AFRICAN AMERICAN COLLEGE WOMEN'S BODY IMAGE

The purpose of this study was to examine general and cultural factors associated with body image perceptions of African American women college students. A total of 124 African American college women attending a historically Black college completed the following scales: African Self-Consciousness (ASC) scale, the Skin Color Satisfaction Scale (SCSS), the Body Mass Index (BMI), and several body image measures. Results from simultaneous multiple regression analyses suggest that all three factors collectively accounted for a significant amount of variance in dimensions of body image satisfaction. Specifically, SCSS accounted for a significant amount of variance in three body image dimensions (i.e., appearance evaluation, satisfaction with specific body areas, internalization of social cultural messages of appearance), suggesting that the greater satisfaction with one's skin color was associated with more positive, internal perspectives of one's body image. The BMI accounted for a significant amount of variance in measures of appearance evaluation and satisfaction with body areas, such that greater BMI scores were related to a less positive evaluation of overall appearance but more satisfaction with specific body areas. Implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

MINIMIZING THE PERVASIVENESS OF WOMEN'S PERSONAL EXPERIENCES OF GENDER DISCRIMINATION

Given the Rejection-Identification Model ( Branscombe, Schmitt, & Harvey, 1999 ), which shows that perceiving discrimination to be pervasive is a negative experience, it was suggested that there would be conditions under which women would instead minimize the pervasiveness of discrimination. Study 1 ( N = 91) showed that when women envisioned themselves in a situation of academic discrimination, they defined it as pervasive, but when they experienced a similar laboratory simulation of academic discrimination, its pervasiveness was minimized. Study 2 ( N = 159) showed that women who envisioned themselves experiencing discrimination minimized its pervasiveness more so than women reading about discrimination happening to someone else. Further, mediation analysis showed that minimizing the pervasiveness enhanced positive affect about personal discrimination. Implications for minimizing on both an individual and social level are discussed.     

WHEN THE RELATIONSHIP BECOMES HER: REVISITING WOMEN'S BODY CONCERNS FROM A RELATIONSHIP CONTINGENCY PERSPECTIVE

Given women's communally oriented socialization and social pressures to find romantic partners, many heterosexual women may derive self-worth from having romantic relationships (relationship contingency). Across two studies, we explored whether relationship contingency heightens women's body shame. Studies 1A and 1B found that relationship contingency causes body shame among women. In Study 2, relationship contingency predicted greater bulimic symptoms, which was mediated fully by greater body shame. Using both experimental methods and structural equation modeling, these studies demonstrate a link between relationship contingency and body shame that is not explained by appearance contingency (basing self-esteem on one's physical appearance). Results are discussed in terms of self-objectification theory, contingencies of self-worth, mate preferences, and close relationships.     

PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVENESS, BODY IMAGE, AND WOMEN'S SEXUAL SELF-SCHEMA

Recently, Andersen and Cyranowski (1994) presented a self-report measure of women's sexual self-schema, or cognitive view of the self regarding sexuality. In the current study, we investigated potential relationships between women's sexual self-schema and physical attractiveness, body size and shape, and body image. Young adult women ( N = 199) completed questionnaires and were weighed, measured, and rated for facial attractiveness. Results revealed that sexual self-schema was unrelated to body size or shape, general body dissatisfaction, history of teasing about weight, and degree of investment in personal appearance. Sexual self-schema scores significantly correlated with experimenter-rated facial attractiveness, self-rated facial and bodily attractiveness, and degree of social avoidance due to concerns over personal appearance, however. In a multiple regression analysis, only self-rated facial attractiveness and social avoidance were unique predictors. Results are discussed with regard to implications for the development of women's sexual self-schema and directions for future research.     

TRANSFORMING BODY IMAGE

No abstract available for this article.     

THE SUBJECTIVIST CONSEQUENCES OF EXPRESSIVISM

Jackson and Pettit argue that expressivism in metaethics collapses into subjectivism. A sincere utterer of a moral claim must believe that she has certain attitudes to be expressed. The truth-conditions of that belief then allegedly provide truth-conditions also for the moral utterance. Thus, the expressivist cannot deny that moral claims have subjectivist truth-conditions. Critics have argued that this argument fails as stated. I try to show that expressivism does have subjectivist repercussions in a way that avoids the problems of the Jackson-Pettit argument. My argument, based on the norms for asserting moral sentences, attempts to tie expressivists to a more modest form of subjectivism than the previous arguments.     

青少年情感关系的特点和发展变化

考察了13～22岁青少年与重要他人的情感关系特点和发展变化,结果发现: (1)青少年的情感关系存在显著的性别差异.男被试对父母的情感需要总体随年龄增长逐渐减少,但没达到显著的年龄差异.而女被试则表现出逐渐增加的趋势,年龄差异显著.男女青少年在各年龄段对同性朋友的情感需要最多.(2)随年龄增长,男青少年在寻求父母亲近、接受父母情感支持、肯定、鼓励和帮助上都逐渐减少,而女青少在这些方面表现出增加的趋势.而且,男女青少年在给予父母照顾上以及对异性朋友的各项心理功能的需要上都表现出增加趋势.(3)根据焦点人物来划分情感关系类型,发现在初中和高中阶段,同性朋友类型所占的比例最高,到大学阶段异性朋友类型的比例最高.而父母类型所占的比例比较少.     

BODY IMAGE AND SOCIOCULTURAL NORMS

Internalization of sociocultural norms about the body has been theorized to be an important factor in fostering body dissatisfaction in women. Some theorists have suggested that a lesbian identity may buffer or immunize lesbians from the damaging effects of society's pressure to be thin by reducing this internalization. This study was designed to test this claim empirically. Questionnaires were completed by 108 lesbians and 115 heterosexual women recruited through snowball sampling. Lesbians felt more fit, reported less negative attitudes toward their lower bodies, and internalized sociocultural norms less than heterosexual women. For all women, internalization of sociocultural norms significantly predicted body attitudes. Lesbians and heterosexual women appear to be similarly exposed to and aware of society's messages, and as such their body attitudes substantially overlap. However, lesbians are buffered from these views in some specific areas. These differences appear to be primarily the result of differential internalization of sociocultural norms.     

WOMEN'S SOCIALIZATION AND THE PREVALENCE OF DEPRESSION

No abstract available for this article.     

ON THE CONSEQUENCES OF TELEVISION-RELATED PARENT-CHILD INTERACTION

This is a theoretical examination of certain ways in which a child's development may be affected by parent-child interactions in which the content of television programming appears as an explicit referent, i. e., as the topic of a verbal exchange, as the premise for a game, and so forth. The discussion deals with four areas of development, viz.: (1) the child's interpretational skills with regard to the television medium; (2) the child's repertory of cognitive categories regarding the real world; (3) the child's behavioral repertory, including both verbal and nonverbal items; and (4) the child's social relationships. The paper concludes with a discussion of certain methodological issues involved in the empirical examination of these matters.     

LEGAL CONCERNS IN THE USE OF WEIGHTED APPLICATIONS1

The use of the standard weighted application procedure relies on strictly empirically derived keys for validity. While weighted applications are generally valid in terms of the correlation between score on the application and position on the criterion, the empirical scheme may weight items that can not be shown to be relevant to the job for which they predict. To the extent that employment decisions are based on non-job-relevant weighted applications, such decisions may be contrary to the letter or the spirit of the Civil Rights Act. Alternative methods incorporating job relevance into the weighting procedure via job analysis inject the “hand of reason” into the process. Such rational-empirical approaches ensure job-relatedness as well as validity.     

THE MEDIEVAL AFFECTIVE DIONYSIAN TRADITION

Thomas Gallus is often credited with introducing an affective innovation in medieval reception of Dionysius. While desire is not absent from the CD, no form of human affectivity plays an explicit role in Moses’ ascent to union with God in the darkness of unknowing, as described in the MT. With Gallus, however, after all knowledge fails, union occurs through love. This innovation was influential, shaping subsequent interpretations of the CD, such as The Cloud of Unknowing. Yet, the subtle interplay of love and knowledge and the complex conception of love's own cognition of God in Gallus’ theology were not generally retained by those whom he influenced.     

RETHINKING THE IMAGE OF GOD

Abstract The present ecological crisis imposes a rethinking of the relation between the human being and the rest of nature. Traditional theological articulations of this relation have proven problematic where they foster separatism and anthropocentrism, which give a false report on the relation and have a negative impact on thinking and acting in relation to nature. One place to begin rethinking is through an exploration of the affirmation that the human being is “made in the image of God,”imago dei. Some ways of construing the theological meaning of this designation are more helpful than others. Science has recognized the extent to which the human being is not only dependent upon but even emergent from nature. We are made of the same “stuff” that makes up the rest of the universe. We are nature. The place of the human being is much more modest, recent, and precarious than usually acknowledged in theological reflection. New ways of interpreting our role within nature must evolve out of this new understanding. Philip Hefner has proposed that we think of the human being as created co‐creator. His is a distinctive and promising contribution. This essay responds with both affirmations and friendly questions.     

THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG BODY IMAGE, BODY MASS INDEX, EXERCISE, AND SEXUAL FUNCTIONING IN HETEROSEXUAL WOMEN

Problems related to negative body image are very common among young women. In this study, we examined the relationship between women's body image and their sexual functioning over and above the effects of physical exercise and body mass index (BMI) in a sample of 214 university women. Low situational body image dysphoria and low body dissatisfaction were associated with high sexual assertiveness and sexual esteem, low sexual anxiety, and fewer sexual problems. Positive body image was significantly associated with better sexual functioning, even after controlling for BMI and exercise. Although related to body image, BMI and exercise did not predict sexual functioning. These results were interpreted as indicating that a woman's subjective body image is significantly related to her sexual functioning beyond the effects of actual body size and level of physical exercise.     

TECHNIQUE FOR MINIMIZING THE INSTRUMENTAL FACTOR

A technique is described for using orthogonal factor scores to compare the item-scores obtained from two or more media so as to minimize the instrumental factor problem. It is compared with the hypothesis matrix technique using the item-scores of a behavior rating scale and a structured psychiatric interview scale. The direct factor score method proved to be more effective in several aspects, mainly because it yielded larger loadings and, therefore, resulted in the extraction of more and better delineated factors.