Another Look at Sex Differences in Preferred Mate Characteristics: The Effects of Endorsing the Traditional Female Gender Role

This research used an individual differences approach to test Eagly and Wood's (1999) claim that sex differences in the characteristics that people prefer in mates reflect the tendency for men and women to occupy different social roles in a society. The study related the extent to which participants endorsed the traditional female gender role to their preferences for their future mate's traits and age relative to their own age. In general, the sex–differentiated preferences that are consistent with the traditional division of labor were more pronounced, especially in male participants, to the extent that they endorsed the traditional female role.     

Results of the healthy body healthy spirit trial.

Healthy Body Healthy Spirit was a multicomponent intervention to increase fruit and vegetable (F & V) consumption and physical activity (PA) delivered through Black churches. Sixteen churches were randomly assigned to 3 intervention conditions. At baseline, 1,056 individuals were recruited across the 16 churches, of which 906 (86%) were assessed at 1-year follow-up. Group 1 received standard educational materials, Group 2 received culturally targeted self-help nutrition and PA materials, and Group 3 received the same intervention as did Group 2 as well as 4 telephone counseling calls based on motivational interviewing (MI) delivered over the course of 1 year. At 1-year follow-up, Groups 2 and 3 showed significant changes in both F & V intake and PA. Changes were somewhat larger for F & V. For F & V, but not PA, there was a clear additive effect for the MI intervention.     

ARE WOMEN EVALUATED MORE FAVORABLY THAN MEN?

In an experiment in which male and female respondents evaluated the social category of women or men on several types of measures, analysis of respondents' attitudes toward the sexes and of the evaluative content of their beliefs established that they evaluated women more favorably than men. In addition, analysis of respondents' emotional reactions toward women and men did not yield evidence of negativity toward women at the emotional level. Nor did it appear that respondents' very positive evaluations of women masked ambivalence toward them. This research, therefore, provides strong evidence that women are evaluated quite favorably—in fact, more favorably than men.     

Cross-fertilization versus transmission: Recommendations for developing a bidirectional approach to psychotherapy dissemination research

Psychotherapy researchers are increasingly engaged in collaborations with clinical practitioners and mental health administrators. Each party brings its own perspectives, values, and agendas to bear in these encounters. Viable research—practice collaborations depend on understanding and negotiating some of the tensions in these relationships. In this article, we discuss the contexts that prevail for various participants in a psychotherapy dissemination study as well as the values, goals, costs, and benefits related to research participation. This article is a collaboration among the researchers, mental health administrators, therapists, and clients involved in an ongoing treatment dissemination study. Our recommendations for research—practice collaborations are based on our experiences and dialogues over the course of this study.     

No intrinsic number bias: Evaluating the role of perceptual discriminability in magnitude categorization

Accumulating evidence suggests that there is a spontaneous preference for numerical, compared to non-numerical (e.g., cumulative surface area), information. However, given a paucity of research on the perception of non-numerical magnitudes, it is unclear whether this preference reflects a specific bias towards number, or a general bias towards the more perceptually discriminable dimension (i.e., number). Here, we found that when the number and area of visual dot displays were matched in mathematical ratio, number was more perceptually discriminable than area in both adults and children. Moreover, both adults and children preferentially categorized these ratio-matched stimuli based on number, consistent with previous work. However, when number and area were matched in perceptual discriminability, a different pattern of results emerged. In particular, children preferentially categorized stimuli based on area, suggesting that children's previously observed number bias may be due to a mismatch in the perceptual discriminability of number and area, not an intrinsic salience of number. Interestingly, adults continued to categorize the displays on the basis of number. Altogether, these findings suggest a dominant role for area during childhood, refuting the claim that number is inherently and uniquely salient. Yet they also reveal an increased salience of number that emerges over development. Potential explanations for this developmental shift are discussed.

Research Highlights

• Previous work found that children and adults spontaneously categorized dot array stimuli by number, over other magnitudes (e.g., area), suggesting number is uniquely salient.
• However, here we found that when number and area were matched by ratio, as in prior work, number was significantly more perceptually discriminable than area.
• When number and area were made equally discriminable (‘perceptually-matched’), children, contra adults, spontaneously categorized stimuli by area over number (and other non-numerical magnitudes).
• These findings suggest that area may be uniquely salient early in childhood, with the previously-observed number bias not emerging until later in development.

     

Memory for common objects: brief intentional study is sufficient to overcome poor recall of US coin features

Prior studies have explained the very poor recall for the features of a coin in terms of visual characteristics. Two experiments compared incidental exposure and intentional study of US coins on recall of their features. In Experiment 1, recall performance for a rarely seen Mercury dime after a 1-min study period was better than that for an unstudied penny, even when the test on the dime was delayed 1 week. In Experiment 2, participants studied the dime for 15, 30, 45, or 60 s. Recall of the dime was greater than that of the unstudied penny even with the shortest study interval. Thus, a high level of recall of a coin's features can be obtained with brief intentional study, and that level can be maintained across a long delay interval. These findings suggest that poor retention of coin features is due to incidental exposure rather than to visual characteristics. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.