Victoria's dirty secret: how sociocultural norms influence adolescent girls and women

The present studies tested whether the salience of sociocultural norms for ideal appearance leads women to base their self-worth more strongly on appearance, which in turn leads them to feel more concerned with others' perceptions and less satisfied with their bodies. Study 1 tested this model by manipulating the salience of the sociocultural norm among female university students. The model was supported. In Study 2 an intervention challenging the legitimacy of the sociocultural norm was delivered to female and male adolescents. Compared to controls, females who received this intervention were less accepting of the sociocultural norms for appearance, based their self-worth less strongly on appearance, and in turn were less concerned with others' perceptions and were more satisfied with their bodies. The implications for women are discussed.     

Attitudes of Potential Providers Towards Preconceptional Cystic Fibrosis Carrier Screening

To determine the attitudes of potential providers (general practitioners and Community Health Service workers) towards preconceptual cystic fibrosis (CF) carrier screening and to determine which factors are associated with a positive attitude. A survey was conducted among 200 general practitioners (GPs) and 134 Community Health Service (CHS) workers. Fifty-two percent of the eligible GPs participated and 84% of the CHS workers. Fifty-five percent of the GPs and 73% of the CHS workers had a positive attitude towards routinely offering CF carrier screening, and more than 80% were in favor of informing the target population about the possibility of having a CF carrier test. A positive attitude was associated with (a) high perceived severity of CF, (b) religion (nonreligious compared to Reformed), (c) low perceived barriers, and (d) high perceived test reliability. The care providers who are most likely to be involved in a preconceptual CF carrier screening program, i.e. GPs and CHS workers, generally have a positive attitude towards the implementation of such a program.     

Health-related quality of life in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and proliferative lupus nephritis

This study investigated the influence of two different treatments for a kidney inflammation (i.e. proliferative lupus nephritis) on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with the chronic auto-immune disease systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). One treatment protocol, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) protocol, was characterized by a high dose of cyclophosphamide (CYC, an immunosuppressive drug), and the second treatment, the Euro-Lupus protocol, involved a low-dose CYC. Thirty-two SLE patients were included based on the received treatment for an episode of proliferative lupus nephritis, according to either the Euro-Lupus or the NIH protocol. The two groups were compared on HRQoL as measured by the SF-36 and the SLE Symptom Checklist (SSC). The Euro-Lupus group (N?=?16) tended to show a higher HRQoL than the NIH group (N?=?16) on four of seven scales of the SF-36. In addition, the Euro-Lupus group experienced less burden from nausea or vomiting than the NIH group as assessed by the SSC. Fatigue was the most disturbing symptom in both groups. The most burdensome aspects of treatment were related to chemotherapy (55.2%) and use of prednisone (34.5%). Patients with a low HRQoL and high levels of fatigue were more likely to have low levels of serum complement C4 (i.e. elevated immune activity). In conclusion, patients who are treated according to the Euro-Lupus protocol may experience a higher HRQoL than patients who receive the NIH treatment. However, chemotherapy remains burdensome in the low-dose treatment regimen. Potential interventions to further enhance the HRQoL in SLE patients with proliferative lupus nephritis are discussed.     

Do They Know How Happy They Are? On the Value of Self-Rated Happiness of People With a Mental Disorder

Quality of life is often measured using questions about happiness. This method presumes that respondents are able to judge their life. Research suggest that this is typically the case, but this is not to say that everybody can. In that context one may doubt whether people with a mental disorder can judge their life adequately. Happiness can be rejected as a indicator for quality of life for people with mental disorders, because of affective and cognitive distortions. We therefore checked the validity of happiness and satisfaction measures in the context of mental disorders. Psychiatric diagnoses were determined at baseline and at 12 and 36 months follow-up in a representative sample (N = 7,076) of the Dutch population, using a full Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Respondents indicated how often they had felt happy during the past month and how satisfied they were with their lives in general. The measurements have a satisfactory concurrent, ecological and predictive validity for people with mental disorders. Though the level of happiness is lower among the people with mental disorders, conditions for happiness and contentment appear to be similar.     

The Loreley of Happiness

Sara Ahmed has written a highly original book on happiness by not focusing on the content, but on the context in which the word happiness is used. Her chapters are titled Feminist Killjoys, Unhappy Queers, Melancholic Mirgants and Happy Futures. Ahmed convincingly shows that the pursuit of happiness may have unintended side-effects in different social contexts, and she has collected al lot of stories and ideas that provide a backbone for the book. The ideological critique provided by Ahmed would have been a lot stronger if she would have used data from empirical studies to judge her own ideas.     

Mimicry and prosocial behavior

Abstract— Recent studies have shown that mimicry occurs unintentionally and even among strangers. In the present studies, we investigated the consequences of this automatic phenomenon in order to learn more about the adaptive function it serves. In three studies, we consistently found that mimicry increases prosocial behavior. Participants who had been mimicked were more helpful and generous toward other people than were nonmimicked participants. These beneficial consequences of mimicry were not restricted to behavior directed toward the mimicker, but included behavior directed toward people not directly involved in the mimicry situation. These results suggest that the effects of mimicry are not simply due to increased liking for the mimicker, but are due to increased prosocial orientation in general.     

Consequences of stereotype suppression and internal suppression motivation: a self-regulation approach

The present research studied the effects of suppression of stereotypes on subsequent stereotyping. Moreover, the moderating influence of motivation to suppress stereotypes was examined. The first three experiments showed that suppression of stereotypes leads to the experience of engaging in self-control (Study 1), to depleted regulatory resources as indicated by worse performance on an unrelated subsequent task that involves self-regulation (Study 2), and to hyperaccessibility of the suppressed thoughts (Study 3). However, these effects were moderated by internal suppression motivation: Increased self-control, depleted regulatory resources, and hyperaccessibility of suppressed thoughts only occur for people with low internal suppression motivation. Furthermore, in line with the argument that depletion of regulatory resources after suppression also should result in increased stereotyping in general, it was found that suppression of a specific stereotype leads to an increased use of stereotypes in general, but only for people with low internal suppression motivation (Study 4).     

Preference for copying unambiguous demonstrations in dogs (Canis familiaris)

In an earlier study (P. Pongracz et al., 2001), it was shown that human demonstration significantly enhances the detouring ability of dogs (Canis familiaris) around a V-shaped fence. The authors investigated the effect of the direction of the demonstrated detour and the dogs' detouring experience. They found that dogs' trial-and-error experience influences strongly the direction of the dogs' detours later, even if the demonstrator showed detours along the opposite side of the fence. However, dogs' preferences based on their own experiences were changed when the dogs observed demonstrations only on 1 side of the fence. Dogs with no trial-and-error experience followed the direction of 1-sided demonstrations. The change from dogs' own directions to the demonstrated directions seems not to be due to simple facilitative effects of social experience; the similarity with the demonstrated action depends on complex interactions between individual experience and socially provided information.     

(Re) defining salesperson motivation: current status,main challenges,and research directions

The construct of motivation is one of the central themes in selling and sales management research. Yet, to-date no review article exists that surveys the construct (both from an extrinsic and intrinsic motivation context), critically evaluates its current status, examines various key challenges apparent from the extant research, and suggests new research opportunities based on a thorough review of past work. The authors explore how motivation is defined, major theories underpinning motivation, how motivation has historically been measured, and key methodologies used over time. In addition, attention is given to principal drivers and outcomes of salesperson motivation. A summarizing appendix of key articles in salesperson motivation is provided.