In this study, the relationship between essentialism, religious beliefs, and views of change was investigated. Participants were given surveys containing three sets of items and a demographic questionnaire. Item sets included the Intrinsic/Extrinsic-Revised Scale of Religiosity, the Essentialist Belief Scales, and the Change Vignettes. Results indicated those with gradualist religious views were not more likely to endorse essentialist views when compared to those with conversionist views. Those who essentialized at high levels were not less likely to endorse the possibility of change in comparison to those who essentialized at lower levels. Participants with high levels of extrinsic religiosity were not more likely to demonstrate essentialist beliefs as compared to those with low levels of extrinsic religiosity. In addition, individuals did not view change as more plausible as they were determined to be more intrinsically religious. No relationship was found between religious affiliation and views of change or measures of essentialist thought. Those belonging to Fundamentalists and Liberalist denominational groups were found to be similar in regard to beliefs about change, and essentialism, as well as intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity. Those classified as Others were significantly different from Fundamentalist and Liberalists, excluding ratings of the importance of good deeds.

Since its discovery in 1984, psychological investigators have continued to explore the Flynn Effect, the phenomenon of consistent and secular IQ gains within industrialized nations approximating 0.3 points per year. The most contentious debate within this field of research surrounds the purported cause of the Effect, and yet the research literature lacks a synthesis of the leading causal theories and the evidence supporting them. The principal hypothesized causal mechanisms – psychometric artifact, educational intervention, environmental changes, nutrition, genetics, gene-environment interaction model, medical improvements, and the multiplicity hypothesis – are reviewed and analyzed within the larger breadth of Flynn Effect scholarly literature. Flynn Effect causal investigation has not yielded any decisive results, and the unproductive postulation of causal theories has recently stagnated, so researchers must accept a necessary shift in the focus of their research toward a more collaborative and holistic understanding of the Effect in order to effectively determine its causes. Extensive social implications of the Effect within the scopes of special education and judicial policy necessitate the expedited revitalization of Flynn Effect research such that contemporary society may be better able to appropriately incorporate the Effect into public policy.

As social beings, people naturally form identifications with various social groups within their environment. Individuals gain benefits by forming identifications with groups, such as increased self-esteem and psychological support. Past research has examined the identification people form with various social groups, but no research has examined with which of these social groups people form the strongest identification. This study examines the strength of identification with various social groups within one’s life. It is predicted that individuals will indicate a stronger identification with a sport team than with any other social group. Secondly, it is predicted that identification with a sport team will provide better psychological benefits than identification with another social group. The analysis of 226 participants’ responses indicated that individuals form a stronger identification with a sport team than with a religious group, a school activity, or with a form of community involvement. A similar level of identification was found between identification with a sport team and a social activity as well as one’s occupation. The study’s results also indicated that identification with a sport team contributed slightly more to one’s social psychological health than identification with another form of social group.

The purpose of the current study is to determine whether eliciting the need for assimilation or the need for differentiation influences individuals’ identification with a given team. Team identification is defined as a fan’s psychological connection to a team; that is, the extent to which the fan views the team as an extension of him or herself (Wann, Melnick, Russell, & Pease, 2001). It is important to understand potential factors that may motivate and potentially increase one’s identification with a particular team. The sample consisted of 106 participants attending Western Kentucky University. The participants completed the Sport Fandom Questionnaire (SFQ) and the Need for Affiliation (nAff) scale. Participants were presented with one of three randomly assigned scenarios, and were asked to transcribe two memories, dependent upon the previously assigned scenario. Following this, the gambling scenario was described. Participants rated how identified they were with both the underdog and favored team, regardless of their choice. It was hypothesized that those who are primed to experience the feelings of assimilation will wager more money on and be more highly identified with a team that is a prohibitive favorite. Also, it was hypothesized that those who are primed to experience the feelings of differentiation will wager more money on and be more highly identified with a team that is a large underdog. Results indicated that the hypotheses were not supported; however, significance was approached, as participants who were primed for feelings of differentiation tended to choose the underdog football team. Regardless of condition, participants tended to wager more money on the favorite football team, as opposed to the underdog football team.

What motivates one to write a thesis? This study assessed whether presenting one’s master’s thesis proposal at a thesis colloquium increased the probability of Industrial/Organizational I/O) Psychology graduate students completing their thesis on time (i.e., finishing their thesis as they finished their graduate coursework). This study also examined the relationship between presenting one’s thesis proposal at a thesis colloquium and different forms of motivated regulation and three basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness). Participants included 94 master’s level I/O Psychology alumni from four universities. As expected, students who presented at a thesis colloquium had a higher rate of on-time thesis completion. Students who presented at a thesis colloquium also reported a higher level of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation toward their thesis, and a lower level of amotivation toward their thesis compared to students who did not present at a colloquium. Reported level of relatedness toward individuals who helped work on the thesis was higher for those who presented at a thesis colloquium than for those who did not present. However, there were no differences between those who did or did not present at a colloquium in terms of reported competence and autonomy.

A common stereotype in our society is that athletes are not as capable of performing well academically as their non-athlete counterparts; they are “dumb jocks”. Do athletes feel that others have lower expectations of them academically? This is important because previous research in education has shown that expectations play a role in academic achievement (for example, Rosenthal and Jacobson’s Pygmalion effect (1968) and self-fulfilling prophecy research). The current study examined student-athletes’ perceptions of this stereotype. Three areas were addressed: athletes’ perceptions of their peers’ awareness that the student is a student-athlete, perceptions of their instructors and peers academic expectations of athletes, and perceptions of their instructors and peers willingness to offer help with coursework because they are athletes. This study not only examined athletes’ perception of how they are treated by their professors and non-athlete students in the academic realm, but also how the athletes view the academic abilities of their athletic peers compared to their own academic abilities. The person/group discrimination discrepancy is a phenomenon indicating that individuals tend to report a higher level of discrimination directed at their group as a whole than at themselves as individual members of that group. This study examined if student-athletes’ report similar feelings about their own academic ability as compared to athletes as a whole. Results of this study indicated that student-athletes perceive professors as having higher academic expectations and being willing to provide academic help because they are athletes. Student-athletes perceived other students as being willing to provide academic help, but having lower academic expectations of athletes. As hypothesized, the personal/group discrimination discrepancy did emerge among student-athletes. Overall, student-athletes assigned the highest grade point average (GPA) to themselves, followed by a lower GPA for teammates, and significantly lower GPAs to university athletes as a whole. Further exploratory analyses were conducted. The exploratory analyses indicated that student-athletes’ perceptions of academic ability for themselves compared to teammates and university athletes as a whole varied by gender, race, and academic scholarship. Results indicated that female athletes and males athletes (excluding football players) perceived themselves as having the highest GPA followed by a decline for teammates and university athletes respectively; however, football players perceived themselves and university athletes obtaining approximately equal GPAs with a significantly lower perceived GPA for teammates. Athletes on academic scholarship assigned the highest GPA to themselves followed by teammates and university athletes, respectively. Finally, African American athletes assigned the lowest GPA to themselves, whereas Caucasian athletes assigned themselves the highest GPA.

Self-injury (SI) is a growing concern for professionals working in educational settings who desire more information on SI and express a lack of confidence in working with youth who self injure (Carlson, DeGreer, Deur, & Fenton, 2005; Heath, Toste, & Beettam, 2008). A sample of 263 teachers from a small, rural Kentucky county completed a survey (response rate of 45.5%) designed to address educators’ knowledge of SI, training needs, and knowledge of school response plans for working with youth who self-injure. A 20-item measure developed by Jeffery and Warm (2002) assessed SI knowledge. Educators evidenced significantly lower scores on the knowledge measure than school psychologists (Beld, 2007), and professionals working in a medical setting (Jeffrey & Warm, 2002) with the exception of psychiatrists. Analysis of the response patterns of the educators on the knowledge measure indicated 11 out of 20 items evidenced serious inaccurate understandings of basic fact and myths, prevalence, relationship of SI to psychopathology and suicide, and media influences. There were no gender differences when comparing self-rated knowledge of SI; however, female educators evidenced greater mean scores on the knowledge measure. Females evidence significantly greater knowledge of SI than males. There is no relation between knowledge of SI and the amount of experience working with youth who self-injure for this sample. Knowledge of SI and amount of experience working with students who SI was not correlated. Further, educators who report knowledge of school plans did not report higher confidence in helping students. Descriptive information regarding knowledge of SI and school response plans, confidence, and training indicate the majority of educators in this sample do not have any experience working with youth who self-injure. Further, most lacked knowledge of a school response plan and did not know the existence of or steps included in the district’s school response plan. A majority of participants indicated never attending in-service training on SI; however, they did indicate an interest in receiving more information on SI. Results support the need for districts to educate staff on school response plans and/or to develop a specific school response plan for dealing with youth who engage in SI. Also supported are training needs regarding the school plan, basic knowledge of SI, and extended areas of SI such as media and suicide. Lastly, follows the discussion of practical implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research in relation to results.

This research examined the effects of personal characteristics (empathy and authoritarianism) and religious orientations (Christian humanitarianism and religious fundamentalism) on identification with all humanity and resulting humanitarian behavior. This research also tested two hypothetical models (personality is primary, religion is primary) for the relationship between identification with all humanity and resulting humanitarian behavior. Two samples, consisting of 221 students and 158 adults, completed measures of authoritarianism, religious fundamentalism, dispositional empathy, Christian humanitarianism, identification with all humanity, and an assessment of humanitarian behaviors. As hypothesized, Christian humanitarianism and empathy were positively correlated with identification with all humanity and humanitarian behavior. Furthermore, authoritarianism and religious fundamentalism were negatively correlated with identification with all humanity and humanitarian behavior. Results also suggest that religious views may lead to the strengthening of specific personality characteristics and these, in turn, influence whether or not one identifies with all humanity and engages in humanitarian behaviors. Directions for future research are discussed as well as the implications of this research to real-world settings.

Children’s understanding of race constancy and their subsequent use of race as a means of drawing inductive inferences were investigated. Race constancy was determined by children’s tendency to say that people could change category membership by changing their outside appearance. A second phase of the study measured how many race-based inferences children made relative to other social categories such as age or sex. The results indicated that children who had a better understanding of race constancy were also more likely to use race as a means of drawing inductive inferences. These findings support a developmental progression of race constancy and give insight to the development of potential bias and stereotypes.

This study was designed to examine the relationship between a person’s goal orientation and the gender roles that they adopt. The relationship between gender and goal orientation has been studied for years, but the results have been inconclusive. Some studies find a gender difference and some studies do not. For this reason, this study examined if there was another factor that was influencing goal orientations that was related to gender. Goal orientations are perceptual-cognitive frameworks for how individuals approach, interpret, and respond to achievement situations. Gender roles are the behaviors, thoughts, and emotions that are considered acceptable and appropriate for each gender based on society and culture. Four hundred and seventy two participants answered an online questionnaire assessing their goal orientation and gender role identification. The participants answered questions using the Patterns of Adaptive Learning Scale and the Bem’s Sex Role Inventory. Overall, the results showed that higher masculinity leads to a higher motivation to succeed, and higher femininity leads to a higher motivation to avoid failure.