Do assortative preferences contribute to assortative mating for adiposity?

Assortative mating for adiposity, whereby levels of adiposity in romantic partners tend to be positively correlated, has implications for population health due to the combined effects of partners' levels of adiposity on fertility and/or offspring health. Although assortative preferences for cues of adiposity, whereby leaner people are inherently more attracted to leaner individuals, have been proposed as a factor in assortative mating for adiposity, there have been no direct tests of this issue. Because of this, and because of recent work suggesting that facial cues of adiposity convey information about others' health that may be particularly important for mate preferences, we tested the contribution of assortative preferences for facial cues of adiposity to assortative mating for adiposity (assessed from body mass index, BMI) in a sample of romantic couples. Romantic partners' BMIs were positively correlated and this correlation was not due to the effects of age or relationship duration. However, although men and women with leaner partners showed stronger preferences for cues of low levels of adiposity, controlling for these preferences did not weaken the correlation between partners' BMIs. Indeed, own BMI and preferences were uncorrelated. These results suggest that assortative preferences for facial cues of adiposity contribute little (if at all) to assortative mating for adiposity.     

Modulation of oculomotor capture by abrupt onsets during attentionally demanding visual search

The influence of abrupt onsets on attentionally demanding visual search (i.e., search for a letter target among heterogeneous letter distractors), as indexed by performance and eye movement measures, was investigated in a series of studies. In Experiments 1 and 2 we examined whether onsets would capture the eyes when the appearance of an onset predicted neither the location nor the identity of the target. Subjects did direct their eyes to the abrupt onsets on a disproportionate number of trials in these studies. Interestingly, however, onset capture was modulated by subjects' scan strategies. Furthermore, onsets captured the eyes less frequently than would have been predicted by paradigms showing attentional capture when no eye movements are required. Experiment 3 examined the question of whether onsets would capture the eyes in a situation in which they never served as the target. Capture was observed in this study. However, the magnitude of capture effects was substantially diminished as compared to previous behavioural studies in which the onset had a chance probability of serving as the target. These data are discussed in terms of the influence of top-down constraints on stimulus-driven attentional and oculomotor capture by abrupt onset stimuli.     

Biased reasoning: adaptive responses to health risk feedback

The present study examined reactions toward repeated self-relevant feedback. Participants in a community health screening received feedback about their cholesterol level on two separate occasions. Reactions to the first feedback were examined with regard to feedback valence and expectedness. The findings showed that negative feedback was devalued, but only when it was unexpected. Feedback consistency was incorporated into analyses of the second feedback. Again, results showed that negative feedback was not always devalued-only when it was inconsistent with the first feedback. Furthermore, positive feedback was not unconditionally accepted. When receiving unexpected positive feedback of low consistency, recipients were doubtful about its accuracy. Conversely, expected positive feedback was accepted regardless of its consistency. These results suggest that negative or unexpected positive feedbacks evoke greater sensitivity to feedback consistency, indicating elaborate cognitive processing. Theoretical accounts of these findings are discussed.     

Curiosity about people: the development of a social curiosity measure in adults

Curiosity refers to the desire for acquiring new information. The aim of this study was to develop a questionnaire to assess social curiosity, that is, interest in how other people think, feel, and behave. The questionnaire was administered to 312 participants. Factor analyses of the 10-item Social Curiosity Scale (SCS) yielded 2 factors: General Social Curiosity and Covert Social Curiosity. Evidence of convergent validity was provided by moderately high correlations of the SCS with other measures of curiosity and self-perceived curiosity, whereas discriminant validity was demonstrated by low correlations of the SCS with other personality traits, such as neuroticism and agreeableness. Of interest, social interaction anxiety was observed to facilitate covert social curiosity while inhibiting general social curiosity.     

Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) fail to show understanding of means-end connections in a string-pulling task

Domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) were tested in four experiments for their understanding of means-end connections. In each of the experiments, the dogs attempted to retrieve a food treat that could be seen behind a barrier and which was connected, via string, to a within-reach wooden block. In the experiments, either one or two strings were present, but the treat was attached only to one string. Successful retrieval of the treat required the animals to pull the appropriate string (either by pawing or by grasping the wooden block in their jaws) until the treat emerged from under the barrier. The results showed that the dogs were successful if the treat was in a perpendicular line to the barrier, i.e. straight ahead, but not when the string was at an angle: in the latter condition, the typical response was a proximity error in that the dogs pawed or mouthed at a location closest in line to the treat. When two strings that crossed were present, the dogs tended to pull on the wrong string. The combined results from the experiments show that, although dogs can learn to pull on a string to obtain food, they do not spontaneously understand means-end connections involving strings.     

Faking bad and faking good by college students on the Korean MMPI-2

Recent studies that have investigated the utility of MMPI-2 (Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, & Kaemmer, 1989) validity scales have shown the promising efficacy of these scales in detecting faking-good and faking-bad responses. However, existing research is confined to North America, and work in other cultures is still lacking. The purpose of this study lies in exploring the efficacy of MMPI-2 validity scales in South Korea. The F, Fb, F - K, and F(p) scales of the Korean MMPI-2 (Han, 1993) were able successfully to classify faking-bad participants. The L, K, and S scales of the Korean MMPI-2 were able successfully to classify faking-good participants. Overall, the results of this study suggest that the Korean MMPI-2 works well in discriminating dishonest responses, thus confirming the applicability of the MMPI-2 validity scales in a Korean context.     

Counting on Whiteness: Religion,race, ethnicity,and the politics of Jewish demography

American Jews have long been an anomaly for scholars concerned with understanding how they fit into extant social scientific or historical categories. Sometimes they seem best described as an ethnic group, other times as a religious one. This ambiguity has also vexed Jewish communal leaders whose desire to comprehend their communities has largely been underwritten by their intention to protect it. This intersection of sociological methods and schema and Jewish communal concerns has resulted in decisive omissions regarding how best to account for the racial and ethnic diversity of American Jews. An analysis of survey instruments used in 175 American Jewish population studies and community portraits conducted since 1970 reveals a focus on questions of religious practice and an avoidance of those about race and ethnicity, resulting in a “religio-racial formation” of American Jews as White. This approach to studying American Jewish life has marginalized or excluded non-White Jews while ensuring ongoing Jewish communal access to Whiteness without having to claim it explicitly.     

SPLITTING THE BEAM:

Abstract— In an effort to examine the flexibility with which attention can be allocated in visual space, we investigated whether subjects could selectively attend to multiple noncontiguous locations in the visual field We examined this issue by perching two separate areas of the visual field and requiring subjects to decide whether the letters that appeared in these locations matched or mismatched while distracters that pinned either the match or mismatch response were presented between the cued locations. If the distracters had no effect on performance, it would provide evidence that subjects can divide attention over noncontiguous areas of space. Subjects were able to ignore the distracters when the targets and distracters were presented as nooses stimuli (i e, when premises were changed into the targets and distracters). In contrast, when the targets and distracters were presented as sudden-onset stimuli, subjects were unable to ignore the distracters. These results begin to define the conditions under which attention can be flexibly deployed to multiple noncontiguous locations in the visual field.     

Social integration and social support in a life crisis: Effects of macrosocial change in east Germany

The breakdown of the former communist system in East Germany was a major critical life event for those who left that country as well as for those who stayed behind. When the borders were opened, a longitudinal study was launched to examine the psychological readaptation process. Some indicators of social changes of migrants compared to nonmigrants were available. At three points in time over 2 years, both groups reported on their social bonding and social support. Migrants readjusted well by making new friends. In particular, young men were socially active, and more same-sex than opposite-sex friendships were established. The group of young migrants reported having received the most support, in particular when they had a partner. Anticipated support, in contrast, was highest for young single women who did not migrate. Results contribute to the understanding of social dynamics that occur after a stressful relocation.     

Unemployment,social support and health complaints: A longitudinal study of stress in East German refugees

Migrants have to deal with a number of stressors, among them tenacious job search and the constitution of a new social network. Prolonged unemployment and lack of social support can result in impaired health. A sample of 235 East Germans was investigated at three times during two years following their transition to West Berlin in 1989, after the breakdown of the communist system. The majority found a job during this time and succeeded to adapt psychosocially. Those, however, who remained unemployed were worse off in terms of self-reported health. This stress—health relationship was moderated, however, by social support. Within the group of migrants who suffered from long-term joblessness, social support exerted a longitudinal buffer effect. At Wave 3, frequent physical symptoms were reported only by migrants who neither held a job nor received support. In a longitudinal causal model, the employment status affected mainly health complaints, but also social support. The relationship between health and support was found to be reciprocal over time.