Readiness to accept Western standard of beauty and body satisfaction among Muslim girls with and without hijab

The purpose of this paper was to determine whether there is a difference in the readiness to accept Western standards of beauty in which thinness is an ideal of beauty and attractiveness, as well in body and appearance satisfaction between Muslim adolescent girls attending madrassa and dressing in accordance with tradition, that is to say wearing hijab, and Muslim adolescent girls who do not wear hijab and who follow contemporary Western‐influenced fashion trends. Both of these groups were also compared to a non‐Muslim group of adolescent girls. The sample consisted of 75 Muslim adolescent girls with hijab, 75 Muslim adolescent girls without hijab and 75 Orthodox adolescent girls. The following instruments were used: the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT‐26), the Sociocultural Attitudes towards Appearance Questionnaire (SATAQ‐3) and the Contour Drawing Rating Scale (CDRS). The highest level of body satisfaction (despite this group having the highest body weight in the sample) was evident among Muslim adolescent girls attending madrassa and wearing hijab. They also showed significantly less pressure to attain the Western thin‐ideal standards of beauty than adolescent girls who accept Western way of dressing. Research results indicate a significant role of socio‐cultural factors in one's attitude towards the body image, but also opens the question of the role of religion as a protective factor when it comes to the body and appearance attitude among Muslim women who wear hijab.     

Classic articles in Psychology in the Science Citation Index Expanded: A bibliometric analysis

Who today are the most highly cited psychologists listed in the Web of Science? This paper reports answers to this question by using the Science Citation Index Expanded to find out. This index covers over 280,350 documents in the Psychology category of the Web of Science from 1900 to 2013 and lists the most highly cited papers published between 1927 and 2012. For example, in 2013, an article published by Jacob Cohen in 1992 obtained (1) the highest ranking with 1,068 citations, (2) the highest for total citations per year, and (3) was ranked 3rd for the total number of citations since publication by 2013. New technology thus provides a seismic shift in the ways that we can obtain and analyse data like these. Indeed, the results for the top 10 articles indicate that practical and methodological papers now receive more citations than the more theoretical papers usually found in earlier surveys.     

Sibling relationships and civic engagement: A longitudinal study of Chinese young adults

This study examined the longitudinal associations of sibling intimacy and conflict with civic attitudes and behaviours among Chinese young adults. At two time points separated by about 12 months, questionnaire data were collected from 272 Chinese college students (mean age at Time 1 = 19.68 years; 69% female), students who studied in Hong Kong and had at least one sibling. Students rated their intimacy and conflict with their siblings and their parents at Time 1, and their civic attitudes and behaviours at both time points. Hierarchical regression revealed that, controlling for demographic characteristics and parent–child intimacy and conflict, sibling intimacy predicted increases in both civic attitudes and behaviours. Sibling conflict was a non-significant predictor, however. Findings highlighted the roles of siblings in understanding civic development in young adulthood and the utility of targeting sibling intimacy as means to foster young adults' positive attitudes to and active participation in civic activities.     

Sample size determination for a matched-pairs study with incomplete data using exact approach

This research was motivated by a clinical trial design for a cognitive study. The pilot study was a matched-pairs design where some data are missing, specifically the missing data coming at the end of the study. Existing approaches to determine sample size are all based on asymptotic approaches (e.g., the generalized estimating equation (GEE) approach). When the sample size in a clinical trial is small to medium, these asymptotic approaches may not be appropriate for use due to the unsatisfactory Type I and II error rates. For this reason, we consider the exact unconditional approach to compute the sample size for a matched-pairs study with incomplete data. Recommendations are made for each possible missingness pattern by comparing the exact sample sizes based on three commonly used test statistics, with the existing sample size calculation based on the GEE approach. An example from a real surgeon-reviewers study is used to illustrate the application of the exact sample size calculation in study designs.     

Linking metaphor comprehension with analogical reasoning: Evidence from typical development and autism spectrum disorder

We examined the relationship between metaphor comprehension and verbal analogical reasoning in young adults who were either typically developing (TD) or diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The ASD sample was highly educated and high in verbal ability, and closely matched to a subset of TD participants on age, gender, educational background, and verbal ability. Additional TD participants with a broader range of abilities were also tested. Each participant solved sets of verbal analogies and metaphors in verification formats, allowing measurement of both accuracy and reaction times. Measures of individual differences in vocabulary, verbal working memory, and autistic traits were also obtained. Accuracy for both the verbal analogy and the metaphor task was very similar across the ASD and matched TD groups. However, reaction times on both tasks were longer for the ASD group. Additionally, stronger correlations between verbal analogical reasoning and working memory capacity in the ASD group indicated that processing verbal analogies was more effortful for them. In the case of both groups, accuracy on the metaphor and analogy tasks was correlated. A mediation analysis revealed that after controlling for working memory capacity, the inter-task correlation could be accounted for by the mediating variable of vocabulary knowledge, suggesting that the primary common mechanisms linking the two tasks involve language skills.     

Gender Inequality Lowers Educational Aspiration for Adolescent Boys and Girls: A Multi-Level and Longitudinal Study in China

Sex Roles - Adolescent students' educational aspiration is a crucial predictor of both concurrent academic achievement and educational attainment later in life. Past studies on educational...     

Cognitive pathways of team climate for creativity: Implications for member creativity and job performance

ABSTRACT

The present study examines the contextual effects of team climate for creativity on creative behavior and job performance of employees. Drawing on the team-knowledge management perspective, we identify team-learning orientation and collective problem solving as main intermediate cognitive processes. The results, based on 856 employees across 102 work units of a high-tech company, demonstrate that these 2 team-level cognitive processes mediate the cross-level effects of team climate for creativity on creative behavior and job performance. This study reveals the cognitive ramifications of team climate for creativity as a favorable social context for employee creativity. By highlighting the cognitive process activated by team climate for creativity, this work complements existing studies focusing mostly on the affective and motivational mechanisms that underlie the team context–creativity relationship.     

Placing hope in self and others: Exploring the relationships among self-construals,locus of hope,and adjustment

Traditional hope theory is dominated by an individualistic assumption wherein the self is considered as the focal agent of goal attainment. However, in collectivist cultures more relational dimensions of hope also need to be considered. The locus of hope dimension (internal vs. external locus) was added to the traditional hope theory in order to capture both individualistic and collectivist types of hope. Hope could either be anchored on oneself (internal locus) or on significant others (external locus). External locus could further be divided into family, friends, and spiritual hope. There is still a dearth of research on the external locus of hope, with most of the previous studies focusing on the internal locus. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine how internal and external loci of hope could predict various indices of psychological adjustment. We also examined how individual differences in self-construals would predict locus of hope. Results among the Chinese university students indicated that independent self-construal was positively associated with the internal locus of hope, while interdependent self-construal was positively associated with the external locus of hope. Internal locus and external locus of hope related to family and friends were positively associated with adjustment, but spiritual hope was not. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Enhanced perceptual priming for neutral stimuli in a traumatic context: A pathway to intrusive memories?

Clinical observations suggest that re-experiencing symptoms are triggered by stimuli that are perceptually similar to those present shortly before the trauma or its worst moments. Two experiments investigated the possible role of perceptual priming in this phenomenon. Volunteers (N = 28, N = 62) watched a series of “traumatic” and neutral picture stories, and completed blurred object identification (priming) and recognition memory tasks. Neutral objects that immediately preceded the “traumatic” stories were more strongly primed, but not better recognised, than objects from neutral stories. Enhanced priming predicted subsequent re-experiencing symptoms. The results support the role of perceptual priming in re-experiencing.