A bias-corrected exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis of right-wing authoritarianism: Support for a three-factor structure

The factor structure of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) remains a contentious issue. Although designed to measure three underlying attitude clusters, aggression, submission and conventionalism, many items are deliberately double- or triple-barrelled, to capture the covariation of the three clusters in a unidimensional scale. Additionally, although the scale is balanced, there is an item wording direction bias in the clusters; aggression items are pro-trait, and conventionalism items are con-trait. Sub-scale structure is therefore potentially confounded with acquiescence bias. Although RWA as a unitary construct has been an effective tool for exploring prejudice, it would be useful in many cases to measure its underlying components directly. Proposed solutions to this problem include creating short-form scales as subsets of the original scale, or modifying items to simplify and un-confound the structure. We present convergent evidence of an underlying factor structure by considering one-, two- and three-factor solutions to the uncorrected scale and then using an indirect method to correct for acquiescence bias. Before and after correction, factor analysis supported a three-factor solution. Confirmatory factor analyses also support a three-factor solution compared to a one-factor solution.     

Severe pain predicts greater likelihood of subsequent suicide

Using data from the 1999 Large Health Survey of Veterans, Veterans Affairs' medical records, and the National Death Index (N = 260,254), the association between self-reported pain severity and suicide among veterans as examined, after accounting for demographic variables and psychiatric diagnoses. A Cox proportional hazards regression demonstrated that veterans with severe pain were more likely to die by suicide than patients experiencing none, mild, or moderate pain (HR: 1.33; 95% CI: 1.15, 1.54), after controlling for demographic and psychiatric characteristics. These results indicate that pain evaluations should be included in comprehensive suicide assessments and suicide prevention efforts.     

Social Support in the Workplace and Training Transfer: A longitudinal analysis

Training transfer is crucial for workplace effectiveness, yet some of its social support antecedents are not well investigated. We examine the extent to which two forms of social support (from the organization and the supervisor) predict training transfer and propose several related processes explaining these influences. First, social support enhances training self‐efficacy, increases trainees' mastery (learning) goal orientation, and their motivation to transfer. In turn, we propose that these individual factors are positively related to training‐related cognitions. We test and confirm our model in a longitudinal study based on a sample of 111 employees. The results contribute to a better understanding of organization‐ and supervisor‐based social support as predictors of transfer, and clarify several important related mechanisms.     

"This strange disease": adolescent transference and the analyst's sexual orientation

The treatment of adolescents by gay analysts is uncharted territory regarding the impact of the analyst's sexuality on the analytic process. Since a core challenge of adolescence involves the integration of the adult sexual body, gender role, and reproductive capacities into evolving identity, and since adolescents seek objects in their environment to facilitate both identity formation and the establishment of autonomy from primary objects, the analyst's sexual orientation is arguably a potent influence on the outcome of adolescent development. However, because sexual orientation is a less visible characteristic of the analyst than gender, race, or age, for example, the line between reality and fantasy is less clearly demarcated. This brings up special considerations regarding discovery and disclosure in the treatment. To explore these issues, the case of a late adolescent girl in treatment with a gay male analyst is presented. In this treatment, the question of the analyst's sexual orientation, and the demand by the patient for the analyst's self-disclosure, became a transference nucleus around which the patient's individual dynamics and adolescent dilemmas could be explored and clarified.     

Longitudinal consistency of adolescent ethnic identification across varying school ethnic contexts

The present study examined consistency and inconsistency in adolescents' ethnic identification (i.e., self-reported ethnicity) across the 6 middle-school semesters. The sample (N = 1,589, of whom 46% were boys and 54% were girls) included African American, Asian/Pacific Islander, Caucasian/White, Latino/Latina, Mexican/Mexican American, and multiethnic students. Latent class analyses yielded 3 key patterns in ethnic identification across the middle-school years: consistent, late consistent, and inconsistent. Ethnic identification remained consistent across fall and spring of 6th, 7th, and 8th grades for only about 60% of the students. Asian/Pacific Islander students were more consistent, and multiethnic students were less consistent than students from other ethnic groups. School ethnic composition was associated with systematic shifts in ethnic identification from the beginning to the end of middle school for those students who initially identified as Latino/Latina, African American, or multiethnic but not for Mexican-origin students. In combination, the results provide insight into the consistency of ethnic identification, the role of context in adolescents' self-representation, and considerations for longitudinal studies that examine ethnic differences.     

Selective Abortion for Down Syndrome: The Relation Between the Quality of Intergroup Contact,Parenting Expectations,and Willingness to Terminate

This study examines the links between familiarity with individuals with Down syndrome (DS), perceptions of parenting a child with DS, and willingness to consider selective termination subsequent to a fetal diagnosis of DS. Within a sample of childless young adults (N = 280), those reporting personal familiarity indicated both more positive attitudes toward parenting a child with DS and more certainty that they would not abort following a prenatal diagnosis. In further support of contact theory, the quality of the past intergroup interactions moderated these findings. The potential role of negative stereotypes in selective‐abortion decision making and implications for prenatal counseling protocols are discussed.     

Encouraging electricity savings in a university residential hall through a combination of feedback, visual prompts, and incentives

This experiment investigated the combined use of visual prompts, daily feedback, and rewards to reduce electricity consumption in a university residential hall. After a 17-day baseline period, the experimental intervention was introduced in the intervention hall, and no change was made in the control hall. Energy usage decreased in the intervention hall, but energy usage did not change appreciably in the control hall. In the intervention hall, mean daytime and nighttime savings were 16.2% and 10.7%, respectively, compared to savings of 3.8% (day) and 6.5% (night) in the control hall.     

An evaluation of the value of choice-making opportunities in single-operant arrangements: simple fixed- and progressive-ratio schedules

The current study compared the effects of choice and no-choice reinforcement conditions on the task responding of 3 children with autism across 2 single-operant paradigm reinforcer assessments. The first assessment employed simple fixed-ratio (FR) schedules; the second used progressive-ratio (PR) schedules. The latter assessment identified the differential strength of choice-making conditions in promoting task responding relative to no-choice conditions for 2 participants; no differential findings were obtained during the FR assessment.     

Drawing the Eczema Aesthetic: The Psychological Effects of Chronic Skin Disease as Depicted in the Works of John Updike, Elizabeth Bishop, and Zelda Fitzgerald

How might the psycho-social effects of chronic skin disease, its treatments (and discontents) be figuratively expressed in writing and painting? Does the art reveal common denominators in experience and representation? If so, how do we understand the cryptic language of these expressions? By examining the works of artists with chronic skin diseases—John Updike, Elizabeth Bishop, and Zelda Fitzgerald—some common features can be noted. Chronically broken skin can fracture the ego or self-perception, resulting in a disturbed body image, which leads to personality disorders and co-morbid affective disorders such as anxiety and depression. The vertiginous feeling that results can be noted in the paradoxical characters, figures, and psyches portrayed in the works of these artists. This essay will examine the more specific ways in which artists disclose and/or conceal their experiences and the particular ways in which these manifest in their works. While certain nuances exist, the common denominators give us a starting point for developing an eczema aesthetic, a code for interpreting the ways in which artists’ experiences with skin disease manifest in their works.