A qualitative study of preadolescent boys’ and girls’ body image: Gendered ideals and sociocultural influences

This qualitative study examined preadolescent boys’ and girls’ body ideals, and peer and media factors that shape these ideals. Sixty-eight children aged 8–10 participated in semi-structured interviews: 19 boys and 17 girls in individual interviews and 16 boys and 16 girls in eight group interviews. Techniques from grounded theory were used to analyze the data. Findings demonstrated that fitness was an important element of boys’ and girls’ body ideals. For boys the emphasis was on sport, and this was promoted by their peer interactions and the sportsmen they admired. For girls the focus was on looking good, and this was reinforced by their peer conversations, and the actresses and singers they admired. Focus groups further highlighted how peers both reinforced media messages, yet also helped children critique media messages. Implications are discussed for prevention programs that need to be specifically tailored for boys and girls.     

Swedish pupils' suggested coping strategies if cyberbullied: Differences related to age and gender

The aim of this study was to investigate the coping strategies that Swedish 10 and 12 year‐olds (N = 694) suggested they would use if they were cyberbullied, with a special focus on whether there are differences in these strategies related to age and gender. The most commonly suggested coping strategy was telling someone, especially parents and teachers (70.5%). Surprisingly few of the pupils reported that they would tell a friend (2.6%). Differences in suggested coping strategies were found related to age and gender. Findings are discussed in relation to the Swedish sociocultural context as well as in relation to the implications for prevention strategies against cyberbullying.     

Autobiographical Memory in Patients with Tinnitus

Studies on psychiatric patients have found that their memories of the past are often unspecific and overgeneral, but the extent to which this is the case for patients with somatic problems has so far only been examined in patients with chronic pain and in patients with diabetes. The present study investigated autobiographical memories in 19 tinnitus patients and 19 controls without tinnitus. Participants were administered the autobiographical memory test (AMT), the Controlled word association test, and self-report measures of depression, anxiety, and tinnitus distress. Compared to control participants, tinnitus patients had difficulty retrieving specific memories and showed longer retrieval latencies. Additionally, tinnitus patients had fewer specific memories to positive cue words. While AMT responses were associated with depression scores, the difference between controls and patients remained significant for positive cue words after controlling for depression scores. Results suggest that cognitive components should be an integral element of the psychological management of tinnitus. The use in future studies of experimental methods such as AMT in health psychology is encouraged.     

青少年同伴冲突解决策略新进展

本文通过回溯近20年来国内外有关青少年同伴冲突的研究,在总结其在冲突解决策略的划分类型、影响因素及其理论、实证研究等各方面研究成果的同时,也指出了在研究方法及测量工具上的不足;并对未来同伴冲突解决策略的研究做出了展望。     

Assessing children's statements: the impact of a repeated experience on CBCA and RM ratings

This study examined the extent to which the Criteria‐based Content Analysis (CBCA) technique and the Reality Monitoring (RM) technique were affected by the number of times children had experienced or imagined an event. Children (age 10–13, N =87 ) participated in an experiment where half the sample experienced a health examination (either one or four times), and the other half imagined (either one or four times) that they took part in a health examination. One week after the final occasion, the children were interviewed. The results showed that RM was sensitive to both the authenticity of the statements (increased presence of the criteria for real events) and whether the event had been repeatedly experienced/imagined (increased presence of the criteria for the repeated actions). The CBCA did not successfully distinguish the real from the imagined. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Comparison of the Sources and Nature of Body Image Messages Perceived by Indigenous Fijian and European Australian Adolescent Girls

Australian and Fijian adolescent girls reported on the influence that sociocultural factors, including parents, peers, and the media, had on their body image attitudes. It was expected that messages that promote a thin body would be less prevalent among Fijians, as their cultural traditions place more importance on robust body sizes. An inductive thematic analysis of the girls’ semi-structured interviews indicated that both Fijian (n = 16) and Australian (n = 16) girls (aged 13–17) reported messages from similar sources, which included parents, siblings, and friends/peers. Australian girls consistently reported messages that reinforced thinness. On the other hand, Fijian girls reported messages that emphasized both thinness and robustness. The discussion focuses on the conflict between Western ideals and cultural Fijian traditions and the implications for culturally sensitive interventions.     

Judgments in a hurry: Time pressure affects how judges assess unfairly shared losses and unfairly shared gains

Human society has evolved to allow third parties—the court system, parents or other societal arbitrators—to punish norm violators and compensate victims. Few studies explore the effect of stress or time pressure on a third‐party judge. Under time pressure, people will likely show a more instinctual reaction or judgment style. We investigated third‐party punishment and compensation within the context of unfairly shared losses and gains in a dictator game under time pressure. Our results show that under no time pressure, participants were inclined to punish dictators who unfairly split windfall gains; however, participants chose to compensate victims more than punish the norm‐violating dictators in the context of unfairly shared losses. With added time pressure, third‐parties were disposed to inflict punishment upon the dictator in both the gain and loss contexts—punishment became the action of choice. Our results shed light on the way observed behavior and stress affect social cognition and decision making in the context of altruistic social interventions and the enforcement of social norms.     

9~10岁儿童和成人的一致性序列效应

一致性序列效应是指个体根据前一情境中的冲突信息, 灵活适应当前环境的能力。研究选取9~10岁的儿童和18~25岁的成人为被试, 采用色-词Stroop任务和Stroop与Flanker刺激混合的任务, 在控制重复启动的影响后, 考察一致性序列效应在不同任务中的年龄差异。结果发现, 在不同的任务中, 儿童和成人均表现出显著的一致性序列效应, 且一致性序列效应的大小不存在显著差异。研究结果表明, 冲突适应过程涉及更高级的加工过程, 9~10岁的儿童已具备类似成人的、更一般化的冲突适应能力。     

A revolutionary as a “beautiful soul”: Lev Tolstoy’s path to ethical anarchism

This article discusses Leo Tolstoy’s view of the Russian revolutionary movement. Taking as a focal point the writer’s lifelong interest in the Decembrist uprising of 1825 and particularly in the personalities of the gentry revolutionaries, the article argues that Tolstoy’s fascination for these figures was due to their superior moral qualities, rather than to their political and socioeconomic doctrines. Following Alexander Herzen, Tolstoy came to regard the Decembrists as full-fledged individualities and “beautiful souls” (in Friedrich von Schiller’s sense of the term). Thus, Tolstoy’s much debated “conversion” and subsequent attempts to transform literary art into a medium of religious and moral reform (and thus a peaceful cultural revolution) can also be viewed as extensions of his project of self-understanding and self-formation according to the model of kalokagathia provided by Russia’s aristocratic revolutionaries.