Body Consciousness Across the Adult Years: Variations with Actual and Subjective Age

Age-related trends and predictors were explored with respect to three dimensions of adults’ body consciousness. Consistent with the notion that aging adults’ perceptions of their bodies are multidimensional and multidirectional, adults reported being more concerned about their external physical appearance (public body consciousness), more aware of their internal body sensations (private body consciousness), and more positive in their self-evaluations of their bodies (body competence). Moreover, consistent with the claim that such attitudes are multi-determined, the present research found that aging adults’ personal anxiety about aging and their subjective age identities were significant predictors of variations in their body consciousness. Moreover, the predictive value of these psychological variables rivaled the predictive value of chronological age.

Follow-up survey of pregnancies with diagnoses of chromosomal abnormality

A small clinical survey was undertaken at East Carolina University School of Medicine to examine the factors which influenced the decisions of five families to continue pregnancies after a chromosomal abnormality was detected. Little has been published concerning the psychosocial effects after continuing pregnancies in which the fetus was diagnosed with a chromosome abnormality by amniocentesis. In order to identify the factors that influenced their decisions, an interview with each couple was undertaken using a 25-part questionnaire. This paper addresses the method of interviewing, case material, and background concerning each couple and the summary of the results.     

“work ethic” in pigeons: Reward value is directly related to the effort or time required to obtain the reward

Stimuli associated with less effort or with shorter delays to reinforcement are generally preferred over those associated with greater effort or longer delays to reinforcement. However, the opposite appears to be true of stimuli thatfollow greater effort or longer delays. In training, a simple simultaneous discrimination followed a single peck to an initial stimulus (S+_FR1 S−_FR1) and a different simple simultaneous discrimination followed 20 pecks to the initial stimulus (S+_FR20 S−_FR20). On test trials, pigeons preferred S+_FR20 over S+_FR1 and S−_FR20 over S−_FR1. These data support the view that the state of the animal immediately prior to presentation of the discrimination affects the value of the reinforcement that follows it. This contrast effect is analogous to effects that when they occur in humans have been attributed to more complex cognitive and social factors.     

Induction of copulatory behavior in Aplysia: atrial gland factors mimic the excitatory effects of freshly deposited egg cordons

Egg laying in the marine mollusc Aplysia is induced and coordinated by peptide products of the egg-laying hormone (ELH) gene expressed in the neuroendocrine bag cells of the central nervous system. At least three structurally related genes, belonging to the ELH family but distinct from the ELH gene, are expressed in the atrial gland, an exocrine organ of unknown function that secretes into the oviduct of Aplysia. The experiments described in this report were designed to test the hypothesis that the atrial gland gene products serve a pheromonal function for the animal, coordinating reproductive behavior among individuals. Our studies showed that there was a significantly shorter latency to copulation when an Aplysia was paired with an animal that was actively laying eggs than when it was paired with a sexually mature but nonlaying animal. Moreover, the addition of extracts or homogenates of the atrial gland to the seawater surrounding two nonlaying animals reduced the latency to mating compared to animals exposed only to seawater or to homogenates of other regions of the reproductive tract, including oviduct. These results suggest that atrial gland products, secreted onto the egg cordon as it passes through the oviduct, may play a pheromonal role and induce mating behavior between individuals. Experiments are in progress to determine whether the active atrial gland factor(s) are products of the ELH-family genes expressed in the gland.     

Pub and community: The views of Birmingham untreated heavy drinkers

This paper reports the results of a qualitative analysis of semi‐structured interviews with 79 members of the Birmingham Untreated Heavy Drinkers Cohort. The cohort was recruited in 1997 when all participants were drinking 50 or more standard units of alcohol (men) or 35 or more units (women) most weeks. Present interviews were carried out as part of the fourth wave of interviews, held in 2003. The topic was the participants' places of drinking in the community and the functions those places served. The present analysis focused on the relationship between pubs and community. The strongest theme to emerge was that the pub provided for many participants a real sense of community in itself. It did so by enabling participants to meet with like‐minded others, in a setting distinct from home or work, where conversing and confiding could take place in a relaxed atmosphere, with a range of other activities and forms of social support available to many. At the same time, participants were discriminating about which pubs they used, and when, and with whom they chose to interact. There was less consensus about whether the pub served a wider function by contributing to a positive sense of community in the local neighbourhood. It is suggested that English pubs, at least in a large conurbation such as the West Midlands, are very varied, sometimes continuing to serve as ‘the local’ for a community, sometimes being part of a variety of drinking places which between them provide people with a diversity of social niches to meet their increasingly diverse choices and preferences, and sometimes reflecting and even contributing to local community disorganisation. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Category Attitude Measures: Exemplars as Inputs

The role of exemplars in formation of attitudes toward a category has, surprisingly, been ignored in prior consumer research. In the present research we seek to develop a better understanding of the relationship between category exemplars (e.g., the products in a brand category) and overall attitudes toward the category. Attitude measures that incorporate evaluations of individual branded products may be useful, both conceptually and practically, and can complement more traditional multi‐attribute measures of attitude. Across 3 studies we present evidence that a composite index of attitudes toward category exemplars, weighted by exemplar typicality, is related to overall category attitudes, sometimes more strongly than a traditional multi‐attribute index. We also demonstrate that elaboration upon the individual exemplars further strengthens the relationship between category attitudes and this composite index. Theoretical implications for attitude theory, as well as managerial implications, are discussed.