HIV/STD Risk Factors for Women with Violent Male Partners

This study compared 167 women, categorized as nonabused, emotionally abused, or physically abused in their primary relationships, on sexual risk factors. Physically abused women differed in several ways: greater STD risk, psychosocial distress, and substance use; more traditional gender role beliefs; lower self-esteem; more likely to have been raped and to engage in sex for pay; and less likely to attend the project's STD/HIV risk reduction groups. Within primary relationships, they differed in amount of decision-making power about safer sex, likelihood of nonmonogamy, use of substances before sex, and self-efficacy about initiating condom use. African American women reported higher rates of emotional abuse than White women, a finding related mainly to their lower socioeconomic status in this sample.     

Correlates and consequences of uncertainty in career aspirations: Gender differences among adolescents in England

Young people today face a great deal of uncertainty regarding their career opportunities, yet relatively little information is known about the correlates and consequences of uncertain aspirations. Drawing upon the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE) born in 1989/90, this study examined a pathway model investigating whether uncertain career aspirations and other associated variables mediate the link between socioeconomic status and prior achievement and later educational outcomes. Gender differences were also examined. Findings indicate that adolescents who had lower prior achievement and were from lower socioeconomic backgrounds were more likely to have uncertainty in their career aspirations. The hypothesized model was supported to some extent, indicating that uncertain career aspirations and other associated variables were significant mediators. Unexpectedly, adolescents with uncertain career aspirations had higher academic performance at age 16 and a greater likelihood of educational enrollment at age 18 compared to those with high, certain aspirations, when parental educational expectations, school motivation, perceived academic ability and useful career advice were taken into account, suggesting that these young people may benefit from an extended period of moratorium in their career choice.     

Applying Science and Applied Science: What’s the Difference?

Prandtl’s work on the boundary layer theory is an interesting example for illustrating several important issues in philosophy of science such as the relation between theories and models and whether it is possible to distinguish, in a principled way, between pure and applied science. In what follows I discuss several proposals by the symposium participants regarding the interpretation of Prandtl’s work and whether it should be characterized as an instance of applied science. My own interpretation of this example (1999) emphasised the degree of autonomy embedded in Prandtl’s boundary layer model and the way it became integrated in the larger theoretical context of hydrodynamics. In addition to extending that discussion here I also claim that the characterization of applied science which formed the basis for the symposium does not enable us to successfully distinguish applied science from the general practice of ‘applying’ basic scientific knowledge in a variety of contexts.     

Psychometrics properties of the Swansea Muscularity Attitudes Questionnaire (SMAQ)

The psychometric soundness of the Swansea Muscularity Attitudes Questionnaire (SMAQ) was examined using two independent samples of Canadian male post-secondary students (Ns = 250 and 310, respectively). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses suggested that the final 19-item version of the SMAQ is represented by three latent constructs, which we have labeled: intention to become more muscular (eight-items), positive attributes of muscularity (nine-items), and engagement in muscle-building activities (two-items). Alpha coefficients for the intention and positive subscales were very good (i.e., range = .86–.92). Correlation coefficients between the two-items comprising the engagement subscale also suggest that they can be combined into a composite measure (rs = .70 [study 1] and .58 [study 2]). Various tests of criterion-related and construct validity were conducted, with results indicating that the SMAQ subscales are valid indicants of the drive for muscularity.     

Attenuation of attention bias in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Cognitive theories of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) suggest that the disorder is characterized by an attention bias towards personally relevant threatening material. However, existing research on attention bias in OCD has yielded conflicting findings. One possibility that might account for the null findings is that attention bias may diminish over the course of the experiment. The present study tested this hypothesis using a visual dot-probe task with idiographic word selection. Results from our study confirmed that individuals with OC symptoms show an attention bias towards idiographically selected, threatening information in the first block of trials, and that the degree of this bias is correlated with the severity of OC symptoms. The temporal pattern of attention bias over the course of the experiment was consistent with our hypothesis. A comparison of early and late blocks of trials revealed an attenuation of attention bias in individuals with OC symptoms, potentially reflecting habituation to threatening information over the course of the experiment.     

The role of age of acquisition in memory: effects on judgements of learning and recall

Judgements of learning (JOLs) are self-made predictions of the likelihood that one will later recall information. The influence of stimulus characteristics on JOLs and recall continues to receive attention, yet there are still a number of unexplored lexical word features that may exert an effect on mnemonic processing. Using a standard cue-target paradigm, we focused on the role of word age of acquisition (AoA) and evaluated the role of both cue and target AoA on responses. We replicated the robust delayed-JOL effect and used a novel items analysis approach to examine the relationship between intrinsic word features and accuracy and reaction times for both JOLs and recall. A consistent effect of target AoA was found, even after controlling for a range of covariates previously shown to impact JOLs and recall. These results expand the role of AoA in word processing and suggest that it is a key variable in memory and metacognition; they also support Koriat's (1997) cue utilization framework.     

The effects of focus of attention on attributional bias in patients experiencing auditory hallucinations

Cognitive models suggest that auditory hallucinations occur as the result of internal events attributed to an external source. The present study represents an attempt to evaluate the source monitoring performance of people who experience auditory hallucinations, specifically in terms of the suggested links between source monitoring, emotionality of stimuli and self-focused attention. The source monitoring performance of a group of 30 patients with a diagnosis of a schizophrenia spectrum disorder who experience auditory hallucinations was compared following successful experimental manipulation of their attention, designed to increase and decrease their levels of self-focused attention. The inclusion of words previously rated as emotionally salient by schizophrenic patients assessed the effect of emotionality on source monitoring performance. This study demonstrated that participants' ratings of both internality and control of their responses to the word association task were lower in the external focus condition than the internal focus condition. Furthermore, it was found that ratings of internality and control were lower for responses to both positive and negative stimuli compared to responses to neutral stimuli, and the magnitude of these differences was amplified in the internal focus condition relative to the external focus condition. Focus of attention has a significant effect on source monitoring performance in people experiencing auditory hallucinations. The theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Body-image evaluation and body-image investment among adolescents: a test of sociocultural and social comparison theories

Sociocultural theory and social comparison theory were used to account for variations in body-image evaluation and body-image investment among male and female adolescents (N = 1,543). Exposure to magazines and television programs containing idealistic body imagery as well as frequency of self-comparison to universalistic targets (e.g., fashion models) were measured. Results provided minimal support for sociocultural theory, but fairly strong support for social comparison theory. Specifically, the extent to which males engaged in universalistic social comparison predicted appearance self-esteem, number of diets to gain weight, use of pathogenic weight control practices, and use of steroids to increase muscle mass. For females, universalistic social comparison predicted appearance self-esteem, body dissatisfaction, number of diets to lose weight, and use of pathogenic weight control practices. The possibility that the null effects for sociocultural theory were an artifact of dummy coding for missing data or theoretical interdependence were explored, but did not appear to be valid. Limitations of the present study and directions for future research are outlined.