Based on social learning theory, the construct of health locus of control has proven valuable in predicting a wide variety of health-related behaviors. In studying this concept among Brazilians, the psychometric properties of the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale translated into Brazilian Portuguese were investigated in a sample of 280 middle-class persons. Three types of health locus of control were verified, internal, powerful others, and chance. Further refinement of subscales is needed to improve internal consistency reliabilities.

As a signatory to Durban III World Conference against Racism, Discrimination, Xenophobia and other forms of Intolerance, Brazil has committed itself to the enforcement of mechanisms to promote social equity. As a consequence, governmental programs have been implemented, aiming at the inclusion of Afro-descendents in higher education. Actually, the quantity of such students in the academy is minimal and does not relate to what can be observed in the general population. As an example of such endeavor, Universidade de Brasília (UnB) has started an Affirmative Action program in order to include a contingent of 20% of its freshman students as representatives of racial underprivileged groups. This policy started in August 2004. The present study aimed to investigate the perceptions of students and general public to this policy. An instrument, based partially on McConahay's (1986) Modern Racism scale, was administered to a sample of 316 students. A factor analysis (AF) extracted five factors, corresponding to 48% of the total variance explained. An Analysis of Variance (Anova) was performed to better understand the results, concerning both age and gender of the subjects. Results show that, although students demonstrated interest in the implementing of Affirmative Action programs, and are aware of the relevance of such procedures to the cultural and social structure of the community, they do not agree with their reasons or measures taken, or to the existence of the problem itself.

Human values play an essential role in life, highlighting what is socially desirable and influencing people’s actions. In order to deliver a way of measuring such construct, this work aimed to test the stability of the horizontal and vertical individualism and collectivism scale (HVIC) structure in Brazil through some of its states. Two studies were conducted. Study 1 presented the validation of the measurement tool replicating the original Triandis and Gelfand (1998) study, comparing similar samples in Brazil and the USA (undergraduate students; N = 200 to each group). The structure found was similar in both countries, but the modification indexes suggest a change in one item load compared to the original study. Study 2 compared data from five Brazilian states, (blue-collar workers; N = 5,589). Results revealed that the four-factor structure was well adjusted and showed minor differences between and within states. Practical and theoretical contributions were provided in particular for horizontal and vertical dimensions, in particular, challenging the horizontalism found in previous studies and suggesting other groups of references in Brazil.