Visual Political Communication: The Impact of Facial Cues from Social Constituencies to Personal Pocketbooks

Voters often use visual cues such as facial appearance when forming impressions of political candidates. Originally, psychological research on appearance‐based politics focused on understanding whether or not these facial cues were consequential for political judgments. As this sub‐field of study has expanded, the focus has shifted to understanding how and what facial cues voters utilize in their decision‐making. From this perspective, inferences about political candidates are characterized by a number of interrelated appearance‐based cues such as facial competence, physical attractiveness, and ingrained gender stereotypes that manifest in politicians' appearance. Importantly, this expanded research focus now includes a broader range of evaluative judgments that are influenced by candidates' facial appearance. Here, we provide an overview of the research on the use of appearance‐based cues in political decision‐making including initial information gathered about candidates, the evaluation of candidates' potential to be effective leaders, and the decision of whether or not to support candidates in an election.     

Using differential reinforcement of a discard response to treat pica

Previous research on the treatment of pica (i.e., the ingestion of inedible objects) is limited compared to research on the treatment of other types of severe problem behavior. This study involved the use of differential reinforcement of alternative behavior, with a discard response as the alternative behavior, to treat pica presented by a 13‐year‐old girl with an autism spectrum disorder. We extended previous research by thinning the schedule of reinforcement for the alternative response. Substantial reductions in pica were obtained. Limitations and future directions in the treatment of pica are discussed.     

Slut Shaming in a School Bullying Case: Evaluators Ignore Level of Harm When the Victim Self-Presents as Sexually Available

To investigate slut shaming (condemnation aimed at presumably sexually active females) as a form of bullying, we asked 142 U.S. college students acting as disciplinary committee members to decide a case involving two female high school students. We manipulated the victim’s self-presentation (sexually available, control) and the level of harm she suffered (mild anxiety, PTSD). Although evaluators typically make more pro-victim judgments when the level of harm is higher rather than lower, we expected participants to ignore harm when the victim self-presented as sexually available. As predicted, participants in the control condition made higher probability of guilt estimates and harsher sentence recommendations when the victim experienced PTSD versus mild anxiety. In contrast, harm level did not influence participants’ judgments in the sexually available condition. Additional analyses demonstrated that participants attributed relatively more responsibility to the sexually available than to the control victim, and the effect of the victim’s self-presentation on guilt estimates was mediated by attributions about the cause of the harm. The results correspond with previous findings that evaluators blame bullying victims whom they believe made themselves targets. We suggest that school districts revise their policies as necessary to avoid encouraging slut shaming and that evaluators receive training to help them apply the legal definition of bullying to specific situations.     

Media Internalization and Social Comparison as Predictors of Eating Pathology Among Latino Adolescents: The Moderating Effect of Gender and Generational Status

Using a sociocultural framework, this cross-sectional study examined eating pathology among 235 Latino adolescents from the Southwestern U.S. who differed in generational status. Participants completed self-report measures of media pressures, internalization, social comparison, and eating pathology. Overall, results revealed stronger relationships between these sociocultural variables and eating pathology for girls. Girls reported greater social comparison, thin-ideal pressure and internalization, and eating pathology than boys. Generational status was positively correlated with these sociocultural variables and eating pathology for girls only. Moderated hierarchical regression analyses indicated that athletic-ideal internalization was a key predictor of eating pathology for girls but not boys. Discussion highlights gender, more than generational status, as critical to a sociocultural framework for eating pathology among adolescent Latino Americans.     

Why the unskilled are unaware: Further explorations of (absent) self-insight among the incompetent

People are typically overly optimistic when evaluating the quality of their performance on social and intellectual tasks. In particular, poor performers grossly overestimate their performances because their incompetence deprives them of the skills needed to recognize their deficits. Five studies demonstrated that poor performers lack insight into their shortcomings even in real world settings and when given incentives to be accurate. An additional meta-analysis showed that it was lack of insight into their own errors (and not mistaken assessments of their peers) that led to overly optimistic estimates among poor performers. Along the way, these studies ruled out recent alternative accounts that have been proposed to explain why poor performers hold such positive impressions of their performance.     

Effectiveness of a consultation intervention to promote tobacco control policies in Northwest Indian tribes: Integrating experimental evaluation and service delivery

A quasi-experimental replication of an intervention for promoting tobacco control policies in Northwest Indian tribes is described and the process of intervention including issues of collaboration among research institutions and Indian organizations is discussed. The policy intervention was evaluated using a pretest-posttest design wherein 20 tribes that had served as wait-list controls now received the intervention. The intervention comprised a tribal representative attending a kickoff orientation; follow-up visits to the tribes; distribution of tobacco policy workbooks; and phone call consultations. Policy status and stringency were assessed by means of telephone interviews with two key contacts per tribe, and by a count of enacted policies. There were significant pre-post changes in the primary outcome measure, a composite summary score of tobacco policy stringency, and changes were also reflected in enacted policies. The intervention effects observed were similar to those found in the prior randomized trial and suggest a robust, disseminable intervention. Much of the success achieved was attributed to the role of an Indian organization in planning the project and implementing the intervention and evaluation protocols.     

Attachment predicts treatment completion in an eating disorders partial hospital program among women with anorexia nervosa

The goal of this study was to examine if attachment theory can provide a framework for understanding treatment completion in an eating disorders partial hospital program among women with anorexia nervosa (AN). Attachment was measured using the Attachment Styles Questionnaire (Feeney, Noller, & Hanrahan, 1994). As hypothesized, self-reports of high avoidant attachment predicted noncompletion of treatment for those with AN binge-purge subtype (ANB). However, this relationship did not emerge for those with AN restricting subtype (ANR). Also as hypothesized, self-reports of high anxious attachment predicted completing treatment for those with ANB but not for those with ANR. For completers with ANB and ANR, the program was helpful in increasing body weight and lowering drive for thinness, body dissatisfaction, interpersonal problems, and depression. Attachment avoidance, characterized by devaluing one's need for relationships, may be a contraindication for group-based partial hospital treatment of ANB. Attachment anxiety, characterized by high preoccupation with relationships, may facilitate remaining in treatment for those with ANB.     

Reconstructive group therapy with HIV-affected people

This paper describes reconstructive group therapy with people affected by AIDS. It begins with the therapeutic need as we defined it in the AIDS-affected community and the practicalities of the group therapies we offered. The reconstructive perspective, based on personal construct theory, is then explored and applied to interpret both the psychosocial functioning of AIDS-affected people and group therapy. The group therapy process is described: client engagement and group beginnings, goals, group rules, leadership roles, group experiments, group issues and endings. Some problems that arose are then identified; and a sample of group process is provided. Finally, the appropriateness of the reconstructive perspective and of group therapy for these clients is discussed, together with the identification of the major ethical issues and some recommendations for its use.