Fredrik Björklund

Structural modeling of generalized prejudice: The role of social dominance, authoritarianism, and empathy

Structural equation modeling on questionnaire data showed that prejudice toward different target groups can be represented in terms of a general prejudice factor. Distinction of classical and modern prejudice only increased model fit marginally. In two separate samples (paper and pencil vs. Internet) several structural models of the relationship between key individual difference variables and prejudice were tested, revealing highly similar results. Social dominance orientation, empathy, and right-wing authoritarianism had direct effects on generalized prejudice. The effect of participant sex on generalized prejudice, where the men scored higher, was largely mediated by empathy. The benefit of including empathy in structural models of prejudice is emphasized.

Confirming the Three-Factor Structure of the Disgust Scale—Revised in Eight Countries

The current study evaluates the factor structure of the Disgust Scale—Revised (DS-R) in eight countries: Australia, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States (N = 2,606). Confirmatory factor analysis is used to compare two different models of the DS-R and to investigate the invariance of the factor structure of the DS-R across countries and gender. A three-factor solution consisting of three different but interrelated disgust factors (a 12-item core disgust factor, an 8-item animal-reminder disgust factor, and a 5-item contamination disgust factor) best accounted for the data in all countries except the Netherlands. Relative to the United States, the three-factor solution is invariant in Australia, Brazil, and Japan but not in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden. The three-factor solution is also invariant across gender in most countries. The implications of these cross-cultural findings for promoting a more valid and reliable assessment of disgust dimensions, as assessed by the DS-R, are discussed.

The influence of temporal distance on justice and care morality.

The primary goal of this study was to examine whether changes in the temporal distance of a moral dilemma affect how it is perceived and subsequently resolved. Based on Construal Level Theory (Trope & Liberman, 2003), it was predicted that the relative weight of abstract justice features should increase and the relative weight of concrete care features should decrease with temporal distance. The results showed that females became increasingly justice-oriented with greater temporal distance. However, this was not the case for males who were unaffected by temporal distance. This interaction was conceptually replicated in a follow-up experiment in which abstraction was manipulated directly by a mindset manipulation. The present results suggest that temporal distance is a contextual factor that can alter the extent to which moral judgments and reasoning are based on justice and care, although this effect seems to be moderated by gender.

Stereotype threat in salary negotiations is mediated by reservation salary

Women are stereotypically perceived as worse negotiators than men, which may make them ask for less salary than men when under stereotype threat (Kray et al., 2001). However, the mechanisms of stereotype threat are not yet properly understood. The current study investigated whether stereotype threat effects in salary negotiations can be explained by motivational factors. A total of 116 business students negotiated salary with a confederate and were either told that this was diagnostic of negotiating ability (threat manipulation) or not. Measures of minimum (reservation) and ideal (aspiration) salary goals and regulatory focus were collected. The finding (Kray et al., 2001) that women make lower salary requests than men when under stereotype threat was replicated. Women in the threat condition further reported lower aspiration salary, marginally significantly lower reservation salary and less eagerness/more vigilance than men. Reservation salary mediated the stereotype threat effect, and there was a trend for regulatory focus to mediate the effect. Thus, reservation salary partly explains why women ask for less salary than men under stereotype threat. Female negotiators may benefit from learning that stereotype threat causes sex-differences in motivation.

The Measures of Criminal Attitudes and Associates (MCAA): Further Testing of Structural and Criterion-Related Validity

The validity of a Swedish translation of the Measures of Criminal Attitudes and Associates (MCAA) was evaluated. All four subscales showed acceptable reliability, but the Entitlement scale can be improved by replacing items with low loadings. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a model with one common criminal attitude factor and three subfactors (corresponding to subscales of the test). The Antisocial Intent scale failed to come out as a separate factor. The criterion-related validity was evidenced through offenders having more positive attitudes to criminality than a sample from a public Internet site, a treatment program having an effect on the ratings, and test scores being meaningfully related to criminal history variables. It was concluded that the MCAA has satisfactory psychometric properties.

Antibiotic prophylaxis in oral health care: administration strategies of general dental practitioners.

Objective. To examine the strategies that general dental practitioners (GDPs) use to administer antibiotic prophylaxis and to study the agreement between the administration strategies of GDPs and local recommendations. Methods. Postal questionnaires in combination with telephone interviews were used. Two hundred GDPs in two Swedish counties, Skåne and Örebro, were asked to participate. The response rate was 51% (n=101). The GDPs were presented with eight simulated cases of patients with different medical conditions for which antibiotic prophylaxis might be considered necessary when performing dental procedures (scaling, tooth removal, root canal treatment). The administration strategies of the GDPs were compared with local recommendations. Results. In general, the variation in the administration strategies of the GDPs was large. For two medical conditions, type 1 diabetes that was not well controlled and hip prosthesis, significantly more GDPs in Skåne than in Örebro administered antibiotic prophylaxis for tooth removal. Agreement between the administration strategies of the GDPs and local recommendations was low. Differences between the two counties were non-significant. Furthermore, within Örebro, GDPs who did not have formal access to local recommendations did not differ in their administration strategies from those who did. The choice of substance was seldom in agreement with the substance recommended, while the majority followed the recommended duration of treatment. Conclusion. Although recommendations existed, their impact appeared to be limited. This is significant, since the implementation of recommendations is crucial in making clinical practice more effective and in promoting the health of patients.

Criterion Validity is Maintained When Items are Evaluatively Neutralized: Evidence from a Full-scale Five-factor Model Inventory: Evaluative neutralization and criterion validity

The original version and an evaluatively neutralized version (with items rephrased to reduce popularity) of a personality inventory were compared. The results revealed (i) similar criterion validity across three different sets of self–rated behaviours, (ii) stronger relations to the rated social desirability of criteria for the original version and (iii) less correlation between factors for the neutralized version. We take the results to indicate that evaluative neutralization is a viable technique for reducing social desirability in self–ratings. Implications for test construction are discussed. Copyright

Defense mechanisms and morality: A link between isolation and moralization.

The relationship between morality and perceptual defense mechanisms was studied. Three new scales were constructed to measure different aspects of morality: moralism (the tendency to evaluate everything in terms of right and wrong), conscience (strength of feelings of right and wrong) and reparation (inclination to repair the damage one has caused). Perceptual defense mechanisms were measured with Kraghs Defense Mechanism Test (DMT). Three hypotheses about relationships between morality and defense mechanisms, derived from psychoanalytical literature, were tested on 54 male University students. Results show positive correlations between the defense mechanism isolation of affect and moralism, and between identification with the aggressor and reparation. Total amount of perceptual defense correlated positively with moralism. It is argued that the psychological study of morality should take unconscious processes into consideration.