Maternal and child contributions to cortisol response to emotional arousal in young children from low-income, rural communities

Relations of maternal and child characteristics to child cortisol reactivity to and recovery from emotional arousal were examined prospectively at approximately 7 months of age (infancy) and then again at approximately 15 months of age (toddlerhood). The sample was diverse and population based (N = 1,292 mother-infant dyads) and included families from predominantly low-income, rural communities. Maternal behavior, family income-to-need ratio and social advantage, and child temperament, attention, and mental development were assessed, and children's saliva was sampled before and after standardized procedures designed to elicit emotional arousal. Maternal engagement in infancy was associated with greater cortisol reactivity at the infancy assessment and with reduced overall cortisol level at the toddler assessment. Also at the toddler assessment, child attention, mental development, and temperamental distress to novelty were associated with increased cortisol reactivity and regulation, whereas temperamental distress to limitations and African American ethnicity were associated with reduced cortisol reactivity. Findings are consistent with prior work linking early caregiving to the development of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis stress response system and with a conceptual model in which developing temperament is characterized by the interplay of emotional reactivity and the emergence of the ability to effortfully regulate this reactivity using attention.     

Remembrance of Eyewitness Testimony: Effects of Emotional Content,Self‐Relevance,and Emotional Tone1

This experiment concerned the effects of emotional content, self‐relevance, and emotional tone of testimony on memory. Eyewitness accounts of 4 events were constructed that systematically differed in emotionality and self‐relevance. The testimony, captured on videotape, was expressed with or without negative emotion. After viewing one of the videotaped accounts, participants were administered cued‐recall and recognition memory tests. Significant main effects indicated that participants best remembered testimony that was emotional in content, self‐relevant, and negatively expressed. Although emotional content and self‐relevance interacted to affect state anxiety, the latter did not mediate memory effects. Overall, significant gender differences in state anxiety but not memory emerged. Implications for understanding the influence of emotion on juror memory are discussed.     

A prognostic utility bias in judgments of similarity between past and present instances: How available information is deemed useful for prediction

A variety of theorists have proposed that individuals desire to be confident in their inferences and predictions. One way this can be accomplished is by overestimating the extent to which available information provides a logic basis for such conclusions. Thus, when one's goal is to make an accurate prediction, if information about a prior known instance has potential implications for the prediction, one may overestimate the similarity of the prior known instance to the current instance. In this way, the perceived utility of the information as a basis for prediction can be inflated. To test this idea, three studies were conducted. In each study, subjects were asked to judge the similarity of past instances to an upcoming instance for which an outcome prediction was required. Judging a past instance as similar to the upcoming instance should only provide a firm basis for outcome prediction if outcome information regarding the past instance is known. Therefore, it was expected that when subjects are asked to make an outcome prediction, they would judge a past instance more similar to the upcoming instance if outcome information about the past instance is known than if it is not. Support for this hypothesis was obtained along with evidence concerning the conditions under which the eflect does and does not occur.     

Southeast Asian Refugee Adolescents: Implications for Counseling

Historically, unaccompanied Southeast Asian refugee adolescents have been inadequately served by mental health professionals. The authors of this article report research findings on self-perceived depression and isolation and implications for psychotherapy. Results indicate significant differences regarding sex, English language skills, work involvement, and self-disclosure.     

The Preparedness and Reactions of Citizens to Warnings and Crisis Relocation for Nuclear Attack1

A total of 200 residents of Columbus, Ohio, were questioned over the telephone about their knowledge of U.S. and Soviet crisis relocation plans, their feelings about chances of surviving nuclear attack, and their behavioral intentions in the event of an evacuation. Few respondents displayed knowledge of the existence or substance of crisis relocation plans. Most gauged survival rates in the event of a nuclear attack as substantially higher with an evacuation plan than without one, but in both cases expectations were that fewer than 50% of the population would survive. While most respondents stated they would follow evacuation procedures, evidence of possible noncompliance was found.     

Terror management and tolerance: does mortality salience always intensify negative reactions to others who threaten one's worldview?

Terror management research has shown that reminding Ss of their mortality leads to intolerance. The present research assessed whether mortality salience would lead to increased intolerance when the value of tolerance is highly accessible. In Study 1, given that liberals value tolerance more than conservatives, it was hypothesized that with mortality salience, dislike of dissimilar others would increase among conservatives but decrease among liberals. Liberal and conservative Ss were induced to think about their own mortality or a neutral topic and then were asked to evaluate 2 target persons, 1 liberal, the other conservative. Ss' evaluations of the targets supported these hypotheses. In Study 2, the value of tolerance was primed for half the Ss and, under mortality-salient or control conditions, Ss evaluated a target person who criticized the United States. Mortality salience did not lead to negative reactions to the critic when the value of tolerance was highly accessible.     

Sex differences in restoring justice: The down payment effect

It was proposed that harmdoers who psychologically suffer (e.g., experience remorse, guilt) through victimizing another will be viewed as having already taken a step toward righting the injustice caused the victim. Consequently, they should be asked to make fewer reparations and assigned a lesser fine than those harmdoers who do not express guilt or remorse. Male and female subjects read scenarios depicting an accident in which the harmdoer either admitted or did not admit responsibility (Experiment 1) or expressed various degrees of remorsefulness (Experiment 3). Both investigations indicated that a show of remorse or of a remorseful gesture (i.e., assuming responsibility) can partially vindicate harmdoers by requiring them to make fewer reparations to a victim (Experiment 1) or pay less of a fine (Experiment 3) among females only. Thus psychological damages incurred in a wrongful act can serve as a “down payment” toward restoring justice. In corroboration with these findings of sex differences, Experiment 2 revealed that females consider to a greater extent than males reasons such as a harmdoer's feelings when assigning a fine.     

Determinants of reduction in intended effort as a strategy for coping with anticipated failure

The present study investigated the use of reduction in intended effort as a strategy for protecting self-esteem from the threat of anticipated failure. It was hypothesized that people reduce the amount of effort they intend to exert when they expect a low probability of success on a highly ego-relevant task. Female subjects anticipated taking an easy (high probability of success) or difficult (low probability of success) test that was either high or low in ego relevance. Subjects' levels of intended effort and other task-relevant cognitions were assessed. It was found that subjects in the low-probability condition intended to exert less effort on the highly ego-relevant test than did subjects in the high-probability condition; probability of success had no effect on intended effort level on the low ego-relevance test. Subjects also reported that it was a worse day for a test in the low-probability condition than in the high-probability condition. The relevance of these findings to the egotism explanation of learned helplessness effects and general theories of motivation was discussed.