Unequally into “Us”: Characteristics of Individuals in Asymmetrically Committed Relationships

This study examined characteristics of individuals that are associated with being in asymmetrically committed relationships (ACRs), defined as romantic relationships in which there was a substantial difference in the commitment levels of the partners. These ACRs were studied in a national sample of unmarried, opposite‐sex romantic relationships (N = 315 couples). Perceiving oneself as having more potential alternative partners was associated with increased odds of being the less committed partner in an ACR compared to not being in an ACR, as was being more attachment avoidant, having more prior relationship partners, and having a history of extradyadic sex during the present relationship. Additionally, having parents who never married was associated with being the less committed partner in an ACR but parental divorce was not. Although fewer characteristics were associated with being the more committed partner within an ACR, more attachment anxiety was associated with increased odds of being in such a position compared to not being in an ACR. We also address how some findings change when controlling for commitment levels. Overall, the findings advance understanding of commitment in romantic relationships, particularly when there are substantial asymmetries involved. Implications for both research on asymmetrical commitment as well as practice (e.g., therapy or relationship education) are discussed.     

The White standard: racial bias in leader categorization

In 4 experiments, the authors investigated whether race is perceived to be part of the business leader prototype and, if so, whether it could explain differences in evaluations of White and non-White leaders. The first 2 studies revealed that "being White" is perceived to be an attribute of the business leader prototype, where participants assumed that business leaders more than nonleaders were White, and this inference occurred regardless of base rates about the organization's racial composition (Study 1), the racial composition of organizational roles, the business industry, and the types of racial minority groups in the organization (Study 2). The final 2 studies revealed that a leader categorization explanation could best account for differences in White and non-White leader evaluations, where White targets were evaluated as more effective leaders (Study 3) and as having more leadership potential (Study 4), but only when the leader had recently been given credit for organizational success, consistent with the prediction that leader prototypes are more likely to be used when they confirm and reinforce individualized information about a leader's performance. The results demonstrate a connection between leader race and leadership categorization.     

Revealing the Cues Within Community Places: Storiesof Identity, History, and Possibility

Place-based approaches to community change have become increasingly popular strategies for addressing significant social problems. With their intentional focus on 'place,' most efforts have sought to gain greater understanding into how neighborhood contexts affect people. However, while both aggregate characteristics and social dynamics of neighborhoods have been subject to scrutiny in the literature, less attention has been paid to understanding how the environmental characteristics of neighborhoods and communities as places have meaning for residents. The present study used an innovative methodology called Photovoice to obtain a greater understanding of the meanings residents ascribe to the salient characteristics of their neighborhoods and communities. As part of a place-based initiative, 29 adult and youth residents in seven distressed urban neighborhoods photographed and dialogued about the meaningful physical attributes of their community. According to participants, place characteristics provided cues about their personal histories as members of the community; communicated messages about the value and character of the community and its residents; defined social norms and behavior within the community; and provided markers that could remind residents of who they are and inspire a sense of possibility for who they could become. Implications for practice are discussed.     

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.     

Failure is not an option for Black women: Effects of organizational performance on leaders with single versus dual-subordinate identities

We contribute to a current debate that focuses on whether individuals with more than one subordinate identity (i.e., Black women) experience more negative leader perceptions than do leaders with single-subordinate identities (i.e., Black men and White women). Results confirmed that Black women leaders suffered double jeopardy, and were evaluated more negatively than Black men and White women, but only under conditions of organizational failure. Under conditions of organizational success, the three groups were evaluated comparably to each other, but each group was evaluated less favorably than White men. Further, leader typicality, the extent to which individuals possess characteristics usually associated with a leader role, mediated the indirect effect of leader race, leader gender, and organizational performance on leader effectiveness. Taken together, these results suggest that Black women leaders may carry a burden of being disproportionately sanctioned for making mistakes on the job.     

Agreeableness and Conscientiousness promote successful adaptation to the Covid-19 pandemic through effective internalization of public health guidelines

Motivation and Emotion - Social distancing (SD) was an effective way of reducing virus transmission during the deadly and highly infectious COVID-19 pandemic. Using a prospective longitudinal...     

An Empirical Investigation of Population Invariance in the Value of Subscores

Recently there has been an increasing level of interest in subtest scores, or subscores, for their potential diagnostic value. Haberman (2008 Haberman, S. J. 2008. When can subscores have value?. Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, 33: 204–229. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) suggested a method to determine if a subscore has added value over the total score. Researchers have often been interested in the performance of subgroups—for example, those based on gender or ethnicity—on subtests. Several researchers found that the difference in performance between the gender-based subgroups varied over the different subtests. In this article, we examine whether the added values of the subscores vary between subgroups using data from several operational tests, including an international English proficiency test. For these data sets, the added values of the subscores occasionally vary over the subgroups, but the added values of the augmented subscores are invariant over the subgroups.     

Harmonic Regression and Scale Stability

Monitoring a very frequently administered educational test with a relatively short history of stable operation imposes a number of challenges. Test scores usually vary by season, and the frequency of administration of such educational tests is also seasonal. Although it is important to react to unreasonable changes in the distributions of test scores in a timely fashion, it is not a simple matter to ascertain what sort of distribution is really unusual. Many commonly used approaches for seasonal adjustment are designed for time series with evenly spaced observations that span many years and, therefore, are inappropriate for data from such educational tests. Harmonic regression, a seasonal-adjustment method, can be useful in monitoring scale stability when the number of years available is limited and when the observations are unevenly spaced. Additional forms of adjustments can be included to account for variability in test scores due to different sources of population variations. To illustrate, real data are considered from an international language assessment.