Stereotype Threat Impairs Older Adult Driving

Stereotypes can harm human performance, especially when activated in individuals with diminished working memory capacity (WMC). Performance implications for the stereotype of poor driving in older adults were investigated. Using a sample of older adults, WMC (the ability to maintain task goals and ignore distractions) and driving performance [brake reaction time (RT), following distance, and crashes] were assessed, the latter using a high‐fidelity simulator. Elderly participants under stereotype threat with reduced WMC exhibited slower brake RTs and longer following distances compared with a control condition that was not threatened. This driving profile was characteristic of cognitive distraction. Stereotype threat has clear consequences for human performance in a common real‐world task—driving—that is critical to public safety. Furthermore, these findings suggest caution in how the media and public policy communicate information about older adult driving.Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Predictor content matters for knowledge testing: Evidence supporting content validation

Organizations often rely on the match between job requirements and test content to justify test use. This practice has been questioned on the grounds that content validation has little relevance to criterion-related validation due to positive manifold among predictors. We analyze two large databases to assess the implications of test content for (a) test interchangeability and (b) criterion-related validity. Analyses of 15 knowledge tests administered (N = 80,394) as part of Project Talent demonstrate that test content is related to predictor interchangeability. Analyses of SAT and Advanced Placement test data compare correlations among predictors and criteria drawn from matched and unmatched content domains. We conclude that test-criterion content match is likely to result in stronger criterion-related validity.     

The Role of the Black Church in HIV Prevention: Exploring Barriers and Best Practices

Black people have the highest rate of HIV/AIDS infection in the USA, and they are less likely to access quality physical and mental healthcare. To address these disparities as outlined in the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, there is a need for culturally congruent, innovative approaches to HIV/AIDS prevention. The first multi‐denominational national study of Black faith leaders was conducted utilizing focus groups that were held in 11 US cities. The 265 participants were faith leaders who reported involvement in such prevention practices as sponsoring HIV/AIDS workshops, integrating HIV/AIDS messaging in the worship service, hosting HIV/AIDS screenings, distributing written materials about HIV/AIDS through the bulletin or flyers, pastoral counselling, advocating for policies that provide quality healthcare to the community and disseminating HIV/AIDS prevention messages through new media such as the Church website. These findings, including attention to barriers to engagement, provide insight into innovative practices that can be integrated into faith‐based HIV/AIDS prevention programming. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assembling an army: considerations for just war theory

The aim of this paper is to draw attention to an issue which has been largely overlooked in contemporary just war theory – namely the impact that the conditions under which an army is assembled are liable to have on the judgments that are made with respect to traditional principles of jus ad bellum and jus in bello. I argue that the way in which an army is assembled can significantly alter judgments regarding the justice of a war. In doing so, I present and defend a principle of ‘just assembly’ and argue that satisfying this principle is an essential part of any deliberation regarding the justice of a particular conflict.     

Aggression is associated with greater subsequent alcohol consumption: A shared neural basis in the ventral striatum

Alcohol use and abuse (e.g., binge drinking) are among the most reliable causes of aggressive behavior. Conversely, people with aggressive dispositions (e.g., intermittent explosive disorder) are at greater risk for subsequent substance abuse. Yet it remains unknown why aggression might promote subsequent alcohol use. Both aggressive acts and alcohol use are rewarding and linked to greater activity in neural reward circuitry. Through this shared instantiation of reward, aggression may then increase subsequent alcohol consumption. Supporting this mechanistic hypothesis, participants’ aggressive behavior directed at someone who had recently rejected them, was associated with more subsequent beer consumption on an ad‐lib drinking task. Using functional MRI, both aggressive behavior and beer consumption were associated with greater activity in the bilateral ventral striatum during acts of retaliatory aggression. These results imply that aggression is linked to subsequent alcohol abuse, and that a mechanism underlying this effect is likely to be the activation of the brain's reward circuitry during aggressive acts.

     

Visual maturation and part-object mental representations in the first half year of life

The recent work on the maturation of the visual system of the infant in the first six months of life is reviewed. By correlating this externally observed prospective data with retrospective, subjective psychological data of severely regressed patients, a portrait is painted of the infant's mental representations at different developmental stages in the first half year of life. Spitz's genetic field theory of ego development is a theoretical framework for this biopsychological integration.     

A comparison of rate‐based and latency‐based assessments for determining demand aversiveness

Demand assessments are used to determine the relative aversiveness of demands. This study compared two demand assessments (i.e., rate‐based and latency‐based) proposed in past research with three children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We compared the hierarchical outcomes of demand aversiveness and efficiency of the two assessments. Differing degrees of correspondence between the assessments was found across participants. The latency‐based measure was most efficient for a participant with high‐rates of problem behavior. The rate‐based assessment was more efficient for a participant with low‐rates of problem behavior. More research is needed to determine when the different assessments should be conducted.     

Integration of Spiritual Care in Hospital Care System in Iran

There is a growing body of evidence on the positive effects of religion and spirituality on recovery from cancer and the ability to cope with it. Most spiritual interventions carried out in Iranian research are based on care and support models that have been developed in the West. With the unique cultural and religious features of the Iranian context, a more refined look at spiritual care in the hospital care system of Iran is called for. This paper examines how to implement the spiritual care of cancer patients in hospitals and oncology wards in Iran. A consensus panel of experts was used to develop guidelines for spiritually integrated care consisting of 18 primary areas, which are described in detail in this report. Health care policy makers and managers of health care in Iran and possibly other areas of the Middle East should consider implementing these guidelines. Using indigenous models and programs specific to the religion and the cultural of a region should be considered when providing spiritual care for cancer patients.

     

Racial Colorblindness and Confidence in and Likelihood of Action to Address Prejudice

In this study, we examined the association between racial colorblindness and inaction to address prejudice. Conceptualized as a type of legitimizing ideology that maintains societal inequality, we hypothesized that colorblindness would be associated with less confidence in and lower likelihood of engaging in action to address prejudice. Our study examined the role of affective variables in explaining the link between colorblindness and inaction, as well as explored potential racial group differences. We used multigroup structural equation modeling analysis to test for measurement and structural invariance of our hypothesized model across White, Asian American, and Underrepresented racial minority (i.e., African American, Latinx American, Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Native American, and Multiracial students from Underrepresented groups) college students. In Study 1 (n = 1,125), we found that greater colorblindness was indirectly associated with less confidence in action through affective variables (e.g., intergroup empathy, and positive and negative emotions during intergroup interactions). In Study 2 (n = 1,356), we found that greater colorblindness was indirectly related to less likelihood of action through intergroup empathy. In both studies, we demonstrated measurement and structural invariance across racial groups, indicating that our hypothesized model functioned similarly across White, Underrepresented, and Asian American students. Our findings have implications for future research and practice to challenge colorblindness and to promote engagement in actions to reduce prejudice.