Implicit Attitudes Towards Feminism

This study employed the Implicit Association Test to assess implicit attitudes towards feminism among 68 U.S. undergraduates. On some trials, participants matched either good or bad words with a feminist or a traditionalist target person. On other trials, they matched feminine or masculine traits with these targets. We predicted (1) faster reaction times to feminist–bad pairings than to feminist–good pairings, (2) faster reactions to traditionalist–good pairings than to traditionalist–bad pairings, (3) faster reactions to traditionalist–feminine pairings than to traditionalist–masculine pairings, and (4) faster reactions to feminist–masculine pairings than to feminist–feminine pairings. The results supported the first three predictions. These results suggest an implicit negativity bias and masculinity bias towards feminists and an implicit positivity bias and femininity bias towards traditionalists.     

Performance,incentives, and needs for autonomy,competence, and relatedness: a meta-analysis

Although self-determination theory (SDT) is one of the most widely cited theories of human motivation and function, critics have questioned the practical utility of its three needs (i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness) in performance contexts. We conduct a meta-analysis (k = 108, N = 30,648) to explore the magnitude and boundary conditions of need satisfaction and performance. As expected, autonomy (ρ = .28), competence (ρ = .37), and relatedness (ρ = .25) predict performance. Incentivization per se has little impact on need-satisfaction: instead, the need satisfaction → performance relationship is moderated by incentive salience. Consistent with a crowding-out hypothesis, need satisfaction matters less to performance when incentives are directly salient (ρ = .22) and more when indirectly salient (ρ = .45). Our meta-analysis demonstrates that indirectly salient incentives and need-satisfaction are indeed compatible, providing a direct response to criticisms of SDT in performance contexts. Additional unexpected findings and future directions are discussed.     

Clarifying the construct of perfectionism

The construct of perfectionism is related to many important outcome variables. However, the term perfectionism has been defined in many different ways, and items comprising the different existing scales appear to be very different in content. The overarching aim of the present set of studies was to help clarify the specific unidimensional personality constructs that contribute to perfectionistic behavior. First, trained raters reliably sorted items from existing measures of perfectionism into nine dimensions. An exploratory factor analysis, followed by a confirmatory factor analysis on an independent sample, resulted in a 9-scale, 61-item measure, called the Measure of Constructs Underlying Perfectionism. The nine scales were internally consistent and stable across time, and they were differentially associated with relevant measures of personality in theoretically meaningful ways.     

College students' study time: course level, time of semester, and grade earned

The association of total study time, number of events, time per event ratio, study strategies, and course grades across the semester were examined by linking students' study logs to course performance. There were 37 upper-division and 109 lower-division participants. Students earning As and Bs studied more frequently at the end of the semester but for shorter periods of time than students earning lower grades. Results are discussed in terms of providing college students and faculty with recommendations about learning strategies and time spent studying.     

Lynch Syndrome Patients’ Views of and Preferences for Return of Results Following Whole Exome Sequencing

Whole exome sequencing (WES) uses next generation sequencing technology to provide information on nearly all functional, protein-coding regions in an individual’s genome. Due to the vast amount of information and incidental findings that can be generated from this technology, patient preferences must be investigated to help clinicians consent and return results to patients. Patients (n?=?19) who were previously clinically diagnosed with Lynch syndrome, but received uninformative negative Lynch syndrome genetic results through traditional molecular testing methods participated in semi-structured interviews after WES testing but before return of results to explore their views of WES and preferences for return of results. Analyses of interview results found that nearly all participants believed that the benefits of receiving all possible results generated from WES outweighed the undesirable effects. The majority of participants conveyed that relative to coping with a cancer diagnosis, information generated from WES would be manageable. Importantly, participants’ experience with Lynch syndrome influenced their notions of genetic determinism, tolerance for uncertain results, and family communication plans. Participants would prefer to receive WES results in person from a genetic counselor or medical geneticist so that an expert could help explain the meaning and implications of the potentially large quantity and range of complicated results. These results underscore the need to study various populations with regard to the clinical use of WES in order to effectively and empathetically communicate the possible implications of this new technology and return results.     

Genetic Testing of Children for Predisposition to Mood Disorders: Anticipating the Clinical Issues

Large-scale sequencing information may provide a basis for genetic tests for predisposition to common disorders. In this study, participants in the Coriell Personalized Medicine Collaborative (N?=?53) with a personal and/or family history of Major Depressive Disorder or Bipolar Disorder were interviewed based on the Health Belief Model around hypothetical intention to test one’s children for probability of developing a mood disorder. Most participants (87 %) were interested in a hypothetical test for children that had high (“90 %”) positive predictive value, while 51 % of participants remained interested in a modestly predictive test (“20 %”). Interest was driven by beliefs about effects of test results on parenting behaviors and on discrimination. Most participants favored testing before adolescence (64 %), and were reluctant to share results with asymptomatic children before adulthood. Participants anticipated both positive and negative effects of testing on parental treatment and on children’s self-esteem. Further investigation will determine whether these findings will generalize to other complex disorders for which early intervention is possible but not clearly demonstrated to improve outcomes. More information is also needed about the effects of childhood genetic testing and sharing of results on parent–child relationships, and about the role of the child in the decision-making process.     

Cognitive control of obsessional thoughts

A defining characteristic of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is unsuccessful suppression of unwanted thoughts. Recent evidence of individual differences in ability to control intrusive thoughts may inform our understanding of failures of cognitive control associated with OCD symptomatology. The current study investigated characteristics of cognitive style that are potentially associated with OCD symptoms and may influence response to unwanted thoughts, including perceived ability to control thoughts and tendency to ruminate. Undergraduate students (N = 166) completed self-report measures of OCD symptoms, perceived thought control, and ruminative thinking. They were then presented with a distressing target thought and completed a standard thought suppression paradigm. Correlational results indicated that, controlling for anxiety and depression, OCD symptoms were positively associated with rumination and inversely associated with perceived thought control ability. In addition, OCD symptoms were associated with higher levels of distress and greater spontaneous efforts to suppress the target thought during a baseline period, while perceived thought control ability predicted frequency of target thoughts during suppression. Finally, results of the experimental manipulation confirmed that participants instructed to suppress experienced more intrusions during the recovery period. Clinical implications and future directions are discussed.     

The Nature of Preschool Phonological Processing Abilities and Their Relations to Vocabulary, General Cognitive Abilities, and Print Knowledge

The development of reading-related phonological processing abilities (PPA) represents an important developmental milestone in the process of learning to read. In this cross-sectional study, confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine the structure of PPA in 129 younger preschoolers (M = 40.88 months, SD = 4.65) and 304 older preschoolers (M = 56.49 months, SD = 5.31). A 2-factor model in which phonological awareness and phonological memory was represented by one factor and lexical access was represented by a second factor provided the best fit for both samples and was largely invariant across samples. Measures of vocabulary, cognitive abilities, and print knowledge were significantly correlated with both factors, but phonological awareness/memory had unique relations with word reading. Despite significant development of PPA across the preschool years and into kindergarten, these results show that the structure of these skills remains invariant.