A Danish version of the Sensation Seeking Scale and its relation to a broad spectrum of behavioral and psychological characteristics

The primary purpose of the present study was to evaluate the internal consistency and construct validity of the Danish translation of Zuckerman's Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS). The secondary aim was to extend the range of psychological variables and behaviors that have been related to sensation seeking. The sample consisted of 691 subjects (363 males and 328 females) with a mean age of 31.7 years. The internal consistency of the scales was evaluated by coefficient alpha and intercorrelations among the five scales derived from the SSS were computed. Information on other variables was collected through standardized tests as well as questionnaires and interviews developed especially for this study. The results showed that the Danish SSS is a psychometrically sound instrument and revealed the relationship between sensation seeking and a broad spectrum of psychological traits and behaviors: socioeconomic status, academic achievement, intelligence, personality, smoking, alcohol and drug use, sexuality, driving and public transportation violations, and leisure time activities. Thus, this study confirmed and expanded the findings of many previous studies, while the results supported the validity of the Danish SSS and corroborated the usefulness of the concept of sensation seeking.     

Do Mothers Spend More on Daughters While Fathers Spend More on Sons?

Do parents favor some children over others? The overwhelming majority of parents state that they treat their children equally, but parents rarely track their spending on each child. We investigate in four studies whether mothers and fathers favor specific children depending on the biological sex of the child. Evidence from the field, laboratory, and community (online panel) showed that parents exhibit systematic biases when forced to choose between spending on sons and daughters. Mothers consistently favored daughters, whereas fathers consistently favored sons. For example, parents were more likely to choose a real prize and give a real U.S. Treasury bond to the child of the same sex as themselves. These parenting biases were found in two different cultures and appear to be driven by parents identifying more strongly with children of the same sex as the parent.     

Stigma on my mind: Individual differences in the experience of stereotype threat

Stereotyped individuals vary in how chronically self-conscious they are of their stigmatized status, which Pinel (1999) has dubbed stigma consciousness. The current study investigated whether individual differences in stigma consciousness moderate the impact of gender stereotypes on the math performance of women. Results indicated that, under conditions designed to evoke stereotype threat (Steele, 1997), women high in stigma consciousness scored worse than women low in stigma consciousness on a math test. In the control (low threat) condition, stigma consciousness was unrelated to test performance. Possible mechanisms underlying this moderation are discussed.     

Breaking the reading code: Letter knowledge when children break the reading code the first year in school

The aim of this study was to examine when children learn to read and how learning to read depends on a foundation of alphabetic knowledge. 356 children aged 5–6 years completed assessments of letter-sound knowledge, i.e. the names and sounds of uppercase and lowercase letters of the Norwegian alphabet. Each child was tested at the start, the middle and the end of the school year. The time that each child broke the reading code was also recorded. The results indicated that 11% of the children knew how to read before starting school and 27% of the children did not learn to read by the end of the first year. The remaining children typically knew 21 uppercase letter sounds before they were first able to read, and only a few (<5%) knew less than 11 uppercase letter sounds when they broke the reading code. The average of all four letter-scores at the time they broke the reading code was 19 ± 5 letters (mean ± standard deviation). Although letter sound knowledge was associated with the ability to read, it was not sufficient for breaking the reading code. 40% of children who knew 23 letter sounds or more, enough to read more than 80% of the most common Norwegian words, and 15% of children who knew all 29 letter sounds still could not read. Based on these data, it seems reasonable to advocate learning letter-sound correspondences early in the first year of school to form the best possible basis for breaking the reading code.     

Socio-economic and driving experience factors affecting drivers’ perceptions of traffic crash risk

Drivers are estimated to contribute an overwhelming proportion to the burden of traffic crashes, as factors that increase crash risk are frequently due to unsafe driving behaviours. The relationship between risk perceptions and people’s risky driving behaviours is still not well understood. This paper aims to further analyse the potential effect of risky driving behaviours on drivers’ perceptions of crash risk and differences in perceptions among drivers.Crash risk perceptions in an inter-city, two-way road context of 492 drivers were measured by using a Stated Preference (SP) ranking survey. Rank-ordered logit models were used to evaluate the impact on risk perception of five unsafe driving behaviours and to identify differences in drivers’ risk perceptions. The five unsafe driving behaviours considered in the analysis were respectively related to whether or not the driver follows the speed limits, the rules of passing another car and the safe distance, whether or not the driver is distracted, and whether or not she/he is driving under optimal personal conditions.All risky driving behaviours showed a significant potential effect (p < 0.001) on crash risk perceptions, and model’s results allowed to differentiate more important from less important unsafe driving behaviours based on their weight on perceived crash risk. Additionally, this paper further analyses the potential differences in risk perception of these traffic violations between drivers of different characteristics, such as driving experience, household size, income and gender.The SP technique could be applied to further analyse differences in perceptions of risky driving behaviours among drivers. Future research should consider the potential effect of driving skill on perceptions of risky driving behaviours.     

Happier together. Social cohesion and subjective well‐being in Europe

Despite mushrooming research on “social” determinants of subjective well‐being (SWB), little is known as to whether social cohesion as a collective property is among the key societal conditions for human happiness. This article fills this gap in investigating the importance of living in a cohesive society for citizens' SWB. For 27 European Union countries, it combines the newly developed Bertelsmann Foundation's Cohesion Index with individual well‐being data on life evaluation and psychological functioning as surveyed in the recent European Quality of Life Survey. The main results from multi‐level analyses are as follows. First, Europeans are indeed happier and psychologically healthier in more cohesive societies. Second, all three core domains of cohesion increase individuals' SWB. Third, citizens in the more affluent part of Europe feel the positivity of social cohesion more consistently than those in the less affluent part. Finally, within countries, cohesion is good for the SWB of resource‐rich and resource‐poor groups alike. Our findings also shed new light on the ongoing debate on economic progress and quality of life: what makes citizenries of affluent societies happier is, in the first place, their capacity to create togetherness and solidarity among their members—in other words, cohesion.     

Women outperform men in remembering to remember

The study of gender differences in prospective memory (i.e., remembering to remember) has received modest attention in the literature. The few reported studies investigating either subjective or objective evaluations of prospective memory have shown inconsistent data. In this study, we aimed to verify the presence of gender differences during the performance of an objective prospective memory test by considering the weight of specific variables such as length of delay, type of response, and type of cue. We submitted a sample of 100 healthy Italian participants (50 men and 50 women) to a test expressly developed to assess prospective memory: The Memory for Intentions Screening Test. Women performed better than men in remembering to do an event-based task (i.e., prompted by an external event) and when the task required a physical response modality. We discuss the behavioural differences that emerged by considering the possible role of sociological, biological, neuroanatomical, and methodological variables.     

Last and fast? – A gender-specific analysis of effort gains in swimming relay events across Olympic Games and World Championships during the past 20 years

Elite swimmers are individual athletes competing mostly on their own. However, when competing in a relay team, they are exposed to social influences possibly leading to effort gains compared to their individual performance. This study investigated effort gains in relay team members during 4 × 100 m freestyle races of Olympic Games and World Championships across the past 20 years. We assumed increasing effort gains in swimmers competing on later serial positions within their relay team since weaknesses in their performances can increasingly less be compensated by their teammates (social indispensability). Furthermore, we assumed a stronger gain in female athletes since females have been shown to be more affected by social indispensability then males. Using linear mixed modelling analyses, we additionally examined the moderating impact of the relay team outcome (i.e. medal-winning chance) on effort gains and indispensability effects while accounting for current team rankings at change-over. Except for the first swimmer, overall effort gains in relay performances were found as compared to performances in individual races during the same championship. Furthermore, these gains were close to equally distributed among both laps of the 100 m distance. However, even though effort gains are tending to be most pronounced for the last relay team swimmer we failed to detect any significant indispensability effect in our data set. Noteworthy, female swimmers showed larger effort gains when winning a medal (based on the current team rankings) was likely. In contrast, males showed effort gains irrespective of the serial order within the relay team and medal chance. Consequently, tentative recommendations are derived on how to line up a relay team.     

Moved to action? Gender differences in perceived effort and motor performance after video-based achievement motive arousal

Achievement incentives in sports are assumed to trigger achievement motivation, which in turn increases performance. We used a within-subject-design to test achievement motive arousal (using an A-B-A design) using video clips. We hypothesized that an ACH-video clip arouses the achievement motive (PSE) stronger, leads to better performance in a skipping task and elicits stronger perceived effort and commitment for the task than the NEUTRAL- and NO-video conditions. We investigated gender differences. 184 students (92 women, age: M = 27.66 years, SD = 9.72) participated in a three-part web-survey. Neither main nor interaction effects of Video-Condition and Gender were found on motive arousal and skipping frequency. Significant interaction effects on skipping slope and perceived effort, however, showed that women are more engaged after the ACH-video than after the NEUTRAL-video and NO-video and here even outperformed men. Results are discussed in terms of why external “motivators” (e.g., videos) affect men and women differently.     

The use of metaphors in understanding atypical gender identity development and its psychosocial impact

Abstract

Over the years I have found a number of metaphors which have helped me to deal with particular dynamics in therapeutic work or with group and institutional conflicts involving the Gender Identity Development Service at the Tavistock Centre. This nationwide service, which is for young people with atypical gender identity development and their families, was established in 1989. In this paper I describe some of these metaphors in relation to the particular problems or conflicts which had stimulated their appearance in my mind. The emergence of these metaphors links the vicissitudes of atypical gender identity development to issues regarding symbolisation or symbolic thinking. Metaphors such as ‘working at the edge’ or ‘navigating between Scylla and Charybdis’ allow the professional to hold on to multiple perspectives and to maintain a certain degree of ambiguity in situations in which the interpersonal dynamics can be experienced as rigid and deterministic. The emergence of metaphors can then be perceived by the professional with a sense of relief and freedom of thinking. In this paper, metaphors are linked to: the model of care developed; the therapeutic stance; and the aims, risks and pressures experienced by the professional in this area of work. The association between gender dysphoria in some young people and autistic spectrum features is explored. The paper emphasises the importance of responding flexibly to individual differences and of recognising complexity.