The persuasive “power” of stigma?

We predicted that able-bodied individuals and White Americans would have a difficult time saying no to persuasive appeals offered by disabled individuals and Black Americans, due to their desire to make such interactions proceed smoothly. In two experiments, we show that members of stigmatized groups have a peculiar kind of persuasive “power” in face-to-face interactions with non-stigmatized individuals. In Experiment 1, wheelchair-bound confederates were more effective in publicly soliciting donations to a range of charities than confederates seated in a regular chair. In Experiment 2, Whites changed their private attitudes more following face-to-face appeals from Black than White confederates, an effect mediated by their increased efforts to appear agreeable by nodding and expressing agreement. This difference was eliminated when impression management concerns were minimized – when participants viewed the appeals on video.     

The Expectancy Challenge Alcohol Literacy Curriculum (ECALC): A single session group intervention to reduce alcohol use

The Expectancy Challenge Alcohol Literacy Curriculum (ECALC) is a single session group-delivered program designed to modify alcohol expectancy processes and reduce alcohol use among children and young adults. The objective of this study was to demonstrate the effectiveness of the ECALC in reducing risky alcohol use among heavy drinking college men. Four fraternities at a large state university were randomly assigned to receive either the single session ECALC or a control presentation (2 fraternity houses per condition, n = 250). Alcohol expectancies were assessed before and immediately after program presentation. Results demonstrated significant changes on 5 of the 7 subscales of the Comprehensive Effects of Alcohol Scale (CEOA) among students who received the ECALC when compared with control participants. Alcohol use data were collected for 4 weeks before and 4 weeks after program presentation. Compared with those in the control condition, students who received the ECALC demonstrated significant reductions in all facets of alcohol use measured, including decreased mean and peak blood alcohol content (BAC), decreased mean number of days drinking per week, decreased mean drinks per sitting, and decreased number of binge-drinking episodes per month. This study represents 2 important advances. First is the significant reduction in risky alcohol use produced by a single session group-delivered program. The second important advance is the success in changing expectancy processes without using impractical elements common in previous expectancy challenge methods (e.g., a "barlab" environment and actual alcohol administration). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Baby Triple P: A Randomized Controlled Trial Testing the Efficacy in First-Time Parent Couples

Journal of Child and Family Studies - In a randomized controlled trial, we tested the efficacy of Baby Triple P in a community sample of first-time parent couples. The intervention was developed to...     

From alpha to omega: A practical solution to the pervasive problem of internal consistency estimation

Coefficient alpha is the most popular measure of reliability (and certainly of internal consistency reliability) reported in psychological research. This is noteworthy given the numerous deficiencies of coefficient alpha documented in the psychometric literature. This mismatch between theory and practice appears to arise partly because users of psychological scales are unfamiliar with the psychometric literature on coefficient alpha and partly because alternatives to alpha are not widely known. We present a brief review of the psychometric literature on coefficient alpha, followed by a practical alternative in the form of coefficient omega. To facilitate the shift from alpha to omega, we also present a brief guide to the calculation of point and interval estimates of omega using a free, open source software environment.     

Short-Term Violent Video Game Play by Adolescents Alters Prefrontal Activity During Cognitive Inhibition

Prior research has indicated an association between exposure to violent media and aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavior, potentially as a result of effects on inhibitory mechanisms. However, the role of violence in video games in modulating subsequent neural activity related to cognitive inhibition has received little attention. To examine short-term effects of playing a violent video game, 45 adolescents were randomly assigned to play either a violent or a nonviolent video game for 30 minutes immediately prior to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). During the fMRI procedure, participants performed a go/no-go task that required them to press a button for each target stimulus and withhold the response for non-target stimuli. Participants who played the violent game demonstrated a lower BOLD response in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) when responses were appropriately inhibited. The DLPFC is involved with executive functioning, including suppression of unwanted thoughts and behaviors. In addition, responses in the DLPFC demonstrated stronger inverse connectivity with precuneus in the nonviolent game players. These results provide evidence that playing a violent video game can modulate prefrontal activity during cognitive inhibition.     

Adolescent Sense of Control: A Downward Extension of the Shapiro Control Inventory to Pre- and Early Adolescents

The most commonly used measures of perceived control for young adolescents are dated, psychometrically flawed, or focused on particular domains. To address the need for a general purpose measure of control for this age range, the overall sense of control (OSOC) and the domains of control (DOC) subscales of the Shapiro Control Inventory (D. H. Shapiro, 1994), designed for use with adults, were modified. Exploratory factor analyses suggested that the adapted OSOC and DOC scales consisted of internally consistent 1-factor structures, accounting for 32% and 29% of the variance, respectively. In Study 1, results from 310 preadolescents (9–13 years old) indicated that a higher sense of control was related to lower stress, OSOC, r(308) = ?.52, p < .001; DOC, r(308) = ?.23, p < .001; and depression, OSOC, r(308) = ?.63, p < .001; DOC, r(308) = ?.33, p < .001. In study 2, results from 195 adolescents (11–15 years old) showed that a higher sense of control was associated with lower stress, r(193) = ?.55, p < .001, and depression, r(193) = ?.60, p < .001, concurrently. The results suggest that these 2 revised measures of adolescent perceived control exhibited good content and predictive validities.     

New dimensions of abnormal illness behaviour derived from the Illness Behaviour Questionnaire

The primary aim was to explore the factor structure of the Illness Behaviour Questionnaire (IBQ) and the generalisability of the derived dimensions to both general community members and four chronic illness groups. A questionnaire was administered to 675 participants, comprising 344 from the community, 80 with asthma, 95 with diabetes, 79 with chronic pain and 77 with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Illness severity was calculated for all chronic illness participants (self-rated health for community members). Three IBQ scales were derived following an exploratory factor analysis for the whole sample: Affirmation of Illness (α = 0.71 (CFS)–0.79 (asthma, diabetes)), Concern for Health (α = 0.71 (asthma)–0.78 (pain)) and General Affective State (α = 0.70 (CFS)–0.80 (asthma)). Patterns of response across the five samples, and intercorrelations among the new scales and the original seven scales, were largely in accord with expectation. Long-standing criticisms of the IBQ were addressed by using systematic statistical principles to identify meaningful and psychometrically sound IBQ dimensions. The derived structure offers a more parsimonious account of possible illness responses, with the availability of a more concise yet informative index of abnormal illness behaviour having practical utility for researchers and clinicians alike.     

Effect of manipulated prestige‐car ownership on both sex attractiveness ratings

Previous studies have shown that male attractiveness can be enhanced by manipulation of status through, for example, the medium of costume. The present study experimentally manipulated status by seating the same target model (male and female matched for attractiveness) expressing identical facial expressions and posture in either a ‘high status’ (Silver Bentley Continental GT) or a ‘neutral status’ (Red Ford Fiesta ST) motor‐car. A between‐subjects design was used whereby the above photographic images were presented to male and female participants for attractiveness rating. Results showed that the male target model was rated as significantly more attractive on a rating scale of 1–10 when presented to female participants in the high compared to the neutral status context. Males were not influenced by status manipulation, as there was no significant difference between attractiveness ratings for the female seated in the high compared to the neutral condition. It would appear that despite a noticeable increase in female ownership of prestige/luxury cars over recent years males, unlike females remain oblivious to such cues in matters pertaining to opposite‐sex attraction. These findings support the results of previous status enhancement of attractiveness studies especially those espousing sex differences in mate preferences are due to sex‐specific adaptations.     

The dimensionality of perceptual category learning: A state-trace analysis

State-trace analysis was used to investigate the effect of concurrent working memory load on perceptual category learning. Initial reanalysis of Zeithamova and Maddox (2006, Experiment 1) revealed an apparently two-dimensional state-trace plot consistent with a dual-system interpretation of category learning. However, three modified replications of the original experiment found evidence of a single resource underlying the learning of both rule-based and information integration category structures. Follow-up analyses of the Zeithamova and Maddox data, restricted to only those participants who had learned the category task and performed the concurrent working memory task adequately, revealed a one-dimensional plot consistent with a single-resource interpretation and the results of the three new experiments. The results highlight the potential of state-trace analysis in furthering our understanding of the mechanisms underlying category learning.