Longitudinal effects of egoistic and fraternal relative deprivation on well-being and protest

According to the social justice literature, fraternal relative deprivation causes protest, but has little impact on well-being. We consider this view incomplete and predict that fraternal relative deprivation can impair well-being if it is enduring and difficult to ameliorate. As part of a longitudinal study of the German unification process, measures of egoistic relative deprivation, fraternal relative deprivation, life satisfaction, mental health, and protest were obtained on three occasions of measurement (1996, 1998, 2000) from a demographically heterogeneous sample of 1276 East German citizens. Model tests and parameter estimation were performed with LISREL. In line with our predictions, unique longitudinal effects of fraternal relative deprivation on well-being were identified. No longitudinal effect of fraternal relative deprivation on protest was identified.     

Eye movements,the perceptual span,and reading speed

The perceptual span or region of effective vision during eye fixations in reading was examined as a function of reading speed (fast readers were compared with slow readers), font characteristics (fixed width vs. proportional width), and intraword spacing (normal or reduced). The main findings were that fast readers (reading at about 330 wpm) had a larger perceptual span than did slow readers (reading about 200 wpm) and that the span was not affected by whether or not the text was fixed width or proportional width. In addition, there were interesting font and intraword spacing effects that have important implications for the optimal use of space in a line of text.     

Mental control and visual illusions: Toward explaining race-biased weapon misidentifications

People are biased to misidentify harmless objects as weapons when the objects are associated with African Americans (Payne, 2001). Two studies examined the processes underlying this bias. The illusory perception hypothesis argues that stereotypes alter the subjective construal of the object. In contrast, the executive failure hypothesis argues that even when perception of the item is intact, misidentifications can result from failures to control responses. Immediately after making an error, participants were able to accurately express that they had made a mistake via confidence ratings (Experiment 1) and by correcting their judgment (Experiment 2). Subjective confidence judgments were extremely well calibrated to accuracy, and participants virtually never believed their own mistakes. Conditions likely to create errors through both illusions and control failures are discussed.     

Reaction time distribution analysis of neuropsychological performance in an ADHD sample.

Differences in reaction time (RT) variability have been documented between children with and without Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Most previous research has utilized estimates of normal distributions to examine variability. Using a nontraditional approach, the present study evaluated RT distributions on the Conners' Continuous Performance Test in children and adolescents from the Multimodal Treatment Study of ADHD sample compared to a matched sample of normal controls (n = 65 pairs). The ex-Gaussian curve was used to model RT and RT variability. Children with ADHD demonstrated faster RT associated with the normal portion of the curve and a greater proportion of abnormally slow responses associated with the exponential portion of the curve. These results contradict previous interpretation that children with ADHD have slower than normal responding and demonstrate why slower RT is found when estimates of variability assume normal Gaussian distributions. Further, results of this study suggest that the greater number of abnormally long RTs of children with ADHD reflect attentional lapses on some but not all trials.     

Racist Events and Ethnic Identity in Low Income, African Americans

This study was designed to determine the relation between racist events and ethnic identity in a group of 100 low-income African Americans. Findings indicated that the more racist events one experienced, the more ethnic behaviors they endorsed and the more they had explored the meaning of their ethnic background. In addition, racist events were also indicative of feeling less close to individuals of other ethnic groups. Results suggest that experiencing racist events may contribute to an increased identification with one's own ethnic background and less affiliation with those of other ethnic backgrounds, with the cumulative effect of racist events over one's lifetime contributing the most to this finding.     

Presidential IQ, Openness, Intellectual Brilliance, and Leadership: Estimates and Correlations for 42 U.S. Chief Executives

Individual differences in intelligence are consistently associated with leader performance, including the assessed performance of presidents of the United States. Given this empirical significance, IQ scores were estimated for all 42 chief executives from George Washington to G. W. Bush. The scores were obtained by applying missing-values estimation methods (expectation-maximization) to published assessments of (a) IQ (Cox, 1926; n =  8), (b) Intellectual Brilliance (Simonton, 1986c; n =  39), and (c) Openness to Experience (Rubenzer & Faschingbauer, 2004; n =  32). The resulting scores were then shown to correlate with evaluations of presidential leadership performance. The implications for George W. Bush and his presidency were then discussed.     

Cognitive Social Maturity, Life Change Events, and Health Risk Behaviors among Adolescents: Development of a Structural Equation Model

Purpose: To examine the roles of cognitive social maturity and life change events in a structural equation model (SEM) to explain adolescents' use of marijuana, tobacco, and alcohol. Methods: Data were derived from 1322 9th and 10th graders in a HIV prevention study. Students completed a survey of their cognitive social maturity, recent life events and substance use habits. A model from a study on the metabolic control of adolescents with diabetes was modified to apply to health risk behaviors. Results: A SEM was tested and fit the data well. Lower cognitive social maturity and greater life change events significantly predicted health risk behaviors. Life events partially mediated the relationship between cognitive social maturity and health risk behaviors. Conclusions: Adolescents' social thought processes are related to their recent life events, which in turn are related to their substance use behaviors. Suggestions are made for interventions to improve adolescents' cognitive social maturity.     

Intimate partner violence and alcohol use: Exploring the role of drinking in partner violence and its implications for intervention

A large and growing empirical literature reveals a robust relationship between alcohol use and the occurrence of intimate partner violence (IPV). However, the role of alcohol use and intoxication in episodes of IPV, particularly with respect to alcohol's potential causal or facilitative function in the occurrence of partner aggression, remains a source of much controversy and considerable debate. The purpose of this review is to (a) describe briefly IPV and the types of behaviors subsumed under this label, (b) examine evidence for the link between alcohol use and IPV, (c) explicate factors (e.g., antisocial personality disorder) that may moderate this relationship, and (d) discuss the primary conceptual models put forth to explain this association. Recommendations for interventions that consider the relationship between alcohol use and IPV are also provided.