Women's exposure to thin-and-beautiful media images: body image effects of media-ideal internalization and impact-reduction interventions

Exposure to media images of thin-and-beautiful women negatively affects the body image and mood states of young women. However, not all women are equally susceptible to these effects. The present experimental investigation with 123 young college women evaluated the moderating effects of the extent of internalization of media ideals. It also examined the preventative impact of two brief interventions (i.e., media literacy information with and without a dissonance-induction procedure). Results indicated that relative to a control group, the exposure to thin-and-beautiful media images adversely influenced the state body image of participants with high internalization levels. Media-literacy psychoeducation prior to the media exposure prevented this adverse effect. Adding a pre-exposure dissonance-induction procedure did not significantly enhance the preventative effects relative to psychoeducation alone. These results and their implications for the treatment and prevention of body image disturbances are discussed in the context of the empirical literature on the media's effects on body image.     

Effect of Children's Perceived Rejection on Physical Aggression

This study investigated whether the perception of self as socially rejected might contribute to increased physical aggression among elementary-school children. It was hypothesized that physically aggressive children would become more physically aggressive over time if they perceived that they were rejected and tended to blame peers for social failure experiences. Third-grade boys and girls (n = 941) were assessed in the Fall and Spring of the school year. Peer-report data on physical aggression and social preference were collected, along with self-report data on perceived rejection and attributions for social failure experiences. Results for boys were consistent with hypotheses, whereas the results for girls revealed a different pattern of relations. These results constitute prospective evidence that children's self-perceptions of social rejection can uniquely influence externalizing behavior. Results are discussed in terms of mechanisms that might mediate the relation between perceived rejection and physical aggression.     

Cognitive modeling analysis of decision-making processes in cocaine abusers

This article examines the theoretical basis of decision-making deficits exhibited by cocaine abusers in a laboratory decision-making task first described by Bechara, Damasio, Damasio, and Anderson (1994). A total of 12 male cocaine abusers and 14 comparison subjects performed the task, and the cocaine group performed significantly worse than the comparison group. A cognitive modeling analysis (Busemeyer & Stout, 2002) was used to estimate three parameters that measure importance of the cognitive, motivational, and response processes for determining the observed performance deficit. The results of this analysis indicated, for the first time, that motivational and choice consistency factors, but not learning/ memory were mainly responsible for the decision-making deficit of the cocaine abusers in this task.     

Cognitive defusion and self-relevant negative thoughts: examining the impact of a ninety year old technique

Cognitive defusion techniques are designed to reduce the functions of thoughts by altering the context in which they occur, rather than the attempting to alter the form, frequency, or situational sensitivity of the thoughts themselves. Applied technologies designed to produce cognitive defusion seem to lead to reductions in the believability of negative thoughts, but defusion techniques are generally only parts of complex packages and the role of defusion techniques per se is note yet known. The present study examined the impact of a cognitive defusion technique first described by Titchener nearly 90 years ago: rapidly repeating a single word. In series of eight single-case alternating treatment designs, this defusion technique was compared to a distraction task, and to a thought control task on reductions in the discomfort and believability of self-relevant negative thoughts. The cognitive defusion technique reduced both discomfort and believability more so than the comparison approaches. Control studies showed that the effect was probably not due to demand characteristics.     

Ethnicity, expressed emotion, attributions, and course of schizophrenia: family warmth matters

The authors examined the role of family factors and the course of schizophrenia by carrying out additional assessments and analyses in 2 previously published studies of Mexican American and Anglo American patients and families. The authors found partial support for an attributional model of relapse for families who are low in emotional overinvolvement. Attributions of control, criticism, and warmth together marginally predicted relapse. The data also indicated that for Mexican Americans, family warmth is a significant protective factor, whereas for Anglo Americans, family criticism is a significant risk factor. These findings suggest that the sociocultural context shapes the pathways by which family processes are related to the course of illness. Moreover, the warmth findings suggest that families may contribute to preventing relapse.     

The psychometric detection of schizotypy: do putative schizotypy indicators identify the same latent class?

The authors examined whether three indicators of Schizotypy, the Revised Social Anhedonia Scale (RSAS), Magical Ideation Scale (MIS), and Perceptual Aberration Scale (PAS), identify a common latent class or taxon as conceptualized by P. E. Meehl (1962, 1990). The separate and joint latent structures of these scales were evaluated using taxometric methods in two large, independent samples. Replicating prior findings, the RSAS and PAS each identified latent taxa with base rates approximating.10. Results for the taxonicity of the MIS were less consistent. Analyses of joint latent structure indicated that the RSAS-identified taxon was essentially independent of constructs measured by the PAS or MIS. Measures commonly thought to tap the same latent class, conjectured to be schizotypy, do not share this property.     

Assessing the causal structure of function

Theories typically emphasize affordances or intentions as the primary determinant of an object's perceived function. The HIPE theory assumes that people integrate both into causal models that produce functional attributions. In these models, an object's physical structure and an agent's action specify an affordance jointly, constituting the immediate causes of a perceived function. The object's design history and an agent's goal in using it constitute distant causes. When specified fully, the immediate causes are sufficient for determining the perceived function--distant causes have no effect (the causal proximity principle). When the immediate causes are ambiguous or unknown, distant causes produce inferences about the immediate causes, thereby affecting functional attributions indirectly (the causal updating principle). Seven experiments supported HIPE's predictions.