A Qualitative Exploration of Religion,Gender Norms,and Sexual Decision-Making within African American Faith-Based Communities

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) continues to be a prominent health and social justice issue, especially for African American communities in the Southern United States. Gender role norms, specifically within faith-based communities in the South, pose challenges to empowering women to make safer sexual health decisions. To explore perceptions of gender norms and sexual health, 42 qualitative interviews were gathered from female members of 16 predominantly African American churches in Atlanta, GA. Constructs from the theory of gender and power and the social ecological model were used to guide coding and analysis. Participants discussed their experiences with gender norms and gender-based power differentials at the institutional (i.e., church), familial, and interpersonal (i.e., intimate relationship) levels. Because of the attitudes and beliefs held by their religious communities and families, many participants recalled struggling to assert themselves in sexual relationships and recalled engaging in risky and unwanted sexual behavior, especially during their young adult years. However, as the participants matured, they worked to overturn traditional gender norms, empowering both their children and women in their religious communities to make healthy, autonomous sexual decisions. Moving forward, participants want their churches and members of their faith communities to play an active role in the empowerment of African American women and provide them with the confidence and education necessary to negotiate sexual decisions with their partners.

     

“I Want to Know More!”: Children Are Sensitive to Explanation Quality When Exploring New Information

When someone encounters an explanation perceived as weak, this may lead to a feeling of deprivation or tension that can be resolved by engaging in additional learning. This study examined to what extent children respond to weak explanations by seeking additional learning opportunities. Seven‐ to ten‐year‐olds (N = 81) explored questions and explanations (circular or mechanistic) about 12 animals using a novel Android tablet application. After rating the quality of an initial explanation, children could request and receive additional information or return to the main menu to choose a new animal to explore. Consistent with past research, there were both developmental and IQ‐related differences in how children evaluated explanation quality. But across development, children were more likely to request additional information in response to circular explanations than mechanistic explanations. Importantly, children were also more likely to request additional information in direct response to explanations that they themselves had assigned low ratings, regardless of explanation type. In addition, there was significant variability in both children's explanation evaluation and their exploration, suggesting important directions for future research. The findings support the deprivation theory of curiosity and offer implications for education.     

Reflexive orienting to gaze is not luminance dependent

In the investigation of reflexive orienting to cues, two major theories have emerged: One proposes that transients created by the cue trigger attentional shifts, whereas the other argues that object changes are responsible for instigating orienting. In the present study, we examined whether luminance transients produced by the cue can generate reflexive orienting to gaze. Using a temporal order judgment paradigm under luminant or subjectively equiluminant conditions, participants judged which of two peripheral targets onset first. An uninformative gaze cue served to reflexively shift attention toward one object location, thereby temporally prioritizing the target presented there. The results revealed that attention was successfully shifted toward the cued object, as was evidenced by the participants’ selecting the cued object as appearing first significantly more often than the uncued object, even when the two onset simultaneously. Critically, the results were comparable across luminance conditions. Our findings reveal that luminance transients are not necessary for triggering orienting to gaze cues. We suggest that the orienting observed here can be better explained via an object-based hypothesis whereby object changes, not transients, trigger reflexive orienting.     

A League of Their Own: Do Single-Sex Schools Increase Girls�� Participation in the Physical Sciences?

With the rapid shifts in the education of women in the United States, and the underrepresentation of women in fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), an issue generating much controversy is whether women may benefit more from single-sex education or coeducation. The present study surveyed 548 U.S. high-school boys and girls from single-sex and coeducational high-schools from the Midwest. Half of the participants completed a mathematics test under stereotype threat (ST) condition and half under no threat condition. Although girls in single-sex schools had higher achievement motive and self-esteem than those in coeducational schools, they were not more likely to pursue STEM careers. Overall, students in single-sex schools outperformed students from coeducational schools on the math test. Girls?? math performance was significantly higher in the ST condition than in the no threat condition.     

Self,Identity, and Reactions to Distal Threats: The Case of Environmental Behavior

This article examines self-relevant processes that sustain behaviors that have little or no direct implications for people’s well-being. When outcomes are low in direct personal relevance, far in the future, or only weakly linked to one’s present behavior, imagined personal incentives may not be enough to motivate behavior. Under such circumstances, people may nonetheless perform actions that are linked to their identity, self-evaluation, or public image. Using pro-environmental behavior as an exemplar, we examine self-processes that are involved when people engage in behaviors that do not directly affect their personal self-interest.     

The impact of an 8-day intensive treatment for adolescent panic disorder and agoraphobia on comorbid diagnoses

Previous research findings have shown positive effects of cognitive-behavioral therapy for primary anxiety disorders as well as for nonprimary, co-occurring anxiety disorders. In this study, we analyzed data from an existing randomized controlled trial of intensive treatment for panic disorder with or without agoraphobia (PDA) to examine the effects of the treatment on comorbid psychiatric diagnoses. The overall frequency and severity of aggregated comorbid diagnoses decreased in a group of adolescents who received an 8-day treatment for PDA. Results suggest that an 8-day treatment for PDA can alleviate the symptoms of some specific comorbid clinical diagnoses; in particular specific phobias, generalized anxiety disorder, and social phobia. These findings suggest that an intensive treatment for PDA is associated with reductions in comorbid symptoms even though disorders other than PDA are not specific treatment targets.     

Understanding the relationships between body esteem,risk for anorexia nervosa,and domain-dependent decision-making impulsivity in a college sample

Impulsivity has been suggested to interact with low body esteem to elevate risk for anorexia nervosa. Discounting tasks are unique tools for examining impulsivity. Female college students (N = 139) at varying levels of body esteem and risk for anorexia nervosa responded to discounting scenarios depicting opportunities to lose/gain weight and to worsen/improve complexion. Multiple regression analyses were used to examine the relationships between impulsivity and risk for anorexia nervosa and body esteem in four disorder-relevant decision-making contexts. Results indicated that lower decision-making impulsivity predicted lower body esteem levels when the outcome of the task was framed as an opportunity to lose weight. It is suggested that greater self-control regarding weight-loss in women with low body esteem may be problematic, placing them at higher risk for eating- and weight-related problems. Results reiterate the need for continued attention to fostering healthy body esteem and weight-control patterns in women on college campuses.     

Interpersonal consequences of joint food consumption for connection and conflict

For centuries, the preparation and eating of a meal has brought people together, making food consumption an inherently social process. Yet the way in which people connect over food is changing. Rising health concerns, due in part to the increase in food allergies and obesity, have shifted attention away from the social aspects of food to food's nutritional aspects. Recognizing the social context in which food consumption takes place, this article reviews research highlighting the interpersonal consequences of joint food consumption. We first examine research on how sharing food connects people together, both via the type of food consumed (e.g., incidental food similarity) and the manner in which people serve and eat food (e.g., from shared vs. separate plates). We then turn to research that addresses the opposite side of the coin, discussing how the inability to share in a meal can be isolating, as well as how people navigate conflicting preferences when making food decisions with others. We conclude with a discussion of promising future directions for research on joint food consumption.     

Alternating prism exposure causes dual adaptation and generalization to a novel displacement

In two experiments, we examined the hypothesis that repeatedly adapting and readapting to two mutually conflicting sensory environments fosters the development of a separate adaptation to each situation (dual adaptation) as well as an increased ability to adapt to a novel displacement (adaptive generalization). In the preliminary study, subjects alternated between adapting their visuomotor coordination to 30-diopter prismatic displacement and readapting to normal vision. Dual adaptation was observed by the end of 10 alternation cycles. However, an unconfounded test of adaptive generalization was prevented by an unexpected prism-adaptive shift in preexposure baselines for the dual-adapted subjects. In the primary experiment, the subjects adapted and readapted to opposite 15-diopter displacements for a total of 12 cycles. Both dual adaptation and adaptive generalization to a 30-diopter displacementwere obtained. These findings may be understood in terms of serial reversal learning and “learning to learn.”