Sexual preference biases in counseling: An information processing approach.

Used an illusory correlation paradigm to measure the effect of stereotyping by mental health professionals on processing information about individuals identified according to sex and sexual preference (SP). 34 23–58 yr old mental health professionals (17 males and 17 females) rated themselves on an SP scale, were presented a series of cards that identified hypothetical persons according to sex and SP, and ascribed to these persons 2 randomly selected stereotypic characteristics associated with 1 of the SP groups. After studying the cards, Ss were asked to make judgments about the relationship between SP and sex and the stereotypic characteristics. Fewer errors were made on those items for which a stereotypic response was congruent with prevailing stereotypes than on those items for which the stereotypic response was incongruent, indicating that stereotyping did affect the processing of information relative to the sex and SP group. Ss had more difficulty correctly processing information attributed to gay men and lesbian women than information attributed to heterosexual men and women. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Not all stereotyping is created equal: Differential consequences of thoughtful versus nonthoughtful stereotyping.

Much research emphasizes heuristic use of stereotypes, though stereotypes have long been considered as capable of influencing more thoughtful processing of social information. Direct comparisons between thoughtful and nonthoughtful stereotyping are lacking in the literature. Recent research in attitude change emphasizes the different consequences of judgments arising from relatively thoughtful versus nonthoughtful processes. Therefore, increased thought could not only fail to decrease stereotyping but might also create stereotypic perceptions that are more likely to have lasting impact. The current studies demonstrate thoughtful and nonthoughtful stereotyping within the same setting. More thoughtful stereotyping is more resistant to future attempts at change and to warnings of possible bias. Implications are discussed for the typical research questions asked after observing stereotypic judgments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development and mental representation of stereotypes.

A mixed model of stereotype representation was tested. Experiment 1 examined the development of stereotypes about novel groups. Results showed that, at low levels of experience, stereotypic group knowledge is derived from information about particular group exemplars. However, as experience increases, an abstract group stereotype is formed that is stored and retrieved independently of the exemplars on which it was based. Results of Experiment 2 suggest that preexisting stereotypes about well-known groups are represented as abstract structures in memory. These results indicate that stereotypical knowledge is most likely to be exemplar-based in the absence of abstract stereotypes. The implications of these findings for other aspects of stereotyping and social perception are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Imagining stereotypes away: The moderation of implicit stereotypes through mental imagery.

Research on implicit stereotypes has raised important questions about an individual's ability to moderate and control stereotypic responses. With few strategies shown to be effective in moderating implicit effects, the present research investigates a new strategy based on focused mental imagery. Across 5 experiments, participants who engaged in counterstereotypic mental imagery produced substantially weaker implicit stereotypes compared with participants who engaged in neutral, stereotypic, or no mental imagery. This reduction was demonstrated with a variety of measures, eliminating explanations based on response suppression or shifts in response criterion. Instead, the results suggest that implicit stereotypes are malleable, and that controlled processes, such as mental imagery, may influence the stereotyping process at its early as well as later stages. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Use of log-linear models for assessing differential item functioning in a measure of psychological functioning.

Log-linear models are used to investigate contingency tables that cross-classify respondents according to item response, mental health status (MHS), and the background variables of ethnicity and gender. Specifically, log-linear models are used to examine item validity, defined as an item response by MHS interaction, and differential item functioning (DIF), defined as an interaction between item response and a background variable. The investigation focused on a set of items that measure subjective well-being and coping behavior. Female (n?=?627) and male (n?=?338) respondents represented 3 ethnic groups: African American, Anglo-American, and Hispanic/Latino. Strong evidence of item validity and some evidence of DIF was found. Most of the interaction between item response and either ethnicity or gender occurred among Ss with diminished mental health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

In-group favoritism and statistical reasoning in social inference: Implications for formation and maintenance of group stereotypes.

The effects of group categorization on statistical inference processes and the consequent effects on group stereotyping were examined in 3 experiments. In Exps 1 and 2, male and female Ss made data-based judgments about gender and leadership ability. In Exp 3, Ss were randomly categorized into groups and then made data-based judgments about the groups' relative intelligence. Results from all 3 studies indicate significant effects of group categorization on Ss' judgments and on their strategies of data integration and logical inference. These results support the hypothesis that group members selectively engage in statistical inference strategies as a means of justifying in-group favoritism. Discussion focuses on the implications for understanding group-serving biases, motivated reasoning, and group stereotyping processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Structural properties of stereotypic knowledge and their influences on the construal of social situations.

This research focused on the role that higher order structural properties of stereotypic knowledge play in the processing of social information. It is argued that stereotypic assumptions about cause–effect relations provide important constraints for the causal structure underlying the perceiver's subjective representation of social information. Experiment 1 shows how, within the context of a jury decision experiment, the causal structure underlying stereotypic knowledge about African Americans influences the construal of causality in a situation involving a member of that group. Results from 2 additional experiments indicate that this construal effect is based in part on stereotypic knowledge affecting the encoding of the trial evidence instead of on biasing responses at the output stage. The implications of these findings are discussed, and a theoretical framework is offered according to which the application of category knowledge involves not only the matching of stereotypic attributes but also the alignment of structural relations in the environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Automaticity of Race and Afrocentric Facial Features in Social Judgments.

Four experiments were conducted to examine the automaticity of stereotyping based on racial category and (within-race) Afrocentric facial features. Results showed that both forms of stereotyping are efficient processes, able to operate when cognitive resources are highly restricted. The 2 differed, however, in their controllability. Participants demonstrated that they were sensitized to race-based stereotypes and able to control that influence to a significant degree. In contrast, participants appeared to be largely unaware of using Afrocentric features to make stereotypic inferences, and they proved unable to avoid doing so, even when they were given explicit information about the process and they demonstrated that they could easily and reliably identify the relevant features. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The experimenter as a sex-role model in sex-role stereotyping.

Notes that the influence of the experimenter (E) has been neglected in sex role stereotypy research. Thus, it was predicted that male and female Ss' stereotyping would vary as the sex roles modeled by male and female Es varied from traditional to liberated. 100 high school students rated the concepts of adult male and female on standard stereotypic items and rated the Es' behavior and personality. The general hypothesis of E influence was supported by several significant interaction effects. Results show that the male concept was rated more competent and less warm-expressive than the female concept, thus replicating the basic finding in the literature, but traditional stereotypical differences were most accentuated when male and female Ss were crossed with task-oriented Es of the opposite sex. The reconceptualization of sex-role stereotypes as situationally influenced expectancies, in accord with a social learning theory interpretation of stereotyping, is discussed. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Retrospective and prospective coding of information: Dissociation of parietal cortex and hippocampal formation.

Animals with sham operations, hippocampal formation, or small and large parietal cortex lesions were trained in a task that required memory for short or long lists of items (spatial locations). Sham-operated Ss showed an increase in errors as a function of set size (2–8 items) followed by a decrease in errors with a set size of 10 items, suggesting the use of both retrospective and prospective memory codes. Ss with hippocampal formation lesions made errors for all set sizes, reflecting an inability to use a retrospective and prospective memory code. Failure to use a prospective code is probably a function of the inability to use a retrosepctive code (i.e., the S needs to remember first what has occurred before it can determine what information lies ahead). Ss with small or large parietal cortex lesions made most of their errors for the longest list length, reflecting an inability to shift from a retrospective to prospective memory code. The hippocampal formation might mediate new incoming information (data-based memory processing) and thus accentuate the importance of a retrospective memory code. The parietal cortex might mediate existing knowledge (expectancy-based memory processing) and thus facilitate the utilization of a prospective memory code. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The WISC-R and internal evidence of test bias with minority groups.

Judgment of test bias can be made on the basis of a number of criteria. This study examines the evidence on the cultural bias of the WISC-R for Anglo-American, Black, and Mexican-American children. The performance of 1,050 children aged 5–11 yrs on the internal criteria of reliability and a number of order-of-item-difficulty measures was assessed. Minority group Ss responded to the test in the same general way as did Anglo-American Ss, and there was no clear pattern to the items on the test that were more difficult for minority Ss. Thus, the WISC-R appears to be nonbiased for minority group children. Explanations other than specific item content should be sought for the observed discrepancy between majority group and minority group IQ test performance. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evidence for racial prejudice at the implicit level and its relationship with questionnaire measures

The content of spontaneously activated racial stereotypes among White Americans and the relation of this to more explicit measures of stereotyping and prejudice were investigated. Using a semantic priming paradigm, a prime was presented outside of conscious awareness (BLACK or WHITE), followed by a target stimulus requiring a word-nonword decision. The target stimuli included attributes that varied in valence and stereotypicality for Whites and African Americans. Results showed reliable stereotyping and prejudice effects: Black primes resulted in substantially stronger facilitation to negative than positive stereotypic attributes, whereas White primes facilitated positive more than negative stereotypic traits. The magnitude of this implicit prejudice effect correlated reliably with participants' scores on explicit racial attitude measures, indicating that people's spontaneous stereotypic associations are consistent with their more controlled responses.     

Shortening of atrioventricular interval improves ventricular filling and clinical outcome in patients with DDD pacemaker and left ventricular hypertrophy

This single case study of the ability to generate verbal and non-verbal imagery in a woman who sustained a gunshot wound to the brain reports a significant difficulty in generating images of word shapes but not a significant problem in generating object images. Further dissociation, however, was observed in her ability to generate images of living vs non-living material. She made more errors in imagery and factual information tasks for non-living items than for living items. This pattern contrasts with our previous report of the agnosic patient, M.S., who had severe difficulty in generating images of living material, whereas his ability to image the shape of words was comparable to that of normal control subjects. Furthermore, with regard to the generation of images of living compared with non-living material, M.S. shows more errors with living than nonliving items. In contrast, the present patient, S.M., made significantly more errors with non-living relative to living items. There appear to be two types of double dissociation which reinforce the growing evidence of dissociable impairments in the ability to generate images for different types of verbal and non-verbal material. Such dissociations, presumably related to sensory and cognitive processing demands, address the problem of the neural basis of imagery.     

Self-administration and scoring errors of learning disabled and non learning disabled students on two forms of the self-directed search.

Examined the number and type of errors in self-administration and scoring made on Holland's Self-Directed Search (SDS) and Self-Directed Search—Form Easy (SDS—E) by 96 learning disabled and 96 nonlearning disabled high school students matched on socioeconomic status (SES), sex, and ethnicity. Both groups of Ss made more errors on the SDS than on the SDS—E. However, for errors resulting in inaccurate high-point codes, the learning disabled group made more errors on the SDS than on the SDS—E. There was no difference for nonlearning disabled Ss. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Subtyping versus subgrouping processes in stereotype representation.

Participants were instructed to organize information about group members either by distinguishing stereotype-consistent from stereotype-inconsistent individuals (subtyping instructions), by dividing the individuals into multiple groups on the basis of similarities and differences (subgrouping instructions), or with no explicit organizing instructions. Participants given the subtyping instructions showed greater perceived stereotypicality and homogeneity and perceived a greater difference in how typical the confirming versus disconfirming group members were, relative to subgroup participants. Study 2 demonstrated natural variation among participants in the perceived atypicality of the disconfirming relative to confirming individuals when learning about a gay activist group. Atypicality predicted perceptions of this group, even when prejudice and strength of stereotyping toward gays as a whole were statistically controlled. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived entitativity, stereotype formation, and the interchangeability of group members.

The authors investigated the effects of perceived entitativity of a group on the processing of behavioral information about individual group members and the extent to which such information was transferred to other group members. The results of 3 experiments using a savings-in-relearning paradigm showed that trait inferences about a group member, based on that member's behavior, were stronger for low entitative groups and for collections of individuals. However, the transference of traits from 1 group member to other members of the group was stronger for high entitative groups. These results provide strong evidence that the perception of high entitativity involves the abstraction of a stereotype of the group and the transfer of that stereotype across all group members. Implications for group impression formation and stereotyping are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of stereotypes in decision making and information-processing strategies.

Investigated the effects of stereotyping on reactions to a behavioral transgression and the recall of information bearing on it in 2 experiments with 112 undergraduates. Ss read a case file describing a transgression (a job-related infraction in Exp I, a criminal act in Exp II) committed by a target. In some cases, the target's transgression was stereotypic of the target's ethnic group (conveyed through his name), and in other cases it was not. After reading the case file, Ss judged the likelihood that the transgression would recur and recommended punishment for the offense. These judgment data supported the hypothesis that stereotypes function as judgmental heuristics. Ss used a stereotype of the target to infer the reasons for the transgression and based their punishment decisions on the implications of these inferences, considering other relevant information only when a stereotype-based explanation of the behavior was not available. However, recall data suggest that, once a stereotype-based impression of the crime and its determinants was formed, Ss reviewed other available information to confirm the implications of this impression. This led to differential recall of presented information, depending on whether its implications were consistent with, inconsistent with, or irrelevant to those of the stereotype. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cultural myths and supports for rape.

Tested hypotheses derived from social psychological and feminist theory that acceptance of rape myths can be predicted from attitudes such as sex role stereotyping, adversarial sexual beliefs, sexual conservatism, and acceptance of interpersonal violence. Personality characteristics, background characteristics, and personal exposure to rape, rape victims, and rapists are other factors used in predictions. Results from regression analysis of interview data from 598 randomly selected adults indicate that the higher the sex role stereotyping, adversarial sexual beliefs, and acceptance of interpersonal violence, the greater an S's acceptance of rape myths. In addition, younger and better educated Ss revealed fewer stereotypic, adversarial, and proviolence attitudes and less rape myth acceptance. Implications for understanding and changing this cultural orientation toward sexual assault are discussed. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)