Disentangling stereotype activation and stereotype application in the stereotype misperception task

When forming impressions about other people, stereotypes about the individual's social group often influence the resulting impression. At least 2 distinguishable processes underlie stereotypic impression formation: stereotype activation and stereotype application. Most previous research has used implicit measures to assess stereotype activation and explicit measures to assess stereotype application, which has several disadvantages. The authors propose a measure of stereotypic impression formation, the stereotype misperception task (SMT), together with a multinomial model that quantitatively disentangles the contributions of stereotype activation and application to responses in the SMT. The validity of the SMT and of the multinomial model was confirmed in 5 studies. The authors hope to advance research on stereotyping by providing a measurement tool that separates multiple processes underlying impression formation.     

The nature of intrusive memories after trauma: the warning signal hypothesis

Individuals who had experienced a range of different traumas were asked to describe the quality and content of their intrusive memories. Visual intrusions were the most common, and thoughts were uncommon. Intrusion quality varied little with type of trauma. Intrusive memories commonly consisted of stimuli that were present immediately before the traumatic event happened or shortly before the moments that had the largest emotional impact (i.e., when the meaning of the event became more traumatic). It is suggested that intrusive memories are about stimuli that through temporal association with the trauma acquired the status of warning signals, i.e., stimuli that if encountered again would indicate impending danger. This explains why intrusive memories are accompanied by a sense of serious current threat. The warning signal hypothesis may be useful in guiding therapists in identifying the moments with the largest emotional impact that will need reprocessing in treatment, and in educating patients about the nature of reexperiencing symptoms.     

Goal specificity and learning with a hypermedia program

Problem solving research has found that a nonspecific goal (NSG) leads to better learning than a specific goal (SG). This effect can be understood in terms of dual-space search theories of problem solving. To apply the theory, we studied goal specificity effects with a hypermedia program in which participants had to learn about the outbreak of World War 1, either with the goal to find twenty dates (i.e., SG) or with the goal to explain the reasons for the war (i.e., NSG). As expected, compared to the SG-group, the NSG-group correctly answered more factual questions about the text during the task, spent more time on average per page, and more often looked for extra information. In a final questionnaire with factual and inferential questions, the NSG-group still performed better than the SG-group. The NSG-group may also show better transfer of what they had learnt to a new situation.     

Filial Piety,Generativity and Older Adults’ Wellbeing and Loneliness in Denmark and China

The article considers the potential of intergenerational encounters and family and social ties for alleviating loneliness and promoting older adults’ wellbeing. Loneliness has been widely recognized as one of the factors that are most deeply and pervasively detrimental to older adults’ wellbeing. We combine theoretical reflections with a comparative study of older adults in Denmark and China. Both countries have to deal with an aging population and growing number of cases of isolation and loneliness in an increasingly individualized society. They differ, however, with regard to how far they have developed a system of institutionalized care, as well as with regard to their culture-specific views of family life and parent-child relationships. We apply the notions of filial piety, known from Confucian philosophy but often misinterpreted as conservative and conformist, and generativity, to qualitative studies of older adults in Denmark and China. The great potential of intergenerational ties is confirmed. Our study also shows that filial piety is still highly valued, in both China and Denmark, and can be maintained even in a highly individualized society. There is, however, considerable uncertainty among both older adults and their younger relatives as to what is required and what can be expected; realism, and an emphasis on the quality, rather than the quantity of interaction, may be sensible coping strategies, but can also lead to unnecessary acquiescence and self-abnegation. Our study also serves to distinguish different aspects and effects on wellbeing of intergenerational relationships.

     

The Double-Edged Sword of Providing Information About the Prevalence of Safer Sex1

A group of 267 college students participated in an experiment to determine the effect of communicating different percentages (i.e., 12%, 36%, 64%, 88%) of the prevalence of safer sex in the student population on condom-use intention. A positive linear effect of prevalence information on condom-use intention was demonstrated, although the information that 64% engaged in safer sex seemed most effective in changing condom-use intention. This effect was independent of previous sexual behavior. Although prevalence information had a positive indirect effect on condom-use intention as a result of a change in perceived social norms, it had a negative indirect effect because of perceived risk. That is, information indicating a high prevalence of safer sex lowered the perceived risk of AIDS and, as a result, the intention to use condoms.     

Assessing psychological inflexibility: the psychometric properties of the Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire for Youth in two adult samples

The current study examined whether the Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire for Youth (AFQ-Y; L. A. Greco, W. Lambert, & R. A. Baer, 2008), a self-report measure of psychological inflexibility for children and adolescents, might be useful for measuring psychological inflexibility for adults. The psychometric properties of the AFQ-Y were examined using data from a college student sample (N = 387) and a clinical sample of patients with anxiety disorders (N = 115). The AFQ-Y, but not the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (AAQ-II; F. W. Bond et al., in press), demonstrated a reading level at or below the recommended 5th or 6th grade reading level. The AFQ-Y also demonstrated adequate reliability (internal consistency), factorial validity, convergent and discriminant validity, and concurrent validity predicting psychological symptoms. Moreover, the AFQ-Y showed incremental validity over the AAQ-II in predicting several psychological symptom domains. Implications for the assessment of psychological inflexibility are discussed.     

Enculturation and narrative practices

Recent work on enculturation suggests that our cognitive capacities are significantly transformed in the course of the scaffolded acquisition of cognitive practices such as reading and writing. Phylogenetically, enculturation is the result of the co-evolution of human organisms and their socio-culturally structured cognitive niche. It is rendered possible by evolved cerebral and extra-cerebral bodily learning mechanisms that make human organisms apt to acquire culturally inherited cognitive practices. In addition, cultural learning allows for the intergenerational transmission of relevant knowledge and skills. Ontogenetically, enculturation is associated with neural plasticity and the development of new motor routines and action schemas. It relies on scaffolded learning that structures novice-teacher interactions. The acquisition of reading and writing are paradigm examples of enculturation. Based on an empirically informed analysis of the components of enculturation, I will apply the emerging account of enculturated cognition to narrative practices. To date, research on the impact of narratives on the constitution of the self and our understanding of folk psychology has not paid much attention to the question how narratives are influenced by cumulative cultural evolution and our capacity to acquire reading and writing during ontogeny. I will argue that textual narratives, above and beyond oral narratives, provide genuinely new ways of narration. Therefore, the enculturated interaction with textual narratives has the potential to contribute to a better understanding of ourselves and other cognitive agents.