The perception of time following stress

To determine whether the relationship between the overestimation of time and anxiety or stress is a function of the anticipation of the stressful event, high and low socially anxious subjects judged a series of eight short (5-second and 7-second) intervals both prior to and following a stressful or nonstressful social interaction. The results indicated that overestimation of fixed intervals occurs following a stressful interaction, thus disconfirming the hypothesis that such overestimation is due to anticipation of the stressful event. These results are discussed with regard to a modified storage size model of time estimation.     

Adolescents who apparently are invulnerable to drug, alcohol, and nicotine use

As part of a large survey of addictive behavior in high school students, a group of 43 girls and 34 boys was identified who denied any use of drugs, alcohol, or tobacco. These apparently invulnerable adolescents were compared to the rest of the "user" sample on the remaining items of the questionnaire. The invulnerable students reported generally better physical and mental health and academic achievement. They also indicated a significantly lower rate of similar problems in their parents.     

Introduction: W. E. B. Du Bois: Religion and Social Inequality

W.E.B. Du Bois understood the critical role religion plays in power inequities in the, world. He was very acquainted with how it is used as a tool to exclude and subordinate human beings and yet, at the same time, serve as a source of refuge. This special issue of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion is a collection of articles that examines religion and social inequality from a variety of different angles with a Du Boisian lens. When we focus our lens on religion and social inequality, we are highlighting the ways in which religion plays a part in the unequal distribution of power across social groups in society. This special issue focuses on how religion impacts social life and the way individuals and groups embody or struggle to reclaim their agency within a context of silent oppression at times and not-so-silent oppression at others times at the personal-, group-, and global levels.     

Factors Influencing Condom Use Among African American Women: Implications for Risk Reduction Interventions

Examined factors associated with condom use in a community-based sample of 423 sexually active African American women. Measures were selected to reflect the components in prevailing models of health behavior. Condom users were higher on AIDS health priority, prevention attitudes, stage of change, behavioral intentions, reported more frequent and comfortable sexual communication with partners, perceived greater partner and peer approval for condom use, and reported that peers also used condoms. Women in exclusive relationships evidenced earlier stage of change, lower intentions to use condoms, fewer peers who engaged in preventive behaviors, perceived themselves to have lower risk, and had lower rates of condom use, higher education, and family income. Women in fluid relationships were at particularly high risk, with lower rates of condom use relative to women not in a relationship and greater sexual risk for HIV. Implications for HIV-risk reduction interventions with African American women are discussed.     

Effects of the KiVa Anti-bullying Program on Adolescents’ Depression, Anxiety, and Perception of Peers

The present study investigated the effects of the KiVa antibullying program on students’ anxiety, depression, and perception of peers in Grades 4–6. Furthermore, it was investigated whether reductions in peer-reported victimization predicted changes in these outcome variables. The study participants included 7,741 students from 78 schools who were randomly assigned to either intervention or control condition, and the program effects were tested with structural equation modeling. A cross-lagged panel model suggested that the KiVa program is effective for reducing students’ internalizing problems and improving their peer-group perceptions. Finally, changes in anxiety, depression, and positive peer perceptions were found to be predicted by reductions in victimization. Implications of the findings and future directions for research are discussed.     

Emotions in context: Anger causes ethnic bias but not gender bias in men but not women

Emotions influence information processing because they are assumed to carry valuable information. We predict that induced anger will increase ethnic but not gender intergroup bias because anger is related to conflicts for resources, and ethnic groups typically compete for resources, whereas gender groups typically engage in relations of positive interdependence. Furthermore, we also predict that this increased ethnic intergroup bias should only be observed among men because men show more group‐based reactions to intergroup conflict than women do. Two studies, with 65 and 120 participants, respectively, indeed show that anger induction increases ethnic but not gender intergroup bias and only for men. Intergroup bias was measured with an implicit measure. In Study 2, we additionally predict (and find) that fear induction does not change ethnic or gender intergroup bias because intergroup bias is a psychological preparation for collective action and fear is not associated with taking action against out‐groups. We conclude that the effect of anger depends on its specific informational potential in a particular intergroup context. These results highlight that gender groups differ on a crucial point from ethnic groups and call for more attention to the effect of people's gender in intergroup relations research. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Extending parasite-stress theory to variation in human mate preferences

In this commentary we suggest that Fincher & Thornhill's (F&T's) parasite-stress theory of social behaviors and attitudes can be extended to mating behaviors and preferences. We discuss evidence from prior correlational and experimental studies that support this claim. We also reanalyze data from two of those studies using F&T's new parasite stress measures.