The relative deprivation-gratification continuum and the attitudes of South Africans toward immigrants: a test of the V-curve hypothesis

It has long been established that there is a linear and positive relationship between relative deprivation and prejudice. However, a recent experiment suggests that the converse of relative deprivation, relative gratification, may also be associated with prejudice (S. Guimond & M. Dambrun, 2002). Specifically, the evidence suggests that the usual test for a linear relationship between relative deprivation-gratification and prejudice might conceal the existence of a bilinear relationship. This function, labeled the V-curve hypothesis, predicts that both relative deprivation and relative gratification are associated with higher levels of prejudice. This hypothesis was tested with a representative sample of South Africans (N=1,600). Results provide strong support for the V-curve hypothesis. Furthermore, strength of ethnic identification emerged as a partial mediator for the effect of relative gratification on prejudice.     

Situationism and the problem of moral improvement

A wealth of research in social psychology indicates that various ethically arbitrary situational factors exert a surprisingly powerful influence on moral conduct. Empirically-minded philosophers have argued over the last two decades that this evidence challenges Aristotelian virtue ethics. John Doris, Gilbert Harman, and Maria Merritt have argued that situationist moral psychology – as opposed to Aristotelian moral psychology – is better suited to the practical aim of helping agents act better. The Aristotelian account, with its emphasis on individual factors, invites too much risk of morally bad conduct insofar as it ignores the power of situational factors which lead us astray. Moral agents are often better off detecting and intervening on situational factors to help themselves act better. This paper offers an argument against the claim that situationism enjoys practical advantages over Aristotelian virtue ethics. There is empirical evidence suggesting that people can improve their behavior via Aristotelian strategies of deliberate self-improvement. This evidence also suggests that focusing our ethical attention on morally trivial factors may result in worse overall conduct. Accordingly, Aristotelianism may fare better than situationism on the practical issue of moral improvement.     

Coparenting Profiles in the Context of Mexican‐Origin Teen Pregnancy: Links to Mother–Daughter Relationship Quality and Adjustment

The current study explored the multifaceted nature of the mother–adolescent coparental relationship with data from 167 Mexican‐origin adolescent mothers and their own mothers at 10 months post childbirth. Profiles of mother–adolescent coparenting were created with latent profile analysis using adolescents’ reports of three dimensions of coparenting (communication, involvement, and conflict). Four profiles were identified: (a) Harmonious Coparents (equal involvement, high communication, low conflict); (b) Harmonious‐Adolescent Primary (adolescent is more involved than mother, high communication, low conflict); (c) Conflictual Coparents (equal involvement, high communication, high conflict); and (d) Conflictual‐Adolescent Primary (adolescent is more involved than mother, moderate communication, high conflict). Families characterized by high mother–daughter conflict and psychological control prior to childbirth were more likely to belong in the Conflictual Coparents profile. In addition, adolescents’ and mothers’ depressive symptoms and parenting efficacy after childbirth were linked to profile membership, such that the Harmonious‐Adolescent Primary profile reported the most positive adjustment patterns, whereas profiles with high coparental conflict (i.e., Conflictual Coparenting and Conflictual‐Adolescent Primary profiles) showed the least positive adjustment patterns. Discussion considers the applied implications of identifying precursors to healthy and problematic mother–daughter coparenting for families of adolescent mothers in the early years of parenting.     

Ethnic and gender differences in the labour market perceptions of post‐higher education job seekers: ‘Double jeopardy’ or ‘ethnic prominence’?

Ethnic and gender differences in perceptions of graduate job acquisition difficulty among U.K. post‐higher education job seekers were investigated. Two main hypotheses were compared: the double jeopardy hypothesis (DJH), suggesting an additive or interactive increase in perceived difficulty associated with membership of different disadvantaged demographic categories; and the ethnic prominence hypothesis, arguing for the salience of ethnicity over gender in perceptions. Graduates and final year students (N= 800) from Black, Indian, Pakistani/Bangladeshi, and White ethnic backgrounds rated the level of difficulty that a suitably qualified man and woman from their own ethnic background would encounter in attaining 10 graduate jobs. Interactions between participant ethnic background and gender of job seeker rated were examined in the context of the competing hypotheses. The perceptions of men, and Indian and Pakistani/Bangladeshi women, were consistent with the additive DJH, whereas Black women's perceptions were not. It is concluded that: (1) the perceptions of the latter group may reflect knowledge of Black male disadvantage, or negative stereotyping with respect to employment in the U.K. graduate labour market; and (2) perceptions of double jeopardy by some female graduates may have negative effects on their job seeking endeavours.     

Preliminary Outcomes of a Multi-site,School-based Modular Intervention for Adolescents Experiencing Mood Difficulties

Many evidence-based programs to address the emotional needs of youth experiencing mood difficulties are based on implementing “manualized” interventions. This approach often presents feasibility challenges in the school setting. In contrast, modular strategies, which involve implementing the most effective practices for specific emotional/behavioral problems, may be more feasible. Research, however, on the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of modular approaches in schools to address youth experiencing mood difficulties is lacking. The multi-site current study tested the effectiveness, feasibility, and acceptability of a modular intervention approach delivered in schools for youth presenting with mood disorder symptoms. The pilot study included 20 participants (ages 12–16) and parents/caregivers for each student. Data were collected at baseline, throughout treatment, and following intervention or end of school year. The intervention, called the Student Emotional and Educational Development (SEED) project, included a modularized manual of efficacious and common practice elements for the treatment of mood disorders among adolescents. Decision making protocols guided provision of specific modules based on baseline and treatment data. Statistically significant differences were found between pretest and posttest assessments with modest to large effect sizes for youth and/or parents’ report of mood-related symptoms, including reduced symptoms of depression, anxiety and inattention. Clinically significant findings were also detected with more than 50 % of participants demonstrating reliable improvement on a global assessment of mental health symptoms. With regards to feasibility, these results were achieved with an average of nine, 45-min sessions across 2–3 months, and a subsample of participants overwhelmingly supported the acceptability of SEED. Although limited by the lack of a controlled comparison and small sample size, findings from this pilot study suggest this modular intervention focused on internalizing symptoms in students can be feasibly implemented in the school setting, is acceptable to students, and holds promise for improving their psychosocial functioning.     

A "unity assumption" does not promote intersensory integration

An account of intersensory integration is premised on knowing that different sensory inputs arise from the same object. Could, however, the combination of the inputs be impaired although the "unity assumption" holds? Forty observers viewed a square through a minifying (50%) lens while they simultaneously touched the square. Half could see and half could not see their haptic explorations of the square. Both groups, however, had reason to believe that they were touching and viewing the same square. Subsequent matches of the inspected square were mutually biased by touch and vision when the exploratory movements were visible. However, the matches were biased in the direction of the square's haptic size when observers could not see their exploratory movements. This impaired integration without the visible haptic explorations suggests that the unity assumption alone is not enough to promote intersensory integration.     

Tangible words are recognized faster: the grounding of meaning in sensory and perceptual systems

Sensory experience rating (SER), a new variable motivated by the grounded cognition framework of conceptual processing (e.g., Barsalou, 2008 ), indexes the degree to which a word evokes sensory/perceptual experiences. In the present study, SERs were collected for over 2,850 words. While SER is correlated with imageability, age of acquisition, and word frequency, the latter variables (along with seven others) account for less than 30% of the variance in SER. Reanalyses of two large-scale studies demonstrate that SER significantly predicts lexical decision times when other established predictor variables are statistically controlled. These results suggest that conceptual processing is grounded in sensory systems. Additionally, a major benefit of this variable is that it allows psycholinguistic researchers to examine semantic-perceptual links for all word classes with a single rating.     

Cross-modal personality attributions in synaesthetes and non-synaesthetes

Those variants of synaesthesia that trigger colour are well studied, although comparatively less is known about variants that involve cognitive constructs such as personality types. Here we investigate sequence-personality synaesthesia (also known as ordinal linguistic personification, OLP) in which sequenced units (e.g., letters) become associated to personalities or genders. We present the first group study of this variant, showing similarities and differences between synaesthetes and non-synaesthetes. In Experiment 1, we show that synaesthetes differ from the general population in the phenomenology of their reports, the depth of their personality associations, and the consistency of those associations over time. In Experiment 2, we show that synaesthetes are similar to the general population in the underlying rules that link their personalities to letters. Specifically, we show that these mappings are not random, but are based on a shared rule system linking linguistic qualities of letters with quantitative dimensions of personality (based on Goldberg's Big Five personality traits; Goldberg, 1990, 1992). Synaesthetes tend to associate high-frequency letters with high agreeable and low neurotic personalities, and non-synaesthetes share these tendencies at an implicit level. Together, these data show that synaesthetes differ from the general population in phenomenological ways, but that their underlying mechanisms may be common to all people.