Integrating psychological research on girls with feminist activism: a model for building a liberation psychology in the United States

A liberation psychology is needed to bridge the gap between psychology's focus on individual distress and broad social forces that foster such distress. We offer a model for bridging this gap by focusing on a specific area of psychology (psychological research on girls) and a specific social movement (feminist activism). Psychological research on girls and feminist activism share the common goal of improving the lives of girls and women. However, both have fallen short of this goal. This is due, in part, to the weaknesses associated with each endeavor and to the fact that the complementary strengths of each have remained isolated from the other. In this paper, we propose a common language and shared framework to integrate psychological research with feminist activism. First, we review the basic strengths and weaknesses associated with psychological research and feminist activism, with a particular focus on how they are distinct from one another. Second, we provide a taxonomic framework for integrating these two areas on the basis of the stress paradigm, with specific examples provided from our recent reviews of the literature and our own empirical work with adolescent girls. Finally, we conclude with recommendations for future work needed to integrate psychological research on girls with feminist activism toward the goal of building a liberation psychology in the United States.     

Sexual Pavlovian conditioned approach behavior in male Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica)

A localized visual stimulus presented immediately prior to access to a female conspecific stimulated approach behavior in male Japanese quail after several conditioning trials. Development of this conditioned approach behavior was observed with two different types of signal lights, 10-s and 30-s signal durations, large and small experimental chambers, and with male birds housed continually in the conditioning chambers or only placed in the chamber for brief daily sessions. Conditioning also resulted in shorter latencies to initiate copulation in males given access to a female following the signal light, in comparison with males that received access to a female unannounced by the light. Although some aspects of the conditioning experience were retained over a 6-week interval, some loss of the behavior was also observed. The conditioned behavior also decreased with repeated extinction trials, during which the signal light was presented in the absence of access to a female conspecific. The results are discussed in relation to other aspects of the social behavior of Japanese quail and other studies of sexual conditioning.     

Perceived social support from family and friends: measurement across disparate samples

This research investigates the psychometric properties of the Perceived Social Support (PSS; Procidano & Heller, 1983) from family and friends across three samples: a chronic-psychiatric sample, a diabetic sample, and an undergraduate college student sample. Comparisons of internal consistency, central tendency, and dispersion for both the perceived family support (PSS-FA) and the perceived friend support (PSS-FR) are reported, as are the relationships between these two scales for each group. Correlations with general health status and psychiatric symptomatology are also reported. The utility of this measure for generalizable research on social support is discussed.     

Sex role development as a function of college experiences

The purpose was to evaluate the effect of college experiences on androgyny. One hundred and thirty-nine freshman and 57 senior women completed the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) as well as measures to assess precollege variables, including a biographical questionnaire, a life experience survey, a measure of parental identification, and parental sex role inventories. In addition, seniors completed measures that assessed college experiences. Almost all of the scales on the two precollege questionnaires that measured parental variables were found related to student's sex role. Consequently, all remaining relationships with sex role were examined with and without controlling for these parental scales. None of the variables that measured college experiences were found to be significantly related to sex role. The results did not support the hypothesis that seniors would assume a more masculine sex role than freshmen. However, the seniors did obtain significantly lower scores than freshmen on the BSRI Femininity scale.     

Processing lexically embedded spoken words

A large number of multisyllabic words contain syllables that are themselves words. Previous research using cross-modal priming and word-spotting tasks suggests that embedded words may be activated when the carrier word is heard. To determine the effects of an embedded word on processing of the larger word, processing times for matched pairs of bisyllabic words were examined to contrast the effects of the presence or absence of embedded words in both 1st- and 2nd-syllable positions. Results from auditory lexical decision and single-word shadowing demonstrate that the presence of an embedded word in the 1st-syllable position speeds processing times for the carrier word. The presence of an embedded word in the 2nd syllable has no demonstrable effect.     

Sustained attentional and disattentional abilities and arousability: Factor analysis and relationships to hypnotic susceptibility

The neurophysiologically separate dimensions of deeply focused, sustained attention and arousability are shown to be differentially related to hypnotic susceptibility. University undergraduates, 98 men and 112 women, were administered the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility; the Group Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C (SHSS:C); and questionnaires that assessed attentional abilities (Differential Attentional Processes Inventory (DAPI), Tellegen Absorption Scale (TAS)), Extraversion (Eysenck Personality Questionnaire), strength of the nervous system (Strelau Temperament Scale (STS)), augmenting-reducing (Vando Reducer-Augmenter Scale (RAS)), and emotionality (Affect Intensity Measure (AIM)). Women were significantly higher on TAS, DAPI dual attention physical-cognitive scale, and AIM; men were significantly higher on TAS and STI Strength of Excitation Scale. Separate factor analyses for men and women separately yielded fairly similar four-factor solutions. The first major factor, defined by DAPI Moderately Focused Attention and Dual Attention scales, represented moderately sustained attention in a complex environment with limited interference from competing stimuli. The extremely involved and focused attention factor, defined by the TAS and DAPI Extremely Focused Attention Scale, had hypnotic susceptibility loaded more strongly for men than women. The arousability factor was defined by EPQ Extraversion, STI Mobility of Nervous System (MNS) scale, and RAS. The neo-Pavlovian nervous system processes factor was defined by the STI Strength of Excitation and Strength of Inhibition scales; the STI MNS scale also loaded on this factor for men. Only for women were introverts more hypnotizable than extraverts. Results support H. J. Crawford and J. H. Gruzelier's (1992) in E. Fromm and M. Nash (Eds.) Contemporary Perspectives in Hypnosis Research (pp. 227–266) New York: Guildford Press) neurophysiological model of hypnosis that proposes that highly hypnotizable persons have a more efficient fronto-limbic sustained attentional and disattentional system.     

The encoding of ignored information

An experiment was conducted to study the dimensions of encoding of verbal material in short-term memory as a function of other demands placed on Ss attention. Eighty Ss shadowed one of two simultaneous lists, under instructions to remember the shadowed or the nonshadowed list, A single recognition probe followed each shadowing trial. Ss judged whether the probed item was (1) identical to, (2) a rhyme of, or (3) a synonym of one of the to be remembered items. Results indicated that acoustic information was encoded from all inputs, regardless of the focus of attention. Evidence for semantic encoding, however, was limited to those conditions in which retention of shadowed material was required. The data were interpreted as contradicting “late selection” theories of attention, which propose that all inputs are analyzed for meaning prior to the focusing of attention.     

I Lost It in the Lights: The Effects of Predictable and Variable Intermittent Vision on Unimanual Catching

In this study, 2 competing views of interceptive action were examined by assessing the influence of variability in the interval between visual samples in a unimanual ball-catching task. Subjects were required to catch tennis balls projected over a distance of 14 m, under conditions of intermittent vision in which the between-sample intervals were either predictable or unpredictable. Results indicated that, although performance was best with shorter between-sample intervals, the temporal predictability of samples did not reliably affect catching performance. This suggests that between-sample retinal expansion provides sufficient information for the timing of the interceptive act.     

Specificity of memory representations for spoken words

Many theories of spoken word recognition assume that lexical items are stored in memory as abstract representations. However, recent research (e.g., Goldinger, 1996) has suggested that representations of spoken words in memory are veridical exemplars that encode specific information, such as characteristics of the talker’s voice. If representations are exemplar based, effects of stimulus variation such as that arising from changes in the identity of the talker may have an effect on identification of and memory for spoken words. This prediction was examined for an implicit and explicit task (lexical decision and recognition, respectively). Comparable amounts of repetition priming in lexical decision were found for repeated words, regardless of whether the repetitions were in the same or in different voices. However, reaction times in the recognition task were faster if the repetition was in the same voice. These results suggest a role for both abstract and specific representations in models of spoken word recognition.     

Does cardiovascular reactivity during speech reflect self-construction processes?

Abstract Substantial empirical research has been undertaken on cardiovascular reactivity (CVR). however interpretation of this research is hampered by a lack of theoretical frameworks. This paper develops a framework initially stimulated by evidence demonstrating that the cardiovascular system increases in activity during communication, and that the extent of this activation depends upon numerous and diverse psychosocial factors. We attempt to account for this phenomenon using merit post-structuralist ideas concerning the constructive nature of language and its centrality to an individual's sense of self. Our theoretical framework proposes that the CVR exhibited during language use is explicable in terms of self-construction - From this analysis we hypothesised that CVR would differ across conversations about private self. public self and non-self topics, and that these differences would depend upon people's speaking histories. We found that the blood pressure and heart rate of 102 women was most reactive when they talked in a laboratory with a stranger about aspects of their private self, and least reactive during non-self talk, whilst their heart rate was most reactive during talk about their public self. Overall the results highlight the inextricable link between our inherent socialness and our cardiovascular systems. SUMMARY The explanatory scheme outlined here is an attempt to provide a social reconceptualisation of a phenomenon that is typically interpreted in individualistic psychophysiological terms, and which is consistent with the notion that repeated exposure to situations which provoke large haemodynamic changes may lead to CHD disease progression. The explanation draws heavily on post-structuralist ideas regarding language, and the social constructionist notion that engaging in language use is central to constructing and maintaining a sense of self. This sense of self is a central theoretical entity in our everyday lives, produced and maintained in our interactions with others. We argue that it is this centrality of self-construction that helps to explain the extraordinary consistency of elevated CVR in conversation. Further, we have noted the striking parallels between those features of conversations that make the self salient, and those that have been associated with elevated CVR. To examine it more explicitly, it needs to be tested empirically with new data, using explicitly derived operationalisations and hypotheses.