The Failure of Imagined Contact in Reducing Explicit and Implicit Out-Group Prejudice Toward Male Homosexuals

A considerable amount of research has demonstrated the value of imagined contact in reducing social prejudice. The current study investigated the efficacy of imagined intergroup contact in improving attitudes towards male homosexuals on both explicit and implicit measures. Eighty-five heterosexual undergraduate students were randomly allocated to one of three conditions: imagined interaction, prime control or unrelated imagery control. Overall, no significant differences were found between the imagery conditions for either the explicit or implicit attitude measures, even when controlling for prior contact. Accordingly, the present findings, unlike those of Turner et al. (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 93: 369–388, 2007b) and (Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 10: 427–441, 2007a), do not offer support for the effectiveness of indirect contact in reducing prejudice toward male homosexuals. Some explanations for the inconsistency of findings are discussed.     

Some Costs of American Corporate Capitalism: A Psychological Exploration of Value and Goal Conflicts

Evolutionary psychology has been proposed as a metatheoretical framework for psychology. We argue that evolutionary psychology should be expanded if it is to offer new insights regarding the major issues in psychology. Evolutionary developmental biology can provide valuable new insights into issues such as the domain-specificity of the human mind, the nature–nurture debate, stages in development, and the origin of individual differences. Evolutionary developmental biology provides evidence for the hypotheses that domain-general and domain-specific abilities co-occur, that nature and nurture interact in a dynamic and nonadditive way, that stages occur in development, and that individual differences are the result of pleiotropic effects during development.     

Short-term memory for serial order supports vocabulary development: New evidence from a novel word learning paradigm

Although recent studies suggest a strong association between short-term memory (STM) for serial order and lexical development, the precise mechanisms linking the two domains remain to be determined. This study explored the nature of these mechanisms via a microanalysis of performance on serial order STM and novel word learning tasks. In the experiment, 6- and 7-year-old children were administered tasks maximizing STM for either item or serial order information as well as paired-associate learning tasks involving the learning of novel words, visual symbols, or familiar word pair associations. Learning abilities for novel words were specifically predicted by serial order STM abilities. A measure estimating the precision of serial order coding predicted the rate of correct repetitions and the rate of phoneme migration errors during the novel word learning process. In line with recent theoretical accounts, these results suggest that serial order STM supports vocabulary development via ordered and detailed reactivation of the novel phonological sequences that characterize new words.     

Bimanual and Unimanual Convergent Goal-Directed Movement Times

Three experiments are reported, investigating the effects of using 1 or 2 hands when making convergent low index of difficulty (ID) and visually controlled movements (2 hands meeting together). The experiments involved movements in four different cases—a probe held in the right hand and moved to a target held in the stationary left hand, vice versa of this arrangement, both hands moving with the probe in the right hand and target in the left hand, and vice-versa of this arrangement. Experiments were the standard Fitts’ paradigm, moving a pin into a hole and a low-ID task. In Fitts’ task, 2-hand movements were faster than 1 hand only at higher IDs; this was also the case in the pin-to-hole transfer task and the movement times were lower when the pin was held in the preferred hand. Movements made with low ID showed a small effect of 1- or 2-handed movements, with the effective amplitude of the movement being reduced by about 20% when 2 hands were used.     

A validation of a computerised task of risk-taking and moral decision-making and its association with sensation-seeking,impulsivity and sociomoral reasoning

The aim of this study was to investigate the reliability and validity of the computer based application of the Secret Agent (SA) task of risk-taking and moral decision-making. The participants were 100 male patients in a maximum security hospital (50 with severe mental illness and 50 with personality disorder) and 50 community based healthy controls. All participants completed the SA task, the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), and measures of IQ, antisocial personality traits, sensation-seeking, impulsivity and sociomoral reasoning. The SA risk-taking and moral decision-making scales had satisfactory levels of reliability (Cronbach’s alpha). Risk-taking correlated significantly with sensation-seeking across all three participant groups. In contrast, risk-taking only correlated with impulsivity among the severe mental illness group. Moral decision-making correlated with sociomoral reasoning among the personality disorder group. No correlation was found between the SA scores and the IGT score and the IGT did not correlate with sensation-seeking or impulsivity. IQ and antisocial personality traits did not correlate with the SA or IGT scales. The study highlights the importance of context, the nature of the risk-taking task, and ‘problem framing’ of the instructions in their relationship with individual differences.     

The Effect of Attributional Retraining on Mastery and Performance Motivation Among First-Year College Students

Motivation can be undermined among first-year college students as they face a multitude of unanticipated challenges during the transition from high school to college (Compas, Wagner, Slavin, &; Vannatta, 1986 Compas , B. E. , Wagner , B. M. , Slavin , L. A. , &; Vannatta , K. ( 1986 ). A prospective study of life events, social support, and psychological symptomatology during the transition from high school to college . American Journal of Community Psychology , 14 , 241 – 257 .[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Perry, Hall, &; Ruthig, 2005 Perry , R. P. , Hall , N. C. , &; Ruthig , J. C. ( 2005 ). Perceived (academic) control and scholastic attainment in higher education . In J. Smart (Ed.), Higher education: Handbook of theory and research ( Vol. 20 , pp. 363 – 436 ). New York : Springer .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). As a consequence, approximately 27% of first-year students do not return for the second year of college (Feldman, 2005 Feldman , R. S. ( 2005 ). Improving the first year of college: Research and practice . Mahwah , NJ : Erlbaum . [Google Scholar]). First-year college students (N = 336) participated in a study to examine the efficacy of an Attributional Retraining (AR) treatment designed to increase motivation and enhance academic achievement. Employing a pre–post study design spanning an academic year, we examined the impact of AR on student motivation as operationalized in terms of mastery and performance goals. Findings indicated that AR increased mastery motivation but did not affect performance motivation. Findings also demonstrated that mastery motivation mediated the relationship between AR and grade point average, suggesting that mastery motivation is a key mechanism of AR. Findings are discussed in terms of conceptual contributions to both the AR and achievement motivation literatures, and practical implications are outlined.     

Coalition Preference as a Function of Expected Values in a Tetradic Weighted-Majority Game

Eighty male subjects participated in a tetradic weighted-majority game in which a coalition was required to control the division of the payoff. The amount of the payoff and/of the probability of receiving the payoff were varied. The data strongly supported the hypothesis that subjects would prefer the coalition with the largest expected value (size of payoff x probability of success = expected value) rather than the coalition with the largest payoff or the coalition with the highest probability of success. However, contrary to expectations, the 'division of rewards was found to be a function of the relative assigned resources of the coalition members, despite the lack of a logical connection between the assigned resources and the rules governing obtaining the payoff.     

Using REBT in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Couples Counseling in the United States

This article addresses how marriage functions within Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Case studies of couples within these three religions are used to demonstrate how rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) can help address marital issues within couples counseling of religious individuals in a manner that supports the couples’ religious values but decreases disturbance associated with religious issues within marriage.