Racial/ethnic differences in Body Mass Index: the roles of beliefs about thinness and dietary restriction

The greater BMI of African American relative to Caucasian women is implicated in racial/ethnic disparities in health outcomes. The principal aim of the current study was to evaluate a theoretical account of racial/ethnic differences in BMI. Thin-ideal internalization, the perceived romantic appeal of thinness, dietary restriction, weight, and height were assessed via self-report measures on a sample of female undergraduates of African American (n = 140) and Caucasian (n = 676) race/ethnicity. Using structural equation modeling, support was obtained for the primary hypothesis that racial/ethnic differences in BMI are explained by Caucasian women's greater thin-ideal internalization and perceived romantic appeal of thinness, thereby resulting in greater levels of dietary restriction. Current findings illustrate the potential for racial/ethnic differences in sociocultural standards of appearance to influence racial/ethnic disparities in physical health, of which BMI is a marker, via effects on weight control behavior.     

The American Luther

Abstract : This essay introduces important developments in recent Luther scholarship in America and argues for a specific retrieval of Luther for contemporary religious and theological issues, such as the problem of evil and the role of experience in theology. The essay describes how contemporary feminist and liberation theologies have recontextualized Luther in America. Also addressed is the current interest in historical investigations of Luther in relation to medieval thought that aligns with the American reception of Finnish scholarship on Luther. These developments show that the American Luther is moving beyond its fundamental shaping by German Protestantism.     

Workforce Segregation and the Gender Wage Gap: Is “Women's” Work Valued as Highly as “Men's”?1

This study focuses on gender segregation and its implications for the salaries assigned to male‐ and female‐typed jobs. We used a between‐subjects design to examine whether participants would assign different pay to 3 types of jobs wherein the actual responsibilities and duties carried out by men and women were the same, but the job was situated in either a traditionally masculine or traditionally feminine domain. We found pay differentials between jobs defined as “male” and “female,” which suggest that gender‐based discrimination, arising from occupational stereotyping and the devaluation of the work typically done by women, influences salary allocation. The ways in which the results fit with contemporary theorizing about sexism and with the shifting standards model ( Biernat, 1995, 2003 ) are discussed.     

Maternal and child contributions to cortisol response to emotional arousal in young children from low-income, rural communities

Relations of maternal and child characteristics to child cortisol reactivity to and recovery from emotional arousal were examined prospectively at approximately 7 months of age (infancy) and then again at approximately 15 months of age (toddlerhood). The sample was diverse and population based (N = 1,292 mother-infant dyads) and included families from predominantly low-income, rural communities. Maternal behavior, family income-to-need ratio and social advantage, and child temperament, attention, and mental development were assessed, and children's saliva was sampled before and after standardized procedures designed to elicit emotional arousal. Maternal engagement in infancy was associated with greater cortisol reactivity at the infancy assessment and with reduced overall cortisol level at the toddler assessment. Also at the toddler assessment, child attention, mental development, and temperamental distress to novelty were associated with increased cortisol reactivity and regulation, whereas temperamental distress to limitations and African American ethnicity were associated with reduced cortisol reactivity. Findings are consistent with prior work linking early caregiving to the development of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis stress response system and with a conceptual model in which developing temperament is characterized by the interplay of emotional reactivity and the emergence of the ability to effortfully regulate this reactivity using attention.     

Rapid acquisition of preference in concurrent chains: effects of d-amphetamine on sensitivity to reinforcement delay

The purpose of this study was to examine effects of d-amphetamine on choice controlled by reinforcement delay. Eight pigeons responded under a concurrent-chains procedure in which one terminal-link schedule was always fixed-interval 8 s, and the other terminal-link schedule changed from session to session between fixed-interval 4 s and fixed-interval 16 s according to a 31-step pseudorandom binary sequence. After sufficient exposure to these contingencies (at least once through the pseudorandom binary sequence), the pigeons acquired a preference for the shorter reinforcement delay within each session. Estimates of the sensitivity to reinforcement immediacy were similar to those obtained in previous studies. For all pigeons, at least one dose of d-amphetamine attenuated preference and, hence, decreased estimates of sensitivity to reinforcement immediacy; in most cases, this effect occurred without a change in overall response rates. In many cases, the reduced sensitivity to reinforcement delay produced by d-amphetamine resulted primarily from a decrease in the asymptotic level of preference achieved within the session; in some cases, d-amphetamine produced complete indifference. These findings suggest that a reduction in the sensitivity to reinforcement delay may be an important behavioral mechanism of the effects of psychomotor stimulants.     

Violent video games and aggressive behavior in young women

The increasing availability of violent video games and their implication in recent school shootings has raised the volume of public debate on the effects of such games on aggressive behavior and related variables. This article reports an experiment designed to test key hypotheses concerning the short term impact of exposure to violent video games on young women, a population that has received relatively little attention in this research literature. Results were that brief exposure to a violent video game increased aggressive behavior. Mediational analyses suggested that the violent video game effect on aggression was not mediated by instrumental aggressive motivation, but was partially mediated by revenge motivation. Other results suggested that the violent video game effect on aggression might be greater when the game player controls a same‐sex violent game character. Aggr. Behav. 29:423–429, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

The role of associative strength and conceptual relations in matching tasks in 4‐ and 6‐year‐old children

T he associative strength between target and associates, a factor assumed to be critical but generally not controlled, and the type of conceptual relation (thematic and taxonomic) were manipulated independently in a matching to sample task to determine their respective effects on the matching behaviour of 4‐ and 6‐year‐old children. Perceptual similarity between target and associates was controlled and maintained at a low level. A preliminary task was designed to assess the associative strength between targets and several associated pictures. These judgments served to construct for each child the sets of stimuli used in the matching task. Exp. 1 opposed a strong and a weak associate with the target in different configurations: the sets included a target and two thematic associates, two taxonomic associates, or one associate of each type. Children were asked to choose the picture that “went well” with the target. Data revealed the role of associative strength on matching choices. This factor interacted sometimes with the greater availability of thematic relations in 4‐ and 6‐year‐old children. In Exp. 2, two other configurations were tested. Thematic and taxonomic associates were both either strongly or weakly related with the target. Results replicated those of Exp. 1 and extended them. They showed that younger children were biased towards thematic relations only when these relations corresponded to strong associations. Thus, increasing experience with objects appears to reinforce both associative strength and thematic orientation. Finally, in Exp. 3, instructions orienting toward taxonomic choices modified responses in 6‐year‐olds only. Altogether, these results show the influence of specific instances and suggest that preschoolers' matching decisions are partly stimulus driven.     

ATTITUDES TOWARD WOMEN's BODY HAIR: RELATIONSHIP WITH DISGUST SENSITIVITY

We aimed to further investigate the "hairlessness" norm that is the common practice of body hair removal among women. A sample of 198 undergraduate students (91 men, 107 women) completed questionnaires asking about attitudes toward women's body hair and the reasons women remove this hair, as well as a measure of disgust sensitivity. It was found that the vast majority (98%) of female participants regularly remove their leg and/or underarm hair, most frequently by shaving, and attribute this to femininity and attractiveness reasons. However, the attributions that they and men made for other women were much more socially normative in nature. For the sample as a whole, negative attitudes toward body hair were related to disgust sensitivity. It was concluded that body hair on women, but not on men, has become an elicitor of disgust and its removal correspondingly normative.     

Eyeblink Conditioning in Rats Using Pontine Stimulation as a Conditioned Stimulus

Previous studies using rabbits and ferrets found that electrical stimulation of the pontine nuclei or middle cerebellar peduncle could serve as a conditioned stimulus (CS) in eyeblink conditioning (Bao, Chen, & Thompson, 2000; Hesslow, Svensson, & Ivarsson, 1999; Steinmetz, 1990; Steinmetz, Lavond, & Thompson, 1985; 1989; Steinmetz et al., 1986; Tracy, Thompson, Krupa, & Thompson, 1998). The current study used electrical stimulation of the pontine nuclei as a CS to establish eyeblink conditioning in rats. The goals of this study were to develop a method for directly activating the CS pathway in rodents and to compare the neural circuitry underlying eyeblink conditioning in different mammalian species. Rats were given electrical stimulation through a bipolar electrode implanted in the pontine nuclei paired with a periorbital shock unconditioned stimulus (US). Paired training was followed by extinction training. A subset of rats was given a test session of paired training after receiving an infusion of muscimol into the anterior interpositus nucleus. Rats given paired presentations of the stimulation CS and US developed CRs rapidly and showed extinction. Muscimol infusion prior to the test session resulted in a reversible loss of the eyeblink CR. The results demonstrate that electrical stimulation of the pontine nuclei can be used as a CS in rodents and that the CS pathway is similar in rats, rabbits, and ferrets. In addition, the loss of CRs following muscimol inactivation shows that the conditioning produced with pontine stimulation depends on cerebellar mechanisms.     

Living the Paradox: Female Athletes Negotiate Femininity and Muscularity

Sportswomen live in 2 cultures: the sport culture that is inherently masculine and the larger social culture where femininity is celebrated for women. In this investigation, which was grounded in feminist cultural studies, we pursued the research question: how do female athletes negotiate and reconcile the social expectations surrounding femininity with athleticism? Twenty-one female college athletes participated in focus group interviews about body image and perceptions of muscularity and femininity. Data analysis resulted in 3 higher order themes: the influence of hegemonic femininity, athlete as other, and physicality. These athletes expressed that being feminine contrasted with being athletic. They further conveyed that as athletes, they were marginalized and perceived as different from “normal” women. Yet, they also were proud of their strong, developed bodies and expressed feelings of empowerment that generalized beyond the sport context.