The Role of Teachers' Social-Emotional Competence in Their Beliefs About Peer Victimization

One hundred fifty preservice teachers and 25 in-service teachers were surveyed to examine whether mental representations of relationships, confidence about managing bullying, empathy toward victims, and emotional expressiveness were associated with their peer victimization-related beliefs. Teachers' confidence about managing bullying was positively associated with their prosocial peer beliefs. In addition, the belief that the distress that children experience as a result of being victimized should be dismissed was negatively related to teachers' positive representations. Teachers' reports of positive emotional expressiveness were negatively related to normative, assertive, avoidance, and dismissive victimization-related beliefs and positively related to prosocial peer beliefs. In contrast, teachers' reports of negative emotional expressiveness were negatively related to prosocial peer beliefs and avoidance victimization-related beliefs. In-service teachers reported slightly higher positive expressiveness than preservice teachers did. Minority teachers reported higher scores for positive expressiveness, empathy, and lower negative classroom expressiveness than nonminority teachers did. Implications of these findings for practice are discussed.     

Teachers' knowledge about adolescents: an interview study

This paper presents the results of an interview study of twelve high school teachers to ascertain their general knowledge about adolescents, as well as their knowledge of issues important to adolescents. The results were as follows: (a) teachers lacked knowledge about what adolescents in previous studies have referred to as important issues in their lives; (b) teachers' general knowledge about adolescents was mainly based on experiential, as opposed to theoretical, knowledge; and (c) teachers were not interested in theoretical knowledge about normal adolescent development. These results are discussed in relationship to the Swedish school system, as well as their relationship to teacher training, which traditionally has focused on the what and how aspects of teaching, not on the aspect of whom one is teaching.     

A Qualitative Investigation of Somali Immigrant Perceptions of Disability: Implications for Genetic Counseling

This study examined the potential utility of genetic counseling services for Somali immigrants by investigating their perceptions of disability. Five Somali women participated in structured interviews that assessed their perceptions of the nature, causes, and impact of disability, and care for persons with disabilities. Using a Heideggerian Hermeneutics qualitative method of analysis, six major themes emerged: (1) disability refers to both physical and mental conditions, with mental disability generally thought of first and as more severe; (2) in Somalia, the family cares for disabled family members, treating them as if they were normal (3) there are major cultural differences between Somalia and the United States in how persons with disabilities are treated; (4) caring for a person with a disability is stressful for the family; (5) Allah determines whether or not a child will be disabled, and this cannot be predicted or altered; and (6) family is the primary life focus, and therefore, risk of disability does not affect reproductive decisions. These themes suggest that traditional genetic counseling may have limited utility for Somali immigrants. We recommend several modifications to traditional genetic counseling for Somali patients that also may be useful for populations that have similar beliefs.     

Perceiving couples as discrete units: The existence of couple-level identities

The present studies examined the often-implicit notion that people think about couples as discrete entities, distinct from the individuals therein—a concept we refer to as couple-level identities. Findings suggest that people perceive both their own and other couples as distinct units (Study 1) that can possess dyadic qualities unique from those of either couple member. Exploring the implications of these identities, Studies 2 and 3 examined how couple-level identities (beyond the identities of the individuals) influence social judgment (e.g., cognitive biases). Finally, Study 4's findings suggest that perceptions of discrete couple-level identities are natural parts of everyday social cognition. Together, results suggest the need to consider couple-level identities in research on the self, social perception, and close relationships.     

Perceptions of inferred parental ability through sexually dimorphic facial features

In addition to providing robust cues diagnostic of prospective mates' heritable fitness, various physical features could be similarly utilized in inferring individuals' parental abilities. This study sought to explore how variations in sexually dimorphic facial features inform perceptions of social targets as motivated to provide parental care. American undergraduates (N = 244) viewed a series of 12 total male and female faces manipulated at varying degrees of sex-typicality (i.e., masculinized versus feminized versus unaltered controls) on a within-subjects basis, and rated the perceived motivation of each target to nurture and protect a child using items derived from the Parental Care and Tenderness Scale. Female targets were perceived as more motivated by parental care than male targets, F(1, 240) = 14.86, p < .001, η_p² = 0.058, whereas male targets were perceived as specifically motivated to protect offspring, F(1, 240) = 177.32, p < .001, η_p² = 0.425. Feminized targets were additionally perceived as more motivated by nurturance, though such inferences were apparent for both male and female targets, F(1, 240) = 7.36, p < .001, η_p² = 0.058. Findings represent an understanding of perceivers use of functional heuristics of sexual dimorphism in identifying optimal parents.     

The use of augmentative alternative communication in psychotherapy

The use of augmentative alternative communication (AAC) in psychotherapy is particularly important for psychotherapists who may have a disability related to speech-language production. The aim of our study was to examine the perceptions of using AAC in psychotherapy. We recruited 186 participants and randomly assigned them to either watch a video of a therapist using AAC or employing traditional talk psychotherapy. Subsequently, we asked participants to complete the Counsellor Rating Form-Short (CRF-S), respond to a question about behavioural intention to seek psychotherapy and complete the Working Alliance Inventory-Observer form (WAI-O). Most participants perceived the use of AAC to be related to the therapist having a disability. The use of AAC had higher ratings on the CRF-S and higher scores on the WAI-O. There were no significant differences in behavioural intention between the therapist using AAC or traditional talk psychotherapy. The use of AAC is a viable option for psychotherapy and is beneficial. Psychotherapists with a disability affecting speech-language production may opt to use AAC as others perceive the therapist positively, the alliance is rated higher and therapists do not need to be concerned with patients not wanting to seek out their services.     

From model minority to yellow peril: How threat perceptions and disgust predict anti-Asian prejudice during COVID-19

During the COVID-19 pandemic, hate crimes against Asians sharply increased in the United States. We investigated whether the threat of contracting COVID-19 and specific negative emotions (disgust, anxiety, fear, and anger) regarding COVID-19 predicted anti-Asian prejudice in a 3-wave longitudinal study of non-Asian American adults (N = 486) in the early days of the pandemic in 2020. In all 3 timepoints, participants who believed that they may have already contracted COVID and those who expressed greater disgust reported more anti-Asian attitudes, evaluated Asians as less than human, tolerated anti-Asian prejudice, and blamed Asians for spreading COVID-19. In a well-fitting longitudinal path model, we found longitudinal evidence for these associations, such that the belief that one had already contracted COVID-19 in March 2020 predicted greater disgust one month later, in April 2020, which in turn predicted greater anti-Asian prejudice in May 2020.     

Contagious or prosocial? Perceptions of mask-wearers toward Whites and Asians: A cross-cultural comparison during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a worldwide increase in the use of face masks to prevent viral transmission. However, as mask-wearing was a new behavior in many countries, there was a limited understanding of how mask-wearers are perceived and how such perceptions impact one's own mask-wearing behavior. Mask-wearers may be seen as contagious or prosocial, and these perceptions may vary based on the race of the mask-wearer and the country of the observer, particularly given the rise in pandemic-related anti-Asian rhetoric in the U.S. In three experiments (N = 579), we investigated these questions, conducting two studies in the United States (May and July 2020), where mask-wearing was new and anti-Asian rhetoric has been prevalent, and one study in South Korea (November 2020), where mask-wearing was relatively common. Results indicate that masked individuals are perceived as less contagious and more prosocial, regardless of target race or participant nation. These perceptions were more pronounced among American political liberals, Americans who are more sensitive to infection transmission (Study 2), and Koreans who self-perceived a greater vulnerability to infection (Study 3). Especially in the U.S., perceiving the masked target as more prosocial predicted more self-reported mask-wearing, while perceiving the masked target as more contagious and less prosocial predicted less mask-wearing (Study 2). These findings provide insights into social perceptions of masks and race during the pandemic.     

Teaching Students to Recruit Positive Attention: A Review and Recommendations

Positive teacher attention and praise are powerful influences on student performance in the classroom. But the classroom is a very busy place, a place where important efforts by students can easily go unnoticed. In such instances, an existing and potentially effective natural contingency of reinforcement is asleep and needs to be woken up. Teaching students how to recruit positive teacher attention is one way to activate dormant contingencies of reinforcement and help students take a proactive role in their learning. This paper reviews the recruiting research to date, discusses implications for practitioners, proposes a recruitment training package including strategies for promoting generalization of recruiting skills, and offers recommendations for future research.