The Modern Biased Information Test: Proposing alternatives for implicit measures

The present article describes the development of a Modern Biased Information Test (MBIT) inspired by the work published by Donald Campbell in 1950 on indirect measures of prejudice. A biased information test aims to tap individuals' intergroup attitudes from the selective information they use to describe group members. Two biased information tests were developed to measure ethnocentric and androcentric biases, respectively, and applied in four convenience samples of students from two different cultural settings (Costa Rica and the USA). The internal consistency for the accuracy indicators derived from both tests was acceptable and comparable across cultures. In contrast, the internal consistency for ethnocentric biases was adequate across samples and cultures, but the internal consistency for androcentric biases was unacceptable across both cultures. Results are discussed in the line of the usefulness of alternative measures for tapping implicit attitudes.Universidad de Costa Rica/[]/UCR/Costa RicaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias Sociales::Instituto de Investigaciones Psicológicas (IIP

Comparison of life history strategy measures

Life History Strategy (LHS) describes a cluster of evolved traits whose adaptive function is to facilitate an organism’s reproduction. Individuals who allocate more resources towards somatic and parental/nepotistic effort and less towards mating effort are described as slow life history strategists, while those with the opposite resource allocation pattern are described as fast life history strategists. There are many measures purported to measure individual differences in LHS, however these have not yet been systematically compared. In this paper we compare the Arizona Life History Battery (ALHB), Mini-K, High-K Strategy Scale, and two Super-K Factors and test the internal consistency or measurement model structure of each measure, and the convergent validity between the measures. We found all measures show adequate internal consistency and measurement model structure and in general, the ALHB, Mini-K, and one Super-K Factor show the strongest convergence between the measures. Implications are discussed

Amigos y amantes: los valores relativos de trueque de diferentes tipos de compañeros en el intercambio social

Se utilizó el  Inventario de Valor como Pareja  (IVP) en talleres  paralelos  titulados  “La Racionalidad del romance” con muestras independientes recolectadas en cuatro sitios distintos: (1) Tucson, Arizona, Estados Unidos (n = 71), (2) Hermosillo, Sonora, México (n = 56), (3). Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal, México  (n = 39), y  (4) San José, Costa Rica (n = 77). Cada participante contestó un cuestionario anónimo y confidencial que incluía preguntas sobre su percepción de su propio “Valor como pareja” (VP), el VP de sus parejas románticas presentes o pasadas, y el VP de sus mejores amistades masculinas y femeninas. Cada participante dio informes sobre relaciones con sus parejas presentes o pasadas, incluyendo su grado de fidelidad a esa pareja, la seriedad de esa relación, y su satisfacción con esa relación. Se especificaron y analizaron varias relaciones entre los datos obtenidos por medio de un modelo económico de intercambio social

A Social Relations Model for the Colonial Behavior of the Zebra Finch

A social relations model was developed for 5 years of behavioral recordings from a captive colony of Zebrafinches (Taeniopygia guttata). A quantitative ethogram was applied, using one-zero focal animal sampling on an ethologically comprehensive checklist of 52 behavioral items (Figueredo, Petrinovich, Ross, 1992). Of the 9 ethological factors previously identified, only 4 of the 6 social factors (Social Proximity, Social Contact, Social Submission, and Social Aggression) were used. Major results were as follows: (1) Individual finches showed systematically different response dispositions that were stable over a 5-year period as both subjects and objects of behavior; (2) Interactions between finches differed systematically by the sexes of both the subjects and the objects of behavior; (3) Behavioral interactions between finches and their mates differed systematically according to the subjects' sex, but also differed systematically from those with other members of the objects' sex; (4) Behavioral interactions between finches and their relatives differed systematically between different discrete categories of relatives, but did not vary as a systematic function of either graded genetic relatedness or familiarity due to common rearing; and (5) Behavioral interactions between finches and their relatives showed an overall bias towards preferential interactions with male relatives.   DOI:10.2458/azu_jmmss_v1i1_figuered

Eating Disorders and Intrasexual Competition: Testing an Evolutionary Hypothesis among Young Women

The sexual competition hypothesis (SCH) contends that intense female intrasexual competition (ISC) is the ultimate cause of eating disorders. The SCH explains the phenomenon of the pursuit of thinness as an adaptation to ISC in the modern environment. It argues that eating disorders are pathological phenomena that arise from the mismatch between the modern environment and the inherited female adaptations for ISC. The present study has two aims. The first is to examine the relationship between disordered eating behavior (DEB) and ISC in a sample of female undergraduates. The second is to establish whether there is any relationship between disordered eating behavior and life history (LH) strategy. Participants completed a battery of questionnaires examining eating-related attitudes and behaviors, ISC, and LH strategy. A group of 206 female undergraduates were recruited. A structural equation model was constructed to analyze the data. ISC for mates was significantly associated with DEB, as predicted by the SCH. DEB was found to be predicted by fast LH strategy, which was only partially mediated by the SCH. The results of this study are supportive of the SCH and justify research on a clinical sample

Revisiting Mediation in the Social and Behavioral Sciences

The process of mediation is of critical importance to the social and behavioral sciences and to evolutionary social psychology in particular. As with the concept of evolutionary adaptation, however, one can argue that causal mediation is in need of explicit theoretical justification and empirical support. Mainstream evolutionary social psychology proposes, for example, that organisms are “adaptation executers”, and not “fitness maximizers”. The execution of adaptations is triggered by fitness-relevant ecological contingencies at both ultimate and proximate levels of analysis. This logic is essentially equivalent to what methodologists refer to as the process of mediation; the adaptations to be executed (or not, depending upon the prevailing environmental circumstances) causally mediate the effects of the ecological contingencies upon the fitness outcomes. Thus, the process of mediation can be generally conceptualized as a causal chain of events leading to a given outcome or set of outcomes. If a predictor variable operates through an intervening variable to affect a criterion variable, then mediation is said to exist. Nevertheless, it does not appear that some psychologists (particularly evolutionary-social psychologists) are sufficiently well-versed in the fundamental logic and quantitative methodology of establishing causal mediation to support such claims. In the current paper, we set out to review the ways researchers support their use of mediation statements and also propose critical considerations on this front. We start with more conventional methods for testing mediation, discuss variants of the conventional approach, discuss the limitations of such methods as we see them, and end with our preferred mediation approach.   DOI:10.2458/azu_jmmss_v04i1_figueredo

Reproductive Strategy and Sexual Conflict Slow Life History Strategy Inihibts Negative Androcentrism

Recent findings indicate that a slow Life History (LH) strategy factor is associated with increased levels of Executive Functioning (EF), increased emotional intelligence, decreased levels of sexually coercive behaviors, and decreased levels of negative ethnocentrism. Based on these findings, as well as the generative theory, we predicted that slow LH strategy should inhibit negative androcentrism (bias against women). A sample of undergraduates responded to a battery of questionnaires measuring various facets of their LH Strategy, (e.g., sociosexual orientation, mating effort, mate-value, psychopathy, executive functioning, and emotional intelligence) and various convergent measures of Negative Androcentrism. A structural model that the data fit well indicated a latent protective LH strategy trait predicted decreased negative androcentrism. This trait fully mediated the relationship between participant biological sex and androcentrism. We suggest that slow LH strategy may inhibit negative attitudes toward women because of relatively decreased intrasexual competition and intersexual conflict among slow LH strategists.   DOI:10.2458/azu_jmmss_v4i1_gladde

Construct Validation of Quality of Life for the Severely Mentally Ill

This study focused on the quality of life experienced by persons with severe mental illness (SMI). Previous studies indicate the need for a multi-dimensional approach to the study of quality of life and its subjective indicators. For the SMI, attention should be paid not only to the direct and intentional effects of interventions, but also to the indirect and unintentional effects, both negative and positive. Hence, a global evaluation of individuals within this group is indicated. A multitrait-multimethod approach to construct validation using confirmatory factor analysis was employed. The hypothesized factors were modeled as multiple traits and the multiple perspectives of the respondents (i.e. patient, case manager, family member) were multiple methods. A total of 265 severely mentally ill adults served by a network of agencies in four cities were randomly sampled. The sample was approximately 50% male and 50% female, ages ranged from 19-78 years.   DOI:10.2458/azu_jmmss_v1i2_johnso