Contextual moderation of racial bias: the impact of social roles on controlled and automatically activated attitudes

Three experiments tested the hypothesis that the social roles implied by specific contexts can attenuate or reverse the typical pattern of racial bias obtained on both controlled and automatic evaluation measures. Study 1 assessed evaluations of Black and Asian faces in contexts related to athlete or student roles. Study 2 compared evaluations of Black and White faces in 3 role-related contexts (prisoner, churchgoer, and factory worker). Study 3 manipulated role cues (lawyer or prisoner) within the same prison context. All 3 studies produced significant reversals of racial bias as a function of implied role on measures of both controlled and automatic evaluation. These results support the interpretation that differential evaluations based on Race x Role interactions provide one way that context can moderate both controlled and automatic racial bias.     

A function of form: terror management and structuring the social world

Drawing on lay epistemology theory, the authors assessed a terror management analysis of the psychological function of structuring social information. Seven studies tested variations of the hypothesis that simple, benign interpretations of social information function, in part, to manage death-related anxiety. In Studies 1-4, mortality salience (MS) exaggerated primacy effects and reliance on representative information, decreased preference for a behaviorally inconsistent target among those high in personal need for structure (PNS), and increased high-PNS participants' preference for interpersonal balance. In Studies 5-7, MS increased high-PNS participants' preference for interpretations that suggest a just world and a benevolent causal order of events in the social world.     

Relationship of depression and anxiety to cancer patients' medical decision-making

The purpose of this study was to examine the relation of depression and anxiety to cancer patients' medical decision-making. Participants were 79 rural and urban cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. The four decisional styles of the Decisional Processing Model were the independent variables. Dependent variables were anxiety and depression, measured by Spielberger's State-Trait Anxiety and the Center for Disease Control Depression Scale, respectively. Consistent with the Decisional Processing Model, analysis suggested that patients make medical decisions by information seeking, information processing, advice following, or ruminating. Decisional style did not vary according to type or stage of cancer, prognosis, time elapsed since initial diagnosis, or whether cancer was initial or recurrent. Decisional style did not systematically vary with depression and anxiety suggesting how a person makes decisions is a stable personality trait. Thus, decision-making may follow a cognitive schema. It is likely that patients' decisional styles help to manage anxiety and depression when confronted with life-threatening illness. Implications for informed consent and patients' involvement in decision-making are discussed.     

The experience of spirituality in the psycho-social adaptation of cancer survivors

This article presents the results of a retrospective, phenomenological study of the experience of spirituality in the psychosocial adaptation of cancer survivors. The experience of illness for the participants in the study is one which promotes greater personal and spiritual growth. The study demonstrates that illness provokes personal growth and transformation in the individual. While making use of pre-existing coping resources, the person with cancer reevaluates and restructures her or his life, integrating new values, priorities, and perspectives which lead the patient to invest her or his life in something meaningful and beneficial to others.     

Division by multiplication

In two experiments, item-specific transfer was examined in simple multiplication and division with prime and probe problems separated by four to six trials. As was predicted by Rickard and Bourne's (1996) identical-elements model, response time (RT) savings were larger with identical (e.g., prime 63 divided by 7, probe 63 divided by 7) than with inverted (63 divided by 9 and 63 divided by 7) division problems, whereas identical (7 x 9 and 7 x 9) and inverted (9 x 7 and 7 x 9) multiplication problems produced equivalent transfer. Nonetheless, there was statistically significant transfer between inverted division problems. Furthermore, RT savings in the multiplication-to-division transfer conditions (e.g., prime 7 x 9, probe 63 divided by 7) indicated that multiplication mediated large-number division problems. These latter effects are not predicted by the identical-elements model but may be reconciled with the model by distinguishing associative transfer (facilitation owing to strengthening of a common problem node in memory) from mediated transfer (facilitation owing to mediation by a strengthened, related problem). Skilled adults can exploit the conceptual correspondences between multiplication and division facts in a highly efficient way to facilitate performance.     

Professors are people too: The impact of informal evaluations of professors on students and professors

There are websites where individuals anonymously provide informal reviews of professors. What impact do such sites have on student and professor motivational factors? Research suggests that undergraduate students are affected (e.g. Edwards et?al. in J Comput Mediat Commun 14:368?C392, 2009; Kowai-Bell et?al. in Comput Hum Behav 27(5):1862?C1867, 2011). The goals of the present investigation are to (1) see if Master??s level students are also influenced and (2) investigate how professors are affected. We provided students (Study 1) and professors (Study 2) comments from an informal review website and they, respectively, took the perspective of a potential student or the professor described in the comments. In Study 1, consistent with prior research on undergraduates, Master??s level students were affected by the reviews (perceived control, outcome expectancies, affect toward taking the class, and likelihood of recommending to a friend), in accordance with the valence of the reviews. Among professors (Study 2), the valence of the reviews influenced affect and self-concept with respect to relational aspects of teaching (mood, affect toward teaching again, confidence that students liked them, and confidence that they would have rapport with future students) but did not have an effect on professor self-concept with respect to competence (teaching ability and teaching well in the future). Furthermore, preliminary evidence suggests that new professors are more susceptible than experienced professors. The results of these studies are relevant because of the degree to which students and instructors contribute to the socioemotional climate of the classroom (Frenzel et?al. in J Educ Psychol 103(3):705?C716, 2009; Radel et?al. in J Educ Psychol 102(3):577?C587, 2010).     

Change in self-stigma among persons with schizophrenia enrolled in rehabilitation: associations with self-esteem and positive and emotional discomfort symptoms

Self-stigma is a barrier to the recovery of persons with schizophrenia. Little is known about whether participation in rehabilitation is naturalistically linked to declines in self-stigma, and if so, what is correlated with changes in self-stigma. The current study examined in a quasi-experimental design the rate of change of self-stigma and whether changes were correlated with self-esteem, positive symptoms, and emotional distress for persons enrolled in rehabilitation. Symptoms were measured using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (Kay, Fizsbein, & Opler, 1987), self-esteem was measured with the Multidimensional Self-Esteem Inventory (Lysaker, Ringer, & Davis, 2008), and self-stigma was assessed using the Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness Scale (Ritsher, Otilingam, & Grajales, 2003). Seventy persons with schizophrenia who worked at least one month in a vocational rehabilitation program were assessed on all measures at baseline and five months later. Results indicated a 25% decrease in self-stigma for 38% of the sample; these individuals tended to have less emotional distress both at baseline and follow-up, and had higher levels of self-esteem at follow-up. No differences in positive symptoms were found for groups whose stigma did or did not decrease. Results suggest that decreases in self-stigma may be correlated with increased self-esteem, while higher levels of emotional distress may be a barrier to stigma reduction.     

How sweet it is to be loved by you: the role of perceived regard in the terror management of close relationships

Drawing from terror management theory, the present research examined whether people turn to close relationships to manage the awareness of mortality because they serve as a source of perceived regard. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that mortality salience (MS) leads people to exaggerate how positively their romantic partners see them and demonstrated that people are more committed to their partners to the extent that their romantic partners serve as a source of perceived regard after MS (Study 3). Study 4 revealed that activating thoughts of perceived regard from a partner in response to MS reduced death-thought accessibility. Studies 5 and 6 demonstrated that MS led high relationship contingent self-esteem individuals to exaggerate perceived regard from a partner, and this heightened regard led to greater commitment to one's partner. Study 7 examined attachment style differences and found that after MS, anxious individuals exaggerated how positively their parents see them, whereas secure individuals exaggerated how positively their romantic partners see them. Together, the present results suggest that perceptions of regard play an important role in why people pursue close relationships in the face of existential concerns.