A preliminary examination of the effect of massage on state body image

Evidence suggests positive effects of massage on psychological health; however, little is known about the effects of massage on body image. This research examined the effect of massage on state body image as well as relations between trait body image and attitudes toward massage. Forty-nine female university students were randomly assigned to either a massage condition or a control condition. It was hypothesized that participants in the massage condition would report improved state body image following the intervention when compared to participants in the control condition. As predicted, participants in the massage condition reported a more favorable state body image than participants in the control condition post-manipulation. Certain body image evaluations were moderately associated with views that massage is pleasurable, with the link between Body Areas Satisfaction and viewing massage as pleasurable reaching significance. Research is needed to determine the mechanism/s through which massage improves body image.     

A Place for Individual Differences in What Everyone Knows About What Everyone Does: Positive Affect,Cognitive Processes,and Cognitive Experiential Self Theory

Individual differences are often incorporated into experimental research to elucidate inconsistent effects. We argue that the inclusion of such differences into established and seemingly straightforward findings is imperative to the goal of reaching a more complete understanding about the processes of interest. Drawing on research on the cognitive effects of positive affect, we illustrate how integrating individual differences in cognitive processing styles to this literature might lead to a more nuanced understanding of the impact of affect on cognitive processes. The addition of individual differences to psychological research should be seen as a means to a thorough scientific comprehension of a topic rather than as burdensome caveats to otherwise straightforward findings.     

The effect of tangible reinforcement on the learning and retention of programmed material in academically retarded children

The effect of three reinforcement conditions was determined with respect to the learning and retention of a commercially available program purporting to teach simple nouns. The addition of candy reward to a novel method of presenting knowledge of results produced no change in performance when given on a continuous schedule, but reduced rate of responding when given on a partial schedule, i.e., only terninal frames.     

Method choice, intent, and gender in completed suicide

Women who commit suicide use less violent methods, such as drugs and carbon monoxide poisoning, than do men, who more often use violent methods such as guns and hanging. Theories that attempt to explain this finding focus on gender differences in suicidal intent, socialization, emotions, interpersonal relationships, orientation and access to methods, and neurobiological factors. Data from a psychological autopsy study were used to test the theory that women who commit suicide use less violent means because they are less intent on dying. Although women were significantly less likely to use a violent method than men, there was no difference in the lethality of their suicidal intent.     

Illusory correlations in graphological inference

The authors investigate the illusory correlation phenomenon as a possible contributor to the persistence of graphology's use to predict personality. Participants unfamiliar with graphology inspected handwriting samples paired with fabricated personality profiles. In Experiment 1, handwriting samples and personality profiles were randomly paired. In Experiment 2, discernible correlations near unity were set between targeted handwriting-feature-personality-trait pairs in a congruent or incongruent direction with graphologists' claims. In both experiments, participants' judgments of the correlation between designated handwriting-feature-personality-trait pairs agreed with graphologists' claims, even after controlling for their actual statistical association. Semantic association between words used to describe handwriting features and personality traits was the source of biases in perceived correlation. Results may partially account for continued use of graphology despite overwhelming evidence against its predictive validity.     

The differential effects of thalamus and basal ganglia on facial emotion recognition

This study examined if subcortical stroke was associated with impaired facial emotion recognition. Furthermore, the lateralization of the impairment and the differential profiles of facial emotion recognition deficits with localized thalamic or basal ganglia damage were also studied. Thirty-eight patients with subcortical strokes and 19 matched normal controls volunteered to participate. The participants were individually presented with morphed photographs of facial emotion expressions over multiple trials. They were requested to classify each of these morphed photographs according to Ekman's six basic emotion categories. The findings indicated that the clinical participants had impaired facial emotion recognition, though no clear lateralization pattern of impairment was observed. The patients with localized thalamic damage performed significantly worse in recognizing sadness than the controls. Longitudinal studies on patients with subcortical brain damage should be conducted to examine how cognitive reorganization post-stroke would affect emotion recognition.     

A model for outpatient care

Chaplains have seriously discussed outpatient care for a number of years. This article describes a model of thorough and intentional outpatient care that is practiced in conjunction with an inpatient care to cancer populations. Rationales, values, institutional dynamics, and clinical care are discussed. Although the focus is on outpatient care where slightly more than 50% of personnel resources are invested, the care also occurs in the context of both inpatient care and follow-up care after discharge to home. A general model of spiritual and religious care and more specific models pertinent to hematopoietic stem cell transplant populations and general oncology populations are described. The models attend times of distress and times of "ordinary" and celebratory experiences, attend care of patient, caregiver, and staff.     

Religion as a resource for positive youth development: religion, social capital, and moral outcomes

Although existing literature demonstrates that developmental benefits are associated with religion for adolescents, little is understood about the dynamics of this relationship. Drawing on social capital theory, this study tested a conceptual model exploring socially embedded religious influences on moral outcomes. A three-dimensional model of social capital demonstrated how social interaction, trust, and shared vision enable social ties associated with religiousness to influence moral behavior. Structural equation modeling was used with data gathered from 735 urban youths to test a proposed model of the effects of religiousness on moral outcomes. Results suggested that religiously active youths report higher levels of social capital resources and that the influence of adolescent religiousness on moral outcomes was mediated through social capital resources. Suggestions for further research and implications for faith-based youth development organizations are considered.     

Discrimination is more closely associated with perceived similarity than with distance and color

Diverse factors affect perceived similarity and discrimination, with high perceived similarity associated with poor discrimination. To investigate this hypothesis, college students made speeded same-different discriminations between 2 achromatic colors when they were contiguous and separated, did the same with 2 chromatic colors, and rated similarity. Compared with chromatic color, the separation for achromatic color impaired the performance on different stimuli more than on same stimuli with response bias controlled, which implied an increase in the perceived similarity of the discriminated stimuli, hurt overall performance, and elevated rated similarity. Thus, discrimination was more closely associated with 2 measures of perceived similarity than with distance and color, in support of the hypothesis.