Implicit Theories of Common Health Conditions Held by Indian Social Workers and Students

Social work is viewed as a change-related profession. However, little is known about social workers’ own beliefs about change. To understand this, we used the implicit theory paradigm to compare theories about various health conditions held by social workers, social work students, and undergraduate students from Bombay, India (N = 352). The participants had to assess the possibility of change in four health conditions: cancer, tuberculosis, depression, and mental retardation. We predicted that social workers whose professional education involves concepts such as Person-in-Environment would display more incremental views of these conditions than students – namely that they are modifiable. Our predictions were supported for the following conditions: cancer, tuberculosis, and depression. These incremental views were neither related to age nor years of professional experience. Though we expected that the extent to which participants believed these health issues to be amenable to change would influence their support for a small personal tax, our findings did not bear this out. We explore the possible reasons for our findings and discuss their implications for health communication in India as well as for social work education.     

The Organization of Extrinsic Neurons and Their Implications in the Functional Roles of the Mushroom Bodies in Drosophila melanogaster Meigen

Although the importance of the Drosophila mushroom body in olfactory learning and memory has been stressed, virtually nothing is known about the brain regions to which it is connected. Using Golgi and GAL4–UAS techniques, we performed the first systematic attempt to reveal the anatomy of its extrinsic neurons. A novel presynaptic reporter construct, UAS-neuronal synaptobrevin–green fluorescent protein (n-syb–GFP), was used to reveal the direction of information in the GAL4-labeled neurons. Our results showed that the main target of the output neurons from the mushroom body lobes is the anterior part of the inferior medial, superior medial, and superior lateral protocerebrum. The lobes also receive afferents from these neuropils. The lack of major output projections directly to the deutocerebrum’s premotor pathways discourages the view that the role of the mushroom body may be that of an immediate modifier of behavior. Our data, as well as a critical evaluation of the literature, suggest that the mushroom body may not by itself be a “center” for learning and memory, but that it can equally be considered as a preprocessor of olfactory signals en route to “higher” protocerebral regions.     

Consumers’ Responses to Negative Word‐of‐Mouth Communication: An Attribution Theory Perspective

Research on negative word‐of‐mouth communication (WOMC) in general, and the process by which negative WOMC affects consumers’ brand evaluations in particular, has been limited. This study uses attribution theory to explain consumers’ responses to negative WOMC. Experimental results suggest that (a) causal attributions mediate the negative WOMC‐brand evaluation relation, (b) receivers’ attributions depend on the manner in which the negative WOMC is conveyed, and (c) brand name affects attributions. Results also suggest that when receivers attribute the negativity of the WOMC message to the brand, brand evaluations decrease; however, if receivers attribute the negativity to the communicator, brand evaluations increase.     

Beliefs about Chastity, Machismo, and Caste Identity: A Cultural Psychology of Gender

The study was conducted with a community sample (N = 1118) of participants from three caste groups (Brahmins, Thevars, and Gounders) from villages that are reported to have an extremely male-biased sex ratio in Tamilnadu, India. Chastity, Machismo, and Caste Identity scales were used to assess cultural beliefs about gender and caste. The correlations among beliefs about caste identity, chastity, and machismo were significant for all three caste groups. There was a significant difference between Brahmins and the other caste groups in beliefs about caste, chastity, and machismo. There was a significant interaction among marital status and gender. Married men’s scores on chastity and machismo were higher than unmarried men for all caste groups. Thevars and Gounders were high on machismo and chastity. Women in all caste groups, particularly Thevar women, were high on caste identity. The implications of the findings for the study of gender and immigration are discussed.     

Engendering Immigrant Psychology: An Intersectionality Perspective

In this paper, using an intersectionality perspective, we tested the idealized cultural identities model proposed by Mahalingam (Cultural psychology of immigrants. Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ, pp 1–14, 2006) using a sample of Asian Americans (N?=?151). According to the structural model, idealized identities positively relate to ethnic pride, which is positively related to resilience. The data had excellent fit (Comparative Fitness Index?=?.99). Idealized patriarchal beliefs regarding femininity positively related to model minority pride (b?=?.34, p?<?.0001) and idealized patriarchal beliefs regarding masculinity were positively related to model minority pride (b?=?.29, p?<?.001). Additionally, model minority pride was positively related to resilience (b?=?.25, p?<?.001) which was negatively related to depression (b?=??.46, p?<?.0001). Further, we discuss the significance of the intersectionality perspective in studying immigrants.     

Central synaptic mechanisms underlie short-term olfactory habituation in Drosophila larvae

Naive Drosophila larvae show vigorous chemotaxis toward many odorants including ethyl acetate (EA). Chemotaxis toward EA is substantially reduced after a 5-min pre-exposure to the odorant and recovers with a half-time of ～20 min. An analogous behavioral decrement can be induced without odorant-receptor activation through channelrhodopsin-based, direct photoexcitation of odorant sensory neurons (OSNs). The neural mechanism of short-term habituation (STH) requires the (1) rutabaga adenylate cyclase; (2) transmitter release from predominantly GABAergic local interneurons (LNs); (3) GABA-A receptor function in projection neurons (PNs) that receive excitatory inputs from OSNs; and (4) NMDA-receptor function in PNs. These features of STH cannot be explained by simple sensory adaptation and, instead, point to plasticity of olfactory synapses in the antennal lobe as the underlying mechanism. Our observations suggest a model in which NMDAR-dependent depression of the OSN-PN synapse and/or NMDAR-dependent facilitation of inhibitory transmission from LNs to PNs contributes substantially to short-term habituation.     

Essentialism,Culture, and Beliefs About Gender Among the Aravanis of Tamil Nadu,India

The purpose of this study was to investigate the gender beliefs of the Aravanis, a transgender community in Tamil Nadu. Gender transgression and gender transformation (attempts to change gender) tasks were used to examine the essentialist notions of the Aravanis' beliefs about gender. A total of 100 Aravanis participated in the study. In the gender transgression task the Aravanis endorsed both male and female gender transgressions. In the gender transformation task the Aravanis believed in the male to female transformation but not in the female to male transformation. I argue that the asymmetry in the Aravanis' responses suggests that their beliefs about gender are consistent with Hindu patriarchal beliefs that feminine gender is essential and primordial, whereas masculine gender transformations are viewed as part of the male prerogative. The marginalized gender experience of the Aravanis influenced their judgments about gender transgressions but not their beliefs about gender transformations. I also discuss the implications of a cultural psychology of gender.     

Social Dominance Orientation and John Henryism at the Intersection of Race and Class

Three studies were conducted to explore the relationship between social dominance orientation (SDO) and John Henryism (JH). Each study was framed using an intersectionality perspective which predicted that specific combinations of social identities would impact endorsement of SDO and JH in unique ways. We hypothesized that upper‐class non‐Whites would be higher in SDO and lower in JH than any other class/race identity combination. As predicted, a Class × Race interaction emerged for both SDO and JH in Study 1 (N = 387), with upper‐class non‐Whites displaying the highest levels of SDO and the lowest levels of JH. Study 2 (N = 340) replicated these findings and also explored the impact of context‐level class on SDO and JH. Using a qualitative method, in Study 3 (N = 23) we found that upper‐class non‐Whites described their social class positions in ways highly consistent with SDO, whereas middle/working‐class non‐Whites described their experiences in ways consistent with JH.