Role of Sexual Orientation and Gender-Related Traits in Disordered Eating

This study was designed to examine the role of both sexual orientation and gender-related personality traits in disordered eating attitudes and behavior, including body dissatisfaction. Self-report measures assessing negative and positive gender traits,body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, dietary restraint, and bulimic symptoms were administered to 266 participants (64 lesbians, 73 heterosexual women, 69 gay men, and 60 heterosexual men; 85% Anglo-Australian Caucasians, 15% Caucasians from Non-English-speaking backgrounds). Consistent with previous research, gay men scored significantly higher than heterosexual men on body dissatisfaction and dietary restraint, whereas lesbians scored significantly lower in comparison to the heterosexual women on body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, dietary restraint, and bulimia. For men, the additional amount of variance accounted by the gender traits was significantly higher than that accounted for by sexual orientation. For the women, the gender traits also accounted for an additional significant amount of variance; however, overall the amount of variance accounted for by sexual orientation was greater. However, for both men and women, irrespective of their sexual orientation, it was higher scores on negative femininity that predicted higher levels of disordered eating. These results are consistent with previous studies that have found support for the femininity hypothesis in disordered eating.     

Neuropsychological Evaluation of Everyday Memory

The evaluation of everyday memory (EM) was reviewed and reconceptualized. EM has established new objectives of study and the development of new methods to reach these objectives . At the basic level, this approach has already produced important discoveries and the development of new principles about memory and functioning. At the clinical level, this new area of investigation has resulted in evaluating deficits of EM, which is defined as what daily life functions remain impaired after a deficit pathology has occurred. A type of evaluation has evolved that is oriented toward treatment and extremely useful in designing rehabilitation programs for individuals with alterations in memory.     

Authoritarianism-situation interactions in the determination of punitiveness: Engaging authoritarian ideology

An analysis of previously reported authoritarianism-situation interactions in the determination of punitiveness suggested that the extent to which target person characteristics or behaviors engage the important ideological content dimensions of the authoritarianism syndrome is a potent mediator of authoritariansim-punitiveness relationships. Support for this analysis was obtained in a jury decisions task in which high authoritarians recommended more severe punishments than did low authoritarians for a defendant accused of incest (p < .01) but not for a defendant accused of child abuse in the course of disciplining a disobedient son or daughter. It was argued that a thorough understanding of authoritarianism-situation interactions as well as other disposition-situation interactions will be achieved only if dispositional variables receive a degree of scrutiny at least equal to that which has recently been recognized as crucial for situational variables.     

Associative transfer and stimulus selection in classical conditioning of the rabbit's nictitating membrane response to serial compound CSs

Four experiments were conducted to determine whether in conditioning to a serial compound, CS1-CS2-UCS, there are (a) associative mechanisms operating to extend conditioning beyond the bounds of a CS-UCS contiguity gradient and (b) stimulus selection processes acting to attenuate the potency of CS-UCS contiguity. In Experiments 1 and 2, the CS2-UCS interval was held at .35 sec while the CS1-UCS interval was varied across groups from .75 to 2.75 sec. CS1 test trials revealed substantial CR acquisition at all CS1-UCS intervals. Moreover, Experiment 2 indicated that when the contribution of cross-modal generalization from CS2 to CS1 was factored out, there still remained a substantial level of conditioning, which Experiment 3 indicated was attributable to an associative mechanism like higher-order or sensory conditioning. The observation of CR acquisition at CS1-UCS intervals of 4.75, 8.75, and 18.75 sec in Experiment 4 suggested that serial compound training yields conditioning to CSs located well beyond the single CS contiguity gradient for the rabbit's nictitating membrane response. Experiments 1 and 2 also indicated the presence of stimulus selection processes because, at the shorter CS1-UCS intervals (.75 and 1.25 sec), the levels of test-trial responding to CS2 fell below those observed to the less contiguous CS1.     

The effect of affirmative action on attributions about minority group members

In the first study subjects were given information about an applicant to graduate school and asked to rate his qualifications. The information experimentally varied (a) whether the school had an affirmative action policy, (b) the ethnicity of the applicant, and (c) whether the applicant was accepted or rejected. Based on Kelley's discussion of the discounting and augmentation principles, it was predicted that the minority applicant would be rated as less qualified when the university was committed to an affirmative action program. The reverse pattern was predicted for the non-minority applicant. The results supported the first prediction but not the second. Experiment 2 was designed to eliminate alternative interpretations of the data and the same results were found. Possible interpretations for the failure of affirmative action in affecting the ratings of nonminority applicants are discussed.     

GENERALIZING ARTICULATION TRAINING WITH TRAINABLE MENTALLY RETARDED SUBJECTS1

A multiple-baseline technique was used to evaluate generalization effects during articulation training with trainable mentally retarded subjects. Four target words were selected for each subject on the basis of whether the subject could articulate the word correctly when it was modelled but could not articulate the word correctly in response to a picture of it. Five different settings were selected for generalization probing and training for each subject. In Setting 1, Experimenter 1 initiated training sequentially on all four target words for each subject. Other experimenters probed for correct articulation generalization in four other settings. Training was initiated in these four other settings sequentially only if correct responding failed to generalize to a setting. Results indicated that it was necessary to initiate training on at least three of the four selected target words in at least one additional setting with an additional trainer before correct responding generalized to untrained settings.     

THE EFFECT OF EXPERIMENTER FACIAL ORIENTATION DURING IMITATION MAINTENANCE1

The training and maintenance of imitative responding has become an important therapeutic process with language-handicapped children, as indicated by Garcia and DeHaven (American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 1974, 79 , 169–178). Typically a training “package” is used, that might entail the use of operant shaping, fading, reinforcement, and punishment techniques designed to increase correct imitation and decrease incorrect responding. Only recently have studies begun to concentrate on the components of these training “packages”. Steinman (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1970, 3 , 159–167) highlighted the roles played by less conspicuous but functionally important components of these packages. The present study attempted to provide a systematic extension of this work within an applied context. Using subjects who were responding at high levels during an imitation-maintenance procedure, experimenter facial orientation (experimenter's eyes and head oriented towards the subject's face and head), was systematically manipulated for experimentally determined “types” of imitative behavior. Differential responding within these parameters provided an evaluation of facial orientation as a functional component within this training package. Three retarded children participated in the study. Two types of topographically different imitative responses were defined for experimental purposes (“standing” and “sitting”). Each subject progressed through four conditions of the study, which called for the reinforcement of all imitative responses. But during preselected conditions, experimenter facial orientation was removed from the therapeutic package for one of the two topographical types of imitation. Results indicated that imitation of the two topographical types of models was dependent on the presence of experimenter facial orientation within the experimental procedure.     

Moderating Effects of Personal Cognitions on Experienced and Perceived Sexual Harassment of Women at the Workplace

This study investigated actual and perceived sexual harassment (SH), as well as the discrepancy between them of women in the workplace, as related to several factual and perceptual variables which were selected on the basis of theoretical considerations and previous findings (i.e., harasser status, workplace sex ratio, and perceptions of intensity of intergender interaction, normative beliefs about SH, and personal attractiveness). The sample included 138 women. employed in four organizations, who responded to anonymous questionnaires. Results showed that women reported engagement in diverse actual SH episodes, which varied in frequency (2% to 27%) along five levels of SH severity continuum. Only 10.1% of the women perceived these episodes as sexual harassing. It was found that the higher the severity of the SH episode, the stronger was the tendency to perceive it as sexual harassing. While actual SH was found to be significantly correlated with all research variables ( R = .49), perceived SH was only related to normative beliefs about SH ( r = .38), and the discrepancy mainly to personal attractiveness ( r = -.21). Various implications of the findings were discussed in light of social judgment perspective.     

The Acquaintance Predicament of a Rape Victim1

The acquaintance predicament of a rape victim was examined in six experiments with between-subjects designs with samples drawn from the undergraduate student population of the University of Bombay. The experiments used rape vignettes for the manipulation of all independent variables except subject's sex and were done in three pairs such that each pair had the same independent variables and first dependent measure, namely, recommended years of imprisonment for the rapist. The second dependent measure was attributed victim's fault in the first experiment and perceived likelihood of rape in the second experiment of each pair. The first pair of experiments had a 2 (subject's sex) × 2 (acquainted vs. unacquainted rapist) × 3 (rapist's status: manager, stenotypist, or watchman) × 2 (complaint vs. no complaint by victim) design, with the rape victim being described as a stenotypist. The second pair of experiments differed from the first pair in only one respect, with victim's marital status (married vs. divorced victim) replacing the independent variable of complaint of the first pair. The third pair of experiments had a 2 (subject's sex) × 2 (physically hurt vs. not hurt victim) × 5 (rapist's relationship with victim: husband, fiance, friend, acquaintance, or stranger) design. Female subjects, as compared to male subjects, recommended longer imprisonment for the rapist, attributed less fault to the victim, and perceived greater likelihood of rape. The victim was attributed less fault in case of stranger rape versus acquaintance rape and also less fault in the complaint versus the no complaint condition. Longer imprisonment was recommended for the rapist when the victim was physically hurt rather than not hurt.