Friendship trumps ethnicity (but not sexual orientation): comfort and discomfort in inter-group interactions

An experience sampling study tested the degree to which interactions with out-group members evoked negative affect and behavioural inhibition after controlling for level of friendship between partners. When friendship level was statistically controlled, neither White nor Black participants reported feeling more discomfort interacting with ethnic out-group members compared to ethnic in-group members. When partners differed in sexual orientation, friendship level had a less palliating effect. Controlling for friendship, both gay and straight men - but not women - felt more behaviourally inhibited when interacting with someone who differed in sexual orientation, and heterosexual participants of both genders continued to report more negative affect with gay and lesbian interaction partners. However, gay and lesbian participants reported similar levels of negative affect interacting with in-group (homosexual) and out-group (heterosexual) members after friendship level was controlled. Results suggest that much of the discomfort observed in inter-ethnic interactions may be attributable to lower levels of friendship with out-group partners. The discomfort generated by differences in sexual orientation, however, remains a more stubborn barrier to comfortable inter-group interactions.     

Self- and social perception of physical appearance in chest wall deformity

This study analyzes self- and social perception of physical appearance in patients with chest wall deformity (CWD), including both pectus carinatum and pectus excavatum. Self-perception of appearance in 76 patients with CWD and social perception of patients' appearance by 20 adult and 20 adolescent raters was assessed using the Appearance Rating Scale (Stangier et al., 2000) and evaluated for agreement and multivariate correlates. Results indicate no agreement between self- and social rating. Based on mean scores patients rated their appearance significantly more negatively than adult raters but only slightly different than adolescent raters. Adolescent raters' judgment of the patients' appearance was related to CWD characteristics, while self-rating rather seems to be related to psychosocial factors. Because adolescents are a relevant peer group for adolescent patients with CWD their evaluation of the appearance might influence patients' self-image and might affect their psychological functioning. Effective interventions focusing on social interactions are needed.     

Electrical stimulation of human hair follicles via microelectrodes

Trains of electrical pulses were applied to hair follicles on the forearm by microelectrodes with tip diameters less than 5 μ. Clear, painless, vibratory sensations could be evoked by stimulating the middle of a follicle. Exponents of the individual power functions relating vibratory magnitude and electric current ranged from 3.1 to 7.4. Absolute thresholds varied little with pulse frequency but did vary from S to S and from one electrode placement to another. Pitch discrimination was very poor; Ss could not distinguish 40 from 80 pps. Pain was often present, but the manner of its appearance suggested an anatomical segregation between vibratory and pain receptors.     

Culture,ethnicity, and mental health

Conclusion This is the important point, I think, both in the research field and in the research-policy-administrative-political field that might be characterized by the collective interests of people in these fields. Our discussions do not suggest unalterable directions for our efforts, and whatever answers we may come up with do not suggest final conclusions. If we are able to trust one another and our institutions-and I feel that trust is one of the key issues in any discussion about mental-health topics—then we have to admit that perhaps we are all correct. And our progress in the area of ethnicity, culture, and mental health will be promoted by our continued co-operation.the National Institute of Mental Health, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.This paper is the substance of an address given at the Conference on Culture and Ethnicity-Mental Health Services for a Pluralistic Society held under the sponsorship of the Institute on Pluralism and Group Identity, American Jewish Committee of New York, and the Maurice Falk Medical Fund of Pittsburgh, at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, on October 13, 1976.     

Rhetorical theory and family therapy practice

The study found that a connection exists between rhetoric and therapy because both fields are interested in using language as a tool for generating change. Persuasion is viewed as inherent in human communication, even though people do not necessarily intentionally attempt to persuade others. Following a brief (but detailed) explanation of the theoretical stance which informs the implementation of rhetorical techniques in therapy, three pragmatic exemplars are offered to demonstrate the employment of two classical rhetorical concepts, the parastasis catalogue and syncrisis.The authors are grateful to Sandra Kodner, MS for her participation in the development of this project.     

The Interplay of Word Formation Type, Affixal Homonymy, and Productivity in Lexical Processing: Evidence from a Morphologically Rich Language

This study addresses the role of three factors in morphological processing of visually presented words in Finnish: word formation type (inflection versus derivation), productivity, and affixal homonymy. Three visual lexical decision experiments show that complex words can be processed slower, equally fast, or even faster than comparable monomorphemic word forms. We will argue that this diverse pattern of results reflects the ways different complex words are stored and processed. Moreover, it indicates that the balance of storage and computation crucially depends on the interplay of the three above-mentioned factors. Surprisingly, our results converge in a manner consistent with data obtained from a typologically very different language, namely Dutch.     

We are, therefore they aren’t: Ingroup construal as a standard of comparison for outgroup judgments

Five studies tested the assumptions: (a) that ingroups are habitually used as a standard of comparison for outgroup judgments, and (b) that outgroup judgments are generally contrasted away from a momentary construal of the ingroup. Results generally support these assumptions. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated increased activation levels of ingroup knowledge as a result of corresponding outgroup judgments. Experiments 3 and 4 showed that outgroup judgments depend not only on cognitively accessible outgroup exemplars, but also on accessible ingroup exemplars. Finally, Experiment 5 demonstrated that the impact of accessible ingroup exemplars on outgroup judgments is mediated by changes in the construal of the ingroup, such that: (a) outgroups were judged lower with regard to a given trait the higher participants perceived their ingroup with regard to that trait, and (b) controlling for the effect of ingroup construal attenuated the obtained effects on outgroup judgments.     

The self-regulation of automatic associations and behavioral impulses

The distinction between automatic processes and controlled processes is a central organizational theme across areas of psychology. However, this dichotomy conceals important differences among qualitatively different processes that independently contribute to ongoing behavior. The Quadruple process model is a multinomial model that provides quantitative estimates of 4 distinct processes in a single task: the likelihood that an automatic response tendency is activated; the likelihood that a contextually appropriate response can be determined; the likelihood that automatic response tendencies are overcome when necessary; and the likelihood that in the absence of other information, behavior is driven by a general response bias. The model integrates dual-process models from many domains of inquiry and offers a generalized, more nuanced framework of impulse regulation across these domains. The model offers insights into many central questions surrounding the operation and the interaction of automatic and controlled processes. Applications of the model to empirical and theoretical concerns in a variety of areas of psychology are discussed.     

What Do Implicit Measures Tell Us? Scrutinizing the Validity of Three Common Assumptions

ABSTRACT— Experimental paradigms designed to assess "implicit" representations are currently very popular in many areas of psychology. The present article addresses the validity of three widespread assumptions in research using these paradigms: that (a) implicit measures reflect unconscious or introspectively inaccessible representations; (b) the major difference between implicit measures and self-reports is that implicit measures are resistant or less susceptible to social desirability; and (c) implicit measures reflect highly stable, older representations that have their roots in long-term socialization experiences. Drawing on a review of the available evidence, we conclude that the validity of all three assumptions is equivocal and that theoretical interpretations should be adjusted accordingly. We discuss an alternative conceptualization that distinguishes between activation and validation processes.     

Activation of midbrain structures by associative novelty and the formation of explicit memory in humans

Recent evidence suggests a close functional relationship between memory formation in the hippocampus and dopaminergic neuromodulation originating in the ventral tegmental area and medial substantia nigra of the midbrain. Here we report midbrain activation in two functional MRI studies of visual memory in healthy young adults. In the first study, participants distinguished between familiar and novel configurations of pairs of items which had been studied together by either learning the location or the identity of the items. In the second study, participants studied words by either rating the words' pleasantness or counting syllables. The ventral tegmental area and medial substantia nigra showed increased activation by associative novelty (first study) and subsequent free recall performance (second study). In both studies, this activation accompanied hippocampal activation, but was unaffected by the study task. Thus midbrain regions seem to participate selectively in hippocampus-dependent processes of associative novelty and explicit memory formation, but appear to be unaffected by other task-relevant aspects.