The Impact of Cognitive Diversity on Crisis Negotiations

This paper reports on a series of experiments designed to assess the impact of grouping decision makers by level of cognitive complexity on the outcomes they attain in crisis negotiations. The participants—University of Maryland undergraduates who took roles in a simulated international hostage crisis—used a computer decision support system and a controlled network environment for communications. The goal of the experiments was to better understand the dynamics that lead certain types of groupings to have greater success in negotiations, and that lead certain groups of adversaries to achieve more mutually beneficial outcomes such as compromise and agreement. The findings point to a positive relationship between the level of homogeneity in cognitive complexity among decision makers and the achievement of positive outcomes in crisis negotiations.     

The effects of sex and “masculinity” on person- and space-related perception

A study was conducted to investigate the influence of both sex and sex role upon the perceptual salience of person- and space-related information. It was found that the salience of person-related information was higher for females than males. High-masculinity males found person-related information less salient than any other combined sex and sex-role group. Most importantly, the salience of person-related information was higher for persons who conformed less to their appropriate sex role than those who strongly conformed to their sex role. No sex or sex-role differences were found in the spatial salience measure.     

Integrating personality and career adaptability into vocational interest space

The relations between interests, personality and career adaptability were explored in two separate studies. In the first study, the RIASEC measure Occupational Preference Scale was applied along with personality inventories HEXACO-PI-(R)-100 and IPIP-50 on a sample of 602 university students and young adults. In the second study, PGI-Short, HEXACO-60 and Career Adapt-Abilities Scale were applied on a sample of 981 high-school graduates. Results from both studies were discussed together, and general conclusions about overlapping of interests, personality and career adaptability domains were drawn on the basis of correlational analyses and property vector fitting. Both studies have shown weak to moderate relations between interests and personality. In the HEXACO framework, it was found that Openness to Experience was positively related to creative interests, Emotionality was positively related to social interests and negatively related to technical interests, Extraversion was positively related to social and managing interests, and Honesty–Humility was negatively related to interests for business and finance. In the Big Five framework, Agreeableness was related to Social and Artistic interests, and Intellect to Artistic interests. The HEXACO personality domains showed predictive advantage for explaining interests in comparison to Big Five dimensions. The relation between career adaptability and interests was weak, and almost negligible when personality was included in hierarchical regression analysis. Career adaptability was weakly related to highly prestigious interests. Adaptability facets Concern, Control and Confidence were oriented toward data pole of interest space. The general factor of interests was weakly correlated with Openness Extraversion, Career Adaptability, and adaptability facets Confidence and Curiosity. Observed findings are as expected and in line with previous research.     

Marital Equality and Satisfaction in Stay-At-Home Mother and Stay-At-Home Father Families

Two recent studies have focused on marital equality and satisfaction in couples where one of the spouses stays at home full-time with the children and the other spouse works full-time outside of the home. One study looked at couples with a stay-at-home mother/career father while the other study examined couples with a stay-at-home father/career mother. Similarities as well as differences emerged between the two samples when comparing the experiences of these couples. In general, couples in both arrangements shared positive feelings about their marriages, although the mothers across both samples reported higher levels of stress and exhaustion than fathers.     

Resilient Response to Battering

Spouse abuse remains an important social problem. Recent research has begun to explore resiliency in a variety of areas: Why, despite harsh life circumstances, do some people survive and later thrive after experiencing trauma? What are the processes associated with a successful departure from abuse? The authors worked with a local shelter to identify three groups of women: (a) those currently at the shelter; (b) those who had been away from an abusive relationship for at least one year; and (c) those who were identified by shelter staff as having demonstrated a resilient response to battering, and compared experiences and recommendations between groups and discuss clinical and service implications.     

Maternal and infant affect at 4 months predicts performance and verbal IQ at 4 and 7 years in a diverse population

Using existing longitudinal data from 570 infants in the Maternal Lifestyle Study, we explored the predictive value of maternal and infant affect and maternal vocalizations during 2 minutes of face‐to‐face interactions at 4 months on IQ scores at 4.5 and 7 years. After controlling for demographic factors, maternal depression, and prenatal drug exposure, maternal positive affect and maternal positive vocalizations emerged as predictors of both verbal and performance IQ at 4.5 and 7 years. Although infant positive affect during the interaction with the mother was not predictive of these outcome measures, infant positive affect towards an examiner predicted verbal but not performance IQ at 4.5 years. These results suggest that maternal positive affect may index emotional engagement in interaction that facilitates both verbal and nonverbal cognitive development, while infant social positive affect is specifically related to the acquisition of verbal reasoning abilities. These findings are significant because they are based on a discrete snapshot of observable behavior in infancy (just 2 minutes of interaction), because they extend the range of maternal behaviors and characteristics known to support positive developmental outcomes, and because they are derived from high‐risk infants where prevention efforts may be beneficial. Potential mechanisms for these associations are discussed, as are the clinical implications for identifying dyads most in need of targeted interventions.     

How Stereotypes Stifle Performance Potential

In academic and organizational domains, performance measures are often used to assess achievement or aptitude. When certain groups of people systematically underperform on such measures, a common interpretation is that the groups differ in inherent ability. However, social psychological research over the past 15 years has documented a phenomenon called stereotype threat whereby subtle situational reminders of negative stereotypes can stifle the performance of those who are targeted by them. In this article, we review research aimed at understanding the sequence of cognitive and affective processes that underlie these situationally‐induced performance impairments. We review evidence that being the target of negative stereotypes cues self‐uncertainty and a physiological stress response, engages more explicit monitoring of one’s performance, and efforts to regulate unwanted negative thoughts and feelings. Alone or in concert, these extra‐task processes hijack cognitive resources needed for successful performance. Armed with the knowledge of these mediating mechanisms, we then review evidence from both field and laboratory based research demonstrating that gender and racial gaps in achievement can be alleviated if not eliminated through creative and often subtle interventions that diffuse the pernicious effects that stereotypes can have.