Group motives in threatening contexts: When a loyalty conflict paradoxically reduces the influence of an anti‐discrimination ingroup norm

The influence of pro‐ versus anti‐discrimination ingroup norms on Swiss nationals' attitudes towards foreigners was investigated as a function of national identification and perceived material ingroup threat. As predicted, results revealed a significant interaction between identification and threat: High identifiers showed a more negative attitude than low identifiers mainly when perceived threat was high. In other words, high identifiers conformed to the pro‐discrimination norm, but showed a counter‐conformity effect for the anti‐discrimination norm. Additional results revealed that high identifiers actually disagreed with the anti‐discrimination norm when perceived threat was high, but that they were more attached to the ingroup. These findings suggest that when the ingroup norm is not an appropriate response to an ingroup threat (i.e. anti‐discrimination norm), high identifiers find themselves in a loyalty conflict: they are unable to simultaneously conform to the group norm and protect the group. This conflict was resolved through a compensatory mechanism: High identifiers distanced themselves from the ingroup norm in order to protect the group (i.e. by increasing negative attitudes towards foreigners) but reinforced other ingroup ties (i.e. by increasing attachment to the ingroup values). Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The “sexually abused child”: Potential mechanisms of adverse influences of such a label

Labeling and the effects of labeling have been extensively researched in the psychological literature in a variety of different contexts. For example, labeling has been empirically shown to lead to lowered expectancies of behavior and achievement, which can then contribute to the potential for the occurrence of a self-fulfilling prophecy with adverse consequences. Another area that has been extensively researched, with a dramatic increase in the literature base in recent history, is that of child sexual abuse (CSA). Despite various shortcomings of the research literature, the consistent findings have been identification of a variety of negative correlates and symptomatologies associated with CSA. In addition to any direct, negative effects of CSA, there may also be an additional impact from the “label” itself. Although the literature pertaining to CSA and labeling runs deep independently, efforts at addressing the issue of CSA within a labeling contextual framework have been minimal. To that end, this article examines hypothesized mechanisms of how the “sexual abuse” label may potentially have an adverse influence on the children subjected to such a label. The implications of an analysis, which addresses childhood sexual abuse from such a theoretical framework, may be a broader and more holistic understanding of the complexities and sequelae associated with CSA.     

Performance boosts in the classroom: Stereotype endorsement and prejudice moderate stereotype lift

The present study (N = 293) examined whether stereotype endorsement and prejudice moderate stereotype lift (i.e., a performance boost caused by the salience of a negative out-group stereotype in the testing situation). The stereotype in the focus of inquiry was the belief that immigrant students have lower intellectual ability than native students. French native high school students performed an intellectual test in a condition of low stereotype salience (the test was presented as assessing individual differences) or in a condition of high stereotype salience (the test was presented as assessing group differences between African immigrants and native students). As expected, results indicated that native students high in stereotype endorsement and those high in prejudice performed better in the high than in the low stereotype salience condition, whereas those low on these constructs did not. By identifying two moderators of stereotype lift, this study sheds new light on the achievement gap between immigrant and native students in educational institutions.     

Rorschach Comprehensive System data for a sample of 75 Danish 9-year-old children: a pilot study

This article provides a normative study documenting how 75 Danish nonpatient 9-year-old children respond to the Rorschach test. The children were selected randomly from nine different parts of Denmark and tested with the Rorschach by 10 different psychologists. All examiners were familiar with the Comprehensive System (CS; Exner, 2003), and before the data collection they participated in a 3-day workshop performed by the research group that focused on administration, inquiry, and scoring issues. Among the results are an average R of 23.6 and an average Lambda of 2.01 (median = 1.18). Slightly more than 60% of the sample had an Avoidant style (63%); 41% had a CDI of 4 or 5; and 33% were positive on the HVI. In terms of perception and thinking, average values were .44 for X+%, .27 for X-%, and 9.4 for the WSum6.     

Learning is impaired by activated intentions

Two experiments examined the task interference that sometimes accrues from having an intention. In standard prospective memory tasks, latency is often slower to an ongoing task performed concurrently with having an intention than it is when no intention is given. If the locus of this slowing resulted from different attentional allocation policies in the two cases, we predicted that the process of learning a word list would be impaired if participants had an intention rather than if they did not. Four different event-based prospective memory tasks were used in Experiment 1 to demonstrate that worse free recall of a word list resulted when studied with a concurrent intention than with a control condition that had no intention. In that experiment, linking an intention to a distal context that was to occur after learning did not impair free recall. Two time-based tasks were used in Experiment 2 to demonstrate that possessing a time-based prospective memory also hinders learning, unless the intention is linked to a future context that is expected to occur after the study session. In the latter case, no impairment was obtained.     

Aging and situation model processing

Over the past several years, a number of studies have been done that assess processing at the level of the situation model in relation to issues of aging (Morrow, Leirer, & Altieri, 1992; Radvansky, Copeland, Berish, & Dijkstra, 2003; Radvansky, Copeland, & Zwaan, 2003; Stine-Morrow, Gagne, Morrow, & DeWall, 2004; Stine-Morrow, Morrow, & Leno, 2002). In contrast to age-related declines that have been demonstrated at surface form and textbase levels of processing, no such declines have been found in the creation and updating of situation models (Radvansky, 1999). This review focuses on the relevant factors in cognitive aging and situation model processing and places them within the larger frameworks of language processing, working memory capacity, and aging.     

To prove or to improve? Which motive distorts perceptions of personality controllability?

This research extends past work on positive illusions and self-goals by examining motivated perceptions of how much control people think they have over changing their personality traits. A self-validation motivation should cause individuals to view their personality weaknesses as uncontrollable (to avoid blame for having them) and their personality strengths as controllable (to take credit for having them). A self-growth motivation should cause individuals to view their weaknesses as controllable (to view them as improvable) and their strengths as uncontrollable (to view them as unchanging). Studies 1 and 2 find evidence for self-validation in perceptions of trait controllability. Study 3 finds this pattern to be stronger for validation-seeking individuals but weaker for growth-seeking individuals. Studies 3 and 4 find that being primed with one's successful self-improvements or one's future self can attenuate the self-validation. The potential implications of distorted perceptions of trait controllability for both well-being and self-change are discussed.     

Concordance among readers of self-help books about important ideas

Amount of agreement among readers about the relevant information in a self-help psychology book was measured to assess whether readers' choices are unique or overlapping. 15 men and 14 women attended two 1-hr. sessions in which they read and marked relevant information in the first 60 pages of a self-help psychology book. Comparison of the amount and pattern of marking across pages and lines on five specific pages showed that there was a statistically significant amount of agreement on which pages contained relevant ideas and which lines contained important concepts. There were no differences between men and women.     

Task interference from event-based intentions

Task interference occurs in prospective memory tasks when an intention deleteriously affects performance on an ongoing activity in some way. Several studies have shown that task interference can manifest itself in slower latencies to perform an ongoing task. Recent evidence demonstrates that associating intentions to certain performance contexts affects prospective memory performance (see, e.g., Cook, Marsh, & Hicks, 2005). In the present study, an intention was associated with a particular stimulus class, such as pictures or words. We found that task interference could be reduced when participants could reliably predict that the material about to be processed was irrelevant to the intention. This material-specific interference effect was found on a trial-by-trial basis in a random sequence of two different kinds of materials across two experiments and with blocking manipulation in another experiment. These results demonstrate that task interference is not a monolithic construct; rather, it results from dynamic and flexible attentional allocation strategies that can change on a trial-by-trial basis.