Self-objectification, habitual body monitoring, and body dissatisfaction in older European American women: exploring age and feminism as moderators

This study examined the influence of feminist attitudes on self-objectification, habitual body monitoring, and body dissatisfaction in middle age and older women. The participants were 138 European American heterosexual women ranging in age from 40 to 87 years old. Consistent with previous research, self-objectification and habitual body monitoring were positively correlated with body dissatisfaction and, self-objectification and habitual body monitoring remained stable across the lifespan. While age did not moderate the relationship between self-objectification and body dissatisfaction, age was found to moderate the relationship between habitual body monitoring and body dissatisfaction such that the relationship was smaller for older women than for middle-aged women. Interestingly, feminist attitudes were not significantly correlated with body dissatisfaction, self-objectification, or habitual body monitoring, and endorsement of feminist attitudes was not found to moderate the relationship between self-objectification or habitual body monitoring and body dissatisfaction. Potential implications for older women are discussed.     

Automatic evaluation of body-related images

An affective priming task was used to determine whether females automatically evaluate body-related images, and to establish whether this is moderated by appearance schematicity, thin internalisation, body dissatisfaction, and dietary restraint. In a within participants design, the valence congruence of the prime and target pairs was manipulated, as was the interval between them. Undergraduate females (N=87, Experiment 1 and N=72, Experiment 2) individually selected colour images as the primes. Each prime was presented briefly, followed by a target word which the participant judged as "good" or "bad". The dependent variable was response latency to the target word. Automatic evaluation was evident; responding to congruent pairs was faster than responding to incongruent pairs. The individual difference variables were not related to automaticity. The findings suggest that brief encounters with body-related images are likely to produce automatic affective responses in young women irrespective of body-related concerns.     

Age-related deficits in associative memory: the influence of impaired strategic retrieval

In 2 experiments, the authors investigated whether impaired strategic retrieval processes contribute to the age-related deficit in associative memory. To do so, they compared older and younger adults on measures of associative memory that place high demands on retrieval processes (associative identification and recall-to-reject) to measures that place low demands on such processes (associative reinstatement and recall-to-accept). Results showed that older adults were severely impaired on associative identification and recall-to-reject measures; relatively intact on recall-to-accept measures, unless recollection was prominent; and intact on associative reinstatement measures. Together, these findings suggest that impairment in strategic retrieval accounts for older adults' deficits in memory for associative information and that this deficit, above and beyond poor binding of items, leads to and amplifies an impairment in overall recollection.     

Employability of Genetic Counselors with a PhD in Genetic Counseling

The development of a PhD in genetic counseling has been discussed for more than 20 years, yet the perspectives of employers have not been assessed. The goal of this qualitative study was to gain an understanding of the employability of genetic counselors with a PhD in genetic counseling by conducting interviews with United States employers of genetic counselors. Study participants were categorized according to one of the following practice areas: academic, clinical, government, industry, laboratory, or research. All participants were responsible for hiring genetic counselors in their institutions. Of the 30 employers interviewed, 23 envisioned opportunities for individuals with a PhD degree in genetic counseling, particularly in academic and research settings. Performing research and having the ability to be a principal investigator on a grant was the primary role envisioned for these individuals by 22/30 participants. Employers expect individuals with a PhD in genetic counseling to perform different roles than MS genetic counselors with a master's degree. This study suggests there is an employment niche for individuals who have a PhD in genetic counseling that complements, and does not compete with, master's prepared genetic counselors.     

Obesity in America: Implications for Clinical and Health Psychologists

The number of individuals classified as overweight and obese is increasing at alarming rates and these conditions are associated with numerous psychological and physiological health problems. Within this epidemic, there is an increasing need and demand for psychologists and other mental health professionals to participate in the care of patients with obesity, both in assessment and treatment domains. The current paper provides a review of the status of the obesity epidemic, including psychological comorbidities and treatment approaches. Throughout this review, we highlight and discuss the important roles and impact psychologists can have. These roles include serving as members of multidisciplinary obesity treatment programs, conducting assessments for bariatric surgery, and treating related psychiatric disorders, such as depression and disordered eating. Other considerations, such as weight gain associated with psychiatric medications, and directions for future involvement of psychologists in addressing the obesity epidemic are also discussed.     

Do captive mandrills invent new gestures?

Studies of intraspecific behavioral variability have documented cases where behaviors are present in some populations or groups but are absent in others. In some cases these differences cannot be explained by recourse to environmental or genetic variation, and may instead represent “traditions”. Despite many examples of animal traditions in acoustic communication, relatively few examples exist of gestural traditions. Here I report on a study of communication across eight captive groups of mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) in which a prominent gesture (Hand extension) was unique to two groups. Habitat variability, genetic differences, and sampling bias were not sufficient to account for the gesture’s limited distribution across the study groups. Within the two groups where the gesture did occur only the juveniles in the group performed it, consistently directing it toward adults. Quantitative analysis of the contexts and responses associated with the gesture suggested that juveniles utilized it to provoke adults. Moreover, the gesture appeared to minimize the risk juveniles incurred while inciting adults, suggesting that repeated social interactions shaped the gesture’s form. Interestingly, both the groups where the gesture emerged contained few juveniles. With limited play partners, these juveniles may have resorted to harassing adults as an alternative social play outlet. The creation of this novel gesture may thus be due to the combined influence of a shortage of play partners and of the increased free time for playful social exploration afforded by captivity. Although juveniles frequently “eavesdropped” on dyadic interactions involving the gesture and would subsequently initiate an interaction with the recipient of the gesture, there was no definitive evidence for social transmission; the gesture could instead have been independently invented by each juvenile. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Using a virtual reality system to study balance and walking in a virtual outdoor environment: a pilot study.

Falls and fall-related injuries are a major problem for elderly persons. Most falls occur during walking and turning, and the risk of falling increases when attention is diverted to something besides walking. It is often difficult to standardize methods for testing balance and fall tendency in a clinically relevant setting. We describe the development of a system using a virtual environment (VE) to assess how attention demanding and unexpected events influence a person's capacity to control balance and movement. The hardware in the system consists of a head-mounted display (HMD), a magnetic tracker system, and two SGI computers. The software consists of the image generation of the VE and the management and visualization of motion tracking data. In a preliminary pilot study eight subjects (age 23-80) participated. Each subject walked on a normal floor and was visually presented a familiar outdoor environment in the HMD. They were exposed to different unexpected events, such as a virtual snowfall and tilting of the VE. Disturbances of balance and walking patterns such as changes in speed, stride length and balance reactions like slipping were observed. Two subjects experienced symptoms of cyber sickness with a SSQ score above 25 points. Walking with sensors only did not affect walking time, but in VE the subjects generally walked more slowly. Virtual tilting of the environment had an impact on balance performance during walking. This effect was not observed while the test subjects were walking in a virtual snowfall. The model needs further development but may hold a potential for clinical use.     

Testing for the presence of 1/f noise in continuation tapping data.

A number of recent papers have suggested that the series of time intervals produced in continuation tapping may have fractal properties. This proposition, nevertheless, was only based on the visual appraisal of graphical results, and was not statistically supported. In the present study, we applied the ARMA/ARFIMA modeling procedures proposed by Wagenmakers, Farrell, and Ratcliff (2005) to test for the presence of long-range dependencies in continuation tapping data. Our results demonstrate the presence of long-range dependencies in most series and offer strong support for the hypothesis that fluctuations in tapping series are fractal in nature.     

Beyond babytalk: Re-evaluating the nature and content of speech input to preverbal infants

Infant-directed maternal speech is an important component of infants’ linguistic input. However, speech from other speakers and speech directed to others constitute a large amount of the linguistic environment. What are the properties of infant-directed speech that differentiate it from other components of infants’ speech environment? To what extent should these other aspects be considered as part of the linguistic input? This review examines the characteristics of the speech input to preverbal infants, including phonological, morphological, and syntactic characteristics, specifically how these properties might support language development. While maternal, infant-directed speech is privileged in the input, other aspects of the environment, such as adult-directed speech, may also play a role. Furthermore, the input is variable in nature, dependent on the age and linguistic development of the infant, the social context, and the interaction between the infant and speakers in the environment.