Levels of heterosexually transmitted HIV infection are high amongst South African youth, with one recent survey reporting levels of 18.9% amongst 17-20 year olds and 43.1% amongst 21-25 year olds. In these groups levels of knowledge about HIV are high, but perceived vulnerability and reported condom use are low. Much existing research into youth HIV in developing countries relies on survey meas...

OBJECTIVES The present research examined the sun protection intentions and behaviours of young people in a high risk skin cancer area using an extended theory of planned behaviour (TPB) incorporating additional social influences of group and image norms. DESIGN The study employed a prospective design to examine young people's sun protection intentions and behaviour. METHOD Participants (N=1...

How do frequently stigmatized individuals feel about and respond to members of other potentially stigmatizable groups? Four studies demonstrated that perceptions of majority group norms regarding prejudice expression can shape how minority individuals respond to minority individuals from other groups. Study 1 revealed that Black and White men and women have somewhat different perceptions of Whi...

The current study describes the relative predictive power of descriptive norms (i.e., how much the target student believes referents "drink until they get drunk") and reflective injunctive norms (i.e., target student's perception of referents' approval of the target student drinking until drunk) across various reference groups. The aim of this study was to gain further insight into which types ...

OBJECTIVE To determine the sensitivity and specificity of a physician's assessment that a patient "appears chronically ill" for the detection of poor health status. METHODS The health status of 126 adult outpatients was determined using the 12-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-12). Physician participants (n = 111 residents and faculty) viewed photographs of each patient participant and assess...

Levels of heterosexually transmitted HIV infection are high amongst South African youth, with one recent survey reporting levels of 18.9% amongst 17–20 year olds and 43.1% amongst 21–25 year olds. In these groups levels of knowledge about HIV are high, but perceived vulnerability and reported condom use are low. Much existing research into youth HIV in developing countries relies on survey meas...

Sparse regression often uses `p norm priors (with p < 2). This paper demonstrates that the introduction of mixed-norms in such contexts allows one to go one step beyond in signal models, and promote some different, structured, forms of sparsity. It is shown that the particular case of the `1,2 and `2,1 norms leads to new group shrinkage operators. Mixed norm priors are shown to be particularly ...

Moral systems require individuals to act in service to their social groups. Despite the human tendency to view moral norms as invariant and constantly deserving of adherence, we vary not only in the moral norms that we espouse but also in the degree to which our behavior reflects those norms. Nevertheless, moral systems exhibit patterns and complexity that suggest the action of natural selectio...

Medical students experience high levels of mental health problems, which can lead to poor academic performance, substance abuse and burnout. The current paper draws on social psychology to explore the factors underpinning wellbeing in medical students. From the literature it is evident that there is a strong association between group membership and wellbeing. There is also evidence, however, th...

The role of reference group norms in self-regulation was examined from the perspective of transgressions. Results from four studies suggest that following the transgression of a reference group’s norms, individuals who strongly identify with their group report more intense feelings of guilt, an emotion reflecting an inference that “bad” behaviors are perceived as the cause of the transgression....