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This research examined moderators of naturally occurring self-fulfilling prophecies. The authors assessed whether positive or negative self-fulfilling prophecies were more powerful and whether some targets were more susceptible to self-fulfilling prophecies because of their self-concepts in a particular achievement domain and previous academic records. Participants were 98 teachers and 1,539 students in sixth-grade public school math classes. Results yielded a strong pattern showing that teacher perceptions predicted achievement more strongly for low achievers than for high achievers. Results also yielded a much weaker pattern showing that teacher overestimates predicted achievement more strongly than teacher underestimates. Implications for social perceptual accuracy, self-enhancement theory, and understanding when self-fulfilling prophecies are stronger are discussed.

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Three studies assessed changes in the content, consensus, and favorableness of 10 ethnic and national stereotypes by replicating and extending the Princeton trilogy. Results indicated that throughout the past 60 years, almost all of the ethnic and national stereotypes that were examined had changed in content, and more than half had changed in consensus. Most changes in consensus reflected increases rather than decreases, suggesting that modern members of stereotyped groups may confront stereotypes more frequently than did previous members of stereotyped groups. However, the damaging effects that consensual stereotypes can have on members of these groups may be tempered by the finding that most of the stereotypes became more favorable. These results are discussed in terms of changing social roles, intergroup contact, and stereotype accuracy.

Psychotherapy may be underutilized because people experience self-stigma-the internalization of public stigma associated with seeking psychotherapy. The purpose of this study was to experimentally test whether the self-stigma associated with seeking psychotherapy could be reduced by a self-affirmation intervention wherein participants reflected on an important personal characteristic. Compared with a control group, we hypothesized that a self-affirmation writing task would attenuate self-stigma, and thereby evidence indirect effects on intentions and willingness to seek psychotherapy. Participants were 84 undergraduates experiencing psychological distress. After completing pretest measures of self-stigma, intentions, and willingness to seek psychotherapy, participants were randomly assigned to either a self-affirmation or a control writing task, and subsequently completed posttest measures of self-stigma, intentions, and willingness to seek psychotherapy. Consistent with hypotheses, participants who engaged in self-affirmation reported lower self-stigma at posttest. Moreover, the self-affirmation writing task resulted in a positive indirect effect on willingness to seek psychotherapy, though results failed to support an indirect effect on intentions to seek psychotherapy. Findings suggest that self-affirmation theory may provide a useful framework for designing interventions that seek to address the underutilization of psychological services through reductions in self-stigma.

This research examined the accuracy and power of sex, social class, and ethnic stereotypes in person perception. Participants included 49 to 56 teachers and nearly 2,000 students in seventh-grade public school math classes. Results indicated that teacher perceptions regarding achievement and motivation differences between girls and boys, lower- and upper-class students, and African American and White students were mostly accurate. Results also showed that although teachers generally relied on students' personal characteristics to form their perceptions, they occasionally relied on stereotypes. We discuss these results in terms of the classic view that stereotypes are inaccurate, rigid, exaggerated, and exert powerful effects on person perception.

Acculturation and ethnic identity may be associated with Latino/as' educational outcomes and be relevant to their lower levels of academic achievement. This article explores how these relationships might be mediated by considering several empirically supported and theory-based social psychological processes-the selffulfilling prophecy, stigma consciousness, and stereotype threat. These processes suggest specific mediational mechanisms that remain largely unexamined, thereby offering novel directions for research and the potential to enrich understanding of the relationship between Latino/a ethnicity and academic performance. Consideration of these mediational mechanisms suggests that some groups within the Latino/a population face even greater challenges with regard to educational achievement. Accordingly, the particular difficulties encountered by Latinas and the children of families of migrant workers and new and undocumented immigrants are discussed. In addition, the potential relevance of education policies to the operation of the reviewed processes is explored.Latino/as in the United States face a number of challenges regarding education and lag behind their Euro-American counterparts in terms of academic achievement. Educational disparities for Latino/as begin in preschool and are evident at all subsequent markers of achievement, including decreased rates of attaining undergraduate and graduate degrees (Fry,

Innocent suspects may not adequately protect themselves during interrogation because they fail to fully appreciate the danger of the situation. This experiment tested whether innocent suspects experience less stress during interrogation than guilty suspects, and whether refusing to confess expends physiologic resources. After experimentally manipulating innocence and guilt, 132 participants were accused and interrogated for misconduct, and then pressured to confess. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP, DBP), heart rate (HR), respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), and preejection period (PEP) responses quantified stress reactions. As hypothesized, the innocent evidenced smaller stress responses to interrogation for SBP, DBP, HR, and RSA than did the guilty. Furthermore, innocents who refused to confess exhibited greater sympathetic nervous system activation, as evidenced by shorter PEPs, than did innocent or guilty confessors. These findings suggest that innocent suspects underestimate the threat of interrogation and that resisting pressures to confess can diminish suspects' physiologic resources and lead to false confessions.