Perceived homogeneity and familial loyalty between Chinese and Americans

On the basis of both previous and recent research on intercultural perceptions (Lee & Ottati, 1993; Triandis & Vassiliou, 1967), it is hypothesized that perceived group homogeneity would be intimately related to familial loyalty (or commitment) and stability. A cross-cultural questionnaire study was conducted both in the People’s Republic of China (n=182) and in the United States of America (n=182). The results revealed that both Chinese and American subjects perceived a collectivistic society to have more familial commitment and stability while they perceived an individualistic society to have less familial commitment and stability. The implications for this study have been discussed.     

ALTERING SHOPPERS' SUPERMARKET PURCHASES TO FIT NUTRITIONAL GUIDELINES: AN INTERACTIVE INFORMATION SYSTEM

This study reports the results of one effort to help supermarket shoppers alter food purchases to make purchases (and meals) that are lower in fat and higher in fiber. A prototype interactive information system using instructional video programs, feedback on purchases with specific goals for change, weekly programs, and the ability to track user interactions and intended purchases was evaluated. The major dependent measure was users' actual food purchases as derived from participants' highly detailed supermarket receipts. After a 5- to 7-week baseline phase, participants were randomly assigned to an experimental or control condition for the 7- to 8-week intervention phase. A follow-up phase began 5 to 8 weeks after participants completed the intervention and discontinued use of the system. The results indicated that experimental participants, when compared to control participants, decreased high fat purchases and increased high fiber purchases during intervention, with evidence for some maintenance of effect in follow-up. Plans for increasing the use and impact of the system are discussed.     

Naturalistic memory in learning-disabled and skilled readers

Three experiments compared learning-disabled and skilled readers' performance on naturalistic memory measures, as well as investigated the relationship between memory performance on everyday and laboratory tasks. In Experiment 1, the laboratory task (sentence span task) and everyday memory measures were correlated moderately for both ability groups. Compared to skilled readers, disabled readers performed poorly on the sentence span task, and were less likely than skilled readers to remember information related to common objects and consequential events. Disabled readers were also less likely to rely on external prompts to help them recall everyday information. Experiment 2 extended the previous findings to older subjects and found that the majority of significant correlations between the laboratory (word span task) and everyday memory tasks were isolated to disabled readers. When compared to chronological-age-matched subjects, disabled readers were inferior in recency performance on the laboratory (word span) and natural serial recall (e.g., recall of U.S. presidents) tasks. Experiment 3 showed that under conditions that facilitate item accessibility, ability group differences in recall were comparable. Taken together, the findings indicate that disabled readers' memory deficits are pervasive across naturalistic and laboratory measures at the younger age, but these deficits diminish for older students. Further, the deficits that occur at the older age are due to problems in accessing knowledge.     

Biofeedback as a treatment for childhood hyperactivity: a critical review of the literature

Hyperactivity is a significant problem for which no causal theories have been unequivocally substantiated and one in which treatment approaches have met with limited success. Recent research in behavioral medicine has brought biofeedback into use as a treatment for disorders that are mediated by physiologic functioning, with hyperactivity as one such disorder. 36 studies are reviewed in which biofeedback was used as a treatment for hyperactivity. This review indicated that biofeedback treatments alone have not been effectively evaluated, and methodological problems with the current studies severely limit generalizations that may be made to hyperactive populations. Biofeedback in conjunction with other techniques appears to have promise for reducing some of the behavioral symptoms of the hyperactivity syndrome. Directions for further research are presented.     

The relationship between eye position and egocentric visual direction

Hering’s model of egocentric visual direction assumes implicitly that the effect of eye position on direction is both linear and equal for the two eyes; these two assumptions were evaluated in the present experiment. Five subjects pointed (open-loop) to the apparent direction of a target seen under conditions in which the position of one eye was systematically varied while the position of the other eye was held constant. The data were analyzed through examination of the relationship between the variations in perceived egocentric direction and variations inexpected egocentric direction based on the positions of the varying eye. The data revealed that the relationship between eye position and egocentric direction is indeed linear. Further, the data showed that, for some subjects, variations in the positions of the two eyes do not have equateffectsTjn egocentric direction. Both the between-eye differences and the linear relationship may be understood in terms of individual differences in the location of the cyclopean eye, an unequal weighting of the positions of the eyes in the processing of egocentric direction, or some combination of these two factors.     

Culturally grounded strategies for suicide and alcohol risk prevention delivered by rural Alaska Native communities: A dynamic wait-listed design evaluation of the Qungasvik intervention

We examined the effectiveness of the Qungasvik (Tools for Life) intervention in enhancing protective factors as a universal suicide and alcohol prevention strategy for young people ages 12−18 living in highly affected rural Alaska Native communities. Four communities were assigned to immediate intervention or to a dynamic wait list. Outcomes were analyzed for 239 young people at four time points over two years of community intervention. Outcomes assessed two ultimate variable protective factors buffering suicide and alcohol risk, and three intermediate variable protective factors at the individual, family, and community level. Dose dependent intervention effects were associated with growth in ultimate but not intermediate variables. This evaluation of the Qungasvik intervention provides support for the effectiveness of its Indigenous strategies for suicide and alcohol misuse prevention in this rural Alaska Native setting. Though findings did not provide support for a theory of change where growth in ultimate variables is occasioned through effects on intermediate variables, research designs focused on young people who enter intervention at lower levels of preexisting protection hold promise for better understanding of intervention change processes. The Qungasvik intervention is responsive to an acute public health need for effective rural Alaska Native suicide and alcohol risk prevention strategies.     

Motivated to Forgive? Partisan Scandals and Party Supporters

In this study, we investigate how partisan motivations shape voters' reactions to a political scandal by drawing on a unique survey experiment fielded immediately after Justin Trudeau's brownface/blackface scandal broke during the 2019 Canadian election. We thus explore motivated reasoning in real time in a competitive and highly partisan election context. Are voters more willing to forgive politicians for past behavior when their own party leader's impropriety is cued? To what extent do personal interests, such as cross-pressures or electoral concerns, affect the motivation to forgive? Our findings show that partisan-motivated reasoning is overwhelmingly powerful, producing politically biased judgments of politicians implicated in scandals. Furthermore, voters' willingness to forgive scandals is also influenced by “strategic” considerations, in that preferences over which political party wins or loses in the election affect opinions about whether someone should be forgiven or whether the scandal is considered important at all. However, we find no evidence that personal involvement in the issue raised by the scandal conditions partisan motivations. We posit that the environment—in this case, a competitive election—is an important consideration for understanding the extent and limits of partisan-motivated reasoning.     

Sports specific metacognitions and competitive state anxiety in athletes: A comparison between different sporting types

This study investigated the relationship between sport related metacognitions with state anxiety dimensions, and compared how sporting categories affected these variables, among an online sample of athletes (N = 187). A MANOVA revealed there were significant differences between sporting types in metacognitive beliefs relating to the utility of rumination and arousal, the need to control thoughts, and levels of somatic anxiety. Correlations and multiple regressions showed that that in contrast to the relationships with self-confidence, cognitive and somatic state anxiety were positively associated with specific dysfunctional metacognitive beliefs, but negatively related to metacognitive processes. Overall, these findings highlight that: (a) athletes might adopt metacognitions to meet the different cognitive demands of sport types; and (b) metacognitions are in part responsible for the occurrence of state anxiety and self-confidence during competitions. The findings of this study have implications toward how researchers and sports practitioners approach the comprehensive nature of competitive anxiety.