Although Expressed Emotion (EE) predicts relapse in Psychiatric Populations' the mechanisms through which people may be affected by high EE remain unknown. Our Objective was to test a model hypothesizing that reaction of young adults to critical comments (CCs) and emotional acceptance and perceived frequency of CCs and EOI. Path-analytical model were tested for 68 normal young adults living with their parents. Well-fitting models were found for reactions to Parental CCs but not for reactions to EOI. Results show that parental criticisms have only an indirect effect on young adults' reaction to criticisms: the effect is mediated by individuals' perception of how frequently they are criticized. The models with mothers' and fathers' EOI explain a significant proportion of variance in young adults' reaction to EOI however, parental EO1 has neither a direct nor indirect effect on young adults' reaction to EOI.

<p> The goal of this study was to demonstrate that warmth and attachment are two inherently distinct systems by showing how trust is connected more closely to attachment than warmth. Measures of attachment, interpersonal warmth, and trust were taken from CSULB undergraduates. Participants watched an empathetic video or a non-emotional control video before engaging in the economic investment game. Participants were given the choice to send a whole dollar amount of zero to four to another participant as an indication of their level of trust. It was predicted that there would be no correlation between either trust measures with the measures of empathic response. Although weak correlations were found, results showed interpersonal warmth items did not correlate with trust items and the emotional video did not have an impact on the amount of money sent, supporting the theory that attachment and interpersonal warmth may be separated if one examined trust.</p>

<p> This study examined the relationship between social-emotional intelligence and risky sexual behaviors in adolescence. Despite the introduction of sex education in public schools, there continue to be high rates of unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases in the teenage population. Researchers have demonstrated numerous positive life outcomes for individuals with greater levels of social and emotional abilities. However, studies have failed to examine the precise relationship between such abilities and sexual behavior. In the current study, data was collected from 49 high school students in New York State. Using the Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory Youth Version and a researcher-designed questionnaire on risky sexual behavior, teenagers with higher Interpersonal Emotional Intelligence reported less sexual risk taking. A significant relationship was also demonstrated between Risky Sexual Behaviors and a control variable, Delinquency. Due to limited participation and a homogeneous sample, the results of this study cannot be meaningfully generalized to the greater population. Therefore, these findings support the need for further research to clarify the relationships among these variables and validate the importance of teaching explicit social-emotional training in sex education curricula.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to explore the role that the healing process has in the lives of adult male survivors of childhood sexual abuse. The sample included 12 male participants who had been sexually abused as children. Qualitative methods were employed to interview the sample of 12 male survivors, and their testimonies were analyzed to gain insight into the way that individuals cope overtime with sexually related trauma.</p><p> The findings of this research revealed that a majority of participants continue to experience symptoms associated with the stigma related to their experience as survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Many continue to harbor feelings of anger and resentment towards their perpetrator(s), as well as feelings of hypersexuality, and the use of substances as a way to manage their trauma, which can impact their interpersonal relationships in some cases. An encouraging note, 50% of the participants in this study indicated that they have come to terms with the abuse and have accepted their experience, expressing spirituality as a way to cope, also 50% stated self-forgiveness, indicating that they have gained some insight about themselves as survivors of a traumatic life situation.</p>

<p> Research on social judgment typically emphasizes one of three processes that enable unequivocal understanding of events with ambiguous causality. In the <i>social influence perspective</i>, people are susceptible to the interpretations offered by others. In the <i>explicit attitudes perspective</i>, people interpret events in line with their consciously held attitudes and values. In the <i>implicit attitudes perspective</i>, people interpret events in line with unconscious biases. The model investigated in the present study assumes that these processes vary in salience depending on people&rsquo;s mindset. When an event is encoded in high-level terms (i.e., its consequences), people&rsquo;s judgments reflect their explicit attitudes. When encoded in low-level terms (i.e., its details), however, such attitudes are less accessible, rendering people susceptible to social influence. In the absence of social influence, people with a lower-level mindset form judgments that reflect their relevant implicit attitudes. These hypotheses were tested in the context of an altercation between an African-American and a White male for which responsibility could reasonably be allocated to either party. Participants with low versus high implicit racial bias toward Blacks read a narrative concerning this altercation under either a low-level or a high-level mindset and then read a summary that blamed one of the parties or they did not read a summary. As predicted, low-level participants allocated responsibility to the African-American if they had a high implicit racial bias and to the White if they had a low implicit racial bias, regardless of the summary manipulation. Contrary to prediction, however, high-level participants&rsquo; allocation of responsibility did not reflect their explicit prejudicial attitudes. Instead, they corrected for their implicit biases in their trait inferences and affective reactions, in line with research suggesting that a high-level mindset promotes self-regulatory processes in social judgment.</p>

The widespread prevalence in the utilization of groups across different aspects of our society including social settings, workplaces, and educational settings has long piqued researchers' interests in understanding the psychological processes involved in groups. One particularly interesting psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group setting is the formation of perceptions of group diversity and the impacts that these perceptions have on the attitudes and behaviors of group members. Despite the theoretical rationale for the importance of perceptions of diversity that is provided by intergroup contact theory and individuation research, work group diversity research has been limited in empirically examining the impacts that perceived diversity on group functioning and performance. This study takes the first step in this direction by conceptually and empirically defining perceived diversity and examining the effects of actual diversity and perceived diversity on group functioning and performance. Findings of this research provide empirical evidence to support the inclusion of perceived diversity in work group diversity research as a distinct construct that has impacts on group functioning and performance.

Recent performance appraisal research has focused on rater cognitive processes. Instead, this research examined the effects of a motivational variable, accountability, on rater cognitive processes and on performance ratings. In the first experiment, accountability attenuated a primacy effect in evaluative ratings, and, when negative information was presented first, increased the time spent looking at performance information. However, there was no evidence that looking time mediated the effect of accountability on evaluative ratings. In the second experiment, accountable subjects had a more conservative response bias in behavioral ratings relative to unaccountable subjects if evaluative ratings were made prior to behavioral ratings. Accountable subjects who made behavioral ratings first showed no response bias in behavioral ratings although they had less confidence in their ratings relative to other subjects. This research demonstrates that accountability can influence rater cognitive processes and thus performance ratings but that its effects are situational.

Subjects performed a team task with a confederate who either was disabled and acknowledged her disability, was disabled and did not acknowledge her disability, or was not disabled. In addition, the confederate performed either well or poorly on the task. Subjects were assessed on their ambivalence toward the disabled prior to working with their team partner. As predicted, subjects working with a disabled team partner who did not acknowledge her disability and did well on the task, rated her higher on agreeableness and spent more time discussing a topic with her than when she was not disabled. Subjects working with a disabled team partner who did not acknowledge her disability and did poorly on the task, rated her lower on agreeableness and spent less time discussing a topic with her than when she was not disabled. In addition, subjects working with a disabled team partner who acknowledged her disability and did well on the task, rated her higher on agreeableness and spent more time discussing a topic with her than when she was not disabled. Subjects working with a disabled team partner who acknowledged her disability and did poorly on the task, rated her higher on agreeableness than when she was not disabled. They spent less time discussing a topic with her than when she was not disabled, although the difference was not as great as when she did not acknowledge her disability. Furthermore, all of these effects only occurred when subjects had prior ambivalent attitudes toward the disabled. The results provide evidence for ambivalence as a moderator of the way people evaluate and behave toward the disabled. In addition, the results demonstrate that disability acknowledgment can be an effective interactional tactic that will result in positive evaluations and behavior toward the disabled.

Consistent biases in the perception of risk have been demonstrated by research. An imaging task was used in this study in an attempt to change those perceptions. The task consisted of sketching scenarios depicting an accident involving eight different hazards. The task effected a change in self risk ratings taken before and after the task, but the change was different for each of two groups of hazards. The hazards were divided into a high and a low group based on the pre-task self risk ratings. Lawnmower, toaster, coffee maker, and bicycle were found to be initially perceived as low risk. Pesticide, swimming pool, asbestos, and power saw were in the initially perceived high risk group. Pre-post self risk rating change scores showed an increase for the low risk group and a decrease for the high risk group. The interaction between sketching and not sketching an accident and the initial perceptions of low and high risk was significant. This finding lends hope that the accident scenario imaging method can be used to correct biases in the perception of risk of certain hazards. An additional analysis addressed the relationship between the perception of risk and other cognitions. Self risk ratings were found to be more closely related to probability estimates for injuries to self than to injury frequency estimates for the general public. Frequency and probability estimates do not tell the whole story, however, as far as risk perception is concerned. Perceptions for the severity of the consequences of an injury caused by the hazard, the catastrophic potential of the hazard, the ease of imagining an injury caused by the hazard, and the extent of exposure to the hazard are also significantly related to the perception of risk to self presented by the hazard. Important differences were observed in this study between perception of risk for self and for others. These findings highlight important considerations in the study and measurement of risk perception which is an important part of any effort to de-bias risk perception. When risk perception is found to be biased in a potentially harmful manner, an understanding of the role of the cognitive availability of accident scenarios and how to change that availability might then be used to correct those biases.

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of skin color on subsequent ratings of job suitability and to evaluate the influence trait based stereotypes have on these ratings. Results showed that the effect of skin color on job suitability is moderated by the race of the rater. For white raters, more favorable job suitability ratings were attributed to light skinned applicants. For black raters, more favorable job suitability ratings were attributed to dark skinned applicants. There was no basis for attributing the skin color differences to trait based stereotypes. These findings are discussed and future research goals are presented.