Personal Inadequacy and Intimacy Predictors of Men's Hostility Toward Women

In this study we examined social/personality and intimacy predictors of men's hostility toward women (HTW). The study was framed in terms of a projection model that suggests that men's feelings of inadequacy contribute to hostility toward women. The sample consisted of 172 college men. The strongest attitudinal predictors were measures of locus of control. These data support the feminist analysis of sexual violence as an issue of power and lend support to the proposed projection model in terms of perceived powerlessness. In addition, based on the projection model, intimacy predictors for best male friend and female romantic partner were examined. The strongest correlate of men's HTW was intellectual intimacy, which conceptually is more related to the idea of an egalitarian relationship than other aspects of intimacy and may be most inhibited in men who are hostile toward women's intimate relationships.     

The Impact of Women in Advertisements on Attitudes Toward Women

The present study extends existing research showing a link between images of women in advertisements and sexual attitudes. We examined also the impact of seeing sex image and progressive advertisements on attitudes toward feminism and the women's movement. Ninety-two undergraduate academic and technology white middle-class students were assigned to one of two conditions: rating either sex image or progressive advertisements. All participants then completed four subscales of M. R. Burt's [(1980) “Cultural Myths and Supports for Rape,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 38, pp. 217-230] Sexual Attitudes Survey and R. E. Fassinger's [(1994) “Development and Testing of the Attitudes Toward Feminism and the Women's Movement (FWM) Scale,” Psychology of Women Quarterly, Vol. 18, pp. 389-402] Feminism and Women's Movement Scale. Major findings include replication of previous data showing a relation between viewing sex image advertisements and reporting attitudes supportive of sexual aggression. Those seeing sex image advertisements also showed lower acceptance of feminism. It is suggested that continuous presentation of such advertisements undermines women's striving for equality.     

Beliefs-Focused and Skills-Focused Employment Interventions for Women

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the beliefs- and skills-focused approaches to women's employment counseling. Results tend to support the value of the use of beliefs- and skills-focused interventions in assisting women who are experiencing employment dissatisfaction.     

Women seek more variety in rewards when closer to ovulation

We propose that women's increased generalized sensitivity to rewards during the fertile phase of the menstrual cycle causes them to seek more variety in rewards when they are in the fertile phase than when they are not in the fertile phase of the cycle. In Studies 1–3, across the reward domains of mating and hedonic food, we show that women seek more variety in rewards when closer to ovulation. Moreover, we provide support for the proposition that women's increased reward sensitivity during the fertile phase of the menstrual cycle causes their greater variety seeking. Specifically, in Study 3, we show that fertile women's greater variety seeking does not extend to non-rewards, such as non-hedonic food. Our findings suggest that behavioral effects of women's hormonal shifts during the menstrual cycle are not limited to the mating domain and may extend to a wide category of reward domains.     

Women in the draft resistance movement

Why has the position of the sexes become an issue in some social movements and not in others? Under what conditions has feminism emerged out of movements devoted to other causes? Starting with these general questions, this case study, based on participant observation, explores the factors which led women in the draft resistance movement in Boston in the late 1960s to turn toward, and help found, a Women's Liberation group. The strategies and tactics of the Resistance (more explicitly than other New Left movements) differentiated male from female participants. The segregation and subordination of women within the Resistance drew them into awareness of themselves as a distinct group; the Resistance ideology, which had strong egalitarian themes, contradicted their subordination and could be extended to define sexual inequality as a political issue. Contact with outside feminists helped precipitate the shift from draft resistance to Women's Liberation.     

A New Generation of Women in the Wilderness

This article presents the author's personal account of her experience as a mentor for several young women who participated in a group independent study entitled "Women in the Wilderness." The young women's difficulty re-entering society after their profoundly transformational experience in the Sierra backcountry is told from the point of view of China Galland, a seasoned wilderness educator and guide. This article is excerpted from a non-fiction work-in-progress, Running Wild.     

Values of Children among Sub-Saharan African Women: The Case of Ghanaian Women

This paper examines whether previously suggested reasons for having children: economic, social and psychological values of child can be identified among a group of sub-Sahara women, and the extent to which a spiritual value of child can be identified on the basis of African's belief in ancestors and its influence on their daily lives. Two groups of Ghanaian mothers—270 women (mean age = 42.14 years) with adolescent-aged child and 264 mothers (mean age =31.41 years) with a young child—participated in the study. Exploratory factor analyses found mixed support for the existence of social and psychological values of child. Economic values of child could not be identified. However, spiritual values of child came out as a clear factor, and accounted for about 10% of the explained variance, albeit the explained valiance was less than that from social and psychological values of child. The implications of these for family planning in sub-Sahara Africa and for fighting HIV/AIDS are discussed.     

The Self-in-Relation Theory and Women for Sobriety: Female-Specific Theory and Mutual Help Group for Chemically Dependent Women

This article discusses the self-in-relation theory as it applies to chemically dependent women. The theory provides an alternative way of understanding and viewing chemically dependent women. The self-in-relation model (or theory) states that relationships are extremely important in women's psychological development and functioning and that women's connection with others is fundamental to self-concept. Women for Sobriety, a mutual help group for chemically dependent women, offers an alternative way of supporting women in trying to achieve recovery, and this is also discussed in a relational context.     

The Buffering Role of Social Support Perceptions in Relation to Eating Disturbances among Women in Abusive Dating Relationships

Abuse is often associated with diminished social support networks, which typically serve to buffer individuals against stress-related outcomes, including eating disorders. The goal of the present study was to examine whether eating disturbances among women in abusive dating relationships varied as function of perceived social support. Although both physical and psychological aggression in women's (N=83) dating relationships was associated with symptomatic dieting and bulimic symptoms, only psychological aggression predicted unique variance. Although psychological aggression was directly related to eating symptoms, support from friends diminished the relation to bulimic symptoms, possibly because such support facilitated women's ability to distract themselves from their abusive situations. In contrast, perceived parental support buffered women in physically abusive relationships from disturbed eating patterns. Thus, depending on the nature of abuse women experienced, social support resources were differentially effective in buffering women from eating disturbances.     

Women in Prison

Abstract

The issues and needs of addicted women are for the most part invisible in the criminal justice system. Historically, treatment, research and recovery have been based on men's lives, often neglecting women's experience. While statistics indicate that for women there is a high correlation between drug abuse and incarceration and parole/probation violations, a comprehensive continuum of care is missing. This article presents a relational model of treatment which incorporates the multiple issues in women's recovery and is based on the integration of three theoretical perspectives–addiction, trauma and women's psychological development. The strengths and limitations of Twelve Step programs for women are also discussed.     

The Relationship of Employment Status,Social Support,and Life Events with Depressive Symptomatology among Married Turkish Women

The present study investigated the predictive power of employment status, husband's and friends' social support and number of life-events on the levels of depressive symptomatology as measured by the Beck Depression Inventory among married Turkish women. Husband's support and number of life-events appeared as significant predictors of depression, whereas employment status did not. The results also showed that subjects reporting negative life-events rated by external judges to be relatively independent of individual perception had higher depression scores than subjects not reporting any of these events. The results were discussed with reference to the status of women in Turkey and the possible socio-cultural variables that might have contributed to the differences between the results obtained from Turkish and Western samples.     

Women and Work—Rights,Realities, and Prospects

Women's place as a permanent part of the work force has been established, but the question now is whether women will continue to be the majority of low-skilled, low-paid workers or will share equally in opportunities in all fields of employment. The economic needs of most women workers are approximately the same as those of male workers. With 6.6 million women heads of families in 1973, nearly one out of three such families was poor according to Department of Labor criteria. Professional job counselors have a responsibility to support women who make nontraditional career choices. Counselors and others must also be aware of the rights and resources available to each woman in pursuing her career goals.     

Interests and Values of Career and Homemaking Oriented Women

This investigation of 132 University of Illinois undergraduate women who indicated that they were planning either for a career or homemaking role had three purposes: (a) to cross-validate Hoyt and Kennedy's findings of the measured interests of career and homemaking oriented women; (b) to compare the general values of the two groups; and, (c) to discover differentiated patterns of values and interests. Statistically significant results were: career oriented women higher on the Study of Values theoretical, and Strong Vocational Interest Blank lawyer, psychologist, and physician scales; homemaking oriented women higher on the religious, housewife, home economics teacher, and dietician scales. The results support Hoyt and Kennedy's findings. Four distinctive interest-value patterns were discovered. The results were discussed and precautions for their counseling use were indicated.     

Male Sex Bias against Men and Women in Various Professions

Abstract

It is suggested that the popularity of the Rokeach Value Survey is undeserved and that the apparent independence of each value being measured is a consequence of the fact that the survey measures each value quite badly. For each of the 18 terminal values on the Rokeach Value Survey, various interpretations were suggested to 71 subjects, who indicated which interpretations represented their thoughts when they were completing the survey. There were a variety of interpretations. When a factor analysis of the correlations among all the interpretations of each value was carried out, all but one value had more than one significant factor (dimension of meaning), and two major factors accounted for 41% of the variance of all the interpretations. These results indicate that the Rokeach Value Survey is not a good measure of the relative desirability of different values, and they support the view that people's evaluations of the world may be based on more fundamental values.     

Mental Health of Women Political Repatriates

This paper seeks to investigate one woman's phenomenological experiences of coming back home to South Africa. The intention is to define what constitutes being a returning political exile and to ascertain its implications for mental health. Although reference is made to one person only, her experiences are similar to those of other women falling within related categories of experience, like immigrants and former long-term political prisoners.     

Emotional reactions to harmful intergroup behavior

In this paper, we examined reactions to situations in which, although one is not personally involved, one could see oneself connected to either the perpetrators or the victims of unfair behavior. We manipulated participants' similarity and measured their identification to either one of two groups which participants later learned was the victim or the perpetrator of harmful behavior. As predicted, making salient similarities to the victims lead participants to: 1) appraise the perpetrator's behavior as more unfair; 2) experience more anger; and 3) be more likely to take action against it and less prone to show support for it as a function of their level of identification with their salient ingroup. In sharp contrast, focusing participants' attention on their similarities to the perpetrators reversed this pattern of findings: Compared to high identifiers, low identifiers appraised the behavior as more unfair than high identifiers, which made them feel angry (and guilty) and less likely to show support for the perpetrator's behavior. The data also provide strong support for a mediational model in which appraisal of the situation colors the emotional reaction which in turn orients action tendencies. We discuss the implications of our findings for the issue of group‐based emotions. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mental context reinstatement or drawing: Which better enhances children's recall of witnessed events and protects against suggestive questions?

The aim of this experiment was to examine the effectiveness of two techniques in enhancing children's recall of an event that they experienced approximately a week earlier. Younger (5–6 years) and older (8–9 years) children were interviewed about a magic show event in one of three conditions. Before recalling the event, some children were instructed to mentally reinstate the context of the event (MCR group), others were asked to draw the context of the event (DCR group), and others received no reinstatement instructions (NCR). Results showed that these instructions had no impact on children's free recall or responses to open‐ended prompts. However, reinstatement instructions impacted children's responses to suggestive questions: those in the DCR group gave more accurate responses than those in the NCR group. These findings provide preliminary support for the use of drawing as a potentially protective exercise that lessens the impact of biased questions with child witnesses.     

The Troubled Success of Black Women in STEM

We examine the experiences of 3 high-achieving Black undergraduate and graduate women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Our findings reveal that structural racism, sexism, and race-gender bias were salient in the women's STEM settings. These experiences were sources of strain, which the women dealt with in ways that demonstrate both resilience and trauma. We discuss how their experiences might motivate institutions to offer support for high-achieving students who sometimes face risks from multiple sources.     

The Eating Disorders Inventory Among Asian American College Women

Abstract

The authors examined the effects of social support and self-control in a representative sample of 300 older adults in high-density households in an urban area of Agra City, India. The authors administered the Social Support Questionnaire (I. G. Sarason, H. M. Levine, R. B. Basham, &; B. R. Sarason, 1983) and the Self-Control Schedule (M. Rosenbaum, 1980) to form a 2 (age group: young-old vs. old-old) × 2 (social support: high vs. low) × 2 (self-control: high vs. low) factorial design. Scores on the Life Attitude Profile (G. T. Recker &; E. J. Peacock, 1981) and the Perceived Control Scale (P. Nayyar, 1993) were the dependent variables. The authors hypothesized that social support and self-control would act as moderators for a more positive attitude toward life and increased perceived control. The results supported the predictions: Social support and self-control in interaction with age reduced the crowding stress of high density and enhanced the older participants' perceived control and positive attitudes toward life.