Stages of change for health-related behaviours in 18 year-old Australians

Abstract This study investigated the validity of a Stages of Change algorithm with respect to independent measures of physical activity and fitness. dietary intake and alcohol consumption in 18 year-old Ausmlian men (n = 301) and women (n = 282). Stage of Change categories were related to fat and fibre intakes in men and fibre intake in women as well as hit and vegetable intakes in men and women. Physical activity and fitness for men and women also showed significant linear associations with Stage of Change categories. Alcohol consumption was significantly associated with Stage of Change categories for men but not for women although recorded alcohol consumption was very variable for women. However, the algorithm was valid for both men and women when drinking alcohol consistent with national guidelines on safe drinking was used. In summary, with reference to actual health behaviours, the Stages of Change algorithm was valid for young men and women for diet. physical activity and alcohol drinking. Independent behavioural data were not available for smoking behaviours. Using the algorithm, there were significant associations in men between prccontemplation status for diet and drinking and diet and physical activity, in women between diet and smoking and in both men and women between drinking and smoking. Covariance between precontemplation status for different health behaviours therefore suggests the need for multimodal interventions.     

Analogy use in naturalistic settings: the influence of audience, emotion, and goals

The ways in which analogy was used in a nonexperimental environment-politics-was investigated. We used the framework developed in analogy research to analyze the selection of analogical sources in political discourse. We took all the analogies reported in newspapers during the final week of a referendum campaign in Canada and analyzed the features of the different analogies used. We identified 234 analogies and analyzed the range over which analogies were used, semantic categories of analogies, goals of the analogizer, and emotional connotation of the analogies. Our results reveal that analogy was frequently used, that over two-thirds of the analogical sources were nonpolitical, and that many of the sources had strong emotional connotations. Furthermore, the goal of the analogizer influenced the selection of sources. We conclude that characteristics of the audience and emotionality of the source analog are important features in the selection of source analogs.     

Responses to commentaries

This paper is an author response to three commentaries, by Robert Kraut and Itamar Rosenn (2012), Barry Wellman (2012) and Mark van Vugt (2012), on our article entitled ‘Relationships and the social brain: Integrating psychological and evolutionary perspectives’ ( Sutcliffe, Dunbar, Binder, & Arrow, 2012 ).     

Altruism in social networks: Evidence for a ‘kinship premium’

Why and under what conditions are individuals altruistic to family and friends in their social networks? Evolutionary psychology suggests that such behaviour is primarily the product of adaptations for kin‐ and reciprocal altruism, dependent on the degree of genetic relatedness and exchange of benefits, respectively. For this reason, individuals are expected to be more altruistic to family members than to friends: whereas family members can be the recipients of kin and reciprocal altruism, friends can be the recipients of reciprocal altruism only. However, there is a question about how the effect of kinship is implemented at the proximate psychological level. One possibility is that kinship contributes to some general measure of relationship quality (such as ‘emotional closeness’), which in turn explains altruism. Another possibility is that the effect of kinship is independent of relationship quality. The present study tests between these two possibilities. Participants (N= 111) completed a self‐report questionnaire about their willingness to be altruistic, and their emotional closeness, to 12 family members and friends at different positions in their extended social networks. As expected, altruism was greater for family than friends, and greater for more central layers of the network. Crucially, the results showed that kinship made a significant unique contribution to altruism, even when controlling for the effects of emotional closeness. Thus, participants were more altruistic towards kin than would be expected if altruism was dependent on emotional closeness alone – a phenomenon we label a ‘kinship premium’. These results have implications for the ongoing debate about the extent to which kin relations and friendships are distinct kinds of social relationships, and how to measure the ‘strength of ties’ in social networks.     

Timing of the transition to motherhood and union quality: The moderator role of union length

Researchers have examined the contribution of women’s age at first pregnancy to the prediction of union quality across the transition to motherhood, but the emerging picture is inconsistent. The authors investigated the moderator role of union length in the relationship between the 2 variables. A sample of 143 Canadian women completed the Dyadic Adjustment Scale during pregnancy and at 6 months postpartum. As predicted, after partialing out the influence of other demographic variables, union length moderated the relationship between maternal age and changes in union quality across the transition, p < .001. The results showed that postponing motherhood to a later age has positive effects on women’s union quality only among those who are in long‐term relationships.     

Automatic activation of categorical and abstract analogical relations in analogical reasoning

We examined activation of concepts during analogical reasoning. Subjects made either analogical judgments or categorical judgments about four-word sets. After each four-word set, they named the ink color of a single word in a modified Stroop task. Words that referred to category relations were primed (as indicated by longer response times on Stroop color naming) subsequent to analogical judgments and categorical judgments. This finding suggests that activation of category concepts plays a fundamental role in analogical thinking. When colored words referred to analogical relations, priming occurred subsequent to analogical judgments, but not to categorical judgments, even though identical four-word stimuli were used for both types of judgments. This finding lends empirical support to the hypothesis that, when people comprehend the analogy between two items, they activate an abstract analogical relation that is distinct from the specific content items that compose the analogy.