Life Satisfaction Among Recent Immigrants in Canada: Comparisons to Source-Country and Host-Country Populations

Research examining how changes in life circumstances affect subjective well-being has been dominated by set-point theory. New evidence challenges the assumptions of this theory, indicating that major life events can result in lasting changes to individuals’ life satisfaction. This study examines whether changes in national-level conditions following migration affect the life satisfaction of immigrant groups from different source countries by comparing the average life satisfaction levels of immigrant groups to that of non-emigrants in their source countries. Life satisfaction differences between immigrant groups and the native-born population in Canada are also examined. Results show that migration to a country with improved national-level conditions increases immigrants’ life satisfaction. Most immigrant groups had higher life satisfaction than their source-country counterparts and life satisfaction scores were similar to those of the native-born population. These findings persist when the sample includes immigrants who have resided in Canada for up to 20 years.     

Female first,leader second? Gender bias in the encoding of leadership behavior

In the current paper we investigate whether gender affects the encoding of leadership behavior. In three studies we found evidence that perceivers had difficulty encoding leadership behaviors into their underlying prototypical leadership traits when the behavior implied an agentic trait and the behavior was enacted by a female. Using a lexical decision making task, in Study 1 we demonstrated that agentic leadership traits were less accessible than communal leadership traits when the leader was female. Additionally, Study 1 also demonstrated that agentic traits were less accessible when the leader was female versus male. In Studies 2a and 2b, we replicated the differences we found for agentic leadership behaviors using perceiver’s self-ratings as the dependent variable. Results are discussed both in terms of their implications for future research on gender bias in leadership and their practical implications for eliminating gender bias against females who aspire to leadership positions.     

Modeling the Gender Difference in Depression: A Commentary on Cambron, Acitelli, and Pettit

In reviewing Cambron, Acitelli, and Pettit’s interpersonal contingent self-esteem model of the gender difference in depression, we applaud their domain-match vulnerability-stress approach as well as their specification of the processes mediating self-esteem and depression. However, we argue that models of the gender difference in depression must address five key points in order to provide compelling and meaningful explanations. Such models should: consider that vulnerability, stress, or vulnerability-stress interactions may vary across domains; articulate the processes by which stress-reactive negative affect develops into depressive symptoms; take a developmental approach; be sensitive to social and political implications; and provide clear hypotheses regarding the mediating and moderating mechanisms implicated in the model. These suggestions apply to all researchers interested in explaining the gender difference in depression.     

Look there! The effect of perspective,attention, and instructions on how people understand recorded police encounters

Now more than ever, body cameras, surveillance footage, dash‐cam footage, and bystanders with phones enable people to see for themselves officer and civilian behavior and determine the justifiability of officers' actions. This paper examines whether the camera perspective from which people watch police encounters influences the conclusions that people draw. Consistent with recent findings showing that body camera footage leads people to perceive officers' actions as less intentional (Turner, Caruso, Dilich, & Roese, 2019), our first study demonstrates that participants who watched body‐camera footage, compared with people who watched surveillance footage of the same encounter, perceived the officer's behavior as being more justified and made more lenient punishment decisions. In our second study, only one of the four police encounters that participants watched led participants to perceive the officer more favorably when they watched body‐camera footage compared with bystander footage. Our results demonstrate that some body‐camera footage—specifically videos that capture an officer using his or her body to apprehend a civilian—can lead to biased perceptions of police encounters that benefit the officer. Our findings suggest that this occurs because: (i) in body‐camera footage, the civilian is the more easily visible figure, thus making less salient the officer's role in the encounter; and (ii) the body camera—attached to an officer's uniform—is unable to adequately capture certain use of force movements that are important in determining an officer's intent.     

The impact of hedged testimony on judgments of credibility

We tested whether people are attuned to critical memory factors, such as age at the timing of encoding and hedge words when judging the credibility of testimony. In two experiments, participants read a 19‐year‐old's testimony regarding a sexual assault. We manipulated whether participants learned that the assault occurred 4 years ago (when the claimant was 15 years old) or 15 years ago (when the claimant was 4 years old) and whether the claimant used hedge words in her testimony. In Experiment 2, we included a cross‐examination. Without the cross‐examination, participants rated the testimony as more credible when the assault had occurred 15 years ago. However, with the inclusion of a cross‐examination, participants rated the testimony more reliable when the event occurred 4 years ago and the claimant did not use hedge words. We discuss the implications our results have, particularly for historical cases, where memory is a key factor.     

Infant mental health home visiting in the context of an infant—toddler court team: Changes in parental responsiveness and reflective functioning

This article describes an infant–toddler court team in Michigan, the community-based participatory research approach to the implementation evaluation, and the resulting changes in parenting. Like other court teams, Michigan's Baby Court is led by a science-informed jurist, and all service providers are knowledgeable about the developmental needs of young children and engage in collaborative communication throughout the case. Relationship-based treatment in the form of infant mental health home-visiting was provided to families. Sixteen parents participated in pre- and posttest evaluation visits to assess changes in parents’ reflective functioning and interactions with their child. Findings suggest improvements in parents’ responsiveness, positive affect, and reflective functioning, with moderate effects. Higher risk parents demonstrated significant changes in reflective functioning, as compared to those at lower risk. These findings add to and support the limited literature on the effectiveness of infant–toddler court teams, which include relationship-based and trauma-informed services.     

The animate–inanimate distinction in preschool children

This study examined the development of the animate–inanimate (A–I) distinction in relation to other taxonomic categories in early childhood. Four‐ and 5‐year‐old children were administered two tasks measuring knowledge of taxonomic categories at various levels of inclusiveness. Across both matching‐to‐sample and object sorting tasks, the same pattern of categorization development was observed. Mastery of basic‐ and superordinate‐level categories was demonstrated by 4 years of age. Although 5‐year‐old children performed above chance on A–I level categories, their abilities were not as mature as those of adults. Results of this study support and extend previous studies investigating the development of children's understanding of naïve biology during the preschool years.