Do gender–science stereotypes predict science identification and science career aspirations among undergraduate science majors?

The present research examined whether gender–science stereotypes were associated with science identification and, in turn, science career aspirations among women and men undergraduate science majors. More than 1,700 students enrolled in introductory science courses completed measures of gender–science stereotypes (implicit associations and endorsement of male superiority in science), science identification, and science career aspirations. Results were consistent with theoretically based predictions. Among women, stronger gender–science stereotypes were associated with weaker science identification and, in turn, weaker science career aspirations. By contrast, among men stronger gender–science stereotypes were associated with stronger science identification and, in turn, stronger science career aspirations, particularly among men who were highly gender identified. These two sets of modest but significant findings can accumulate over large populations and across critical time points within a leaky pipeline to meaningfully contribute to gender disparities in STEM domains.     

Chicks like consonant music

The question of whether preference for consonance is rooted in acoustic properties important to the auditory system or is acquired through enculturation has not yet been resolved. Two-month-old infants prefer consonant over dissonant intervals, but it is possible that this preference is rapidly acquired through exposure to music soon after birth or in utero. Controlled-rearing studies with animals can help shed light on this question because such studies allow researchers to distinguish between biological predispositions and learned preferences. In the research reported here, we found that newly hatched domestic chicks show a spontaneous preference for a visual imprinting object associated with consonant sound intervals over an identical object associated with dissonant sound intervals. We propose that preference for harmonic relationships between frequency components may be related to the prominence of harmonic spectra in biological sounds in natural environments.     

The Impact of Culture on the Individual Subjective Well-Being of the Italian Population: An Exploratory Study

The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between cultural access and individual psychological well-being, in order to provide a possible estimation of the impact of cultural participation upon subjective perceptions of well being. Our exploratory research was based on a cross-sectional survey undertook on a medium-large sample (n = 1500) of Italian residents in fall 2008. We refer to the Psychological General Well-Being Index–PGWBI, a tool that has been validated through 30 years of research, as an index of measurement. Moreover, we have administered to the sample an additional questionnaire inquiring about access to 15 distinct culturally related activities. Data are processed by means of a specific methodology based on ANN and Called TWIST. TWIST has been developed by the Semeion Research Center, Rome. Our analysis suggests that culture has a relevant role as a determinant of individual psychological well-being, in that a selected subset of cultural variables turn out to perform among the best predictors of individual PGWB levels. Our results also allow some preliminary considerations about innovative, well-being focused public health policies leveraging upon the human and social developmental role of culture.     

Outcomes of specific interpersonal problems for binge eating disorder: comparing group psychodynamic interpersonal psychotherapy and group cognitive behavioral therapy

We assessed whether an attachment-based treatment, Group Psychodynamic Interpersonal Psychotherapy (GPIP) had a greater impact compared to Group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (GCBT) on Cold/Distant and Intrusive/Needy interpersonal problems. Ninety-five individuals with Binge Eating Disorder (BED) were randomized to GPIP or GCBT and assessed at pre-, post-, and six months post-treatment. Both therapies resulted in a significant decrease in all eight interpersonal problem subscales except the Nonassertive subscale. GPIP resulted in a greater reduction in the Cold/Distant subscale compared to GCBT, but no differences were found for changes in the Intrusive/Needy subscale. GPIP may be most relevant for those with BED who have Cold/Distant interpersonal problems and attachment avoidance.     

Examining patients' and other group members' agreement about their alliance to the group as a whole and changes in patient symptoms using response surface analysis

There is a lack of research examining patients' and other group members' agreement about their therapeutic alliance. In the present study, the person-group (P-G) fit model was adopted to predict that the group member symptom reduction will be greater when the group member's and the other group members' perceptions of their alliance to the group-as-a-whole fit and are high. In addition, the effect of disagreement between the group member and the other group members in their perceptions of the group alliance on the individual's outcome was investigated by using response surface analysis. Thirty-two patients from 5 long-term (> 1 year) psychodynamic group treatments were studied. Participants filled out the California Psychotherapy Alliance Scale-Group (CALPAS-G; Gaston & Marmar, 1993) and the Outcome Questionnaire-45 (OQ-45; Lambert et al., 1996) monthly over the course of group treatment until termination. As hypothesized, patient's symptom reduction was greater when there was agreement between the group member and the other group members that their alliance to the group as a whole was strong. Contrary to the authors' hypothesis, a lack agreement on alliance to the group as a whole between the patient and the other group members was not related to less symptom reduction, as lack of fit increased, symptom reduction decreased. Also contrary to the authors' hypothesis, when other group members saw their alliance to the group as a whole as stronger than did the patient, there was increased symptom reduction. The findings suggest that the P-G fit model may be a useful strategy to examine group process variables in the psychotherapy context.     

Representations in mental imagery and working memory: Evidence from different types of visual masks

Although few studies have systematically investigated the relationship between visual mental imagery and visual working memory, work on the effects of passive visual interference has generally demonstrated a dissociation between the two functions. In four experiments, we investigated a possible commonality between the two functions: We asked whether both rely on depictive representations. Participants judged the visual properties of letters using visual mental images or pictures of unfamiliar letters stored in short-term memory. Participants performed both tasks with two different types of interference: sequences of unstructured visual masks (consisting of randomly changing white and black dots) or sequences of structured visual masks (consisting of fragments of letters). The structured visual noise contained elements of depictive representations (i.e., shape fragments arrayed in space), and hence should interfere with stored depictive representations; the unstructured visual noise did not contain such elements, and thus should not interfere as much with such stored representations. Participants did in fact make more errors in both tasks with sequences of structured visual masks. Various controls converged in demonstrating that in both tasks participants used representations that depicted the shapes of the letters. These findings not only constrain theories of visual mental imagery and visual working memory, but also have direct implications for why some studies have failed to find that dynamic visual noise interferes with visual working memory.     

The Interaction Between Culture, Health and Psychological Well-Being: Data Mining from the Italian Culture and Well-Being Project

The purpose of this study is to understand the impact of health status and cultural participation upon psychological well-being, with special attention to the interaction between patterns of cultural access and other factors known to affect psychological well-being. Data for this report were collected from a sample of 1,500 Italian citizens. A multi-step random sampling method was adopted to draw a large representative sample from the Italian population. Subjects underwent a standard questionnaire for psychological well-being [the Italian short form of the Psychological General Well Being Index (PGWBI)], and a questionnaire related to the frequency of participation to 15 different kinds of cultural activities during the previous year. The results show that, among the various potential factors considered, cultural access unexpectedly rankes as the second most important determinant of psychological well-being, immediately after the absence or presence of diseases, and outperforming factors such as job, age, income, civil status, education, place of living and other important factors. According to a semantic map generated by a powerful data mining algorithm, it turns out that different factors (among which cultural access and health status in particular) may be viewed as concurrent elements of a complex multi-causal scheme that seems to play a primary role in determining psychological distress or well-being. In particular, distress seems to be tightly connected with: living in the Southern part of Italy, average income level, living in semi-urban and urban areas, age group 46–60, presence of more than two concomitant diseases and a low level of cultural access. Well being, on the other hand, is tightly connected with: male gender, high cultural access, and absence of diseases. Some of these associations are confirmed by Principal Component Analysis.     

ABILITY PATTERNS AMONG THREE CHINESE COMMUNITIES

The score patterns in eight ability areas were compared among three Chinese communities having differential demands for English competence. A total of 610 9th graders of high academic achievement were selected for the study. The data analyses revealed that the ability patterns significantly differed among groups. Specifically, the Guangzhou group was best in Chinese language usage and verbal reasoning, the Hong Kong group came second, and the Singapore group came third. The superiority order among these groups was reversed in English language usage and verbal reasoning. The Guangzhou and Hong Kong groups excelled in mathematical reasoning. The Hong Kong group was inferior in mechanical reasoning. However, the three groups were not significantly different in spatial and abstract reasonings. The results seem to support the prediction that environmental demands have differential influence on students' ability patterns.