Racial Discrimination and Racial Identity as Risk or Protective Factors for Violent Behaviors in African American Young Adults

This study examined the influences of racial discrimination and different racial identity attitudes on engaging in violent behavior among 325 African American young adults. The contributions of racial discrimination and racial identity attitudes in explaining violent behavior during the transition into young adulthood while controlling for the influences of prior risk behaviors at ninth grade were examined separately for males and females. In addition, the buffering effects of racial identity attitudes on the relationship between racial discrimination and violent behavior were tested. Results indicated that experience with racial discrimination was a strong predictor of violent behavior, regardless of gender. The centrality of race for males and the meaning others attribute to being Black for both males and females were moderators of the influence of racial discrimination on violent behavior.     

Racial Identity, Parental Support, and Alcohol Use in a Sample of Academically At-Risk African American High School Students

This study examined racial identity and parental support as predictors of alcohol use in a sample of 488 African American adolescents. Two dimensions of racial identity were investigated: (1) racial centrality (i.e., the significance that one places on race in defining oneself) and (2) private regard (i.e., the extent to which one feels positively about Black people). In addition, perceived support from mothers and fathers was examined. Multivariate results showed that private regard and father support were associated with less self-reported alcohol use after partialling out the effects of age and gender. An interaction between the two racial identity dimensions was also found such that private regard was associated with less alcohol use for adolescents who reported that race was a more central part of their identity.     

Nine Months of Multicomponent Behavioral Treatment for ADHD and Effectiveness of MTA Fading Procedures

We examined 9-month data from the 14-month NIMH Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (the MTA) as a further check on the relative effect of medication (MedMgt) and behavioral treatment (Beh) for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) while Beh was still being delivered at greater intensity than at 14-month endpoint, and conversely as a check on the efficacy of the MTA behavioral generalization/maintenance procedures. Intention-to-treat analysis at 9 months showed essentially the same results as at 14 months, after Beh had been completely faded; MedMgt and the combination (Comb) of medication and Beh were significantly superior to Beh and community care (CC) for ADHD and oppositional-defiant (ODD) symptoms, with mixed results for social skills and internalizing symptoms. All treatment-group differences examined as changes in slopes from 9 to 14 months were nonsignificant (we found general improvement for all groups). Slopes from baseline to 9 months correlated highly (r > .74, p < .0001) with slopes from baseline to 14 months for all groups. The time function from baseline to 14 months showed a significant linear, but not quadratic, trend for the main outcome measure (a composite of parent- and teacher-rated ADHD and ODD symptoms) for all groups. Findings suggest that in contrast to the hypothesized deterioration in the relative benefit of Beh between 9 and 14 months (after completion of fading), the MTA Beh generalization and maintenance procedures implemented through 9 months apparently yielded continuing improvement through 14 months, with preservation of the relative position of Beh compared to other treatment strategies.     

Noun-verb differences? a question of semantics: a response to shapiro and caramazza

We presented a new model using the sensory/functional theory of semantic category deficits to explain noun/verb deficits in aphasia. The predictions arising from this model were tested on a small number of patients exhibiting grammatical and/or semantic category specific deficits in picture naming. The results lent support for the theory presented. Shapiro and Caramazza (this issue) raised several objections to this theory (which they call the "extended sensory functional theory," or ESFT). In this article we address their concerns about the validity of the ESFT and conclude that it is indeed a useful model that provides a parsimonious explanation for many diverse patterns of deficits.     

The World is Not Enough*

Throughout his career, Derek Parfit made the bold suggestion, at various times under the heading of the “Normativity Objection,” that anyone in possession of normative concepts is in a position to know, on the basis of their competence with such concepts alone, that reductive realism in ethics is not even possible. Despite the prominent role that the Normativity Objection plays in Parfit's non‐reductive account of the nature of normativity, when the objection hasn't been ignored, it's been criticized and even derided. We argue that the exclusively negative attention that the objection has received has been a mistake. On our reading, Parfit's Normativity Objection poses a serious threat to reductivism, as it exposes the uneasy relationship between our a priori knowledge of a range of distinctly normative truths and the package of semantic commitments that reductivists have typically embraced since the Kripkean revolution.     

A longitudinal analysis of motivation profiles at work

Motivation and Emotion - This paper examines the multidimensional nature of workplace motivation and the importance of a continuum structure in self-determination theory through application of...     

Heaven and Health: How Black,Latino, and Korean Christians View the Relationship Between Faith and Health

Religious congregations have increasingly been viewed as potential access points to health care in underserved communities. Such a perspective stems from a robust literature identifying the unique civic role that churches potentially play in African American and Latino communities. Yet, research on congregational health promotion has often not considered how congregants view the connections between religious faith, physical health, and the church community. In order to further interrogate how congregants view the church’s role in health promotion, we compare views on the relationship between faith and health for two groups that are overrepresented in American Christianity and underrepresented in medical careers (African Americans and Latinos) with a group that is similarly religious but comparatively well-represented in medical professions (Korean Americans). Drawing on data from focus groups with 19 pastors representing 18 different congregations and 28 interviews with church members, we find that churches across all three groups promote initiatives to care for the physical health of their members. Nonetheless, notable differences exist in how each group frames the interface between religious faith and physical health. African Americans and Latinos highlighted the role of faith in providing physical healing while Korean Americans saw the support of the religious community as the main benefit of their faith. Distrust of medicine was primarily articulated by members of African American churches. The results offer important implications for the future potential and nature of health initiatives in racial minority communities.     

Who Believes in a Male God? Ideological Beliefs and Gendered Conceptualizations of God

Recent studies have explored whether certain conceptualizations of God are associated with various attitudes and beliefs. In the current study, we examined the relationship between gendered God concepts and the belief that God is involved in one’s life and religious-related rigid ideologies (i.e., religious fundamentalism and right-wing authoritarianism [RWA]). Across two studies, one conducted with religious students at a Jesuit university and the other with a national sample, we found that individuals who believed God to be male were more likely to believe that God had more control and involvement in their life, had higher levels of religious fundamentalism and higher levels of RWA-Aggression (Study 1 and 2), RWA–Submission (Study 1 and 2), and RWA–Conventionalism (Study 2) than individuals with other gendered or nongendered conceptualizations of God. Implications of the broader impact that gendered God concepts have on social and political domains are explored. Last, limitations and future research directions are discussed.     

The capture of attention by entirely irrelevant pictures of calorie-dense foods

Inborn preference for palatable energy-dense food is thought to be an evolutionary adaptation. One way this preference manifests itself is through the control of visual attention. In the present study, we investigated how attentional capture is influenced by changes in naturally occurring goal-states, in this case desire for energy-dense foods (typically high fat and/or high sugar). We demonstrate that even when distractors are entirely irrelevant, participants were significantly more distracted by energy-dense foods compared with non-food objects and even low-energy foods. Additionally, we show the lability of these goal-states by having a separate set of participants consume a small amount of calorie-dense food prior to the task. The amount of distraction by the energy-dense food images in this case was significantly reduced and no different than distraction by images of low-energy foods and images of non-food objects. While naturally occurring goal-states can be difficult to ignore, they also are highly flexible.