Body image or body images?: Comparative, multidimensional assessment among college students

A major criticism of research on body image concerns the dubious assumptions of the unidimensionality of the construct and the equivalence of body-image measures. Our study of 125 male and female college students compared multiple measurement methods within each of two modalities of body image: (a) perceptual (body-size estimation) and (b) attitudinal (body-image affect and cognition). Clinically relevant indices of psychological adjustment and eating disturbance were included. Results clearly supported the distinction between attitudinal and perceptual modalities of body image and indicated more convergent and discriminant validity for the former than for the latter. Whereas one method of assessing size-estimation accuracy and most body-image attitudes produced relationships with maladjustment, only attitudinal body image and perceptual, self-ideal discrepancy measures were significantly linked to eating disturbance. Relationships were generally more consistent for women than for men. Implications are discussed in the context of extant and future research on body image with clinical and nonclinical populations.     

Learning disabilities: an appraisal of Rorschach response patterns

Recent developments with the Rorschach invite research concerning cognitive and coping styles of learning disabled students. This study, based on an N of 25 (12 learning disabled and 13 controls), was designed to assess group differences in perceptual accuracy, self-concept, and reactivity. Analysis showed that learning disabled students represent a diverse population for which highly individualized understanding is required if appropriate schooling strategies are to be devised. Such students, compared with controls, were more inclined to have lower self-confidence, to be more reactive, to avoid emotionally-laden stimuli, to manifest a higher proportion of responses involving perceptual inaccuracies, and to be less spontaneous and less inclined to take risks. Some curricular implications of the findings are discussed.     

Proof and truth in Lakatos's masterpiece

Proofs and Refutations is Lakatos's masterpiece. This article investigates some of its central themes, in particular: the nature of proofs ('Proofs do not prove, they improve'); the nature of definitions (real, not nominal); and the consequences of all this for ontology (platonism vs Popper's World Three).     

How far can attraction-caused misalignment account for the Morinaga misalignment effect?

Summary When a line (the pointer) is collinear with a dot, the addition of a second line (the induction line) contiguous with the dot or near it may cause the pointer to appear to be collinear with a point further along or nearer to the induction line. The geometrical relations upon which this effect, which we call attraction-caused misalignment, depends have been studied with the Obonai and Wundt-Loeb (Hotopf, 1981; Hotopf & Brown, 1988) figures. Drawing upon the studies of misalignment in the Morinaga figure carried out by Restle (1976), Day, Bellamy, and Norman (1983), and Day and Kasperczyk (1985), as well as upon two new experiments, we show that misalignment in the Morinaga figure is also attraction-caused misalignment, as previously defined. We conclude with a discussion of a number of theories that aim at accounting for attraction misalignment.     

The Association of Disease Severity, Functional Status, and Medical Utilization with Relationship Satisfaction among Asthma Patients and Their Partners

The association of relationship satisfaction to asthma-related illness factors was examined among 46 couples in which one person had asthma of mild-to-moderate severity. The asthma-related illness factors included measures of disease severity, functional status, and medical utilization. More asthma severity and greater use of asthma medications accounted for 27% of the variance in relationship satisfaction. These results diverge from the general notion that more illness should be associated with more relationship distress. The findings are discussed in the context of the potentially buffering effects of the relationship satisfaction among the couples in the present sample against the stress of a chronic illness.     

Beyond Stewardship? Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Nature

This article questions whether the model of stewardship is helpful in considering Christian responsibility towards non‐human nature and proposes a different way of treating the issue of care of the environment. In an extended engagement with the theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the article argues that human relations to non‐human nature are best understood by seeing humanity as historical, political and natural. In theological formulation, humanity must be understood asimago dei, imago civitatis andimago mundi. Therefore the place of humanity cannot properly be understood without reference to both God and nature. Humanity, nature and God thereby constitute a ‘common realm’. A new test of Christian responsibility towards non‐human nature is introduced: of primary interest is how historical, political and natural humanity acts in ways which either reveal or obscure the ‘common realm of God, nature and humanity’. At this point, theological self‐understanding moves beyond the model of stewardship.     

A multidimensional scaling analysis of vowel discrimination in humans and monkeys

Multidimensional scaling (MDS) was used to compare perceptual maps for 10 synthetic English vowels in humans and Old World monkeys (Macaca fuscata andCercopithecus albogularis). Subjects discriminated among the vowels using a repeating background procedure, and reaction times were submitted to an MDS analysis to derive measures of perceived similarity. The dimensions that emerged related to the frequencies of the first(F1), second(F2), and third(F3) formants. Human data indicated a good match to previous MDS studies using rating procedures or confusion matrices: The dominant dimension mapped onto vowelF2, the phonetically most important formant, and the second and third dimensions mapped ontoF1 andF3, respectively.For monkeys, equal weightings occurred forF1 andF2, andF3 was not clearly represented. Monkey sensitivity to the formants appeared to relate to formant amplitudes. If monkeys are giving an accurate representation of the psychoacoustic relations among the formants, then our human results suggest that species-specific mechanisms, reflecting the salience of the phonetic feature of advancement, may contribute to vowel coding in humans.     

Utterance timing and childhood stuttering

Articulatory speaking rate and response time latency are believed by many to be important factors in determining whether stuttering will occur in a given utterance. Currently, however, there is little empirical evidence to suggest that these measures of utterance timing are directly related to stuttering. This study examined the relationship between articulatory speaking rate and response time latency in the conversational speech of 12 boys who stutter (mean age = 55.2 months; SD = 8.8 months) who participated in 30-min conversational interactions with their mothers. Discriminant function analyses were conducted on 75 utterances drawn from each child's speech sample to determine if the articulatory speaking rate or response time latency of a specific utterance was related to the likelihood that the child would stutter on that utterance. No significant relationships between these measures of utterance timing and stuttering were found for any of the 12 subjects, and there were no significant relationships between these two measures of utterance timing. Findings do not provide support for many current theories of stuttering and suggest that the role of these measures of utterance timing in predicting the occurrence of stuttering in conversational speech in these theories may need to be reexamined.