Remembering computer command names: Effects of subject generation versus experimenter imposition

Two experiments analyzed the effectiveness of goal statements in aiding recall of self-generated as opposed to experimenter-imposed command names. Subjects were presented with a series of before-after pairs representing the computer states before and after a command was executed. In Experiment 1, during study, one group of subjects generated a command name in response to each pair; a second group generated a goal statement describing the goal to be accomplished in addition to generating a command name. During recall, half of each group was required to recall the name, whereas the other half was required to describe the goal before attempting to recall the name. In Experiment 2, during study, command names (and goals for those subjects in the goal condition) were imposed by the experimenter rather than generated by the subject. Subjects who generated goals and names recalled more command names than did those who generated only names or who received imposed goals and/or names. Generation of an appropriate goal at study improved encoding by helping subjects to select more appropriate command names; generation of an appropriate goal at test improved retrieval for appropriate names only, presumably by activating a relevant subset of names. Even in the relatively simple task of naming and remembering command names, having an appropriate model of the domain through the use of specific goal statements substantially improved performance.     

Romantic Relationships and Health: An Examination of Individuals’ Perceptions of their Romantic Partners’ Influences on their Health

This study examines individuals’ perceptions of the impact their significant others have on their health and the extent to which these perceptions are associated with relationship quality and actual health. Two-hundred and ten participants (105 U.S. couples; mean age = 24.93) completed measures of their relationship quality and health along with an open-ended measure asking them to indicate how they felt their partner influenced their health. Results indicated that participants perceived their romantic partners to be primarily positive health influences, women believed their partners were more influential than did men, and eating and physical activity behaviors were believed to be most affected by partners. Participants’ relationship quality and health were associated with their reports of their perceived partners’ health influences. The research described in this report was supported by an award to Charlotte Markey from Rutgers University.     

Extending the Legacy of Sandra Bem: Psychological Androgyny as a Touchstone Conceptual Advance for the Study of Gender in Psychological Science

We retrace Bem’s original formulations for defining and assessing the concept of psychological androgyny in the United States. By focusing on the early conceptual aspects of Bem’s research, we describe three related but distinct impacts of that work. One impact was a social justice message of equality between women and men in the United States. A second impact was focusing research attention on gender roles as a malleable, socially constructed phenomena that, when polarized across gender groups, had negative consequences for psychological well-being. A third less obvious impact was helping scholars divest themselves of the previous, narrow understanding that gender was ultimately collapsible into a single dimension of masculinity–femininity. As with any new concept for its time, the legacy of psychological androgyny featured both backslides into and advances against the previous understanding of gender that it was designed to challenge. Our discussion of what we believe to be key functions and impacts of the concept of psychological androgyny serves to underscore just how important its introduction was and still is for ongoing gender scholarship and research.     

Maternal Guilt and Shame: Relationship to Postnatal Depression and Attitudes towards Help-Seeking

Existing literature indicates that women can experience feelings of shame and guilt in relation to motherhood. This study investigated whether maternal feelings of shame and guilt were associated with postnatal depressive symptoms and attitudes towards help-seeking. A cross-sectional, correlational design was employed. Shame and guilt were measured as both dispositional factors and contextual factors i.e. in relation to motherhood (event-related shame and guilt). A UK community sample of 183 mothers with an infant between 4?weeks and 1?year of age completed a series of online questionnaires. The results indicated that shame proneness significantly predicted postnatal depressive symptoms once demographics and social support had been accounted for. Furthermore, shame proneness significantly predicted less positive attitudes towards help-seeking. Guilt proneness was not a significant predictor of postnatal depressive symptoms or attitudes towards help-seeking. These findings highlight the potential negative consequences of maternal feelings of shame in the postnatal period.     

Retributive justice, restorative justice, and forgiveness: An experimental psychophysiology analysis

This experiment assessed the emotional self-reports and physiology of justice outcomes and forgiveness responses to a common crime, using a three Justice (retributive, restorative, no justice) × 2 Forgiveness (forgiveness, none) repeated-measures design. Participants (27 males, 29 females) imagined their residence was burglarized, followed by six counterbalanced justice-forgiveness outcomes. Imagery of justice—especially restorative—and forgiveness each reduced unforgiving motivations and negative emotion (anger, fear), and increased prosocial and positive emotion (empathy, gratitude). Imagery of granting forgiveness (versus not) was associated with less heart rate reactivity and better recovery; less negative emotion expression at the brow (corrugator EMG); and less aroused expression at the eye (lower orbicularis oculi EMG when justice was absent). When forgiveness was not imagined, justice-physiology effects emerged: signs of cardiovascular stress (rate pressure products) were lower for retributive versus no justice; and sympathetic nervous system responding (skin conductance) was calmer for restorative versus retributive justice.     

Correlates of Young Women’s Interest in Obtaining Cosmetic Surgery

This study examined predictors of young women’s interest in obtaining cosmetic surgery. The sample investigated was comprised of 101 college undergraduates residing in the northeastern U.S. (M age?=?19.99, SD?=?4.79). Participants’ weight status (M BMI?=?24.52, SD?=?5.69), body dissatisfaction, internalization of media messages, reports of physical appearance teasing, and interest in obtaining cosmetic surgery were assessed. Results indicated that all of the predictors examined were correlated with women’s interest in cosmetic surgery. Further, body dissatisfaction mediated the relations between weight status, internalization of media messages, reports of teasing, and women’s interest in cosmetic surgery. Findings are discussed in terms of the importance of understanding cosmetic surgery trends and young women’s susceptibility to body dissatisfaction.     

The role of shyness and self-focused attention for attribution of reactions in social situations to internal and external causes

The hypothesis that shyness would be associated with attribution of emotional reactions to stable internal causes rather than to less stable internal and external causes was tested in Study 1 (N = 60). In Study 2 (N= 112) the hypothesis that the explanatory power of shyness would decrease once the effect of self-focused attention on attribution to stable internal causes had been controlled for was tested. The results confirmed both hypotheses. Shyness correlated positively with attribution to stable internal causes, but non-significant with attribution to less stable internal and external causes. Shyness explained a lesser portion of the variance in attribution to both of the internal causes when controlling for self-focus. Even though the findings indicate that self-focus is central to the social cognitive processes of shy individuals, they also suggest that self-focus cannot fully explain attribution to internal causes in general and shy individuals' attributional pattern in particular.     

Extradyadic romantic involvement: Moderating effects of sociosexuality and gender

The present study examined whether relationships of self-reported depression and suicidality to gender roles or gender are moderated by the type of stressful life events that individuals experience. The focus was on events in stereotypic male (achievement) versus female (interpersonal) domains. This study of 290 women and 247 men undergraduates employed the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Personal Attributes Questionnaire and a measure of recent negative life events. In the presence of high achievement stress, high masculinity was related to low suicidality for men. In the presence of high interpersonal stress, high femininity was related to low self-reported depression for women. These findings were interpreted as consistent with the androgyny model of adjustment. However, independent of gender roles, high interpersonal stress was related to high self-reported depression more strongly among women than among men. Suicidality was related to interpersonal events for women and achievement events for men. These findings were interpreted as consistent with the self-schema model of depression.The authors gratefully acknowledge Jane Karyl and Ann Shields for substantial assistance with data collection and management and Michael L. DeKay for assistance with data analysis. The following individuals assisted with data collection and other phases of the study: Joanne Starek, Robert Wilking, Haur Khar Khaba, Rochelle Dalla, Kristin Iverson, and Michele LeClaire.