Intraindividual Variability of Neuromotor Function Predicts Falls Risk in Older Adults and those with Type 2 Diabetes

This study was designed to examine the effect of increasing age and type 2 diabetes on the average responses and inter- and intraindividual variability of falls risk, reaction time, strength, and walking speed for healthy older adults and older persons with type 2 diabetes (T2DM). Seventy-five older individuals (controls) and 75 persons with T2DM aged between 50 and 79 years participated in the study. Assessments of falls risk, reaction time (RT), knee extension strength, and walking speed were conducted. The results revealed that advancing age for both control and T2DM groups was reflected by a progressive increase in falls risk, decreased leg strength and a decline (i.e., slowing) of reactions and gait speed. Conversely, the level of intraindividual variability for the RT, strength and gait measures increased with increasing age for both groups, with T2DM persons tending to be more variable compared to the healthy controls of similar age. In contrast to the intraindividual changes, measures of interindividual variability revealed few differences between the healthy elderly and T2DM individuals. Taken together, the findings support the proposition that intraindividual variability of neuromotor measures may be useful as a biomarker for the early detection of decline in physiological function due to age or disease.     

Encountering Dissimilar Views in Deliberation: Political Knowledge,Attitude Strength,and Opinion Change

Conversing with diverse points of view stands as the central tenet of deliberative democracy, yet empirical evidence has suggested mixed outcomes related to perspective change as a result of deliberative encounters. I propose a difference‐driven model that suggests individual predispositions moderate the processing of dissimilar views when changing policy preferences. My analysis is based on a random sample of over 400 voters at a California‐wide deliberative event, where participants discussed proposals for reforming the state politics. I find that encountering more and different arguments transforms policy attitudes. Yet it is more difficult for people to change their minds on issues about which they hold strong beliefs. Some evidence suggests that different psychologies are at play for people who enter deliberation with substantial or weak political knowledge and for those who deliberate while holding strong or moderate prior opinions. Well‐grounded strong opinions are resistant to change, while well‐grounded moderate opinions are persuadable in deliberative groups. Uninformed positions can become entrenched in like‐minded groups, yet they can be adjusted once participants deliberate with dissimilar views, especially opinions that are held strongly without good informational ground. The findings urge deliberative forums that introduce participants to diverse perspectives to foster a considered public opinion.     

Fired Up by Morality: The Unique Physiological Response Tied to Moral Conviction in Politics

Studies provide mounting evidence that morally convicted attitudes elicit passionate and unyielding political responses. Questions remain, however, whether these effects occur because moral conviction is another strong, versus a distinctly moral dimension of attitude strength. Building on work in moral psychology and neuroscience, I argue that moral conviction stems from a distinctive mode of mental processing that is tied to automatic affective reactions. Testing this idea using a lab experiment designed to capture self‐reported moral conviction and physiological arousal, I find that conviction about political objects positively predicts arousal evoked by the objects, while attitude extremity and importance do not. These findings suggest that moral conviction items do tap into moral processing, helping to validate the conviction measure. They also illustrate the value of using physiological indicators to study politics, help explain why morally convicted attitudes trigger such fervent responses, and raise normative questions about political conflict and compromise.     

A new spin on losses looming larger than gains: asymmetric implicit associations from slot machine experience

Kahneman and Tversky's prospect theory states, among other things, that losses loom larger than gains. As much research as this simple idea has generated, key questions remain. How fundamental is the losses‐looming‐larger effect: will it emerge under more minimal circumstances than previously tested and will it manifest in implicit associations? And how does the actual experience of predominant losses or gains affect the losses‐looming‐larger effect? In two experiments employing non‐traditional methods, participants experienced slot machine spins in which symbols were paired with gain, loss, and neutral outcomes. After experiencing these pairings, participants took Implicit Association Tests (IATs). In Experiment 1, implicit associations formed by the minimal experience of the slot machine were lopsided: negative associations with the loss symbol were stronger than positive associations with the gain symbol. In addition, it was found that the extent to which losses loomed larger depended on the context of the slot machine experience, with losses looming implicitly larger than gains most when they were fewer in number (participants experienced a net‐gain) and least when they were the predominant outcome (participants experienced a net‐loss). Finally, in Experiment 2, a potential artifact was ruled out and a replication obtained by showing that slot machine losses implicitly loom larger whether conceptualized from the perspective of a casino player or a casino owner. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Redeeming Apartheid's Legacy: Collective Guilt, Political Ideology, and Compensation

This paper reports two studies among white South African students on feelings of collective guilt about apartheid and attitudes to affirmative action. Study 1 reports on 21 in-depth interviews, Study 2 on results from 180 survey questionnaires. Substantial proportions of the participants in both studies displayed feelings of collective guilt. Among participants in both studies who identified strongly with white South Africans, some displayed strong feelings of collective guilt while others displayed no such feelings. Our survey data suggest that political ideology functions as a moderator. Strong feelings of guilt were found among students who identified strongly with white South Africans and defined themselves as liberals. If they defined themselves as conservatives then no feelings of collective guilt were observed. Strong feelings of collective guilt were accompanied by positive attitudes toward affirmative action. The influence of political ideology on attitudes toward affirmative action was mediated by collective guilt.     

Attitudes related to child sexual abuse: scale construction and explorative study among psychologists

A Child Sexual Abuse Attitude and Belief Scale was constructed and then answered by 242 child psychologists. Four CSA related attitude and belief subscales were identified through confirmatory factor analysis: (1) The Disclosure subscale reflecting favouring a disclosure at any cost; (2) The Pro-Child subscale reflecting unconditional belief in children's reports; (3) The Intuition subscale reflecting favouring an intuitive approach to CSA investigations; and (4) The Anti Criminal Justice System subscale reflecting negative attitudes towards the legal system. Beliefs that were erroneous according to empirical research were analyzed separately. The results suggest that some psychologists hold extreme attitudes and many erroneous beliefs related to CSA. Some misconceptions are common. Female participants tended to have stronger attitudes than male participants. The more training in interviewing children the participants had had, the more erroneous beliefs and stronger attitudes they had. Experience did not affect attitudes and beliefs.     

Lexical Association and False Memory for Words in Two Cultures

This study examined the relationship between language experience and false memory produced by the DRM paradigm. The word lists used in Stadler, et al. (Memory & Cognition, 27, 494–500, 1999) were first translated into Chinese. False recall and false recognition for critical non-presented targets were then tested on a group of Chinese users. The average co-occurrence rate of the list word and the critical word was calculated based on two large Chinese corpuses. List–level analyses revealed that the correlation between the American and Taiwanese participants was significant only in false recognition. More importantly, the co-occurrence rate was significantly correlated with false recall and recognition of Taiwanese participants, and not of American participants. In addition, the backward association strength based on Nelson et al. (The University of South Florida word association, rhyme and word fragment norms, 1999) was significantly correlated with false recall of American participants and not of Taiwanese participants. Results are discussed in terms of the relationship between language experiences and lexical association in creating false memory for word lists.     

物质主义价值观、金钱态度与薪酬满意度的关系研究

运用问卷调查法探讨了物质主义价值观、金钱态度与薪酬满意度的关系。对329名社会人员（男149,女178）的调查结果表明：（1）物质主义价值观、金钱态度对薪酬满意度具有显著的预测作用;（2）金钱态度在物质主义价值观与薪酬满意度之间起调节作用。     

Protean attitude and career success: The mediating role of self-management

A protean career attitude is considered as an important determinant of career success in the contemporary career era. In this article we test a model in which we specify the relationships between protean career attitude, career self-management behaviors, career insight, and career success outcomes (career satisfaction and perceived employability). A survey was conducted among a sample of 289 employees. The results support the idea that a protean career attitude is a significant antecedent of career success and that this relationship is fully mediated by the development of career insight. The implications of these findings for understanding the process through which career attitude affects individuals’ career success are discussed.     

Subliminal exposure to faces and racial attitudes: Exposure to Whites makes Whites like Blacks less

Despite recent social and political advances, most interracial contact is still superficial in nature, and White individuals interact mainly with other Whites. Based on recent mere exposure research, we propose that repeated exposure to Whites may actually increase prejudice. In a series of experiments, White participants were subliminally exposed to White faces or nothing (control) and then completed various explicit and implicit measures of racial attitudes. Exposure to White faces consistently led to more prejudice by making attitudes toward Blacks more negative, rather than by making attitudes toward Whites more positive. A final experiment demonstrated that the pattern of increased prejudice following exposure to Whites was moderated by the strength of participants’ attitudes toward Whites. Only when White attitudes were strong did Black attitudes became more negative after exposure to White faces.