What If the Energizer Bunny Were Female? Importance of Gender in Perceptions of Advertising Spokes-Character Effectiveness

An experiment was designed to determine whether and in what way gender makes a difference in the ratings of advertising spokes-characters. It was hypothesized and results confirmed that gender and product type affect the likability of spokes-characters and perceptions of target audience. A male spokes-character is perceived as more appropriate for a male-oriented product; however, a female spokes-character and a male product created the impression that the product was not quite so male oriented. It was also hypothesized that the spokes-character with the most positive ratings would be the most memorable. Results did not bear this out.     

小学生喜好的外在奖赏及其运用

采用问卷调查法 ,以杭州市三所小学 3 1 8名小学生为被试 ,考察了他们对目前学校常用的 2 0种奖项的喜好特点。目的在于揭示这些奖项对小学生的潜在意义 ,为教师运用外在奖赏激励学生学习提供依据。结果表明 :(1 )小学生最喜欢社会认同类 ,其次是特权类 ,最后是学校奖项与零食类奖赏。他们最喜欢的前五种奖赏是 :书、奖状、好分数、玩电脑、去图书馆看书。 (2 )小学生在喜好的奖赏及其结构特点上均存在年级与性别差异。     

Good Versus Creative Solutions: A Comparison of Brainstorming,Hierarchical, and Perspective-Changing Heuristics

It is not clear what heuristics are best for generating solutions to ill-structured problems. This research examined 3 heuristics (brainstorming, the hierarchical technique, and changing perspectives) to determine which produced the most solutions, the best solutions, and the most creative solutions. Ninety-two participants generated as many solutions as they could to 1 ill-structured problem concerning a drug-dealing roommate. Participants were then randomly assigned to 1 kind of training. After training, participants returned to generate solutions to the roommate problem. Results indicate that the hierarchical method produced the most solutions and the highest proportion of participants who judged their best solution as occurring after training. Those trained in brainstorming were most likely to judge their most creative solution as occurring after training. The changing perspectives technique was found to be relatively less helpful in terms of best and most creative solutions.     

Some Changing Aspects of the Self-Concept of Pubescent Males

Fifty Ss initially rated themselves and a friend on intelligence. Ss were then divided into High and Low Acceptance groups using a self-ideal discrepancy. It was predicted that the High Acceptance group would generally rate themselves higher on the self-concept measures than would the Low Acceptance group. Further, and most importantly, it was predicted that the High group would rate their friend's intelligence as similar to their own, while the Low group would rate their friend higher than themselves and, therefore, closer to their ideal. The predictions were generally supported, although the High group failed to exhibit the expected trait similarity. It was concluded that a trait complementarity model was most appropriate for interpreting the results of both groups.     

Sex differences in identity status

In this study, sex differences in the Identity Status Interview (ISI) developed by Marcia (1980) were examined. The ISI was administered to 151 college students, 75 female and 76 male. It was found that status in the Ideology domain is most predictive of Identity Status for males, while status in the Sexual-Interpersonal domain is most predictive for females. No sex difference was found for the Occupation domain. An additional finding was that females rated the Sexual-Interpersonal domain as more important to their identity than did males. These results are interpreted as supporting the view that issues of interpersonal function are uniquely relevant to female identity development.     

The Hairlessness Norm Extended: Reasons for and Predictors of Women’s Body Hair Removal at Different Body Sites

The study aimed to explore the motivations behind and predictors of the practice of body hair removal among women. A sample of 235 Australian female undergraduate students completed questionnaires asking about the frequency and reasons for body hair removal, as well as measures of media exposure. It was confirmed that the vast majority (approximately 96%) regularly remove their leg and underarm hair, most frequently by shaving, and attribute this to femininity and attractiveness reasons. A sizeable proportion (60%) also removed at least some of their pubic hair, with 48% removing most or all of it. Here the attributions were relatively more to sexual attractiveness and self-enhancement. Further, having a partner and exposure to particular forms of media predicted pubic hair removal. It was concluded that pubic hair removal is currently different in connotation from leg or underarm hair, but is likely to be on the increase. It can only further the belief that women’s bodies are unacceptable the way they are.     

The impact of adolescent girls' life concerns and leisure activities on body dissatisfaction, disordered eating, and self-esteem.

The aim of this study was to situate adolescent girls' body dissatisfaction, disordered eating, and self-esteem in the context of their life concerns and leisure activities. Questionnaires containing measures of life concerns, leisure activities, body dissatisfaction, disordered eating, and self-esteem were administered to 306 girls with a mean age of 16 years. It was found that although academic success and intelligence were rated as the most important life concerns, an emphasis on slimness was most strongly linked to body dissatisfaction, disordered eating, and global self-esteem. An emphasis on popularity with girls also was related to body dissatisfaction, and hours spent watching television were related to lower self-esteem. In contrast, emphasis on sport seemed to serve a protective function. It was concluded that adolescent girls who have a high concern for slimness should be assisted in decreasing this emphasis in order to improve their general well-being.     

PSYCHOLOGY IN INDIA: A SURVEY OF DOCTORAL STUDENTS

This study examines profile, research area, research activities, perception of psychology, self-image and profession-related satisfaction doctoral students of psychology in India. Seventy-seven participants responded to a mailed questionnaire. It has subsections related to self-image as researcher, student-supervisor relationship, research process, profession-related satisfaction, and status of psychology in India. It was observed that most participants belonged to urban background, middle class, and nuclear family. They perceived job opportunities in various fields and aspired most for teaching and research. Further, gender and financial assistance did not influence self-image and student-supervisor relationship. However, financial assistance influenced satisfaction with different aspects of profession. Implications of the findings are discussed in light of doctoral training of psychology in India and reorientation of psychology as a profession.     

The National Board for Certified Counselors: The Good,the Bad,and the Ugly

The National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) was a good idea whose time has come and gone. It no longer makes sense to promote the National Certified Counselor (NCC) credential when most states now have counselor licensure. It has yet to be established that the National Counselor Examination (NCE) differentiates between good and bad counselors, nor are there any data that suggest that NCCs are any better counselors than are non NCCs. For probably most of the current 16,020 NCCs, NCC status is redundant and useless: for everyone, it is costly. If NBCC is as great as its proponents would like us to believe, how come only 8% of American Counseling Association (ACA) members are also NCCs? Included are suggestions as to how counselors could better spend the money they would save by not becoming or renewing their certification.     

Bouwsma on Wittgenstein's Philosophical Method

It is argued that Wittgenstein was a greatly misunderstood philosopher, both as regards his own philosophical views and his ideas about philosophical method. O. K. Bouwsma's interpretation of Wittgenstein is used to illustrate the most common misunderstandings.     

On the Logical Positivists' Theory of Truth: The Fundamental Problem and a New Perspective

The present article purports to show that the protocol sentence debate, pursued by some leading members of the Vienna Circle in the mid-1930s, was essentially a controversy over the explanation and the real significance of the concept of truth. It is further shown that the fundamental issue underlying the discussions about the concept of truth was the relationship between form and content, as well as between logic/language and the world. R. Carnap was the philosopher who most explicitly and systematically attempted to come to grips with this problem. It is shown that the form-content distinction pervades the three most important phases of Carnap's philosophical development: the structuralist (in Der logische Aufbau der Welt), the syntactical and the semantical. His final semantical stance is essentially determined by the concept of linguistic frameworks. The article purports to demonstrate that this concept cannot be dispensed with in philosophy, but that Carnap failed to work out its ontological implications. Finally, the concept of an internal ontology is briefly delineated. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A Strange Alliance: Isaiah Berlin and the Liberalism of the Fringes

This paper is a homage to Isaiah Berlin. It argues that Berlin's philosophy has preceded many of the present discussions concerning liberalism-culturalism. In an age in which most liberal philosophers ignored the importance of belonging, of member-ship, identity, cultural affiliations and historical continuity, Berlin stands out as a welcome exception. His philosophy is therefore fresh and innovative as it was in the sixties and seventies when it was written. It carries within it the germs of the liberalism of the fringes advocated nowadays by members of national minorities, immigrants, women, and gays, the kind of liberalism which fits well the politics of identity and recognition.     

Desire for control, locus of control, and proneness to depression

Two personality constructs, desire for control and locus of control, were related to depression among college students. Measures of levels of depression, desire for control, and locus of control were taken from subjects. Approximately six months later 71% of these subjects returned a questionnaire concerning their experiences with depression during that six-month period. It was found that locus of control scores, particularly the extent to which subjects perceived that their lives were controlled by chance, were significantly related to the depression levels. It was also found that high desire for control subjects who held external perceptions of control were most likely to seek nonprofessional help for depression. In addition, high desire for control subjects who perceived their lives as generally controlled by chance were most likely to have suicidal thoughts. The results are interpreted in terms of a general style that may promote a proneness to depression for certain individuals.     

Punishments adolescents find justified: an examination of altitudes toward delinquency

The purpose of this study was to examine adolescents' attitudes toward delinquency, specifically the degree to which they find norm violations acceptable in various circumstances. A total of 1,914 Dutch youths participated: 1,046 reported having committed no crimes in the past year, 578 reported having committed only nonviolent offenses, and 290 reported having committed both violent and nonviolent offenses. It was hypothesized that, in general, delinquents would prescribe less severe punishments for deviant behavior, irrespective of the circumstances. This hypothesis was rejected. It was found, however, that violent delinquents were significantly more tolerant of violent behavior as compared with nondelinquents, with one important exception: when injury was inflicted on someone they knew, they were as little inclined to excuse the perpetrator as were nondelinquents. Violent delinquents discriminated most strongly between friends and strangers as both victims and perpetrators.     

The identification of stuttering: Can you look and tell

This investigation focussed on how observers identify stutterers. It was found that stutterers are identified most correctly under visual circumstances as compared to auditory and combined auditory-visual conditions. Therefore, the reduction of stuttering should include removal of noticeable, interfering, and unnecessary nonverbal behaviors, particularly mouth and nostril movements.     

Why don't they stay at home? Prejudices against ethnic minorities in Italy

This study was conducted in Bologna, Italy, to analyse attitudes concerning ethnic minorities and emotions experienced in intergroup relations. Stereotypes of North African immigrants were investigated as a function of 'geographical' proximity with black people (living in the neighbourhood of black immigrants versus living in districts without immigrants) and origin (natives of Bologna versus residents who moved from Southern Italy to Bologna). It was predicted that the most positive stereotypes would be found among natives of Bologna living in the same neighbourhoods as North Africans, while the most negative prejudices would occur among the South Italians who do not live in the same districts as black people. Results indicate that neighbourhood has a central importance but effects of respondents' origins are more mixed.     

Boltzmann's Philosophy Notes for Three Lectures (Fall 1903)

It is necessary to distinguish between Boltzmann’s original lecture notes, his extemporaneous lectures, the fair copy of philosophy lectures 3 to 18 by an unknown hand which are mostly on mathematics, and the multi-published versions which only include lectures 1 and 2. There is a difference between his real thought in his notes (or “honne” in Japanese) and what seems to have survived in lectures 1 and 2 for public consumption (“tatamae”). We have stuck with honne, but where it is too abbreviated to make initial sense, we have put it in grammatical and intelligible form as what we think he most probably intended or believed. It was precisely his linguistic philosophy and the relativistic and pragmatic way of presenting it which was largely suppressed or at least toned-down in the fair copy and published versions. Listeners remembered how witty he was when speaking, and the shortened published accounts are also interesting, but his first thoughts, his honne, before prudence set in will interest most readers, though alas as happens with notes there is also some extraneous material. In translating most of the notes for the first three lectures we have ended where mathematics begins to predominate. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The Development of Defense Mechanisms

ABSTRACT It is proposed that defense mechanisms may be characterized as forming a hierarchy, from least to most complex, and that the lowest level defenses emerge early in life, while the more complex defenses emerge later in development Three defenses–Denial, Projection and Identification–were chosen to test this assumption A method for assessing the use of these defenses in Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) stories was developed and validated in a study of four age groups preschool, elementary school, early adolescent, and late adolescent The results of the study were consistent with the prediction Denial was used most frequently by preschool children, and decreased in use thereafter Identification was used minimally by preschool children but increased steadily through adolescence The use of Projection was most frequent in the two middle age groups Some evidence for sex differences, based on the internal/external orientation of the defense, also was found     

Language as a determinant of Welsh identity

The study was designed, using the ?matched-guise' technique, to determine how different groups of Welshmen perceive members of their own national group who use various linguistic codes. Three matched groups of adult Welsh Ss were used: Bilinguals, those who were learning Welsh and those who could not speak Welsh and were not learning it either. These Ss were asked to evaluate on 22 scales the personalities of various Welsh speakers they heard reading the same passage of prose on tape. Essentially, the stimulus tape consisted of two male bilinguals reading the passage once each in Welsh, in English with a Welsh accent and in English with an RP accent. It was found, despite the fact that the groups differed in their language skills and self-perceived Welshness, that Ss as a whole upgraded the bilingual speakers on most traits. Indeed, the RP speakers were evaluated most favourably on only one trait - self-confidence. It was suggested that language to a large extent serves as a symbol of Welsh identity, and the results were discussed in relation to how other ethnic groups appear to view their own linguistic codes.     

THE LOCAL ORGANIZATION OF BEHAVIOR: DISCRIMINATION OF AND MEMORY FOR SIMPLE BEHAVIORAL PATTERNS

A procedure was developed to enable nonverbal organisms to report what they remember of the temporal organization of their recent behavior. A baseline behavior with known temporal structure was established by a concurrent variable-interval variable-interval schedule for two temporal patterns of behavior (two different classes of reinforced interresponse times). The five pigeon subjects emitted these two temporal patterns on a center key and were occasionally given a short-term memory probe for their most-recently-emitted pattern. The probes consisted of symbolic delayed matching-to-sample tests, in which a response on a green side key was reinforced if the most recent pattern belonged to the shorter reinforced class, and a response to a red side key was reinforced if the most recent pattern belonged to the longer reinforced class. All subjects could report with over ninety percent accuracy what their most recently emitted behavioral pattern was when a retention interval separating the pattern from the memory probe was only .1 seconds. The retention interval was then manipulated, and it was found that recall for a pattern was frequently above chance after a delay of as much as eight seconds. Thus, pigeons can remember their most recent interresponse time not only right after it is emitted, but for several seconds thereafter. In other conditions, the patterns themselves were manipulated. It was found that as the patterns became more similar, discrimination became poorer. These results agree with the view that reinforcement tends to organize and integrate the local structure of behavior to the extent to which that structure is remembered.