Imagery (richly imagining carrying out a task successfully) is a popular performance-enhancement tool in many domains. This experiment sought to test whether pursuing two goals (vs. one) benefits performance after an imagery exercise. We examined mastery goals (aiming to improve skill level) and performance goals (aiming to outperform others) among 65 tennis players who were assigned to a mastery goal condition, a performance goal condition, or a mastery goal performance goal condition. After reading instructions for a service task, which included the goal manipulation, participants completed 20 tennis services. They then completed an imagery exercise and, finally, completed another 20 services. Postimagery service performance was better in the dual-goal condition than in the other conditions.

People with facial paralysis (FP) report social difficulties, but some attempt to compensate by increasing expressivity in their bodies and voices. We examined perceivers' emotion judgments of videos of people with FP to understand how they interpret the combination of an inexpressive face with an expressive body and voice. Results suggest perceivers form less favorable impressions of people with severe FP, but compensatory expression is effective in improving impressions. Perceivers seemed to form holistic impressions when rating happiness and possibly sadness. Findings have implications for basic emotion research and social functioning interventions for people with FP.

The Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) Stigmatization Model identifies how three stigma components hinder IPV help-seeking behaviors: cultural stigma, stigma internalization, and anticipated stigma. highlights societal beliefs that de-legitimize people experiencing abuse. involves the extent to which people come to believe that the negative stereotypes about those who experience IPV may be true of themselves. emphasizes concern about what will happen once others know about the partner abuse (e.g., rejection). We provide an integrative literature review that supports the IPV stigmatization model and its role in reducing help-seeking behaviors.

In his classic treatise, Goffman (1963) delineates between people who are -whose stigma is clearly known or visible-and people who are -whose stigma is unknown and can be concealable. To what extent has research in the past 50 years advanced Goffman's original ideas regarding the impact of concealability on stigma management strategies and outcomes? In the current article, we outline a framework that articulates how stigma can "get under the skin" in order to lead to psychological and physical health disparities. Further, we consider when and to what degree concealability moderates these effects, creating divergent outcomes for the and . Does the stigmatized individual assume his differentness is known about already or is evident on the spot, or does he assume it is neither known about by those present nor immediately perceivable by them? In the first case one deals with the plight of the , in the second with that of the . This is an important difference.- Goffman (1963, p. 4).

Integrating social psychological research with work in child development, this study explored relationships between system justification (Jost & Banaji, 1994), maternal mental health and child externalizing behavior among low-income immigrants and racial/ethnic minorities. Dominican, Mexican and African-American families (N = 239) were assessed when children were 14-, 24- and 36-months old. SEM was used to explore longitudinal relationships between maternal system justification and mental health and associations with child behavior. Earlier mental health was negatively related to later system justification and system justification was negatively related to children's externalizing behavior. Implications for system justification theory, child development and immigration are discussed.

Although much observed judgment change is superficial and occurs without considering prior information, other forms of change also occur. Comparison between prior and new information about an issue may trigger change by influencing either or both the perceived strength and direction of the new information. In four experiments, participants formed and reported initial judgments of a policy based on favorable written information about it. Later, these participants read a second passage containing strong favorable or unfavorable information on the policy. Compared to control conditions, subtle and direct prompts to compare the initial and new information led to more judgment change in the direction of a second passage perceived to be strong. Mediation analyses indicated that comparison yielded greater perceived strength of the second passage, which in turn correlated positively with judgment change. Moreover, self-reports of comparison mediated the judgment change resulting from comparison prompts.

We investigated the relationship between parents' empathic responses prior to their children undergoing cancer treatment procedures and children's pain/distress during the procedures. We hypothesized: (1) parents' empathic distress would be positively associated with children's pain/distress, (2) parents' empathic concern would be negatively associated with children's pain/distress; and (3) parents' enduring dispositions and social support would be associated with their empathic responses. Parents completed: (1) measures of dispositions and perceived social support several weeks before their children underwent the procedures, and (2) state measures of empathic distress and empathic concern just before the procedures. Empathic distress was positively associated with children's pain; empathic concern was negatively associated with children's pain/distress. Predictions about dispositions and social support were also substantially confirmed.

The choices that individuals make when purchasing greeting cards influence what designs and sentiments are subsequently available. This suggests that the nature of the available greeting cards can be used as an archival data source to gauge social attitudes and interpersonal communicative processes. A study is presented to illustrate a method in which greeting cards are used to examine how parents communicate with their children on special occasions. The advantages and disadvantages of the approach are discussed.

Face masks that prevent disease transmission obscure facial expressions, impairing nonverbal communication. We assessed the impact of lower (masks) and upper (sunglasses) face coverings on emotional valence judgments of clearly valenced (fearful, happy) and ambiguously valenced (surprised) expressions, the latter of which have both positive and negative meaning. Masks, but not sunglasses, impaired judgments of clearly valenced expressions compared to faces without coverings. Drift diffusion models revealed that lower, but not upper, face coverings slowed evidence accumulation and affected differences in non-judgment processes (i.e., stimulus encoding, response execution time) for all expressions. Our results confirm mask-interference effects in nonverbal communication. The findings have implications for nonverbal and intergroup communication, and we propose guidance for implementing strategies to overcome mask-related interference.

Problems in science publishing involving publication bias, null hypothesis significance testing (NHST), and irreproducibility of reported results have been widely cited. Numerous attempts to ameliorate these problems have included statistical methods to assess and correct for publication bias, and recommendation or development of statistical methodologies to replace NHST where some journals have even instituted a policy of banning manuscripts reporting use of NHST. In an effort to mitigate these problems, a policy of "results blind evaluation" of manuscripts submitted to journals is recommended, in which results reported in manuscripts are given no weight in the decision as to the suitability of the manuscript for publication. Weight would be given to (a) the judged of the research question addressed in the study, typically conveyed in the Introduction section of the manuscript, and (b) the quality of the of the study, including appropriateness of data analysis methods, as reported in the Methods section. As a practical method of implementing such a policy, a two-stage process is suggested whereby the editor initially distributes only the Introduction and Methods sections of a submitted manuscript to reviewers for evaluation and a provisional decision regarding acceptance or rejection for publication is made. A second stage of review follows in which the complete manuscript is distributed for review but only if the decision of the first stage is for acceptance with no more than minor revision.

I thank the accomplished investigators who offered their commentary on my article advocating results-blind manuscript evaluation (RBME). I very much appreciate their careful review of my proposals, their thoughtful comments, and thought-provoking constructive criticism. I respond to each individually.

Using experience sampling methods we examined how group size and context-specific drinking norms corresponded to alcohol consumption and compliance with drinking offers during natural social drinking events. For 30 days, 397 college students reported daily on their alcohol consumption during social events, the size of the group they were with, the average alcohol consumption of its' members, and the number of drinks they accepted that came directly from the group they were with during these social drinking events. Larger groups corresponded with greater alcohol consumption, but only when context-specific norms were high. Furthermore, larger groups increased compliance with drinking offers when context-specific norms were high, but decreased compliance with drinking offers when context-specific norms were low. Thus, subtle features of the social-context may influence not only overall consumption behavior, but also compliance with more overt forms of social influence.

The current work examined the extent to which nicotine level affects the receptiveness of cigarette smokers to a compelling (strong) or a specious (weak) antismoking, public service announcement (PSA). The combination of nicotine loading (i.e., having just smoked a cigarette) and a strong antismoking PSA led to significantly more negative implicit evaluations of cigarettes; however, explicit evaluations were not changed by nicotine level or PSA quality. Smokers' implicit evaluations of cigarettes were affected only by compelling PSAs when they had recently smoked but not when they were nicotine deprived or when they viewed weak PSAs. Because implicit evaluations of cigarettes predict deliberate smoking-related decisions, it is important to understand which factors can render these implicit evaluations relatively more negative.

This research tested an implementation intentions intervention to increase parent-teacher communication among Latino parents of young children. Parents (n=57) were randomly assigned to form implementation intentions or simply goal intentions to communicate with their child's teacher. They completed measures of communication and goal intentions immediately prior to the manipulation, and after the manipulation for 6 consecutive weeks. Implementation intentions increased parent-teacher communication among parents with higher initial (pre-manipulation) goal intentions, but not among those with lower initial goal intentions. The findings support existing work on the conditions for implementation intentions to work, and address an important aspect of Latino children's educational success.

The primary objective of the present study was to examine whether the need to belong moderates the relation between perceived descriptive norms for best friend alcohol use and alcohol-related cognitions outlined in the Prototype Willingness model (i.e., willingness, attitudes, and prototype favorability) among college students. Three hundred forty-six college students (197 female) completed the survey. Regression results indicated that the effect of perceptions of best friend alcohol use on risk cognitions was stronger among students reporting a greater need to belong. The findings suggest that interventions utilizing descriptive norms may be more efficacious among those higher in a need to belong.

Psychology researchers often avoid running participants from subject pools at the end of the semester because they are "unmotivated". We suggest that the end of the semester induces a situational prevention focus (i.e., sensitive to losses) unlike the beginning of the semester, which may induce a situational promotion focus (i.e., sensitive to gains). In two experiments, we presented participants with math problems at the beginning or end of an academic semester. End-of-semester participants performed better minimizing losses as compared to maximizing gains, while the opposite was true for beginning-of-semester participants.

Promotion and prevention focus have been shown to uniquely predict the initiation and maintenance of behavior change, but the behavioral tasks underlying these effects have not been specified. We examined the effects of regulatory focus on how smokers responded to initial slips and whether smokers were able to avoid slips after initial cessation. After slipping, smokers higher versus lower in promotion focus were more likely to quit again, particularly if they were high in self-efficacy. Of participants quit for 2 months, smokers higher versus lower in prevention focus more consistently avoided slips, but only if they were high in self-efficacy. Implications for regulatory focus theory and behavior change theory are discussed.

The separate and combined efficacy of a social norms and a self-affirmation intervention to motivate decreased sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption was examined in two experiments. College students were randomly assigned to receive information about SSB consumption risks, norms, both, or neither. In addition, participants performed either a self-affirmation or control task. Self-affirmation only weakly affected SSB consumption intentions and behaviors. However, participants in Experiment 2 who received risks information, norms information, or both reported greater SSB reduction intentions than did those who received no information. Two-weeks later, those who received both types of information reported more frequent behavior change preparations, and it appears this effect may have been partially mediated by the changes in intentions to reduce SSB consumption.

The current study examined whether matches between task control and participants' desire for control over their environment lead to better task performance than mismatches. Work control and desire for control were manipulated, and participants engaged in timed tasks. As predicted, performance was higher in cases of match, even when task control and desire for control were low. Task control and desire for control may predict work performance in combination, highlighting the importance of Person-Environment Fit theory for both selection and work design. By manipulating desire for control, our research also explores the potentially state-dependent quality of this individual difference variable.

Telemarketing fraud is pervasive and older consumers are disproportionally targeted. Given laboratory research showing that forewarning can effectively counter influence appeals, we conducted a field experiment to test whether forewarning could protect people who had been victimized in the past. A research assistant with prior experience as a telemarketer pitched a mock scam two or four weeks after participants were warned about the same scam or an entirely different scam. Both warnings reduced unequivocal acceptance of the mock scam although outright refusals (as opposed to expressions of skepticism) were more frequent with the warning than the warning. The warning, but not the warning, lost effectiveness over time. Findings demonstrate that social psychological research can inform effective protection strategies against telemarketing fraud.