Envisioning college success: the role of student identity centrality

This paper examines the recently developed construct of student identity centrality, which describes the importance of being a student to a person’s sense of self. The present study uses multiple college student surveys and institutional data to expand upon initial work in several ways. First, it shows that this construct is measured reliably using a single three-item scale. Second, it employs measurement invariance analyses, which indicate that this scale is valid for examining and comparing different groups of students. Third, it provides evidence for convergent and divergent validity through exploring relationships between student identity centrality and relevant psychological and experiential constructs. Fourth, even when controlling for demographics, prior academic achievement, stereotype threat, and grit, it finds that student identity is positively and significantly associated with college credits earned; grades in science, technology, engineering and mathematics coursework; academic confidence; college sense of belonging; and subjective well-being. Implications for future research, assessment, and higher education practice are discussed.

     

Presenting concerns of emerging adults seeking treatment at an early intervention outpatient mood and anxiety program

This study examined presenting concerns and characteristics of emerging adults (EAs) seeking treatment at an early intervention program for mood and anxiety disorders to better understand presenting concerns when treatment is needed. During an intake assessment conducted by a social worker or clinical psychologist, participants (N = 548; 62% female, 38% male) reported their top three current life concerns, which were analyzed qualitatively using thematic analysis. Participants completed a battery of questionnaires assessing demographic information, symptomatology, and daily functioning. Females presented with significantly higher levels of anxiety, and both females and younger individuals (age 16–18) presented with significantly higher levels of depression compared to males and older individuals (age 19–26), respectively. The two most commonly reported presenting concerns were problems in interpersonal relationships and academics, and females were more likely to report academic concerns than males. The majority of participants reported seeking help for a wide range of problems commonly faced by EAs (83.7%), and participants rarely expressed concerns about particular symptoms of mood and/or anxiety disorders (16.3%). EAs and those supporting EAs may benefit from learning when psychosocial concerns are indicative of mental health challenges warranting professional attention.     

In Her Own Words: Semi-structured Interviews of Women Veterans Who Experienced Military Sexual Assault

Twenty-one female veterans volunteered to talk about 29 events of military sexual assault (MSA) via semi-structured interviews covering pre-military abuse, during and immediately after the assault and reactions post-assault. The 14 who reported on-going abuse in childhood, also experienced multiple events of MSA. Common themes revealed that most events happened at night (52% specifically referenced night, while 69% most likely occurred at night), 24% in a car, and 24% while the victim was on duty. MSA was associated with a low use of weapons (17% with knives or guns) but a high use (52%) of physical violence (e.g., hitting, choking) and intimidation (59%). 69% knew their perpetrator prior to the assault and 12 of them (60%) were superiors. 34.5% of the perpetrators and 24% of the victims were drinking alcohol prior to the assault. 27.5% reported the MSA; however, 52% had to continue to interact with the perpetrator as part of her job. 67% reported being pregnant or seriously injured as a result of the MSA; however, only 28% received help. 71% disclosed that they had suicidal ideation 14% made suicide attempts while on active duty, and 38% made a suicide attempt some time in their lifetime post-MSA. 52% said the MSA lead to an early discharge from the military. 76% stated MSA interfered with their ability to have an intimate relationship. All participants graduated Warrior Renew sexual trauma treatment and reported positive responses. Although this is a small sample, findings may help generate hypotheses for larger scale studies.     

Effects of Participation in a First Women's Studies Course on Collective Self‐Esteem,Gender‐Related Attitudes,and Emotional Well‐Being1

We studied the psychological sequelae of participation in a first women's studies course. It was hypothesized that this course would impact women's social identities (collective self‐esteem, CSE) and attitudes about gender (sexist and feminist beliefs). Further, we hypothesized that more liberal attitudes about gender would enhance mood, whereas awareness of devaluation (public CSE) would reduce mood. Female students enrolled in Psychology of Women (n= 55) and Introductory Psychology (n= 41) provided data at the beginning and end of an academic semester. As predicted, Psychology of Women students endorsed significantly more liberal attitudes about gender and awareness of devaluation over the course of the semester. Further, acceptance of feminist attitudes buffered against anxiety, whereas awareness of devaluation increased anxiety. The net effect was a nonsignificant change in anxiety for Psychology of Women students over time.     

Absorbed in thought: the effect of mind wandering on the processing of relevant and irrelevant events

This study used event-related potentials to explore whether mind wandering (task-unrelated thought, or TUT) emerges through general problems in distraction, deficits of task-relevant processing (the executive-function view), or a general reduction in attention to external events regardless of their relevance (the decoupling hypothesis). Twenty-five participants performed a visual oddball task, in which they were required to differentiate between a rare target stimulus (to measure task-relevant processes), a rare novel stimulus (to measure distractor processing), and a frequent nontarget stimulus. TUT was measured immediately following task performance using a validated retrospective measure. High levels of TUT were associated with a reduction in cortical processing of task-relevant events and distractor stimuli. These data contradict the suggestion that mind wandering is associated with distraction problems or specific deficits in task-relevant processes. Instead, the data are consistent with the decoupling hypothesis: that TUT dampens the processing of sensory information irrespective of that information's task relevance.     

Implicit causality bias in English: a corpus of 300 verbs

This study provides implicit verb causality norms for a corpus of 305 English verbs. A web-based sentence completion study was conducted, with 96 respondents completing fragments such as “John liked Mary because...” The resulting bias scores are provided as supplementary material in the Psychonomic Society Archive, where we also present lexical and semantic verb features, such as the frequency, semantic class and emotional valence. Our results replicate those of previous studies with much smaller numbers of verbs and respondents. Novel effects of gender and its interaction with verb valence illustrate the type of issues that can be investigated using stable norms for a large number of verbs. The corpus will facilitate future studies in a range of areas, including psycholinguistics and social psychology.     

Cultural Differences in the Subjective Experience of Emotion: When and Why They Occur

Cross‐cultural comparisons of subjective emotional experience are common, and virtually any comparison of nations or different ethnic groups is bound to yield some differences and some similarities. While nobody doubts the considerable intercultural variability in subjective or self‐reports of emotion, more attention needs to be given to when and why and these differences occur. In this article, we explore factors that accentuate or attenuate cultural differences in the subjective experience of emotion. We propose that cultural norms shape emotional experiences to different degrees depending on the time frame of the emotional experience, the valence of the emotion, and even the specific emotion being compared. We review the research that supports this view and we highlight new avenues of research that are likely to shed light on cultural differences in the subjective experience of emotions.     

Career aspirations of youth: Untangling race/ethnicity, SES, and gender

This study examined the influence of gender, socioeconomic status, and race/ethnicity on the career aspirations of over 22,000 8th and 10th grade youth. The top five occupations identified by youth as aspirations included artist, lawyer, musician, FBI agent, and actor/actress. Top occupations were also reported for each gender × socioeconomic status × race/ethnicity group. Aspirations were coded by social prestige level, minimum education requirements, and median salary. Results revealed significant main effects for socioeconomic status and race/ethnicity as well as significant interaction effects. Further, significant gender main effects and a significant gender × ethnicity interaction were found for occupational prestige and educational requirements.     

Testing pigeon memory in a change detection task

Six pigeons were trained in a change detection task with four colors. They were shown two colored circles on a sample array, followed by a test array with the color of one circle changed. The pigeons learned to choose the changed color and transferred their performance to four unfamiliar colors, suggesting that they had learned a generalized concept of color change. They also transferred performance to test delays several times their 50-msec training delay without prior delay training. The accurate delay performance of several seconds suggests that their change detection was memory based, as opposed to a perceptual attentional capture process. These experiments are the first to show that an animal species (pigeons, in this case) can learn a change detection task identical to ones used to test human memory, thereby providing the possibility of directly comparing short-term memory processing across species.