This study is exploratory in nature and focuses on the relation between the individual and macrosystems by investigating the link between African Americans’ fear of confirming stereotypes and their experience with symptoms and treatments for social anxiety. This study hypothesizes that 1) among a sample of African Americans diagnosed with social anxiety, there will be a significant, positive relationship between African-Americans’ self-reported concerns over confirming stereotypes relevant to both social anxiety and their own self-reported levels of social anxiety, 2) significantly more African Americans will drop-out of therapy than Caucasians, 3) amongst African Americans, significantly more will drop out of group therapy than individual therapy, 4) the racial composition of the group will matter, such that more African Americans will drop out of groups where they are the only African American participant, compared to if there are other African Americans in the group, and 5) the presence of an African American co-therapist will impact attrition from group treatment, with higher attrition rates in groups without an African American co-therapist, compared to if there is one. Thirty-four participants, 23 females and 11 males, who self-identified as African Americans and forty-four participants, 23 females and 21 males, who self-identified as Caucasian took part in this study. Results did not show a relation between stereotype confirmation concern and social anxiety. Regarding attrition, results showed that significantly more African Americans dropped out of therapy than Caucasians. Additionally, more African Americans dropped out of group therapy than individual therapy. There was no impact of therapist ethnicity or the presence of other African Americans on attrition rates, though these tests were underpowered.

Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders in children, with both seizures and their medical treatment associated with increased risk of neuropsychological impairments. Adaptive functioning in children with epilepsy is poorly understood. This study sought to identify the neuropsychological and medical predictors of optimal adaptive functioning in pediatric epilepsy. Forty-six children with epilepsy and 16 typically developing children and their parents participated in this study at two time points. Overall, adaptive functioning was found to be in the average to low average range in children with epilepsy. A composite measure assessing cumulative seizure history was able to significantly predict Adaptive Behavior Assessment System-II (ABAS-II) scores. Whether a child had experienced one or more seizures in the last year was the only individual seizure and treatment variable able to significantly predict adaptive functioning as measured by the ABAS-II. Verbal learning, executive functioning, and internalizing and externalizing behavior problems assessed at Time 1 predicted performance on the ABAS-II at Time 2. Verbal memory and attention, however, were not significant predictors of adaptive functioning. Consistent with what was hypothesized, executive functioning was found to mediate the relationship between seizure history and adaptive functioning when controlling for behavior problems at both Times 1 and 2. When behavior problems were the mediator and executive functioning was controlled for, mediation was not found. Executive functioning also mediated the relationship between group membership (monotherapy, polytherapy, and typically developing) and ABAS-II scores at Time 1, but not at Time 2 when a post-surgical group also was represented. Secondary analyses showed that the relationship between executive and adaptive functioning at Time 2 was moderated by whether or not a child had ever experienced seizures, such that children diagnosed with epilepsy evidenced greater correlations between these constructs than typically developing children. The results of this study suggest that a subset of children with epilepsy, those with active seizures and/or executive dysfunction, are at increased risk of adaptive deficits. These findings highlight the risk factors for suboptimal adaptive functioning in this population, and also suggest potential avenues for remediation.

Strength for African American women and its psychological ramifications are being newly conceptualized and explored empirically in psychological research. The Strong Black Woman Attitudes Scale, (Thompson, 2003) was created to empirically test a three factor theoretical model: self reliance, affect regulation, and caretaking as a reliable culturally relevant coping mechanism for African American women. The primary aim of this study is to explore if cultural coping (SBW) moderates the relationship between depression and suicide in African American women. Other aims include, replicating the factor structure of the SBWAS with a community sample, and examining relationships between the SBW, racial identity, traditional coping, and depression. The Strong Black Woman Attitude Scale (SBWAS) was used to measure cultural coping, and the Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WOCQ) was used to measure traditional coping. Racial regard and centrality subscales from the Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity (MIBI) measured racial identity and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Beck Suicide Scale (BSS) measured depression and suicide respectively. Results showed significant moderations for the total SBW score and the affect regulation subscale. Additionally, racial identity was positively associated with cultural coping, and cultural coping was negatively associated with traditional coping. Depression was positively related to the SBW and suicide. The three factor model was also upheld. The results of this study support the notion that strength for African American women can have detrimental psychological effects on women utilizing this coping style.

This study used an ecological perspective to identify pathological gambling (PG) risk and protective factors, nonclinical resources, and prevention strategies based on the perceptions of Georgia stakeholders. With an ecological perspective, human behavior is perceived as an outcome of the interaction between the individual and various factors in their social environment. The ecological perspective is especially suitable for examining the higher PG prevalence among ethnic minority groups since these populations have been documented as encountering greater exposure to PG social and environmental risk factors (Smedley & Syme, 2000). To assess prevention needs, data were obtained from a 2008 needs assessment where diverse perspectives were collected through semi structured focus groups and interviews. A qualitative approach was used to address the study's aims. Grounded theory was used to guide the data analysis. Findings indicated that community perceptions of risk and protective factors, nonclinical resources, and prevention strategies were present at multiple levels of analyses. Furthermore, data trends also indicated that charitable gambling and other social norms should be considered in prevention.

The US anti-nuclear movement formed in opposition to the development of nuclear weapons and energy. Anti-nuclear activists have rallied since the late 1970’s opposed to the construction of Plant Vogtle near Waynesboro, Georgia due to the social and environmental justice issues related to the nuclear industry. In 2010, the nuclear industry proposed a nuclear resurgence in the US, proposing to construct new reactors at Plant Vogtle. This represented the first time new nuclear reactors had been proposed since the moratorium on new reactors as a result of the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979. The aim of the study is to understand the experience of “first wave” anti-nuclear activists in Georgia (those engaged for twenty years or more). Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Framework was employed to locate anti-nuclear activists’ perceived facilitators and barriers to their activism. Semi-structured interviews with these activists yielded rich descriptions about their experience in the anti-nuclear movement. Activists endorsed facilitators and barriers related to individual characteristics however, the majority of activists perceived facilitators and barriers beyond the individual level. Specifically, the majority of activists mentioned facilitators and barriers relating to the media and political systems and the power and resource imbalances within society. The role of community psychology is discussed in relation to this field of inquiry.

Academic achievement among Latino adolescents was examined to determine what contextual factors contribute to school success. ANCOVA analyses indicated that lower levels of perceived discrimination and a higher sense of school belonging were associated with better grades. Neighborhood social capital was not associated with school grades. More adaptation stress was associated with lower grades for US-reared students, but it was not associated with grades for more recent Latino immigrants. The findings suggest that discrimination, school belonging, and adaptation stress play an important role in academic achievement among Latino youth. They also suggest that immigrants may be more academically resilient than their second generation peers in the face of adaptation stress.

Real-world perception of emotion results from the integration of multiple cues, most notably facial expression and affective prosody. The use of incongruent emotional stimuli presents an opportunity to study the interaction between sensory modalities. Thirty-seven participants were exposed to audio-visual stimuli (Robins & Schultz, 2004) including angry, fearful, happy, and neutral presentations. Eighty stimuli contain matching emotions and 240 contain incongruent emotional cues. Matching emotions elicited a significant number of correct responses for all four emotions. Sign tests indicated that for most incongruent conditions, participants demonstrated a bias towards the visual modality. Despite these findings, specific incongruent conditions did show evidence of blending. Future research should explore an evolutionary model of facial expression as a means for behavioral adaptation and the possibility of an “emotional McGurk effect” in particular combinations of emotions.

Children’s perceptions of the fairness of their filial responsibility was examined as a moderator between witnessing domestic violence and behavioral outcomes in children. Hierarchical Multiple Regressions revealed that children’s perceptions of the fairness of their family responsibility influenced the relation between the psychological violence in the household and child reports of internalizing behavior problems. Specifically, higher levels of psychological violence predicted higher levels of internalizing only under perceptions of unfair filial responsibility. In addition, increased levels of reported psychological violence in the household significantly predicted increased levels of mother-reported externalizing problems. Descriptive analyses revealed that for 12 of the 27 families all of the children had very small levels of reported behavior problems, as compared to the rest of the sample. These resilient families had lower level of psychological violence and physical violence in the household than the other families in the sample.

Though the field of psychology is moving forward in its awareness of the importance of studying and addressing cultural issues, there is still a dearth of literature on the subject, especially in the area of anxiety (Heurtin-Roberts, Snowden, & Miller, 1997). The current study tested the following hypotheses 1) African-Americans’ self-reported concerns over confirming stereotypes would be related to their own self-reported levels of social anxiety. 2) There would be a negative relationship between how negatively African-Americans think others view African-Americans in general, and levels of social anxiety; 3) The relationship between public regard, concern over confirming stereotypes, and levels of anxiety would be partially mediated by beliefs about the probability and consequences of a negative outcome from their speech for group members. Results showed that the relation between public regard and fear of negative evaluations was fully mediated by the consequences of a negative outcome for group members.

Literature to date suggests that child coping is often a direct result of coping assistance provided by parents. Findings have not considered aspects of the stressor that may impact what the parent suggests; specifically, the child’s role, and the controllability of the stressor particularly for children with intellectual disabilities. The current study examines how the child’s disability status and parental perceptions of the child’s control over a peer problem influence the type of coping suggestions parents offer and how specific types of coping assistance affect the outcome of the coping situation. Results indicated that mothers of children with mental retardation provided more passive coping assistance and perceived their children as having less control over peer problems. Coping assistance was not directly linked to problem outcomes which suggests future studies should incorporate measures of factors such as direct parent and teacher assistance and child’s willingness or ability to implement coping suggestions.