Brien K. Ashdown

Emerging Adults in America: Coming of Age in the 21st Century

by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett and Jennifer Lynn Tanner (Eds.) Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2006. 341 pp. ISBN 1-59147-329-2.

From fear and guilt: negative perceptions of Ashley Madison users

79.95Reviewed by Judith L. Gibbons Brien K. Ashdown What do laboratory rats, men, and college students have in common? They have often been studied by psychologists as representatives of a larger group, such as nonhuman animals or people in general. More recently, psychologists have turned to studying the species-typical behavior of rats and the roles and behavior of men and boys with respect to their masculine gender. Likewise, college students have served psychologists as representatives of humanity in studies of cognition and social and emotional behavior, but they have been studied infrequently as occupying a distinct developmental period. With some notable exceptions (e.g., Perry, 1970/1999), studies of the development of college-age persons in their own right were scarce until 2000, when Jeffrey Jensen Arnett (2000) proposed a new developmental period. Arnett posited that in modern industrial societies there is a distinct interim between adolescence and adulthood (roughly ages 18 through 25). The term he coined for this period was

Using adolescents’ drawings to reveal stereotypes about ethnic groups in Guatemala.

ABSTRACT A common cultural norm in committed relationships is that of sexual exclusiveness. When this norm is violated, those involved are often perceived negatively. Recently, a website facilitating extradyadic relationships, AshleyMadison.com (AM), was hacked, and the personal information of the members was illegally disseminated. As a result of the large amount of accompanying media coverage, AM users have been negatively perceived and even openly mocked. The current study explored potential predictors for the negative perceptions (i.e. demonisation) of AM users using a large online sample. In a predominantly exploratory study, myriad variables were examined from both outside (e.g. just world belief) and inside the psychosexual (e.g. sociosexuality) literature. The findings indicate that the predictors of jealousy and sexual guilt both positively predict demonisation of AM users, above and beyond the other individual difference variables.

Group Identity and Attitudes in Guatemala: The Role of Ethnic Interculturality

It is important to identify stereotypes about indigenous people because those stereotypes influence prejudice and discrimination, both obstacles to social justice and universal human rights. The purpose of the current study was to document the stereotypes, as held by Guatemalan adolescents, of indigenous Maya people (e.g., Maya) and nonindigenous Ladinos in Guatemala (the 2 main ethnic groups in Guatemala). Guatemalan adolescents (N = 465; 38.3% female; Mage = 14.51 years; SDage = 1.81 years) provided drawings and written characteristics about indigenous Maya and nonindigenous Ladino people, which were then coded for patterns in the data. These patterns included negative stereotypes, such as the Maya being lazy and Ladina women being weak; and positive stereotypes, such as the Maya being caring and warm and Ladino men being successful. There were also interactions between the participants’ own gender and ethnicity and how they depicted the target they were assigned. For example, male participants were unlikely to depict male targets of either ethnicity engaging in homemaking activities. Finally, there was evidence of in-group bias based both on gender and ethnicity. These findings suggest that perhaps because indigenous groups around the world share some common negative stereotypes, an understanding of these stereotypes will aid in decreasing prejudice and discrimination against indigenous people, could reduce intergroup conflict, and increase access to basic human rights.

Scandalous: Christian identification, sex guilt, and the mediated demonization of the participants in the AshleyMadison scandal

For most of its history, the field of psychology has been tied to the cultures of the countries in which it originated—the United States and the nations of Western Europe.1 As a result, psychology is culture-bound (limited to the findings, evidence, and assumptions of the United States and Europe) and culture-blind (overlooking and disregarding the influence of culture on human behavior).2 A psychology that is intercultural in nature is necessary to overcome both of those shortcomings. The fields of cross-cultural psychology, indigenous psychology, and intercultural psychology can further a science of psychology that is global and at the same time acknowledges local differences in human psychology.

Fathers and Perceptions of God Play an Important Role in Psychological Adjustment Among Emerging Adults in Guatemala and the United States

ABSTRACT In 2015, AshleyMadison.com (AshleyMadison) was hacked, leading to the release of site members’ personal information. The exposed members faced public scrutiny, judgment, and other negative outcomes. In this study, we examined predictors of the demonization of the AshleyMadison participants (i.e., AshleyMadison members, owners, hackers) to help explain victim derogation. We attempted to discern the role religiosity and sexual guilt played in the demonization of the AshleyMadison hacking participants. We predicted sexual guilt would mediate between religiosity and demonization of the AshleyMadison hacking participants. Our findings indicate that religiosity alone does not predict demonization. Instead, sex guilt was a necessary part of the equation and mediated between participants’ religiosity and the amount they demonized the different groups.

International Aid as Modern Imperialism—What Does Cross-Cultural Psychology Really Have to Offer? A Commentary on “The Positive Role of Culture: What Cross-Cultural Psychology Has to Offer to Developmental Aid Effectiveness Research, by Symen A. Brouwers”

Abstract Interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory posits that people require parental acceptance in childhood to develop healthy psychological adjustment. People’s beliefs about and their relationship with deity also influences their psychological adjustment. The purpose of the present study was to investigate how both perceived parental acceptance and a relationship with deity are related to psychological adjustment for emerging adults in Guatemala and the United States. Participants (N = 189) from Guatemala and the United States completed measures of perceived parental acceptance-rejection, images of God, attachment to God, and psychological adjustment. Results indicate that perceived paternal acceptance-rejection was only a significant predictor of psychological adjustment in U.S. participants, and not in Guatemalan participants. In both samples, images of God did not predict psychological adjustment. However, an anxious attachment with God predicted psychological maladjustment for both groups. The findings suggest that two important factors to be considered by researchers, educators, and mental health professionals are adults’ perceptions of their father’s level of acceptance-rejection and the amount of anxiety they experience in their relationship with God.

Examining the Reliability and Convergent Validity of IPARTheory Measures

In his article, Brouwers argues that cross-cultural psychologists (CCPs; a term he uses to include cultural psychologists and indigenous psychologists) should be a resource for agencies and organizations that engage in international and developmental aid. His argument is that CCPs can help these agencies and organizations ensure that their interventions become “entrenched”—meaning they become long-lasting aspects of life in the communities receiving the aid. We agree with Brouwers that CCPs can and should be more involved with international aid organizations. However, we argue that CCPs’ primary concern should be ensuring the ethical and cultural appropriateness of the ways in which the aid organizations interact with recipient communities. We believe this can only happen when indigenous psychologists are involved in the intervention in ways that ensure recipient communities are fully engaged with any aid-based intervention. We highlight our argument by utilizing some preliminary analyses from a related project we recently completed in Guatemala.

What is God

*Faculty mentor COPYRIGHT 2016 BY PSI CHI, THE INTERNATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY IN PSYCHOLOGY (VOL. 21, NO. 4/ISSN 2164-8204) ABSTRACT. According to interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory (IPARTheory), parental acceptance is fundamentally important to healthy development. IPARTheory has been validated around the world, but there has been relatively little IPARTheory research conducted in Latin America. The first purpose of our research was to extend the reliability and convergent validity of measures of IPARTheory (perceived acceptance and rejection from parental figures, psychological maladjustment) among a Guatemalan sample. Because of Guatemala’s unique situation due to the relative fluidity of ethnic identity of the population and history of conflict between the two main ethnic groups of Ladinos and indigenous Maya people, we also examined how attitudes toward indigenous Maya people and Ladinos were related to participants’ perceived acceptance-rejection from parental figures. Participants were 62 students (75.8% women) from a public university in Guatemala who each completed a paper-and-pencil survey. Correlations ranging from 0.56 to 0.91 (p < .001) among the subscales of the IPARTheory measures, via strong Cronbach’s alphas ranging from 0.69 to 0.96, and correlations between IPARTheory measures and ethnic prejudice ranging from 0.26 to 0.34, provided support for the reliability and convergent validity of IPARTheory measures in Guatemala. The findings also established a relationship between parental acceptance-rejection and ethnic prejudice. Our study took an initial step in establishing IPARTheory in Guatemala and its connection to ethnic attitudes. Further research should establish IPARTheory measures in other Latin American countries, as well as explore connections between IPARTheory and other social psychological constructs. Examining the Reliability and Convergent Validity of IPARTheory Measures and Their Relation to Ethnic Attitudes in Guatemala

Ethnic Identification, Attitudes, and Group Relations in Guatemala

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