Reversing the Gender Gap in Negotiations: An Exploration of Stereotype Regeneration

We examine how gender stereotypes affect performance in mixed-gender negotiations. We extend recent work demonstrating that stereotype activation leads to a male advantage and a complementary female disadvantage at the bargaining table (Kray, Thompson, & Galinsky, 2001). In the present investigation, we regenerate the stereotype of effective negotiators by associating stereotypically feminine skills with negotiation success. In Experiment 1, women performed better in mixed-gender negotiations when stereotypically feminine traits were linked to successful negotiating, but not when gender-neutral traits were linked to negotiation success. Gender differences were mediated by the performance expectations and goals set by negotiators. In Experiment 2, we regenerated the stereotype of effective negotiators by linking stereotypically masculine or feminine traits with negotiation ineffectiveness. Women outperformed men in mixed-gender negotiations when stereotypically masculine traits were linked to poor negotiation performance, but men outperformed women when stereotypically feminine traits were linked to poor negotiation performance. Implications for stereotype threat theory and negotiations are discussed.     

Secondary Beliefs: A Mediator between Illness Representations and Coping Behavior in Arthritis Sufferers

The aim of the current study was to investigate the factors of secondary beliefs and illness representations, and their relationship with particular coping strategies used in the management of arthritis, and more specifically, if secondary beliefs, as defined in Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT), mediated the relationship between illness representations and coping, as outlined by the Self-Regulatory Model (SRM). A sample of 63 arthritis sufferers aged between 32.0 and 100.1 years was recruited. Participants were asked to complete three questionnaires: Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WOCQ); revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R); Secondary Beliefs Scale (SBS). Analyses revealed that all eight coping strategies measured were significantly related to one or more illness representation, lending support to the SRM. Furthermore, secondary beliefs were found to mediate the relationship between illness representations and coping for three of the strategies measured: confrontive coping, accepting responsibility and seeking social support, while they also appeared to be directly related to the escape-avoidance strategy. Therefore, support for the REBT model was also evidenced. Overall, these results have highlighted the importance of cognitive factors in influencing coping behavior, a finding that could prove useful when designing interventions aiming to promote beneficial coping in arthritis sufferers.     

Recollection Is a Continuous Process: Implications for Dual-Process Theories of Recognition Memory

ABSTRACT— Dual-process theory, which holds that recognition decisions can be based on recollection or familiarity, has long seemed incompatible with signal detection theory, which holds that recognition decisions are based on a singular, continuous memory-strength variable. Formal dual-process models typically regard familiarity as a continuous process (i.e., familiarity comes in degrees), but they construe recollection as a categorical process (i.e., recollection either occurs or does not occur). A continuous process is characterized by a graded relationship between confidence and accuracy, whereas a categorical process is characterized by a binary relationship such that high confidence is associated with high accuracy but all lower degrees of confidence are associated with chance accuracy. Using a source-memory procedure, we found that the relationship between confidence and source-recollection accuracy was graded. Because recollection, like familiarity, is a continuous process, dual-process theory is more compatible with signal detection theory than previously thought.     

Deviations from Prescribed Prompting Procedures: Implications for Treatment Integrity

The acquisition of new skills may be hindered when teaching procedures vary from previously validated approaches or contain errors. In the present study, we compared the acquisition and maintenance of response chains taught using a perfectly implemented system of least prompts and a multiple verbal prompts procedure (i.e., addition of multiple verbal prompts and failure to follow through with more intrusive prompts). Four children, aged 6–9, participated in the study. An adapted alternating treatments design was used to compare the effectiveness and efficiency of learning during the system of least prompts and the alternative system of least prompts. Results were consistent with those obtained in previous studies in that the perfectly implemented and alternative prompting procedures were effective in teaching new skills for all participants. However, the perfectly implemented treatment required fewer trials to mastery for 4 of the 5 evaluations. Response chains taught under the multiple verbal prompts condition had poorer maintenance for 2 of the 5 evaluations. The results of the current study suggest that deviations from empirically identified teaching procedures may reduce the speed with which new skills are acquired.     

Fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) knockout mice exhibit enhanced acquisition of an aversive, but not of an appetitive, Barnes maze task

It is well established that genetic deletion or pharmacological inhibition of the CB₁ receptor disrupts extinction learning in aversive conditioning tasks, but not in appetitive tasks. Consistent with these findings is that genetic deletion or pharmacological inhibition of fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), the primary catabolic enzyme of the endogenous cannabinoid anandamide (AEA), accelerates acquisition as well as extinction in aversive conditioning tasks. However, it is unknown whether FAAH blockade will affect acquisition in an appetitive conditioning task. Therefore, in the present study, we assessed FAAH (−/−) and (+/+) mice in appetitive and aversive Barnes maze conditioning procedures. Here we report that FAAH (−/−) mice displayed accelerated acquisition rates in an aversively-motivated, but not in the appetitively-motivated, Barnes maze task. The CB₁ receptor antagonist, rimonabant attenuated enhanced acquisition in the aversive procedure, consistent with the idea that elevated AEA levels mediate this apparent nootropic effect. These findings support the hypothesis that stimulation of the endocannabinoid system enhances learned behavior in aversive, but not appetitive, conditioning paradigms.     

Developmental shift in the discrimination of vowel contrasts in bilingual infants: is the distributional account all there is to it?

A shift from language‐general to language‐specific sound discrimination abilities has been largely attested in different populations of infants during the second half of the first year of life; however, data are still scarce regarding bilingual populations. Previous research with 4‐, 8‐ and 12‐month‐old Catalan‐Spanish bilingual infants had offered evidence of a U‐shaped pattern in their ability to discriminate a language‐specific vowel contrast. This research explores monolingual and bilingual 4‐ and 8‐month‐olds’ capacities to discriminate two common vowel contrasts: /o–u/ and /e–u/. All groups succeeded except 8‐month‐old bilinguals tested on the phonetically close /o–u/ contrast. Discrimination was not facilitated when talker and token variability were reduced. A U‐shaped pattern was again found when data from an additional group of 12‐month‐olds were included. These results confirm bilinguals’ specific developmental pattern of perceptual reorganization for acoustically close vowels and challenge an interpretation merely based on a distributional account.     

Personal epistemology across cultures: exploring Norwegian and Spanish university students’ epistemic beliefs about climate change

The primary aim was to explore and compare the dimensionality of personal epistemology with respect to climate change across the contexts of Norwegian and Spanish students. A second aim was to examine relationships between topic-specific epistemic beliefs and the variables of gender, topic knowledge, and topic interest in the two contexts. Participants were 225 Norwegian and 217 Spanish undergraduates enrolled in psychology or education courses, and the dimensionality of topic-specific personal epistemology was explored through factor analyses of the scores on a 49-item questionnaire. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to predict scores on the epistemic belief dimensions emerging from the factor analyses with gender, topic knowledge, and topic interest, respectively. Even though considerable cross-cultural generalizability in dimensionality was demonstrated, this research also draws attention to the cultural embeddedness of topic-specific epistemic beliefs. Moreover, differences in the predictability of topic knowledge and topic interest in Norway and Spain, suggest that factors constraining or enhancing adaptive epistemic beliefs concerning particular topics may vary across cultures.     

Life designing: A paradigm for career construction in the 21st century

At the beginning of the 21st century, a new social arrangement of work poses a series of questions and challenges to scholars who aim to help people develop their working lives. Given the globalization of career counseling, we decided to address these issues and then to formulate potentially innovative responses in an international forum. We used this approach to avoid the difficulties of creating models and methods in one country and then trying to export them to other countries where they would be adapted for use. This article presents the initial outcome of this collaboration, a counseling model and methods. The life-designing model for career intervention endorses five presuppositions about people and their work lives: contextual possibilities, dynamic processes, non-linear progression, multiple perspectives, and personal patterns. Thinking from these five presuppositions, we have crafted a contextualized model based on the epistemology of social constructionism, particularly recognizing that an individual’s knowledge and identity are the product of social interaction and that meaning is co-constructed through discourse. The life-design framework for counseling implements the theories of self-constructing [Guichard, J. (2005). Life-long self-construction. International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance, 5, 111–124] and career construction [Savickas, M. L. (2005). The theory and practice of career construction. In S. D. Brown & R. W. Lent (Eds.), Career development and counselling: putting theory and research to work (pp. 42–70). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley] that describe vocational behavior and its development. Thus, the framework is structured to be life-long, holistic, contextual, and preventive.     

A Comparison of Behavioral Parent Training Programs for Fathers of Children With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Few behavioral parent training (BPT) treatment studies for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have included and measured outcomes with fathers. In this study, fathers were randomly assigned to attend a standard BPT program or the Coaching Our Acting-Out Children: Heightening Essential Skills (COACHES) program. The COACHES program included BPT plus sports skills training for the children and parent-child interactions in the context of a soccer game. Groups did not differ at baseline, and father ratings of treatment outcome indicated improvement at posttreatment for both groups on measures of child behavior. There was no significant difference between groups on ADHD-related measures of child outcome. However, at posttreatment, fathers who participated in the COACHES program rated children as more improved, and they were significantly more engaged in the treatment process (e.g., greater attendance and arrival on time at sessions, more homework completion, greater consumer satisfaction). The implications for these findings and father-related treatment efforts are discussed.