Recruiting (Dis)Advantage: Men’s Versus Women’s Evaluations of Gender-Based Targeted Recruitment

Sex Roles - Organizations use targeted recruitment to attract applicants with specific demographic characteristics to diversify the workforce. Research reports mixed findings regarding the extent...     

“Feeling my Sister’s Pain”: Perceived Victim Suffering Moderates the Impact of Sexualized Music Videos on Fijian Women’s Responses to Men’s Intimate Partner Violence against Women

To better understand how sexualized music videos affect women’s responses to intimate partner violence (IPV), we examined the role of individual variability in perceived victim pain and perceived victim culpability in moderating and mediating (respectively) the priming effects of sexual music videos on women. Female Fijian college students (n?=?243) were randomly assigned to one of three viewing conditions: stereotyped sexual music videos, non-stereotyped/non-sexual music videos, or neutral videos. All participants then read a portrayal of a male-toward-female IPV episode and their perceptions of the female victim and male perpetrator were assessed. Only women who minimized the victim’s pain were adversely affected by exposure to the stereotyped sexual videos. Specifically, for women who perceived low victim pain, those in the stereotyped video condition perceived the victim as more culpable and reported greater perpetrator-directed favorable responding than those in the other two conditions. For these women who perceived low victim pain, perceptions of victim culpability mediated the impact of video type on perpetrator-favorable responding. The findings help us better understand susceptibility to the negative impact of stereotypical sexual videos and highlight areas, such as emphasizing the suffering of victims and reducing myths about victim culpability, which may be worthy of particular emphasis in interventions.

     

Attachment,mastery, and interdependence: a model of parenting processes

A democratic nation needs an interdependent citizenry who are not only competent but who also can live together cooperatively with an eye toward what will benefit the whole as well as the self. In this article, the concept of interdependence is adopted as the central goal of parenting. The Parenting Processes Model is then presented, specifying how caregivers help children develop this interdependence. This work draws upon and integrates the work of a number of theoreticians, researchers, and clinicians, with the central focus on the work of John Bowlby, Alfred Adler, and Lev Vygotsky.     

Neuromotor profiles: what are they and what can we learn from them?

Eye movements, alternating movements, rapid pointing movements, and various tremors were measured on patients with Parkinson's disease (n = 21), on Cree subjects exposed to methylmercury (n = 36), and on healthy control subjects (n = 30). Neuromotor profiles were created according to thirty characteristics extracted from test results of four subgroups matched for age and composed of six subjects each. Z scores were calculated with respect to the mean and standard deviation of the control group for each of the 30 characteristics. The subgroup with the lower methylmercury blood level had larger z scores than the control subgroup and with a few positive values above one standard deviation. The subgroup with the higher methylmercury blood level had several z scores above two standard deviations. Interestingly, the abnormal values for the subgroup with Parkinson's disease were mostly limited to static tremor recorded with no visual feedback and reached up to 5 standard deviations. These results indicate that neuromotor profiles can be used to summarize information extracted from different neuromotor tests and to differentiate neurological conditions.     

Estimation of Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III index scores with the 7-subtest short form in a clinical sample

A 7-subtest short form of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III (WAIS-III) previously demonstrated good comparability in estimating Full Scale and Verbal IQ summary scores, with adequate comparability in estimating Performance IQ. In a mixed clinical sample of 295 patients, the current study assessed the equivalence of the index scores generated from the full and prorated WAIS-III. The results revealed correlations corrected for redundancy of .90, .86, .87, and .75 for the Verbal Comprehension (VCI), Perceptual Organization (POI), Working Memory (WMI), and Processing Speed (PSI) indexes, respectively. Although the 7-subtest short form of the WAIS-III was not designed to estimate index scores, adequate estimates are viable for VCI, POI, and WMI when the goal is to obtain group, rather than individual, data points.     

Observations on the factor structure of the WAIS-R

Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) revealed 2 important characteristics of the standardization data of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Revised. One finding was that Digit Symbol fit better on an attentional factor in younger groups, but fit was better when Digit Symbol loaded on a visual-perceptual factor in older groups. A second observation was that specifying correlated errors or a fourth factor to explain covariance between Block Design and Object Assembly improved model fit in all age groups except 70- to 74-year-olds. The results illustrate the value of CFA and have implications for investigating other samples and other Wechsler tests.     

Reliability and validity of a self-efficacy instrument specific to sickle cell disease

The psychometric properties of a new, 9-item scale measuring disease-specific perceptions of self-efficacy were investigated in a community-based sample of adults (N = 83) with sickle cell disease (SCD). The Sickle Cell Self-Efficacy Scale (SCSES) was comprised of nine questions relating to participants' perceptions of their ability to function on a day-to-day basis and to manage SCD symptomatology (e.g. episodes of pain). The SCSES demonstrated good internal consistency, discriminant validity, and convergent and predictive validity, both with previously validated measures of related constructs as well as with reported SCD symptomatology. Overall, the instrument appears to be reliable and valid for assessing clients' self-efficacy for engaging successfully in day-to-day activities despite having SCD. Future investigators may wish to examine temporal and causal links between alterations in self-efficacy and changes in adjustment to sickle cell disease; the SCSES provides a psychometrically sound tool with which to investigate these phenomena.