Niceness and Dating Success: A Further Test of the Nice Guy Stereotype

Proponents of the nice guy stereotype argue that women often say they wish to date kind, sensitive men, but, in reality, still choose to date macho men over nice guys, especially if the macho men are more physically attractive. We investigated the relationship between men’s agreeableness, physical attractiveness, and their dating success across different relationship contexts. One hundred and ninety-one male college students completed a computerized questionnaire to assess their levels of agreeableness and aspects of their dating history. Twenty college-aged women rated the men’s photographs for attractiveness. Results supported the nice guy stereotype. Lower levels of agreeableness predicted more less-committed, casual, sexual relationships.Portions of this paper were presented at the annual meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association in Nashville, TN, April 8, 2005.     

Development of the Measure of Adaptations for Pelvic Symptoms (MAPS): the Importance of Incorporating the Female Patient’s Voice

Women with pelvic floor disorders use many adaptations in an attempt to minimize symptoms and enhance the quality of their lives. Existing condition-specific measures fail to capture the extent or impact of these adaptive behaviors. The present paper seeks to extend the women’s health literature and expand the registry of available measures to assess pelvic floor disorders by: 1) documenting the steps taken in the development and initial validation of the Measure of Adaptations for Pelvic Symptoms (MAPS); and 2) describing the added value of incorporating the patient’s voice in the instrument development process through in-depth focus groups. The rigorous process used to develop the measure (i.e., literature review, clinical experts, anecdotal patient reports, telephone-administered pilot study, and focus groups with female patients) is described. Analysis of the focus group data yielded eight important adaptation themes used to further refine the MAPS: disclosure, seclusion, being prepared, planning, clothing considerations, sexuality, order and intensity, and outlook. Specifically, focus group participants confirmed the use of sanitary pads and limiting food and beverage consumption. Women did not endorse keeping a jar or commode nearby. Discussions yielded important modifications to items about restroom use, clothing preferences, “survival kits” and “informal” pessary use. Participants described social isolation and preparations for sexual relations that led to new items. This study confirmed the value of incorporating women’s voices in the questionnaire development process through in-depth focus groups. The process revealed important patient experiences and led to significant refinements of the final measure.     

Psychophysics of remembering: to bias or not to bias

Delayed matching to sample is typically a two-alternative forced-choice procedure with two sample stimuli. In this task the effects of varying the probability of reinforcers for correct choices and the resulting receiver operating characteristic are symmetrical. A version of the task where a sample is present on some trials and absent on others is analogous to a yes/no recognition task. We describe data from two experiments where an asymmetry in performance in the yes/no task could be attributed to a change in response bias with increasing retention-interval duration from a matching-law perspective, but not from a signal-detection perspective. Both approaches make explicit assumptions about response bias. The apparent inconsistency between the two approaches to the treatment of response bias is resolved in terms of a model proposed by K. G. White and J. T. Wixted (1999) which predicts asymmetrical matching-law functions and receiver operating characteristics without making any assumptions about response bias.     

Affine representations in psychophysics and the near-miss to Weber’s law

A theoretical account for the near-miss to Weber’s law in the form of a power function, with a special emphasis on the interpretation of the exponent, was proposed by Falmagne [Falmagne, J.-C. (1985). Elements of psychophysical theory. New York: Oxford University Press] within the framework of a subtractive representation, P(x,y)=F(u(x)−g(y)). In this paper, we examine a more general affine representation, P(x,y)=F(u(x)h(y)+g(y)). We first obtain a uniqueness theorem for the affine representation. We then study the conditions that force an affine representation to degenerate to a subtractive one. Part of that study involves the case for which two different affine representations co-exist for the same data. We also show that the balance condition P(x,y)+P(y,x)=1 constrains an affine representation to be a special kind of subtractive representation, a Fechnerian one. We further show that Falmagne’s power law takes on a special form for a so-called weakly balanced system of probabilities, in which case the affine representation is Fechnerian. Finally, following Iverson [Iverson, G.J. (2006a). Analytical methods in the theory of psychophysical discrimination I: Inequalities, convexity and integration of just noticeable differences. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 50, 271-282], we generalize the Fechner method to construct the sensory scales in a weakly balanced affine representation by integrating (derivatives of) just noticeable differences.     

Analysis of the perceptual learning effect in flavour aversion learning: Evidence for stimulus differentiation

Rats received exposure to two compound flavours, AX and BX, where A and B were sucrose and saline and X was acid. For group intermixed (I), exposure consisted of alternating trials with AX and BX; group blocked (B) received a block of AX trials and a separate block of BX trials. Experiment 1 showed that generalization to BX after conditioning with AX was less profound in group I than in group B. Separate examination of the elements of the compound showed that the source of this difference lay in the strength acquired by the X element. X acquired less strength in group I than in group B (Experiments 1 and 2), whereas for the A element (Experiments 3 and 4) the reverse pattern was obtained. These results support the proposal that the perceptual learning effect (restricted generalization from AX to BX in group I) depends on a process that enhances the effectiveness of unique stimulus elements (A and B) and reduces that of common elements (such as X).     

Interpreting the Satanic Legend

It is argued that recent hysteria about Satanic cults can best be understood as moral panic and urban legend. Data from a wide variety of sources, including the author's own personal experience, are brought forward in support of this thesis. It is then suggested that if we are not to remain at the mercy of the anxieties and distortions that produce this moral panic, we must interpret the legend. The interpretation that is offered is that this most recent outbreak of panic about satanism is specifically about a growing awareness of the ubiquity of intergenera-tional eros.Therapist in private practice in