Sex role and developmental evaluations in the just world

The Just World Hypothesis indicates that individuals are evaluated in relation to the situation in which they are observed. This study examined the application of the equity relationship in Just World evaluations, and the extent of overt evaluative and covert behavioral sex-role-related biases. Males or females rewarded or punished and later rated members of the same or opposite sex who were seen in favorable or unfavorable circumstances. Subject—stimulus person dyad age (adult or 7 years old) was also varied. Results agreed with hypotheses derived from role, exchange, and developmental theory. As predicted, women used less equity than men, while both sexes tended to apply the equity relationship less in cross-sex pairs. Adults showed a covert discrimination favoring their own sex, while children showed a similar overt bias as well. Some suggestions are made for further research.     

Stay calm! Regulating emotional responses by implementation intentions: Assessing the impact on physiological and subjective arousal

Implementation intention (IMP) has recently been highlighted as an effective emotion regulatory strategy. Most studies examining the effectiveness of IMPs to regulate emotion have relied on self-report measures of emotional change. In two studies we employed electrodermal activity (EDA) and heart rate (HR) in addition to arousal ratings (AR) to assess the impact of an IMP on emotional responses. In Study 1, 60 participants viewed neutral and two types of negative pictures (weapon vs. non-weapon) under the IMP “If I see a weapon, then I will stay calm and relaxed!” or no self-regulatory instructions (Control). In Study 2, additionally to the Control and IMP conditions, participants completed the picture rating task either under goal intention (GI) to stay calm and relaxed or warning instructions highlighting that some pictures contain weapons. In both studies, participants showed lower EDA, reduced HR deceleration and lower AR to the weapon pictures compared to the non-weapon pictures. In Study 2, the IMP was associated with lower EDA compared to the GI condition for the weapon pictures, but not compared to the weapon pictures in the Warning condition. ARs were lower for IMP compared to GI and Warning conditions for the weapon pictures.     

A Longitudinal Study of Cultural Adaptation among Mexican and Dominican Immigrant Women

The present longitudinal study examined cultural adaptation (i.e., acculturation and enculturation) and its correlates in a sample of 189 Mexican and Dominican immigrant women. Acculturation and enculturation were measured within the domains of language competence, identity, and cultural knowledge at two time points over a 1-year period. Across groups and domains, cultural adaptation was generally stable over time; only American cultural knowledge showed change and only for MA women. Several correlates of cultural adaptation were identified. For Mexican women, living in poverty and in immigrant-dense neighborhoods was associated with lower acculturation. For Dominican women, age at immigration was the most robust correlate and was associated with more acculturation and less enculturation, though poverty and neighborhood characteristics emerged as significant for Dominican women too. Findings are consistent with the notion of cultural adaptation as a complex construct that is influenced by cultural context as well as individual immigrant characteristics.     

A non‐human primate’s understanding of solidity: dissociations between seeing and acting

Studies often reveal a dissociation between what infants know as revealed by action and what they know as revealed by perception. We explored whether non‐human primates exhibit a similar dissociation, focusing on what rhesus macaques know about solidity. In a series of search experiments, Hauser (2001) found that rhesus do not possess a complete understanding of solidity, searching below a solid shelf for an invisibly displaced object. In the present experiments, we explored how rhesus would perform in expectancy violation versions of the same tasks. Subjects looked longer when an apple appeared to fall through a solid shelf and when it appeared to roll through a solid barrier. These results suggest that macaques have some understanding of solidity when tested using looking paradigms even though they do not appear to use this knowledge when searching for food. We speculate that this dissociation is similar to that demonstrated in human development.     

Interdependence,social motives,and outcome satisfaction in multiparty negotiation

What makes negotiators satisfied with their outcomes? In this study, we examined whether interpersonal interdependence, in the context of multi‐party multi‐issue negotiation, affected negotiators' satisfaction with their individual and group outcomes. We integrated principles from interdependence, social comparison, and social value theories to generate hypotheses about the social‐evaluative nature of satisfaction with negotiation outcomes. Controlling for differences in quality of individual outcomes, we found a positive association between satisfaction and individual outcome and a negative association between satisfaction and group outcome. Relative to those with prosocial social value orientation, negotiators with an individualistic social value orientation were less satisfied with the group outcome, regardless of induced motivational orientation. Neither motivational orientation nor an interaction between motivational orientation and social value orientation were related to satisfaction. We discuss the implications of our results for research on interdependence processes in negotiations and the role of social motives. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Meeting the challenges of the new NHS for counselling in primary care: a service manager perspective

This paper addresses the challenge of meeting the requirements of the new NHS in primary care, whilst at the same time protecting conditions for counselling as a creative rather than a mechanical process. In managed teams this tension has to be held without the benefit of a long professional history of change and adaptation. The profession of counselling and psychotherapy in primary care has to rapidly find its place within the new structure and take on board new expectations for a profession that has traditionally enjoyed a high level of clinical autonomy.     

The challenge of measuring immigrant origin and immigration-related ethnicity in Europe

Different European nation-states use the most diverse statistical constructions of foreign origin or ethnic minority populations. Several countries traditionally even shun from producing such data. This makes international comparison a very difficult endeavour. Anyone wanting to perform comparative research on immigrants or (immigrant origin) ethnic minorities in Europe is unavoidably confronted with the most diverse types of national statistical data and has to opt for ad hoc solutions. Attempts at international comparison can thus be very tricky due to data characteristics. It is important that researchers are aware of these problems and do not simply accept data (especially in comparisons) at face value. In this article we embark on a comparative explorative study of the way in which immigrant background and immigration related ethnicity is taken stock of by national statistical institutes in a set of European nation-states.     

Factors Predicting Family Reunification for African American,Latino, Asian and White Families in the Child Welfare System

We examined child, family and system-related factors associated with reunification across African American, Latino, Asian and White families involved in the child welfare system in one large and ethnically diverse California County. Data were obtained from extensive reviews of child welfare case records and multivariate analysis was performed on a wide array of variables not found in previous research. Results indicated that when taking other factors into account, ethnicity was not a strong predictor of reunification. Factors that predicted reunification varied across ethnic groups, with none of the predictors being significant for the Asian group. Implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.