Perceived calorie intake and state body-image satisfaction in women attempting weight loss: A preliminary investigation

State body-image satisfaction levels (BIS) can be predicted by appearance concerns, eating attitudes and body mass index (BMI). Determinants of state BIS and its variability were examined in women attempting weight loss. Little is known about contextual cues that influence state BIS; therefore the effect of eating on BIS was examined. Forty-six females attending a commercial weight loss group completed measures of shape and weight concerns, appearance beliefs and dietary restraint, followed by completion of a diary that assessed state BIS, mood and perceived calorie intake immediately following evening meals. Regression analysis indicated that after controlling for mood, state BIS was associated with higher BMI and dietary restraint. Greater variability in state BIS was associated with greater variability in perceived calorie intake. This relationship was fully mediated by greater variability in mood. The findings imply that state BIS warrants investigation as a process that may influence weight loss management.     

Does adolescent heavier alcohol use predict young adult aggression and delinquency? Parallel analyses from four Australasian cohort studies

While the association between heavy alcohol consumption and aggression has been well documented, the causal direction of this association, particularly at a population level, is disputed. A number of causal sequences have been proposed. First, that aggression leads to heavy alcohol use. Second, that heavy alcohol use leads to aggression. Third, that the association between alcohol use and aggression is due to confounding by (a) sociodemographic variables or (b) delinquency. We report here data from four Australasian prospective longitudinal studies of adolescents, to assess the temporal sequence of heavy drinking and aggression over the period from adolescence to young adulthood. The four cohort studies provide a total sample of 6,706 persons (Australian Temperament Project, n = 1701; Christchurch Health and Development Study, n = 931; Mater-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy, n = 2437; Victorian Adolescent Health Cohort Study, n = 1637). We use multinomial logistic regression to determine whether early adolescent aggression predicts subsequent age of onset of heavy episodic drinking (HED), after adjustment for concurrent sociodemographic factors and delinquency. We then consider whether HED predicts subsequent aggression, after adjusting for past aggression, concurrent delinquency, and a range of confounders. There are broadly consistent findings across the four cohort studies. Early aggression strongly predicts subsequent HED. HED predicts later aggression after adjustment for prior aggression and other confounders. Policies that alter population levels of alcohol consumption are likely to impact on levels of aggression in societies where HED linked to aggression is more common.     

Students' perceptions of male sexually aggressive behavior as a function of educational level and gender

Two hundred and four students (108 college freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors; 96 high school juniors and seniors) participated in this study. The socioeconomic status of the participants (high school = 93% Caucasian, 7% African-American; college = 96% Caucasian, 4% African-American) was primarily in the lower middle-class range. The purposes of this investigation were (1) to test whether or not differences exist between high school and college students' perceptions of one form of male sexually aggressive behavior against women, (2) to determine if differences exist between male and female students' perceptions of such behavior against women, and (3) to explore the sex role socialization theory by providing empirical observation of its basic tenets. Findings suggested that boys may experience slower maturation and development of sensitivity toward sexual aggression than girls, but that this gap may lessen with advancing age for college males.     

Care Orientation in the Teens as a Predictor of Young Adult Psychosocial Adjustment

The transition from adolescence to young adulthood is a watershed period in development that carries risk for poor psychosocial adjustment. It also carries potential for positive transitions into the caregiving roles and responsibilities of adult life. Research to date has predominantly focused on adolescent predictors of problematic rather than positive transitions; yet predictors of the latter hold equal (if not greater) promise for informing health promoting interventions. The purpose of this study was threefold: (1) to use Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) to define patterns of psychosocial adjustment and maladjustment in young adulthood (21-years of age); (2) to examine the unique role of adolescent prosocial behaviour (e.g., volunteering and civic engagement) in promoting adjustment and reducing maladjustment in young adulthood; and, (3) to examine whether protective developmental relationships are maintained after adjustment for other covariates including socio-economic background factors and personality characteristics. Data were drawn from the Victorian cohort of the International Youth Development Study (IYDS; N = 2407), a representative sample of students in Victoria, Australia. Students were assessed in Grade 9 (Mean age = 15-years) and followed up at age 21-years. LPA identified three psychosocial adjustment classes at age 21 defined as: (1) Adjusted (24.8 %); (2) Normative (63.9 %); and, (3) Maladjusted (11.3 %). Adolescent volunteering, belief in a moral order, family opportunities for prosocial behaviour, and commitment to school were associated with enhanced adjustment and reduced maladjustment in young adulthood. Findings highlight the potential benefit of interventions designed to enhance adolescent prosocial behaviours and care orientation in promoting healthy transitions into young adult life.     

Motivational aspects of escape from punishment

Punishment and escape were studied simultaneously by allowing a subject to escape from a stimulus situation in which responses were punished, into a stimulus situation in which responses were not punished. The frequency of the punished responses was found to be an inverse function of the intensity of punishment, whereas the frequency of the escape response was a direct function of the intensity of punishment. Both of these functions were obtained under three different schedules of food reinforcement. The strength of the escape behavior was evidenced by (1) the emergence of the escape response even when the frequency of food reinforcement decreased as a consequence of the escape response, (2) the maintenance of the escape response by fixed-interval and fixed-ratio schedules of escape reinforcement, and (3) the occurrence of escape responses at intensities of punishment that otherwise produced only mild suppression of the punished response when no escape was possible. This last finding indicates that a subject may be driven out of a situation involving punishment even though the punishment is relatively ineffective in suppressing the punished responses when no escape is possible.     

The effect of metronome pacing on selected aerodynamic patterns of stuttered speech: Some preliminary observations and interpretations

The purpose of this investigation was to provide some preliminary data regarding the effects of metronome pacing on physiological aspects of speech during stuttering. Five aerodynamic measures were chosen as dependent variables: (a) peak intraoral air pressure, (2) intraoral air pressure onset duration, (3) intraoral air pressure offset duration, (4) total intraoral air pressure duration, and (5) peak air flow rate. Five adult stutterers and five adult nonstutterers read a prose passage containing 12 English consonants, each in three syllable-initial stressed positions, during a control condition and experimental condition. In the experimental condition the subjects read the passage while synchronizing one word per beat at 60 beats per minute. The results demonstrated that both stutterers and normals evidenced lower peak pressures and greater pressure durations during metronome pacing. Air flow rates increased for normal subjects and decreased for stutterers in the experimental condition. Dysfluencies recorded during the control condition were observed to have much more rapid intraoral air pressure onsets when compared with fluent counterparts in the experimental reading. These results were interpreted with reference to Wingate's (1969) modified vocalization hypothesis and Van Riper's (1971) altered timing concept.     

Shedding light on photosensitive behaviour in brown planaria (Dugesia Tigrina)

The planarian flatworm is one of the simplest animals to develop two eyecups that enable them to detect the presence and direction of light, which they typically avoid. In this study we assessed responses of planaria to different intensities of light. We found that they exhibited a graded, sigmoidal, photonegative response to light intensity. A two-octave increase in luminance (on the upward slope of the sigmoid) corresponded to a 9% increase in the speed planaria travelled to avoid light.     

Neuroticism and cardiovascular response in women: evidence of effects on blood pressure recovery

Neuroticism is a unifying personality trait that underlies a number of psychosocial risk factors for cardiovascular disease. One means by which Neuroticism may influence health risk is through effects on cardiovascular reactivity and recovery. Eighty-six women scoring high or low in Neuroticism took part in a paired interpersonal stressor task with a laboratory confederate. Conditions differed on the basis of the confederate's interpersonal behavior: hostile, neutral, or friendly. Neuroticism interacted with condition to affect blood pressure recovery such that women high in Neuroticism showed less recovery following hostile interactions and greater recovery following friendly interactions. Main effects of Neuroticism on anger and anxiety reactivity were found. Results indicate that Neuroticism is relevant to cardiovascular health in the context of valenced social interactions. Implications for future study of Neuroticism and interpersonal stressors as risk factors for cardiovascular disease are discussed.     

Environmental enrichment protects against the effects of chronic stress on cognitive and morphological measures of hippocampal integrity

Chronic stress has detrimental effects on hippocampal integrity, while environmental enrichment (EE) has beneficial effects when initiated early in development. In this study, we investigated whether EE initiated in adulthood would mitigate chronic stress effects on cognitive function and hippocampal neuronal architecture, when EE started one week before chronic stress began, or two weeks after chronic stress onset. Adult male Sprague Dawley rats were chronically restrained (6h/d) or assigned as non-stressed controls and subdivided into EE or non-EE housing. After restraint ended, rats were tested on a radial arm water maze (RAWM) for 2-d to assess spatial learning and memory. The first study showed that when EE began prior to 3-weeks of chronic stress, EE attenuated chronic stress-induced impairments in acquisition, which corresponded with the prevention of chronic stress-induced reductions in CA3 apical dendritic length. A second study showed that when EE began 2-weeks after the onset of a 5-week stress regimen, EE blocked chronic stress-induced impairments in acquisition and retention at 1-h and 24-h delays. RAWM performance corresponded with CA3 apical dendritic complexity. Moreover, rats in EE housing (control or stress) exhibited similar corticosterone profiles across weeks, which differed from the muted corticosterone response to restraint by the chronically stressed pair-housed rats. These data support the interpretation that chronic stress and EE may act on similar mechanisms within the hippocampus, and that manipulation of these factors may yield new directions for optimizing brain integrity and resilience under chronic stress or stress related neuropsychological disorders in the adult.