Aggression in the Laboratory: Problems with the Validity of the Modified Taylor Competitive Reaction Time Test as a Measure of Aggression in Media Violence Studies

Many laboratory studies of aggression use a measure known as the modified Taylor Competitive Reaction Time Test (TCRTT), for which validation studies are lacking. Using sound blasts administered by the participant against a fictional human opponent, the TCRTT also allows for multiple methods of measuring aggression. The validity of the TCRTT was tested in 53 college student participants. Participants took a self-report measure of aggressiveness as well as neuropsychological measures of frontal lobe functioning predictive of aggression. Results were not supportive of the TCRTT's validity and indicated concerns regarding the use of the TCRTT as a measure of aggression. Results suggest that labaratory studies of media violence using the TCRTT are of questionable validity.     

Resilience to Childhood Abuse and Neglect in College Students

This study examined the prevalence of a history of childhood maltreatment in a college sample and identified the relationship between being maltreated as a child and later college adjustment in men and women. Results indicate that men who had been maltreated in childhood had more resilient outcomes in college than women who had been maltreated in childhood. Negative life events and protective factors acted as mediators in the relationship between childhood maltreatment and college adjustment for women, and protective factors acted as a moderator in the relationship between childhood maltreatment and college adjustment for men.     

The effects of age,enactment, and cue-action relatedness on memory for intentions in the Virtual Week task

ABSTRACT

The current study investigated the influence of encoding modality and cue-action relatedness on prospective memory (PM) performance in young and older adults using a modified version of the Virtual Week task. Participants encoded regular and irregular intentions either verbally or by physically performing the action during encoding. For half of the intentions there was a close semantic relation between the retrieval cue and the intended action, while for the remaining intentions the cue and action were semantically unrelated. For irregular tasks, both age groups showed superior PM for related intentions compared to unrelated intentions in both encoding conditions. While older adults retrieved fewer irregular intentions than young adults after verbal encoding, there was no age difference following enactment. Possible mechanisms of enactment and relatedness effects are discussed in the context of current theories of event-based PM.     

Ignoring Versus Exploring Differences Between Groups: Effects of Salient Color‐Blindness and Multiculturalism on Intergroup Attitudes and Behavior

Multiculturalism and color‐blindness represent distinct, and in many ways conflicting, approaches to intergroup relations. We provide a review of the research and theory guiding use of these ideologies as prejudice reduction strategies: Is it best for individuals to ignore category memberships and focus on fundamental human qualities that everyone shares, as color‐blindness would suggest? Or should people adhere to multicultural ideals, recognizing and indeed celebrating differences between groups? After describing these ideologies and their respective theoretical underpinnings, we examine their effects on attitudes, perceptions, and intergroup interaction behavior. We emphasize in particular the link from color‐blindness to self‐focus and prevention orientation and from multiculturalism to an other‐focused learning orientation. Although color‐blindness can have positive effects in the short term, the efforts that it prompts to inhibit and suppress negative responses can be taxing and difficult to sustain. Multiculturalism triggers more positive intergroup attitudes and behavior in nonconflictual circumstances, but has the opposite effect in threatening situations. Nonetheless, because it leads to a focus on learning about others in intergroup situations multiculturalism has the virtue of generally fostering greater attention and responsiveness to outgroup members.     

A Transcultural Integrative Model for Ethical Decision Making in Counseling

The Transcultural Integrative Ethical Decision‐Making Model in counseling addresses the need for including cultural factors in the process of ethical dilemma resolution. This transcultural model incorporates state‐of‐the‐art concepts from multicultural theory into an ethical decision‐making model that is adapted primarily from the Integrative Model developed by V. M. Tarvydas (1998). When appropriate, this transcultural model includes aspects of other ethical resolution models, such as R. R. Cottone's (2001) Social Constructivist Model and A. H. Davis's (1997) Collaborative Model. The proposed model is presented in a step‐by‐step, linear format that can be used by counselors facing ethical dilemmas in a variety of settings and with different cultural groups.     

Reaction times in the study of strategies in sentence-picture verification: A reconsideration

Investigations of cognitive strategies based on chronometric data may appear to contradict findings from verbal-report-based approaches. These inconsistencies may be due to misuse of RTs to infer subjects' behaviour. To test this hypothesis, 15 subjects were successively required to adopt 4 different strategies in a sentence-picture verification task. Trend analyses provide evidence that (1) highly dissimilar strategies can nevertheless yield similar mean RT curves as well as similar individual subjects' RT curves; (2) subjects using similar strategies can produce individual RT curves presenting vastly different features due partly to random variation and partly to idiosyncrasies. These findings suggest that RTs are an unreliable behavioural indicator for inferring individual or group strategies on certain experimental tasks and should be analysed in conjunction with other sources of information. An approach consisting of using RTs to test hypotheses based on subjects' verbal reports is described along with the appropriate controls. Results show that this approach provides an improved account for observed RTs.     

Perceptions of Liver Transplant Candidates with or Without an Alcohol Use History

Cirrhosis secondary to alcohol use is a primary cause of liver disease and a medical condition for which liver transplantation is a viable treatment option. However, there remains considerable debate within both the lay and the medical communities regarding the distribution of a scarce medical resource to adults with alcoholism. This study examined college students' perceptions toward an adult, presented in a written vignette, for whom liver transplantation was medically indicated. The influence of gender (female and male) and alcohol use history (no alcohol history, alcoholism history with long-term abstinence, alcoholism history with current use) on these ratings was examined. Subjects rated the adult presented with no alcohol history more positively than they did the adults presented with a history of alcoholism. Also, the adult with no alcohol history was more likely to be offered transplantation and was given higher priority ratings for transplantation by subjects. While subjects' own alcohol use history and organ donor registration status were not associated with ratings, having a family member with an alcohol problem and personally knowing a transplant recipient were related to more favorable ratings toward the adult presented in the vignette. Implications of these findings as well as limitations of the study are discussed.     

The Association of Fly-in Fly-out Employment,Family Connectedness,Parental Presence and Adolescent Wellbeing

Fly-in fly-out work patterns have become an integral part of employment in the Australian resource sector. When attachment to parents is disrupted by a parent working away from home on a regular basis, young people’s feelings of connection to their family may be impacted, as well as their mental and emotional well-being compromised. The objective of this study was to explore the mediation of parental presence and family connectedness on the association between fly-in fly-out employment and adolescent well-being. A cross-sectional survey of over 3,000 Grades 5–10 students from 40 Perth West Australian metropolitan and rural schools identified 618 students whose parents were involved in fly-in fly-out employment. Multi-level mediation analysis showed that the negative relationship between fly-in fly-out status and adolescent depressive symptoms and emotional and behavioural difficulties was fully or partially mediated by parent presence and family connectedness, controlling for both student and school level demographics. The intermittent absence/presence of fly-in fly-out employment patterns appears to create challenges for workers and their families, not experienced by non-fly-in fly-out families.This study highlights the importance of strengthening family connections within fly-in fly-out households. Suggestions have been made to help fly-in fly-out parents to stay in touch with their families.