The relation between women's body esteem and friendships with gay men

Women who associate with gay men are often portrayed as physically unattractive and lacking in both self-confidence and attention from straight men. However, many women report enhanced self-esteem and feelings of attractiveness as a result of attention from their gay friends. It is well established that body esteem can be negatively impacted by certain peer processes, yet there is a dearth of quantitative research on positive peer influences on women's body esteem. We tested two hypotheses: (a) women with gay male friends have poor body esteem and are rejected by heterosexual men, and (b) more contact with gay men is positively related to body esteem. Participants were 154 heterosexual women, who completed measures of their friendships with gay men, straight men and women, body esteem, relationship involvement and break-ups. Results supported the hypothesis that women's body esteem, specifically feelings of sexual attractiveness, is positively associated with friendships with gay men.     

The Male Body Attitudes Scale: A confirmatory factor analysis with a sample of gay men

The Male Body Attitudes Scale (MBAS; Tylka, Bergeron, & Schwartz, 2005) is a recently created instrument which assesses males’ attitudes regarding their muscularity, body fat, and height. Although the MBAS was created via exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, its factor structure has yet to be replicated with more diverse samples. The aim of the current study was to conduct a confirmatory factor analysis of the MBAS with a sample of gay men. Results from an online sample of 207 self-identified gay men revealed that the original three-factor structure of the MBAS, as well as a two-factor structure, consisting of muscularity and body fat, displayed strong factorial validity. These findings suggest that either a two- or three-factor structure may be used when assessing body image concerns in gay men.     

God’s Melancholia

Donald Capps’s (Capps 1997, 2001, 2002a, b) male melancholia theory has been of interest to me during the past few years (Carlin 2003, 2006, 2007), and Capps (2004, 2007a, b) himself has been publishing more on the topic. In his psychobiographical book on Jesus, Capps (2000) notes that psychologists of religion have been reluctant to psychoanalyze Jesus, and here I note that even fewer have been willing to diagnose God, one recent exception being J. Harold Ellens (2007). In this article, I explore the melancholia issue further, this time applying the theory to God by means of theological concepts that deal with the Trinity and the passion of God. And while this article is playful (Pruyser 1974; cf. Dykstra 2001), the upshot is more serious: If men are incurably religious and melancholic, as Capps argues, and if men, by and large, are the creators of religion, wouldn’t one expect to find traces of this melancholy in religion, particularly in its sacred texts and doctrines? By identifying these tendencies in religion, especially in God, the pastoral psychologist, I believe, is helping contemporary Christian men—especially fathers and sons—recognize their own melancholy selves and, perhaps, helping them get along a little better.     

不同攻击/受欺负类别儿童的同伴交往自我知觉

以474名小学三、四、五、六年级的儿童为被试,考察了不同攻击-受欺负类型儿童自我知觉的社会能力以及自我提名的朋友与双向互选朋友数量、同伴积极提名、消极提名的关系。结果表明,各攻击/受欺负组别在自我提名的朋友数量上无显著差异,但在自我知觉的社会能力、双向互选朋友数及同伴积极提名、消极提名上均存在显著差异。在自我知觉的社会能力方面,单纯攻击组最高,攻击-受欺负组最低。在双向互选朋友以及同伴积极提名方面,未参与组最高,其余依次为单纯攻击组、单纯受欺负组和攻击-受欺负组。     

Aggression in British heterosexual relationships: A descriptive analysis

A 12-item scale, derived from the Conflict Tactics Scale, was administered to a representative sample of 1,978 heterosexual men and women in Great Britain in mid November 1994. Men and women were asked to identify conflict tactics sustained or inflicted in all past and present relationships and those sustained in current relationships. This paper reports results for physical victimization and also reports on two further questions asked to discern context and meaning ascribed to such sustained or inflicted victimization. Both sexes reported having experienced physical victimization with a higher percentage of men sustaining victimization, mainly as a result of minor acts of assault. Almost equal percentages of men and women reported inflicting victimization against partners. Additionally, incidence of physical victimization is presented according to relationship status, age, socioeconomic category, and by regional distribution. Both sexes reported a range of reasons or contexts ascribed to their sustained or inflicted victimization. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

The “identified victim” effect: an identified group,or just a single individual?

People's greater willingness to help identified victims, relative to non‐identified ones, was examined by varying the singularity of the victim (single vs. a group of eight individuals), and the availability of individually identifying information (the main difference being the inclusion of a picture in the “identified” versions). Results support the proposal that the “identified victim” effect is largely restricted to situations with a single victim: the identified single victim elicited considerably more contributions than the non‐identified single victim, while the identification of the individual group members had essentially no effect on willingness to contribute. Participants also report experiencing distress when the victim is single and identified more than in any other condition. Hence, the emotional reaction to the victims appears to be a major source of the effect. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The shaping of masculinity: Revisioning boys turning away from their mothers to construct male gender identity

This paper offers an understanding of the nature of the internalization processes involved in the shaping of male gender identity founded on the boy's unique struggles in separating from his mother. The underpinning for the initial development of a sense of masculinity is reconsidered as the author questions the widely held idea of Greenson and Stoller that a boy normatively has to 'dis-identify' from his mother to create his gender identity. Import rather is placed on the conscious and unconscious aspects of the mother's (and father's) pre-oedipal and oedipal relationship with their little boy in order better to understand the nature of the boy's unique identifications and subsequent sense of masculinity. Both the security of the boy's attachment to his mother, in providing the foundation for a transitional turning to an 'other', and the mother's capacity to reflect upon and recognize her own, as well as the father's and her son's, subjectivity and maleness, are crucial in comprehending boys' 'attachment-individuation' process. Likewise, the unconscious paternal and maternal imagos and identifications of both the boy's mother and father, as well as the father's pre-oedipal relationship with his little boy and the boy's mother, are extremely significant in shaping a son's gender identity. The author argues that these early maternal (and paternal) identifications live on in every male and continue to impact the sense of maleness in a dialectical interplay throughout the life span. A maturing gender identity develops from integrating these early, pre-oedipal maternal identifications that no longer need be repudiated nor defensively organized as polarized gender splitting.     

When saying and doing diverge: The effects of stereotype threat on self-reported versus non-verbal anxiety

Although research has established that stigmatized individuals suffer impaired performance under stereotype threat conditions, the anxiety presumed to mediate this effect has proven difficult to establish. In the current investigation, we explored whether non-verbal measures would fare better than self-reports in capturing stereotype threat anxiety. Gay and heterosexual men interacted with preschool children under stereotype threat or control conditions. As predicted, stereotype-threatened gay men demonstrated more non-verbal anxiety, but not more self-reported anxiety, than non-threatened gays during these interactions. Furthermore, non-verbal anxiety appeared to mediate the effects of stereotype threat on the quality of participants’ childcare skills. We discuss how these findings advance stereotype threat research, and highlight their potential implications for gay childcare workers.     

The early biopsychosocial development of boys and the origins of violence in males

We apply a biopsychosocial approach to introduce early-in-life experiences that explain a significant part of the male preponderance in the perpetration of violence. Early caregiver abuse and neglect, father absence, and exposure to family and neighborhood violence exacerbate boys’ greater risk for aggressive behavior and increase the probability of carrying out violent acts later in life. We examine the development of the psychological self and explore conditions that encourage physical aggression, focusing on the impact on the infant and toddler's emergent mental representation of self, others, and self–other relationships. Boys’ slower developmental timetable in the first years of life may enhance their vulnerability for disorganization in emergent neurobiological networks mediating organization of socioemotional relationships. Emergent attachment and activation relationship systems may differentially affect risk and resilience in boys and girls, particularly in single-parent families. Evidence has suggested that the dramatic increase in single-parent families is especially linked to corresponding increases in behavioral undercontrol, antisocial behavior, and the emergence of violence in boys.     

尼古丁依赖对男性吸烟者感知戒烟行为控制的预测：社会支持与抱怨批评的作用

考察尼古丁依赖对男性吸烟者感知戒烟行为控制的预测及他人戒烟社会支持和抱怨批评的调节作用。对326名男性吸烟者进行问卷调查,结果显示：（1）尼古丁依赖显著负向预测感知行为控制;（2）社会支持和抱怨批评共同调节两者关系;在高社会支持且低抱怨批评、高抱怨批评且低社会支持的条件下,尼古丁依赖的预测作用不显著。结果说明,高社会支持在尼古丁依赖削弱感知行为控制过程中起缓冲作用,而高抱怨批评削弱社会支持的缓冲作用。