Changing eating behaviour vs. losing weight: the role of goal focus for weight loss in overweight women

A 6-week longitudinal study with N?=?126 overweight women participating in a weight-loss programme investigated the hypothesis that focusing on the process (dietary behaviours) rather than on the outcome of dieting (weight loss) is associated with more successful goal pursuit and achievement. As expected, process focus was related positively to subjective daily success in dieting as well as to actual weight loss, and negatively to deviations from the diet. In contrast, outcome focus had a negative impact on successful dieting: focusing on weight loss was marginally negatively related to actual weight loss and was associated with more disinhibition after lapses. Confirming hypotheses, self-regulation failure (i.e. deviations from the diet, disinhibition) was negatively related to daily affective well-being. Contrary to hypotheses, however, goal focus was not directly associated with affective well-being but only indirectly through self-regulation. Focusing on the process rather than on the outcome of dieting, then, might help achieving difficult health-related goals and support self-regulation but does not contribute directly to affective well-being.     

Increased Attentional Control for Emotional Distractors Moderates the Use of Reflective Pondering in Times of Life Stress: A Prospective Study

According to the response styles theory, rumination is a cognitive response to a stressor with repetitive and self‐focused attention on a negative mood state. The attentional disengagement theory highlights that attentional processes are critical, underlying individual differences in ruminative thinking, such as reflective pondering and depressive brooding. Using a prospective design, the current study sought to determine whether attentional control for negative material was differently associated with brooding and reflection upon life stress. Spanning a period of three months, 76 never depressed undergraduate students completed a baseline measurement of attentional bias by using an emotional modification of the exogenous cueing task (T1) and subsequently, six weeks after T1, completed Internet questionnaires during their final examinations at four weekly fixed moments (T2–T5). Data were analysed with a series of multilevel regression analyses. Results revealed that the relation between stress and the use of reflective pondering is stronger when participants allocate less attention to emotional information (negative and positive stimuli). On the other hand, attentional control did not moderate the relation between stress and depressive brooding. On the basis of the current research findings, it might be important to train attentional control to disengage from emotional distractors, which in turn may increase the use of more self‐controlling thinking in response to stress. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Role of Person Characteristics in Perceptions of the Validity of Cognitive Ability Testing

Individuals vary in how they perceive cognitive ability tests; thus, it is useful for organizations to consider how individual differences influence applicant perceptions of selection tools. The present study examined the influence of implicit theories of ability and locus of control on perceptions of face validity and predictive validity for two cognitive ability tests. Relationships between perceptions and test experience, job‐relevant experience, and job familiarity were also examined. Interactions between implicit theories and self‐assessed performance in predicting perceptions were found, although not of the form hypothesized. Furthermore, job familiarity and prior success in selection contexts were related to perceptions. Finally, sample type interacted with test type to influence perceptions. Implications for selection system design and research on applicant perceptions are discussed.     

MILFS and Matrons: Images and Realities of Mothers’ Sexuality

Motherhood and sexual appeal are rarely linked in Western culture. There seems to be a notion that once a woman has children she is first and foremost an example, and must be responsible and conservative in a culturally specific way. Most women become mothers at some point in their lives and this is a major physical, emotional, and role transition, one that many women struggle with privately given societal ideals of a ??good?? mother. Despite its essential role in motherhood and life, and the health benefits known to be associated with sexual activity, public expression of sexuality is still primarily associated with being young, childless, and unmarried. Using a social constructionist perspective, we look at the ways in which acceptable expressions of mothers?? sexuality are defined and negotiated by contemporary women. Based on in-depth interviews with fifty women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, we discuss women??s images of mothers?? sexuality and the ways in which motherhood impacts women??s experiences of sexuality. We find that for most mothers interviewed, the way they felt about sex, their sexual appeal, and their level of sexual desire changed after having children. Coupled with the fatigue and responsibility associated with being a new mother, women felt disconnected from their sexuality for a period of time.     

Children’s judgments of social interactive behaviors with peers: the influence of age and gender

Participants (138 children; 7–12 years of age) rated how often nice and not nice behaviors occurred when (a) participants (boys/girls) were the actor and peers (males/females) were the target and (b) when participants were the target of peers’ actions in a school setting. Children indicated they were nicer to their same-gender peers than to their opposite-gender peers. Also, older boys, in comparison to young boys, indicated that not nice interactions occurred more often among them and male peers. Nice (e.g., helping) and not nice (e.g., verbal aggression) behaviors were also generated, which also differed by age and gender. Finally, this study has important implications for educators in that from children’s point of view these are the types of behaviors that are occurring during their time at school. Although there are programs in schools that are aimed at decreasing physical aggression, more attention should be given to the more indirect or subtle forms of aggression, such as social manipulation and verbal. At the same time, programs that encourage nice behaviors, such as helping and sharing, should be expanded.     

The Interaction Between Culture, Health and Psychological Well-Being: Data Mining from the Italian Culture and Well-Being Project

The purpose of this study is to understand the impact of health status and cultural participation upon psychological well-being, with special attention to the interaction between patterns of cultural access and other factors known to affect psychological well-being. Data for this report were collected from a sample of 1,500 Italian citizens. A multi-step random sampling method was adopted to draw a large representative sample from the Italian population. Subjects underwent a standard questionnaire for psychological well-being [the Italian short form of the Psychological General Well Being Index (PGWBI)], and a questionnaire related to the frequency of participation to 15 different kinds of cultural activities during the previous year. The results show that, among the various potential factors considered, cultural access unexpectedly rankes as the second most important determinant of psychological well-being, immediately after the absence or presence of diseases, and outperforming factors such as job, age, income, civil status, education, place of living and other important factors. According to a semantic map generated by a powerful data mining algorithm, it turns out that different factors (among which cultural access and health status in particular) may be viewed as concurrent elements of a complex multi-causal scheme that seems to play a primary role in determining psychological distress or well-being. In particular, distress seems to be tightly connected with: living in the Southern part of Italy, average income level, living in semi-urban and urban areas, age group 46–60, presence of more than two concomitant diseases and a low level of cultural access. Well being, on the other hand, is tightly connected with: male gender, high cultural access, and absence of diseases. Some of these associations are confirmed by Principal Component Analysis.     

Hand preference and its flexibility according to the position of the object: a study in cercopithecines examining spontaneous behaviour and an experimental task (the Bishop QHP task)

The extant literature on manual laterality in non-human primates is inconclusive, plagued by inconsistent or contradictory findings and by disturbing methodological issues (e.g. uncontrolled influential factors, comparability issues). The present study examined hand preference and its flexibility in 15 red-capped mangabeys (C. t. torquatus) and 13 Campbell's monkeys (C. c. campbelli), two species that differ in their degree of arboreality. We investigated the influence of the spatial position of the object on hand preference for reaching. We considered spontaneous behaviour (reaching for food during daily feeding) and an experimental task: the QHP task. The QHP is a task that is used in humans. This is a simple reaching task that involves high spatial constraints on hand use. In our study, the subject had to reach for items that were placed on a semi-circle in front of it on five positions, including in the centre position, in the ipsilateral space and in the contralateral space. We assessed hand preference for reaching in front (baseline condition), and we examined how this preference changed when reaching in lateral positions. For reaching in front, about half of the subjects were lateralized and no group-level bias occurred, for both spontaneous and experimental conditions. When considering reaching in the lateral positions, we observed that the position of the object influenced hand use: individuals used the hand that was closest to the object. The results are discussed in relation to previous findings in humans and in non-human primates and regarding theories on handedness and flexibility of hand preference.     

Wirksamkeit bioenergetischer Psychotherapien bei Patienten mit bekannter ICD-10-Diagnose

In this study the efficacy of Bioenergetic Analysis and Therapy (BAT) was evaluated retrospectively by means of two questionnaires. Former patients from private practice with a known ICD-10 F group diagnosis participated in the study. The SCL-90-R was modified to allow assessment of the symptoms at the beginning as well as at the end of therapy. The second questionnaire was self-constructed and contained questions about the quality of the therapeutic work, body work in general, the relationship with the therapist, and the way the therapist worked. Both questionnaires were to be answered anonymously. Eight psychotherapists (medical doctors and psychologists) served as contacts to 103 former patients; 48 patients (46.6%) returned the questionnaires. Ten patients belonged to the F3 group, 26 to the F4, and 12 to the F6 groups. All data could therefore be interpreted for each of the F groups as well as for the sum of all patients. Bioenergetic analysis and therapy reduced the symptoms according to the SCL-90-R considerably in all three F groups. Analysis of the individual symptom scales on the SCL-90-R showed high to very high symptom reduction. These were not related to the F group diagnoses. Insight gained as a result of body work produced an even greater symptom reduction independent of the ICD-10 F group diagnosis. Patients receiving BAT rated their therapy favourably and judged the relationship with the therapist as very good. The efficacy of and the satisfaction with the therapy was rated high. The formulation of a therapeutic goal at the beginning of the therapy was possibly a prerequisite for a positive outcome of the therapy. The present study confirms and complements previous efficacy studies of BAT.     

AIDS and intimate relationships: Adolescents’ knowledge and attitudes

The knowledge level about HIV/AIDS among American adolescents aged 16 to 19 has been assessed on several occasions, showing that in recent years their knowledge base has improved. The knowledge bases of British adolescents and of adolescents younger than 16 have been largely ignored. In attempting to assess the likely impact on present or future behaviors of increasing adolescents’ knowledge base about AIDS it is important to also know something of adolescents’ attitudes to intimate relationships and to sex within those relationships. Previous studies have not linked these two aspects. In this study two hundred London schoolchildren aged 14 and 15 years completed a questionnaire tapping both their knowledge about HIV infection and its transmission and their attitudes to intimate relationships. Their answers revealed that they had absorbed the simple media messages about AIDS, that it kills and that use of a condom during sex offers protection. However they were less well informed on detailed aspects of prevention, although, worryingly, they believed that they knew all that they needed to about preventive measures. The majority had attitudes to intimate relationships that were compatible with the message of restricting their number of sexual partners; however, a significant minority did not. The latter were more likely to deny the risk associated with promiscuity. It is suggested that school-based AIDS education programs should help individuals to develop new attitudes to intimate relationships that are compatible with risk avoidance.