Diabetes causal attributions: Pathways to stigma and health.

This study investigates the relationships among causal attributions, internalized stigma, and self-blame, along with downstream health and life satisfaction consequences for individuals with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Data were analyzed from the Diabetes, Identity, Attributions, and Health study. Participants diagnosed with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes (N=363) were included in the analysis. Results indicated that the relationship between causal attributions and stigmatization was moderated by diabetes type. Path analyses, one for each diabetes type, revealed overall patterns linking causal attributions to internalized stigma and to self-blame, which were linked to ratings of reduced self-care, increased symptoms, and reduced life satisfaction. However, the specific paths diverged by diabetes type in important ways. Whereas higher genetic causal attributions were associated with more self-blame and stigmatization for type 1 diabetes, these attributions were associated with less self-blame and stigmatization for type 2 diabetes. The current work demonstrates the importance of causal attributions to overall health and illustrates how even in conditions with genetic attributions that are similar in magnitude, affected individuals may attach very different meaning to those attributions.

The influence of weight on psychosocial well-being in diabetes.

BACKGROUND: Individuals with diabetes experience a wide variety of psychosocial responses to their illness due, in part, to the nature of type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Variation in patient weight may play a central role in these differences, yet its influence on psychosocial variation is largely unknown. The current study investigates the relationship between patients' perceived weight status and aspects of psychosocial well-being among individuals with type 1 diabetes (T1D) and type 2 diabetes (T2D). METHODS: Individuals who were diagnosed with type 1 or type 2 diabetes were assessed via an online survey from the Diabetes, Identity, Attributions, and Health Study. Participants were categorized into a lower v. higher weight status group based on their self-reported perceived weight. Analyses of covariance were conducted to assess differences in measures of disease onset blame, diabetes stigma, and identity concerns among diabetes type and perceived weight status. Covariates included in our models were gender, age, education, and time since diagnosis. Bonferroni correction was used for post-hoc tests to assess any significant interactions found in our models. RESULTS: Findings indicated that weight moderates multiple psychosocial outcomes pertinent to illness experience. Those with T2D and lower weight blamed themselves less for their disease onset, while those with higher weight felt blamed more for their disease onset by others, regardless of diabetes type. Individuals with T1D and higher weight were more frequently and more concerned about being mistaken for having the other disease type (i.e., T2D) compared to those with lower weight. CONCLUSIONS: Weight is a key influence on the psychosocial outcomes for people with diabetes, but it operates differently in type 1 versus type 2 diabetes. By further examining the unique interaction between disease type and weight status we may be able to improve psychological well-being among affected individuals of all sizes.

Shared reality, memory goal satisfaction, and psychological well-being during conversational remembering.

Conversational remembering, or sharing autobiographical memories with others, occurs frequently in everyday communication. The current project examined how the experience of shared reality with a conversation partner when describing autobiographical memories to them can operate to enhance the self, social, and directive uses of a recalled memory and explored the role of shared reality experienced as a result of conversational remembering in psychological well-being. In this project, conversational remembering was examined using experimental (Study 1) and daily diary (Study 2) methodologies. Results indicated that experiencing a shared reality during conversational remembering of an autobiographical memory enhanced self, social, and directive memory goal fulfilment and was positively associated with greater psychological well-being. The current investigation highlights important benefits of sharing our life stories with others, especially those with whom we develop a sense of shared reality.

Preferred level of categorization as strategy to manage chronic illness-related identity among individuals with type 1 versus type 2 diabetes.

The present investigation examined social identification management among individuals affected by chronic illness. Because diabetes is a chronic medical condition that consists of a broad superordinate group with two nested subgroups of differing relative status (type 1 versus type 2), it is well-suited to an examination of positive identity management strategies used by individuals with chronic illness. A cross-sectional survey was conducted on individuals with diabetes (N = 399) to assess diabetes-related identity. Results indicated that individuals with type 1 diabetes reported greater identity centrality and greater preference for subgroup self-categorization ("individual affected by type 1 diabetes") over superordinate group categorization ("individual affected by diabetes") than did individuals with type 2 diabetes. The relationship between diabetes type and preferred categorization level was moderated by perceived intractability of their condition and perceived stigmatization of the lower status subgroup (i.e., type 2), suggesting that categorization level functions to maintain a positive self-concept. Further, categorization level moderated the negative relationship between identity centrality and feelings of depression and anger, suggesting that self-categorization might function to protect against self-concept threat. The present findings highlight the roles of group status, group boundary permeability, and perceived stigma on identity management strategies used by individuals with a chronic illness.

Beer advertisements and adolescent drinking knowledge, expectancies, and behavior.

OBJECTIVE: (1) To examine the degree to which overall beer advertising expenditure is related to youth brand awareness, preferences, and drinking behavior, and (2) to use multiple methods, including individual brand awareness and expectancies, to gain a broader understanding of the effects of alcohol advertising on youth alcohol-related expectancies and behavior. METHOD: Mixed psychological and advertising methods were used to examine how beer advertising is related to adolescents' beer brand awareness, expectancies, and behavior. 1588 7-12th graders were surveyed in two U.S. states. RESULTS: The amount of money spent advertising beer brands was positively correlated with adolescents' brand awareness, preference, use, and loyalty behavior (all correlations above 0.65). Moreover, beer advertising-related variables predicted adolescents' intention to drink and actual alcohol consumption, independent of peer and parent alcohol-related behavior and attitudes. CONCLUSIONS: The results show that overall levels of advertising expenditures were strong predictors of adolescents' beer brand awareness, preferences, use, and brand loyalty. Moreover, advertising-related variables were substantial predictors of adolescents' intention to drink as an adult and current underage drinking behavior. Together, the present findings suggest that previous work may have underestimated the relationship between alcohol advertising and adolescents' drinking behavior.

Diabetes causal attributions among affected and unaffected individuals.

Objective: The present study aims to describe and compare causal attributions for type 1 diabetes (T1D) and type 2 diabetes (T2D) among affected and unaffected individuals and to investigate the relationships among attributions, attitudes, and beliefs. Research design and methods: Adults with no diabetes (N=458), T1D (N=192), or T2D (N=207) completed an online survey. Measures assessed diabetes conceptual knowledge, causal attributions for T1D and T2D, perceived control over diabetes onset, and favorability judgements of individuals affected by each type. Results: Results indicate general agreement on causal attributions for T1D and T2D among all respondent groups, with some divergences by disease status. All respondents attributed both T1D and T2D to genetics, and genetic attributions were positively associated with favorability judgements of individuals with T2D, but not those with T1D. Conclusions: This report sets the stage for investigations into how and why attributions for T1D and T2D differ and the implications of these differences including stigmatization of individuals with diabetes and diabetes-related self-concept. Additionally, this work can inform efforts towards clinical and public health education to prevent and optimize treatment of T1D and T2D.

Downstream Effects of Dispositional Inferences on Confirmation Biases.

Although research has given substantial attention to understanding the antecedents of dispositional inferences, less attention has been directed at the consequences of these inferences, such that evidence linking dispositional inferences to downstream effects is relatively scarce. The present investigation examined whether dispositional inferences formed during initial observations elicited confirmatory processing of subsequent information about observed targets. Because confirmation biases influence a variety of information processing strategies, four experiments examined the extent to which dispositional inferences guided memory of new information (Experiment 1), interpretation of ambiguous information (Experiment 2), and information-seeking behavior (Experiments 3 and 4). Results indicated that biased processing of subsequent information was more likely when dispositional inferences were encouraged (i.e., impression formation objective) versus discouraged (i.e., narrative construction objective). This investigation highlights the role of causal inferences on confirmation biases and reveals the ease with which biases can be both bolstered and attenuated.

Social effects on reference frame selection.

The presence of another person in a spatial scene has been shown to induce spontaneous perspective taking. This investigation presents two experiments exploring whether the presence of another person affects reference frame selection when representing object locations in memory. Participants studied objects from one view and later performed judgments of relative direction, which tested retrieval of the remembered layout from several imagined perspectives. Without another person in the scene during learning, participants selected a reference frame aligned with the studied view. The mere presence of the experimenter at a different perspective during learning did not affect reference frame selection. Requiring participants to process object locations from the experimenter's view during learning led to the selection of a reference frame aligned with the experimenter. However, the same effect also occurred when participants processed object locations from the perspective of a wooden box. In sum, the presence of another person during learning did not affect reference frame selection, and participants adopted a nonegocentric reference frame whether the nonegocentric perspective was occupied by a person or an object.

A riot on campus: The effects of social identity complexity on emotions and reparative attitudes after ingroup-perpetrated violence.

When a group commits a transgression, members who identify closely with the group often engage in defensive strategies in which they are less likely to experience guilt and shame in response to the transgression than are less identified group members. Subsequently, highly identified group members are often less willing to offer reparations to the injured parties. Because appropriate emotional responses and reparations are critical to community reconciliation, the present investigation examined whether social identity complexity-the degree to which individuals perceive their multiple social identities as interrelated-reduced these defensive responses. In the aftermath of a campus riot, emotional responses and reparative attitudes of undergraduate students were assessed. Results indicated that individuals who closely identified with the university were in fact capable of experiencing guilt and shame, but only if they also had complex social identities. A path model indicated that emotional responses, in turn, predicted willingness to provide reparations to the campus community. Accordingly, social identity complexity provides a new approach to understanding responses to ingroup-perpetrated violence.

Narrative Construction, Social Perceptions, and the Situation Model.

The present investigation examined how three salient features of narrative thinking (situation model construction, linguistic concreteness, and perspective-taking) influenced the social inference process. Results of four experiments indicated that compared with those given other objectives, perceivers given narrative objectives were: (a) more likely to make situation rather than trait attributions for observed behaviors (Experiment 1), (b) less likely to make implicit trait inferences (Experiment 2), and (c) less likely to rely on behavior valence when making evaluative judgments (Experiment 4). Linguistic analyses indicated that narrative construction consistently entailed the creation of situation models of events and linguistic concreteness, but only situation model creation mediated the relationship between narrative and inferences. Experiment 3 confirmed the mediating role of situation models: Perceivers with narrative objectives made trait inferences only when behaviors were inconsistent with contextual information. The role of these core narrative features on social perceptions is discussed.

EVOLUTION AND EPISODIC MEMORY: AN ANALYSIS AND DEMONSTRATION OF A SOCIAL FUNCTION OF EPISODIC RECOLLECTION.

Over the past two decades, an abundance of evidence has shown that individuals typically rely on semantic summary knowledge when making trait judgments about self and others (for reviews, see Klein, 2004; Klein, Robertson, Gangi, & Loftus, 2008). But why form trait summaries if one can consult the original episodes on which the summary was based? Conversely, why retain episodes after having abstracted a summary representation from them? Are there functional reasons to have trait information represented in two different, independently retrievable databases? Evolution does not produce new phenotypic systems that are complex and functionally organized by chance. Such systems acquire their functional organization because they solved some evolutionarily recurrent problems for the organism. In this article we explore some of the functional properties of episodic memory. Specifically, in a series of studies we demonstrate that maintaining a database of episodic memories enables its owner to reevaluate an individual's past behavior in light of new information, sometimes drastically changing one's impression in the process. We conclude that some of the most important functions of episodic memory have to do with its role in human social interaction.