The Impact of Mother Support and Natural Mentoring on the Depressive Symptoms of Black Youth

Research indicates both natural mentoring and family factors such as parental support are beneficial for the psychological wellbeing of youth. Despite the existing evidence on the benefits of natural mentoring and parental support, there has been little evidence that considers the simultaneous influence of these factors on the depressive symptoms among Black youth. Guided by Keller’s systemic model of mentoring, we investigated the influence of mother support and the characteristics of natural mentoring relationships on depressive symptoms among Black youth. We used nationally representative data of Black youth from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N?=?2344). The findings indicate that both mentor bonding and mother support were significant predictors of depressive symptoms among Black youth. However, mother support was positively associated with depressive symptoms and mentor bonding was negatively associated with depressive symptoms. The findings highlight the importance of natural mentors in the lives of Black youth and suggest they may be useful in alleviating depressive symptoms.

     

Categorizing others and the self: How social memory structures guide social perception and behavior

In keeping with the special issue theme of “Remembering the Future,” this article provides a selective review of research on how memory for social information (i.e., social category representation) influences future processing and behavior. Specifically, the authors focus on how categorization and stereotyping affect how we perceive others and ourselves. The first part of the article reviews research on how individuals perceive others. The authors review research on the determinants and outcomes of social categorization and stereotype activation, concluding with the influence of ingroup/outgroup categorization on face processing. The second part of the article reviews research on how individuals perceive themselves. The authors argue that stereotype threat—concerns about being judged or behaving in ways that confirm negative group stereotypes, leading to poor performance—is the result of both self-categorization and stereotype activation. Overall, the article highlights the complex relationship between memory for social category information and future social perception and behavior.     

Category Representation in Young Infants

Results obtained from a novelty-preference procedure indicate that young infants possess abilities to organize objects into perceptual categories that have conceptual significance for adults. This work suggests that the initial construction of category representations is not dependent on language, formal instruction, or specialized processes, and that category development may proceed through a process of enrichment.     

Body on My Mind: The Lingering Effect of State Self-objectification

Objectification theory explicates a model in which women are socialized to view their own bodies as objects to be evaluated. In the current study, we used a 2 (self-objectification condition: swimsuit versus sweater)?×?2 (gender) factorial design to examine whether body-related thoughts continued after women were removed from a self-objectifying situation. Results showed that, compared to participants in the other three groups, women in the self-objectification condition listed more body-related thoughts during a free response task given after they had re-dressed. The amount of shame experienced during self-objectification mediated the relationship between self-objectification condition and lingering body-related thoughts. This study adds to the understanding of how the process of self-objectification works to maintain women’s focus on their appearance.     

Method in Catholic bioethics.

Method in Catholic bioethics is distinguished by a specific philosophical and theological anthropology. Human beings are not to be considered simply as selves, but as selves in relation to God and each other. This essay reflects on that claim by reviewing four areas of concern from Catholic social teaching: common good, human dignity, option for the poor, and stewardship.     

On the interplay of visuospatial and audiotemporal dominance: Evidence from a multimodal kappa effect

When participants judge multimodal audiovisual stimuli, the auditory information strongly dominates temporal judgments, whereas the visual information dominates spatial judgments. However, temporal judgments are not independent of spatial features. For example, in the kappa effect, the time interval between two marker stimuli appears longer when they originate from spatially distant sources rather than from the same source. We investigated the kappa effect for auditory markers presented with accompanying irrelevant visual stimuli. The spatial sources of the markers were varied such that they were either congruent or incongruent across modalities. In two experiments, we demonstrated that the spatial layout of the visual stimuli affected perceived auditory interval duration. This effect occurred although the visual stimuli were designated to be task-irrelevant for the duration reproduction task in Experiment 1, and even when the visual stimuli did not contain sufficient temporal information to perform a two-interval comparison task in Experiment 2. We conclude that the visual and auditory marker stimuli were integrated into a combined multisensory percept containing temporal as well as task-irrelevant spatial aspects of the stimulation. Through this multisensory integration process, visuospatial information affected even temporal judgments, which are typically dominated by the auditory modality.