Socioeconomic status, race and life expectancy in Arkansas, 1970-1990

Earlier research found that high socioeconomic populations in Arkansas experienced an increase in mean life expectancy over low socioeconomic populations between 1970 and 1990. The possibility that these findings are spurious because of race is tested in this paper. Using multivariate analysis in conjunction with estimates of life expectancy by race and socioeconomic status (SES) we find that between 1970 and 1990: (1) Black populations with high SES gained more than three additional years of life expectancy over Black populations with high SES; and (2) White populations with high SES gained more than .5 years of life expectancy over White populations with low SES. These findings support earlier findings that SES plays an instrumental role in differential life expectancy. They also suggest that the effects of SES on life expectancy are moderated differentially for Blacks and Whites.     

Children's comprehension of family role portrayals in televised dramas: Effects of socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and age.

578 middle and lower socioeconomic status (SES), Black and White children in Grades 2, 5, and 8 participated in 2 fully-crossed replications of the same design. They viewed 1 of 2 edited television dramas that portrayed either a White middle-class family (Study 1) or a Black working-class family (Study 2) in similar conflict resolution situations. Ss' comprehension of central (plot-essential) and peripheral content and their inferences about actors' emotions and causes of action were assessed. Memory for content was age-related in both studies. However, in Study 1, middle-SES 2nd graders viewing the middle-class family show scored higher than lower-SES 2nd graders. In Study 2 lower-SES 2nd graders who viewed the working-class family show achieved higher scores than their middle-class counterparts. There were no SES effects among 5th- and 8th-grade participants and no consistent effects of ethnicity at any age. Additional analyses indicated that congruence between televised characters and settings and viewers' own experiences, as indicated by SES, facilitated 2nd graders' processing of program content. Implications of age-related processing skills for social effects of TV are discussed. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of the "mentally retarded" label on adult judgments about child failure.

Retarded children show marked susceptibility to learned helplessness. Three experiments illustrate how adults may foster this helplessness. In Exp I, 152 college students reported causal attributions for failure and expectancies of future success for either "a 6-yr-old child" or "a 9-yr-old mentally retarded child with a mental age of 6 yrs." In Exp II, 58 Ss reported attributions and expectancies for both children. In both experiments, insufficient ability was rated a more important cause of failure for the retarded than for the unlabeled child, insufficient effort was rated more important for the unlabeled child, and the retarded child was rated less likely to succeed in the future. In Exp III, 54 Ss' responses indicated that either a low expectancy of success, an insufficient-ability attribution, or the retarded label alone would reduce the likelihood of their urging a child to persist after a failure. Results suggest a proposed attributional bias (overextension), a familiar attributional bias in a new context (discounting), and resultant helplessness-condoning behavior by adults. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Observed IQ as a function of test atmosphere, tester expectation, and race of tester: A replication for female subjects.

Investigated performance on the WISC among 208 Black and 208 White female junior high and high school students under 16 yrs of age. The variables of test atmosphere (evaluative or gamelike), tester expectation (high or low), race and sex of tester, and race and socioeconomic status (SES; above or below the median) of S were placed in a 2–6 factorial design. The variables of atmosphere, expectation, and SES interacted significantly with the race of the S in determining mean IQ. High-SES Blacks exposed to what had been predicted to be optimally motivating conditions achieved mean IQs equaling or exceeding those of low-SES Whites. Ss generally performed better in the presence of a female tester. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Internality, controllability, and the effectiveness of attributional interpretations in counseling.

Investigated an attributional approach to counseling in 2 studies. In Exp I, with 58 female and 24 male psychology students, the theoretical basis for the use of attributional interpretations was tested by giving Ss who had just received a negative social evaluation no information or information that stressed 1 of 4 types of causes: internal/controllable, internal/uncontrollable, external/controllable, and external/uncontrollable. Stressing internal/controllable causes produced more positive affective reactions and performance evaluations among internal locus of control respondents (Rotter's Internal–External Locus of Control Scale), whereas externals were more variable in their responses. Exp II (24 Ss) assessed the generalizability of these findings by administering causal counseling to Ss who identified themselves as interpersonally anxious. Utilizing a quasi-counseling design, Ss were exposed to 1 of 2 interpretations emphasizing internal control or coping. Results of Exp II confirm initial conclusions that the effectiveness of causal counseling may depend on the individual's locus of control. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Causal Dimension Scale: A measure of how individuals perceive causes.

A shortcoming of previous attribution research has been the assumption that researchers can accurately translate causal attributions into causal dimensions. Attributional statements are often ambiguous and even when clearly stated may be perceived quite differently by the attributor and the researcher. The studies reported describe the development of the Causal Dimension Scale, a measure designed to assess how the attributor perceives the causes he or she has stated for an event. This scale assesses causal perceptions in terms of the locus of causality, stability, and controllability dimensions described by B. Weiner (1979). Two studies (288 undergraduates) tested the reliability and validity of the Causal Dimension Scale. All 3 subscales were found to be reliable and valid, and a 3-mode factor analysis confirmed the 3-dimensional structure of the scale. Results also indicate differences in the perception of causes of success and failure, with attributions for success being perceived as more internal, stable, and controllable than attributions for failure. The relationship between the Causal Dimension Scale and other attribution measures (such as locus of control or "attributional style" measures) is discussed. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Black English phonology and learning to read.

Tested the hypothesis that phonological differences between standard and Black English interfere with the ability of beginning readers to learn sound–spelling correspondences in reading. 15 1st graders in each of 3 groups—low-socioeconomic status (SES), Black and White and middle-SES White—were asked to match spoken and written words. Mismatches were created by deleting final spoken consonants or by deleting initial consonants. The hypothesis that Black-English-speaking children of low SES would tend to make a match when final spoken consonants were deleted, whereas the White children of low and middle SES would not, was not supported. Decoding errors revealed that the 3 groups differed in word-attack strategies. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expectations and preferences for counselor race and their relation to intermediate treatment outcomes.

The expectations and preferences of 26 White and 8 Black male veterans for the race of their counselor were investigated at the time the clients entered treatment in a midwestern outpatient mental health clinic. In addition, Ss' satisfaction with treatment, measured by a 3-factor self-rating scale and dropout status, were analyzed in relation to Ss' expectations and preferences for counselor race and the racial makeup of the treatment dyad. Results indicate that White and Black clients alike expected their counselor to be White. About half of the White Ss and half of the Blacks indicated that they had no preferences. However, the significant association between race and S preference for counselor race suggests that Ss expressing preferences preferred counselors of their own race. Dropout and satisfaction with treatment were not related to the nature of Ss' racial expectations and preferences or to the racial makeup of the treatment dyads. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Race of counselor, client sex, cultural mistrust level, and premature termination from counseling among Black clients.

Administered an inventory designed to assess the extent to which they trusted White people to 135 27–41 yr old Black clients as they visited a community mental health center for the 1st time. Equal numbers of Ss were assigned to a Black and White counselor for an intake interview. Analyses of counselor's race, mistrust level, and Ss' sex in relationship to premature termination of counseling showed that significant percentages of shared variance were found for counselors' race and trust level. It is suggested that Black clients who are distrustful of White people should be seen by a Black counselor, at least initially. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intergroup attributions and affective consequences in majority and minority groups.

Three studies explored intergroup attributional bias. In Exp 1, Muslims (majority) and Hindus (minority) in Bangladesh rated their explanations of in-group and out-group members' positive and negative acts on 4 causal dimensions: locus, stability, controllability by others, and globality. Both groups showed in-group-favoring attributions, but only Muslims were out-group derogating. Causal dimensions predicted affects primarily in in-group-outcome conditions. Exp 2 showed that this bias for Muslims varied across crossed-categorization conditions. Causal dimensions predicted affect and self-esteem in certain conditions. Exp 3 showed that this bias for Hindus was accentuated when social categorizations were made salient. These studies increase understanding of the determinants and consequences of the bias. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

From attribution to helping: An analysis of the mediating effects of affect and expectancy.

Applied the attributional model of motivation of B. Weiner et al (1971) to the study of helping behavior and predicted that willingness to help another person is influenced by the cause of the need and that the relationship between attribution and helping is mediated by affect and expectancy of future need. 80 undergraduates rated the likelihood that they would lend money to an acquaintance in each of 8 conditions in which causality varied along 3 dimensions: stability, locus, and control. Ss also rated their emotional reactions on 25 affect scales, selected from the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List, and estimated the likelihood that the person would require aid again in the future. ANOVA revealed that willingness to help was influenced primarily by the controllability of the cause. Consistent with the mediation hypothesis, a path analysis revealed that the effect of controllability on helping judgments was largely an indirect result of its influence on Ss' affective reactions to the request. The development of an attributional model of helping behavior is discussed. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Media effects on prose learning in two populations of children.

Assessed prose learning in 84 high-socioeconomic status (SES) White and 84 low-SES Black 4th graders as a function of presentation media, test-item structure, and response methods. The 7 presentation conditions included both single media--oral, print, and pictures--and combined media. The learning of intra and intersentence relations was tested by means of assertion-verification, short-answer, and free recall methods. While all of these variations contributed to performance differences, major emphasis was given to discrepancies in the media effects observed in the 2 populations. For low-SES Black Ss, performance in the combined media conditions, especially in oral plus pictures, was superior to that in single-media conditions, whereas among high-SES White Ss combinations of media were of little benefit. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex and race effects in the conformity behavior of upper-elementary school-aged children.

Reports 2 experiments with a total of 368 Black and White lower- and middle-class 9-12 yr olds in which a novel technique was used to study sex and race effects on children's conformity behavior. Neither the White, lower-class Ss nor the White, middle-class Ss showed any consistent tendency to conform differentially to Black and White models. A tendency of Blacks in Exp I to conform more to White than to Black models constituted the only race effect of any consequence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Covariation information and cognitive processing: Effects of causal implications on memory.

Investigated the impact of attributional implications of covariation information on memory for the implied causal agent. 118 undergraduates read summary paragraphs of consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency (CDC) information and were then timed as they verified from memory whether certain probe words, including the name of the implied causal agent, had appeared in the paragraph. In Exps I and II, Ss were not instructed to attend to attributional implications but merely to study the information for the subsequent memory test. In Exp III, Ss made attributions to each paragraph just prior to the probe task. Results indicate that (a) the names of implied causal agents were verified more slowly than names of noncausal entities if the order of CDC components facilitated attributional processing and (b) this effect was obtained regardless of Ss' immediate need to make an attributional judgment. Data are consistent with the interpretation that the implied causal agent was automatically integrated more thoroughly into the memory representation of the information, which had to be "decomposed" to allow verification of the agent's identity. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nonverbal communication of affect in interracial dyads.

Two experiments investigated the relationship between nonverbal behavior and the racial composition of a teacher–student dyad. The Multifactor Racial Attitude Inventory was used to measure prejudice. In Exp I, 36 high- and low-prejudiced White female undergraduates, acting as teachers, were led to praise successful White and Black students (confederates). Analysis of samples of nonverbal behavior showed that high-prejudiced teachers nonverbally discriminated between White and Black students (favoring Whites) significantly more than low-prejudiced teachers. In Exp II, 40 White and Black teachers (female undergraduates) taught successful White and Black students (confederates). Results show that both Whites and Blacks behaved nonverbally more positively to a student of their own race than to a student of the other race, although only same-race judges (12 White female undergraduates) could distinguish the differences in affect displayed by the Ss. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reactions to cognitive ability tests: The relationships between race, test performance, face validity perceptions, and test-taking motivation.

The relationships among race, face validity perceptions, test-taking motivation, and test performance on a cognitive ability test were examined. Undergraduates completed 2 parallel cognitive ability tests and a test reactions measure. Results showed that test-taking motivation was related positively to subsequent performance on a parallel test even after the effects of race and performance on the first test were controlled. The effect of race on subsequent test performance was found to be mediated partially by motivation that provided evidence that some portion of the Black–White difference in test performance may be explained through differences in test-taking motivation. Results also indicated that Black–White differences in face validity perceptions of the test may be a function of Black–White differences in test performance. Face validity perceptions of the test affected subsequent performance on the parallel test but only indirectly through test-taking motivation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)