Racial Diversity or Cultural Safety?: Utilizing Social Identity to Understand the Choice of Racially Segregated Neighborhoods among Middle Class African-Americans

Adding to a growing body of work on the psychology of neighborhood choice, the present research examined middle class black attitudes regarding owning homes in majority white and majority black communities. The principal source consisted of interviews with 35 black middle class homeowners which were subjected to narrative analysis to identify (i) whether and to what extent participants identified with the county in which they lived; (ii) features of their perceived experience responsible for any such identification; and (iii) any attitudes about living in predominately white and predominately black counties that acted as limits to identification. Although homeowners from each county (majority white and majority black) typically favored the county in which they lived, results point to complex motivations that were influenced by negative racial experiences, conceptually different understandings about the value of diversity, and other factors.     

Loss of Financial Capacity in Alzheimer's Disease: The Role of Working Memory

Recent research has demonstrated that loss of financial capacity is a common consequence of Alzheimer's disease (AD). While progressive cognitive decline is a defining feature of AD, the relationship between such decline and loss of financial capacity in AD remains unclear. Working memory may be strongly associated with financial abilities, as many financial tasks require temporary storage and manipulation of numerical and other data. The present study examined the relationship between financial capacity and working memory in AD patients. Participants included 20 AD patients and 23 cognitively intact older controls. Working memory was conceptualized using Baddeley and colleagues' model, which posits that the three components of the working memory system are the visuospatial sketchpad, phonological loop, and central executive system. The present study examined only the latter two components of working memory. Each participant was administered the Financial Capacity Instrument (FCI), an instrument that directly assesses eight domains of financial activity, and the WAIS-III Working Memory subtests (Digit Span, Arithmetic, Letter–Number Sequencing). AD patients as a group performed significantly below controls on the FCI Total Score and on each of the eight FCI domains and working memory subtests. Within the AD group, measures of the central executive component of working memory (WAIS-III Digits Backward, Arithmetic, and Letter-Number Sequencing tests) showed strong correlations with the FCI domains of basic monetary skills, checkbook management, bank statement management, and bill payment and FCI total score, while a measure of the phonological loop component of working memory (WAIS-III Digits Forward) was not significantly correlated with any FCI domains or with the FCI total score. The results suggest that the multiple domains of financial capacity are primarily correlated with the central executive component of working memory.     

The Relationship Between Parent and Student Religious Coping and College Alcohol Use

The present study examined social support and alcohol norms as mediators of the relationship between religious coping and college drinking (e.g., frequency and heavy drinking). The sample consisted of college students (n = 129) and their parents (n = 113). Religious coping (parent and student) was associated with less frequent alcohol use and less heavy drinking. Using a path model to test direct and indirect effects, the mediators were entered simultaneously and allowed to correlate with each other. Alcohol norms mediated the relationship between religious coping and drinking outcomes. Social support was not a significant mediator. Broader protective implications of religious coping are discussed.     

A factor analysis of mechanical ability tests

The intercorrelations of thirty-seven variables, including the Minnesota battery of mechanical ability tests, the seven MacQuarrie tests of mechanical ability, O'Connor's Wiggly blocks, and the Stenquist picture-matching test, were analyzed by Thurstone's centroid method. Five factors, Perceptual, Verbal, Youth, Manual Agility, and Spatial, were taken out. Factors prominent in so-called mechanical ability tests are the Spatial and Perceptual ones with Mac-Quarrie's dotting test significantly high in the Manual Agility factor. Each of the factors can be measured with group pencil-and-paper tests.Acknowledgment is gratefully made to the State Engineering Experiment Station at the Georgia School of Technology for sponsoring and financially supporting the studies; to the Graduate Research Committee of the University of Illinois for providing funds for the purchase of tests and the tabulation of data; and to Dr. E. L. Welker of the University of Illinois Mathematics Department for assistance with statistical problems.     

Effects of appearance-based interventions on sun protection intentions and self-reported behaviors.

Two appearance-based interventions designed to increase sun protection intentions and behaviors were evaluated. Sixty-eight college students in Experiment 1 and 76 beachgoers in Experiment 2 were randomly assigned to receive or not receive a photoaging (premature wrinkling and age spots) information intervention and, separately, to receive or not receive a novel ultraviolet (UV) photo intervention that makes the negative-appearance consequences of UV exposure more salient. Both experiments indicated that the UV photo intervention significantly increased intentions to use sunscreen in the future. A follow-up conducted with the beach sample indicated that UV photo information also produced greater protective behaviors for incidental sun exposure and that the combination of UV photo and photoaging information resulted in substantially lower reported sunbathing.