Job Search and Sex Segregation: Does Sex of Social Contact Matter?

In this study, we investigate how the sex of the social contact women use to find jobs affects the segregation of women into jobs in female-dominated occupations. Using women in the Metropolitan Employer-Worker Survey (MEWS), we test two competing hypotheses from the literature. One body of literature argues that women who use men as social contacts in job search have a higher probability of finding a non-female-dominated job; another body of literature argues that sex of social contact has no effect on the probability of finding a non-female-dominated job. There are 1131 working women in the MEWS; 73% are white, 20% African American, and 2% other races. Our analysis shows that women are significantly less likely to find jobs in female-dominated occupations when their social contact is a man rather than a woman and this holds true regardless of the strength of the tie to the social contact or whether or not the social contact is work-related. We discuss the implications of these findings for theory and research on sex segregation.     

Understanding in counselling: a preliminary social constructionist and conversation analytic examination

Increasing numbers of counsellors practise using social constructionist (e.g. narrative, collaborative language systems and solution-focused) approaches. Social constructionist theory holds that matters such as 'understanding' are constructed and upheld in human interaction though counselling approaches derived from this theory offer little insight on how this might occur. The present study adopts a theoretically compatible research approach (ethnomethodology and conversation analysis) to empirically examine how understandings were purportedly constructed in counselling interviews. Understanding is depicted in conversational interaction terms, in how speakers make evident to each other that their shared talk is adequate for 'moving forward'. Counsellor and client perceptions of their participation in researcher-selected passages of 'understanding' supplement the analyses. This preliminary study sheds light on some pragmatic considerations useful in practising constructionist forms of counselling.     

Visual threat detection during moderate- and high-intensity exercise

The aim of the study was to assess performance on a visual threat-detection task during concurrently performed vigorous exercise on a cycle ergometer. Thirty (15 female) participants completed a baseline condition of seated rest and then moderate- and high-intensity exercise. Moderate- and high-intensity exercise conditions were completed on the 2nd day in a counterbalanced order. During each exercise condition, participants responded to 3 × 3 picture matrices (256 trials in each condition) that contained discrepant fear-relevant and discrepant fear-irrelevant pictures (?hman, Flykt, & Esteves, 2001). Response accuracy was significantly greater, and reaction time was significantly faster, during moderate- and high-intensity exercise compared with the rest condition (ps < .001). The discrepant fear-relevant matrix type was detected significantly more accurately than a discrepant fear-irrelevant matrix (p < .001). The discrepant fear-relevant matrix was detected significantly faster than all other matrix types (p < .001). These results suggest that exercise at a moderate and high intensity may enhance the efficiency of visual detection of both threatening and nonthreatening targets.     

Your divided attention, please! The maintenance of multiple attentional control sets over distinct regions in space

When non-informative peripheral cues precede a target defined by a specific feature, cues that share the critical feature will capture attention while cues that do not will be effectively ignored. We tested whether different attentional control sets can be simultaneously maintained over distinct regions of space. Participants were instructed to respond only to specific colored targets at specific locations. Most trials included non-predictive cues whose location and/or color were either congruent or incongruent with the spatial and/or color properties of the impending target. We observed contingent capture only for cues that were consistent with the attentional control set applied to that region of space. This is the first demonstration that separate attentional control sets can be simultaneously maintained at distinct spatial locations, with implications for the flexibility of endogenous control over automatic attentional orienting.     

Both predator and prey: emotional arousal in threat and reward

This research examined the psychophysiology of emotional arousal anticipatory to potentially aversive and highly pleasant outcomes. Human brain reactions (event-related potentials) and body reactions (heart rate, skin conductance, the probe startle reflex) were assessed along motivational gradients determined by apparent distance from sites of potential punishment or reward. A predator-prey survival context was simulated using cues that signaled possible money rewards or possible losses; the cues appeared to loom progressively closer to the viewer, until a final step when a rapid key response could ensure reward or avoid a punishing loss. The observed anticipatory response patterns of heightened vigilance and physiological mobilization are consistent with the view that the physiology of emotion is founded on action dispositions that evolved in mammals to facilitate survival by dealing with threats or capturing life-sustaining rewards.     

Does Friendship Matter? An Examination of Social Physique Anxiety in Adolescence1

The role of peer group composition and influence variables on social physique anxiety was examined. Peer network data were gathered on 375 adolescents (181 male, 194 female). Females reported experiencing higher social physique anxiety, more pressure and encouragement to alter their physique from peers, greater body‐related discussion, and greater identification with the peer group than did males. Regression analyses revealed 2 peer influence variables—peer pressure and relative attractiveness of peers—to be significant predictors of social physique anxiety. A third variable—extent to which the individual identified with peer network—was a significant predictor for females. Results are discussed in reference to previous research, and future research directions are identified.     

Development of an abbreviated Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI) using item response theory: the SPAI-23

An abbreviated version of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI) was developed using methods based in nonparametric item response theory. Participants included a nonclinical sample of 1,482 undergraduates (52% female, mean age = 19.4 years) as well as a clinical sample of 105 individuals (56% female, mean age = 36.4 years) diagnosed with either generalized (73%) or specific social phobia (27%). Twenty-three of the 45 SPAI items demonstrated good discrimination along the social anxiety continuum. In addition, option characteristic curves (OCCs) indicated that the SPAI's 7-point scale may generate errors in ranking individuals. Thus, options were collapsed to improve item performance. No gender differences emerged between any of the items' OCCs, suggesting that items function similarly among men and women. The abbreviated version also correlated highly with the original 45-item SPAI and exhibited similar patterns of correlations with measures of social anxiety. The SPAI-23 has considerable practical benefits, including a screening of both social and agoraphobic anxiety as well as decreased assessment and scoring time.