The “Skinny” on Body Size Requests in Personal Ads

The message that women should be thin comes from many sources; some of which may be using the terminology loosely. To test this, the Figure Rating Scale was mailed to 547 personal ad writers to examine the actual preferences of those seeking a thin partner, those seeking a physically fit partner, and those giving no weight preference. Respondents indicated ideal and acceptable body sizes for partners. The ethnicity of respondents was 85.1% White, 7.5% Hispanic, 1.4% African American, 0.7% American Indian, and 4.1% other. The mean education level was 16.6 years and the average annual income was about $40,000. Although males in the three ad categories had statistically significant differences in their choice of an ideal figure, the actual figure size differences appeared negligible, and men did not differ in the number of figures they found acceptable. Females chose the same figure as ideal despite different weight requests. The implications of males accepting a wide range of body sizes for a partner despite specifically requesting a thin one are discussed.     

Adolescent Perception of Peer Success: A Gendered Perspective over Time

Adolescent males and females (grades 6–12) (n = 552) were presented with nine brief vignettes from the Teen Apperception Scale, describing high-achieving hypothetical female (or male) peers, across nine domains: leadership, academics, athleticism (two), musicianship, art, popularity, humor, and multitalentedness. Teens rated likability, popularity, and attractiveness of vignette subjects in each domain. The sample was roughly evenly divided by gender (47% male and 53% female); students ranged in age from 11 to 18 years. The sample was ethnically diverse, and the socioeconomic status of the students' families ranged from lower middle to upper middle class. MANOVA analyses showed female vignette subjects to be rated significantly higher than male subjects by both genders and all grade groupings, at p < .0001 overall, and at values ranging from p < .05 to p < .0001 for six of nine subscales. Results are contrasted with those from highly similar studies 30 years ago, and used to reflect a possible shift in attitudes toward high achievement in women.     

To Use or Not to Use: The Prenatal Genetic Technology/Worry Conundrum

We conducted an exploratory, qualitative study investigating the factors influencing the use of genetic counseling and prenatal genetic testing for two groups: pregnant women 35 years of age and over (AMA) at the time of delivery and pregnant women with an abnormal maternal serum triple screen (MSAFP3). The convenience sample consisted of 25 semistructured interviews of women/couples and 50 observations of genetic counseling sessions. Worry turned out to be the most important variable influencing decision making about prenatal genetic testing and was greater in the MSAFP3 group than in the AMA group. The women in the AMA group appeared to assign the risk of having a child with Down syndrome to their age category rather than to themselves individually, whereas, the risk perception for women with an abnormal MSAFP3 appeared to have shifted from a general population risk for pregnant women to an individual, personal risk. There was a general lack of understanding and also more misinformation about the MSAFP3 screen compared to amniocentesis. Women in both groups were torn between fear of an invasive test and worry about the health of their fetus for the rest of their pregnancy if they did not undergo amniocentesis.     

Exposure to Major Stressors May Reduce Dysfunctional Cognition About Them1

Exposure to a given stressor may enhance future resistance to that specific event as well as to stressful events more generally. One mechanism may be that prior exposure decreases dysfunctional beliefs about the specific event or to events in general (i. e., general dysfunctional attitudes). The research described here examined whether exposure to divorce was related to fewer divorce‐specific and general dysfunctional attitudes. Divorced participants reported fewer divorce‐specific dysfunctional attitudes than did happily married participants or married participants considering divorce. Similarly, adult children of divorced parents had fewer divorce‐specific dysfunctional attitudes than did adult children of happily married parents. A different pattern was observed for general dysfunctional attitudes.     

Quality of Well-Being Scale and Chronic Low Back Pain

Outcome measures that assess quality of life for use in health policy decisions need to be investigated in chronic pain patients. In the present study, the validity of the Quality of Well-Being Scale (QWB) was evaluated on 67 adult chronic low back pain (CLBP) patients who were enrolled in a 12-week multidisciplinary pain treatment program. Participants completed the QWB, a battery of pain measures, a behavioral observation task, and a medical exam. The findings indicated that CLBP patients have a low level of functioning or quality of life (M = .567, SD = .08) compared with persons with life-threatening diseases. The QWB score was significantly correlated with observational measures of pain behavior and pain-related coping strategies. Multivariate analysis indicated that interference in daily activities, distorted ambulation, affective distress, pain duration, and guarding were the most significant predictors of quality of well-being (multiple R = .84, p < .0001). Patients with medically incongruent physical signs had significantly lower QWB scores than patients with congruent signs. Overall, the data supported the validity of the QWB in a sample of CLBP patients.     

Motor memory is a factor in infant perseverative errors

Why do infants make perseverative errors when reaching for two identical targets? From a dynamic systems perspective, perseverative errors emerge from repetitive perceptual–motor activity in novel and/or difficult contexts. To evaluate this account, we studied 9‐month‐old infants performing two tasks in which they repetitively reached toward either a single target or two identical targets. Results showed that, in the context of the two identical targets, perseverative responses were preceded by the creation of strong memories of previous reach directions and trajectories. In contrast, we found little evidence for convergence on habitual reach trajectories when the infants performed the less taxing single‐target task, suggesting that the demands of reaching for two identical targets strongly constrained the reaching behavior. In total, results indicated that memories of prior movements make a critical contribution to performance in the A‐not‐B task and its variants.     

Secularism,Religion and Spiritual Development

An important issue in recent discussions of spirital development in educational contexts is the relationship between spirituality and religion. This paper explores, with particular reference to a series of articles by Mike Newby, the position that religious perspectives should not be allowed a formative role, and that spiritual development in schools must have a secular basis. The paper examines two lines of argument put forward by Newby. The first appeals to the post-religious and/or plural nature of the social context. The second evaluates religious frameworks negatively, regarding them as restrictive, exclusionary and fictitious. I argue that there are significant problems with each of these arguments, that Newby's case for a secularist approach does not hold, and that religiously oriented accounts remain viable. The paper concludes with reflections on the relationship between secularism and pluralism.     

Parents,friends and immigrant youths' academic engagement: A mediation analysis

Parents and friends can help facilitate the academic engagement of newcomer immigrant youth during the early post-migration years. Using an accelerated longitudinal design and the integrative risk and resilience framework, we examined how parent home involvement and friendships were directly and indirectly associated with the development of newcomer immigrant youths' academic engagement. We used data from three waves (Years 3–5) of the Longitudinal Immigrant Student Adaptation study where a culturally diverse group of immigrant youth (N = 354, ages 10–17, M_timeinUS = 3.98 years, SD = 1.39) in the United States reported on their perceptions of parent home involvement (educational values and communication) and friendship (educational values and academic support) in Year 3 and on their academic engagement (behavioural and emotional) across 3 years. Findings showed high-stable behavioural and emotional engagement and direct positive associations between perceptions of parent home involvement and initial levels of behavioural and emotional engagement and between perceptions of friend educational values and initial levels of emotional engagement. Additionally, perceptions of parents' educational values indirectly contributed to initial levels of emotional engagement through positive associations with perceptions of friends' educational values. These findings can inform family–school partnerships and school-interventions targeting newcomer immigrant youths' engagement.     

Relapse of anxiety-related fear and avoidance: Conceptual analysis of treatment with acceptance and commitment therapy

Excessive fear and avoidance in relatively safe situations can lead to a narrowing of one's behavioral repertoire and less engagement with valued aspects of living. Ultimately, these processes can reach clinical levels, as seen in anxiety, trauma, and obsessive–compulsive disorders. Research on the basic behavioral processes underlying successful treatment with exposure therapy is growing, yet little is known about the mechanisms contributing to clinical relapse. Until recently, these mechanisms have largely been conceptualized in terms of Pavlovian return of fear, with relatively little research into operant processes. In the current paper, we briefly review translational research in anxiety disorders and the connections between fear and avoidance, focusing on recent work in the acquisition, extinction, and relapse of avoidance behavior and the generalization of this learning through arbitrary symbolic relations. We then introduce one possible treatment approach to mitigating clinical relapse, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and provide a conceptual analysis for why ACT may be especially well-situated to address this issue. Finally, we end with potential directions for future research on treatment and relapse of anxiety disorders.