Visual palatability of food in patients with eating disorders and dieting women

The effects of 19 meals of different caloric content on slides on palatability and hypothetical duration of consumption were investigated in 7 patients with anorexia nervosa, 17 patients with bulimia nervosa at the beginning and after 8 weeks of hospital treatment. Nine healthy females served as controls. At the beginning of treatment, palatability of low caloric food was significantly higher and hypothetical duration of consumption of high caloric food was significantly longer in patients when compared to controls. After 8 weeks, in the patients palatability of low caloric food had decreased. Dislike for high caloric food remained stable in anorexics.     

What children can tell us about living in danger

Developmental challenges faced by children growing up in situations of chronic danger linked to community violence and communal conflict are reviewed. The concept of post-traumatic stress disorder is expanded to include situations of chronic and on-going traumatic stress associated with dangerous environments--war zones and inner city neighborhoods plagued by violence and crime. Of particular importance is the impact of chronic stress and danger on the child's world view, the child's social map, and the child's moral development. On the basis of field work in 5 war zones, the article points to the importance of adult-led "processing" of the young child's experience to his or her psychological coping and moral development. Some of the contradictions operating in such environments are explored--for example, that "fanatical" ideology may provide short-term support for adults and children but also may serve to prolong communal conflict, impede the necessary processing of experience, and increase vulnerability in the long run.     

Work-Home Role Conflict,Family Climate,and Domestic Responsibilities Among Men and Women in Dual-earner Families1

Correlates of work-home role conflict for dual-earner couples were examined. Respondents (N= 208) were an equal number of married, employed men and women with children. Data were collected in the northeastern U.S.A. through a survey which measured work-home role conflict, family climate, domestic responsibilities, and activities performed during one's free time. LISREL was used to determine if domestic responsibilities mediate the correlation between gender and work-home conflict. A regression analysis was used to determine the relative effects of domestic responsibilities and family climate on work-home conflict. Results indicate that (a) work-home role conflict is negatively related to family climate for men as well as for women, (b) gender differences in role conflict are partially attributable to gender differences in domestic responsibilities, and (c) domestic responsibilities and family climate each correlate significantly with work-home role conflict. Findings suggest that how one works hard (the conditions under which one lives) may be just as important as how hard one works (the number of tasks one performs).     

Multiple role juggling and daily mood states in working mothers: an experience sampling study

The effects of multiple role juggling (i.e., simultaneously attending to demands of different roles) on daily mood states of employed mothers were examined. Ss completed activity and mood questionnaires 8 times a day for 8 days. Multiple role juggling had immediate negative effects on task enjoyment and mood. However, contrast effects and habituation to role juggling occurred when mood and satisfaction were examined over time. Furthermore, mood states tended to spill over from one episode to the next within a day, but contrast effects were found across days. These results reflect the complex nature of psychological adjustment to multiple role occupancy.     

The relation of perception and motor action: ideomotor compatibility and interference in divided attention

Ideomotor theory is one variation of the general position that perception and motor action are related. According to this theory, a perceptual representation of the goal of a response must be generated prior to response initiation. Ideomotor theory can be extended by assuming that generation of this representation, which usually is required prior to motor action, is not needed if the stimulus itself corresponds to the response goal, that is, if the stimulus and response are ideomotor compatible. Because processing to generate the response representation is not needed with ideomotor compatibility, it should be possible to control two responses simultaneously without mutual interference if at least one stimulus-response relation is ideomotor compatible. Although supported in previous work involving discrete responses, this prediction of perfect time-sharing was found not to hold in the experiments reported here. These experiments, unlike those showing perfect time-sharing, involved continuous responses. We propose an alternative version of ideomotor compatibility, in which perfect time-sharing can occur if an integrated stimulus is provided to match the continuous and integrated response.     

Evidence for the Altruistic Personality from Data on Accident Research

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to test whether the concept of an altruistic personality was valid for first aiders who intervened to help the victims of a traffic accident. We derived a number of relevant personality variables that should be related to the willingness to administer first aid. These include locus of control, social responsibility, belief in a just world, empathy, and instrumentality. We obtained data from proven first aiders who had intervened after a traffic accident. Thirty-four of these first aiders were matched to respondents from a subject pool on the basis of sex, age, and socioeconomic status. In addition, the willingness of these respondents to offer help after a traffic accident was taken into account. Only people who indicated that they had witnessed an accident and had not helped were included in the control group. Multivariate analyses of variance and covariance indicated that proven first aiders deviated from the control group on several dimensions: They described themselves as more internal, believed more in a just world, and emphasized more social responsibility and empathy.     

An examination of the construct validity of the Social Anhedonia Scale

Two studies bearing on the construct validity of the Social Anhedonia Scale (SA) are reported. Study 1 reported convergent validity coefficients between the SA scale and numerous measures of traits reflecting a generalized attitude toward others (e.g., social interest and empathy) as well as several traits reflecting maladjustment without a social component as a test of discriminant validity (e.g., pessimism and rigidity). Study 1 found impressive convergent validity for the SA scale and mixed discriminant validity. Study 2 found that the SA scale was related to two dimensions of striving for security, one of which is strongly influenced by negative interpersonal tendencies, suggesting support for the validity of the SA scale. Implications for the measurement and concept of social anhedonia are presented.     

The perceived causal structure of loneliness

Two studies examined the way people represent the causes of loneliness as a semantic space and as a causal network. In a multidimensional scaling task, the results of Michela, Peplau, and Weeks (1982) were replicated and the causes wee classified according to locus and stability. In a 2nd study, 44 people judged the likelihood that these causes were interconnected. From these data, a causal network or perceived causal structure (Kelley, 1983) was derived by means of network analysis. The structure revealed a complex lay theory of loneliness in which personality influenced group behavior, which in turn influenced psychological states and beliefs. States and beliefs were also affected by physical features and situational factors.     

Cross-channel effects of vocal and physical attractiveness and their implications for interpersonal perception

Judges' ratings of senders' vocal attractiveness from face-plus-voice (F+V) cues were influenced by senders' physical attractiveness, and ratings of senders' physical attractiveness from F+V cues were influenced by senders' vocal attractiveness. This occurred even when judges were warned not to pay attention to face when rating vocal attractiveness and not to pay attention to voice when rating physical attractiveness. Instructions to judge attractiveness without being told which channel to attend to resulted in ratings influenced by both vocal and physical attractiveness of senders. Because of cross-channel effects, F+V attractiveness ratings should be more highly related to F+V personality impressions than attractiveness ratings based on only face or only voice. The results supported this hypothesis. Implications of cross-channel effects for research on the attractiveness stereotype were discussed.