Method of presentation and sex differences when using a revised figural drawing scale to measure body size estimation and dissatisfaction

The present study examined whether a revision of the Gardner, Jappe, and Gardner (2009) BIAS-BD figural drawing scale gave more accurate estimations of body size estimation and body dissatisfaction than a prior version. It also examined whether the order of figure presentation led to differing values for body size estimation and body dissatisfaction. The revised BIAS-BD scale included a continuous line beneath 17 figural drawings ordered in either ascending or descending size. Results were compared with previous studies using the original scale in which the 17 figural drawings were presented in a random order and, additionally, with a method using an adjustable video image by which the participants estimated their perceived body size by adjusting the width of their static image. The scale was presented to 330 undergraduate university students, including 199 women and 131 men. Overall, compared to BMIs calculated from the participants' reports of their height and weight, men and women participants gave less accurate estimations of body size using the revised scale when compared to the original BIAS-BD scale and video methodology. Participants reported significantly less body dissatisfaction than with the original scale. There was no significant difference in body size estimation when the figures were presented in ascending or descending size. Body dissatisfaction was greater for women than men, and when the figures were presented in descending order. Methodological considerations for using figural drawing scales in body image research are discussed.     

The contribution of familiarity to recognition memory is a function of test format when using similar foils

Patient Y.R., who suffered hippocampal damage that disrupted recollection but not familiarity, was impaired on a yes/no (YN) object recognition memory test with similar foils. However, she was not impaired on a forced-choice corresponding (FCC) version of the test that paired targets with corresponding similar foils (Holdstock et al., 2002). This dissociation is explained by the Complementary Learning Systems (CLS) neural-network model (Norman & O'Reilly, 2003) if recollection is impaired but familiarity is preserved. The CLS model also predicts that participants relying exclusively on familiarity should be impaired on forced-choice noncorresponding (FCNC) tests, where targets are presented with foils similar to other targets. The present study tests these predictions for all three test formats (YN, FCC, FCNC) in normal participants using two variants of the remember/know procedure. As predicted, performance using familiarity alone was significantly worse than standard recognition on the YN and FCNC tests, but not on the FCC test. Recollection in the form of recall-to-reject was the major process driving YN recognition. This adds support to the interpretation of patient data, according to which hippocampal damage causes a recollection deficit that leads to poor performance on the YN test relative to FCC.     

‘You've got to grow up when you've got a kid’: Marginalized young women's accounts of motherhood

Teenage motherhood has been a source of considerable debate in policy and media circles in recent years. This paper explores the meanings of teenage motherhood for young women who were mothers before the age of 21, who were living in economically deprived areas of England and most of whom had been in residential or foster care. Qualitative interviews were carried out at several sites across England, with a total of 33 young women taking part in group interviews and one‐to‐one interviews. The accounts of the young women suggest that they talk about motherhood in three main ways: as ‘hardship and reward’, ‘growing up and responsibility’ and ‘doing things differently’. It is argued that these ways of talking about motherhood present a different picture of teenage motherhood from that of dominant discourses. Furthermore, the young women are active in negotiating and constructing their own identities as mothers, carers and women. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Slow down! Get off that phone! The impact of a high school road safety education program in influencing whether a young person speaks up to a risky driver

Risky driving behaviours such as mobile phone use and speeding remain common among young people, thereby contributing to their over-representation in road crashes. There is much evidence that similar-aged peer passengers can have a negative impact on a young driver’s behaviour; however, there is also research that supports the positive influence that peer passengers can have when they speak up about risky behaviours. Road safety education programs, such as the Royal Automobile Club of Queensland’s (RACQ) Docudrama program, aim to help young people understand the important role they play as peer passengers and, thus, the importance of being willing to speak up to a driver who may be engaging in risky behaviours. Extending on a previous evaluation of the RACQ Docudrama program, the current study uses an Extended Theory of Planned Behaviour framework to evaluate the program’s effectiveness in influencing peer passengers’ intentions and self-reported behaviour in speaking up against risky driving behaviours, including mobile phone use and speeding. A repeated-measures design compared participants’ responses over 3 time-points: Time 1 (one month before participating in the program), Time 2 (immediately after having participated in the program), and Time 3 (three months after program participation). The results indicate that levels of anticipated regret for having not spoken up were higher following participation in the program suggesting that it encouraged young people to consider how they would feel if something was to happen and they, as passengers, had not tried to prevent it by speaking up. Three months after participating in the program, the majority of participants reported that they were positively influenced by the program in terms of engaging in safer behaviours as passengers; although the significant effects regarding improvements were observed only immediately after participating in the program. The implications of such findings are discussed in terms of the need for some type of ‘booster’ post-program participation to capitalise on the positive immediate effects that the program evokes.     

When to intervene and take a stand: Evaluating bystander roles in intergroup name-calling contexts

Children (n = 121, M = 9.86 years, SD = 0.64) and adolescents (n = 101, M = 12.84 years, SD = 0.69) evaluated proactive and passive bystander behaviour to intergroup name-calling (N = 222, 54% female). Scenarios depicted ingroup perpetrators and outgroup victims who were from a stigmatized group (ethnicity) or a non-stigmatized group (school affiliation), with bystanders depicted as being proactive (intervening to help) or passive (failing to challenge the aggression), counter to their own group's norm. Children and adolescents personally evaluated proactive bystanders more favourably than passive bystanders. However, adolescents, more than children, expected their peers to be more positive about proactive bystanders than passive bystanders in the stigmatized context. Results are discussed in terms of the complexities of bystander decisions and implications for anti-bullying interventions.     

The development of responses to people and a toy in infants with down syndrome

The behavior of eight infants with Down syndrome was observed biweekly from 8 to 24 weeks and monthly up to 48 weeks. At each visit the infants were presented with their mother, a female stranger, and a rattle puppet that were alternately active and passive. Each condition lasted 60 s. The results showed that by 4 months of age the infants began to differentiate, in the proportion of time they looked, smiled, and vocalized, between people and the toy. They did not discriminate, however, between mother and female stranger and between the active and passive adults until the second half of the first year. In particular, whereas normal infants usually show distress toward passive or “still-face” adults, the infants in this study continued to vocalize, at times even with smiling faces. The implications of these atypical aspects of the social development of infants with Down syndrome for their subsequent nonverbal communicative development are discussed.     

Procedural justice and intragroup status: Knowing where we stand in a group enhances reactions to procedures

The current research investigates the role of relative intragroup status as a moderator of people’s reactions to procedural justice. Based on a review of the procedural justice literature, the authors argue that information about intragroup status influences people’s reactions to variations in procedural justice. In correspondence with predictions, two experiments show that reactions of people who have been informed about their intragroup status position (either low, average, or high) are influenced more strongly by voice as opposed to no-voice procedures than people who are not informed about their intragroup status. It is concluded that knowing where we stand in a group enhances reactions to procedural justice.     

愚昧迷信拆散了姻缘,害了性命

心理测试,拆散了婚姻? 方小姐和王先生相恋多年,感情不错,走到结婚这一步是水到渠成。然而当一位朋友建议他们去做心理测试、测试婚姻是否可靠时,测试的结果却让人大跌眼镜。测试表明,两人的婚姻是百分之百的合不来。一场心理测试,几个莫名其妙的心理问题,却给两个人的关系蒙上了一层阴影。家里人也思前想后,觉得他们的婚姻不够可靠。最终方小姐和王先生分道扬镳。 这样的事听来不可思议。但“心理测婚”的确已经开始活跃在各个城市中。温州医学院的心理咨询门诊甚至推出了“性格体验”,心理测试,专门针对那些即将步入婚姻殿堂的情侣们。医生在恋人间进行“明尼苏达多相人格”、“卡特尔16人格因素问卷”等测试,让他们找出各自的特点,分析差异从而解决问题。     

Father and mother contributions to family functioning when the child has a mental delay

Less is known about the father's than the mother's role in family adaptation to children with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to examine relationships of both father and mother use of coping strategies and perceptions of the child with measures of family functioning style. Subjects were 26 families of 30-month-old children with a mental delay and a comparison group of 26 families of same-aged children with no delay. Functioning style for study families showed a balance of cohesion and adaptability; comparison families were more chaotically flexible on the adaptability scale. Mothers and fathers agreed on family functioning style. Study parents made the greatest use of external coping strategies, while in both groups mothers used more external and fathers more internal coping strategies. Relationships between coping and family functioning varied by parent and by group. Results suggest the need for further exploration of the separate needs of fathers and mothers in maintaining balanced family functioning.     

Trapped in a tight spot: Scaling effects occur when,according to the action-specific account,they should not,and fail to occur when they should

The action-specific account of perception claims that what we see is perceptually scaled according to our action capacity. However, it has been argued that this account relies on an overly confirmatory research strategy—predicting the presence of, and then finding, an effect (Firestone & Scholl, 2014). A comprehensive approach should also test disconfirmatory predictions, in which no effect is expected. In two experiments, we tested one such prediction based on the action-specific account, namely that scaling effects should occur only when participants intend to act (Witt, Proffitt, & Epstein, 2005). All participants wore asymmetric gloves in which one glove was padded with extra material, so that one hand was wider than the other. Participants visually estimated the width of apertures. The action-specific account predicts that the apertures should be estimated as being narrower for the wider hand, but only when participants intend to act. We found this scaling effect when it should not have occurred (Exp. 1, for participants who did not intend to act), as well as no effect when it should have occurred (Exp. 2, for participants who intended to act but were given a cover story for the visibility and position of their hands). Thus, the cover story used in Experiment 2 eliminated the scaling effect found in Experiment 1. We suggest that the scaling effect observed in Experiment 1 likely resulted from demand characteristics associated with using a salient, unexplained manipulation (e.g., telling people which hand to use to do the task). Our results suggest that the action-specific account lacks predictive power.     

Athletes trained using stable compared to unstable surfaces exhibit distinct postural control profiles when assessed by traditional and nonlinear measures

Athletes are assumed to exhibit better balance than non-athletes; however, few studies have examined the role of different types of sports on balance measures. Two athlete groups that experience divergent sport-specific balance training are stable- (i.e. basketball) and unstable-surface athletes (i.e. surfers). The purpose of this study was to quantify the effect of stable- compared to unstable-surface sports on postural stability.MethodsEight non-athletes (NON), eight stable-surface athletes (SSA) and eight unstable-surface athletes (USA) performed five 20-s quiet standing trials while ground reaction forces were recorded. Approximate entropy (ApEn), total excursion and root mean square distances (RMS) of the center of pressure position were calculated. Univariate ANOVAs with post hoc tests were conducted for each variable.ResultsApEn values were lower in SSA compared to NON in the ML direction (p = 0.012) and USA had lower ApEn values compared to SSA in the AP direction (p = 0.036). The USA had smaller AP RMS compared to SSA (p = 0.002) while the USA had greater ML RMS (p = 0.008) and resultant RMS values compared to SSA (p = 0.025).DiscussionThese data suggest that USA and SSA may exhibit direction-specific differences in balance strategy due to feedback paradigm.     

Using Self-Determination Theory to Understand when and how Money Buys Happiness: a Cross-Sectional and Intervention Study

Applied Research in Quality of Life - The objectives of this article were twofold: (1) understand what motivates people to make money and how this impacts well-being and (2) explore whether it is...     

Existential and religious issues when admitted to hospital in a secular society: Patterns of change

Situated in a secular culture, this study examined the relationship between four dimensions of health and a number of existential, religious, and spiritual/religious practice variables in questionnaires sampled from 480 Danish hospital patients. Illness dimensions were: self-rated health, severity of illness, illness duration, and recent changes in illness. The results indicated the youngest age group (<36 years) to be the most active on all existence/religious/practice variables. Small overall correlations were found between the illness dimensions and existential/religious/practice variables, but results had underlying complex patterns. The dimension of severity of illness showed the most consistent results in the expected direction: the worse the illness, the more existential/religious/practice activity, but very different patterns were found for men and women. Men generally had low levels of existential/religious/practice issues, when illness was not severe, but levels heightened when illness turned worse. The opposite was the case for women who had overall higher levels, when illness was not severe, but unexpectedly lost interest and activity when the illness grew worse, especially regarding the religious faith variables. When illness turned to the better, women (re)gained religious faith. The illness duration of 1–3 months showed to be the most sensitive period for the existential/religious/practice variables involved. The patients’ experience of change in existential/religious/practice issues and the actual measured change pattern did not always follow each other. The findings might contribute to clinical reflection and planning in health care settings in secular societies like in Scandinavia.     

文昌帝君劝善思想探析

文昌帝君 ,是道教的主要神仙之一。在中国古代史上 ,“文昌”本为星宫名称 ,属紫微垣 ,包含六颗星。如《史记·天官书》记载 :“斗魁戴匡 (筐 )六星曰文昌宫 :一曰上将 ,二曰次将 ,三曰贵相 ,四曰司命 ,五曰司中 ,六曰司禄。在斗魁中 ,贵人之牢。”《孝经援神契》云 :“文者 ,精所聚 ;昌者 ,扬天纪。辅拂并居 ,以成天象 ,故曰‘文昌宫’。”《历代神仙通鉴》称文昌帝君“上主三十三天仙籍 ,中主人间寿夭祸福 ,下主十八地狱轮回” ,足见文昌帝君神位之崇高。据《清河内传》载 :“帝君储精列宿 ,降自有周……累朝咸有大功 ,尤孜孜以忠君孝亲、…     

Adapting to the surface: A comparison of handwriting measures when writing on a tablet computer and on paper

Our study addresses the following research questions: Are there differences between handwriting movements on paper and on a tablet computer? Can experienced writers, such as most adults, adapt their graphomotor execution during writing to a rather unfamiliar surface for instance a tablet computer?We examined the handwriting performance of adults in three tasks with different complexity: (a) graphomotor abilities, (b) visuomotor abilities and (c) handwriting. Each participant performed each task twice, once on paper and once on a tablet computer with a pen.We tested 25 participants by measuring their writing duration, in air time, number of pen lifts, writing velocity and number of inversions in velocity. The data were analyzed using linear mixed-effects modeling with repeated measures.Our results reveal differences between writing on paper and on a tablet computer which were partly task-dependent. Our findings also show that participants were able to adapt their graphomotor execution to the smoother surface of the tablet computer during the tasks.