Affect and stereotyping: The effect of induced mood on distinctiveness-based illusory correlations.

In 2 studies, the effects of mood on the formation of distinctiveness-based illusory correlations were examined. After exposure to stimuli inducing positive, neutral, or negative mood, Ss read information about behaviors performed by members of 2 groups in an illusory correlation paradigm. In both experiments, only Ss in a neutral mood formed illusory correlations. In addition, Exp 2 assessed Ss' processing latencies as a means of investigating differential attention to distinctive behaviors. Only Ss in a neutral mood differentially attended to the minority group's infrequent behaviors. Induced mood apparently interfered with the processing necessary to differentially encode distinctive stimuli, undermining the illusory correlation effect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

URBAN FISCAL CRISIS AND POLITICAL CHANGE IN MEXICO CITY: From Global Origins to Local Effects

ABSTRACT: Using Mexico City as a case study, this paper examines the unique problems and constraints that contribute to urban fiscal and political crisis in cities in developing countries. The recent international debt crisis and Mexico's history of dependent development accelerated the fiscal insolvency of Mexico City and limited local capacity to generate new or alternative revenue sources. Metropolitan authorities have limited maneuvering room to address this problem due to limited revenues and to growing urban austerity protests. The paper explores contradictory relationships between urban fiscal and political crisis and links them on the local urban level to the national and international context of dependent development. The paper concludes that urban political reform emerges in the constrained policy space where authorities can agree about Mexico City's future and legitimize their rule at the same time.     

Psychotherapy in the real world.

Community or school-based services may be the answer to meeting the needs of disadvantaged or poor children and youth and their families. This article focuses on lessons learned in treating a special population of children and families and discusses how therapists in the real world often modify treatment protocols to address the specific needs of their patients. Office-based settings and traditional psychotherapy approaches may not be salient to meeting the mental health needs of a vast group of children, youth, and families. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender stereotypes during adolescence: Developmental changes and the transition to junior high school.

Although much evidence suggests that gender stereotyping becomes less flexible during adolescence, results of the present study indicate that gender stereotypes may actually become more flexible at some point during certain adolescent school transitions. The authors measured the flexibility of gender stereotypes in adolescents in Grades 4 through 11, using a combined cross-sectional and longitudinal design. Results indicated that flexibility increased for stereotypes concerning the psychological attributes of men and women after the transition into junior high school, regardless of whether this transition occurred during the 7th or 8th grade. Over the remaining years of junior high and high school, stereotype flexibility decreased. These results help resolve previous inconsistencies found in the literature by suggesting when and why changes in gender stereotype flexibility versus rigidity occur during adolescence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What children say when the teacher is not around: Conflicting goals in social comparison and performance assessment in the classroom.

Used naturalistic observations and interviews with 42 girls and 41 boys in kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, and 4th grades to examine developmental shifts in the focus of social comparison and the expression of comparative and evaluative interests in relation to possibly conflicting goals. Observers coded the content of peer exchanges and direction of visual gaze during class work times. Ss were then interviewed about help seeking and reading performance in the classroom. Classroom observations revealed that comparisons related to personal aspects of peers declined with age, whereas evaluative comments and comparisons related to performance assessment increased sharply in 1st grade. In the higher grades, blatantly evaluative and comparative statements decreased, whereas more subtle and functional performance-related exchanges continued to increase. Interviews showed that differences in classroom behaviors were associated with knowledge of classroom performance hierarchies, the salience of general ability, and self-evaluation. Data are interpreted in terms of 2 converging processes: self-socialization and goal conflict. Implications for social comparison theory are also discussed. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The disappearance of cognitive gender differences: What you see depends on where you look.

Comments on A. Feingold's (see record 1988-18577-001) review of gender differences (GDs) on the Differential Aptitude Tests and Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test/Scholastic Aptitude Test, which argues that cognitive GDs are disappearing. The present author offers observations regarding sampling issues in high school populations, verbal abilities (VAs), and visual–spatial abilities (VSAs), suggesting that Feingold's conclusions regarding VAs and VSAs are unwarranted. It is contended that (1) the implicit assumption that the disappearance of cognitive GDs is good and (2) the prevailing notion that differences denote deficiencies may also be unwarranted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Moderating effects of gender on the relationship between not graduating from high school and psychological dysfunction in young adulthood.

With data from a panel (N?=?4,679) tested in the 7th grade and as young adults as input to the LISREL 8 program, the authors estimated 2 male-female sets of theoretically informed models specifying effects of failure to finish high school on the latent construct "psychological dysfunction" during young adulthood and controlling for psychological functioning in the 7th grade, father's education, race or ethnicity, and other variables. Results suggest a negative effect of not graduating on psychological functioning for both male and female students in the full sample and in the sample of students who did not go on to college (n?=?1,871). This relationship was stronger for female than for male participants in the full sample, but no statistical difference was evident in the non-college-bound subsample. These results are accounted for by the stronger relationship observed between starting college and adult psychological functioning for women than for men. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Central administration of cocaine produces age-dependent effects on behavior in the fetal rat.

Rat fetuses were exposed to cocaine, lidocaine, or saline on Gestational Day 20 or 21 to provide information about cocaine effects on behavior during prenatal development. Cocaine was administered into the cisterna magna of individual fetal subjects to restrict effects to the CNS. Behavioral effects of cocaine were compared with lidocaine to help distinguish the effects of cocaine on monoamine systems in the brain from its properties as a local anesthetic. Cocaine promoted 3–5 fold increases in fetal motor activity in the absence of explicit sensory stimulation, in contrast to the slight suppressive effects of lidocaine. Cocaine and lidocaine also reduced coordinated behavioral responses to an artificial nipple. The behavioral effects of cocaine administered into the CNS of fetal subjects suggest specific mechanisms of action on developing neural and behavioral systems in the late prenatal period. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Exploring causal models of education achievement.

Evaluated 5 causal models of educational productivity as they apply to learning science among 882 5th–8th graders. Each model explores the relationship between achievement, as assessed by the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills, and a combination of 8 constructs: home environment, peer group, media, ability, social environment, time on task, motivation, and instructional strategies. Linear structural-relations analysis was employed to examine each of the models. The complex theoretical model had significant (positive) coefficients for all the constructs except quality of instruction; goodness-of-fit indices showed it was the best fitting model with the lowest average residual size. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)