Honey,Sweetie, Dear: Terms of Endearment Communicate,Reflect, and Reinforce Sexism Toward Adult Women

Four studies demonstrated how terms of endearment (ToE; e.g., “honey,” “dear”) communicate, reflect, and reinforce sexism toward adult women outside of close relationships. Study 1 participants reported more negative reactions to ToE as their endorsement of benevolent sexism decreased, and older women reacted more negatively than men and younger women. In Study 2, an interviewer either used or did not use ToE when interviewing women from upper-level business classes. ToE use caused women relatively low in benevolent sexism to feel less positive, warm, and competent, whereas women higher in benevolent sexism were unaffected by the use of ToE. Shifting focus to ToE users, Study 3 participants read about a day in the life of a man protagonist (Tim) who did or did not use ToE. Participants inferred that Tim more strongly endorsed sexist attitudes and hierarchy-enforcing ideologies if he used ToE than if he did not. Finally, Study 4 showed that the more participants self-reported using ToE, the more they endorsed several of these sexist attitudes and ideologies. Altogether, this research demonstrates the deleterious effects of seemingly harmless language and extends knowledge about everyday sexism through language.

     

TV or not TV? Does the immediacy of viewing images of a momentous news event affect the quality and stability of flashbulb memories?

The flashbulb accounts of 38 participants concerning the September 11th 2001 terrorist attack reported at both 28 hours and 6 months following the event were examined for quantity, quality, and consistency as a function of the time lapse between first learning of the event and initial viewing of media images. The flashbulb accounts of those who reported seeing images at least an hour after learning of the event differed qualitatively, but not quantitatively, from accounts of participants who reported seeing images at the same time as or within minutes of learning of the event. Delayed viewing of images resulted in less elaborate and generally less consistent accounts across the 6-month interval. The results are discussed in terms of factors affecting flashbulb memory formation and individual differences in connectedness to the event.     

Ethical Considerations for Psychologists Providing Treatment to Arab Americans

Given the recent increase in hate crimes against Arab Americans, there are growing concerns over the mental health needs of Arab Americans and a pressing need for psychologists’ competence in treating this group. Although there are several clinical guidelines for other health care professions, there remains a paucity of information on the ethical issues that may arise for psychologists treating this Arab Americans. This article briefly provides background information on Arab Americans, highlights elements of Arab culture that might influence psychological treatment, discusses ethical issues that might arise when psychologists provide services to Arab Americans, and provides recommendations to address these issues.     

Being transformed: Delivering a psychotherapeutic group intervention targeting repeat suicide attempts

Clients who make repeat suicide attempts have complex needs, are at high risk of completed suicide and pose a range of challenges for clinicians. Targeted interventions are required. Acceptability, the perceived appropriateness of an intervention, is associated with successful implementation, engagement and effectiveness of interventions. Despite the advantages of group interventions, there is limited research into the acceptability of groups with this population. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, this paper reports on facilitators’ experiences (n = 9) of the acceptability of a therapeutic group intervention (PISA – a Psychoeducational/psychosocial Intervention for persons who make recurrent Suicide Attempts). Analysis of focus group data revealed how involvement with the intervention profoundly influenced facilitators’ perceptions of and approach to their work with this client group. They embraced the model, developed a deeper appreciation of clients’ resources and became unburdened from sole responsibility for the clients, the therapeutic process and outcomes. PISA provided a model that helped facilitators to work in a focused, compassionate and creative manner as they addressed the central concern of these clients, their suicidal desire, with newly found confidence and eagerness. PISA was experienced as acceptable to facilitators as it was useful to them and deemed appropriate and beneficial to the target population.     

Emotion dysregulation and functional connectivity in children with and without a history of major depressive disorder

Recent interest has emerged in understanding the neural mechanisms by which deficits in emotion regulation (ER) early in development may relate to later depression. Corticolimbic alterations reported in emotion dysregulation and depression may be one possible link. We examined the relationships between emotion dysregulation in school age, corticolimbic resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) in preadolescence, and depressive symptoms in adolescence. Participants were 143 children from a longitudinal preschool onset depression study who completed the Children Sadness Management Scale (CSMS; measuring ER), Child Depression Inventory (CDI-C; measuring depressive symptoms), and two resting-state MRI scans. Rs-FC between four primary regions of interest (ROIs; bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex [dlPFC] and amygdala) and six target ROIs thought to contribute to ER were examined. Findings showed that ER in school age did not predict depressive symptoms in adolescence, but did predict preadolescent increases in dlPFC-insula and dlPFC-ventromedial PFC rs-FC across diagnosis, as well as increased dlPFC-dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) rs-FC in children with a history of depression. Of these profiles, only dlPFC-dACC rs-FC in preadolescence predicted depressive symptoms in adolescence. However, dlPFC-dACC connectivity did not mediate the relationship between ER in school age and depressive symptoms in adolescence. Despite the absence of a direct relationship between ER and depressive symptoms and no significant rs-FC mediation, the rs-FC profiles predicted by ER are consistent with the hypothesis that emotion dysregulation is associated with abnormalities in top-down control functions. The extent to which these relationships might confer greater risk for later depression, however, remains unclear.     

Political Contacts: Analyzing the Role of Similarity in Theories of Prejudice

Over the last 50 years, many theories of prejudice reduction in social psychology have embraced the premise that intergroup contact allows people to recognize similarities between themselves, and that this perceived similarity overwhelms the social distance associated with intergroup antipathy. Given the mixed empirical evidence, however, we suggest that the positive effects of perceived similarity have been overemphasized. Although similarity may be sufficient for improved intergroup relations, the relationship between similarity and intergroup relations is far more complex than the literature usually suggests. Moreover, studying difference in intergroup contexts may yield new ways to resolve intergroup conflict and address group inequalities.     

Visuospatial Neglect - a Theory-Informed Overview of Current and Emerging Strategies and a Systematic Review on the Therapeutic Use of Non-invasive Brain Stimulation

Neuropsychology Review - Visuospatial neglect constitutes a supramodal cognitive deficit characterized by reduction or loss of spatial awareness for the contralesional space. It occurs in over 40%...     

Factors Associated with Support for Adolescent Access to Contraception Among Mexican Catholic Parents

Journal of Religion and Health - We used a nationally representative survey of 2186 Mexican Catholic parents to assess two outcomes: support for adolescent access to modern contraception and...