Attitudes Toward Pornography and the Characteristics Attributed to Pornography Actors

Proponents and opponents of pornography often use the assumed characteristics and motivations of female pornography actors to justify their position. The purpose of this study was to examine the relations among attitudes toward pornography, gender, and beliefs about both female and male pornography actors. University students (N = 165) completed measures assessing their attitudes toward pornography and their beliefs about male and female pornography actors. Attitudes toward pornography were significantly related to beliefs about both male and female pornography actors, as was gender. A larger discrepancy between beliefs about female pornography actors and women in general than between male pornography actors and men in general was found. Male participants rated female pornography actors similar to male pornography actors, whereas female participants rated female pornography actors more negatively than male pornography actors. Across participant gender, female pornography actors were believed to come from more dysfunctional families than male pornography actors. In general, male pornography actors were attributed more positive motivations for their work than female pornography actors.     

Peter Block's Flawless Consulting and the Homunculus Theory: Within Each Person Is a Perfect Consultant

Authenticity on the part of the consultant is significant to the process of consulting, according to Peter Block (1981). As the consultant acknowledges feelings and thoughts when they surface, client commitment and trust develop. By defining five phases to consulting and by detailing the work that must be completed in each phase, Block (1981) has provided a step-by-step procedure for consulting without errors.     

WOMEN'S HOSTILITY TOWARD WOMEN

Three studies investigating the self-report correlates of women's hostility toward other women were conducted among a total of 477 college women. In Study 1, hostility toward women was negatively associated with both personal and collective self-esteem and positively associated with hostility toward men, controlling for state anger. In Study 2, hostility toward women was negatively associated with self-efficacy and age and positively associated with emotional dependence on men, but not with self-identification as a feminist or support of the feminist movement. In Study 3, women's hostility toward women was negatively associated with measures of intimacy and life satisfaction and positively associated with acceptance of interpersonal violence. We suggest that women's hostility toward other women not only is an important aspect of women's personal satisfaction, happiness, intimacy, and self-esteem, but also may serve as a barrier to women's progress as a group.     

Processing resource capacity and the comprehension of garden path sentences

Three experiments explored the relationship between verbal working memory capacity and the comprehension of garden path sentences. In Experiment 1, subjects with high, medium, and low working memory spans made acceptability judgments about garden path and control sentences under whole sentence and rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) conditions. There were no significant differences between subjects with different working memory spans in the comprehension of garden path sentences in either condition. In Experiments 2A and 2B, subjects with high and low working memory spans were tested on the same materials at three RSVP rates. There were no significant differences between subjects with different working memory spans in the magnitude of the effect of garden path sentences at any presentation rate. The results suggest that working memory capacity, as measured by the Daneman and Carpenter (1980) reading span task, is not a major determinant of individual differences in the processing of garden path sentences.