Body Size Beliefs and Weight Concerns Among Mothers and Their Adolescent Children

African American and White mother/adolescent pairs were examined for familial associations in body size and weight concerns. Mothers' and adolescents' estimates of adolescents' body mass index (BMI) were significantly correlated. Compared to boys, girls had greater body dissatisfaction, higher weight concerns, and perceived higher family/friend weight concerns. By race, White adolescents had more body dissatisfaction and greater concern about weight than African American adolescents. Four items explained 70.4% of the variance in adolescents' weight concern scores: adolescents' weight management practices, mothers' reports of adolescents' saying they were too fat, adolescents' perceptions of family/friends' weight concerns, and adolescents' body dissatisfaction. Our study suggests White girls are more concerned about their weight and perceive greater weight and dieting concerns among family/friends than African American girls.     

Body Consciousness Across the Adult Years: Variations with Actual and Subjective Age

Age-related trends and predictors were explored with respect to three dimensions of adults’ body consciousness. Consistent with the notion that aging adults’ perceptions of their bodies are multidimensional and multidirectional, adults reported being more concerned about their external physical appearance (public body consciousness), more aware of their internal body sensations (private body consciousness), and more positive in their self-evaluations of their bodies (body competence). Moreover, consistent with the claim that such attitudes are multi-determined, the present research found that aging adults’ personal anxiety about aging and their subjective age identities were significant predictors of variations in their body consciousness. Moreover, the predictive value of these psychological variables rivaled the predictive value of chronological age.

Creativity in the Later Life: Factors Associated with the Creativity of the Chinese Elderly

This study examined a total of 140 elderly Chinese from China and the United States to investigate the relationship between attitude toward aging, daily activities, general health, education, and other demographics and rated creativity as measured by collage making and storytelling. The result of this study shows that creativity declines with age. However, education, general health status, daily activities, and the attitude toward aging are also found to be decisive factors of creativity. The implications of the findings are discussed.     

Conservation of Weight with the Mentally Retarded

Institutionalized retardates (N = 54), Public School retardates (N = 65), and a group of normal subjects (N = 112) were compared at several mental age levels on three conservation of weight tasks. The functioning of normal subjects was higher at each mental age level. An analysis of covariance was performed on the number of correct responses on the three tasks, covarying mental age, and not including any normal subjects above 13 years 11 months in mental age (N = 82). Normal subjects conserved significantly more often than either retardate group in the covariance analysis also.     

Children's and adults' recall of sex‐stereotyped toy pictures: Effects of presentation and memory task

Gender schema theories predict a memory bias toward sex‐congruent information. The present study examined how presentation of stimuli and encoding conditions influence gender schematic processing in children and adults. One hundred and sixty 5‐ to 13‐year olds and adult males and females viewed 36 sex‐stereotyped toy pictures that were presented in a static and dynamical way. Half of the participants were asked to memorize the pictures (intentional memory) and half were not told that they would be expected to later recall the pictures (incidental memory). Weak gender schematic processing was observed only during the incidental memory task. Children and adults recalled more static than dynamic gender‐stereotyped pictures, and performance was superior in the intentional than in the incidental memory condition. Gender schematic processing was similar across the age groups. In addition, participants were more likely to recall male‐stereotyped toys. Implications for gender schema theories and education are discussed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Examining a community intervention to help White people understand race and racism and engage in anti-racist behaviours

Uprisings over the past decade have accelerated the search for interventions to support White people in increasing their capacity to understand historical and present-day racial dynamics. This study investigates the impacts and effectiveness of a community-led intervention developed to prime White individuals to challenge injustice through increasing knowledge, confidence, and competence related to race, racism, intragroup dialogue, and colour-blind racial attitudes. Five hundred and thirty seven participants were recruited from four cohorts of community-led groups, which read, reflected, journaled, and completed activities related to race and racism for a total of 40 hr over 10 sessions. Participants were given pre- and post-measures to assess their White racial capacity, and colour-blind racial attitudes. Participants also completed a follow-up assessment on anti-racist behaviours. The results indicated that participants were able to increase their racial capacity in terms of their understanding and knowledge of race and racism. They also indicated that they felt more confident and competent to have racial discussions in an intergroup context. The possibilities and limitations of interventions to shift attitudes and behaviours are discussed.     

Effects of Prenatal X-irradiation on Open-Field Behavior in Rats: Application of Randomized Fostering Technique and Mapping Results

Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were given X-irradiation (150 R) on Day 17 of gestation. After birth, all male pups were pooled once and then assigned randomly to irradiated mothers and control mothers. Offspring were administered an open-field test at about 7 weeks of age. The analysis was performed on the basis of two approaches: In the per subject approach, individual subject data (aggregation across Day 2 through Day 4) were treated as the basic unit of statistical analysis. In the per litter approach, double aggregation (aggregation across Day 2 through Day 4 for each subject and aggregation across subjects within each litter) was used. The per subject approach was slightly more sensitive as to the treatment effect, but it induced a reduction in the magnitude of eta squared. A principal component analysis was performed using eta squared together with those of several reference groups. Results were plotted on a map constructed from component scores. The characteristics of behavior in X-irradiated rats were very similar to those of the earlier stage of trials in terms of the location on the map. The postnatal maternal effect on open-field behavior was not serious and was adequately negligible in practice. A new fostering procedure was proposed and its advantages discussed.     

Perfectionism and Eating Attitudes In Competitive Rowers: Moderating Effects of Body Mass,Weight Classification and Gender

Abstract

One purpose of the present research was to determine the relationship between perfectionism and eating attitudes among national level rowers. A second purpose was to determine if body mass, weight classification and gender moderate perfectionism-eating attitude relations. Rowers from New Zealand and Australia (W=449) completed the Positive and Negative Perfectionism Scale (PANPS; Terry-Short, Owens, Slade and Dewey, 1995), the Eating Attitude Test-40 (EAT-40; Garner and Garfinkel, 1979), and the Short Form of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MC-SDS; Reynolds, 1982). In addition, a Body Mass Index (BMI) was calculated from the height and weight measurements of each participant. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that, after accounting for social desirability effects. Negative (unhealthy) Perfectionism scores were positively related to disturbed eating attitude scores, whereas Positive (healthy) Perfectionism scores were unrelated to disturbed eating attitude scores. In addition, body mass, weight classification and gender operated in a conjunctive fashion to produce a maximum moderator effect. That is, relations between Negative Perfectionism and disturbed eating attitudes were strongest for female lightweight rowers with higher BMI scores. Recommendations for future research are discussed.     

Racial Differences in Work Attitudes: What You See Depends on What You Study

Differences in a constellation of work attitudes were studied with respect to black and white employees using a sample of healthcare workers. Preliminary analyses using MANOVA indicated that blacks had more positive work attitudes than did whites. However, systematic analyses of set of covariates including personal, lifestyle, and organizational variables eliminated all racial differences in work attitudes. Implications of these findings and directions for future research were discussed.     

An Exploratory Study of Discrimination of Composer Style

With an alternate study-test procedure, 254 college students attempted either to free-recall or rearrange in order items of an 11-CVC serial list to a criterion of two consecutive perfect trials. Ss learned the list with or without an isolate which was placed on each of the 11 serial positions. The main findings were as follows: (a) While the reconstruction condition required fewer study trials to criterion than the free-recall condition, the isolation effect occurred equally in both conditions. (b) The isolation effect was a function of the serial position; the effect was greater at the central positions than at the peripherals in free-recall and this trend was essentially reversed in the reconstruction condition. (c) In free-recall, no reliable and systematic spreading effect was obtained for the items immediately preceding and following the isolate; however, a positive spreading effect occurred concurrently with the isolation effect in the reconstruction condition. The isolation effect has been accounted for by a selective rehearsal assumption. Implications regarding the functional cues in serial order learning and the isolation effect in serial learning are suggested.     

Environmental attitudes, knowledge, intentions and behaviors among college students

College students (N = 90) reported their pro-environment behaviors as well as their pro-environment intentions, their explicit and implicit attitudes about the environment, and their knowledge about environmental issues. Intentions and knowledge significantly and independently predicted behavior. Environmental knowledge was not significantly related to attitudes. Implicit and explicit attitudes were significantly but only moderately related. Only explicit attitudes, however, were strongly related to intentions, and intentions completely mediated the influence of explicit attitudes on behavior. Men were found to be more knowledgeable than women about environmental issues; older students had more favorable implicit and explicit environmental attitudes. This research suggests that knowledge about the environment and explicit attitudes influence behavior through different pathways, which may have implications for interventions seeking to increase environmentally friendly behavior.     

基于双因素模型的老年人生命意义感与心理健康：老化态度的中介作用——基于双因素模型的老年人生命意义感与心理健康：老化态度的中介作用

在积极心理学的影响下,心理健康双因素模型包含主观幸福感和精神病理学指标。研究旨在验证心理健康双因素模型在老年人中的适用性,考察老化态度在生命意义感和心理健康间的多重中介作用。采用爱丁堡幸福量表、一般健康问卷、老化态度问卷和人生意义问卷调查了283名广州市社区老年人。结果发现：（1）心理健康双因素模型较单因素模型的拟合度更优。（2）生命意义感通过老化态度的三条路径（对身体变化、心理获得和心理社会丧失的积极态度）促进心理健康,但具体机制不同。增强意义体验、意义追寻通过老化态度的完全中介作用,提高主观幸福感。增强意义体验通过老化态度的完全中介作用,减弱意义追寻通过老化态度的部分中介作用,减少精神病理学症状。研究结果扩大了心理健康双因素模型的适用年龄范围,为提升老年人的心理健康提供实证依据。     

Reliability and construct validity of a Swedish social attitude scale for children

The aim was to construct a social attitude scale for children and to assess its reliability and construct validity, employing a sample of 226 children, aged 8–15, from schools within metropolitan Stockholm. The results showed the precision, test-retest reliability and internal consistency for the total scale to be moderate among younger subjects (8, 10 and 12 years) and acceptable among older ones (14 and 15 years). Confirmatory factor analyses revealed different factor structures for the various age groups. Only two factors were identified for the 8 year olds, while three, four, and five factors were obtained for the 10, 12, 14, and 15 year old subjects, respectively. The factors were, in consecutive order of appearance, Religion, Punitiveness, Ethnocentrism, Political-economic conservatism, and Environmental issues. Implications for attitude measurement among children and directions for further research on structural aspects of attitudes are discussed.     

Attitudes towards credit and finances among college students in China and the United States

Although there is growing concern about the issue of credit card debt among college students in China, little research has examined attitudes to money and debt among that group. The present study compared financial self‐confidence, perceived financial wellbeing, attitudes to debt, and parent education about money and debt in 410 college students from the US and China. Although college students in China reported fewer credit cards and less debt, they also reported lower levels of financial self‐confidence and financial wellbeing. In both cultures, delay of gratification and parental education predicted both self‐confidence and financial wellbeing.     

Separating the Effects of Gender and Weight-Loss Desire on Body Satisfaction and Disordered Eating Behavior

The purpose of this study was to separate the effects of gender from those of desired weight loss on body satisfaction and eating disordered behavior. Therefore, we explored gender differences in a sample (N = 191) of men and women who wanted to lose weight. We expected that controlling for desire to lose weight would minimize gender differences; this was supported for (a) overall body dissatisfaction, and (b) degree of concern about, effect of, and importance of weight and appearance. Nevertheless, women reported (a) less satisfaction with several body parts, (b) stronger relations between body satisfaction and self-esteem, and (c) use of more weight-loss strategies. Exploratory analyses also were conducted to examine within-group differences among men. Implications are discussed.     

Faking revisited: Exerting strategic control over performance on the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure

Across four studies, we demonstrate that effects obtained from the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure, like those obtained from other indirect procedures, are not impervious to strategic manipulation. In experiment 1, we found that merely informing participants to “fake” their performance without providing a concrete strategy to do so did not eliminate, reverse, or in any way alter the obtained outcomes. However, when those same instructions orientated attention toward the core parameters of the task, participants spontaneously derived a strategy that allowed them to eliminate their effects (experiment 2). When the participants were provided with a viable response strategy, they successfully reversed the direction of their overall Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure effect (experiment 3). By refining the nature of those instructions, we managed to target and alter individual trial‐type effects in isolation with some success (experiment 4).     

Personality Certainty and Politics: Increasing the Predictive Utility of Individual‐Difference Inventories

Research on political psychology has benefitted from using individual‐difference measures to predict political attitudes and behavior. And, previous research has further identified a number of specific variables that enhance the predictive utility of individual‐difference scales. However, a potentially important factor that has been overlooked is the certainty with which people make their responses. The present research establishes that the certainty with which people respond to scales is associated with stability of the scale responses over time and correspondence between the scale and related outcomes. In addition, the effects of certainty in political ideological identification in predicting politically relevant outcomes hold when controlling for a number of previously established moderators. This research suggests that measuring certainty in answers to individual‐difference scales can be a useful and efficient way to increase the predictive utility of those scales within the political domain and beyond. This benefit is demonstrated with need for cognition (Study 1), need to evaluate (Study 2), and ideological identification (Studies 2 and 3).     

Sex differences in the relation between math performance, spatial skills, and attitudes

Sex differences have been previously found in cognitive and affective predictors of math achievement, including spatial skills and math attitudes. It is important to determine whether there are sex differences not only in the predictors themselves, but also in the nature of their relation to math achievement. The present paper examined spatial skills and math attitudes as predictors of curriculum-based measures of math performance in middle-school students, specifically comparing the patterns of these predictive relations for boys and girls. The results of the current study showed that, despite similar levels of math performance for boys and girls, the significance of particular predictors varied as a function of sex. Specifically, spatial skills predicted math performance in boys, but not in girls. We suggest that sex differences in spatial reasoning in conjunction with the differential involvement of spatial reasoning in math problem solving may lead to later sex differences in math outcomes.     

Differences in child rearing attitudes between immigrant Chinese mothers and Anglo-American mothers

In order to explore cultural differences in child rearing attitudes, we studied 30 Anglo-American mothers and 30 immigrant Chinese mothers in the US, together with their preschool children and the children's teachers. Mothers completed a measure of child rearing attitudes, children were assessed for perceived competence, and teachers rated children's competence. Results showed that immigrant Chinese mothers were more authoritarian overall, as expected from previous research, but that they also were more likely to encourage independence and demand maturity from their children. Chinese-American children scored higher than Anglo-American children on cognitive competence, and their cognitive competence was related to authoritarian child rearing. The results are discussed in the context of Confucian and American cultural values. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Differences between men and women with a dismissing attachment style regarding their attitudes and behaviour in romantic relationships

Research to date has revealed that the association between gender, attachment and the quality and functioning of intimate relationships is complex. This study examined the relationship between gender and attachment styles in attitudes to communication with one's partner and in the number of past relationships in a sample of 746 Spanish undergraduates. The Relationship Questionnaire was administered to them to determine the adult attachment style. The results revealed the existence of differences according to the adult attachment style and gender with regard to the two measured variables, and a significant effect of the interaction between gender and attachment. Dismissing men reported the highest average scores in the number of past relationships, with significant differences appearing when they were compared with secure and preoccupied men. However, dismissing women did not differ from the rest of the women with other attachment styles. When men and women with the same attachment styles were compared in this variable, the only significant differences were found between dismissing men and women (with the latter reporting fewer partners). In the case of attitudes to expressing feelings to one's partner, dismissing men reported the most negative attitudes, compared with secure and preoccupied men. Dismissing women, unlike the men, did not differ in their attitudes either from preoccupied or fearful women. Moreover, clear differences were shown between dismissing men and women in these attitudes (more negative in the case of men).