Why minority group members resent impostors

An impostor is defined as somebody who publicly lays claim to an identity while simultaneously disguising their failure to fulfill key criteria for group membership. The current study aimed to identify why minority group members feel negatively toward impostors. In two experiments, gay participants evaluated a person who claimed to be either gay or straight. In half of the conditions the target's claims for identity were consistent with their behavior, and in the other half the target's claims for identity were inconsistent with their behavior (impostors). Participants perceived a straight target that claimed to be gay to be doing more damage to the group than a consistent straight target. This effect was mediated by ratings of the extent to which the target was threatening the distinctiveness of gay identity. Furthermore, a gay target who claimed to be straight was seen to be less likeable and was seen to be doing more damage to the group than a consistent gay target, effects that were mediated by the extent to which the target was perceived to feel shame about their group identity. Implications of the results for our understanding of impostorism are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Contriving transitive conditioned establishing operations to establish derived manding skills in adults with severe developmental disabilities

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate derived manding skills in 2 adults with severe developmental disabilities and language deficits by contriving transitive conditioned establishing operations. Specifically, we evaluated whether a history of reinforced conditional discrimination learning would ultimately result in a derived mand repertoire, in which participants manded for items that were needed to complete chained tasks. After mastering the first three phases of the picture exchange communication system (PECS), participants were taught to mand for the needed items by exchanging pictures of the items for the items themselves. They were then taught to conditionally relate the dictated names of the items to the corresponding pictures of the items and to relate the dictated names to the corresponding printed words. We then tested, in the absence of reinforcement, whether participants would mand for the items needed to complete the chained tasks using text rather than pictures. Both participants showed the emergence of derived mands and some derived stimulus relations as a result of this instruction. Some of the derived relations were shown to be intact at 1-month follow-up, and scores on derived mand probes were higher at follow-up than before training. In addition, the 2 participants vocally requested the needed items on maintenance test probes, a skill that was never trained and was not previously in their repertoires. These results suggest that a history of reinforced relational responding may facilitate the expansion of a number of verbal skills and emphasize the possibility of a synthesis of Skinner's (1957) analysis of verbal behavior and derived stimulus relations into language-training efforts for persons with significant disabilities.     

The time course of perceptual grouping: the role of segregation and shape formation

The time course of perceptual grouping was examined in two experiments, using a primed matching task. In different conditions, elements were grouped into columns/rows by common lightness, into a shape (triangle/ arrow or square/cross) by common lightness, and into a shape without segregation of elements. The results showed an early and rapid grouping into columns/rows by common lightness and into a shape when no segregation from other elements was involved. Goodness of shape (i.e., triangle/arrow vs. square/cross) had no influence on how early grouping was evident, but the relatively poorer shapes appeared to consolidate with time. In contrast, grouping into a shape that involved segregation and required resolving figure-ground relations between segregated units, as grouping into a shape by common lightness, consumed time, regardless of shape goodness. These results suggest that the time course of grouping varies as a function of the processes involved in it (e.g., segregation and shape formation) and the conditions prevailing for each process.     

Direct and Indirect Pathways between Parental Constructive Behavior and Adolescent Affiliation with Achievement-Oriented Peers

We investigated the direct and indirect pathways through which parental constructive behavior may influence the adolescent’s affiliation with achievement-oriented peers. Using a longitudinal survey data set from nine California and Wisconsin high schools (from 9th through 12th grades, with an approximate age range from 14 through 18) structural equation models were estimated. Our longitudinal analyses confirmed an indirect effect from Time 1 parental constructive behavior and a direct effect from Time 2 parental constructive behavior on an increase in the perceived achievement orientation of friends at Time 2, net of the stability effect from the prior values of the perceived achievement orientation of friends at Time 1. A point to be emphasized is that parental influence on peer affiliation in late adolescence remains significant even as parental involvement in adolescents’ lives diminishes. In addition, the direct effect from Time 2 parental constructive behavior on the perceived achievement-orientation of friends appears stronger for boys than for girls.     

Effects of daily environmental enrichment on memory deficits and brain injury following neonatal hypoxia-ischemia in the rat

Environmental enrichment (EE) results in improved learning and spatial memory, as well as attenuates morphological changes resulting from cerebral ischemia in adult animals. This study examined the effects of daily EE on memory deficits in the water maze and cerebral damage, assessed in the hippocampus and cerebral cortex, caused by neonatal hypoxia-ischemia. Male Wistar rats in the 7th postnatal day were submitted to the Levine-Rice model of neonatal hypoxia-ischemia (HI), comprising permanent occlusion of the right common carotid artery and a period of hypoxia (90 min, 8%O(2)-92%N(2)). Starting two weeks after the HI event, animals were stimulated by the enriched environment (1h/day for 9 weeks); subsequent to the stimulation, performance of animals in the water maze was assessed. HI resulted in spatial reference and working memory impairments that were completely reversed by EE. Following the behavioral study, animals were killed and the hippocampal volume and cortical area were estimated. There was a significant reduction of both hippocampal volume and cortical area, ipsilateral to arterial occlusion, in HI animals; environmental stimulation had no effect on these morphological measurements. Presented data indicate that stimulation by the daily environmental enrichment recovers spatial memory deficits caused by neonatal hypoxia-ischemia without affecting tissue atrophy in either hippocampus or cortex.     

On the origins of background emotions: from affect synchrony to symbolic expression

Guided by Damasio's (2003) formulations on background emotions, this study examined the contour of infant affect during interactions with mother and father in relation to the emergence of symbolic expression. One hundred parents and infants were observed in face-to-face interactions and in play sessions at the toddler stage. Parent's and infants' affective states were coded in 1-s frames, and synchrony was assessed. Toddlers' play was microcoded for symbolic level and for reciprocity and intrusiveness. Infant affective contour with mother was rhythmic with 1 episode of positive arousal framed by social gaze. Affective contour with father contained several peaks of positive arousal of shorter duration. Symbolic complexity was comparable and preserved the parent-specific contours, with quicker latencies, higher frequencies, and shorter durations of complex symbolic episodes with father. Sequential relations emerged between parent's and child's symbolic expression, and maternal reciprocity and intrusiveness were sequentially linked to symbolic expansion or constriction, respectively. Parent-infant synchrony and the parent's support of toddler symbolic play predicted symbolic complexity. The need to include time in research on emotions and the dyadic origins of positive emotions are discussed.     

The impact of cultural context on Brazilian adolescents' sexual practices

AIDS prevention research has demonstrated that theoretically driven HIV prevention programs can be tailored to specific cultures. Further, condom self-efficacy and contraceptive self-efficacy scales have been tested in the U.S. and been shown to predict condom and contraceptive use. Results of condom and contraceptive self-efficacy studies have been used to suggest ways to educate and counsel young people to avoid unprotected sex. This paper reports the findings from our research in Salvador, Brazil, using Levinson's Condom Self-Efficacy Scale (CDSE). The data are derived from six focus groups totaling 76 teenagers from three high schools. The focus group discussions explored cultural and psychological issues involved in condom use. Here we report on the gender dynamics of condom use as revealed by these urban Brazilian teenagers. Three focal points for behavioral change are identified: (1) issues of masculinity, (2) issues of femininity, and (3) condom use skills.     

Caregiving representations of mothers of behaviorally inhibited and uninhibited preschool children

This study examined differences in the caregiving representations of mothers of 3- to 4-year-old behaviorally inhibited and uninhibited children with secure or insecure attachments. Mothers of inhibited children perceived their children as more vulnerable than did mothers of uninhibited children, and they acknowledged difficulties associated with their children's inhibited temperament. However, mothers of insecure inhibited children were less likely than mothers of secure inhibited children to validate their children's emotional experiences and to be aware of their children's internal states and perspectives, and they showed higher levels of boundary violation and defense against negative affect. Implications of the more problematic caregiving representations of mothers of insecure inhibited children for parent-child relationships are discussed.     

Encoding under trust and distrust: the spontaneous activation of incongruent cognitions

Past studies of strategic thinking have shown that the encoding of the message information becomes more complex under distrust. Receivers process the information as if they are trying to protect themselves from being misled by testing alternative potential interpretations. The present study investigates the possibility that when people are mistrustful they spontaneously activate associations that are incongruent with the given message. Findings from 3 experiments suggest that, even when the distrust is unrelated in any meaningful way to the message and even when receivers are unable to prepare a strategic response, the cognitive system reacts to distrust by automatically inducing the consideration of incongruent associations--it seems designed to ask, "and what if the information were false?" The theoretical implications of the results for theories of social perception and persuasion are discussed.