Does stimulus appearance affect learning?

We examined the learning process with 3 sets of stimuli that have identical symbolic structure but differ in appearance (meaningless letter strings, arrangements of geometric shapes, and sequences of cities). One hypothesis is that the learning process aims to encode symbolic regularity in the same way, largely regardless of appearance. Another is that different types of stimuli bias the learning process to operate in different ways. Using the experimental paradigm of artificial grammar learning, we provided a preliminary test of these hypotheses. In Experiments 1 and 2 we measured performance in terms of grammaticality and found no difference across the 3 sets of stimuli. In Experiment 3 we analyzed performance in terms of both grammaticality and chunk strength. Again we found no differences in performance. Our tentative conclusion is that the learning process aims to encode symbolic regularity independent of stimulus appearance.     

“Nobody Wants to Be an Outsider”: From Diversity Management to Diversity Engagement

This article develops an analysis of diversity in two ways. We start with a theoretical discussion of the ways in which diversity has been approached within psychology, showing the competing arguments that have been developed that connect diversity, community, and multiculturalism. We show that not only are there psychological consequences to contemporary experiences of increased diversity but also that fundamental psychological capacities—such as self‐consciousness, identity, and dialogue—actually stem from the experience of diversity. This has important implications for diversity management policies. The second part of the article gives an empirical illustration of how diversity is experienced in schools across England drawing on 13 interviews with senior staff and 11 focus groups with pupils aged between 12 and 14 years old. We discuss three themes related to experiences of diversity: (1) from difference to diversity, (2) real and imagined mobility across communities, and (3) collaborative practices, projects, and knowledge. What the empirical examples show is that critically engaging with diversity can be a more productive project than practices which construct diversity in terms of distinct groups that need respect and tolerance. Hence we argue approaches that promote engaging with diversity rather than traditional diversity management are more in line with foundational psychological insights as well as empirical research findings.     

Essentialism in Social Representations of Citizenship: An Analysis of Greeks' and Migrants' Discourse

Following a Social Representations approach, the article examines the representations of citizenship held by both migrants and Greek citizens in Greece after the announcement of a heavily debated citizenship legislation. Essentialism, a way of representing social categories as holding an underlying essence that determines their characteristics, was used as an analytical tool to understand the inclusive or exclusive function of representations of citizenship towards migrants. Findings showed that Greeks construct representations based on ethnic, civic, and cultural ideas, while migrants construct representation of citizenship based on civic and cultural ideas. Essentialism was a way of constructing ethnic and cultural representations of citizenship and functioned in both exclusive and inclusive ways, but assimilatory terms accordingly. Civic and cultural representations of citizenship were constructed in nonessentialist ways and functioned in inclusive ways. However, from Greeks' perspective, civic inclusion was conditioned upon an often‐questioned legality of migrants and upon cultural assimilation terms. Studying both the content and the essentialist/nonessentialist formulation of representations of citizenship is an important tool in understanding the politics of inclusion and exclusion of citizens in the social arena.     

The relation of illness representations to the 'end-stage' appraisal of outcomes through health status, and the moderating role of optimism

The aim of this study was to examine an important pathway suggested by the common sense model (CSM): the relation of illness representations to the 'end-stage' appraisal of outcomes through health status. A further aim was to examine the moderating role of optimism in this relationship. One hundred and six chronic cardiac patients completed questionnaires about illness representations and dispositional optimism at baseline, and health status and illness-related helplessness (as an indicator of the 'end-stage' appraisal of outcomes) at a follow-up interview, 6 months later. Indirect (mediation) as well as conditional indirect (moderated mediation) effects were examined using bootstrapped models. According to the results, the effect of illness representations on helplessness was mediated by at least one of the health measures used. Also, most of these indirect relations were conditional on the values of optimism. That is, optimism moderated the 'illness representations-health status-"end-stage" appraisal of outcomes' relationship, as the mediating effects were absent at higher levels of optimism. These findings can provide us with a more comprehensive picture of adaptation to illness, as well as of the ways the illness-related information is being processed by patients. Thus, they have significant implications for theory, research and practice.     

Families and abuse of prescribed medication: A psychological analysis of women's and children's experiences in the family and other social institutions

This paper focuses on women's (mother's) use of psychotropic medication in both Greece and Portugal. Reference is made to the types of psychological and social problems women experience which lead them to the use and eventual abuse of psychotropics as well to the kinds of reactions and experiences the children of these women have. Specific attention is given to how children react toward the women who use/abuse psychotropics. The methodology used borrows from psychology and anthropology and centres around the ethnographic interview and theme analysis.     

Acute Stress Disorder in Greek Cypriots Visiting the Occupied Areas

Following 30 years of war-driven displacement, in 2003 Cypriots were allowed to visit the occupied areas. The present study investigates whether visiting the occupied areas under peaceful conditions could be a traumatic experience potentially leading to Acute Stress Disorder (ASD). Of the 163 participants who completed self-report questionnaires measuring ASD, depression, anxiety, social support, and stress, 138 visited the occupied areas; out of these, 31 met criteria for ASD, 14 reported experiencing symptoms for over a month and 13 continued to experience symptoms at the time of data collection. Results suggest that visiting the occupied areas may constitute a traumatic experience.     

Racial Mistrust and Deviant Behaviors Among Ethnically Diverse Black Adolescent Boys1

While it has been suggested that mistrust of the dominant White society may be an important protective factor for some members of racial minorities, the question of whether mistrust may also be related to nonnormative behaviors among minority members has not been explored. Using survey data from Miami, Florida, this study empirically tests this hypothesis among a sample of African American, Haitian, and other Caribbean island Black adolescent boys. Bivariate analyses suggest a strong relationship between racial mistrust and conventional forms of delinquency for all three ethnic groups. These findings also held in multivariate analyses in which six traditional predictors of deviance were statistically controlled. The authors conclude that racial mistrust adds a new dimension to empirical prediction models. In addition, they conclude that issues associated with racial mistrust should be considered when developing and implementing prevention strategies.