Talking to a (Segregation) Wall: Intergroup Contact and Attitudes Toward Normalization Among Palestinians From the Occupied Territories

This article examines how Palestinians' intergroup contact experiences relate to their attitudes towards interactions with Israelis (i.e., normalization). We draw on four recent advances in intergroup contact literature. First, recent research indicates that positive contact can impede disadvantaged groups' motivation to challenge inequalities. Second, increased endorsement of normalization mediates this sedative effect of positive contact on motivation to resist in the West Bank. Third, negative contact has been related to increased motivation for social change. Fourth, institutions and societal norms shape the meaning of intergroup contact and its effect on intergroup relations. We hypothesize that negative experiences at checkpoints can act as reminders of institutionalized inequalities and thus attenuate sedative effects. Furthermore, we explore the contextual boundary conditions of such reminder effects. Analyses of cross-sectional survey conducted among a representative sample (N = 1,000) in the West Bank including Jerusalem showed that (1) positive intergroup contact related to normalization endorsement (sedative effect), (2) negative intergroup contact related to decreased normalization endorsement (mobilizing effect), and (3) negative contact experiences (at checkpoints) canceled out the effect of positive contact (reminder effect), but only in Jerusalem. Results suggest that the impacts of intergroup contact need to be interpreted in light of institutionalized forms of group inequality and segregation.     

The influence of self‐efficacy,subjective norms,and risk perception on behavioral intentions related to the H1N1 flu pandemic: A comparison between Korea and the US

This study examined the extent to which individualism‐collectivism moderates the relative effects of agency control beliefs (i.e., self‐efficacy), social norms (i.e., subjective norms), and risk perception (perceived vulnerability and perceived severity) on behavioral intention to engage in self‐protection behavior in the context of the H1N1 flu pandemic. Using multistage stratified sampling, the present study sampled people from the US (n = 399) and Korea (n = 500), two countries that have been found to be prototypical of individualistic and collectivistic national cultures, respectively. Consistent with the contrast between individualism and collectivism, the results of moderated regression analyses showed that intrapersonal control beliefs (i.e., self‐efficacy) and risk perception (i.e., perceived severity) had stronger effects on behavioral intention in the American sample than in the Korean sample, whereas social norms (i.e., subjective norms) had a stronger predictive power for the Korean sample than for the American sample. Overall, the findings contribute to health and risk studies by specifying which aspects of risk perceptions or beliefs are affected by national culture and how this translates into cross‐national variations in health risk behavioral intention.     

Individualism and sociocultural adaptation: Discrimination and social capital as moderators among rural‐to‐urban migrants in China

This study examined the associations of sociocultural adaptation with individualism and collectivism and the moderating roles of discrimination and social capital in the associations among rural‐to‐urban migrants (N = 641) in Beijing, China. Results indicated that individualism was associated with poorer adaptation for migrants reporting low perceived discrimination or low social capital. However, migrants reporting high perceived discrimination showed poorer adaptation, regardless of individualism; and migrants reporting high social capital showed better adaptation, regardless of individualism. Collectivism was not related to adaptation. Findings suggest that individualism may be detrimental to migrants’ adjustment to a collectivistic society.     

Motor vehicle accidents and adolescents: An empirical study on their emotional and behavioral profiles,defense strategies and parental support

Background: Research has limitedly focused on adolescents’ emotional–behavioral functioning preceding road collisions and on the role of family support. Objective: To verify whether the rates of motorbikes collisions among adolescents are associated with their emotional–behavioral functioning, their use of specific defense strategies and family support. Method: N = 150 adolescents who visited an emergency department for road accidents were selected and completed self-report questionnaires assessing emotional–behavioral functioning, difficulty in identifying and describing emotions, use of defense strategies and perceived family support. Results: Higher rates of motorbike collisions are associated with more maladaptive emotional–behavioral functioning. Higher perceived family support is associated with lower rates of collisions. Conclusions: Recidivism of motor vehicle collision among adolescents can be considered as a form of acting-out caused by their psychological difficulties.     

What can megastudies tell us about the orthographic structure of English words?

Although the majority of research in visual word recognition has targeted single-syllable words, most words are polysyllabic. These words engender special challenges, one of which concerns their analysis into smaller units. According to a recent hypothesis, the organization of letters into groups of successive consonants (C) and vowels (V) constrains the orthographic structure of printed words. So far, evidence has been reported only in French with factorial studies of relatively small sets of items. In the present study, we performed regression analyses on corpora of megastudies (English and British Lexicon Project databases) to examine the influence of the CV pattern in English. We compared hiatus words, which present a mismatch between the number of syllables and the number of groups of adjacent vowel letters (e.g., client), to other words, controlling for standard lexical variables. In speeded pronunciation, hiatus words were processed more slowly than control words, and the effect was stronger in low-frequency words. In the lexical decision task, the interference effect of hiatus in low-frequency words was balanced by a facilitatory effect in high-frequency words. Taken together, the results support the hypothesis that the configuration of consonant and vowel letters influences the processing of polysyllabic words in English.     

Attachment insecurity as a moderator of cardiovascular arousal effects following dyadic support

We examine the cardiovascular arousal effects of emotional support receipt, and the moderation of these by the support recipient’s and provider’s attachment. Seventy couples engaged in a laboratory dyadic supportive interaction, while their ECG was monitored. With more emotional support, men with high attachment anxiety showed greater arousal reduction during the dyadic interaction, whereas men with low attachment anxiety showed less reduction; additionally, women coupled with partners with high attachment anxiety showed greater arousal reduction, whereas women coupled with partners with low attachment anxiety showed less reduction. Men and women with high attachment avoidance showed less arousal reduction, whereas those with low attachment avoidance showed greater reduction. These results highlight the differential ways in which support gets under the skin.     

How parents introduce new words to young children: The influence of development and developmental disorders

This study documents how parents weave new words into on-going interactions with children who are just beginning to speak. Dyads with typically developing toddlers and with young children with autism spectrum disorder and Down syndrome (n = 56, 23, and 29) were observed using a Communication Play Protocol during which parents could use novel words to refer to novel objects. Parents readily introduced both labels and sound words even when their child did not respond expressively or produce the words. Results highlight both how parents act in ways that may facilitate their child's appreciation of the relation between a new word and its referent and how they subtly adjust their actions to suit their child's level of word learning and specific learning challenges.     

Unpacking “evil”: Claiming the core of the Dark Triad

Understanding the nature of “evil” has been challenging for a number of reasons. A productive psychological approach to this problem has been to study antisocial traits associated with negative outcomes. One such approach has grouped together three antisocial personalities known as the “Dark Triad”: Machiavellianism, Narcissism, and Psychopathy. Researchers have proposed various models to account for the common core of these antisocial personalities – a core that might well be considered the psychological equivalent of the core of “evil” – and these models have not been directly compared, to date. We conducted two studies (total N > 700) to compare the utility of the various models using Canonical Correlation Analyses (CCAs). Results confirm that the HEXACO personality model (and, in particular, the Honesty–Humility factor) is not only the most theoretically parsimonious model, it also best accounts for the empirical overlap between these constructs that represents the core of the Dark Triad. Results also support the idea that the core of the Dark Triad represents an alternative life history strategy.     

Community violence exposure and callous–unemotional traits in adolescents: Testing parental support as a promotive versus protective factor

Although callous–unemotional (CU) traits are associated with maladjustment in youth, literature predicting CU using prospective designs is rare. In the present study we examine associations between exposure to community violence, supportive relationships with caregivers, and CU in a sample of 236 low-income youth (M age = 13.00 years, SD = 1.56 years; 43% male; 92% African American) participating in a 3-wave longitudinal study of violence exposure and adjustment. Both promotive and protective models of linkages between exposure to community violence, support, and CU were investigated. Given known sex differences in CU, sex was explored as a moderator. Regression analysis revealed that witnessing and hearing about community violence, aggregated over 2 waves, were positively associated with CU at the final study wave. Supportive relationships with caregivers, aggregated over 2 waves, were negatively associated with CU but did not interact with violence exposure, suggesting that supportive relationships with caregivers has a promotive but not a protective association with CU in the context of exposure to violence. The pattern of associations did not vary by sex. This study informs our understanding of factors that contribute to the development of CU.     

Grain orientation effects on delamination during fatigue of a sensitized Al–Mg alloy

Fatigue crack growth experiments were conducted in humid air (RH~45%) at 25 °C on 29-mm-thick plate samples of an aluminium–magnesium (Al–Mg) 5083-H131 alloy in the long transverse (LT) direction. Samples were tested in both the as-received condition and after sensitization at 175 °C for 100 h. Delamination along some grain boundaries was observed in the short transverse plane after fatigue testing of the sensitized material, depending upon the level of ΔK and K_max. Orientation microscopy using electron backscattering diffraction and chemical analyses using transmission electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy of grain boundaries revealed that Mg segregation and the orientation of grains had key roles in the observed grain boundary delamination of the sensitized material.