Social likeability,conformity, and body talk: Does fat talk have a normative rival in female body image conversations?

Fat talk, dialogues among women involving negative body-focused discussions, was studied as a function of conformity and social likeability through the use of four vignettes depicting young women in conversation. Using a 2 (body presentation style of the group: negative or positive) × 2 (body presentation style of the target, Jenny: negative or positive) factorial design, 215 college women (92.1% non-Hispanic Caucasian) read one of four vignettes in a classroom setting and made ratings on a social likeability scale. Participants’ personal ratings of Jenny's likeability were higher when she spoke positively about her body, whereas they expected the other group members in the vignette to like Jenny more when she conformed to the group's body presentation style. This study is the first to support two competing norms for women's body image—the existing norm to fat talk versus a newly documented norm that some women like others who express body acceptance.     

Beta-Amyloid Deposition and the Aging Brain

A central issue in cognitive neuroscience of aging research is pinpointing precise neural mechanisms that determine cognitive outcome in late adulthood as well as identifying early markers of less successful cognitive aging. One promising biomarker is beta amyloid (Aβ) deposition. Several new radiotracers have been developed that bind to fibrillar Aβ providing sensitive estimates of amyloid deposition in various brain regions. Aβ imaging has been primarily used to study patients with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI); however, there is now building data on Aβ deposition in healthy controls that suggest at least 20% and perhaps as much as a third of healthy older adults show significant deposition. Considerable evidence suggests amyloid deposition precedes declines in cognition and may be the initiator in a cascade of events that indirectly leads to age-related cognitive decline. We review studies of Aβ deposition imaging in AD, MCI, and normal adults, its cognitive consequences, and the role of genetic risk and cognitive reserve.     

Bedroom design and decoration: gender differences in preference and activity

This investigation examined gender differences in niche-building preference and activity among 238 8th and 9th grade boys and girls. A questionnaire was developed to measure both the actual and preferred bedroom content, bedroom design activity, and the level of perceived influence by the immediate and extended family, friends, and social institutions. Gender differences were identified for preference, activity, and influence in bedroom design and decoration. Girls and boys differed in the type of items contained in their bedrooms. Girls' rooms contained stuffed animals and pictures of people, including themselves, more frequently than the boys' rooms. In contrast, boys' rooms contained sports-related items, and things for building or that they had built themselves. Although bedroom design activity for both boys and girls was influenced by older teens, friends, media, and popular culture, boys (but not girls) were also influenced by their mothers, fathers, girlfriends, and activities such as sports, Boy or Girl Scouts, and music lessons.     

Binge drinking and violence against dating partners: the mediating effect of antisocial traits and behaviors in a multinational perspective

Research has consistently shown a link between alcohol use and partner violence (PV). Little is known concerning the strength of this association across cultures and genders, and few have assessed possible mediators. This study assesses the link between binge drinking and PV among 7,921 college students in 38 sites around the world, and investigates the mediating role of antisocial traits and behaviors (ASTB). A significant association was found between binge drinking and PV, the strength of which differed by site but not by gender. ASTB fully mediated this association. The mean level of binge drinking at each site did not significantly influence the strength of the association between binge drinking and PV.     

Digit ratios (2D:4D and other) and relative thumb length: a test of developmental stability

Sex and side differences in relative thumb length of children and adolescents have been reported by prior researchers. These findings mirror those reported for the second-to-fourth digit ratio (2D:4D), a likely biomarker for the organizational (permanent) effects of prenatal androgens on the human brain and body. The present study investigated relative thumb length, in particular, its associations with all possible digit ratios (2D:3D, 2D:4D, 2D:5D, 3D:4D, 3D:5D, and 4D:5D), in a sample of young adults (60 men and 64 women). Relative thumb length was less precisely measurable than direct or image-based finger-length measurements, as used in digit ratio research. There were no significant sex or side differences in relative thumb length. Contrary to expectation, thumb size was not positively correlated with any digit ratios. Relative thumb length appears to be developmentally unstable (decreases during childhood and adolescence). Additional findings, such as the magnitude ranking of sex differences in digit ratios and the comparability of direct versus image-based finger-length measurements, are also discussed.     

Online self‐help: Developing a student‐focused website for depression

Many depressed people, young men in particular, do not seek professional help. This social constructionist action research project aimed to construct a comprehensive self‐help website for students. Its goal was to give a multi‐layered (‘thick’) account of depression to website users offering empowering perspectives and strategies while challenging barriers to help‐seeking. Thirteen student interviewees, representing diverse demographics and depression experiences, attended semi‐structured interviews to elicit ‘coping’ narratives. Ten of them then formed an ongoing e‐mail focus group. An evaluative action research spiral was used to analyse and act upon public health guidelines, student interviews and student focus group commentary. Triangulation was provided via the specifications and ongoing feedback from the other project stakeholders. These were the funding charity steering group (including heads of university counselling services); the university providing programme/ethical approval; and the expert group offering clinical validation. The final site at www.studentdepression.org has nearly 100 pages of information and self‐help resources cross‐referenced with personal narratives. It provides a rich, complex account of how depression may be tackled and resisted. Both student and expert groups were impressed with final site quality and usefulness. Collaborative development with user‐group representatives is likely to have produced a far richer, more accessible and more comprehensive resource than counsellor authorship alone. 1 ¹Formerly at the Counselling Service, Royal Holloway University of London, UK.
     

Are perceptions of fairness relationship-specific? The case of noblesse oblige

Research in experimental economics suggests that decision making in strategic interactions is often guided by a concern for fairness. However, experimental economics studies routinely place participants of equal social status and no prior social history in anonymous interactions, a context that would tend to foster the adoption of an egalitarian fairness norm. Extensive research in anthropology (Fiske, 1991) and psychology (Bugental, 2000) suggests that social norms, including fairness norms, are relationship-specific, raising doubts about whether the concern for egalitarian fairness observed in the experimental economics literature would generalize to a wider range of social relations. In this paper we focus on an alternative social norm characteristic of hierarchical relationships: noblesse oblige—the obligation of high-ranking individuals to act honorably and beneficently towards subordinates. In a series of five experiments, we show that the norm of noblesse oblige predicts tolerance of free riding better than individual self-interest does.     

Social Support Mediates Loneliness and Human Herpesvirus Type 6 (HHV-6) Antibody Titers

The current study investigated the impact of a severe environmental stressor and the role that declining social integration played in mediating its effect on loneliness and immune status. Increased loneliness and decreased social support in the months following the stressor (storm) were significantly associated with increased HHV-6 antibody liters, reflecting poorer control over the virus. Poorer social integration mediated the relationship between loneliness and HHV-6, even after controlling for nonspecific polyclonal B-cell activation, disease status (CD3+CD4+ cell counts), living arrangements, acute social losses (bereavement), and potential disruptions in social-support resources. These findings suggest that specific elements of social support may explain the oft-noted negative effects of loneliness on the immune system, and generalized to a medically vulnerable population.     

Young and Old Adults' Concerns About Morality and Competence

Two experiments were conducted to examine people's sensitivity to person information from the morality domain (relation-oriented) and the competence domain (task & achievement-oriented). In a lexical decision paradigm, the findings from Experiment 1 showed that younger adults were faster to identify person cues (trait words) from the morality than from the competence domain, especially cues that were related to immorality. Experiment 2 compared the responses of younger and older adults. Despite the slower responses of the older adults, the findings indicated that all participants were faster at identifying cues from the morality domain than from the competence domain, with no age interactions. The results from Experiment 2 also suggested that disparate findings in the literature regarding reaction times to morality/competence cues and valence (positive or negative) were a function of word frequency effects. The findings are discussed in terms of people's chronic concern with the moral aspects of others as invariant across the lifespan, given that the morality domain is where interpersonal costs and threats are most likely to be signaled.     

Participant Perceptions of Potential Employers

This study was designed to examine participants' perceptions of targets who varied in Likelihood to Sexually Harass (LSH; J. B. Pryor, 1987) scores. Ninety-four Caucasian participants were shown videotapes of male targets who had scored either high or low on the LSH scale. In half of the sessions, the participants watched the videotapes without sound and in the other half the participants watched the videotapes with the sound on. Participants then generated open-ended responses to a question asking them to imagine what it would be like to have this man as an employer. Judges who were unaware of the purpose of the study independently rated the open-ended responses for their evaluative implications (positive or negative), context (professional or interpersonal), as well as their domain (affiliative or dominant). Results indicate that overall men who were high in LSH were viewed most negatively and least positively compared to their low LSH counterparts. This is consistent with previous research by D. M. Driscoll, J. R. Kelly, and W. L. Henderson (1998) on identification of men with sexual harassment proclivity. Men who are high or low in LSH behave in different ways and participants are able to pick up on the cues associated with this important personality factor.