Social cognitive predictors of the interests and choices of computing majors: Applicability to underrepresented students

In a replication and extension of earlier research, we examined the explanatory adequacy of the social cognitive choice model (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994) in a sample of 1404 students majoring in a variety of computing disciplines at 23 historically Black and 27 predominantly White universities. Participants completed measures of self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interests, goals, and social supports and barriers relative to the pursuit of computing degrees. The social cognitive model generally provided adequate fit to the data across two academic year cohorts (2006, 2007), gender, institutional setting, racial/ethnic groups (European and African Americans), and educational level (beginning and advanced undergraduates). Outcome expectations, however, did not contribute uniquely to the predictive model. Implications for further research on social cognitive theory in the context of science and technology fields are discussed.     

Unpacking unpacking: greater detail can reduce perceived likelihood

Past research suggests that a categorical event is perceived to be more likely if its subcases are explicitly delineated or "unpacked." In 6 studies, we find that unpacking can often make an event seem less likely, especially when the details being unpacked are already highly accessible. Process evidence shows that the provision of greater detail accompanying unpacking reduces the simplicity of an event and that this dysfluency is used as a negative cue for likelihood. This work establishes processing fluency as a mechanism that opposes the other effects of unpacking, such as enhanced accessibility.     

The contributions of parental attachment bonds to college student development and adjustment: a meta-analytic review

We report findings from a meta-analysis of 156 studies conducted between 1987 and 2009 (N = 32,969) that examined the relationship between self-reported parental attachment and multiple adjustment outcomes and developmental advances during the college years. Overall, a small-to-medium relationship was found between indicators of parental attachment quality and favorable adjustment outcomes (r = .23). Effect sizes were of similar magnitude for mother and father attachment relationships, for male and female students, and across ethnicity and nationality of the sample. The attachment-adjustment relationship varied somewhat according to the developmental task being investigated in the study, showing the strongest association for the task of separation-individuation. Additionally, we found stronger attachment-adjustment links for students residing away from their parents when compared with students living at home during college.     

The erosive effects of racism: reduced self-control mediates the relation between perceived racial discrimination and substance use in African American adolescents

Perceived racial discrimination, self-control, anger, and either substance use or use cognitions were assessed in 2 studies conducted with samples of African American adolescents. The primary goal was to examine the relation between discrimination and self-control over time; a 2nd goal was to determine whether that relation mediates the link between discrimination and substance use found in previous research. Study 1, which included a latent growth curve analysis with 3 waves of data, indicated that experience with discrimination (from age 10 years to age 18 years) was associated with reduced self-control, which then predicted increased substance use. Additional analyses indicated anger was also a mediator of this discrimination to use relation. Study 2, which was experimental, showed that envisioning an experience involving discrimination was associated with an increase in substance-related responses to double entendre words (e.g., pot, roach) in a word association task, especially for participants who were low in dispositional self-control. The effect was again mediated by reports of anger. Thus, the "double mediation" pattern was discrimination → more anger and reduced self-control → increased substance use and/or substance cognitions. Results are discussed in terms of the long-term impact of discrimination on self-control and health behavior. Implications for interventions aimed at ameliorating the negative effects of discrimination and low self-control on health are also discussed.     

Coping with racial discrimination: The role of substance use

Three studies tested the hypothesis that the relation between perceived racial discrimination and substance use reported in previous research is moderated by use of substances as a coping mechanism. Studies 1 and 2 were experimental studies of African American adolescents' and young adults' reactions to a discrimination experience. Results revealed that those who endorsed substance use-as-coping reported more willingness to use substances after experiencing discrimination. Study 3 was a prospective study of the relation between perceived discrimination and substance use over an 8-year period in African American adolescents. Results demonstrated that discrimination is associated with increases in substance use, but only among adolescents who endorse substance use-as-coping. Together, these three studies provide evidence that experiencing discrimination has both short- and long-term detrimental effects on African Americans' substance use, but significantly more so for those who adopt a pattern of using substances as a coping mechanism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Proactive motor control reduces monetary risk taking in gambling

Less supervision by the executive system after disruption of the right prefrontal cortex leads to increased risk taking in gambling because superficially attractive-but risky-choices are not suppressed. Similarly, people might gamble more in multitask situations than in single-task situations because concurrent executive processes usually interfere with each other. In the study reported here, we used a novel monetary decision-making paradigm to investigate whether multitasking could reduce rather than increase risk taking in gambling. We found that performing a task that induced cautious motor responding reduced gambling in a multitask situation (Experiment 1). We then found that a short period of inhibitory training lessened risk taking in gambling at least 2 hr later (Experiments 2 and 3). Our findings indicate that proactive motor control strongly affects monetary risk taking in gambling. The link between control systems at different cognitive levels might be exploited to develop new methods for rehabilitation of addiction and impulse-control disorders.