Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Where Are You From? A Validation Of The Foreigner Objectification Scale And The Psychological Correlates Of Foreigner Objectification Among Asian Americans And Latinos, Brian E. Armenta, Richard M. Lee, Stephanie T. Pituc, Kyoung-Rae Jung, Irene J.K. Park, Jose A. Soto, Su Yeong Kim, Seth J. Schwartz

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Many ethnic minorities in the United States consider themselves to be just as American as their European American counterparts. However, there is a persistent cultural stereotype of ethnic minorities as foreigners (i.e., the perpetual foreigner stereotype) that may be expressed during interpersonal interactions (i.e., foreigner objectification). The goal of the present study was to validate the Foreigner Objectification Scale, a brief self-report measure of perceived foreigner objectification, and to examine the psychological correlates of perceived foreigner objectification. Results indicated that the Foreigner Objectification Scale is structurally (i.e., factor structure) and metrically (i.e., factor loadings) invariant across foreign-born and U.S.-born Asian …

When Will We Meet Again? Regularities Of Social Connectivity As Reflected In Memory And Decision Making, Thorsten Pachur, Lael J. Schooler, Jeffrey R. Stevens

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

In 1967, the social psychologist Stanley Milgram reported a fascinating observation. For a study on social connectivity, he randomly picked several individuals in Wichita, Kansas, and asked them to get a message delivered to a particular target person in Cambridge, Massachusetts—a distance of more than 1,300 miles. There were two catches. First, Milgram provided no address but only the name and some basic information about the target person, such as the area where he lived and his profession (the target person was the same for everybody). Second, people could only forward the message to someone they knew on a firstname …

Discriminant Construct Validity Of Impact™: A Companion Study, Arthur C. Maerlender, L. Flashman, A. Kessler, S. Kumbhani, R. Greenwald, Dartmouth College Toteson, T. Mcallister

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

In a previous analysis of ImPACT scores relative to traditional neuropsychological tests (NP) and experimental tasks (Maerlender et al., 2010) we demonstrated convergent construct validity for the primary ImPACT test-score composites. A complete analysis of discriminant validity was not undertaken at that time. Here, test scores from the 54 collegiate football and hockey players were re-analyzed to specifically address the discriminant validity of the ImPACT composite scores using a multiply operationalized correlation matrix of multitrait multi-method data. In the method used here, discriminant validity is determined by obtaining non-significant correlations between a target score when correlated with the average of …

Nicotine Enhances Operant Responding For Qualitatively Distinct Reinforcers Under Maintenance And Extinction Conditions, Scott T. Barrett, Rick A. Bevins

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

RATIONALE—Nicotine enhancement of reward has been implicated as an important contributor to tobacco addiction. Despite the attention that reward enhancement has received, the behavioral mechanisms whereby nicotine enhances operant responding remain largely unknown. The present study sought to extend previous work by evaluating the effects of nicotine on responding for two qualitatively different rewards (visual stimulation (VS) and 4% sucrose solution) under fixed-ratio (FR) maintenance and extinction conditions.

METHOD—Sprague-Dawley rats were trained to press an active lever for VS (Experiment 1) or 4% sucrose solution (Experiment 2) and evaluated over 15 sessions on a FR5 schedule of reinforcement. Nicotine (0.4 …

Interoceptive Conditioning In Rats: Effects Of Using A Single Training Dose Or A Set Of 5 Different Doses Of Nicotine, Steven T. Pittenger, Rick A. Bevins

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Interoceptive conditioning contributes to the tenacity of nicotine dependence. Previous research investigating nicotine as an interoceptive stimulus has typically employed administration of a single training dose of nicotine over an extended time. This approach has allowed for careful study of the nicotine stimulus. In humans, the nicotine stimulus is unlikely to be fixed across learning episodes. Thus, from a translational perspective, systematic variation of nicotine dose in training might better approximate interoceptive conditioning in humans. Notably, training with a class or set of discrete exteroceptive stimuli (e.g., different pictures of cars) produces interesting behavioral differences relative to training with a …

A Two-Factor Theory For Concussion Assessment Using Impact: Memory And Speed, Philip Schatz, Arthur C. Maerlender

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

We present the initial validation of a two-factor structure of Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT) using ImPACT composite scores and document the reliability and validity of this factor structure. Factor analyses were conducted for baseline (N = 21,537) and post-concussion (N = 560) data, yielding “Memory” (Verbal and Visual) and “Speed” (Visual Motor Speed and Reaction Time) Factors; inclusion of Total Symptom Scores resulted in a third discrete factor. Speed and Memory z-scores were calculated, and test–retest reliability (using intra-class correlation coefficients) at 1 month (0.88/0.81), 1 year (0.85/0.75), and 2 years (0.76/0.74) were higher than published data …

Afraid To Help: Social Anxiety Partially Mediates The Association Between 5-Httlpr Triallelic Genotype And Prosocial Behavior, Scott F. Stoltenberg, Christa C. Christ, Gustavo Carlo

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

There is growing evidence that the serotonin system influences prosocial behavior. We examined whether anxiety mediated the association between variation in the serotonin transporter gene regulatory region (5-HTTLPR) and prosocial behavior. We collected self-reported tendencies to avoid certain situations and history of helping others using standard instruments and buccal cells for standard 5-HTTLPR genotyping from 398 undergraduate students. Triallelic 5-HTTLPR genotype was significantly associated with prosocial behavior and the effect was partially mediated by social anxiety, such that those carrying the S′ allele reported higher levels of social avoidance and lower rates of helping others. These results are consistent with …