Body Image Concerns of Psoriasis Patients As Reflected in Human Figure Drawings

Human figure drawings of patients with severe (n = 85) and mild (n = 38) psoriasis were compared on dimensions of nudity, sexual overemphasis, and omissions of exposed body parts. For female patients significant differences were found for percentages of undressed figures and omissions. For male patients only omissions were significant. When compared to 30 patients with other mild dermatologic conditions, mildly affected psoriatic males drew significantly fewer omissions. Discussion of results focused on body image concerns, of dermatology patients as related to issues of nudity, sexuality, and exhibition of exposed body parts.     

Sexual Content on Mainstream TV Advertising: A Cross-cultural Comparison

A content analysis of 1,785 American ads and 1,467 Israeli ads maps the representation of sexual content on mainstream TV advertising in the two countries. This content appears in less than 5% of the advertisements. Most of it is mild and portrayed in the conservative context of an established relationship. Explicit material, socially discouraged practices, references to sexual responsibility and complete nudity are extremely rare. Israeli advertisements tend to present a higher share of sexual content than American ads, and male models are more likely to be partially nude than female models—but these differences are minor in extent.     

An investigation of some hypotheses concerning rape and murder

The study compared three groups of incarcerated criminals, including 40 men convicted of rape, 40 convicted of murder (of another male) and 40 sentenced for property offenses. A number of personality and attitude scales, behavioral records and a binocular rivalry test were used to test various hypotheses concerning rape and murder. Rapists and murderers did not differ on general control of aggressive behavior but both showed more control than convicted felons. In the binocular rivalry task rapists and murderers were less prone to perceive sexuality than property felons, but the three groups did not differ on perceived aggression toward women. Rapists and murderers were more prone to deny feminine traits than property felons. Rapists had heterosexual experience with more partners than property felons. The three groups did not differ on attitudes toward women or on disinhibition as a mode of sensation seeking. In general, rapists resemble murderers more than ordinary felons and the evidence does not support hypotheses that characterize them as significantly more hostile toward women than are other types of criminals.     

The differential impact of criminal stigmatization on male and female felons

By way of survey-experimental methods, stigmatization responses of a college student sample and a community sample were examined to assess how sex of convicted felon and sex of subject affect levels of stigmatization. Major results were that (a) relatively high levels of stigmatization were expressed by subjects in both samples toward both male and female felons; (b) female felons, however, were the recipients of less stigmatization than male felons, with the difference being larger in the community than the student sample; and (c) sex of subject had little effect on the expression of stigmatization. It is suggested that the factors leading to less stigmatization of the female felon are nativeté concerning the female offender and greater fear of the male offender. Finally, attitudinal and background correlates of stigmatization are examined.     

Television Use,Sexual Behavior,and Relationship Status at Last Oral Sex and Vaginal Intercourse

The current longitudinal study explores the relationship between adolescent television use at time 1 and sexual experience and relationship status (i.e., committed/romantic versus casual) 1 year later. The sample (N = 824) comprised youth aged 14–18. Multinomial logistic regressions predicting group membership from television exposure variables were conducted controlling for socio-demographic characteristics and prior sexual behavior. Results indicate that sexually inexperienced youth watched more television overall than sexually experienced youth, but less adult, premium and music television on cable networks. Premium cable exposure predicted group membership among sexually active youth. Youth who watched more premium cable at time 1 were more likely to be in casual relationship at last intercourse than a committed one. A more complete understanding of media effects on adolescent sexual relationships can help guide policy development, media education/literacy efforts, and contribute to the design of interventions to reduce the negative consequences associated with adolescent sexual behavior.     

An Analysis of Nudity in Chinese Magazine Advertising: Examining Gender, Racial and Brand Differences

This study gives a most recent view of nudity in Chinese magazine advertising. Focusing on gender, racial and brand differences, the authors content analyzed 2,058 models in 19 Chinese consumer magazines from a stratified random sample of four?months in 2009. Results showed that female models were more likely to be shown in different levels of nudity than male models, and Western models were more likely to be shown in different levels of nudity than Chinese models, as predicted. However, regarding brand origin, although Western advertisers portrayed models in higher levels of nudity, Western and Chinese advertisers did not differ in their portrayals when models were examined separately by brand origin. Our study suggests that sexism in advertising is a cross-cultural phenomenon, and Western advertising models are the trend setters of sexual images in Chinese magazine advertising. Chinese advertising is not only a “melting pot” of cultural values, but also a “melting pot” of advertising practices.     

Rorschach Variables and Big Five Scales as Predictors of Military Training Completion: A Replication Study of the Selection of Candidates to the Naval Special Forces in Norway

Thirty-nine undergraduate male college students drew five figures — an automobile, a clothed male, a clothed female, a nude male, a nude female — while a continuous record of their GSR activation was obtained. Analysis of GSR data showed that activation differed significantly from the relatively neutral but equally difficult drawing (i.e., the automobile). Nude figure drawings differed significantly in GSR activation from clothed figure drawings. GSR responses of largest amplitude showed significant shifts from the largest responses occurring to secondary sexual bodily areas in the clothed drawings to primary sexual areas in the nude drawings. Only the clothed male and the nude male drawings differed significantly between groups judged different in psychosexual adjustment.     

Jugendliche Sexualstraftäter: Spezialfälle der Prognoseerstellung?

This study compared a sample of 273 juvenile (aged 14 to under 18), 178 adolescent (aged 18 to under 21) and 273 adult (older than 20 years) male sex offenders modus operandi (or MO, the way in which they committed their offenses), frequency of recidivism and predicted recidivism via the static-99. In terms of the frequencies of the MO aspects we found that juveniles and adolescents differed significantly from adult sexual offenders. However, concerning the frequency of sexual violent behaviors, adolescents committed more severe offenses in contrast to the two other groups. The comparison of recidivism rates indicated that adolescent sexual offenders were significantly less likely to commit a new sexual offense, but were considerably more likely to commit a non-sexual violent offense compared to adult sexual offenders. For juvenile offenders, only few static-99 variables were predictive of future recidivism in comparison to the other groups, suggesting that the static-99 may only have a restricted utility in juvenile offenders. Further, juvenile offenders risk levels were found to fall primarily within the medium risk group making individual differentiation of potential risk difficult. It is suggested that additional predictors, which help to differentiate young sexual offenders must be investigated.     

青少年学生身体自我特点的初步研究

本研究编制的青少年学生身体自我量表具有较高的信度和效度,该量表包含五个因素：相貌特征、运动特征、身体特征、性特征和负面特征。我国青少年学生的身体自我在总体上不存在性别差异,但女生对自己在运动特征和身材特征上的满意度显著高于男生。从中学生到大学生的年级发展趋势看,青少年学生身体自我的满意度总体上呈下降趋势;随着年级的升高,他们对自己的身体越来有越多的不满意。     

Sexual behaviours among dyadic vehicle occupants

Sexual activity while driving is a risky behaviour frequently found across media. However, much is unknown about the practices and roles that dyadic occupants of vehicles (i.e. a driver and passenger) perform when engaging in sexual activity while driving. To cover this gap, a content analysis of sexually explicit media (SEM) was conducted on a sample of 208 videos taken from Pornhub.com. The videos portrayed a naturalistic driving situation of a driver of a moving vehicle engaging in sexual activity with a passenger. Videos were coded for sexual behaviours and characteristics of the vehicle occupants (gender and role). Drivers were generally male, while passengers were female. A range of sexual activities while driving were coded, including oral sex, unclothed and clothed masturbation, varying levels of nudity, and ejaculation. Drivers appear to be the focus of sexual attention, as they are generally the ones receiving sexual acts from the passenger, and predominantly ejaculating. Additionally, female passengers perform oral sex on drivers more often than male passengers, and female vehicle occupants tend to have greater levels of nudist exposure than males. This study highlights the complexities of sexual activity while driving and patterns for consideration when developing interventions.     

Assessing the Prevalence of Body Dysmorphic Disorder in an Ethnically Diverse Group of Adolescents

We investigated the prevalence of Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) in an ethnically diverse sample of adolescents (N = 566) using the Body Image Rating Scale, a brief self-report measure for assessing body dissatisfaction. Results showed that adolescent girls were more dissatisfied with their bodies than adolescent boys, and that African-Americans of both genders were less dissatisfied with their bodies than Caucasians, Asians, and Hispanics. The interaction between gender and ethnicity was not significant. We found an overall prevalence for BDD of 2.2%. Although these are the first data on the prevalence of BDD in an ethnically diverse group of adolescents, they are consistent with the other study on the prevalence of BDD in a predominantly Caucasian group of college students.     

Performance on a Mirror-Drawing Task by Non-Right-Handers

Left-, mixed-, and right-handed (each n = 10, N = 30) adolescent boys who were classified on the basis of a hand preference inventory performed a mirror-drawing task with a bilateral transfer of a skill paradigm. Participants' hand preference and the magnitude of bilateral transfer of skill were assessed in terms of errors committed and time taken to complete the mirror-drawing task. Mixed-handed participants exhibited significantly less habit interference for mirror drawing, and they performed the task significantly faster than the left-handers did; the group difference was not significant for the frequency of errors committed. These groups did not differ in terms of the magnitude of bilateral transfer of skill; the trend, however, showed that the transfer of skill was minimum in mixed-handers. These findings extend the theory that mixed-handed participants' inability to transfer motor skill from one hand to the other could be attributable to their lack of a clear pattern of lateralization. Their ability to perform well either at initial or later trials may be a function of less interference from their normal motor habits.     

An exploratory study of the draw-a-person as a measure of racial identity.

The race of the figure drawn on the Draw-A-Person Test is proposed as a measure of acceptance of racial identity. Reliability and validity of this measure were explored in a two-part study. Part 1 confirmed the hypothesis that the race of the figure drawn is related to the race of the child producing the drawing. Comparison of the figures drawn by black (n = 157) and white (n = 167) children confirmed three other hypotheses based on the voluminous literature suggesting that black children are less accepting of their racial group membership than whites. These hypotheses were: (a) whites should be more likely to draw figures that are clearly white than blacks are to draw figures that are clearly black, (b) whites should be less likely to draw blacks than blacks are to draw whites, and (c) blacks should be more likely to avoid giving clear indication of the race of the figures they draw than are whites. Inter-rater reliability for the race of the figure drawn was .79. Five weeks after the initial drawing, a subsample of 28 black children drew a second figure and performed a picture choice task designed to assess acceptance of racial identity. The race of the figure drawn showed a test-retest reliability of .53 and correlated significantly with the other measure of racial identity (r27 = .39).     

"This strange disease": adolescent transference and the analyst's sexual orientation

The treatment of adolescents by gay analysts is uncharted territory regarding the impact of the analyst's sexuality on the analytic process. Since a core challenge of adolescence involves the integration of the adult sexual body, gender role, and reproductive capacities into evolving identity, and since adolescents seek objects in their environment to facilitate both identity formation and the establishment of autonomy from primary objects, the analyst's sexual orientation is arguably a potent influence on the outcome of adolescent development. However, because sexual orientation is a less visible characteristic of the analyst than gender, race, or age, for example, the line between reality and fantasy is less clearly demarcated. This brings up special considerations regarding discovery and disclosure in the treatment. To explore these issues, the case of a late adolescent girl in treatment with a gay male analyst is presented. In this treatment, the question of the analyst's sexual orientation, and the demand by the patient for the analyst's self-disclosure, became a transference nucleus around which the patient's individual dynamics and adolescent dilemmas could be explored and clarified.     

A Method for the Evaluation of Affective Associations to Figure Drawings

Usual scoring systems for figure drawing techniques are based on structural and content aspects of the drawing, and ignore the affectively toned associations that occur when an observer first sees a drawing. A system for measuring two components of judgment, (a) emission of affective associations (b) evaluation of affective associations, has been developed. This method was applied with some success in studying individuals who had represented in their drawings an image that corresponded to their actual physical appearance. The research so far suggests that the evaluation component of judgment may contribute more to discrimination than the emission component.     

Adolescent Heterosexual Males Talk About the Role of Male Peer Groups in Their Sexual Decision-Making

This research draws on in-depth, one-on-one interviews with a racially and ethnically diverse sample of 17 adolescent males, both virgins and non-virgins, to explore how they use talk to construct their sexual selves and present themselves as sexual decision-makers. The emphasis here is how some of the boys (n = 8) drew upon a particular discourse in their self-productions and implicated male peer groups in that production. I introduce the concept of the male fraternity and show how its particular qualities mediate boys’ sense of masculinity and belonging, as well as their understanding of females as sex partners. Attention is also paid to how the group context generates social control features that limit individual resistance to collective understandings about gender and sexuality. The findings require corroboration but suggest important ways in which adolescent talk and male peer groups are implicated in the production of male sexuality and the denial of female subjectivity.

The Measurement of Negative After-Images in First-Grade Boys and Girls

Three days prior to sexual integration of a residential school for delinquent adolescent females, 85 students participated in a survey of attitudes towards boys. Factor analysis of the 21 item survey yielded eight factors. The Ss also completed a semantic differential (SD) for “myself,” “boy,” and “girl.” Ss were assigned to one of three gender-identity groups for male identification, female identification, and uncertain identification based on SD profile matching. A second survey was conducted two months after sexual integration of the school. Data were collected on 49 of the original sample. Results showed significant changes for the male identity group toward rejection of the male role. The uncertain identity group increased identification with the feminine role. As anticipated, no changes appeared for the female identity group. Findings suggest that sexual integration of adolescent reform institutions is effective in avoiding sex-role diffusion.     

Father Knows Best: Paternal Presence and Sexual Debut in African‐American Adolescents Living in Poverty

Adolescents found within single‐parent families without a residential father have reported higher levels of sexual debut and higher levels of reported pregnancy. Using data from the Mobile Youth Survey, the purpose of this study is to determine the impact of the presence of a father figure on the sexual debut of African‐American adolescents living in poverty and to determine if gender moderates the relationship between the presence of a father figure and sexual debut. Additionally, this study will examine the family processes in which the presence of a father figure can affect the sexual debut of African‐American adolescents who live within economically and socially disadvantaged communities. The results revealed that African‐American adolescents reporting a father figure had lower rates of sexual debut than those youth reporting no father figure. Gender was not found to be a significant moderator in the relationship between father figure presence and sexual debut. However, existing curfews and family rules did account for some of the effects of presence of a father figure and sexual debut. The results suggest that when adolescents have a father figure in their lives, it may reduce the possibility of early sexual debut.     

Adolescent–parent attachment characteristics and quality of youth sport friendship

ObjectivesTo examine the link between security of adolescent–parent attachment relationships and experiences of friendship quality in male team sport participants.Design and methodNinety six male adolescents involved in team sports completed self-report assessments of relationship security with a key parental attachment figure and of the nature of their friendship with a nominated sporting best friend. Teammates and coaches also provided ratings related to how easy they found it to get along with participants.ResultsResults provided evidence that the nature of the adolescent–parent attachment relationship was significantly related to sporting friendship experiences. More secure adolescent–parent attachment characteristics corresponded to more positive sporting friendships. Furthermore, sporting friendship dyads where both friends reported more secure attachment relations with parents were experienced more positively than dyads where both friends were less securely attached to parents or even where one friend was less securely attached.ConclusionThere is a suggestion that adolescent attachment relations with parents are indicative of underpinning working models of attachment that may subsequently influence the manner in which youngsters negotiate friendships in sporting contexts.     

Sexual ambiguity in children's human figure drawings

Four hundred sixty-one children in grades 5-9 drew a person and indicated the sex of their human figure drawing. A significant number (8%) of children were unable to classify their drawings as to sex; the frequency of uncertainty did not vary with grade or sex of child. Inability to determine the sex of one's own drawing is hypothesized to be a conceptual rather than a perceptual problem, and to reflect uncertainty about the essence of sexual identification.