Need for closure is associated with urgency in perceptual decision-making

Constant decision-making underpins much of daily life, from simple perceptual decisions about navigation through to more complex decisions about important life events. At many scales, a fundamental task of the decision-maker is to balance competing needs for caution and urgency: fast decisions can be more efficient, but also more often wrong. We show how a single mathematical framework for decision-making explains the urgency/caution balance across decision-making at two very different scales. This explanation has been applied at the level of neuronal circuits (on a time scale of hundreds of milliseconds) through to the level of stable personality traits (time scale of years).     

Applying a Time‐Patterned Typology of Homelessness Among Individuals with Mental Illness

Identification of subgroups of the homeless populations, or typologies, has been an important research priority to guide homelessness services and policies. This study builds on previous typological research conducted in the general homeless population by focusing on individuals with mental illness to further delineate typologies within a more homogenous subset of the homeless population. A time‐patterned typology based on episodes of street and shelter homelessness over a four‐year period was applied to a sample of 246 individuals identified through mental health administrative records. Four groups were created based upon patterns of homelessness: 26.8% experienced homelessness for 4 years, 13.4% had one episode of homelessness but were no longer homeless at the end of the follow‐up, 48.4% had at least two episodes of homelessness, and 11.4% had a single episode of homelessness lasting 3 months or less. Findings from a multinomial logistic regression indicated that gender, presence of a psychotic disorder, substance abuse, and year of study enrollment significantly predicted group membership. Residential trajectories upon exit from homelessness and at the end of the four‐year follow‐up were examined. Implications for current policy and future research are discussed.     

The Roles of Fathers’ Involvement and Coparenting in Relationship Quality among Cohabiting and Married Parents

Relationship quality often declines following the birth of child, likely reflecting in part the shift towards role traditionalization that occurs through gender specialization. The current study used longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study, an urban birth cohort in 2000 consisting of structured interviews of mothers and fathers who were followed over 5 years (n?=?1275), to examine whether low levels of fathers’ involvement and coparenting, two indicators of role traditionalization, were linked to negative trajectories of mothers’ and fathers’ relationship quality for couples whose first child was born in marriage or cohabitation. We carefully consider union transitions in the 5 years postpartum by including between-subjects variables indicating that the parents were continually married, continually cohabiting, were cohabiting at the child’s birth and got married after, or were cohabiting or married at the child’s birth but subsequently separated. As anticipated, both fathers’ involvement and coparenting were positively associated with parents’ reports of relationship quality, more so for mothers than for fathers and especially for cohabiting mothers, buffering the decline in mothers’ and fathers’ relationship quality that typically accompanies the birth of a child. These findings underscore the importance of the father role, not only for the well-being of the child (as we know from other research) but also for the relationship of the parents. Fathers should be encouraged and supported to take an active role in parenting through educational programs and public policy (e.g., paid paternity leave).     

Individual differences in emotional processing and autobiographical memory: interoceptive awareness and alexithymia in the fading affect bias

The capacity to perceive internal bodily states is linked to emotional awareness and effective emotional regulation. We explore individual differences in emotional awareness in relation to the fading affect bias (FAB), which refers to the greater dwindling of unpleasant compared to pleasant emotions in autobiographical memory. We consider interoceptive awareness and alexithymia in relation to the FAB, and private event rehearsal as a mediating process. With increasing interoceptive awareness, there was an enhanced FAB, but with increasing alexithymia, there was a decreased FAB. Further, the effects of interoceptive awareness were partially mediated by private rehearsal of pleasant events. We provide novel evidence that capacity for emotional awareness and thus effective processing is an important factor predictive of the FAB. Moreover, our results imply an important role for maintaining positive affect in the FAB. Our findings offer new insights into the effects of interoception and alexithymia on autobiographical memory, and support concepts of the FAB emerging as a result of adaptive emotional regulation processes.     

Dissonance averted: Self-concept organization moderates the effect of hypocrisy on attitude change

The current work explored how self-concept representation affects how experiencing dissonance results in changing one’s attitudes in response to acknowledging hypocrisy. We found a relation between self-complexity and attitude change after admitting past hypocritical actions. Specifically, people lower in self-complexity changed their attitudes to bring them more in line with their transgressions (presumably to quell the especially strong feelings of unpleasantness resulting from their acknowledging behavior-belief discrepancies) whereas those greater in self-complexity showed more bolstering of their attitudes following hypocrisy. This relation between self-complexity and attitude change following hypocrisy was eliminated when participants were given a chance to reaffirm their sense of personal value and integrity through other means (i.e., self-affirmation). Implications for how self-concept representation may play a role in moderating a number of psychological phenomena, ranging from goal attainment to stereotype threat, are discussed.     

An experimental study of the correlates and consequences of perceiving oneself to be the target of gender discrimination

An experimental methodology was used to test hypotheses concerning the effects of contextual, cognitive-developmental, and individual difference factors on children’s views of whether they have been the target of gender discrimination and the possible consequent effect of such views on two forms of state self-esteem: performance and social acceptance. Children (N = 108, 5-11 years of age) completed theory of mind and gender attitude measures and a drawing task. Next, children received feedback that was designed to appear either gender biased (discrimination condition) or nonbiased (control condition). Children’s attributions for the feedback and state self-esteem were assessed. As expected, children reported having been the target of gender discrimination more often in the discrimination condition than in the control condition. Older and more cognitively advanced children made fewer attributions to discrimination than their peers. Perceptions of discrimination were associated with higher performance state self-esteem and, among egalitarian children, lower social state self-esteem.     

We all live in Germany but … Ingroup projection,group‐based emotions and prejudice against immigrants

Immigration, cultural diversity and integration are among the most central challenges for modern societies. Integration is often impeded by negative emotions and prejudices held by the majority members towards immigrants in a common society. Based on the ingroup projection model (Mummendey & Wenzel, 1999), we examined the impact of perceived relative ingroup prototypicality on intergroup emotions and prejudice. Additionally, we examined whether this impact is causal and explored the issue of causality in more detail contrasting a linear causal model with bi‐directional or reciprocal causality. Hypotheses were tested in a study with a two‐wave panel of majority members (N=1085) in Germany. We examined the proposed relations between relative ingroup prototypicality, intergroup emotions and prejudice and determined the causal direction of these relationships. Results support the predictive power of relative ingroup prototypicality on intergroup emotions and prejudice. Moreover, most causal relations between our measures are reciprocally causal. We discuss the implications of these findings for the general conception of prejudice and intergroup emotions. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Current Considerations in the Assessment of Youth Narcissism: Indicators of Pathological and Normative Development

The present study summarizes research on youth narcissism and examines the relations between different measures of youth narcissism and various indicators of behavioral, emotional, and social functioning. This area of research has grown dramatically in only a few years and speaks to the recognized role of self-perception in general and narcissism specifically in youth adjustment. Data are presented for 117 adolescents ages 16 to 19 attending a residential program. Results showed a moderate level of association across three measures of youth narcissism. In addition, each of the measures appeared to capture unique variance in different indicators of behavioral and social functioning. The implications of this area of research for conceptualizations of youth personality, assessment, and behavioral problems are discussed.     

Vietnamese Immigrant and Refugee Women's Mental Health: An Examination of Age of Arrival,Length of Stay,Income, and English Language Proficiency

Vietnamese immigrant and refugee women (N = 83) were surveyed regarding their mental health, English language proficiency, age of arrival, length of stay, and income. English language proficiency and age of arrival correlated with reduced symptomatology. Moreover, English language proficiency was the sole predictor of somatic distress. Se realizó una encuesta a un grupo de mujeres inmigrantes y refugiadas vietnamitas (N = 83) con respecto a su salud mental, nivel de inglés, edad de llegada, tiempo de estancia y nivel de ingresos. Su nivel de inglés y la edad de llegada mostraron correlación con una sintomatología reducida. Además, el nivel de conocimiento de inglés fue el único elemento capaz de predecir el malestar somático.