Weight Strain and Binge Drinking among Adolescents

Obesity and substance use are two common areas of research among adolescents. Interestingly, very little research examines the relationship between these two important health risk behaviors and the findings are inconsistent. Guided by Agnew’s general strain theory and using the Add Health data, we examine this neglected area of research. The current research has identified a link between weight strain and binge drinking and is supportive of the extant research on both general strain theory and the links between stigma, stress, and health. We also found some evidence that this relationship was gendered. Implications and future research directions are discussed.     

Contextual Definition and Ontological Commitment

According to the standard view, Kant held that hypothetical imperatives are universally binding edicts with disjunctive objects: take-the-means-or-don't-have-the-end. But Kant thought otherwise. He held that they are edicts binding only on some—those who have an end.     

Intrusive and avoidant ideation among females pursuing infertility treatment

Abstract

It was shown that infertility and its treatment constitute a stressful experience for women, reflected particularly in disturbing intrusive ideation about the stress source. Infertility patients reported levels of intrusive ideation significantly higher than routine gynecologic patients and not significantly different from levels of psychiatric outpatients being treated for stress reactions to traumatic events. Intrusive ideation also predicted the degree of self-reported infertility-specific distress and dysfunction, further clarifying the key role of such ideation in the experience. Finally, as hypothesized, the frustration level of the treatment experience (as indexed by the number of infertility treatment methods attempted) predicted avoidant ideation. Implications for managing the psychological distress and disruption associated with the infertility treatment experience were discussed.     

Estimating retest effects in longitudinal assessments of cognitive functioning in adults between 18 and 60 years of age

Several analyses were conducted on data from samples of adults between 18 and 58 years of age who completed the same cognitive tests after an interval ranging from less than 1 week to 35 years. Because the retest interval varied across individuals, it was possible to determine the length of time needed before the gains associated with a retest decreased to 0 and to obtain simultaneous estimates of the magnitude of effects associated with increased age and a prior assessment. The results indicated that for adults within this age range, 7 or more years were needed before positive retest effects were no longer detectable. Age effects in longitudinal comparisons could be interpreted in terms of large positive effects associated with a prior assessment and negative effects associated with age that were comparable in magnitude to those observed in cross-sectional comparisons.     

Is neocortex essentially multisensory?

Although sensory perception and neurobiology are traditionally investigated one modality at a time, real world behaviour and perception are driven by the integration of information from multiple sensory sources. Mounting evidence suggests that the neural underpinnings of multisensory integration extend into early sensory processing. This article examines the notion that neocortical operations are essentially multisensory. We first review what is known about multisensory processing in higher-order association cortices and then discuss recent anatomical and physiological findings in presumptive unimodal sensory areas. The pervasiveness of multisensory influences on all levels of cortical processing compels us to reconsider thinking about neural processing in unisensory terms. Indeed, the multisensory nature of most, possibly all, of the neocortex forces us to abandon the notion that the senses ever operate independently during real-world cognition.     

Separate brain potential characteristics in children with reading disability and attention deficit disorder: color and letter relevance effects

This experiment was on event-related potential (ERP) indicants of the selective neural processing of black vs. white and letter vs. nonletter stimuli in boys (8-12 years of age) with and without a reading disability (RD) and/or attentional deficit disorder (ADD). Selective neural processing was measured by the increase or difference in ERP amplitude in response to stimuli that were relevant as compared to irrelevant to the color or letter attention task. The 52 children that participated in the study constituted four groups: 25 normal reading children (17 without ADD and 8 with ADD), and 27 RD children (11 without ADD and 16 with ADD). ERPs were recorded over the left and right occipital, central, and frontal regions. Selective neural processing due to stimulus relevance was reduced in boys with RD as compared to normal readers. This reduced selectivity was indicated by a predominantly symmetrical reduction in the magnitude of a positive difference potential over the central regions, between 300 and 360 msec, and then by a left greater than right hemisphere reduction in the magnitude of a positive difference potential over the occipital regions, at about 400 msec. Task relevance increased the within-subject and condition variability of this occipital positive component and this effect was greater for boys without than with RD, particularly over the left hemisphere. Selective neural processing due to stimulus relevance was greater in boys with ADD as compared to those without ADD. This was indicated by an increase in the magnitude of a positive difference potential between 320 and 400 msec over the central and frontal regions and a slow, late, negative difference potential between 600 and 800 msec over the central and occipital regions. These ADD effects tended to be greater over the right than left hemisphere. The unique polarity, scalp distribution, and time course of the effects of RD as compared to ADD on ERPs to relevant stimuli clearly indicated these two disorders, in part, involve different underlying brain deficits.     

Inferential procedures for correlation coefficients corrected for attenuation

A model and computational procedure based on classical test score theory are presented for determination of a correlation coefficient corrected for attenuation due to unreliability. Next, variance-covariance expressions for the sample estimates defined earlier are derived, based on application of the delta method. Results of a Monte Carlo study are presented in which the adequacy of the derived expressions was assessed for a large number of data forms and potential hypotheses encountered in the behavioral sciences. It is shown that, based on the proposed procedures, confidence intervals for single coefficients are reasonably precise. Two-sample hypothesis tests, for both independent and dependent samples, are also accurate. However, for hypothesis tests involving a larger number of coefficients than two—both independent and dependent—the proposed procedures require largens for adequate precision. Results of a preliminary power analysis reveal no serious loss in efficiency resulting from correction for attenuation. Implications for practice are discussed.Support for the research reported in this article was provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. The authors acknowledge with thanks the constructive comments of the editor and three anonymous reviewers.     

Graduate Students' Relationships with Their Male and Female Major Professors

Structured interviews of ten female studentswith male major professors, ten female students withfemale major professors, ten male students with malemajor professors, and ten male students with female major professors were content-analyzed forevidence of differences related to student-professorgender combination. These quantitative and qualitativecontent analyses indicated no differences inprofessional relationships. However, with respect topsychosocial relationships, there were some advantagesto male students and disadvantages to female studentsassociated with having male major professors. Forexample, compared to other gender combinations, femaleswith male major professors made the greatest number ofnegative psychosocial comments and met with their majorprofessors in the fewest number of nonacademic environments. Males with male major professorsmet in the greatestnumber of nonacademic environmentsand placed their major professors on their lists ofsupportive people most often.