Weathering the storm: children's long-term recall of Hurricane Andrew

Children who experienced a highly stressful natural disaster, Hurricane Andrew, were interviewed within a few months of the event, when they were 3-4 years old, and again 6 years later, when they were 9-10 years old. Children were grouped into low, moderate, or high stress groups depending on the severity of the experienced storm. All children were able to recall this event in vivid detail 6 years later. In fact, children reported over twice as many propositions at the second interview as at the first. At the initial interview, children in the high stress group reported less information than children in the moderate stress group, but 6 years later, children in all three stress groups reported similar amounts of information. However children in the high stress group needed more questions and prompts than children in the other stress groups. Yet children in the high stress group also reported more consistent information between the two interviews, especially about the storm, than children in the other stress groups. Implications for children's developing memory of stressful events are discussed.     

Understanding pretrial publicity: predecisional distortion of evidence by mock jurors

Prejudicial pretrial publicity (PTP) constitutes a serious source of juror bias. The current study examined differences in predecisional distortion for mock jurors exposed to negative PTP (N-PTP) versus nonexposed control participants. According to work by K. A. Carlson and J. E. Russo (2001), predecisional distortion occurs when jurors bias new evidence in favor of their current leading party (prosecution or defense) rather than evaluating this information for its actual probative properties. Jury-eligible university students (N=116) acted as jurors in a mock trial. Elevated rates of guilty verdicts were observed in the N-PTP condition. Predecisional distortion scores were significantly higher in the N-PTP condition and reflected a proprosecution bias. The effect of prejudicial PTP on verdict outcomes was mediated by predecisional distortion in the evaluation of testimony. Results are discussed in relation to motivated decision making and confirmation biases.     

Transfer of value from fit

People experience regulatory fit when they pursue a goal in a manner that sustains their regulatory orientation (E. T. Higgins, 2000). Five studies tested whether the value experienced from regulatory fit can transfer to a subsequent evaluation of an object. In Studies 1 and 2, participants gave the same coffee mug a higher price if they had chosen it with a strategy that fit their orientation (eager strategy/promotion; vigilant strategy/prevention) than a strategy that did not fit. Studies 3-5 investigated possible mechanisms underlying this effect. Value transfer was independent of positive mood, perceived effectiveness (instrumentality), and perceived efficiency (ease), and occurred for an object that w as independent of the fit process itself. The findings supported a value confusion account of transfer.     

Comorbidity and Related Factors Among Ethnically Diverse Substance Using Pregnant Women

Studies have established that comorbidity needs to be considered when assessing and treating substance-using clients. This study explores course of treatment, risk factors, and drug-related issues among 192 ethnically diverse pregnant women who were actively using drugs at admission to a residential treatment program. Findings revealed that course of treatment is more difficult for comorbid clients who perceived more treatment barriers than noncomorbid clients. Comorbid clients were more likely to have a history of attempting suicide but no more likely to have been reported for child abuse or charged with a crime. Comorbid clients reported greater severity of alcohol use but did not differ from noncomorbid clients regarding drug of choice. Comorbid clients were no more likely to leave against treatment advice, and noncomorbid clients were no more likely to complete treatment. Findings suggest that sensitivity to comorbidity issues is crucial to retaining comorbid clients in treatment.     

Witnesses in action: the effect of physical exertion on recall and recognition

Understanding memory performance under different operational conditions is critical in many occupational settings. To examine the effect of physical exertion on memory for a witnessed event, we placed two groups of law-enforcement officers in a live, occupationally relevant scenario. One group had previously completed a high-intensity physical-assault exercise, and the other had not. Participants who completed the assault exercise showed impaired recall and recognition performance compared with the control group. Specifically, they provided significantly less accurate information concerning critical and incidental target individuals encountered during the scenario, recalled less briefing information, and provided fewer briefing updates than control participants did. Exertion was also associated with reduced accuracy in identifying the critical target from a lineup. These results support arousal-based competition accounts proposing differential allocation of resources under physiological arousal. These novel findings relating to eyewitness memory performance have important implications for victims, ordinary citizens who become witnesses, and witnesses in policing, military, and related operational contexts.     

Passion, Containment, and Commitment-Essential Elements of Groups Across the Lifespan in Bruce Springsteen's Work

Abstract The group, with its intensity, interaction, roles and dynamics, is an important unit of experience in everyday life, in psychotherapy groups, and in Bruce Springsteen's music. This paper explores experiences of and ideas about real life groups throughout the lifecycle through Springsteen's music, framed in concepts from a broad group literature including clinical psychology, social psychology, group psychotherapy, sociology, anthropology, and organizational psychology. The lifecycle includes adolescence and the role of the group to contain all its passions; the work world with its excitements and disillusionments; encounters with loss, and the holding power of the group; experiences of dissolution of the group, and possibilities for recommitment; and the passion and support of the group during celebrations. Themes of passion, containment, and commitment weave throughout the narrative.     

Emotional Expression and Language: A Longitudinal Study of Typically Developing Earlier and Later Talkers from 15 to 30 Months

Children's emotional expression and language both develop during infancy and early childhood, yet these two communication systems have been studied primarily in isolation. This study focuses instead on assessing the relation between them just as productive language emerges during toddlerhood. Seventy‐seven typically developing, firstborn toddlers and their families were recruited at 13 months of age. Using an extreme groups design, earlier and later talkers were selected based on their MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory production scores. Laboratory visits occurred at 15, 21, and 30 months; home visits occurred at 3‐month intervals from 15 to 30 months. Observational and parent report measures assessed child language, emotional expression, temperament, and overall developmental functioning. Parents also reported on parenting stress and family life events. Overall, results support a significant relation between emotional expression and productive language that varies according to the specific emotion, a finding that may resolve earlier contradictory results in this area. Earlier talkers expressed more joy/pleasure than did later talkers, but later talkers expressed more fear and anger than did earlier talkers. Potential contributions of various child/family factors were explored. Child temperament is proposed as influencing this relation through its effects on the child's transactions with the caregiving environment.     

Beauty, Ethnicity, and Age: Does Internalization of Mainstream Media Ideals Influence Attitudes Towards Older Adults?

Mainstream North American media promotes the message that attaining a thin, youthful appearance is central to a woman’s value and social role while appearing older is highly undesirable. However, appearance ideals and attitudes toward aging differ substantially across cultural and ethnic groups, which may influence the degree to which one internalizes media ideals and holds anti-aging attitudes. Consequently, this study examined the relationships between internalization of the youthful, thin-ideal appearance perpetuated by mainstream North American media and attitudes toward the elderly in a sample of 281 undergraduate females under the age of 30 attending a university in the Western United States. Specifically, European American (n?=?115), Asian American/Pacific Islander (n?=?74), Hispanic/Latina (n?=?52), and African American (n?=?42) women voluntarily completed self-report measures of internalization of media ideals and attitudes towards older adults. Attitudes towards the elderly were significantly more negative at higher levels of internalization of North American appearance ideals, independent of ethnicity. These data suggest that internalization of North American appearance ideals perpetuated by media are related to negative attitudes towards older adults. Future research should investigate the influence of negative attitudes about aging on behaviors toward older adults or one’s own aging process.