Sex-Dimorphic Color Preference in Children with Gender Identity Disorder: A Comparison to Clinical and Community Controls

The present study was designed to assess sex-dimorphic color preferences in children with gender identity disorder (47 boys, 18 girls), clinical controls (65 boys, 35 girls), and community controls (65 boys, 35 girls). The mean age of the children was 7.63 years (range?=?3–12 years). Children were shown a hexagon-shaped display of 144 colors extracted from PowerPoint?. Each child was asked to choose his or her three favorite colors (Trials 1–3) by pointing to them, naming them, and then to provide a justification for each choice. From the entire array, children labeled a total of 11 different colors: black, blue, brown, gray, green, orange, pink, purple, red, white, and yellow. For three of the colors (blue, pink/purple, and red), there was evidence for normative sex differences in color preference, and, for the colors blue and pink/purple, the gender-referred children showed inverted patterns of color preference. For the color blue, luminance values showed that the gender-referred boys and control girls preferred lighter shades, whereas the gender-referred girls and control boys preferred darker shades. Qualitative analysis indicated that gender-specific justifications were uncommon, even for the sex-dimorphic colors. Gender-referred children showed inverted gender-stereotyped color preferences, which are likely related to their more general pattern of cross-gender identification. Principles of gender-differentiated development derived from gender-schema theory are used to explain the group differences in color preferences.     

An Ecological View of School Satisfaction in Adolescence: Linkages Between Social Support and Behavior Problems

This study investigated the relationships among school satisfaction, social support, and problem behaviors in adolescents. Modest associations were found between school satisfaction and the demographic variables of gender, race, age, and grade level. Support from teachers, parents, and classmates contributed unique variance to ratings of school satisfaction; with teacher support contributing the most unique variance. School satisfaction mediated the relationship between social support and internalizing and externalizing behaviors. School satisfaction did not moderate the relationship between social support and problem behavior; however, it did serve as a protective factor across all levels of social support. Implications are discussed, including suggestions for developing interventions that focus on increasing support for adolescents in efforts to improve school satisfaction and reduce problem behaviors.     

Evaluations of relational aggression as a function of relationship type and conflict setting

The present study examined influences on girls' evaluations of relational aggression situations. Second‐, third‐, fifth‐, and sixth‐grade girls evaluated four relational aggression conflict scenarios in terms of attributions of aggressor's intentions, evaluator's behavioral response, evaluator's affective state, and how likely the situation was to actually occur. Girls evaluated intentions of a best friend more positively, reported being more mad at an enemy, and perceived conflict to be more likely to occur with an enemy than a best friend. Aggressor intentions in direct conflict scenarios (aggressor said something mean to evaluator) were perceived as more negative than aggressor intentions in indirect conflict scenarios (aggressor said something mean about evaluator to another peer). Younger girls reported intentions of their enemy as being more positive than did older girls. Further, older girls reported intentions of their best friend as being more positive than intentions of their enemy. Older girls also were more accurate in conceptualizing variations in the conflict setting (direct, indirect) and responding in a context‐consistent manner. Findings are discussed in terms of the social‐relational and social‐situational processes that influence children's evaluations of relational aggression and how the current study extends previous research on relational aggression. Aggr. Behav. 26:179–191, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

The influence of mirror reversals on male and female performance in spatial tasks: A componential look

O'Boyle and Hoff (Neuropsychologia, 25, 977–982, 1987) reported that females were faster and more accurate than males at mirror-tracing the outline of random shapes. To account for this differential performance, the authors advanced two alternative explanations. The first was a ‘Spatial Stroop’ effect which suggested that, because of their enhanced spatial ability, males are especially disadvantaged in escaping the misleading visual feedback provided by the mirror, resulting in slower and less accurate tracings. The second was a ‘manipulospatial’ hypothesis which suggested that the tracing advantage was related to female superiority in fine-detailed motor control, and perhaps, differential practice at performing skilled motor tasks in mirror-reversed contexts. In the present study, two experiments were conducted to assess the relative viability of these explanations. In Experiment 1, the WAIS-R Block Design task was performed within and outside the context of a mirror. This was done to determine if the observed female advantage was restricted to mirror-tracing per se, or generalizable to other manipulospatial tasks. In Experiment 2, a mental rotation task was performed within and outside the context of a mirror. The latter was designed to reveal if the removal of the motor component would affect the obtained sex difference. The present findings suggest that as long as some form of precision motor manipulation is required, females are superior to males at mirror-reversed spatial tasks. However, when the motor component is eliminated, a male performance advantage emerges in both normal and mirror-reversed contexts, suggesting that the manipulospatial hypothesis is the more viable explanation.     

Expanding the Political Psychology Toolkit: The Potential of Discursive Psychology for Understanding Contentious Political Debate at a Grassroots Level

In its location at the intersection of political science and psychology, political psychology draws on many of the research techniques of both disciplines in its exploration of power, voting behavior, leadership, attitudes, and values. One hitherto relatively underutilized approach for understanding public policy debate is discursive psychology (DP). Applying this perspective to a contentious policy issue in Australia, we seek to demonstrate that this approach can add richness and depth to our understanding of how ordinary citizens engage in public policy debates. We suggest that this type of analysis can augment insights obtained from more traditional methods—such as focus groups, experimental approaches, and opinion polling—by analyzing how debates are constructed and presented at the grassroots level. This research is innovative in two ways. First, it applies a rigorous, empirical research approach to an area in which it has not previously been used: the study of public policy issues. Second, rather than analyzing the communicative practices of political leaders, we consider the rhetorical arguments made by ordinary citizens in their engagement with political issues and how they negotiate what counts as evidence. This can provide insights into how public debate can be conducted more productively and respectfully.     

Perceived discrimination as worldview threat or worldview confirmation: implications for self-esteem

In 3 studies, the authors tested the hypothesis that discrimination targets' worldview moderates the impact of perceived discrimination on self-esteem among devalued groups. In Study 1, perceiving discrimination against the ingroup was negatively associated with self-esteem among Latino Americans who endorsed a meritocracy worldview (e.g., believed that individuals of any group can get ahead in America and that success stems from hard work) but was positively associated with self-esteem among those who rejected this worldview. Study 2 showed that exposure to discrimination against their ingroup (vs. a non-self-relevant group) led to lower self-esteem, greater feelings of personal vulnerability, and ingroup blame among Latino Americans who endorsed a meritocracy worldview but to higher self-esteem and decreased ingroup blame among Latino Americans who rejected it. Study 3 showed that compared with women informed that prejudice against their ingroup is pervasive, women informed that prejudice against their ingroup is rare had higher self-esteem if they endorsed a meritocracy worldview but lower self-esteem if they rejected this worldview. Findings support the idea that perceiving discrimination against one's ingroup threatens the worldview of individuals who believe that status in society is earned but confirms the worldview of individuals who do not.     

Reformulating infant and toddler social competence with peers

Efforts to identify children at risk for social and academic difficulties at an early age have begun to apply conceptualizations of social competence with peers from childhood to infancy and toddlerhood. These attempts have had limited success, in part because social behaviors studied in later childhood such as negative or aggressive acts may not capture relevant dimensions of social competence with peers during the infant and toddler years. The present study conducted an exploratory factor analysis to begin developing a conceptualization of social competence with peers that is appropriate for use with infants and toddlers, and that captures individual differences capable of predicting later social functioning. Results indicate three dimensions of infant and toddler social competence with peers: peer sociability, active peer refusal, and passive peer avoidance. Negative and aggressive behaviors loaded on each of the three factors rather than emerging as a unique dimension of social competence. Each factor demonstrated both convergent and predictive validity, indicating that early identification of social skills remains a reasonable goal for practitioners and researchers alike. Finally, antecedents within children, families, and out-of-home child care environments helped to explain individual variability in each of these three factors of social competence with peers.     

Reflection-in-action as a collective process: findings from a study in teaching students of negotiation

Real-time reflection-in-action is a critical capability for effective practitioners, just as the more common reflection-on-action is critical for learning. Reflective practice is typically regarded as an individual activity. However, to be an effective negotiator involves real-time reflection-in-action. Results from a Masters-level Negotiation unit show that reflection in negotiation contexts is emergent rather than sudden, is collective, and typically occurs in a break from the negotiation action. We develop the work of Schön and Yanow and Tsoukas to propose a framework of reflection-in-action that better fits the interactive context of negotiation and explore some implications for the teaching of negotiation and other similar professional situations.