Black Adolescent Girls: Do Gender Role and Racial Identity: Impact Their Self-Esteem?

This study was designed to explore Black adolescent girls' gender roles, racial identity, and self-esteem. These variables have not been examined together in a study of Black girls, yet studies of girls from other racial/cultural groups have demonstrated significant relationships. This type of exploration is important because Black girls do not experience the same declines in self-esteem as girls from other racial/cultural groups. Gender role orientation and racial identity have been put forth as possible explanations for Black girls' bolstered levels of self-esteem. Results indicated that Black girls with androgynous and masculine characteristics reported high levels of self-esteem. The results also indicated that Black girls with internally defined Black racial identity attitudes reported high levels of domain-specific self-esteem. In addition, androgyny was associated with high scores on internalization (Black racial identity).     

With task experience students learn to ignore the content,not just the location of irrelevant information

Presentation of irrelevant additional information hampers learning. However, using a word-learning task, recent research demonstrated that an initial negative effect of mismatching pictures on learning no longer occurred once learners gained task experience. It is unclear, however, whether learners consciously suppressed attention to the content of the mismatching pictures. Therefore, we examined the effects of a picture location change towards the end of the learning phase: for half of the participants, the picture location was changed after they gained task experience. If participants only ignore the location of mismatching pictures, word learning in the mismatched condition should be hampered after the location change. Changing the location of the mismatching pictures did not affect recall in the mismatched condition, but, surprisingly, the location change did hamper learning in the matched condition. In sum, it seems that participants learned to ignore the content, and not just the location of the irrelevant information.     

The Mediating Role of Rumination in the Relation Between Quality of Attachment Relations and Depressive Symptoms in Non-Clinical Adolescents

This study examined associations between indices of the quality of attachment relationships of adolescents with parents and peers, rumination, and symptoms of depression. More specifically, a mediation model was investigated in which rumination was hypothesized to mediate the relation between quality of attachment relations and symptoms of depression. A total of 455 high school students completed a battery of questionnaires, including quality of attachment relations, rumination, and depression. Results showed that most indices of quality of attachment relations were significantly associated with rumination and symptoms of depression. When examining the relative contribution of these variables in explaining variance in depression symptoms, trust in parents, communication with peers, and alienation from peers accounted for a significant portion of the variance in depression scores. Finally, the relation between communication with peers and depressive symptoms was fully mediated by rumination, whereas partial mediation was found for the relations between parental trust and depressive symptoms, and between alienation from peers and depressive symptoms. Implications of the findings may be that the treatment of depression in adolescence should consist of both cognitive interventions aimed at targeting ruminative thinking as well as a focus on interpersonal relationships of the adolescent with parents and peers.     

Blinded by the accent! The minor role of looks in ethnic categorization

The categories that social targets belong to are often activated automatically. Most studies investigating social categorization have used visual stimuli or verbal labels, whereas ethnolinguistic identity theory posits that language is an essential dimension of ethnic identity. Language should therefore be used for social categorization. In 2 experiments, using the "Who Said What?" paradigm, the authors investigated social categorization by using accents (auditory stimuli) and looks (visual stimuli) to indicate ethnicity, either separately or in combination. Given either looks or accents only, the authors demonstrated that ethnic categorization can be based on accents, and the authors found a similar degree of ethnic categorization by accents and looks. When ethnic cues of looks and accents were combined by creating cross categories, there was a clear predominance of accents as meaningful cues for categorization, as shown in the respective parameters of a multinomial model. The present findings are discussed with regard to the generalizability of findings using one channel of presentation (e.g., visual) and the asymmetry found with different presentation channels for the category ethnicity.     

Instructional support for novice law students: Reducing search processes and explaining concepts in cases

Reasoning about legal cases is a complex skill that imposes a high working memory load, especially for novice students. Not only do novices lack necessary conceptual knowledge, searching through the information sources that are used during reasoning can also be assumed to impose a high additional working memory load that does not contribute to learning. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of supporting novice law students' learning by (a) providing the meaning of important concepts in the case and (b) reducing the search process by providing a condensed (relevant articles only) rather than a complete civil code. Results show that performance on a test case (for which they had to use the complete civil code) was significantly better for participants who had used the condensed civil code during learning. Performance on a conceptual knowledge post‐test was significantly enhanced when students had received the concept explanations during learning. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Asymmetrical scepticism towards criminal evidence: The role of goal‐ and belief‐consistency

Previous demonstrations of asymmetrical scepticism (i.e., that investigators perceive evidence inconsistent [vs. consistent] with the focal hypothesis of a case as less reliable) have failed to account for the underlying mechanism. This study examined whether inconsistent evidence is discredited due to its inconsistency with a prior belief or because it conflicts with the goal to reach closure in a case. Police trainees (N = 107) were presented with a homicide case and judged the reliability of incriminating or exonerating evidence while entertaining a ‘guilty’ or ‘innocent’ hypothesis concerning a suspect. Asymmetrical scepticism was observed in the guilty condition, but not in the innocent condition, partially supporting the goal‐consistency explanation. Implications for the organization of criminal investigations are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Perceiving musical individuality: performer identification is dependent on performer expertise and expressiveness, but not on listener expertise

Can listeners distinguish unfamiliar performers playing the same piece on the same instrument? Professional performers recorded two expressive and two inexpressive interpretations of a short organ piece. Nonmusicians and musicians listened to these recordings and grouped together excerpts they thought had been played by the same performer. Both musicians and nonmusicians performed significantly above chance. Expressive interpretations were sorted more accurately than inexpressive ones, indicating that musical individuality is communicated more efficiently through expressive performances. Furthermore, individual performers' consistency and distinctiveness with respect to expressive patterns were shown to be excellent predictors of categorisation accuracy. Categorisation accuracy was superior for prize-winning performers compared to non-winners, suggesting a link between performer competence and the communication of musical individuality. Finally, results indicate that temporal information is sufficient to enable performer recognition, a finding that has broader implications for research on the detection of identity cues.     

Developing a measure of interpretation bias for depressed mood: An ambiguous scenarios test

The tendency to interpret ambiguous everyday situations in a relatively negative manner (negative interpretation bias) is central to cognitive models of depression. Limited tools are available to measure this bias, either experimentally or in the clinic. This study aimed to develop a pragmatic interpretation bias measure using an ambiguous scenarios test relevant to depressed mood (the AST-D).¹ In Study 1, after a pilot phase (N = 53), the AST-D was presented via a web-based survey (N = 208). Participants imagined and rated each AST-D ambiguous scenario. As predicted, higher dysphoric mood was associated with lower pleasantness ratings (more negative bias), independent of mental imagery measures. In Study 2, self-report ratings were compared with objective ratings of participants’ imagined outcomes of the ambiguous scenarios (N = 41). Data were collected in the experimental context of a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner. Consistent with subjective bias scores, independent judges rated more sentences as negatively valenced for the high versus low dysphoric group. Overall, results suggest the potential utility of the AST-D in assessing interpretation bias associated with depressed mood.     

Automatically activated racial attitudes as predictors of the success of interracial roommate relationships

Study 1 indicated that roommate relationships involving randomly paired interracial freshmen were characterized by less extensive joint activity and were more likely to dissolve than those involving randomly paired White freshmen. Study 2 explored whether the automatically activated racial attitudes of White freshmen who had been randomly assigned to share rooms with Black freshmen would predict the stability and duration of the roommate relationships. The racial attitudes of the White freshmen were measured unobtrusively via a priming procedure at the beginning of the fall semester. White students’ automatically activated racial attitudes, but not their motivation to control prejudiced reactions, predicted the longevity of the relationships. Theoretical and methodological implications are discussed.     

Integrating mind and body: Graduate psychology education in primary behavioral health care

Extensive research supports the biopsychosocial model, but the current health care system generally operates according to a model of mind-body dualism. Integrated primary behavioral health care offers an alternative to this dualism. This paper describes the University of Louisville Graduate Psychology Education (GPE) program, a pre-doctoral integrated primary behavioral health care training program. This program emphasizes four shared psychosocial determinants that have been associated with physical health status: Victimization and potentially traumatic stress exposure, emotional functioning, social relationship functioning, and illness representations. It does so within the broader context of providing care for individuals who are underserved and economically disadvantaged. The initial phase of the program is evaluated and implications for graduate psychology education and patient care are discussed.