Development and validation of the masculine behavior scale: A measure of behaviors stereotypically attributed to males vs. females

The purpose of the present investigation was to develop and validate the Masculine Behavior Scale (MBS), an objective self-report instrument designed to measure four behavioral tendencies stereotypically imputed more to males vs. females: restrictive emotionality, inhibited affection, success dedication, and exaggerated self-reliance. Psychometric analyses confirmed the factorial structure and reliabilities of the subscales on the MBS, and other results provided evidence for the validity of the four MBS subscales. Specifically, it was found that the behavioral measures of success dedication and exaggerated self-reliance were positively correlated with instrumental personality attributes, while restrictive emotionality and inhibited affection behavioral tendencies were negatively correlated with expressive personality attributes. Additional findings indicated that both male and female subjects attributed restrictive emotionality, inhibited affection, success dedication, and exaggerated self-reliance more to males vs. females. However, when males and females were asked to describe themselves, no gender differences emerged for behaviors associated with success dedication and exaggerated self-reliance; females did, however, report engaging in fewer emotionally restricted and affectively inhibited behaviors than did males. The discussion focuses on the distinction between gender-related behavioral tendencies and both gender-related role tendencies and gender-related personality tendencies.     

权力对压力应对行为倾向的影响：认知评估的中介作用

摘 要 采用实验法探讨权力对压力应对行为的影响以及认知评估在二者关系中的作用。实验一通过回忆法操纵权力,测量被试在压力情境下的认知评估和行为倾向。结果发现,权力水平影响压力下的生理反应,高权力者产生挑战,低权力者产生威胁;认知评估在权力和压力应对行为倾向间起中介作用。实验二进一步探究了权力对压力应对行为的影响,结果发现认知评估中介权力和压力应对行为倾向,且不同权力水平者的压力应对行为存在显著差异。     

刻板印象从内容模型到系统模型的发展与应用

21世纪以来,在刻板印象研究中最受瞩目的当属刻板印象内容模型（Stereotype Content Model, SCM）的提出。它通过热情和能力二个维度区分对不同群体的刻板印象。新近的系统模型则将SCM与群际情绪、行为反应相结合,并凸现了道德维度,开创性地提出了群际情绪-刻板印象-行为趋向系统模型（Behaviors from Intergroup Affect and Stereotypes Map, BIAS Map）。这一系统模型是对刻板印象内容模型的有意义延伸,同时二者的有机结合进一步促进了刻板印象内群体与群体间研究的整合性,较之又增添了认知-情绪-行为与刻板印象预测之间的联结。     

Presenting problems of sexually abused girls receiving psychiatric services

Twenty-three behaviors among those suggested in the literature to be associated with sexual abuse were studied in 195 girls, ages 2-18 years, who were consecutive admissions to three Midwestern mental health agencies. Results indicated that sexually inappropriate behaviors, sleep disturbance, depressed mood, and delinquent behavior occurred more frequently in young abuse victims than in clinic comparisons. Sexually inappropriate behaviors and running away appeared more often in older sexually abused girls, than they appeared in older clinic comparisons. These comparisons of the presenting problems of sexually abused and nonabused girls suggested there are few behavioral "markers" of sexual abuse in clinical samples and that sexual abuse may not be a unique contributing factor in the ontogeny of childhood psychopathology.     

The socialization of prosocial behavioral tendencies among Mexican American adolescents: The role of familism values

This study investigates the role of familism values in fostering socialization experiences that promote prosocial behavioral tendencies among Mexican American adolescents. Two hundred and four Mexican American mothers and their adolescent children (104 girls, age M = 10.91 years) completed measures of familism values, prosocial parenting practices, and prosocial behavioral tendencies. Structural equation modeling tests indicated that mothers' familism values are related to parenting behaviors that promote prosocial behavioral tendencies, which in turn are related to adolescents' perception of prosocial parenting practices. Furthermore, adolescents' perception of prosocial parenting practices is related to familism values and prosocial behavior tendencies. Last, the relation between adolescents' perception of prosocial parenting practices and prosocial behavioral tendencies is partially mediated by familism values. These findings are consistent with the theoretical suggestion that the transmission of traditional familism values may serve as a social medium through which prosocial behavioral tendencies are fostered among Mexican American adolescents.     

Individual differences in emotion word processing: A diffusion model analysis

The exploratory study investigated individual differences in implicit processing of emotional words in a lexical decision task. A processing advantage for positive words was observed, and differences between happy and fear-related words in response times were predicted by individual differences in specific variables of emotion processing: Whereas more pronounced goal-directed behavior was related to a specific slowdown in processing of fear-related words, the rate of spontaneous eye blinks (indexing brain dopamine levels) was associated with a processing advantage of happy words. Estimating diffusion model parameters revealed that the drift rate (rate of information accumulation) captures unique variance of processing differences between happy and fear-related words, with highest drift rates observed for happy words. Overall emotion recognition ability predicted individual differences in drift rates between happy and fear-related words. The findings emphasize that a significant amount of variance in emotion processing is explained by individual differences in behavioral data.     

The BIAS map: behaviors from intergroup affect and stereotypes

In the present research, consisting of 2 correlational studies (N = 616) including a representative U.S. sample and 2 experiments (N = 350), the authors investigated how stereotypes and emotions shape behavioral tendencies toward groups, offering convergent support for the behaviors from intergroup affect and stereotypes (BIAS) map framework. Warmth stereotypes determine active behavioral tendencies, attenuating active harm (harassing) and eliciting active facilitation (helping). Competence stereotypes determine passive behavioral tendencies, attenuating passive harm (neglecting) and eliciting passive facilitation (associating). Admired groups (warm, competent) elicit both facilitation tendencies; hated groups (cold, incompetent) elicit both harm tendencies. Envied groups (competent, cold) elicit passive facilitation but active harm; pitied groups (warm, incompetent) elicit active facilitation but passive harm. Emotions predict behavioral tendencies more strongly than stereotypes do and usually mediate stereotype-to-behavioral-tendency links.     

Social isolation inhibits male-like sexual behavior in female hamsters

In the female golden hamster, Mesocricetus auratus, group housing permits the expression of male-like behavioral patterns including mounting and pelvic thrusting toward an estrous stimulus female. Sixty percent of females housed in groups of five showed these behaviors, while singly housed females were rarely observed to show mounting or thrusting. Females weaned at 19 or 35 days of age did not differ in their tendencies to show male-like behavioral patterns. Virtually all observations of mounting and pelvic thrusting behaviors were made on days when the females being tested were in behavioral estrus. These findings differ from previous studies which have reported that masculine behavioral patterns are rare in normal female hamsters. In previous studies females that were evaluated were typically not in behavioral estrus and were not housed for long periods of time with other intact females. Social factors interact with hormonal state to contribute to the expression of male-like behaviors in female hamsters.     

Are Female Action Heroes Risky Role Models? Character Identification, Idealization, and Viewer Aggression

Although research has shown that affinity for aggressive media characters is linked to greater aggressive tendencies, the increasingly prevalent female action hero has received little empirical scrutiny to date. The present study surveyed 85 undergraduate women in Michigan, United States to determine whether identification with and/or idealization (wishful identification) of a favorite female action hero was associated with aggressive tendencies. Results show that behavioral idealization of an action hero was linked to increased self-reported aggressive behaviors and feelings. Behavioral identification (perceived similarity), by contrast, was not significantly associated with behavioral or affective aggression and showed an inverse relationship with relational aggression. Findings highlight the potentially distinct psychological mechanisms and consequences for idealizing vs. identifying with a favorite female action character.     

Training children to approach or avoid novel animals: Effects on self-reported attitudes and fear beliefs and information-seeking behaviors

We examined the effects of training to approach or avoid novel animals on fear-related responses in children. Ninety-nine primary school children (9–12 years old) were instructed to repeatedly move a manikin toward or away from pictures of novel animals. The training produced more positive self-reported attitudes for the animal that was repeatedly approached and more negative attitudes for the animal that was repeatedly avoided. After the training, children reported more fear of the avoided animal than of the approached animal. Interestingly, children showed a training-congruent confirmation bias effect on an information-seeking task. That is, they displayed a tendency to seek more positive information about the approached animal, whereas they were inclined to search for more negative information about the avoided animal. No significant training effects were observed on implicit attitudes. The finding that a simple approach-avoidance training influences children’s fear-related responses and leads to biased information-seeking behaviors lends support to general theories of fear acquisition in children as well as to models that try to explain the intergenerational transmission of anxiety.     

Treatment of a four-year-old victim of incest

Abstract

A case study describing the use of behavior techniques in the treatment of a four—year—old sexual assault victim is presented. The target behaviors included eating, phobic behaviors, self—injurious behaviors, and comments made about the father (the perpetrator) and the paternal grandmother. The child's mother served as both data collector and therapist. The study demonstrates that child victims can experience a sexual assault trauma syndrome similar to that manifested by adult victims. Additionally, the findings illustrate that a simple behavioral intervention implemented by a parent can be effective in treating young sexual assault victims.     

Context-specific freezing and associated physiological reactivity as a dysregulated fear response

The putative association between fear-related behaviors and peripheral sympathetic and neuroendocrine reactivity has not been replicated consistently. This inconsistency was addressed in a reexamination of the characterization of children with extreme fearful reactions by focusing on the match between distress behaviors and the eliciting context. Eighty 24-month-old children were observed in 4 mildly threatening contexts, and the relations among different measures of fear-related behaviors, reactive and basal cortisol levels, and baseline cardiac measures of heart rate, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, and preejection period (PEP) were examined. The hypothesis that only behaviors under the less threatening context would be associated with higher cortisol and sympathetic cardiac activity was confirmed; only task-specific freezing behavior predicted higher reactive and basal cortisol levels and resting PEP measured 1 week later. Implications for the conceptualization of dysregulated fear behaviors in the classification of extremely fearful children are discussed.     

E-mail, decisional styles, and rest breaks.

E-mail is a common but problematic work application. A scale was created to measure tendencies to use e-mail to take breaks (e-breaking); and self-esteem and decisional style (vigilance, procrastination, buck-passing, hypervigilance) were used to predict the self-reported and actual e-mail behaviors of 133 participants (students and marketing employees). Individuals who were low in defensive avoidance (buck-passing) engaged in more e-mailing per week, both in time spent on e-mail and message volume. E-breakers were more likely to engage in behavioral procrastination and spent more time on personal e-mail.     

Ambivalence About Interpersonal Problems and Traits Predicts Cross‐Situational Variability of Social Behavior

Multiple theoretical perspectives suggest that maladjusted personality is characterized by not only distress, but also opposing or “ambivalent” self‐perceptions and behavioral lability across social interactions. However, the degree to which ambivalence about oneself predicts cross‐situational variability in social behavior has not been examined empirically. Using the interpersonal circumplex (IPC) as a nomological framework, the present study investigated the extent to which endorsing opposing or “ambivalent” tendencies on IPC measures predicted variability in social behavior across a range of hypothetical interpersonal scenarios (Part 1; N = 288) and naturalistic social interactions (Part 2; N = 192). Ambivalent responding for interpersonal problems and traits was associated with measures of distress, maladaptive interpersonal tendencies, and greater variability of social behavior across both hypothetical and daily social interactions, though more consistently for interpersonal problems. More conservative tests suggested that ambivalence predicted some indexes of behavioral variability even when accounting for mean levels and squared means of social behaviors, vector length, gender, and depressive symptoms. Results suggest that processes theorized as typifying personality disorder may apply more broadly to personality maladjustment occurring outside of clinical samples.     

Exhibitionistic Human Movement Responses of Strippers: An Attempt to Validate the Rorschach M

A group of women employed as strippers produced significantly more exhibitionistic M on the Rorschach than three other matched control groups. Results were interpreted as supporting the position that the human movement response is related to actual behavioral tendencies.     

Gender as a Moderator for the Relationship Between BAS-Drive and Disordered Eating Behaviors

Individuals with highly active behavioral activation (BAS) motivational systems are at increased risk for disordered eating behaviors (Bijttebier et al. 2009). The current study examined gender differences in the relationship between motivational tendencies and disordered eating behaviors by administering self-report measures to a sample of 352 college undergraduate students from a Midwestern university in the United States. The goal-driven facet of BAS (BAS-Drive) was a stronger predictor of muscle development behaviors for men than for women. In addition, higher levels of BAS-Drive were associated with greater dietary restraint among males, but not among females. Findings from the current study suggest that gender plays an important role in the relationship between BAS-Drive tendencies and eating disorder behaviors.     

Esteem and control bases of blame: "Adaptive" strategies for victims versus observers

An experiment was conducted to determine the esteem and control correlates of behavioral and characterological blame for victims and observers. On the basis of a proposed motivation to minimize perceptions of vulnerability, it was predicted that behavioral self-blame would be “adaptive” for victims, whereas both behavioral and characterological blame of the victim would be “adaptive” for observers. As hypothesized, behavioral self-blame by victims was associated with high self-esteem and perceptions of future avoid ability of the victimization, whereas both behavioral and characterological blame by observers were associated with high self-esteem. Behavioral blame was more likely to be engaged in by victims than by observers, and characterological blame was more likely to be engaged in by low esteem victims and high esteem observers. The study employed a role-playing/observer methodology. The adequacy of this methodology and the generalizability of results to actual victim/observer populations are discussed.     

Dyadic nominations of bullying: Comparing types of bullies and their victims

Previous studies indicate that when identifying individuals involved in bullying, the concordance between self- and peer- reports is low to moderate. There is support that self- and peer- identified victims constitute distinct types of victims and differ in adjustment. Likewise, differentiating between self- and peer- reports of bullying may also reveal distinct types of bullies. The goal of this study was to examine differences between types of bullies identified via dyadic nominations (self-identified, victim-identified, and self/victim identified). First, we examined the concordance between dyadic nominations of bullying and traditional measures of bullying (i.e., self- and peer-reports). Second, we compared the behavioral profiles of the bully types to nonbullies, with a focus on aggressive behaviors and social status. Third, we examined whether the types of bullies targeted victims with different levels of popularity, as well as the role of their own popularity and prioritizing of popularity. Participants were 1,008 Dutch adolescents (50.1% male, M_age = 14.14 years, standard deviation [SD] = 1.30) who completed a classroom assessment of dyadic nominations, peer nominations, and self-report items. Results indicated that victim identified and self/victim identified bullies were more aggressive, more popular, and less socially preferred than self-identified bullies and nonbullies. Self/victim identified bullies targeted victims with the highest social status. The association between bully type and victims' popularity was further qualified by bullies' own popularity and the degree to which they prioritized popularity. Implications for the implementation of dyadic nominations are discussed.     

A behavioral route to dysfunctional representations: The effects of training approach or avoidance tendencies towards novel animals in children

We examined the effects of training to approach or avoid novel animals on fear-related responses in children. Ninety-five primary school children (9-13 years old) were instructed to repeatedly push away or pull closer pictures of novel animals. We tested whether this manipulation would lead to changes in self-reported attitudes, implicit attitudes, fear beliefs, and avoidance behaviors towards these animals.The training produced more positive self-reported attitudes towards the pulled animal and more negative attitudes towards the pushed animal. After the training, girls reported more fear and avoidance of the pushed animal than of the pulled animal, while such training effects were absent in boys. No significant training effects were observed on implicit attitudes. Interestingly, the level of anxiety disorder symptoms prior to training was related to some of the training effects: Stronger prior fear was related to stronger changes in self-reported attitudes, and in boys, also to fear beliefs.The finding that a simple approach-avoidance training influences children's fear-related responses lends support to general theories of fear acquisition in children as well as to models that try to explain the intergenerational transmission of anxiety. [184 words]     

Association between measures of aggression and bullying among juvenile and young offenders

This study addresses the relationship between aggression and behaviors indicative of bullying in a sample of incarcerated male juvenile and young offenders. The study also addresses whether or not offenders who bully others and/or are bullied themselves can be identified by the type of aggression that they report. Ninety‐five juvenile and 196 young offenders completed a self‐report behavioral checklist (DIPC: Direct and Indirect Prisoner Behavior Checklist) that addressed their experience of and involvement in behaviors indicative of bullying. They also completed the Aggression Questionnaire (AQ), a measure of physical and verbal aggression, anger and hostility. Four categories of offenders were identified from the DIPC ‐ pure bullies, pure victims, those who were both bullies and victims (bully/victims), and those not‐involved in bullying behavior. As predicted, behaviors measured on the DIPC that were indicative of ‘bullying others’ correlated positively with scores on the AQ. There was no indication, however, that physical AQ and physical bullying on the DIPC were the same constructs. There was a closer association between verbal AQ scores and verbal bullying on the DIPC. Bullies and bully/victims reported higher levels of physical and verbal aggression, and bully/victims reported higher levels of hostility and anger, than the other categories. It is concluded that although there are similarities between the AQ and the DIPC, there is no evidence that they are measuring the same type of aggression, although different groups involved in bullying can be partly distinguished by their scores on the AQ. Aggr. Behav. 30:29–42, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.