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Research has primarily focused on the engagement of the student in the classroom (Austin, 1993; Schunk & Mullen, 2012; Tinto, 1993), often without consideration of the engagement of the teacher (Frenzel, Goetz, Lüdtke, Pekrun, & Sutton, 2009). However, we predict that teachers' subjective experiences "trickle down" and ultimately impact the subjective experiences and performance of their students. Consistent with our Trickle-Down Engagement Model Hypothesis, we found undergraduate students' perceptions of their instructor's engagement were associated with their own engagement in the classroom (Studies 1 & 2; Ns = 195 and 210, respectively), and students' increased classroom engagement was associated with more engagement while studying (which, in turn, predicted higher quiz scores; Study 1) as well as with higher final grades (Study 2). Our results suggest there are relatively simple changes teachers can make to their own pedagogy that may improve their own subjective experiences within the classroom and, consequently, trickle down to and improve their students' subjective experiences and performance.

We designed and implemented an innovative teacher learning activity within the context of a graduate course. Course-takers created and completed a teaching demonstration and their "students" (i.e., fellow course-takers) were each assigned a specific role to play (e.g., disengaged) in order to provide the "teachers" with opportunities to practice their classroom management skills. After completing the demonstrations, the course-takers completed an assessment of their own and their colleagues' teaching effectiveness and their attitudes toward the role-playing activity. Overall, course-takers reported that they learned valuable teaching skills and generally enjoyed the role-playing activity. Such role-playing activities can safely provide developing teachers with opportunities to practice various pedagogical strategies, while simultaneously helping them sharpen their classroom management skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Trickle-Down Engagement Model posits that instructor engagement promotes student engagement which, in turn, has positive implications for student learning. Objective: Our goal was to provide evidence-based practical recommendations for instructors to communicate their engagement with course material to students, activating the trickle-down process. Method: In two experiments, we used recorded mock lectures in which we manipulated instructor movement within the classroom (Study 1) and enthusiastic statements that cued instructor engagement (Study 2). In both studies, we measured student learning and assessed perceptions of the instructor's engagement, their own engagement, and the presented material. Results: Engaged cue statements successfully communicated instructor engagement but physical movement did not. Consistent with the Trickle-Down Engagement Model and our hypotheses, perceptions of instructors' engagement positively related to participants' own engagement, which was also positively related to better learning outcomes. Conclusion: When instructors verbally communicate their engagement with course material, students are more engaged and demonstrate better learning. Teaching Implications: Channeling explicit, positive instructor engagement has numerous benefits, including enhanced student learning and educational experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People who report greater belief in pure evil (BPE; the tendency to attribute harmdoing to dispositionally sadistic perpetrators) generally punish criminal perpetrators more regardless of mitigating circumstances (e.g., having a brain tumor). What attributional/cognitive processes underlie such punishment? A national sample (final N = 302) read an alleged "USA Today" article about a mall shooting. We manipulated whether the shooter exhibited a brain tumor and whether the shooter exhibited stereotypically evil traits. Regardless of experimental conditions, individuals who reported greater BPE perceived the shooter's behavior as more internal, intentional, controllable, and blameworthy. These attributional judgments also helped mediate the relationship between BPE and punishment. Ancillary measures demonstrated other potential cognitive biases (overprecision and confirmation bias) in processing information about the shooter/shooting. In sum, people who report greater BPE held the shooter more liable for his actions despite mitigating evidence, and such attributions helped explain the link between BPE and punishment.

This study looked to situated learning (Lave & Wenger, 1991) in order to explore students' participation in the social practices of first-year learning communities. Wenger's (1998) elaboration on "communities of practice" provides insight into how such participation transforms learners. These perspectives frame learning as a socialization and identity shaping process in which learners gain knowledge and skills contextualized, and legitimized, by their communities. We used a survey method and open-ended questions to examine three facets of participation: students' access and motivation to join the community, meaning of their experiences within the community, and trajectory of learning--that is, how participation influenced their later academic or professional decisions. Our findings emphasize that students are motivated by, and find value in, the academic content and engaged pedagogical approaches offered by first-year learning communities; the meaning of their experiences, however, is negotiated through social relationships.

Introduction: We examined third-person perceptions of suicide among people with terminal illnesses, correlationally (Study 1) as well as experimentally as a function of a target's age (Study 2) and gender (Study 3). Methods: In all studies, we measured general and person perceptions as well as comparisons to traditional suicide plus individual differences in Masculine Honor Beliefs, Free Will Beliefs, Fear of Death, and Suicide Acceptability. Results: Participants generally had favorable attitudes toward suicide among people with terminal illnesses across studies. Participants reported more positive perceptions of older targets (i.e., people in their 90s) compared to younger targets (i.e., people in their 40s) and more stigmatizing perceptions of men (compared to women) dying by suicide due to terminal illness. Masculine Honor Beliefs and Free Will Beliefs were negatively related to favorable attitudes toward suicide among people with terminal illnesses whereas Suicide Acceptability was positively related to favorable attitudes toward suicide among people with terminal illnesses. Fear of Death yielded somewhat inconsistent patterns across studies. Discussion: These studies inform third-person attitudes toward suicide among people with terminal illnesses generally while also considering how poor health status can intersect with other identities (e.g., age, gender) as well as aspects of perceivers to aggravate or mitigate these perceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When morality is important and central to individuals' identities (moral identity), it may heighten their sense of responsibility to behave in moral ways. Although research has linked moral identity to various moral actions, research has yet to demonstrate the association between moral identity and individuals' consistent moral choices, despite situational sanctions (i.e., peer group approval) to behave immorally. The purpose of this study was to examine if prioritizing morality in the self is associated with individuals' consistent moral responses in four situations encouraging the expression of immoral behavior. After reading about situations in which peers approved of and encouraged immoral behavior (i.e., stealing a laptop, drunk driving, cheating on an exam, keeping someone else's money), 185 participants reported the degree to which they disagreed or agreed that: (1) each situation was immoral; (2) they would resist the 'temptation' to behave immorally; and (3) they would attempt to convince their peers of the 'right thing' to do. Results revealed that, despite being encouraged to behave immorally, heightened moral identity predicted individuals' moral responses in three (of the four) situations. When morality is important and central to individuals' identities, moral choices tend to emerge despite opportunities to behave immorally.

We examined how individual differences in masculine honor beliefs (MHBs) related to third-person perceptions of revenge pornography (i.e., a man distributing nude photos of his ex-girlfriend) in response to a break-up. Consistent with our hypotheses, higher levels of MHBs were associated with higher ratings of the woman as negative, higher levels of victim-blaming the woman, and higher ratings of revenge pornography as justified. Furthermore, participants perceived the woman as more at fault, and the man's behavior as more justified, when she cheated on him prior to his revenge (compared to when she did not cheat). Overall, our results suggest that both higher levels of MHBs and instances of infidelity inspire beliefs that disempower women victims. Our research extends our understanding of how MHBs and situational factors relate to perceptions of revenge pornography, including its justification and the stigmatization of its victims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teaching is a skill that can and should be taught in graduate education. Fortunately, many departments offer some teacher training for their graduate students to prepare them to teach introductory and other survey courses. What is apparently still lacking is training for graduate students to teach upper-level seminar-style classes. Therefore, we designed and implemented a graduate-level seminar on teaching seminars in psychology wherein course-takers developed tangible resources (e.g., syllabi) to empower them to effectively (and autonomously) teach seminar-style courses. We believe our course provides an excellent model for departments interested in further enhancing the teacher training of their graduate students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult to proctor exams after the forced transition to remote teaching and learning. Objective: We evaluated students' experiences creating and answering their own exam items in an upper-level psychology course during the transition to remote teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: Students in an advanced social psychology course wrote and answered exam items to demonstrate their learning when proctored exams became impossible during the COVID-19 pandemic. The exams were graded for breadth, depth, and accuracy, and compared to other demonstrations of learning, including traditional in-class exams taken prior to the transition to remote teaching and learning. Results: Students performed well on these exams. Students reported positive perceptions of these exams during the COVID-19 pandemic, but reported that, while these exams reduced test anxiety, they were time-intensive. Conclusion: Students can demonstrate their learning by writing and completing their own exams. Their higher grades may be related to reduced test anxiety and greater time investments. Teaching Implications: Instructors should consider having students write and complete their own exams to demonstrate their learning, especially when proctoring exams is difficult or impossible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human beings have relished the idea of possessing supernatural/superhuman powers for millennia. However, do some people desire such powers more than others based on specific individual differences and characteristics? We examined how individual differences in imaginative involvement (fantasy proneness, absorption) and magical beliefs (superstitiousness and religiousness) uniquely related to desire for 12 supernatural powers (final N = 143); participants also rated the supernaturalness of each power and how much they believed humans possess/will possess each power. These individual differences, as predicted, consistently correlated with the desire for supernatural powers and the belief that humans may possess these powers in the future. After controlling for sci-fi and fantasy narrative consumption, only absorption and superstitiousness (chance subscale) uniquely related to desire for supernatural powers; and only absorption uniquely predicted the belief that humans do/would possess these powers. Ultimately, there are important individual differences in desire and perception of supernatural powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Varying opinions about the COVID‐19 pandemic inspire different behaviors (e.g., mask‐wearing), and confrontation may result between people with differing viewpoints. Individual differences associated with belief superiority (e.g., Social Vigilantism; SV) and/or pride (e.g., Masculine Honor Beliefs; MHB) likely related to third‐person perceptions of pandemic confrontations. In this study (N = 237; US sample), we used vignettes in a 2 (Mask: Yes/No) × 2(Confrontation Response: Vocal Defense/Walked Away) between‐groups design to examine how SV and MHB predict perceptions of (1) responses to public confrontation about (not) wearing a mask and (2) the person being confronted. In general, mask‐wearing and walking away from confrontation were perceived more positively. Higher SV was associated with more positive perceptions of seemingly morally‐justified responses to confrontation (e.g., walking away when confronted for not wearing a mask, vocally defending oneself when confronted for wearing a mask). Contrarily, higher MHB were associated with more positive perceptions of non‐mask‐wearing. This research provides insight about how individual differences in SV and MHB relate to nuances in pandemic confrontations, and responses to confrontations, about (non)mask‐wearing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The majority of hate crimes in the United States are driven by racial bias. However, extra-legal factors such as the perpetrators' motivations, the races of the victims and perpetrators, and the presence or absence of hate symbols or slurs often result in ambiguity in the classification of crimes as hate crimes. This uncertainty evokes consideration of how such crimes are characterized and of how violent intra- and interracial crimes are perceived and responded to. The current study used violent crime vignettes to explore the effects of participants' levels of racism, perpetrator and victim race, and assault severity on perceptions of crimes as "hate crimes," victim blame, and sentence recommendations. These results contribute to the understanding of how intra- and interracial crimes are perceived and how individuals' levels of racism affect these perceptions. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)

When a crime is committed by an individual of one race against an individual of another race, there is the possibility that the crime is a hate crime. Legislation often mandates harsher penalties for perpetrators convicted of crimes determined to be hate crimes, yet this determination is difficult to make. This study used vignettes of violent crimes to examine how the races of the perpetrators and victims, the severity of the assault, and the use of racial slurs by the perpetrators would affect perceptions of the crimes as "hate crimes," victim blaming, and sentencing recommendations. Results showed that each of these factors affected participants' perceptions and punishments of violent crime. Participants' levels of racism were an additional factor. These results contribute to the understanding of how crimes in which the perpetrator's and victim's races differ are perceived. (Contains 1 figure.)