Subtle sex bias in empathy and helping behavior

The present study examined the influences on empathy and altruism of sex of participant, the affective demeanor (positive or negative) and cognitive processes (positive or negative) displayed by a female target in a video, and the perspective-taking focus of participants. The latter variable is related to the affective or cognitive response to the target's portrayal, or the response to technical aspects of the video (nonperspective-taking). Empathy was measured using Batson's Empathy Adjectives (1987) and altruism was measured by participants' written responses, which indicated how many hours they were willing to volunteer to help persons similar to the target. An ethnically diverse sample of working adults (M age = 31.6 yr., SD = 8.2) participated. Analysis yielded a subtle difference between groups. Men reported feeling more empathy for a confused, unfocused, illogical woman target, whereas women felt more empathy for a focused, clear, logical woman target. Moreover, there was a significant relationship between sex and helping--men offered more help than women.     

Who Believes in a Male God? Ideological Beliefs and Gendered Conceptualizations of God

Recent studies have explored whether certain conceptualizations of God are associated with various attitudes and beliefs. In the current study, we examined the relationship between gendered God concepts and the belief that God is involved in one’s life and religious-related rigid ideologies (i.e., religious fundamentalism and right-wing authoritarianism [RWA]). Across two studies, one conducted with religious students at a Jesuit university and the other with a national sample, we found that individuals who believed God to be male were more likely to believe that God had more control and involvement in their life, had higher levels of religious fundamentalism and higher levels of RWA-Aggression (Study 1 and 2), RWA–Submission (Study 1 and 2), and RWA–Conventionalism (Study 2) than individuals with other gendered or nongendered conceptualizations of God. Implications of the broader impact that gendered God concepts have on social and political domains are explored. Last, limitations and future research directions are discussed.     

How Ambivalent Sexism Toward Women and Men Support Rape Myth Acceptance

The goal of this study was to determine how ambivalent sexism toward women and men are both associated with rape myth acceptance. The Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance scale, Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, and Ambivalence toward Men Inventory were completed by 409 participants. Hostile sexism toward women positively correlated with rape myth acceptance. For benevolent sexism toward women, complementary gender differentiation was positively associated with rape myth acceptance whereas protective paternalism was negatively associated. Benevolent sexism toward men, but not hostile sexism, positively correlated with rape myth acceptance. Further, for female participants higher maternalism toward men corresponded with higher rape myth acceptance. These findings suggest that sexist beliefs toward both women and men are important for understanding the support of rape myths.     

Justification pressure in risky decision making: search for risk defusing operators

Under justification pressure, the decision maker knows in advance that the decision has to be justified to somebody afterwards. The effect of justification pressure on the search for risk defusing operators (RDOs) and the role of RDOs in the justification texts were investigated. An RDO is an action intended by the decision maker to be performed in addition to an otherwise attractive alternative to decrease the risk. As predicted, in Experiment 1 participants (60 non-students) under justification pressure searched more RDOs. Additionally, in Experiment 2 (80 non-students) RDO search success was varied. Under justification pressure, persistence of RDO search was higher when no RDO could be detected. In the justification texts, the existence or non-existence of RDOs played a prominent role. Searching for RDOs supports people in their goal to make a good decision and in their attempt to convince the addressee of their justification that the decision was good.     

Emotion regulation in Asperger's syndrome and high-functioning autism

It is generally thought that individuals with Asperger's syndrome and high-functioning autism (AS/HFA) have deficits in theory of mind. These deficits have been previously linked to problems with social cognition. However, we reasoned that AS/HFA individuals' Theory of Mind deficits also might lead to problems with emotion regulation. To assess emotional functioning in AS/HFA, 27 AS/HFA adults (16 women) and 27 age-, gender-, and education-matched typically developing (TD) participants completed a battery of measures of emotion experience, labeling, and regulation. With respect to emotion experience, individuals with AS/HFA reported higher levels of negative emotions, but similar levels of positive emotions, compared with TD individuals. With respect to emotion labeling, individuals with AS/HFA had greater difficulties identifying and describing their emotions, with approximately two-thirds exceeding the cutoff for alexithymia. With respect to emotion regulation, individuals with AS/HFA used reappraisal less frequently than TD individuals and reported lower levels of reappraisal self-efficacy. Although AS/HFA individuals used suppression more frequently than TD individuals, no difference in suppression self-efficacy was found. It is important to note that these differences in emotion regulation were evident even when controlling for emotion experience and labeling. Implications of these deficits are discussed, and future research directions are proposed.     

Change in Life Satisfaction Under Chronic Physical Multi-morbidity in Advanced Old Age: Potential and Limits of Adaptation

We examined the impact of chronic multi-morbidity on intra-individual change of life satisfaction (LS) in advanced old age, considering (1) adaptation in terms of stabilization or restoration of LS across accumulation of chronic conditions and (2) loss in functional competence to conduct activities of daily living (ADL) as potentially mediating the effect of chronic multi-morbidity on LS. Longitudinal data from a German sample (N = 451, aged 80–90 at baseline, 3 measurements covering 2.25 years) was analyzed by means of latent growth curve modeling. An adaptive curvilinear relationship between self-reported number of chronic conditions health constraints (NCC) at baseline and change in LS was confirmed, where the largest LS decline occurred under medium, but less worsening under highest levels of NCC. Change in ADL predicted LS change, but did not mediate the effects of NCC on LS. The findings confirmed the importance of both chronic multi-morbidity and loss of functional competence as independent predictors of decline in LS in very old age. Only limited evidence supported an adaptive stabilization of LS under accumulating levels of chronic multi-morbidity.     

A Normative and Comparative Study of the Hand Test with Normal and Delinquent Children

Normative data obtained on the Hand Test from 114 secondary school boys, 52 institutionalized male delinquents, and 26 institutionalized female delinquents, were compared. Significant differences were in the expected direction for certain scores. Comparison with the “equivalent” American samples given by Wagner shows marked differences. Looseness of definition of certain scoring categories affected interscorer reliability.