Breast is Best…But Not Everywhere: Ambivalent Sexism and Attitudes Toward Private and Public Breastfeeding

Although breastfeeding is encouraged by the medical community, many women do not breastfeed because of perceived social sanctions. This experiment examines the level of positive evaluations, negative affect, and normalcy accorded a woman who is breastfeeding. 106 undergraduates and 80 older adults from the Midwestern U.S. were shown photos of a woman breastfeeding in public or private. It was hypothesized that the breastfeeding mother would be seen more positively when breastfeeding in private than in public, and that this response would be moderated by participants’ familiarity with breastfeeding, gender, and levels of benevolent and hostile sexism. Results supported these predictions. Three explanations for the negative view of public breastfeeding are discussed: familiarity, sexist attitudes, and hypersexualization of the breast.     

INCREASING AUTISTIC CHILDREN'S SPONTANEOUS VERBALIZATIONS OF AFFECTION: AN ASSESSMENT OF TIME DELAY AND PEER MODELING PROCEDURES

We assessed the efficacy of time delay and peer modeling procedures in increasing autistic children's spontaneous verbalizations of affection. Four autistic children were taught to spontaneously say “I like (love) you” in response to a hug from a familiar person and their mother. Generalization from a free play training setting to free play outdoors and at home was assessed. Ancillary social and affection behaviors were also observed. Results indicated that the time delay was a quick and effective procedure for all the children. Peer modeling was unsuccessful in teaching the target behavior.     

Multicultural Education as Fostering Individual Autonomy

This article attempts a philosophical defense of an autonomy-based approach to multicultural education. I contend that multicultural education is necessary in order for students to be able to develop personal autonomy. This, in turn, can empower students to effectively formulate their own version of the good life. The development of autonomy need not, as many critics claim, promote atomistic individualism. Rather, contemporary liberal autonomy strives for a balance between the individual and the community. In defending multicultural education, my argument relies on Joseph Raz's notion of autonomy and Will Kymlicka's concept of a context of choice. I conclude that through multicultural education, students can expand their contexts of choice and consequently develop individual autonomy, an essential ingredient of the good life.     

Neuromotor Functioning and Behavior Problems in Children at Risk for Psychopathology

Previous studies have found that early neuromotor deficits may be a precursor of later psychopathology. The present study examined the relationship between neuromotor dysfunction and behavioral deviance in children characterized by a variety of risk factors (parental schizophrenia, parental psychiatric disorder other than schizophrenia, and parental maltreatment). The sample consisted of 108 children (average age 9.75 years) who were assessed twice, approximately 1 year apart. It was found that maltreated children had poorer neuromotor functioning and more behavior problems than children who were not maltreated, regardless of parental psychiatric status. The results also indicated that the relationship between neuromotor functioning and problem behaviors varied as a function of parental psychiatric status. These findings suggest that, although the effects of maltreatment are generalized and pervasive, there are distinctive relationships between neuromotor functioning and behavioral deviance depending on the nature of the risk factors a child has been exposed to.     

Psychometric properties and underlying assumptions of four objective measures of fear of success

This article reviews several new tests of “fear of success” in terms of their underlying theoretical assumptions, measure reliability, and validity. A discussion of the validity of the fear-of-success construct is also presented. The conclusion is that it would be premature to switch to any of the new techniques. Each has its own limitations and should not be employed until a replicable body of research exists.     

Sex-role preferences in four age levels

Brown's (1956a; 1956b) influential finding that girls of all ages exhibit masculine rather than feminine sex-role preferences has been challenged by the argument that the scale used in his studies—the It Scale for Children (ITSC)—is masculine biased. The present investigation reexamined this issue with an instrument designed to be free of the limitations inherent in the ITSC. Boys and girls from grades 2, 5, 8, and 11 examined drawings of activities scaled for sex-role stereotypy and selected those activities they would like to engage in. Consistent with Brown's earlier work, boys exhibited strong masculine preferences at all ages. Contrary to Brown, however, girls did not show similar masculine preferences. Instead, their choices reflected strong feminine preferences throughout the spectrum of ages tested.     

Sex differences in intellectual functioning: How much of a difference do genes make?

An X-linkage theory of inheritance of genes controlling sex differences in major intellectual traits is critically examined. A review of the research suggests that the mechanism of inheritance of differences in spatial visualization ability is X-linked recessive and its expression is probably testosterone-limited. However, the evidence concerning inheritance of differences in IQ does not support an X-linkage theory. Several characteristics of heritability estimates are discussed, including their specificity to a particular population at a certain point in time, their fluctuation with changes in amount of environmental variation, and the necessity of unconfounding sex and treatment in order to better determine the relationship between heritability and changeability of sex differences in specific intellectual trait expression.Parts of this paper were presented at the Western Psychological Association Convention, 1974.