Changing the Academic Integrity Climate on Campus Using a Technology-Based Intervention

This article focuses on the use of a technology-based intervention to change academic integrity (AI) knowledge and attitudes. Using a sample of more than 5,000 freshman students drawn from two major midwestern universities in the United States over a 3-year period, an online intervention was used to determine whether AI knowledge and attitudes could be changed. Based the results of this study, AI knowledge and attitudes can be improved using an online intervention. These results contribute to a better understanding of the AI climate on campus and suggest that technology-based interventions can be used to enhance knowledge and change attitudes toward AI on campus.     

The effect of belief in weight controllability on anti-fat attitudes: An experimental manipulation

IntroductionAnti-fat attitudes reflect a type of discrimination on the basis of body weight and are one of the last accepted types of social stigma.ObjectiveTo evaluate the effect of exposure to priming messages about the causes of obesity on attitudes toward fat people.MethodParticipants (n = 580, M age = 22.19, 64.1% female) were randomly assigned to one of three possible conditions and then provided responses on three AFA subscales: Dislike, Fear of fat, and Willpower.ResultsPriming participants with messages confirming/challenging the weight controllability belief was associated with higher/lower levels on Willpower respectively compared to the control group. Unexpectedly, participants in both confirming and challenging groups showed significantly higher scores on Fear of fat. No differences were found on scores indicating Dislike.ConclusionThe current findings emphasize the effect of exposure to information about the causes of obesity on weight controllability beliefs.     

The effect of diabetes knowledge and attitudes on self-management and quality of life among people with type 2 diabetes

We examined the effect of diabetes knowledge and attitudes on self-management and quality of life (QoL) of people with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). We employed a cross-sectional study design. A total of 137 female and 129 male participants with T2DM completed the diabetes knowledge scale (DKN), Diabetes Integration Scale-19 (ATT19), Summary of Diabetes Self-care Activities (SDSCA) scale, and Diabetes Quality of Life (DQoL) scale, measuring diabetes knowledge, attitudes, self-management, and QoL respectively. The SDSCA scale measures diet, exercise, blood glucose monitoring, and foot care. The DQoL scale measures satisfaction and impact of QoL. An initial path model that tested the inter-relationships of the study variables was first identified based on previous research. Then, the path model was tested using Mplus 7.3. In the final model, diabetes knowledge was a significant predictor of attitudes and self-management in terms of blood glucose monitoring and foot care. Attitudes was a significant predictor of impact of QoL. Self-management in terms of blood glucose monitoring was a significant predictor of impact of QoL and diet was a significant predictor of satisfaction and impact of QoL. Exercise and foot care aspects of Self-management were significant predictors of satisfaction and impact of QoL respectively. The final model showed a good fit to the data: RMSEA = .045 (90% CI: .009, .071; Clfit = .601), CFI = .950, SRMR = .058. The findings suggest a theoretical basis to direct the development of appropriate health programs and interventions for improving QoL in people with T2DM and warrant replication in diverse samples.     

Exploring social television,opinion leaders,and Twitter audience reactions to Diane Sawyer's coming out interview with Caitlyn Jenner

With increasing visibility in both fictional and nonfictional media, transgender individuals have become a staple of the media landscape. Nonetheless, the general public has been slow to warm to transgender individuals and the rights of this community of people. The present study explored the audience reception to Caitlyn Jenner's coming out interview with Diane Sawyer. Examining Twitter conversations as part of a social television experience, this paper focuses on the types of words and phrases used in response to the interview, the themes that were present in the conversation, and the opinion leaders who helped to shape the discussion. Co-occurrence of themes was also explored. Results indicated an overwhelmingly positive response from live tweeters watching Jenner's coming out interview, led by a small but influential group of celebrities and media personalities such as Oprah Winfrey and Perez Hilton. Top themes included support, gender, journey to truth, family drama, and bravery. The results are positioned within an exploration of the social nature of television viewing and reception of transgenderism by mainstream audiences.     

Consequences of discrepant explicit and implicit attitudes: Cognitive dissonance and increased information processing

Attitudes research has shown that evaluations assessed directly (explicit attitudes) and indirectly (implicit attitudes) can diverge for many reasons. However, only recently has work begun to examine the phenomenology of experiencing discrepant explicit and implicit attitudes, and a number of important questions remain unanswered. What are the consequences of explicit-implicit attitude discrepancies on information processing? What psychological states accompany these discrepancies, and can they account for behavior? In two experiments, the current work examined whether dissonance-related discomfort results from discrepant explicit and implicit attitudes and considered its role in directing subsequent information processing. Dissonance and additional information processing were observed in experimental conditions where explicit and implicit attitudes diverged (and increased dissonance-related discomfort accounted for greater information processing; Experiment 1), but they were eliminated by a manipulation that reduced dissonance (i.e., self-affirmation; Experiment 2). The role of cognitive dissonance in explicit-implicit attitude inconsistencies and information processing is discussed.     

The stereotype rebound effect: Universal or culturally bounded process?

Stereotype rebound occurs when people experience an increase in stereotype use following attempts to suppress them. Two studies were conducted to examine cultural variability in the rebound effect. We hypothesized that, due to their experience suppressing unwanted thoughts, people from collectivist cultures would be less likely to experience the rebound effect than would people from individualist cultures. In both studies, U.S. and Chinese participants wrote two stories about gay men that were coded for stereotype use. Participants in the suppression condition were instructed to not to use stereotypes in their first story. As predicted, in both studies, U.S. participants in the suppression condition showed an increase in stereotype use in the second story, but Chinese participants did not. Potential explanations for cultural differences in the stereotype rebound effect are discussed.     

All in this together? Group representations and policy support

The present research explored the relationship between how Canadians perceived the quality of intergroup contact with Americans and their support for different antiterrorism policies, considering the potential mediating role of intergroup representations specified in the Common Ingroup Identity Model. Canadian students (n = 360) completed questionnaires that assessed their perceptions of the quality of intergroup contact with Americans, group representations, and reactions to various policies tied to the war against terror. Specifically, we tested a model of how perceptions of the quality of intergroup contact, along the dimensions specified by the Contact Hypothesis, predict different representations of the two groups (Canadians and Americans), and then how these different representations predict reactions to antiterrorist policies. Structural equation modeling analysis supported the predictions, revealing the pivotal role of group representations for policy views.     

The Effects of Contact with Asians and Asian Americans on White American College Students: Attitudes, Awareness of Racial Discrimination, and Psychological Adjustment

On the basis of acculturation theory, explicating mutual influences between different cultural or ethnic groups coming into contact, this study focused "on the other side of acculturation" theory by examining the effects of intercultural contact with Asians and Asian Americans on the psychosocial experiences of White American college students. Participants (N = 315), undergraduates attending a public university located within the state of Massachusetts, completed a survey that assessed demographic and personal characteristics, acculturation (extent of intercultural contact with Asian people and Asian cultures), attitudes towards Asians and Asian Americans, awareness of institutional discrimination and blatant racial issues, and psychological distress. Results indicated that White American students' intercultural contact with Asians and Asian Americans contributed significant variance to the prediction of their attitudes towards this ethnic group and awareness of discrimination and racial issues, but not to psychological distress. This study provides implications for understanding mutual acculturative influences between different ethnic groups in the United States.     

The structure of feared social situations among individuals with a lifetime diagnosis of social anxiety disorder in two independent nationally representative mental health surveys

The present study employed both exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic approaches with nationally representative samples of individuals with a lifetime diagnosis of social anxiety disorder (n=1123; n=3091, respectively) using split-halves of the National Comorbidity Replication Survey (n=9282) and cross-validated with the Canadian Community Health Survey on Mental Health and Wellbeing (n=36,984). Strong support was found for a three-factor solution. This model was obtained from exploratory factor analysis and was further evaluated using two confirmatory factor analytic investigations in the two national samples. The three social situational domains reflected (1) Social Interaction Fears, (2) Observation Fears, and (3) Public Speaking Fears. Individuals with generalized social anxiety disorder (i.e., those who endorsed 7 or more of 13 feared social situations assessed in the survey) were significantly more likely to report Social Interaction Fears and Observation Fears compared to individuals with non-generalized social anxiety disorder (i.e., those who endorsed only 6 or fewer of 13 feared social situations). Individuals with generalized social anxiety were particularly characterized by combinations of Public Speaking Fears plus Social Interaction Fears and Observation Fears. The clinical and classification implications of our study for DSM-V are discussed.     

Simmering in the Soviet pot: language heterogeneity in early Soviet socio-linguistics

At the beginning of the ’30s—the period of lively debates on the relation between language and society—one of the main issues in linguistics was language heterogeneity. On the example of the texts by Boris Larin, Georgij Danilov and Lev Jakubinskij we shall compare two attitudes about unity and division of a language. If the studies by Larin and Danilov in various ways establish divisions in society and language at the end of the ’20s, in the ’30s there is a marked tendency to recognize language unity and the cohesiveness of the proletarian society, as seen in socio-linguistic analyses by Jakubinskij. The conclusion, suggested at the end of this exposition, claims that the idea of one national language grows in importance in the discourse of the Soviet linguistics at the beginning of 1930s. Disappearance of the contemporary language heterogeneity in the discourse of Soviet linguists of the period corroborates how linguistics adapts to the political conceptions of society.