Sociocultural expectations of attractiveness for males

Sociocultural expectations of attractiveness for women have been studied extensively, but little research has focused on this topic with males. Using the two most popular men's fashion magazines (GQand Esquire), this study examined article and advertisement content as well as male models' body sizes to determine the extent to which men have received messages from the media on how to behave (e.g., diet, exercise) and look over a 32 year period (i.e., 1960–1992). Linear trend analyses revealed that the number of messages concerning physical fitness and health have increased as has the general popularity of health and fitness activities. Messages concerning weight and beauty, however, have declined since the late 1970s. In spite of these changes, measures of male models' body sizes have not changed significantly since the 1960s. These findings are discussed in the context of the sociocultural approach to eating disorders and recommendations for future research are provided.     

Particularism and the Point of Moral Principles

According to radical moral particularists such as Jonathan Dancy, there are no substantive moral principles. And yet, few particularists wish to deny that something very like moral principles do indeed play a significant role in our everyday moral practice. Loathe at dismissing this as mere error on the part of everyday moral agents, particularists have proposed a number of alternative accounts of the practice. The aim of all of these accounts is to make sense of our appeal to general moral truths in both reaching and justifying our particular moral judgments without thereby violating the particularists' stricture against substantive moral principles. In this paper, I argue that the most prominent non-substantive accounts of moral generalities appealed to by radical particularists – the heuristic account and default reasons accounts – fail in this aim.     

The influence of dispositional optimism and gender on adolescents' perception of academic stress

This study investigated the role of optimism together with gender, on students' perception of academic stress. Four hundred and thirty secondary school students from Singapore participated in this study and data were collected using two self-report measures: the Life Orientation Test and the Academic Expectation Stress Inventory. Results revealed a significant negative relationship between optimism and academic stress in students. Gender was not a significant predictor of academic stress and no two-way interactions were found between optimism and gender of the participants. Possible explanations for the results were suggested and implications of the findings were discussed.     

Rādhātantram: Rādhā as Guru in the Service of the Great Goddess

International Journal of Hindu Studies - The Rādhātantram can serve as a tool with which to examine textual and doctrinal appropriations that took place between Vai??avas and...     

Portrait of the self-enhancer: well adjusted and well liked or maladjusted and friendless?

Research has variously portrayed self-enhancement as an indicator of narcissistic defensiveness or as a concomitant of mental health. To address this controversy, the present study used multiple measures of self-enhancement along with multiple measures and judges of mental health, comprehensively assessing their relationship. The results indicated that self-enhancement is positively associated with multiple indicators of mental health and with a more favorable impact on others. Discussion centers on a reconciliation of discrepant portraits of the self-enhancer.     

Paying attention to emotion: an fMRI investigation of cognitive and emotional stroop tasks

In this research, we investigated the degree to which brain systems involved in ignoring emotionally salient information differ from those involved in ignoring nonemotional information. The design allowed examination of regional brain activity, using fMRI during color-word and emotional Stroop tasks. Twelve participants indicated the color of words while ignoring word meaning in conditions in which neutral words were contrasted to emotionally negative, emotionally positive, and incongruent color words. Dorsolateral frontal lobe activity was increased by both negative and incongruent color words, indicating a common system for maintaining an attentional set in the presence of salient distractors. In posterior regions of the brain, activity depended on the nature of the information to be ignored. Ignoring color-incongruent words increased left parietal activity and decreased parahippocampal gyrus activity, whereas ignoring negative emotional words increased bilateral occipito-temporal activity and decreased amygdala activity. The results indicate that emotion and attention are intimately related via a network of regions that monitor for salient information, maintain attention on the task, suppress irrelevant information, and select appropriate responses.     

Distance Learning: Empathy and Culture in Junot Diaz’s “Wildwood”

This essay discusses critical approaches to culture, difference, and empathy in health care education through a reading of Junot Diaz’s “Wildwood” chapter from the 2007 novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. I begin with an analysis of the way that Diaz’s narrative invites readers to imagine and explore the experiences of others with subtlety and complexity. My reading of “Wildwood” illuminates its double-edged injunction to try to imagine another’s perspective while recognizing the limits to—or even the impossibility of—that exercise. I draw on post-colonial theory and feminist science studies to illuminate a text that is created and interpreted in a post-colonial context—the Dominican diaspora in the United States. The essay offers a model of historical and critical analysis that health care educators can use to frame the concept of empathy in the classroom and the clinic.