Building a taxonomy of mental processes supporting social functioning to accelerate the integration between psychology and neuroscience: A commentary on Dang et al.

A methodological and theoretical chasm continues to exist between social psychology and social neuroscience, particularly with respect to research relevant to understanding racial bias, social justice and inequality. We use the Dang et al. (2022) study to illustrate the challenge of conducting research that lies between these two sub-disciplines. We introduce the idea of an integrative social psychology-social neuroscience research accelerator and a method of how to build it. Pilot testing this accelerator with research relevant to social justice could offer an invaluable contribution to both fields.

Investigating Cortisol in a STEM Classroom: The Association Between Cortisol and Academic Performance.

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education can be stressful, but uncertainty exists about (a) whether stressful academic settings elevate cortisol, particularly among students from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups, and (b) whether cortisol responses are associated with academic performance. In four classes around the first exam in a gateway college STEM course, we investigated participants' (N = 271) cortisol levels as a function of race/ethnicity and tested whether cortisol responses predicted students' performance. Regardless of race/ethnicity, students' cortisol, on average, declined from the beginning to the end of each class and across the four classes. Among underrepresented minority (URM) students, higher cortisol responses predicted better performance and a lower likelihood of dropping the course. Among non-URM students, there were no such associations. For URM students, lower cortisol responses may have indicated disengagement, whereas higher cortisol responses may have indicated striving. The implication of cortisol responses can depend on how members of a group experience an environment.

A latent class analysis approach to the identification of doctoral students at risk of attrition.

To advance understanding of doctoral student experiences and the high attrition rates among Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) doctoral students, we developed and examined the psychological profiles of different types of doctoral students. We used latent class analysis on self-reported psychological data relevant to psychological threat from 1,081 incoming doctoral students across three universities and found that the best-fitting model delineated four threat classes: Lowest Threat, Nonchalant, Engaged/Worried, and Highest Threat. These classes were associated with characteristics measured at the beginning of students' first semester of graduate school that may influence attrition risk, including differences in academic preparation (e.g., amount of research experience), self-evaluations and perceived fit (e.g., sense of belonging), attitudes towards graduate school and academia (e.g., strength of motivation), and interpersonal relations (e.g., perceived social support). Lowest Threat students tended to report the most positive characteristics and Highest Threat students the most negative characteristics, whereas the results for Nonchalant and Engaged/Worried students were more mixed. Ultimately, we suggest that Engaged/Worried and Highest Threat students are at relatively high risk of attrition. Moreover, the demographic distributions of profiles differed, with members of groups more likely to face social identity threat (e.g., women) being overrepresented in a higher threat profile (i.e., Engaged/Worried students) and underrepresented in lower threat profiles (i.e., Lowest Threat and Nonchalant students). We conclude that doctoral students meaningfully vary in their psychological threat at the beginning of graduate study and suggest that these differences may portend divergent outcomes.

Editorial.

During its 128 years of operation, Psychological Review has exerted a powerful and consistent influence on the field under its long-term sponsor, the American Psychological Association (APA). Notwithstanding changes in ownership, it has always been what it is now-the flagship of the Association and the field. Since its inception, the journal has focused on theoretical analyses (e.g., systematic evaluations of alternative theories) and/or developments (e.g., the generation of novel theories) in the psychological sciences. Thus, the objectives of any incoming editor and editorial board remain steadfast: (a) to maintain and enhance the standing of Psychological Review in the field and (b) to correspondingly align its scope, content, and operations with any changes in the Association, the field of psychology in particular, and science and society in general. The journal's new senior editorial team is excited to navigate Psychological Review through the ever-changing landscape of psychology at this time of multiple challenges, referred to by the United Nations Secretary General António Guterres as "the greatest cascade of crises in our lifetime." Although we are initiating a number of changes, we will do our best to maintain Psychological Review's excellence. This will involve our capacity to reflect on and disseminate new theoretical developments, enriched and inspired by current trends in science in general and in psychological science in particular, while maintaining an overarching commitment to advancing the field through the incorporation of diverse perspectives. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

A psychological intervention strengthens students' peer social networks and promotes persistence in STEM.

Retaining students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields is critical as demand for STEM graduates increases. Whereas many approaches to improve persistence target individuals' internal beliefs, skills, and traits, the intervention in this experiment strengthened students' peer social networks to help them persevere. Students in a gateway biology course were randomly assigned to complete a control or values affirmation exercise, a psychological intervention hypothesized to have positive social effects. By the end of the term, affirmed students had an estimated 29% more friends in the course on average than controls. Affirmation also prompted structural changes in students' network positions such that affirmed students were more central in the overall course friendship network. These differing social trajectories predicted STEM persistence: Affirmed students were 11.7 percentage points more likely than controls to take the next course in the bioscience sequence, an effect that was statistically mediated by students' end-of-semester friendships.

Socioecological diversity and inclusion: a framework for advancing diversity science.

Understanding environmental influences on group processes has been a foundational goal of groups research since its inception. The aim of this paper is to synthesize recent research on the social ecology of diversity and inclusion. In doing so, we suggest a socioecological framework for examining how facets of the natural and social environment shape important intragroup and intergroup outcomes. Socioecological diversity reflects the distribution of social groups within a particular environment, including demographic composition, relative representation, and segregation. Socioecological inclusion refers to cues embedded in the environment that signal a social group's inclusion or exclusion in a given setting. These include cues embedded in the physical environment (physical cues), political environment (policies, practices, and rhetoric), and social environment (aggregated attitudes).

Bolstering trust and reducing discipline incidents at a diverse middle school: How self-affirmation affects behavioral conduct during the transition to adolescence.

A three-year field experiment at an ethnically diverse middle school (N = 163) tested the hypothesis that periodic self-affirmation exercises delivered by classroom teachers bolsters students' school trust and improves their behavioral conduct. Students were randomly assigned to either a self-affirmation condition, where they wrote a series of in-class essays about personally important values, or a control condition, where they wrote essays about personally unimportant values. There were no behavioral effects of affirmation at the end of 6th grade, after students had completed four writing exercises. However, after four additional exercises in 7th grade, affirmed students had a significantly lower rate of discipline incidents than students in the control condition. The effect continued to grow and did not differ across ethnic groups, such that during 8th grade students in the affirmation condition on average received discipline at a 69% lower rate than students in the control condition. Analyses of student climate surveys revealed that affirmation was associated with higher school trust over time, a tendency that held across ethnic groups and partially mediated the affirmation effect on discipline. Repeated self-affirmation can bolster students' school trust and reduce the incidence of discipline in middle school, findings with both theoretical and practical implications.