AIDS Educator Effectiveness as a Function of Sexual Orientation and HIV Status1

This study investigated the effectiveness of an AIDS educator as a function of his HIV status and sexual orientation. A 2 × 2 factorial design was employed where 136 heterosexual undergraduates viewed I of 4 videotapes of an AIDS educator who introduced himself as either HIV positive or negative and either heterosexual or homosexual. The videos were identical except for the introduction. Results revealed that all videos increased knowledge about AIDS. However, students' perceptions of risk increased only when they believed the educator was HIV positive and heterosexual. Intentions to get tested for HIV increased when they perceived the educator as HIV positive but declined when they thought she was HIV negative. Results suggest the sexual orientation and HIV status of educators can impact their effectiveness.     

Understanding Intentions to Exercise Following a Structured Exercise Program: An Attributional Perspective1

The present study examined the relationships among perceived outcome, causal attributions, affect, expected success, and intentions to exercise following a structured exercise program. Participants were 105 volunteers who had just completed a 12-week exercise program. Results indicated that perceived outcome over objective outcome (% attendance) was significantly more important for understanding the attribution process. Interesting interactions indicated that (a) individuals who made personally controllable attributions reported higher positive affect following perceived success, but lower positive affect following perceived failure than those who made personally uncontrollable attributions, and (b) individuals who made external attributions following perceived failure reported higher expected success than those who made internal attributions. Finally, both positive affect and expected success showed positive relationships with intention to exercise following the program. It was suggested that attribution theory may be beneficial to understanding continued exercise following structured exercise programs.     

Heritability of the Big Five Personality Dimensions and Their Facets: A Twin Study

ABSTRACT The genetic and environmental etiology of the five-factor model of personality as measured by the revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) was assessed using 123 pairs of identical twins and 127 pairs of fraternal twins. Broad genetic influence on the five dimensions of Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness was estimated at 41%, 53%, 61%, 41%, and 44%, respectively. The facet scales also showed substantial heritability, although for several facets the genetic influence was largely nonadditive. The influence of the environment was consistent across all dimensions and facets. Shared environmental influences accounted for a negligible proportion of the variance in most scales, whereas nonshared environmental influences accounted for the majority of the environmental variance in all scales.     

Interpersonal evaluations,attitudes and attraction

The effect of interpersonal evaluations (e.g., judging a person's intelligence) on attraction toward an anonymous person (person-one) was investigated. The study was conducted to assess attraction in five interpersonal relationships in which evaluations commonly occur. Attraction of subjects toward person-one was greater for positive than for negative evaluations when person-one evaluated either the subjects or himself, when a second anonymous person evaluated person-one and the attitudes of person-one were similar to those of the subjects, and when the second person evaluated both person-one and the subjects. When person-one evaluated the subjects, attraction toward person-one was found predictable using the Byrne-Rhamey rule.     

Comparison of adult schizophrenics with matched normal native speakers of English as to “acceptability” of English sentences

This study tried to make some determinations as to whether the distortions observed occasionally in speech in chronic schizophrenics was, at root, a thought disturbance or a problem of comprehension and use of standard English speech. We compared 25 normal college students with 25 educationally matched inpatients at Camarillo State Hospital, Camarillo, California, who had been diagnosed as chronic undifferentiated schizophrenics in the judgment of sentences as being either relatively acceptable or unacceptable. The sentences (from Maher's 1972 study) varied in the degree to which they violated Chomsky's selection restriction rules: animate versus inanimate, human versus animal, and concrete verus abstract. Using Tuley's comparison test, we found no significant difference between normal and schizophrenic subjects in determining sentence acceptability or in the detection of sentence rule violations. The performance of chronic schizophrenics in rating sentences as relatively ungrammatical was not significantly different from that of normals. In addition, schizophrenics did not turn out to be significantly less sensitive to the number and types of selection rule violations in sentences. It seems probable that distortion in thought processes, rather than inability to use the semantic and syntactic rules of English speech, might be the underlying cause of the bizarre speech patterns which occur at times in the language of schizophrenics.     

Scaling the Security Staircase

Building on the U.N. human security taxonomy of 1994, this article aims to explore the constructability of a reliable, valid, parsimonious, useful measure of human security that is relevant to contemporary environments and situations? A seminal 1994 U.N. report, Human Security in Theory and Practice, outlined seven types of human security (personal, health, food, community, economic, environmental, political). A quarter-century on, we added two more, cyber and national security, and tested if a single measure could capture all nine security concerns. A national sample of N = 1033 New Zealanders completed a brief online measure in which participants reported yes or no to experiencing each type of security and basic demographics. Guttman scaling placed these needs in an ascending order of difficulty. Analogous to a staircase, security may be scaled from personal up to political security (coefficient of reproducibility = .88), with three distinct but interrelated flights: (1) proximal (personal, health, food security); (2) social (cyber, community, economic, environmental); and (3) distal (national, political). We confirmed this nine-step, three-flight measure in our sample (Χ² = 81.72; df = 24; RMSEA = .048, 90%CI [.037, .06]; CFI = .976; TLI = .964; SRMR = .028). The measure showed configural, metric, scalar, and factorial invariances (across random-split subgroups). Ethnic groups and the precariously employed scored significantly differently, in coherent ways, on the security staircase scale.     

Breast cancer representations in Canadian news media: a critical discourse analysis of meanings and the implications for identity

Despite the importance of critical media work, much is to be learned about breast cancer representations within media discourses and the implications for women’s identity construction. Building on research from Australia from a discursive perspective, this article used an eclectic approach to critical discourse analysis to explore the cultural construction of breast cancer in 25 detailed stories within Canada’s two national newspapers, The Globe and Mail and the National Post. Ten images accompanying stories and 17 advertisements/public service announcements were also analyzed to contextualize discourses and subject positions/identities within the stories. Analysis of this media affords the unique opportunity to explore taken for granted assumptions and prevailing meanings about breast cancer and the implications for subjectivity. Two primary discourses were identified: a discourse of biomedicine and a discourse of healthism. Subject positions identified included “breast cancer survivor,” “the good consumer,” and the “medical expert.” The psychological, social, political, and health promotion implications are discussed.     

The varying value of a friendly face: Experimentally induced stress is associated with higher preferences for friendship with people possessing feminine versus masculine face traits

Social support can provide a buffer to the negative consequences of stress. Previous research suggests that stress can promote affiliative and cooperative behaviours in those who are stressed. Here we examined how stress might influence who we choose to affiliate with. We measured preferences for friendships with friendly appearing feminized faces versus less friendly appearing masculinized faces after individuals undertook a stressful laboratory task. Stressed individuals had increased preferences for friendships with people with feminine faces. These data demonstrate that individuals prefer more friendly appearing feminine faced people as friends when stressed than when not stressed. This preference is likely adaptive in directing individuals towards others who are most likely to provide social support when it is needed and so reflect strategic friendship preferences.     

Preschool children's social understanding: a pilot study of goals and strategies during conflict situations

This pilot study tested a new enactive measure of social information-processing skills and investigated whether preschool children's goals were related to their strategies during hypothetical conflict situations. Children (13 boys, 12 girls) ages 3 to 6 years (three 3-yr.-olds, three 4-yr.-olds, 11 5-yr.-olds, and eight 6-yr.-olds) engaged in a puppet interview of six hypothetical situations. Significant correlations were found between goals and strategies of the adapted version of Chung and Asher's Children's Conflict Resolution Measure, suggesting that preschool children who endorsed friendship goals tended to select more prosocial strategies (.41). Children who endorsed more retaliation goals tended to select more hostile strategies (.67) but fewer prosocial strategies (-.41), and children who endorsed more avoidance goals tended to select more adult-seeking strategies (.45).