The Influences of Sex and Gender-Role Identity on Moral Cognition and Prosocial Personality Traits

The relations of sex and gender-role identity to moral thought and prosocial personality traits were examined. Two hundred and nine men and women rated the importance of real-life, care-related, justice-related, and mixed (both care- and justice-related) moral dilemmas. Responses on the real-life and mixed dilemmas also were scored for care and justice orientations. Women and feminine persons viewed moral conflicts as more important than did men and masculine people. On the mixed dilemmas, women scored higher than men on care reasoning, whereas men scored higher than women on justice reasoning. Regardless of sex or gender role, relational real-life dilemmas evoked higher importance and care reasoning scores than did nonrelational ones. Women and persons high in femininity showed more empathic concern for other people. Masculine persons scored lower on personal distress, whereas androgynous persons reported more helpful behaviors than did all others.     

The Role of Sexist Discrimination in Adult Women's Identity Development

The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between sexist discrimination and identity development in a sample of adult women. Participants completed a scale to indicate the extent to which sexist events had occurred in their lives and a measure of identity at 2 different data collection periods that spanned approximately 5 months. The results indicated that sexist events reported to occur within the last year at the first data collection period significantly predicted identity scores at the second data collection period. These findings are discussed in terms of how sexist discrimination may play a role in adult women's identity development and in terms of the additional psychometric data that supports the validity of the measure of sexist discrimination.     

Application of stochastic modeling to the assessment of group and individual differences in cognitive functioning

This article begins with a guiding schema of relations among cognitive science, clinical science, and assessment technology. Emphasis is placed on stochastic modeling of cognitive processes. Basic models are adjusted so as to parsimoniously accommodate performance deviations occurring with psychopathology. Modified portions of models indicate functions affected by disorder, whereas portions remaining intact indicate spared functions. Findings from clinical cognitive science are applied to the individual case using Bayesian procedures. Methods are instantiated with respect to cognitive psychopathology of paranoid schizophrenia. The authors address observations and issues arising from this application, including integration of these methods with current assessment practices.     

Gender differences in body size dissatisfaction among individuals with low,medium, or high levels of body focus

The authors designed the present study to test whether women reported higher levels of body dissatisfaction than did men even when the 2 genders were matched on a measure of degree of body focus. Sixty undergraduates (30 men, 30 women) were screened on attention-to-body-shape scores and divided into high, medium, and low body-shape-focus groups. The participants also completed questionnaires that provided information on age, education, vocabulary ability, levels of depression, and body-image assessment. The groups did not differ (ps > .05) on age, education, vocabulary ability, or levels of depression. However, women in all 3 body-shape-focus categories indicated a larger discrepancy between their real vs. ideal body images (p < .01) than did the men. In the high-body-focus group, there was an 11:1ratio between women's and men's reported real-ideal body-shape discrepancies. Women showed greater body dissatisfaction than did men, even when the genders were matched on a measure of body focus.     

Socioeconomic Achievement Among Arab Immigrants in the USA: The Influence of Region of Origin and Gender

Based on the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) data derived from 2001–2013 samples of the American Community Surveys, we examine the impact of region of origin and gender on socioeconomic achievement variation among Arab immigrants in the USA. Region of origin includes North Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, and Sudan), Levant (Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq), and the Arabian Peninsula (Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen). This examination is particularly important given the prevailing scholarly consensus that Arab immigrants are collectively portrayed as socioeconomically successful. Our analyses suggest two key findings. First, we find that region of origin is not a consistent predictor of earnings. While Arab immigrants from North Africa earned significantly less than those from the Levant, this was only true for males. No significant effect is found for region of origin in all other comparisons (both overall and when the analysis is restricted to males or females). Second, and by contrast, gender, net of other variables is a powerful predictor of earnings (both within regions and across regions).     

Systematic review and meta-analysis of psychological and activity-based interventions for cancer-related fatigue.

CONTEXT: Fatigue is among the most common and distressing symptoms experienced by cancer patients. OBJECTIVE: This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluates the efficacy of psychological and activity-based interventions against cancer-related fatigue in cancer patients. DATA SOURCES: MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and CINAHL. STUDY SELECTION: Randomized controlled trials of psychological and activity-based interventions involving adult cancer patients in which fatigue was an outcome were reviewed. EXTRACTION: Forty-one trials were reviewed and 30 were included in a meta-analysis. DATA SYNTHESIS: Fifty percent of psychological trials and 44% of activity-based trials rated fair or better in quality yielded significant findings favoring the intervention condition. Meta-analysis yielded an overall effect size of 0.09 (95% CI = .02- .16) favoring nonpharmacological conditions. Further analysis indicated that effect sizes were significant for psychological interventions (d-sub(w) = .10, 95% CI = .02-.18) but not activity-based interventions (d-sub(w) = .05, 95% CI = -.08 - .19). CONCLUSIONS: Findings provide limited support for use of nonpharmacological interventions to manage cancer-related fatigue. The lack of research with heightened fatigue as an eligibility criterion is a notable weakness of the existing evidence base.     

How Ambivalent Sexism Toward Women and Men Support Rape Myth Acceptance

The goal of this study was to determine how ambivalent sexism toward women and men are both associated with rape myth acceptance. The Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance scale, Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, and Ambivalence toward Men Inventory were completed by 409 participants. Hostile sexism toward women positively correlated with rape myth acceptance. For benevolent sexism toward women, complementary gender differentiation was positively associated with rape myth acceptance whereas protective paternalism was negatively associated. Benevolent sexism toward men, but not hostile sexism, positively correlated with rape myth acceptance. Further, for female participants higher maternalism toward men corresponded with higher rape myth acceptance. These findings suggest that sexist beliefs toward both women and men are important for understanding the support of rape myths.     

The scars of memory: a prospective, longitudinal investigation of the consistency of traumatic and positive emotional memories in adulthood

We conducted a prospective study with individuals who first described their memories of both a recent traumatic and a highly positive emotional experience in 2001-2002. Of the 49 subjects interviewed after 3 months, 29 were re-interviewed after 3.45 to 5.0 years. Subjects answered questions from a 12-item consistency questionnaire (maximum possible score of 36), rated the qualities of their memories, and completed questionnaires concerning the impact of the trauma. Results indicated that traumatic memories (including memories for violence) were highly consistent (M= 28.04) over time relative to positive memories (M= 17.75). Ratings of vividness, overall quality, and sensory components declined markedly for positive memories but remained virtually unchanged for traumatic memories. The severity of traumatic symptoms diminished over time and was unrelated to memory consistency. These findings contribute to understanding of the impact of trauma on memory over long periods.