Those speedos become them: the role of self-objectification in gay and heterosexual men's body image

Objectification Theory proposes that membership in sexually objectifying Western societies gradually socializes women to adopt an observer's perspective on their physical self. This leads to negative consequences, including body shame and restricted eating behavior. The authors extend this framework to investigate a subgroup of men, namely gay men, who also exist in a subculture that emphasizes and values physical appearance. Study 1 investigated trait differences in self-objectification and body image among gay and heterosexual men. Analyses indicated that gay men scored higher on self-objectification, body shame, body dissatisfaction, and drive for thinness. In Study 2, the authors experimentally manipulated state self-objectification and found that for gay men, increasing state self-objectification resulted in greater body shame and dissatisfaction and more restrained eating. Together, these results offer strong support to Objectification Theory as a useful framework from within which to view the experience of gay men.     

Couples Work in Cultural Context: Te Ao Māori and Poststucturalist Practices Informing Counselor Training in Aotearoa New Zealand

This article outlines key themes that appear in the teaching of poststructuralist ideas and practices for couples counseling within the Postgraduate Diploma in Counseling Program at Unitec Institute of Technology in Auckland, New Zealand, and it explores the congruence of this pedagogical approach with Māori (indigenous) understandings of relationality, collaboration, and partnership. The diploma program's curriculum includes narrative therapy and relational language‐making. Themes explored in this article include: understanding (heterosexual) couple relationships as contextualized entities, deconstructing dominant discourses of coupledom, and the positioning of counselors/teachers as nonexpert. Taking each theme in turn, the authors, one of them Māori and two Pākehā (European), articulate points of alignment with Māori cultural concepts and practices.     

Emotional processing in people with obsessive-compulsive symptomatology

The present study was aimed at assessing obsessive-compulsive symptomatology based on visualization of affective pictures, elaborated following Peter Lang's dimensional model of emotion. Participants were 370 psychology students at Malaga University, selecting those with high and low scores in obsessive-compulsive symptomatology. All participants assessed a set of pictures containing obsessive-compulsive cues using the three scales of the Self-Assessment Manikin: affective valence, arousal, and control/dominance. The results show that participants with high scores in obsessive-compulsive symptomatology experience reduced control over the affective pictures and rate as more unpleasant the neutral and obsessive-compulsive pictures.     

Adoptive parents' satisfaction with the adoption experience and with its impact on family life

In this study, we discuss the relevance of adoptive families' satisfaction in the assessment of adoption processes. The effects of adoption on a sample group of 272 adoptive families are analyzed. Most families show high levels of satisfaction as to: their decision to adopt, the features of their adopted children and how adoption has affected them as individuals and as a family. Statistical analyses show that these families can have different satisfaction levels depending on certain features of the adoptees, of the adoptive families or of their educational style. Life satisfaction of the adoptees is also related to how their adoptive parents evaluate the adoption.     

Physical activity interventions in the school setting: A systematic review

Objectives

To review the effectiveness of school-based interventions with a physical activity component by measuring changes in psychological determinants, physical activity, and health outcomes.

Design

Systematic Review.

Method

We conducted a literature search of school-based controlled studies that involved a physical activity intervention targeting school students. Study design, methodological quality, and effectiveness of interventions on three target levels, ‘health and fitness’ (BMI and motor performance), ‘physical activity’, and ‘psychological determinants’ (knowledge of physical activity effects, self-concept, and attitudes towards physical activity), were analysed. Furthermore, we examined the influence of specific factors (e.g., age and gender) and mediator effects.

Results

The literature search identified 129 studies. The majority of the studies examining motor performance, physical activity, and knowledge of physical activity achieved significant results (69.7%, 56.8% and 87.5%, respectively). Significant effects on self-concept and attitudes were also found but to a smaller extent (in 30% and 43.8% of the studies, respectively). Only a few studies examining BMI (2.7%), physical activity (6.8%), and attitudes towards physical activity (12.5%) revealed negative effects, with better results observed for the control group. Intervention effects were influenced by the students’ age, intervention type, and frequency of the interventions. Self-efficacy was found to mediate the relationship between the program and the students’ physical activity.

Conclusions

Numerous school-based physical activity interventions achieved positive effects on three target levels. Further research is needed to clarify the mediator effects of psychological variables on physical activity and health and to increase our knowledge about the mechanisms that underlie behavioural change.     

Reliability of 2D:4D measurements using a direct method suitable for clinical settings

The second to fourth digit ratio (2D:4D) indicates androgen exposure during early development. Numerous methods are used in the assessment of 2D:4D, however, some are not reliable enough and others are difficult to perform in large epidemiological studies. We assessed the reliability of 2D:4D using a direct method with a caliper, and compared it with a computer-assisted analysis on scanned images. Both methods were moderately correlated, but the scan method produced slightly lower 2D:4D. The main source of variation was differences between subjects (real variation). Reliability was higher among men and among younger participants. All reliability coefficients were higher than 0.8 when three repeated measurements were averaged. Our results suggest that reliability is influenced by participants’ characteristics. Digit ratios determined directly with calipers are reliable when repeated measurements are averaged.     

Negative perfectionism increases the risk of fatigue following a period of stress

Abstract

There is a considerable amount of research concerning (he relationship between psychological variables and the postoperative outcome of surgery. However, little attention has been paid to the potential influence of psychological factors on infra-operative variables, most notably on anaesthetic requirement. The present study investigates the influence of surgery-related trail and slate anxiety as well as of dispositional and surgery-related actual coping on several indicators of intra- and postoperative adjustment. In addition, a possible mediating effect of stress-induced analgesia on the relationships between anxiety, coping, and intraoperative anaesthetic requirements was evaluated. Sixty-one patients undergoing elective lumbar iniclcotomy completed questionnaires regarding anxiety and coping variables one day before surgery. Intraoperative adjustment was assessed by measuring EEG-controlled anaesthetic requirements for induction and maintenance of anaesthesia, β-endorphin plasma concentration was collected preoperatively in the induction room. Postoperative outcome was assessed on the third day after surgery by questionnaires regarding pain experience, physical condition and emotional state. For preoperative anxiety as well as vigilant coping behaviour, there were opposite relationships with subjective measures of adjustment (e.g. self-reported postoperative pain experience), on the one side, and objective measures on the other (e.g., intraoperative anaesthetic requirement). Stress-induced analgesia was found for the subgroup of high-anxious patients. The results indicate that psychological programmes aimed at facilitating patients' perioperative adjustment should consider the different effects of anxiety and coping on subjective and objective measures.     

Análisis inyuntivo de la interacción: Un sistema de categorías (S.A.I.I.)

Resumen

En este artículo se expone un nuevo sistema de análisis de la interacción, basado en los análogos de la petición y oferta de objetos y de la aprehensión, conservación y uso de instrumentos, diseñado para dar cuenta de procesos de control interpersonal en las interacciones cara a cara. Se dan muestras de la aplicación de sus categorías y se ofrecen pruebas de su fiabilidad.