Towards an understanding of inequity.

A theory of social inequity, with special consideration given to wage inequities is presented. A special case of Festinger's cognitive dissonance, the theory specifies the conditions under which inequity will arise and the means by which it may be reduced or eliminated. Observational field studies supporting the theory and laboratory experiments designed to test certain aspects of it are described. (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How attributional ambiguity shapes physiological and emotional responses to social rejection and acceptance.

The authors examined White and Black participants' emotional, physiological, and behavioral responses to same-race or different-race evaluators, following rejecting social feedback or accepting social feedback. As expected, in ingroup interactions, the authors observed deleterious responses to social rejection and benign responses to social acceptance. Deleterious responses included cardiovascular (CV) reactivity consistent with threat states and poorer performance, whereas benign responses included CV reactivity consistent with challenge states and better performance. In intergroup interactions, however, a more complex pattern of responses emerged. Social rejection from different-race evaluators engendered more anger and activational responses, regardless of participants' race. In contrast, social acceptance produced an asymmetrical race pattern--White participants responded more positively than did Black participants. The latter appeared vigilant and exhibited threat responses. Discussion centers on implications for attributional ambiguity theory and potential pathways from discrimination to health outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Towards an understanding of nuclear morphogenesis

Hematological parameters were measured in 408 blood samples collected over a 30-mo period from 254 captive mountain gazelles (Gazella gazella) in Saudi Arabia. We evaluated the influence of sex, age, capture method, and season, on these parameters. Evaluations also were made with a small number of anesthetized animals. Males had a significantly higher mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) than females. There was no observed neutrophil: lymphocyte ratio shift for either sex during the first months of life. The effects of different capture methods generally were similar in males and females and included a significantly lower MCV and MCH after quick capture. Animals undergoing slow capture had a significantly lower mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), and very pronounced stress neutrophilia. We propose that this stress neutrophilia caused the permanently high neutrophil: lymphocyte ratio (62:36 average for all gazelles tested) and the lack of a neutrophil: lymphocyte shift in young animals. Erythrocyte counts were significantly higher in summer, while packed cell volume and hemoglobin concentration were the same in summer and winter; thus there was a significantly lower MCV and MCH, and a significantly higher MCHC in summer in both sexes. Fibrinogen varied significantly by sex, age, capture method, and anesthesia.     

Language discrimination by newborns: Toward an understanding of the role of rhythm.

Three experiments investigated the ability of French newborns to discriminate between sets of sentences in different foreign languages. The sentences were low-pass filtered to reduce segmental information while sparing prosodic information. Infants discriminated between stress-timed English and mora-timed Japanese (Experiment 1) but failed to discriminate between stress-timed English and stress-timed Dutch (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3, infants heard different combinations of sentences from English, Dutch, Spanish, and Italian. Discrimination was observed only when English and Dutch sentences were contrasted with Spanish and Italian sentences. These results suggest that newborns use prosodic and, more specifically, rhythmic information to classify utterances into broad language classes defined according to global rhythmic properties. Implications of this for the acquisition of the rhythmic properties of the native language are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

From PTSD to voices in context: from an "experience-far" to an "experience-near" understanding of responses to war and atrocity across cultures

This paper examines some of the difficulties of exporting the Western concept of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to non-Western cultures. Using data drawn from Guatemala where I lived and worked among Quiché Mayan war widows, illustrates how culturally-specific understandings of events and reactions to them affect the well-being (or otherwise) of people exposed to extreme adverse events. The paper turns to the voices of the widows, who experienced and survived intense political conflict, explaining their experiences of violence within their particular context.     

Responding to membership in a disadvantaged group: From acceptance to collective protest.

The question addressed is, when do disadvantaged-group members accept their situation, take individual action, or attempt to instigate collective action? Ss attempted to move from a low-status group into an advantaged, high-status group and were asked to respond to their subsequent rejection. Ss who believed that the high-status group was open to members of their group endorsed acceptance and individual actions. When access to the high-status group was restricted, even to the point of being almost closed (tokenism), Ss still preferred individual action. Disruptive forms of collective action were only favored by Ss who were told that the high-status group was completely closed to members of their group. Ss who believed they were near to gaining entry into the high-status group favored individual protest, while Ss distant from entry were more likely to accept their position. The theoretical and societal implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relations of social goal pursuit to social acceptance, classroom behavior, and perceived social support.

Relations of social goal pursuit to (1) social acceptance by teachers and peers, (2) prosocial and irresponsible classroom behavior, and (3) perceived support from teachers and peers were examined. Ss were 475 6th and 7th graders. Students' pursuit of academic prosocial goals (to help classmates with academic problems) was related positively to peer acceptance. Pursuit of academic responsibility goals (adhering to classroom rules) was related negatively to peer acceptance but positively to teacher acceptance. These findings reflected in part, significant relations between social goal pursuit and displays of social behavior. Perceived support from teachers and peers was also related positively to social goal pursuit, although findings differed as a function of type and source of support. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

From social talk to social action: Shaping the social triad with emotion sharing.

Seemingly trivial social talk provides fertile ground for emotion sharing (a narrator and audience's realization that they experience the same emotional response toward a target), which in turn creates a coalition between the narrator and the audience, configures the narrator and audience's relationship with the target, and coordinates their target-directed action. In this article, the authors use 4 studies to investigate this thesis. In Studies 1 and 2--where participants rated scenarios in which narrators told them anecdotes--the authors found that when there was emotion sharing (a) participants were more bonded with narrators, (b) the narrator and audience's relationship with the target (as reflected in action tendencies) was determined by the emotionality of the anecdotes, and (c) they coordinated their target-directed actions. Study 3 demonstrated that this effect was indeed due to emotion sharing. Study 4 provided behavioral evidence for the effects of emotion sharing using a 2-person trust game. Together, these studies reveal that the everyday act of social talk is a powerful act that is able to shape the social triad of the narrator, the audience, and the social target, with powerful consequences for social structure and group action. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's understanding of social anxiety.

202 2nd, 4th, and 7th graders evaluated story characters who were either highly or less motivated to impress an audience and had either high or low expectations of being able to accomplish their self-presentational goals. As predicted according to a self-presentation model of social anxiety, both factors were related to judgments of the character's social anxiety, especially for the older Ss. For all age groups, actors who expected to do poorly rather than well were regarded as more anxious, as more likely to exhibit nervous responses and to have communication difficulties, and as less likely to be successful in accomplishing their goal; they were also evaluated less favorably. The actor's motivation had different effects on younger and older Ss; 2nd graders attributed less anxiety to highly motivated actors, whereas older Ss attributed greater anxiety to them. For all age groups, high motivation was expected to have a channeling effect on behaviors that would increase interpersonal effectiveness. A finding that was consistent with the literature on social-cognitive development was that older Ss displayed greater differentiation in their cause–effect inferences and that they better appreciated the complex implications of social anxiety. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predictors of social acceptance in preschool children.

Attempted to evaluate, through observation and a measure of sociometric acceptance, the relative contribution of a number of child characteristics to the prediction of social acceptance in 164 3–6 yr old preschool children. The following variables were investigated as predictors of sociometric acceptance: positive social interactions, occupied behavior when not interacting, MA, CA, and sex. A stepwise multiple regression analysis indicated that MA was the best predictor of sociometric acceptance and that positive social interactions significantly increased the correlation. Occupied behavior, CA, and sex did not significantly increase the multiple correlation. Results support the efficacy of intervention procedures that focus on helping social isolates to develop the ability to interact positively with their peers. Within the limited preschool age range, mental maturity appears to be more important to social acceptance than CA per se. This may be a factor in the findings of low popularity for mainstreamed handicapped children. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of social behavior on interracial acceptance.

To test children's use of race and social behavior as cues in social acceptance, 128 Black and White male kindergartners and 1st graders rated 6 unknown videotaped target children for likability. Targets varied factorially on race (Black or White) and exhibited either positive, negative, or neutral classroom social behavior. Across age, socioeconomic status, and race, Ss used behavior as a cue, accounting for 50% of likability variance. Positive targets were liked equivalently, but Black neutral and negative targets were liked less than White counterparts. Racial but not socioeconomic status differences in the use of behaviors as social cues were found. Negative targets were liked more by Blacks than Whites and neutral targets were liked more by Whites than Blacks. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personal/group discrimination discrepancy: Towards a two-factor explanation.

A 2-factor explanation is explored for the personal/group, discrimination discrepancy: the finding that members of disadvantaged groups rate group-level discrimination to be higher than discrimination directed at them personally. Four experiments involving female, Asian, and Black students, as well as Black teenagers, are reviewed. On the one hand, disadvantaged group members minimize the discrimination that is directed at them personally. On the other hand, ratings of group-based discrimination appear to arise from a shared auto-stereotype. It is noted how the minimization of personal discrimination leaves disadvantaged group members with the burden of accepting personal responsibility for negative life events, even when discrimination might be implicated. The challenge is to understand why disadvantaged group members might have a tendency to downplay attributions to discrimination for themselves personally. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toddlers' social coordinations: Changing responses to another's invitation to play.

This study observed 28 toddlers longitudinally at 16, 20, 24, 28, and 32 months reacting to an adult's programmed play overtures. Ss' actions were coded for (a) their relation to the adult's overture (coordinated, interfering, tangential, and unrelated), (b) alternative overtures to the adult, and (c) the uses of sounds/words. Coordinated responses increased with age; most consisted of nonverbal imitation, but, with increasing age, more involved verbal imitation and verbally directing the adult. Alternative overtures also increased with age and were increasingly repeated in same or varied form. Finally, words were increasingly used to regulate the activity between toddler and adult: In their coordinated responses, toddlers increasingly described their own actions and directed the adult; in their alternative overtures, they verbally requested the adult to assume a new role. A proposed model integrates developmental changes in forming and maintaining social coordinations with changes in negotiating the topic for coordinated action. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toward an understanding of the differences in the responses of humans and other animals to density.

J. L. Freedman (see record 1979-28592-001) claimed (a) that there is little basis for believing that high density generally has harmful effects on humans and other animals and (b) that it is not necessary to postulate different mechanisms that mediate the responses of humans and of other animals to density (the continuity position). These interpretations are challenged on the basis of a more differentiated conceptualization of the density–crowding relationship and a broader view of the nature of the human response to density. The importance of distinguishing between crowding and density and between social and spatial density is stressed. The greater roles of social learning, symbolic processing, and cultural practices in the human response to density are considered. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's responses to ambiguous messages and their understanding of ambiguity.

Conducted 4 experiments to investigate whether a total of 212 young children (aged 4 yrs 6 mo to 7 yrs 3 mo) could respond differently to ambiguous and unambiguous messages if they were prevented from pointing at the potential referents. The exact nature of the bias that was operating was examined in the final 2 experiments, which investigated whether the differential responding to ambiguous and unambiguous messages was based on an understanding of ambiguity or on an awareness of certainty and uncertainty about the interpretation of ambiguous and unambiguous messages. It was found that Ss were more likely to respond differently to ambiguous and unambiguous messages if they were prevented from pointing at the potential referents. It was also found that the improvement in differential responding was not accompanied by an improvement in verbal judgments of message quality, and the differential responses were closely related to judgments of certainty and uncertainty about the interpretation of the message. Ss who did not know that verbal messages could be ambiguous could nevertheless respond differently to ambiguous and unambiguous messages by attending to their own certainty or uncertainty about the interpretation of those messages. They were more likely to do that when they were prevented from pointing at the potential references. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attributed social power and group acceptance: A classroom experimental demonstration.

A classroom demonstration, which illustrates the reaction of group members to the communications and behavior they receive from others, when the nature and direction of the communications are influenced by the amount of power attributed to special members, is described. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Managing discrimination in selection: The influence of directives from an authority and social dominance orientation.

The authors examined one manner in which to decrease the negative impact of social dominance orientation (SDO), an individual difference variable that indicates support for the "domination of 'inferior' groups by 'superior' groups" (J. Sidanius & F. Pratto, 1999, p. 48), on the selection of candidates from low-status groups within society. Consistent with the tenets of social dominance theory, in 2 studies we found that those high in SDO reported that they were less likely to select a potential team member who is a member of a low-status group (i.e., a White female in Study 1 and a Black male in Study 2) than those low in SDO. However, explicit directives from an authority moderated this effect such that those high in SDO were more likely to select both candidates when authority figures clearly communicated that job performance indicators should be used when choosing team members. Thus, our studies suggest that the negative effects of SDO may be attenuated if those high in SDO are instructed by superiors to use legitimate performance criteria to evaluate job candidates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)