From automatic antigay prejudice to behavior: the moderating role of conscious beliefs about gender and behavioral control

Two experiments tested whether the relation between automatic prejudice and discriminatory behavior is moderated by 2 conscious processes: conscious egalitarian beliefs and behavioral control. The authors predicted that, when both conscious processes are deactivated, automatic prejudice would elicit discriminatory behavior. When either of the 2 processes is activated, behavioral bias would be eliminated. The authors assessed participants' automatic attitudes toward gay men, conscious beliefs about gender, behavioral control, and interactions with gay confederates. In Experiment 1, men's beliefs about gender were heterogeneous, whereas women's beliefs were mostly egalitarian; men's responses supported the predictions, but women's responses did not. In Experiment 2, the authors recruited a sample with greater diversity in gender-related beliefs. Results showed that, for both sexes, automatic prejudice produced biased behavior in the absence of conscious egalitarian beliefs and behavioral control. The presence of either conscious process eliminated behavioral bias.     

Definition of compassion-evoking images in a Mexican sample

To assemble a calibrated set of compassion-eliciting visual stimuli, 60 clinically healthy Mexican volunteers (36 women, 24 men; M age = 27.5 yr., SD = 2.4) assessed 84 pictures selected from the International Affective Picture System catalogue using the dimensions of Valence, Arousal, and Dominance included in the Self-assessment Manikin scale and an additional dimension of Compassion. Pictures showing suffering in social contexts and expressions of sadness elicited similar responses of compassion. The highest compassion response was reported for pictures showing illness and pain. Men and women differed in the intensity but not the quality of the compassionate responses. Compassion included attributes of negative emotions such as displeasure. The quality of the emotional response was not different from that previously reported for samples in the U.S.A., Spain, and Brazil. A set of 28 pictures was selected as high-compassion-evoking images and 28 as null-compassion controls suitable for studies designed to ascertain the neural substrates of this moral emotion.     

Translocation and activation of Rac in the hippocampus during associative contextual fear learning

Small G proteins including Rac are mediators of changes in neuronal morphology associated with synaptic plasticity. Previous studies in our laboratory showed that Rac is highly expressed in the adult mouse hippocampus, a brain area that exhibits robust synaptic plasticity and is crucial for the acquisition of memories. In this study, we investigated whether Rac was involved in NMDA receptor-dependent associative fear learning in the area CA1 of adult mouse hippocampus. We found that Rac translocation and activation was increased in the hippocampus following associative fear conditioning in mice, and that these increases are blocked by intraperitoneal injection of the NMDA receptor channel blocker MK801 at the acquisition stage. Our data indicate that NMDA receptor-dependent associative fear learning alters Rac localization and function in the mouse hippocampus.     

Social comparison and perceived breach of psychological contract: their effects on burnout in a multigroup analysis

This study focuses on the mediator role of social comparison in the relationship between perceived breach of psychological contract and burnout. A previous model showing the hypothesized effects of perceived breach on burnout, both direct and mediated, is proposed. The final model reached an optimal fit to the data and was confirmed through multigroup analysis using a sample of Spanish teachers (N = 401) belonging to preprimary, primary, and secondary schools. Multigroup analyses showed that the model fit all groups adequately.     

Dimensionality of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and its relationships with the Three-and the Five-factor personality models

We investigated the dimensionality of the French version of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES; Rosenberg, 1965) using confirmatory factor analysis. We tested models of 1 or 2 factors. Results suggest the RSES is a 1-dimensional scale with 3 highly correlated items. Comparison with the Revised NEO-Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R; Costa, McCrae, & Rolland, 1998) demonstrated that Neuroticism correlated strongly and Extraversion and Conscientiousness moderately with the RSES. Depression accounted for 47% of the variance of the RSES. Other NEO-PI-R facets were also moderately related with self-esteem.     

Multimodal intervention program to improve attention deficits

Is it possible to learn to attend? The purpose of this article is to provide information about the development, administration, and contrast of an intervention program to improve selective and sustained attention in students from 5 to 19 years of age, all attending school, and with difficulties to learn the academic materials corresponding to their age. Two groups participated in the study: one with difficulties in selective attention and the other with difficulties in sustained attention. The group with selective attention difficulties was made up of 102 students, of whom 59 made up the experimental group and 43 the control group. The group of students with difficulties in sustained attention was made up of 106 students, of whom 58 participated as the experimental group and 48 as the control group. The results indicate that this kind of intervention (which combines visual therapy, cortical activation, and training with activity banks) is effective to improve attentional deficits, both at the level of selective attention and of sustained attention.     

Effect of incentives on retention in an outpatient treatment for cocaine addicts

The high drop-out rate in treatment programs is one of the most important problems in the area of drug addictions. This study evaluated the effect of the use of incentives on retention in an outpatient program for cocaine addicts. The effect of individual variables on program drop-out was also analysed. Participants were 66 subjects who were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups: standard treatment, treatment with incentives I, and treatment with incentives II. The patients of these two groups received incentives contingent on cocaine abstinence with two different magnitudes. Retention rate at six months was 35% in the standard treatment, 78.6% in the treatment with incentives I, and 53.3% in the treatment with incentives II. The global prognostic capacity of the individual variables (sociodemographic, history and consumption pattern, psychopathological variables, and EuropASI scores) was 85.7%, with the psychopathological variables being more closely related to retention. These results suggest that the use of incentives may be an effective strategy to improve retention in outpatient treatments for cocaine addiction.