Creating Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual,and Transgender Allies: Testing a Model of Privilege Investment

Participants were assigned to 1 of 4 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ally‐development conditions; then, they completed measures of prejudice and propensity for social justice behavior. A structural equation model uncovered that propensity for social justice behavior was negatively related to prejudice and positively related to the emotional impact of experiences with discrimination in other domains of identity. Women, people of color, and individuals of lower social classes had the highest propensity for social justice behavior and the lowest prejudice.     

Examining Biases and White Privilege: Classroom Teaching Strategies That Promote Cultural Competence

This article will discuss in-depth how a variety of effective classroom teaching strategies have been employed to assist White counseling trainees in developing a non-racist White racial identity (i.e., by examining biases and exploring privilege) thereby increasing cultural competence. Specifically, this article will address the utility of implementing classroom teaching strategies that promote both cognitive understanding and affective processing of biases and White privilege for White trainees. It will outline the efficacy of specific didactic (e.g., lecture, videos, discussions, readings) and experiential (e.g., small group interviews, journaling, autobiographies, modeling) in creating a non-racist White racial identity, thereby promoting cultural competence.     

Neurocognitive correlates of white matter quality in adolescent substance users

Background

Progressive myelination during adolescence implicates an increased vulnerability to neurotoxic substances and enduring neurocognitive consequences. This study examined the cognitive manifestations of altered white matter microstructure in chronic marijuana and alcohol-using (MJ + ALC) adolescents.

Methods

Thirty-six MJ + ALC adolescents (ages 16–19) and 36 demographically similar controls were evaluated with diffusion tensor imaging (Bava et al., 2009) and neurocognitive tests. Regions of group difference in fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) were analyzed in relation to cognitive performance.

Results

In users, lower FA in temporal areas related to poorer performance on attention, working memory, and speeded processing tasks. Among regions where users had higher FA than controls, occipital FA was positively associated with working memory and complex visuomotor sequencing, whereas FA in anterior regions was negatively associated with verbal memory performance.

Conclusions

Findings suggest differential influences of white matter development on cognition in MJ + ALC using adolescents than in non-using peers. Neuroadaptation may reflect additive and subtractive responses to substance use that are complicated by competing maturational processes.     

White matter development during adolescence as shown by diffusion MRI

Previous volumetric developmental MRI studies of the brain have shown white matter development continuing through adolescence and into adulthood. This review presents current findings regarding white matter development and organization from diffusion MRI studies. The general trend during adolescence (age 12–18 years) is towards increasing fractional anisotropy (FA) with age and decreasing mean diffusivity (MD) with age, findings primarily due to decreasing radial diffusivity with age. However, results of studies vary as to the regional specificity of such age-related changes, likely due in part to methodological issues. Another general trend is for FA to positively correlate and MD to negatively correlate with cognitive function. This trend is however region-specific, task-specific, and population-specific; some studies have in fact found negative correlations of FA and positive correlations of MD in specific regions with specific measures of cognitive performance. There are also published reports of sexual dimorphism in white matter development, indicating differing developmental trajectories between males and females as well as differing relationships developmentally between white matter architecture and cognitive function. There is a need for more research to further elucidate the development of white matter and its relation to cognitive function during this critical developmental period.     

Challenges and Coping Mechanisms of Whites Committed to Antiracism

Scholars have cited an antiracist identity as an ideal development status for Whites seeking to change systemic racism (Helms, 1995 ). However, little is known regarding the lived complexities of antiracist work itself. This article examines the experiences of one group of Whites (N = 10) committed to antiracist action. Outcomes indicate challenges that include backlash and struggles to identify more effective antiracist tactics. Coping mechanisms are considered in relation to counseling and counselor training practices.     

History at the Table: Conflict in Planning in a Community in the Rural American South

This article is a case study of problems that emerged during the planning of an anti-poverty program in a community in the rural American South in the early 1990s. Issues of racism, sexism, and classism in the planning process are discussed as they are informed by the national welfare reform rhetoric of the time, a local context of historical and current White racism, and the historical and current identity positions of the local Black planners. The author argues that understanding local history is a vital component in planning and implementing social programs. The article offers an analysis of the deployment of power in the planning of social change projects that can be used to develop inclusive planning processes that are responsive to the needs of economically and socially oppressed populations.     

What should allies do? Identifying activist perspectives on the role of white allies in the struggle for racial justice in the United States

The present research examined the perspectives of both White and Black racial justice activists on the roles of White allies in the struggle for justice for Black people in the United States. Study 1 used Q methodology, a mixed-methods approach, which identified four distinct perspectives about the role of White allies from a sample of activists (33 White and 22 Black Americans): (1) mobilize to support Black leadership, (2) interpersonal activism, (3) avoid dominating Black people's efforts, and (4) lifelong learning. In Study 2, we interviewed activists (22 White and 12 Black Americans) to understand their evaluation of, and preference for, each of perspective identified in Study 1. Thematic analyses showed that each perspective had its pros and cons regarding considerations of how to best use ingroup advantages without dominating the movement. Our findings contribute to our understanding of potential tensions in solidarity-based social movements.     

The realization of absolute beauty: an interpretation of the fairytale Snow White

This paper interprets the fairytale Snow White (Bruder Grimm 1857) in terms of the realization of absolute beauty. Jung's understanding that ‘in myths and fairytales, as in dreams, the soul speaks about itself’ (Jung 1945, para. 400), underpins such an approach. From this perspective a fantasy image is not about us, not about our unconsciousness, but is essentially about itself. The idea of absolute beauty first arises in the Queen's mind as a wish. Despite the Queen's strong desire to be named as the most beautiful person in the world, her mirror reflects that it is actually her daughter Snow White who is the fairest. Snow White might be regarded in the language of Giegerich as her internal other. Effectively they are separated into the Real that conceives the idea of absolute beauty and the Ideal that embodies it. The exchange that takes place between the two – mediated by mirror and window – generates the corpse of surpassing beauty that never decays but lies inaccessible behind the glass coffin. However the loving and penetrating gaze of the Prince, representing masculinity, succeeds in reanimating Snow White. Thus the Prince as the Other that is completely external and unknown to both the Queen and Snow White, specifically to their femininity, facilitates the realization of absolute beauty as the Ideal in the Real.     

Pupillary activity while listening to verbal passages

Twelve college students were presented with neutral, pleasant, and unpleasant verbal passages each of 120 sec duration. Changes in pupil diameter before, during, and after each passage were continuously monitored. Dilation accompanied the pleasant and unpleasant passages relative to the neutral passage. No evidence for defensive pupillary constriction was found. Habituation occurred during periods of silence as well as during the stimulus passages. These results suggest that a study reported by Hess and Goodwin (1974) as demonstrating pupillary constriction to unpleasant visual material may be interpreted as reflecting differential habituation.