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Although dry rivers only flow after heavy rainfall, recent studies have evidenced that they provide benefits to people. However, part of society undervalues these benefits, raising the question of whether they contribute to a good quality of life (GQL). We hypothesised that the benefits of dry rivers contribute to GQL of local communities as long as these benefits are not altered by human disturbance. Local communities closely associated with three dry rivers in Murcia (Spain) were interviewed. The relationships between benefits and GQL, and between detriments and GQL were described. Different benefits and detriments have different impacts on GQL dimensions. Social perceptions of the contribution of benefits and detriments to GQL vary between communities and individuals, and change over time. This implies the development of social studies to ensure inclusive management. Incorporating detriment co-production into research can raise people's awareness of the role that human activities play in maintaining GQL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined whether students' perceived social interactions within different learning activities predicted their willingness to communicate (WTC) in second language (L2) classrooms. The sample was 932 undergraduate students from 8 universities learning English as a foreign language. Data of student-perceived social interactions in classrooms including teacher-student relationships, peer relationships, cooperation and equity, and data of WTC including overall WTC, WTC in meaning-focused activities, and WTC in form-focused activities were collected through online questionnaires. Data analysis using Structural Equation Modelling showed that (1) teacher-student relationships, peer relationships and cooperation positively predicted overall WTC; (2) teacher-student relationships, peer relationships, cooperation and equity positively predicted WTC in meaning-focused activities; (3) cooperation positively but equity negatively predicted WTC in form-focused activities. The results suggested that students' perceived social interactions had predictive effects on L2 WTC but such effects differed in line with learning activity types. Implications for enhancing WTC in L2 instruction were also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on interoception has revealed the role of heartbeats in shaping our perceptual awareness and embodying a first-person perspective. These heartbeat dynamics exhibit distinct responses to various types of touch. We advanced that those dynamics are directly associated to the brain activity that allows self-other distinction. In our study encompassing self and social touch, we employed a method to quantify the distinct couplings of temporal patterns in cardiac sympathetic and parasympathetic activities with brain connectivity. Our findings revealed that social touch led to an increase in the coupling between frontoparietal networks and parasympathetic/vagal activity, particularly in alpha and gamma bands. Conversely, as social touch progressed, we observed a decrease in the coupling between brain networks and sympathetic dynamics across a broad frequency range. These results show how heartbeat dynamics are intertwined with brain organization and provide fresh evidence on the neurophysiological mechanisms of self-social touch distinction. The study found that social touch boosts covarying patterns of the heart's parasympathetic activity and the connection between the brain's frontoparietal regions, showing how attached are the brain and heart during perception and social interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While social inequality limits the less affluent's ability to support climate action, we develop a theoretical framework that analyzes how disadvantageous inequality aversion diminishes motivation for climate cooperation among the broader population. By clarifying how perceptions of disadvantage or social injustice can harm climate cooperation or produce backlash, we derive tailored countermeasures to enhance climate cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abortion can be a very stressful experience for women, and many social and psychological factors can influence this stress. The present study aims to investigate the impact of perceived social support on the marital satisfaction of women who have undergone an abortion. The study also explored whether resilience played a mediating role in this relationship. Data were analyzed from the cross-sectional study. The Perceived Social Support (including Social support, friend support, and other support subscales), ENRICH marital satisfaction, and Connor-Davidson Resilience questionnaire were completed by 150 women who had undergone an abortion and were referred to hospitals and clinics of Jahrom University of Medical Sciences from April 2021 to June 2021. The structural equation modeling (SEM) approach was used to obtain the direct and indirect effects of Perceived Social Support subscales and Resilience on marital satisfaction. The study found that the women who participated had high marital satisfaction and social support scores, while their resilience scores were moderate. The results indicated a positive correlation between social support dimensions and marital satisfaction and resilience. The study also revealed that family support (β = 0.41, p < 0.001), other supports (β = 0.46, p < 0.001), and resilience as a mediating variable (β = 0.15, p < 0.001) had a direct and significant positive impact on marital satisfaction. However, none of the three domains of perceived social support showed any indirect significant relationship with marital satisfaction. The study's findings demonstrate that the perception of social support from family members and other individuals can significantly impact the level of satisfaction in a marriage. Appropriate social support can increase resilience and help couples better cope with the stress associated with abortion. This study suggests that educating families, healthcare providers, and other individuals can help women experiencing this issue by providing them with counseling and support. This can ultimately help women maintain their mental and sexual health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by impaired social communication and interactions, as well as constrained and repetitive manifestations of interests and behaviors. Various interventions at cognitive and behavioral levels aim to address impaired social communication and interaction in individuals with ASD. This study systematically explores the transferability of social training in individuals with ASD, guided by the conceptual model known as the FIELD framework (Function, Implement, Ecology, Level, and Durability). Employing the PRISMA methodology, 52 original experiments were included in the study. The transfer analysis, formulated as a conceptual meta-analysis based on the effect sizes, underscores the significant impact of variables including age, severity of autism, intervention tools, intervention intensity, intervention context, and intervention duration on the transferability of social training in individuals with ASD. The transfer of skills was particularly conspicuous among younger individuals, especially in face-to-face interventions, in contrast to digital alternatives. Moreover, cognitive interventions exhibited superior transferability compared to behavioral interventions, especially when administered with a higher intervention dose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research suggests that emotional prosody perception is impaired in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease (AD) and primary progressive aphasia (PPA). However, no previous research has investigated emotional prosody perception in these diseases under non-ideal listening conditions. We recruited 18 patients with AD, and 31 with PPA (nine logopenic (lvPPA); 11 nonfluent/agrammatic (nfvPPA) and 11 semantic (svPPA)), together with 24 healthy age-matched individuals. Participants listened to speech stimuli conveying three emotions in clear and noise-vocoded forms and had to identify the emotion being conveyed. We then conducted correlation analyses between task performance and measures of socio-emotional functioning. All patient groups showed significant impairments in identifying clear emotional prosody compared to healthy individuals. These deficits were exacerbated under noise-vocoded conditions, with all patient groups performing significantly worse than healthy individuals and patients with lvPPA performing significantly worse than those with svPPA. Significant correlations with social cognition measures were observed more consistently for noise-vocoded than clear emotional prosody comprehension. These findings open a window on a dimension of real-world emotional communication that has often been overlooked in dementia, with particular relevance to social cognition, and begin to suggest a novel candidate paradigm for investigating and quantifying this systematically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The recognition of facial expressions of emotions is an essential skill for social functioning, as it enables recognizing the possible intentions of others. Main body. Cultural context is an important aspect to consider in this skill, as it tends to modulate the recognition of facial expressions. Objective: To develop and validate a set of facial expressions of basic emotions of Brazilian individuals considering the population distribution of the country according to age group, sex, and race. Methods: A procedure with three phases was created to generate basic emotions and photograph facial expressions. A total of 459 Brazilians were then asked to identify the emotions of these facial expressions. Content validity was investigated based on the analysis of specialists and the recognition of emotions by Brazilian individuals. Results: The final database consists of 56 high-quality color images. A good level of agreement was found for the expressions perceived by the assessors (81.6%). Conclusion: The percentage of correct recognition of each emotion and the characteristics of the models are presented so that future studies can choose the most adequate images to meet their specific needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social cognition remains one of the most difficult cognitive domains to assess in diverse populations due to a lack of culturally appropriate tools. This study systematically reviewed literature on neuropsychological tests for social cognition that have been translated, adapted, are cross-cultural, or are assembled for diverse, specifically "Global South," populations. The aim was to identify assessments appropriate for diverse populations, outline and evaluate their methodological approaches, and provide procedural recommendations for future research. The PRISMA systematic review search strategy produced 10,957 articles, of which 287 were selected for full-text screening. The study had to include a neuropsychological assessment of social cognition. The full text of the resulting 287 articles was then screened; the study had to include a translated, adapted, cross-cultural test, or an assembled test for Global South populations. Eighty-four articles were included in this study: 24 for emotion recognition, 45 for theory of mind, 9 for moral reasoning, and six for social cognition in general. Overall, there were 31 translations, 27 adaptations, 14 cross-cultural tests, and 12 assembled tests for Global South populations. Regarding quality, 35 were of low quality, 27 were of moderate quality, and 22 were high quality. This study provides an overview of social cognition tests modified or assembled for diverse populations and gives examples of methodological procedures. It highlights the variability in procedure quality and provides possible reasons for this variability. Finally, it suggests a need to report rigorous modification and assembly procedure in order to have modified and assembled social cognition tests appropriate for diverse populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In psychophysiological research, the use of Virtual Reality (VR) for stimulus presentation allows for the investigation of how perceptual processing adapts to varying degrees of realism. Previous time-domain studies have shown that perceptual processing involves modality-specific neural mechanisms, as evidenced by distinct stimulus-locked components. Analyzing induced oscillations across different frequency bands can provide further insights into neural processes that are not strictly phase-locked to stimulus onset. This study uses a simple perceptual paradigm presenting images of faces and cars on both a standard 2D monitor and in an immersive VR environment. To investigate potential modality-dependent differences in attention, cognitive load, and task-related post-movement processing, the induced alpha, theta and beta band responses are compared between the two modalities. No evidence was found for differences in stimulus-dependent attention or task-related post-movement processing between the 2D conditions and the realistic virtual conditions in electrode space, as posterior alpha suppression and re-synchronization of centro-parietal beta did not differ between conditions. However, source analysis revealed differences in the attention networks engaged during 2D and 3D perception. Midfrontal theta was significantly stronger in laboratory conditions, indicating higher cognitive load than in the VR environment. Exploratory analysis of posterior theta showed stronger responses in VR, possibly reflecting the processing of depth information provided only by the 3D material. In addition, the theta response seems to be generated by distinct neuronal sources under realistic virtual conditions indicating enhanced involvement of semantic information processing and social cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education researchers and practitioners have been exploring for years the key factors impacting children's academic engagement. Still, relatively little is known about the role of children's social cognition in their academic engagement. Accordingly, the current study focuses on the potential indirect associations between young children's social information processing patterns (SIP) and their academic engagement through their social behaviors in class, specifically their prosocial and problem behaviors, and following by the quality of their relationship with their main kindergarten teacher. The study examines these indirect effects in one dual-pathway model which includes both a pathway from children's competent SIP patterns to higher levels of academic engagement and from children's aggressive SIP patterns to lower levels of academic engagement. The sample included 300 kindergarten children (151 girls; Mage = 68.76 months). Results showed that competent SIP patterns were positively linked to children's academic engagement, which encompasses both their academic self-perceptions and their attitudes toward learning, via children's prosocial behaviors in class and subsequently teacher–child relational closeness. In addition, aggressive SIP patterns were negatively linked to the kindergarteners' attitudes toward learning via the children's problem behaviors in class and subsequently teacher–child relational conflict. Results have implications for both research and practice in the understanding of the influence of social cognition, behavior, and social relationships on academic engagement for young learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sexual double standard (SDS) suggests that society holds gendered standards for appropriate sexual behaviors and histories. Typically, people judge women with more sexual partners harshly, especially when those partners originate from non-committed/casual relationships. The current research (n = 853) utilized a vignette design to investigate how one's number of sexual partners, and what type of relationships those partners came from (long/short-term, exclusive/non-exclusive), impacted evaluations of them and intentions to interact with them, including desire to date and engage in sexual intercourse with the target individuals. Results did not indicate the presence of the SDS, however, those with higher numbers of sexual partners, or those described as being involved in short-term/casual relationships in the past rather than long-term/committed relationships, were evaluated less favorably, and participants reported less desire to engage sexually or romantically with them. Some evidence for the Reverse-SDS emerged such that target men were evaluated more negatively and desired less than women despite having engaged in the same sexual behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Couples are making increasingly varied surname change decisions following marriage. However, despite this increased variability, cultural attitudes toward nontraditional surname choices remain rooted in sexism, with women who retain their maiden names often being viewed negatively as individuals and as partners within their marriages. The present study aimed to examine ambivalent sexism as a potential moderator of the link between women's and men's nontraditional surname choices and negative perceptions of those individuals and their marriages. To this end, participants (n = 129) viewed a series of vignettes describing heterosexual couples who made traditional vs. nontraditional choices regarding whether to change or retain their surnames following marriage, and participants' levels of ambivalent sexism were measured. Results indicated that participants with higher levels of sexism perceived nontraditional surname choices, and the individuals who make those choices, more negatively relative to those who make traditional choices. These findings underscore the persistent role of sexism in cultural attitudes toward marital surname choices in an emerging adult population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has found that higher-pitched female voices elicit jealousy among women. However, it is unknown whether jealousy towards higher-pitched female voices is driven by perceptions of the rival's mating strategy or by beliefs about the speaker's attractiveness to one's romantic partner. In addition, the degree to which higher-pitched female voices elicit jealousy could be associated with variation in trait jealousy among women listeners. Here, I manipulated women's voices to be higher or lower in pitch, and tested whether variation in jealousy towards female voices was more strongly associated with perceptions of mate poaching, beliefs about the speaker's attractiveness to listeners' romantic partner, or with individual differences in trait jealousy. I replicated findings that higher voice pitch elicits more jealousy from women, which was positively associated with perceptions of mate poaching. I found no evidence of an association between trait jealousy and any voice-based perception. The findings suggest that perceptions of a target's proclivity to mate poach better explain the jealousy-inducing nature of higher-pitched female voices than do beliefs about the speaker's attractiveness to one's romantic partner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whereas research has documented how atheists are perceived, none has considered their perceptibility. Atheists must first be identified as atheists in order to experience the stigma associated with them (i.e., as distrusted, disliked, and widely maligned). Although atheism is considered a concealable aspect of one's identity, substantial research has found that a variety of ostensibly concealable attributes about a person are indeed legible from small and subtle cues. We merged these lines of inquiry here by considering the perceptibility of religious and spiritual (dis)belief. Studies 1A-1B showed that atheists could be reliably discerned from Christians based on brief glimpses of 100 standardized male faces. Experiment 2 replicated these results using female faces. Experiments 3 A-E then interrogated the facial features that support perceivers' detection of atheism, showing that various parts of faces suffice for independently conveying atheism. Experiment 4 investigated and showed a potential mechanism for atheism detection – expressive suppression. Thus, across nine studies (N = 677), these data show robust evidence that atheists can be categorized from facial cues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Acute stress, which is omnipresent in daily life, is associated with executive function, mental disorders, and social cognition. However, the intricate relationships among these variables within a joint framework remain unknown. To address this gap, we performed a network analysis using cross-sectional data including pertinent variables. Data were collected from 1010 Chinese adult participants (mean age = 26.05 ± 5.95) who completed validated self-report scales of acute stress, problematic smartphone use, social media addiction, anxiety, depression, sense of control, intolerance of uncertainty, executive function, theory of mind, perspective taking, and empathic concern. Subsequently, a regularized partial-correlation network was estimated. Community detection analysis was then conducted and centrality and bridge centrality indices were determined. The result of community detection showed four communities in the constructed network, namely technology addiction, stress-induced mental disorders, cognition-behavior regulation, and social cognition. Nine cross-community and nine within-community connections were emphasized. Acute stress had the highest strength and bridge strength, perspective taking had the highest expected influence, and intolerance of uncertainty had the highest bridge expected influence. The findings revealed that connections were present between acute stress and relevant variables, as well as between other pairwise variables, independent of pre-existing knowledge or hypotheses. Our findings elucidate the pathways between these variables after eliminating confounding effects and highlight the important role of acute stress, which is potentially a promising and effective target for prevention and treatment of acute stress and related mental disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Henri Grivois has posited that psychosis involves the subjective experience of oneself as the center or focal point of the world. In this experience, the world that is typically unrelated to oneself becomes incomprehensible, and in its place is the sense that all life events are directly related to oneself or that one is perpetually at the center of all noteworthy activity. We suggest that this experience of centrality can be understood through the lens of the integrated model of metacognition. Specifically, we explore the idea that the metacognitive domain of decentration, or the ability to form ideas about the larger community one is a part of, can be used to operationalize and measure centrality. We propose a three-phase approach to addressing centrality within an integrative psychotherapy focused on subjective and experiential aspects of recovery. These phases focus on the patient's experience of centrality and include (1) inviting the therapist to join one's centrality, (2) acknowledging others as different from oneself, and (3) recognizing alternative perspectives in the world. We provide case examples and explore the metacognitive tasks and potential barriers associated with each phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cognitive impairment is frequently observed in bipolar disorder (BD). Previous findings indicated that predominant polarity could have an effect on cognitive deficits. This study aimed to examine the association between predominant polarity and cognitive impairments in BD. Materials and methods: Euthymic BD patients with manic (MPP, n = 31), depressive (DPP, n = 25), undetermined predominant polarity (UPP, n = 28), and healthy controls (HC, n = 27) participated in the study. A battery of neurocognitive and social cognitive tests was implemented. Neurocognitive domains were identified via principal component analysis. Results: The MPP group performed worse in the Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT), Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), and Hinting Test (HT) compared to the DPP group and reasoning/problem-solving skills compared to the UPP group. Both MPP and UPP groups showed impairments in processing speed compared to HC. Among patient groups, there was no significant difference in working memory, attention, processing speed, verbal, and visual domain scores. The MPP group had poorer scores compared to controls in most of the social cognitive and neurocognitive domains in the study, while the overall cognitive impairment in the DPP group was relatively milder. Conclusions: Although our sample size was relatively small, the MPP group yielded more severe cognitive impairment in verbal fluency and social cognition tests compared to DPP. Patients with MPP are particularly vulnerable to cognitive impairment, making them a priority for cognitive enhancement interventions. Future studies should focus on the outcomes of cognitive and pharmacological interventions in these polarity subgroups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdowns led to sweeping changes in the everyday lives of children and families, including school closures, remote work and learning, and social distancing. To date no study has examined whether these profound changes in young children's day to day social interactions impacted the development of social cognition skills in early childhood. To address this question, we compared the performance of two cohorts of 3.5- to 5.5-year-old children tested before and after the COVID-19 lockdowns on several measures of false-belief understanding, a critical social cognition skill that undergoes important developments in this age range. Controlling for age and language skills, children tested after the pandemic demonstrated significantly worse false-belief understanding than those tested before the pandemic, and this difference was larger for children from lower socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. These results suggest that the pandemic negatively impacted the development of social cognition skills in early childhood, especially for lower SES children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the uneven neuropsychological profile of William Syndrome (WS) is well established, less is known about social perception and how profile characteristics may affect the ability to predict other’s intentions, a main hallmark of social cognition. This study aimed at examining the neuropsychological profile, including social perception, of adolescents and adults with WS, and at verifying which neuropsychological outcome might account for their social prediction ability. Twenty-six individuals with WS were administered a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment, and a virtual reality scenario designed to assess social prediction in a dynamic, everyday life-like context. We found that social perception was a relative strength of the profile, although a dissociation emerged between impaired verbal ToM and relatively spared low-level components. Peaks and valleys were reported in other domains consistently with the expected profile. Both spatial and facial memory were significantly associated with the performance at the social prediction task. Results clarified that social perception per se should not be considered as typically impaired in WS. Weaknesses and strengths in specific abilities, particularly spatial and facial memory, might affect the ability to understand others’ intentions in WS beyond domain-specific mechanisms. These findings might inform future syndrome-specific rehabilitative interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how institutional frameworks and social comparisons shape perceptions of gender inequality, focusing on the role of perceived effort. Using data from a national survey on gender inequality in Spain, we explore how historical perspectives and contemporary perceptions converge to influence the belief that women must exert more effort than men to achieve the same level of competence. The findings indicate that this perception persists, despite advancements in equality policies. The study makes a significant contribution by identifying "perceived effort" as a key driver of gender inequality, both in corporate and entrepreneurial settings. These results provide practical insights for public policy, highlighting the need for targeted interventions that address not only structural disparities but also deeply ingrained social perceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Difficulties in social communication and interaction skills characteristic of autism are reported to play a critical role in high parenting stress. A widely acknowledged lack of effective supports make it more likely that parents of autistic children continue to experience increasingly greater levels of parenting stress over time. The current study aimed to further understand parent perceptions of social supports following their completion of a parent-implemented social skills intervention for their autistic child. Specifically, we explored additional supports beyond those targeting their child that parents of autistic children may perceive as necessary. We interviewed seven parents with autistic children to better understand their perception of the support systems available to, and utilized by, them. Inductive thematic analysis generated two primary themes: (1) parent's emotions as leading of support needs and (2) support networks utilized or sought after by parents of autistic children. Our findings highlight the experiences and feelings of parents of autistic children regarding the support systems they perceive to be available and those they use and/or need. An understanding of parent experiences and perceived needs can be used to promote change, in particular, specific parent support following diagnosis and throughout the intervention process to encourage parent psychological well-being may be beneficial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fatigue is one of the most common health complaints, yet assessing it can be difficult when perceptions of others' fatigue are distorted by gender bias. This research is the first to examine whether such a bias is present in the perception of men's and women's fatigue. Across two studies (total N = 201), perceivers viewed silent videoclips of men and women targets in a social interaction and were asked to estimate each targets' fatigue. While women reported more fatigue than men, across both studies perceivers rated women as significantly less fatigued than men. Results from Study 2 further suggested that women's fatigue was significantly underestimated in comparison to their own self-reports of fatigue while men's fatigue was significantly overestimated in comparison to their own self-reports. To explore whether any differences in ratings of targets' fatigue were due to targets' own behavior, we also coded each target for various nonverbal cues that could be associated with fatigue. An examination of these nonverbal cues did not reveal any significant relationships with self-reported fatigue for either men or women targets. However, the more nonverbally expressive/attentive targets were, the less likely they were to be judged as fatigued by perceivers and women targets displayed more expressiveness/attentiveness than men targets, explaining some of the variance in why women's fatigue was underestimated more than men's. The current work is the first to document the robust existence of gender bias in the perception of others' fatigue and points towards interventions to help mitigate these biases in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When observing other people during naturally paced and dynamic interactions, it is essential to look at specific locations at the right time to extract a maximum of socially informative content. In this study, we aimed to investigate the looking behavior of typically developing toddlers and toddlers later diagnosed with autism when observing other children interact. The sample consisted of 98 toddlers; 22 in a low-likelihood of autism group, 60 in an elevated likelihood of autism group who did not receive a subsequent diagnosis, and 16 in an elevated likelihood group who did receive an autism diagnosis. Participants performed an eye tracking task at 18 months of age and were assessed for diagnostic outcome at 36 months. The video stimuli consisted of two children interacting, where a boy reaches out for a toy and a girl refuses to give it to him. The low likelihood group showed an expected increase in ratio of looking at the girl's face after the boy requested the toy, as compared to before (t(21) = -3.337, p =.003). Toddlers with later autism showed a significantly lower ratio of looking at the girl's face during this time window, as compared to the other groups (F(2,91) = 3.698, p =.029). These findings provide new leads on how social gaze may be different in children with autism in everyday life (e.g., kindergarten), and highlight the need of studying the dynamics of gaze on short time scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outgroup and diversity attitudes are important components of intercultural understanding and well-being. Despite the potential of ethnic-racial identity development as a means to foster positive outgroup and diversity attitudes, little is known about its effectiveness in rapidly diversifying contexts such as Sweden. This pre-registered study filled this gap by examining if adolescents taking part in an intervention focused on ethnic-racial identity exploration, the Identity Project, also reported change in outgroup and diversity attitudes, and whether migration background, education type, and ethnic-racial identity development predicted such change. Twenty-three tenth-grade classes in Sweden (N = 509; Mage = 16.28; SDage = 0.80; 66% female; 51% migration background) participated in the intervention and were assessed in four waves over a period of 26 weeks. Whereas ethnic-racial identity exploration and resolution increased for the intervention group, the adolescents reported no change in outgroup and diversity attitudes when compared to a control group. Increases in ethnic-racial identity exploration and resolution co-varied with increases in attitudes, but only at Time 3. The results do not provide support for the link between ethnic-racial identity development and positive outgroup and diversity attitudes, and challenge the notion of attitude change as a cascading effect of the Identity Project intervention in non-US sociocultural contexts. All aspects of the study were pre-registered on the Open Science Framework platform (https://osf.io/f5896). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on social cognitive processes (Bandura, 2009), sexualizing media likely provide adolescents with credible role models for their own sexualized self-presentation in other mediated contexts, such as sexting. A survey of 6,093 US adolescents was conducted (Mage = 15.27 years, SD = 1.37; 69.1% cisgender girls; 26.8% cisgender boys, 4.2% gender-minority participants) to examine relations between three types of sexualizing media exposure (reality television, music videos, pornography) and active sexting behaviors (i.e., requesting and sending). Among cisgender boys, exposure to sexually oriented reality television was positively related to active sexting behaviors, but this link was not found for cisgender girls or gender-minority participants. Music video exposure was related to active sexting behaviors only among cisgender boys and pornography consumption was positively related to active sexting behaviors among all gender groups. A positive outcome expectancy (i.e., sexting is fun) consistently mediated these relations. A negative outcome expectancy (i.e., sexting is risky) only mediated the relations between pornography consumption and active sexting behaviors among cisgender girls. Results are discussed in light of social cognitive theory (Bandura, 2009) and the 3AM Model (Wright, 2011). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On April 4, 2018, Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court Justice Robert Fowler issued a landmark decision in C.C. (Re) [2018] NLSC 71 Carswell Nfld 110 making three adults—in a polyamorous relationship with one another—the legal parents to their young daughter. This was a significant decision in Canada, since Newfoundland and Labrador was the first jurisdiction to grant legal parental status to adults in a polyamorous relationship. In 2021, British Columbia's Supreme Court made a similar decision in British Columbia Birth Registration No. 2018-XX-XX5815, 2021 BCSC 767. While these cases seem progressive, proponents of the legal and social expansion of parentage should remain cautious. The decisions' potential for changing the landscape of family law and social perceptions of non-dyadic parenting are stymied by the persistence of privatised sex and gender norms and racialised constructions of sexuality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Video game addiction, a prominent social problem throughout the world, could cause various harms to individuals' health and adaptation, especially among the youth. Against this background, its influencing factors have been a focus of relevant research, among which poor interpersonal relationships pose a great risk. Based on relevant research and the I-PACE model, the current study aimed to examine the association between social exclusion and video game addiction among college students, as well as the potential roles of depression and maladaptive cognition in this relationship. A total of 424 college students were recruited to participate in this study and were asked to complete a set of measurements. The results found that (1) social exclusion was positively associated with video game addiction; (2) depression and maladaptive cognition could significantly mediate the relationship, which contained three mediating pathways – the separate mediating effects of depression and maladaptive cognition, as well as the serial mediating effect of them. These findings could not only deepen our understanding of the relationship between these main variables but also offer some valuable insights for the prevention and intervention of video game addiction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the academic community generally paying attention to the role of emotional intelligence(EI) on entrepreneurial performance, there are no consistent conclusions on whether and how emotional intelligence affects entrepreneurial performance. Based on theories of planned behavior and social cognition, this study selects 190 independent samples (N = 52,195) related to emotional intelligence, entrepreneurial orientation, and entrepreneurial performance from mainstream academic journals in the field of entrepreneurial psychology as the subjects of this study. this study uses a combination of meta-analysis and structural equation model, with emotional intelligence as the independent variable and entrepreneurial orientation (including the three dimensions of innovativeness, proactivity, and risk-tolerance) as the mediating variable. The main findings are: (1) emotional intelligence positively affects entrepreneurial performance; (2) innovativeness plays an intermediary role in the effect of emotional intelligence on entrepreneurial performance; (3) proactivity plays an intermediary role between emotional intelligence and entrepreneurial performance; (4) risk-tolerance does not mediate the effect of emotional intelligence on entrepreneurial performance; (5) proactivity and innovativeness mediate the chain between emotional intelligence and entrepreneurial performance; (6) proactivity and risk-tolerance mediate the chain between emotional intelligence and entrepreneurial performance.The conclusion of this study provides theoretical guidance for the correct understanding of the effect of entrepreneurial orientation on emotional intelligence and entrepreneurial performance, and is of great significance for deepening the research depth of the mechanism of emotional intelligence and entrepreneurial performance, which is conducive to the development of entrepreneurial ventures and the realization of entrepreneurial success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the term "diversity" is ubiquitous in modern day society, the meaning of the term is not well understood, and it is unclear when people perceive groups to be more or less diverse. Across five experiments, we examined perceptions of racial diversity and preferences for living in diverse contexts related to visual representations of groups. While recent theorizing suggests that a greater number of low-status racial minorities may contribute to perceiving more diversity and determine living preferences, our findings indicate the importance of the race of the perceiver in these processes. Although White and Black participants rated majority Black compared to majority Asian groups as more diverse, followed by majority White targets (cf. Experiment 4), Asian participants did not differ in their diversity ratings across the different racial compositions. Notably, White and Asian participants rated majority White and majority Asian compared to majority Black neighborhoods as more desirable. Black participants, in contrast, consistently rated majority Black compared to majority White and majority Asian neighborhoods as more desirable and did not distinguish between the latter two contexts. Together these findings provide new evidence about how people define diversity and the importance of target-level factors, perceiver-level factors, and the interplay between these factors on perceptions of racial diversity and inclusivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social situations can present challenges for those looking to reduce or avoid eating meat. In an experimental vignette study with a large representative sample of 1,117 UK-based meat eaters, we explore affective responses to requests for vegetarian meals and perceptions of those making the request across four social situations: a BBQ, a pub, a restaurant dinner, and a dinner party. We examine moderators of these perceptions including whether the requester presents themselves as vegetarian or a meat restrictor and whether they cite health, environmental or no motives for their request. Overall, we find that these moderators have a greater impact on meat eaters' perceptions of the requester than on their affective responses to the request. We also find that these outcomes are more impacted by the mention of motives than they are diet type. Standout findings include evidence that people citing environmental motives for their vegetarian meal request are perceived more negatively, while those with health motives are perceived more positively. We also identify substantial heterogeneity across the respondents' levels of meat attachment: those who are more attached to meat have more negative perceptions of vegetarian meal requesters and experience higher negative affect and lower positive affect in response to the request. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study aimed to assess body image dissatisfaction in Omani university students across gender and age and explore the potential impact of social media use on body image dissatisfaction. This cross-sectional online survey was responded by 482 Omani university students. The survey included socio-demographic data, a Social Media Activity Questionnaire, and a Body Dissatisfaction Scale. The participants were approached through promotion of the study on locally famous social media accounts. Results: The prevalence of body image dissatisfaction was higher in females compared to males (37.7% and 24%, respectively). Additionally, 53.6% of participants with a high body mass index reported high levels of body image dissatisfaction, while underweight participants reported the lowest body image dissatisfaction (21.3%). High social media use showed a significant correlation with body image dissatisfaction (p < 0.001); however, age did not exhibit a significant association with body image dissatisfaction. Concerns related to being overweight and not having clear skin were the most common body features associated with body image issues. Conclusion: Higher levels of body image dissatisfaction were found with high social media use. The study also identified a higher prevalence of body image dissatisfaction in females compared to males, with no significant differences across age groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Childhood maltreatment (CM) has been linked to social cognition deficits in major depressive disorder (MDD), but little is known about sex-specific effects. This study aimed to investigate the sex-specific associations of CM with social cognition in first-episode drug-naive patients with MDD. A total of 117 first-episode drug-naive patients with MDD and 134 healthy controls (HCs) were recruited and assessed for demographic and clinical characteristics. All participants completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), Interpersonal Reactivity Index–C (IRI), and Facial Emotion Recognition Test. Partial correlation analysis was used to explore the sex-specific association of CM with social cognition. Our findings revealed significant differences in the associations of CM with social cognition between males and females in MDD patients. In comparison to HCs, the associations of CM with social cognition displayed distinct and even contrasting sex-specific patterns in MDD patients. Specifically, male MDD patients exhibited unique imbalanced associations between emotional neglect and alexithymia, while both female and male MDD patients shared imbalanced associations of childhood abuse with empathy. These results emphasize the importance of considering the sex-specific associations of CM with social cognition in MDD and highlight the need for personalized interventions and treatments based on sex for MDD patients with a history of CM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blunted affect is associated with severe mental illness, particularly schizophrenia. Mechanisms of blunted affect are poorly understood, potentially due to a lack of phenomenological clarity. Here, we examine clinician rated blunted affect and computerized facial metrics derived from ambulatory video assessment using machine learning. With high predictive accuracy (80–82%), we found that head orientation, eye movement, and facets of mouth movement were associated with clinical ratings of blunted affect. Features denoting larger muscle movements were associated with social cognition (R2 = 0.37) and cognition (R2 = 0.40). Findings provide potential insights on psychological and pathophysiological contributors to blunted affect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frans de Waal (1948-2024) transformed our understanding of primate cognition and social behavior, shaping the perspectives of scientists, philosophers, and the general public through his groundbreaking research and engagingpopular books. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cerebellum has been shown to be engaged in tasks other than motor control, including cognitive and affective functions. Prior neuroimaging studies have documented the role of this area in social cognition and despite these findings, no studies have yet examined the causal relationship between the cerebellum and social cognition. This study aimed to investigate the role of the cerebellum in empathy and theory of mind (ToM) in a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, parallel study. 32 healthy participants were assigned to either a sham or active group. For the active group, an intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS) protocol at 100% of the motor threshold was applied to the cerebellum, while the control group received sham stimulation. An eyes-closed EEG session, the Empathy Quotient (EQ) test, and the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) were administered before and after the iTBS session. The results demonstrated differences in cognitive empathy, ToM, and a decrease in the activity of the default mode network (DMN) between the active and sham groups in females. Females also showed a decrease in the activity of the affective empathy network and connectivity in the DMN. We conclude that cognitive empathy and ToM are associated with cerebellar activity, and due to sex-related differences in the cortical organization of this area which is modulated by sex hormones, the stimulation of the cerebellum in males and females yields different results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined whether school-aged autistic children without co-occurring intellectual disabilities (autisticWoID) show similar difficulty on Theory of Mind (ToM) tasks as young autisticWoID children and if these difficulties are related to problems in domain-general aspects of cognition. Eighty-one autisticWoID and 44 neurotypical (NT) children between the ages of 8–16 years participated in this study and were matched on verbal IQ. ToM performance significantly and independently differentiated many, but not all, autisticWoID and NT participants above and beyond the effects of working memory and inferential thinking. However, these cognitive variables did not fully explain difficulties with social cognition in autisticWoID children. These findings have implications for understanding autism, the factors that may impact intervention for social cognition in autism, and the factors that impact the education of autistic children who may struggle in general education classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: It has been recently acknowledged that deficits in experiencing and processing one's own emotions, also termed alexithymia, may possibly feature the frontotemporal-spectrum disorders. This study aims to determine whether alexithymia could be included within the frontotemporal syndromes of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Methods: Alexithymic traits were estimated in a cohort of 68 non-demented ALS patients with the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Patients were assessed for the identification of motor-phenotypes and frontotemporal syndromes based on current classification criteria. Spearman's coefficients explored the correlates of TAS-20 measures with motor-functional profiles, global cognitive, social-cognitive (emotion recognition and empathy) and behavioral status. Results: Abnormal TAS-20 scores were found in 13% of patients, and their distribution did not vary within motor and frontotemporal phenotypes. Significant associations were detected between TAS-20 and executive (p ≤.011), memory (p =.006), state-anxiety (p ≤.013) and depression measures (p ≤.010). By contrast, TAS-20 scores were unrelated to social-cognitive performances, dysexecutive and apathetic profiles. Disease duration was the only motor-functional feature being related to the TAS-20 (p ≤.008). Conclusions: Alexithymia of potential clinical relevance occur in a minority of ALS patients, and its neuropsychological correlates mostly resemble those featuring the general population. Hence, it is unlikely that alexithymia is a specific feature of frontotemporal-spectrum characterizing ALS, rather it could be an expression of psychogenic factors as a reaction to the disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade, scientists investigating human social cognition have started bringing traditional laboratory paradigms more "into the wild" to examine how socio-cognitive mechanisms of the human brain work in real-life settings. As this implies transferring 2D observational paradigms to 3D interactive environments, there is a risk of compromising experimental control. In this context, we propose a methodological approach which uses humanoid robots as proxies of social interaction partners and embeds them in experimental protocols that adapt classical paradigms of cognitive psychology to interactive scenarios. This allows for a relatively high degree of "naturalness" of interaction and excellent experimental control at the same time. Here, we present two case studies where our methods and tools were applied and replicated across two different laboratories, namely the Italian Institute of Technology in Genova (Italy) and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research in Singapore. In the first case study, we present a replication of an interactive version of a gaze-cueing paradigm reported in Kompatsiari et al. (J Exp Psychol Gen 151(1):121–136, 2022). The second case study presents a replication of a "shared experience" paradigm reported in Marchesi et al. (Technol Mind Behav 3(3):11, 2022). As both studies replicate results across labs and different cultures, we argue that our methods allow for reliable and replicable setups, even though the protocols are complex and involve social interaction. We conclude that our approach can be of benefit to the research field of social cognition and grant higher replicability, for example, in cross-cultural comparisons of social cognition mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social working memory (WM) temporarily retains and manipulates various aspects of social information. Extensive research has highlighted impaired social cognitive functions in individuals with substance addiction. However, the specific deficit in social WM within this population remains notably understudied. Bridging this gap, we investigated social WM capacity using biological motion (BM) stimuli in methamphetamine (MA) abusers compared to an inmate control group, alongside contrasting these findings with their canonical WM deficits. Across two studies, we recruited female MA abusers (N = 80) undergoing post-isolation rehabilitation within a mandatory confinement circumstance. To ensure a pertinent comparison, we recruited female inmates (N = 80) subjected to comparable confinement. Results show substantial BM WM impairment in MA abusers, yet non-BM WM remains mostly intact. These findings highlight a pronounced social WM deficit in MA abusers, surpassing their canonical WM deficit relative to inmate controls. This suggests a distinct dissociation between social and canonical WM processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural difference in ensemble emotion perception is an important research question, providing insights into the complexity of human cognition and social interaction. Here, we conducted two experiments to investigate how emotion perception would be affected by other ethnicity effects and ensemble coding. In Experiment 1, two groups of Asian and Caucasian participants were tasked with assessing the average emotion of faces from their ethnic group, other ethnic group, and mixed ethnicity groups. Results revealed that participants exhibited relatively accurate yet amplified emotion perception of their group faces, with a tendency to overestimate the weight of the faces from the other ethnic group. In Experiment 2, Asian participants were instructed to discern the emotion of a target face surrounded by faces from Caucasian and Asian faces. Results corroborated earlier findings, indicating that while participants accurately perceived emotions in faces of their ethnicity, their perception of Caucasian faces was noticeably influenced by the presence of surrounding Asian faces. These findings collectively support the notion that the other ethnicity effect stems from differential emotional amplification inherent in ensemble coding of emotion perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an increasingly globalized world, the accessibility of healthcare and medication has expanded beyond local healthcare systems and national borders. This study aims to investigate the transnational health and self-care experiences of 11 Japanese women who have resided in South Korea for a minimum of six months and have utilized oral contraceptives, including those that were acquired over-the-counter (OTC). Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews and analyzed by utilizing the NVivo software. The analysis yielded three significant thematic categories, namely (1) experiences and perceptions of obtaining and utilizing contraceptive pills, including OTC access; (2) individual and social perceptions of pills and their accessibility in Japan, insights from actual users; and (3) enhancing pill accessibility, transnational health and self-care experiences and perspectives. Participants acknowledged that oral contraceptives are a global product and experienced communication challenges with healthcare providers as a result of differing understandings of these medications. Additionally, this study identified transnational strategies, such as purchasing an adequate supply of pills just before departure and seeking pills from local families or acquaintances. This study not only highlights the implications of clinical care for transnational patients but also underscores their critical global perspectives on access to oral contraceptives. Furthermore, it proposes two models for improving accessibility within the Japanese healthcare system, even in prescription-only contexts, by introducing OTC options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Sex differences are present among individuals experiencing schizophrenia. Whether these differences extend to social cognition is unclear. In this study, we investigated sex differences in emotion perception, social perception and theory of mind (ToM). Methods: We examined sex differences between males and females with schizophrenia on five social cognitive tests. Healthy male and female control participants were included to examine if any sex difference was illness-specific. Emotion perception was measured with Pictures of Facial Affect (PFA) and Emotion in Biological Motion (EmoBio); social perception with the Relationships Across Domains Test (RAD); and ToM with the Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition (MASC) and Hinting Task. Results: Two-way analyses of variance revealed overall group differences for all tests, with healthy controls outperforming individuals with schizophrenia. Significant sex effects were present for PFA and Hinting Task. There were no significant interaction effects. Within-group independent samples t-tests yielded one significant sex difference, i.e., among healthy controls for PFA. Conclusions: Females had better facial emotion perception than males. This sex difference was statistically significant among healthy controls and medium-large among individuals experiencing schizophrenia. There were no significant sex differences for other social cognitive domains. The study did not find evidence for a general female advantage in social cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aimed to explore mothers' experiences of children with autism using a phenomenological approach. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 18 parents with children attending a special education centre in a northern province of Turkey. Criterion sampling, a form of purposive sampling, was employed to select participants. Interviews continued until data saturation was achieved. All interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis was utilized to analyze the data, and the study adhered to the COREQ checklist for reporting qualitative research. As a result of analyses, three main themes (the process of diagnosis, the effect of the child's illness on parents and their challenges over time, and considerations regarding the child's educational journey) and eight sub-themes (feelings and thoughts, reflections on the causes, reactions encountered, emotional effects, social effects, physical effects, perception of social support, and expectations from the educator and the education process) emerged. The study concluded that mothers of children with autism are emotionally, physically, and socially impacted by their child's condition, facing considerable challenges in coping. In light of these findings, it is recommended that policymakers in our country develop plans that address the difficulties expressed by participants, review and potentially enhance financial and social support for families, and consider increasing special education hours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People have overlapping identities that impact their experiences. It is, therefore, essential to examine relationships between social identities to understand stereotypes and their effects better. The primary objective of this study was to explore perceptions of sexual orientation, age, gender, ethnicity, and stereotypical attributes of warmth and competence in a Turkish organizational context. The secondary objective was to discern coworker and manager preferences based on the intersection of these categories. A sample of 451 university students rated hypothetical work profiles. Analysis showed that Turkishness was pivotal in shaping social perceptions and workplace relationship preferences. The integration of stigmatized group categories, such as Kurdish identity, with non-stigmatized categories showed adverse impacts on preferences. The research highlights the importance of studying the interplay among diverse identity categories when analyzing social dynamics. We propose practical and theoretical implications concerning workplace diversity and discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A temporally stable functional brain network pattern among coordinated brain regions is fundamental to stimulus selectivity and functional specificity during the critical period of brain development. Brain networks that are recruited in time to process internal states of others' bodies (like hunger and pain) versus internal mental states (like beliefs, desires, and emotions) of others' minds allow us to ask whether a quantitative characterization of the stability of these networks carries meaning during early development and constrain cognition in a specific way. Previous research provides critical insight into the early development of the theory-of-mind (ToM) network and its segregation from the Pain network throughout normal development using functional connectivity. However, a quantitative characterization of the temporal stability of ToM networks from early childhood to adulthood remains unexplored. In this work, reusing a large sample of children (n = 122, 3–12 years) and adults (n = 33) dataset that is available on the OpenfMRI database under the accession number ds000228, we addressed this question based on their fMRI data during a short and engaging naturalistic movie-watching task. The movie highlights the characters' bodily sensations (often pain) and mental states (beliefs, desires, emotions), and is a feasible experiment for young children. Our results tracked the change in temporal stability using an unsupervised characterization of ToM and Pain networks DFC patterns using Angular and Mahalanobis distances between dominant dynamic functional connectivity subspaces. Our findings reveal that both ToM and Pain networks exhibit lower temporal stability as early as 3-years and gradually stabilize by 5-years, which continues till adolescence and late adulthood (often sharing similarity with adult DFC stability patterns). Furthermore, we find that the temporal stability of ToM brain networks is associated with the performance of participants in the false belief task to access mentalization at an early age. Interestingly, higher temporal stability is associated with the pass group, and similarly, moderate and low temporal stability are associated with the inconsistent group and the fail group. Our findings open an avenue for applying the temporal stability of large-scale functional brain networks during cortical development to act as a biomarker for multiple developmental disorders concerning impairment and discontinuity in the neural basis of social cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing inspiration from the sociocultural turn in language teacher cognition research, this conceptual article argues for the utilisation of cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) as a theoretical framework for researching and understanding teacher cognition as a social phenomenon. In this article, three CHAT-related concepts, namely mediation, including contradictions; emotion; and agency are expounded, drawn together, and proven as pertinent and useful analytical tools for the study of the complexity of teacher cognition. Its central thesis posits that CHAT accommodates teachers' sociocultural activity systems whose mechanism is characterised by mediation that stimulates their emotional responses and agency for taking actions—a process through which teacher cognition unfolds in dynamic, developmental manners. By mapping these concepts, the article contributes to the extant scholarship by highlighting language teacher cognition as a mediated, emotional, and agentive process of transformation and providing critical epistemological implications for prospective empirical attempts in this line of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current era is characterized by an increase in variability, which merits attention with regard to its influence on the perception of social justice. This study investigated the effects of variability and its positive or negative qualities on social justice perception. This was achieved through the pre-experimental preparation of materials and formal experimental manipulation. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: high variability—positive, low variability—positive, high variability—negative, and low variability—negative. The results suggest that (1) variability significantly affects social justice perception, which means that social justice perception is greater in high-variability conditions than in low-variability conditions; (2) the quality of variability does not have an independent effect on social justice perception, but there is an interaction; and (3) in low variability—negative conditions, the social justice perception is lowest. The current study provides an empirical basis for understanding people's perceptions of social justice in the context of great change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has recently made significant changes to its tertiary education programs, aligning itself with other nations in the Middle East and North Africa by adopting the practice of English Medium Instruction (EMI). However, EMI is not without drawbacks. In the UAE and Qatar, for example, researchers have reported on the potential adverse consequences of the policy. This study seeks to explore KSA university students' and instructors' attitudes toward EMI, with a significant focus on broader social and cultural perceptions, while also addressing pedagogical issues. This approach contrasts with the predominant focus in the existing literature, which primarily emphasizes pedagogical aspects. A mixed-method approach is utilized in which students were surveyed quantitatively, and instructors were interviewed. The study does not reveal any evidence of broader social and cultural concerns such as those reported elsewhere; however, the findings do indicate student resistance to a monolingual approach, whether English or Arabic. Thus, by taking into consideration the findings presented here and in other studies, in conjunction with relevant theoretical suppositions, this study substantiates the benefits of a mixed-medium approach combining English and Arabic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]