflective pondering, was associated with higher mean levels of negative affect. Though broadly consistent with Nolen-Hoeksema's (1991) response styles theory, these results suggest that a reciprocal relationship exists between ruminative self-focus and negative affect.     

Recently attended masks are less effective

Much work has been done to investigate participants' ability to detect repeated targets, but the presentstudy examined the influence of recently attended stimuli on target masking. Participants performed a target identification task in which the item that masked the target was either a recently attended item or a novel item. When it was identical to a previously attended stimulus, the mask was rendered considerably less effective. We have termed this effect a repeated mask reduction (RMR). This simple manipulation resulted in a large, reliable effect on the efficacy of visual masking in a single-target identification paradigm. In Experiments 1, 2, and 3, we demonstrated the basic effect and noted that the RMR increased as task difficulty increased. Experiments 4 and 5 suggested that attention to the first instance of the mask was crucial to this effect by showing that the magnitude of the RMR was unaffected by repetition of nonmask distractors and that the magnitude of the effect was reduced when less attention was paid to the first instance of the mask.     

Teaching inference in personality test interpretation: verbal abstract reasoning and the TAT

Instructors of personality assessment are challenged with teaching students how to execute the tacit thinking skills necessary to make sound test interpretations. The author provides a concrete tool for teaching students how to make interpretive inferences from verbal personality test data utilizing the construct of verbal abstract reasoning. Applied specifically to Thematic Apperception Test interpretation, the author discusses how the construct of verbal abstract reasoning can be utilized: as a model for providing explicit instruction on the implicit process of drawing inferences in test interpretation; for grounding students in data when constructing interpretations and avoiding making overpersonalized interpretations; as a means of basing interpretations on a convergence of data; as a means of gauging the level of confidence one can place in interpretations; and for understanding inferences drawn from other tests, such as the Rorschach.     

Predicting students' perceptions of academic misconduct on the Hogan Personality Inventory Reliability Scale

Interest and research on academic misconduct has become more salient in part due to recent publicized academic and organizational scandals. The current study investigated a possible interaction between perception of the university's academic culture and personality, conceptualized as Reliability, on students' perceptions of academic misconduct. A convenience sample of 217 university business students (91 men, 126 women), whose average age was 22.3 yr. (SD = 4.4) was tested. Reliability was measured with an occupational scale included in the Hogan Personality Inventory. Two hierarchical regression analyses were conducted using Cheating Intentions and Likelihood of Reporting Cheating as criteria. Age, Reliability, Integrity Culture, and the interaction between scores on Reliability and Integrity Culture were entered as predictors. Only Age and Reliability scores were significant predictors of Cheating Intentions, while all variables were significant predictors for Likelihood of Reporting Cheating. Suggestions for practice and research are provided.     

Introduction

The papers in this section were given as a panel on Religious Naturalism at the American Academy of Religion in Denver in November 2001. The panelists included Jerome Stone, Gordon Kaufman, Ursula Goodenough, Charley Hardwick, and Donald Crosby. This introduction briefly describes the panelists, lists three questions the panelists were asked to consider, and names other current and past religious naturalists.     

Ecological Momentary Assessment Research in Behavioral medicine

Behavioral medicine research often seeks to examine relatively complex theoretical models and clinical processes. Traditional designs, based on retrospective self-report in the natural environment or laboratory-based studies, cannot assess complex and temporally dynamic psychological, behavioral, and physiological processes in the natural environment. An alternate research approach, Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA), provides a method to collect such data. This research approach and these data allow investigation of a number of research questions not amenable to other data collection methods. Examples of research questions uniquely suited for EMA data include, but are not limited to: (1) the comparison of retrospective data to momentary data; (2) evaluation of physiological and psychosocial processes in the natural environment; (3) the relation of symptoms and other disease processes to characteristics of the natural environment; and (4) examination of dynamic changes in psychosocial variables that may mediate improvement following treatment. Despite the strengths of EMA data, a number of challenges exist – including logistic, analytic, and interpretation problems – to the easy implementation of EMA approaches in behavioral medicine.     

Irigaray and Hölderlin on the relation between nature and culture

This paper explores the compatibility of Luce Irigaray's recent insistence on the need to revalue nature, and to recognise culture's natural roots, with her earlier advocacy of social transformation towards a culture of sexual difference. Prima facie, there is tension between Irigaray's political imperatives, for if culture really is continuous with nature, this implies that our existing, non-sexuate, culture is naturally grounded and unchallengeable. To dissolve this tension, Irigaray must conceive culture as having self-transformative agency without positioning culture as active vis-à-vis an inert and passive nature. I argue that Irigaray achieves this by conceiving culture to arise from a division internal to nature. She derives this idea from Hölderlin, who claims that nature originally divides itself into subjects and objects, and from Heidegger, who maintains that nature inflicts an originary violence upon itself. Critically reworking Hölderlin and Heidegger, Irigaray argues that male nature tends to turn against itself to generate an anti-natural, ecologically destructive, culture. She argues, however, that this tendency can be redirected and alleviated by the very cultural resources which male nature generates in dividing itself. Irigaray thus develops a unique way to advocate social change while recognising nature's profound impact and influence upon culture.     

A Game of Inches: Spontaneous Use of Counterfactuals by Broadcasters During Major League Baseball Playoffs1

We tested whether counterfactuals are made spontaneously outside of the laboratory by coding sportscasters’ online verbalizations during 1998 and 1999 Major League Baseball (MLB) playoff broadcasts, and we assessed whether naturally occurring game features relating to closeness (score closeness, series closeness, game end, and playoff end) delineated some conditions under which counterfactuals were more likely. Sportscasters made counterfactuals quite frequently during these MLB playoff games. In addition, sportscasters uttered greater numbers of counterfactuals as games progressed from early to late innings, which was particularly true when scores were close. Counterfactuals were also uttered in greater numbers with closer scores when series were tied than when one team had a lead. Results are discussed in terms of spontaneous counterfactuals, closeness as an antecedent, and the ecological validity of such thoughts.     

Overestimating the Importance of the Given Information in Multiattribute Consumer Judgment

Consumer judgment often is based on incomplete or limited knowledge of the relevant attributes. We performed 3 experiments to investigate why these judgments are often insensitive to set size and why evaluations based on limited information tend to be stronger (more extreme and confident) than is warranted. The findings indicate that the importance of the given or known attributes is often overestimated, leading to evaluations that are overly extreme. The experiments also revealed important factors moderating this insensitivity to limited information. The overweighing of the given evidence was attenuated when participants were knowledgeable of the target domain. Overweighing and the formation of extreme judgments based on limited information was also diminished when participants considered their judgmental criteria prior to evaluating a target or when a comparison target described by different attributes was present.