If “Boys Will Be Boys,” Then Girls Will Be Victims? A Meta-Analytic Review of the Research That Relates Masculine Ideology to Sexual Aggression

In feminist sociocultural models of rape, extreme adherence to the masculine gender role is implicated in the perpetuation of sexual assault against women in that it encourages men to be dominant and aggressive, and it teaches that women are inferior to men and are sometimes worthy of victimization. Many researchers have linked components of masculine ideology to self-reports of past sexual aggression or future likelihood to rape. Thirty-nine effect sizes were examined in this meta-analysis across 11 different measures of masculine ideology to determine how strongly each index of masculine ideology was associated with sexual aggression. Although 10 of the 11 effect sizes were statistically significant, the 2 largest effects were for Malamuth's construct of “hostile masculinity” (e.g., Malamuth, Sockloskie, Koss, & Tanaka, 1991) and Mosher's construct of “hypermasculinity” (e.g., Mosher & Sirkin, 1984), both of which measure multiple components of masculine ideology including acceptance of aggression against women and negative, hostile beliefs about women. The next strongest relationships concerned measures of agreement that men are dominant over women and measures of hostility toward women. Scores on general measures of gender-role adherence, such as the Bem Sex Role Inventory (Bem, 1974), were not strong predictors of sexual aggression. Sociocultural models that link patriarchal masculine id eology and situational factors to sexual aggression should prove most predictive in future research.     

Theory-of-mind development influences suggestibility and source monitoring

According to the mental-state reasoning model of suggestibility, 2 components of theory of mind mediate reductions in suggestibility across the preschool years. The authors examined whether theory-of-mind performance may be legitimately separated into 2 components and explored the memory processes underlying the associations between theory of mind and suggestibility, independent of verbal ability. Children 3 to 6 years old completed 6 theory-of-mind tasks and a postevent misinformation procedure. Contrary to the model's prediction, a single latent theory-of-mind factor emerged, suggesting a single-component rather than a dual-component conceptualization of theory-of-mind performance. This factor provided statistical justification for computing a single composite theory-of-mind score. Improvements in theory of mind predicted reductions in suggestibility, independent of verbal ability (Study 1, n = 72). Furthermore, once attribution biases were controlled (Study 2, n = 45), there was also a positive relationship between theory of mind and source memory, but not recognition performance. The findings suggest a substantial, and possibly causal, association between theory-of-mind development and resistance to suggestion, driven specifically by improvements in source monitoring.     

Posttraumatic stress symptoms following childbirth and mothers' perceptions of their infants

Postpartum psychological distress can adversely affect the early mother–infant relationship; however, this has not been investigated in relation to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following childbirth. This article explores whether PTSD symptoms relating to labor and delivery are associated with mothers' early perceptions of their infant. Using labor and childbirth as the stressor criterion, 211 women were assessed at 6 weeks' postpartum for symptoms of intrusions, avoidance, and hyperarousal. Their perceptions of their infants, of mother‐to‐infant attachment, and infant behavioral characteristics also were evaluated. In sum, 3.8% of the women fulfilled full diagnostic criteria, and a further 21.3% reported clinically significant symptoms on at least one dimension of PTSD. Those meeting full or partial criteria perceived their attachment relationships to be significantly less optimal and reported more negative maternal representations in terms of their infants being less warm and more invasive. They also rated them as being temperamentally more difficult, prone to distress, and less easy to soothe. However, when the effects of depression were partialled, only the effect for perceived warmth remained. Posttraumatic stress symptoms relating to labor and delivery may adversely influence maternal perceptions of infants, with potentially adverse implications for the developing mother–infant relationship. The overlap with depressive symptoms requires further exploration.     

Gender, Perceptions of Incentive Value, and Cardiovascular Response to a Performance Challenge

One hundred fifteen US undergraduates primarily of African and European heritage were presented an easy or difficult memory challenge and led to believe they could secure a traditionally feminine incentive by meeting it. As expected, heart rate responses during the work period were stronger under difficult- than easy conditions among women, but low under both difficulty conditions among men. Systolic- and diastolic blood pressure responses during the period were similar except that they were relatively elevated in men under both difficulty conditions. Findings support the suggestion that gender effects in studies of cardiovascular response to performance challenge may be partially understood in terms of effort processes occurring where men and women place different value on available performance incentives.     

Changing the criterion for memory conformity in free recall and recognition

People's responses during memory studies are affected by what other people say. This memory conformity effect has been shown in both free recall and recognition. Here we examine whether accurate, inaccurate, and suggested answers are affected similarly when the response criterion is varied. In the first study, participants saw four pictures of detailed scenes and then discussed the content of these scenes with another participant who saw the same scenes, but with a couple of details changed. Participants were either told to recall everything they could and not to worry about making mistakes (lenient), or only to recall items if they were sure that they were accurate (strict). The strict instructions reduced the amount of inaccurate information reported that the other person suggested, but also reduced the number of accurate details recalled. In the second study, participants were shown a large set of faces and then their memory recognition was tested with a confederate on these and fillers. Here also, the criterion manipulation shifted both accurate and inaccurate responses, and those suggested by the confederate. The results are largely consistent with a shift in response criterion affecting accurate, inaccurate, and suggested information. In addition we varied the level of secrecy in the participants' responses. The effects of secrecy were complex and depended on the level of response criterion. Implications for interviewing eyewitnesses and line-ups are discussed.     

The Utility of the SASSI‐3 in Early Detection of Substance Use Disorders in Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity Acquittees: An Exploratory Study

Previous studies have shown the Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory‐3 (G. Miller, 1999) to be valid in classifying substance use disorders in forensic and mentally ill populations. The authors found that it also correctly classified substance use disorders in the understudied not guilty by reason of insanity population.     

Individual differences in learning the affective value of others under minimal conditions

This paper provides the first demonstration that people can learn about the positive and negative value of other people (e.g., neutral faces) under minimal learning conditions, with stable individual differences in this learning. In four studies, participants viewed neutral faces paired with sentences describing positive, negative or neutral behaviors on either two (Study 1) or four (Studies 2, 3, and 4) occasions. Participants were later asked to judge the valence of the faces alone. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that learning does occur under minimal conditions. Study 3 and 4 further demonstrated that the degree of learning was moderated by Extraversion. Finally, Study 4 demonstrated that initial learning persisted over a period of 2 days. Implications for affective processing and person perception are discussed.     

Examining mixed unknown distributions (mud)

A function, written in R, for testing whether the distribution of responses in one condition can be considered a combination of the distributions from two other conditions is described. The important aspect of this function is that it does not make any assumptions about the shape of the distributions. It is based o nthe Kolmogorov-Smirnov D statistic. The function also allows the user to test more specific and, hence, more statistically powerful hypotheses. One hypothesis, that the mixture does not capture the middle third of the distribution, is included as a built-in option, and code is provided so that other alternatives can easily be run. A power analysis reveals that the function is most likely to detect a difference between the combined conditions' distribution and the other distribution when the center of the other distribution is near the midpoint of the two original distributions. Critical p values are estimated for each set of distributions, using bootstrap methods. An example from human memory research, exploring the blending hypothesis of the misinformation effect, is used for illustrative purposes.