2D:4D in men is related to aggressive dominance but not to sociable dominance

It has been shown that a smaller ratio between the length of the second and fourth digit (2D:4D) is an indicator of the exposure to prenatal testosterone (T). This study measured the 2D:4D of men and assessed dominance as a personality trait to investigate indirectly if the exposure to prenatal T is related to a dominant personality later in life. Results showed that men had a more aggressive dominant personality when having a more masculine (lower) 2D:4D, while there was no relationship between sociable dominance and 2D:4D. Findings from this study indicate that it is important to distinguish different forms of dominance since other studies failed to find relationships between dominance and 2D:4D.     

Medusa’s Gaze Reflected: A Darwinian Dilemma for Anti-Realist Theories of Value

Street has argued that the meta-ethical realist is faced with a dilemma. Either evolutionary forces have had a distorting influenced on our ability to track moral properties or evolutionary forces influenced our beliefs in the direction of tracking moral properties. Street argues that if the realist accepts the first horn of the dilemma, the realist must accept implausible skepticism regarding moral beliefs. If the realist accepts the second horn of the dilemma, the realist owes an explanation of the fitness producing nature of moral beliefs. As Street establishes the dialectic, the anti-realist’s explanation is better. I will argue that Street’s first horn is question begging then I will grasp the second horn of the dilemma and argue that only the realist can explain the role of moral beliefs in our evolutionary history. My argument will take the form of a dilemma. For our evaluative judgments to be fitness conducive, they must be responsive to the right sort of external world properties. The non-reductive realist can provide such a set of properties. On the first horn of the dilemma, the anti-realist cannot. The realist, unlike the anti-realist, can explain why our evaluative judgments are fitness conducive. The realist has won the explanatory battle. On the second horn of the dilemma, the anti-realist can provide a set of non-normative external world properties that our evaluative attitudes are responsive to. In doing so, the anti-realist has provided the heretofore-missing component of the reductive realist’s project. Again, the realist has won.     

Reciprocal relationships between three aspects of physical self-concept,vigorous physical activity,and lung function: A longitudinal study among late adolescents

ObjectivesThis prospective study, of older adolescents, investigated relationships between three aspects of physical self-concept, vigorous physical activity and lung function. In particular, physical competence, general appearance evaluations and body areas satisfaction were expected to predict subsequent physical activity, which, in turn, was expected to explain variation in lung function. In line with the reciprocal effect model, bi-directorial relationships were also tested. Gender was expected to moderate hypothesized relationships.DesignA longitudinal design, with three measurement points (baseline, 2-month follow-up, and 14-month follow-up) was employed.Method551 late adolescents (15–18 years old) provided self-reported data on physical activity, physical competence, body areas satisfaction, and appearance evaluation. Body weight, height, and a lung function index (forced expiratory volume in 1 s, FEV₁) were measured at baseline and at the 14-month follow-up.ResultsModerated mediation analyses indicated that physical competence at baseline predicted vigorous physical activity (2-month follow-up) among young men and women. Baseline body satisfaction and appearance evaluation were also related to vigorous physical activity (2-month follow-up) and this relationship was stronger for men. Vigorous physical activity predicted FEV₁ (14-month follow-up) and this relationship was stronger among women. The reciprocal pattern of relationships was not confirmed.ConclusionsFindings suggest that health promoting interventions should focus particularly on vigorous physical activity among young women, for example by boosting their physical competence.     

High and mighty: Height increases authority in professional refereeing

Throughout the animal kingdom, larger males are more likely to attain social dominance. Several lines of evidence suggest that this relationship extends to humans, as height is positively related to dominance, status and authority. We hypothesized that height is also a determinant of authority in professional refereeing. According to the International Football Association Board, FIFA, football ("soccer") referees have full authority to enforce the laws of the game and should use their body language to show authority and to help control the match. We show that height is indeed positively related to authority status: referees were taller than their assistants (who merely have an advisory role) in both a national (French League) and an international (World Cup 2010) tournament. Furthermore, using data from the German League, we found that height was positively associated with authoritative behavior. Taller referees were better able to maintain control of the game by giving fewer fouls, thereby increasing the "flow of the game". Referee height was also positively associated with perceived referee competence, as taller referees were assigned to matches in which the visiting team had a higher ranking. Thus, height appears to be positively related to authority in professional refereeing.     

Feedback Seeking Among Developmental Assessment Center Participants

This study examined 189 newly hired supervisors in the transportation industry who completed a developmental assessment center. The results showed that those who performed poorly in the assessment center, particularly on interpersonal dimensions, were less likely to initiate a scheduled feedback telephone call with an assigned coach. Implications and future research ideas are discussed.     

Levels of Analysis and Effects: Clarifying Group Influence and Climate by Separating Individual and Group Effects

This article addresses conceptual and methodological levels of analysis issues in research on work group and organizational settings. Using organizational climate data, it provides a detailed example of the use of a recent data analysis model (Kenny & La Voie, 1985) which separates individual and group effects. The reanalysis of an earlier study of organizational climate influences on three dependent variables (Giamartino & Wandersman, 1983) revealed that several important relationships between climate dimensions and the dependent variables were masked in the earlier study. Implications for potential misinterpretations within existing group and organizational research are drawn and suggestions for addressing theoretical and measurement problems involving climate research are offered.     

Changes in resident mix in nursing homes: cognitive and sensory data from a (redesigned) sampling plan

In planning and implementing a study, we unintentionally and serendipitously obtained data about changes in resident mix over a 2.8-yr. period. We screened residents of a 184-bed nursing home for cognition and sensorium in October 1984 to assess sampling feasibility for a grant proposal in preparation. At that time, 65.2% of the residents met the sampling criteria. However, in July/August 1987, after award of funding, only 5.4% of residents of the same nursing home met the cognitive and sensory criteria. We were forced to recruit from an additional six nursing homes, in which only 9.3% of residents met the sampling criteria.     

Students' R]eactions to Teachers' E]valuations: The Unique Impact of Negative Feedback1

This study attempts to identify some of the processes mediating self-fulfilling prophecies in the classroom. Specifically, we hypothesized that negative feedback conveyed by teachers would influence students' p]erceptions of how the teacher viewed their success/failure, effort, ability and task difficulty more than positive feedback. In response to college students' s]core on an anagrams test, a (confederate) teacher expressed either positive, negative or no evaluative feedback. Questionnaires assessed students' s]elf-perceptions and perceptions of the teacher's evaluations of them. Consistent with our hypotheses, negative feedback was seen as a more credible indicator of the teacher's evaluation than positive feedback. Furthermore, negative feedback led students to believe that the teacher held an extremely unfavorable but inaccurate impression of their effort and ability and that the teacher underestimated the difficulty of the task. There were few differences between the effects of positive feedback and no feedback, and there were no significant effects on self-perceptions. These findings suggest new insights into negativity effects in evaluations and into the mechanisms underlying self-fulfilling prophecies.     

Stimulus control of spatial behavior on the eight-arm maze in rats

Rats were trained on an eight-arm, elevated radial maze in a large cylindrical chamber where extramaze stimuli could be manipulated. The first experiment indicated that rats could use extramaze stimuli to locate the arms if such stimuli were available, whereas they performed less effectively and tended to employ response chaining if these stimuli were not available. The second experiment demonstrated that maze performance was disrupted by transposition of the stimuli but was relatively unaffected by rotation of the same stimuli. The third experiment suggested that the disruptive effect of stimulus transposition might be due to a “resetting” process elicited by the alteration in the configuration of the stimuli after stimulus transposition. These results suggest that when extramaze stimuli are available, rats tend to use such stimuli in a configurational manner to locate the arms rather than as a list of items processed independently of their spatial relationships to each other.