Don't hate me because I'm beautiful: Anti-attractiveness bias in organizational evaluation and decision making

Within organizational judgment and decision making contexts, biases based on an evaluated person's attractiveness are among the most salient and frequently investigated. An enormous amount of research indicates favoritism for attractive people compared to unattractive ones. The current research demonstrates that the nature of this bias depends on whether one is evaluating a member of the same sex or the opposite sex. Experiment 1 (n = 2639) investigated selection of scholarship applicants and demonstrated that a pro-attractiveness bias held only for selection of opposite-sex scholarship applicants; no such bias was observed for highly attractive same-sex applicants. Experiment 2 (n = 622) investigated evaluations of prospective job candidates and demonstrated again that pro-attractiveness bias was observed only for opposite-sex candidates; participants discriminated against highly attractive same-sex candidates. Moreover, this bias was not observed among highly attractive participants; it held only for moderately attractive participants, those for whom highly attractive same-sex individuals can pose especially potent social threats. Findings suggest that attractiveness biases in organizational decision making are rooted partly in the social threats and opportunities afforded by attractive people.     

Association between alexithymia, neuroticism, and social desirability scores among Italian graduate students

An inverse correlation between social desirability and alexithymia has been observed in undergraduate students in Japan and Australia. It is not clear how this association is influenced by the personality dimension of neuroticism. This study examined the association of scores on social desirability with those on alexithymia controlled for neuroticism, in a sample of 111 Italian graduate students, with age range of 24 to 58 years. Students completed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (short form) and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20). Social desirability scores inversely correlated with TAS-20 total scores, neuroticism scores, and the TAS-20 subscale, Difficulty identifying feelings. Neuroticism directly correlated with TAS-20 total score, Difficulty identifying feelings, and Difficulty describing feelings. Students with higher alexithymia and neuroticism scores seem to present themselves in less socially desirable ways. The correlation of social desirability with alexithymia was moderated by higher neuroticism scores.     

Undergraduate psychology students' experiences of volunteering at a chronic mental health facility

A volunteer program for undergraduate psychology students at a chronic mental health facility was evaluated. All 53 volunteers found the program beneficial, 96.2% reported improved understanding of psychopathology, 98.1% noted increased knowledge of the mental health care system, 86.8% reported increased interest in clinical psychology, and 47.2% felt less anxious about working with persons with mental illness as a result of the program.     

Darwinian ‘blind’ hypothesis formation revisited

Over the last four decades arguments for and against the claim that creative hypothesis formation is based on Darwinian ‘blind’ variation have been put forward. This paper offers a new and systematic route through this long-lasting debate. It distinguishes between undirected, random, and unjustified variation, to prevent widespread confusions regarding the meaning of undirected variation. These misunderstandings concern Lamarckism, equiprobability, developmental constraints, and creative hypothesis formation. The paper then introduces and develops the standard critique that creative hypothesis formation is guided rather than blind, integrating developments from contemporary research on creativity. On that basis, I discuss three compatibility arguments that have been used to answer the critique. These arguments do not deny guided variation but insist that an important analogy exists nonetheless. These compatibility arguments all fail, even though they do so for different reasons: trivialisation, conceptual confusion, and lack of evidence respectively. Revisiting the debate in this manner not only allows us to see where exactly a ‘Darwinian’ account of creative hypothesis formation goes wrong, but also to see that the debate is not about factual issues, but about the interpretation of these factual issues in Darwinian terms.     

Developing and Improving After-School Programs to Enhance Youth’s Personal Growth and Adjustment: A Special Issue of AJCP

Participating in after-school programs (ASPs) has become a common experience for children. This special issue provides a perspective on the current status of research on ASPs. This introductory article overviews the historical and current context of ASPs and then describes a developmental ecological model to guide research in this area. The model offers a framework from which to organize and synthesize the research presented in this issue. Key principles include a holistic view of development that recognizes interrelations between multiple domains of youth adjustment, attention to multiple, relevant factors within and outside of youth that affect development, examining the dynamic interplay between persons, program features, and other contexts over time, and understanding the active role of youth in affecting their own development. These principles are examined in relation to five main areas: youth characteristics, social ecologies, program features, participation, and short- and long-term outcomes. Recommendations for future research are discussed.     

Functional focal retrograde amnesia: Lost access to abstract autobiographical knowledge?

We describe three patients exhibiting an acute reversible amnesia characterised by an impaired recollection of past events with preserved anterograde memory, thus consistent with a focal retrograde amnesia (FRA). This occurred after variable events: state of fugue, road accident, post-traumatic headache. Retrograde amnesia affected autobiographical memory so severely as to cover all of the patients' lives and to erase knowledge of their own identity. The retrieval of public events was variably affected, ranging from normality to severe impairment. No lesions were found on neuroimaging, and neurophysiological findings were unimpressive. FRA subsided in a few days, leaving a gap for the onset. The hypothesis of a psychogenic amnesia is considered, but overcoming the organic/psychogenic dichotomy the episodes appear as examples of “functional” memory inhibition, potentially triggered by different conditions, including events classifiable as psychic trauma. The clinical and neuropsychological traits of functional FRA are discussed. According to a current theory of autobiographical memory, the memory profile may be explained by a lost access to abstract autobiographical knowledge. Given some analogies with the more common transient global amnesia, a mechanism of spreading depression may also be hypothesised for functional FRA.     

Translating Recategorization Strategies Into an Antibias Educational Intervention

This experiment explored whether the benefits of a complete recategorization and a dual identity might effectively be translated into an intervention program designed to reduce prejudice among European Portuguese and African Portuguese 9‐ to 11‐year‐old children. Participants interacted for 45 minutes in weekly sessions for a month. One month after the last interaction, measures were administered to the children. Results revealed that only recategorization reduced prejudice over time relative to the control condition. Consistent with a functional perspective regarding which representation would most effectively promote their group's goals, a one‐group representation was more effective for the African Portuguese minority group.     

Predicting land use voting behavior: expanding our understanding of the influence of attitudes and social norms

Voting to tax oneself in the current economic climate seems improbable. Framed in theories of normative influence and behavior change, this study tests the factors that predict voting for a county‐level millage (i.e., tax) to fund land preservation. Behavioral beliefs that contribute to people's attitudes toward the millage are identified and a model is tested with an expanded normative component. Results indicate that attitudes and subjective norms significantly predict voting intentions, and injunctive norms (i.e., people's perceptions of others' approval of taking an action) add significantly to the model's predictive power. Findings are reinforced by election results in which the millage proposal passed and can contribute to the applied literature by identifying social‐psychological factors that can be targeted with campaign messages.     

Psychometric Evidence of a Multidimensional Measure of Prosocial Behaviors for Spanish Adolescents

Prior theories and scholars rarely distinguished between distinct forms of prosocial behaviors (i.e., actions intended to benefit others) and most scholars operationalize prosocial behaviors as a global construct. Furthermore, stringent tests of psychometric properties of prosocial behavior measures are rare, especially in countries other than the United States. The present study was designed to examine the structure and functions of a multidimensional measure of prosocial behaviors in youth from Spain. Six hundred and 66 adolescents (46% girls; M age = 15.33 years, SD = 0.47 years) from Valencia, Spain, completed the Prosocial Tendencies Measure-Revised (PTM-R), measures of sympathy, perspective taking, and a global measure of prosocial behavior. Results showed that the hypothesized 6-factor structure of the PTM-R had good fit, the best fit model as compared to alternative models, and that there were several unique patterns of relations between specific forms of prosocial behaviors and sympathy, perspective taking, and the global measure of prosocial behavior. Furthermore, although there were significant gender differences in some forms of prosocial behaviors, the structure of the PTM-R was equivalent across gender. Discussion focuses on the implications for theories and measurement of prosocial behaviors.