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.     

ATTITUDES TOWARD WOMEN's BODY HAIR: RELATIONSHIP WITH DISGUST SENSITIVITY

We aimed to further investigate the "hairlessness" norm that is the common practice of body hair removal among women. A sample of 198 undergraduate students (91 men, 107 women) completed questionnaires asking about attitudes toward women's body hair and the reasons women remove this hair, as well as a measure of disgust sensitivity. It was found that the vast majority (98%) of female participants regularly remove their leg and/or underarm hair, most frequently by shaving, and attribute this to femininity and attractiveness reasons. However, the attributions that they and men made for other women were much more socially normative in nature. For the sample as a whole, negative attitudes toward body hair were related to disgust sensitivity. It was concluded that body hair on women, but not on men, has become an elicitor of disgust and its removal correspondingly normative.     

ACCULTURATION, BODY IMAGE, SELF-ESTEEM, AND EATING-DISORDER SYMPTOMATOLOGY IN ADOLESCENT MEXICAN AMERICAN WOMEN

In this article the relationship among acculturation, body image, self-esteem, and eating disorder symptomatology in 120 Mexican American adolescent women was investigated. Surprisingly, acculturation levels were not related to anorexic or bulimic symptomatology, self-esteem, body dissatisfaction or thinness of ideal and attractive figures. Lower levels of self-esteem predicted higher levels of anorexic and bulimic symptomatology. Body mass was positively related to bulimic scores. In contrast to Lester and Petrie (1995), body dissatisfaction was significantly related to eating-disorder symptomatology. The high levels of disordered eating attitudes and behaviors found in this study suggest that rather than exclusively being an Anglo, middle-to upper-class phenomenon, eating-disordered behavior also exists within lower socioeconomic status Mexican American adolescent women.     

WOMEN AND PAIN

No abstract available for this article.     

ATTITUDES TOWARD COSMETIC SURGERY IN MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN: BODY IMAGE, AGING ANXIETY, AND THE MEDIA

Our study investigated factors that influence attitudes toward cosmetic surgery in middle-aged women. A sample of 108 women, aged between 35 and 55 years, completed questionnaire measures of body dissatisfaction, appearance investment, aging anxiety, media exposure (television and magazine), and attitudes toward cosmetic surgery (delineated in terms of general attitudes, social motivations, and actual consideration). Body dissatisfaction, appearance investment, aging anxiety, and both media variables predicted some facet of attitudes toward cosmetic surgery. Specifically, appearance investment, aging anxiety, and television exposure were unique predictors of endorsement of social motivations for cosmetic surgery, whereas body dissatisfaction, appearance investment, and television exposure were unique predictors of actual consideration of cosmetic surgery. Regression analysis revealed that the effects of media on cosmetic surgery attitudes were primarily direct. We concluded that there are multiple influences on attitudes toward cosmetic surgery for women of middle age.     

BODY OBJECTIFICATION, SOCIAL PRESSURE, AND DISORDERED EATING BEHAVIOR IN COLLEGE WOMEN: THE ROLE OF SORORITY MEMBERSHIP

Social pressure to conform to the thin ideal is believed to play a decisive role in the development of eating disorders. In this field study at a college with only sophomore rush, 99 sorority women, 80 nonsorority women past their first year, and 86 first-year women completed three subscales of the Eating Disorders Inventory-2 ( Garner, 1991 ), the Objectified Body Consciousness Scale ( McKinley & Hyde, 1996 ), and a measure of peer social pressure. It was hypothesized that women belonging to sororities as well as those who intended to join would score higher than nonsorority and first-year women with no intention to join on these measures of disordered eating, body objectification, and social pressure. It also was predicted that the amount of time spent living in a sorority house as well as degree of social pressure would correlate positively with higher scores on body objectification and disordered eating. Results supported nearly all hypotheses, suggesting both that sororities attract at-risk women and that living in a sorority house is associated with increased likelihood of disordered eating.     

BODY DISSATISFACTION AND DISORDERED EATING AMONG COLLEGE WOMEN IN CHINA, SOUTH KOREA, AND THE UNITED STATES: CONTRASTING PREDICTIONS FROM SOCIOCULTURAL AND FEMINIST THEORIES

Body dissatisfaction and disordered eating were compared across groups of college women from China ( n = 109), South Korea ( n = 137), and the United States ( n = 102). Based on cultural differences in the amount of exposure to Western appearance standards, particularly the thin-body ideal, sociocultural theory ( Thompson, Heinberg, Altabe, & Tantleff-Dunn, 1999 ) would predict that body dissatisfaction and disordered eating would be highest in the U.S. sample and lowest in the Chinese sample. In contrast, based on the speed and pervasiveness of changes in women's roles, feminist theory ( Bordo, 1993 ; Jeffreys, 2005 ) would predict that body dissatisfaction and disordered eating would be highest in the Korean sample and lowest in the U.S. sample. Multidimensional measures indicated the highest levels of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating in the Korean sample and the lowest levels in the U.S. sample, indicating that predictions derived from feminist theory were a better fit to the data than predictions derived from sociocultural theory. Results indicated that theoretical understandings of body dissatisfaction must recognize not only differences between Western and non-Western cultures, but also differences among non-Western cultures.     

EDUCATING ABOUT WOMEN AND GENDER

This study assesses the multiple effects of planned exposure to gender and women's issues on graduate student development. Students in a gender-aware Counseling Psychology program (n = 63) were compared to those in two other graduate psychology programs (total n = 38) on five scales that measured exposure to gender issues, social constructivist views, feminist identity development, performance self-esteem, and endorsement of feminist therapy goals and strategies. Results supported the hypotheses that all outcome measures were significantly correlated with the extent of academic experiences related to women and gender. Program of concentration and level of graduate training were differentially related to social construction views and stages of feminist identity development. We discuss these findings in terms of their implications for gender-aware education in the development of student identity, attitudes, and professional practice.     

在创制与实践之间:女性与艺术

谨以此文纪念玛尔特·韦里,她将她的涂红木板靠墙摆在蓬皮杜国家艺术文化中心,然后与世长辞.富于创造力的女性在艺术史中的缺席或最起码乏善可陈的存在,一直未经检视.它反映出这群女性在由政治制度支撑、决定生活世界形态的过程中的缺席.这一缺席要么是通过忽视这群女性的所谓普选权,要么是通过仍有待实现的代表权均等.     

TRANSFORMING THEORY AND RESEARCH WITH WOMEN

We look at some of the ways in which feminist theorists and researchers apply new insights to established topics in psychology, as they explore the landscape of the unknown and unspoken in the lives of girls and women. The articles in this special issue present research and reflections by a group of feminist scholars, some of us from the editorial board of the Psychology of Women Quarterly and others from the larger academic community. Each contributor, selecting from a personal interest or expertise, reconceptualizes a topical area of psychology with the intent of reframing our understanding of its meaning, its impact on women's functioning, and/or its application to feminist research and theory. To provide a background, we review a sample of contributions of feminist thought to the contemporary revolution in science. We then ask the question: In what ways have feminist perspectives and scholarship transformed psychology in the particular areas addressed by these authors?     

SEXUALITY IN PERIMENOPAUSAL AND POSTMENOPAUSAL WOMEN

This article reviews psychosocial and biological aspects of the effects of menopause on sexuality. Sexuality is conceptualized as having multiple dimensions including desire, arousal, and orgasm. Population studies have revealed that postmenopausal status is associated with decline in these components of sexual functioning. While it is probable that psychological response to menopause affects sexual functioning, little research has addressed this issue. Considerable research has addressed the possible relationship between sexuality and menopausal hormone changes. Some research shows that low estrogen levels are associated with diminished sexual response and that estrogen replacement produces enhanced sexual response. Other studies, however, do not show this. Testosterone level is more clearly related to at least some measures of sexuality. Issues for future research are discussed.     

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF WOMEN AND CONSERVATISM

Although one goal of the psychology of women has been to enhance the status of women through social change, this goal has seldom been realized. Theory and research in the psychology of women have focused on gender differences and the personality of women rather than the society that oppresses women. As a result, this research has tended to blame women for their position in society and helped maintain the status quo, which can inhibit the struggle for equality by the women's movement. This process is demonstrated with reference to research on women and achievement. The causes and consequences of the focus on gender differences are discussed and recommendations made for a psychology of women in the service of women.     

WOMEN, LEADERSHIP, AND EMPOWERMENT

This paper is a review of leadership research, focusing primarily on women as leaders. The more recent perspective of studying leaders by examining followers is included; but research is sparse as to how leaders are perceived as empowering by their subordinates. A study in progress, conducted by Denmark, Nielson, and Scholl, indicates that stereotypes were more typically held by women against female leaders. However, a leader's ability to be empowering varies with status. The higher the status, the more empowering that individual is perceived, whether female or male. Yet, more men than women held higher status positions. More women are needed in high-level positions to better assess leadership and empowerment.     

EVALUATING COMPETENCE OF WOMEN AND MEN

College students (78 females, 79 males) were placed in all-female, all-male, or mixed-gender groups. In the presence of a male or female experimenter, subjects evaluated an article written by a female or male job applicant. Subjects in mixed-gender groups generally evaluated the female applicant more favorably in the presence of the female experimenter than the male experimenter. Subjects in mixed-gender groups also rated the female applicant more favorably than the male applicant in the presence of the female experimenter. Male subjects generally were more influenced than were females by the experimenter's gender, tending to give higher ratings to the applicant of the same gender as the experimenter.