Effects of student pairing and public review on physical activity during school recess

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of student pairing and feedback during recess on children's step counts. During baseline, participants wore a sealed pedometer during recess. During intervention, we paired participants with higher step counts with participants with lower step counts. We encouraged teams to compete for the highest step count each day and provided feedback on their performance during each recess session. Results showed a large mean increase in step count from baseline to intervention. These results suggest that children's steps during recess can be increased with a simple and cost‐effective intervention.     

Gender and appearance accuracy: Women’s advantage over men is restricted to dress items

Which aspects of people’s appearance do women remember better than men? Women were predicted to remember the dress-related items but not the physical characteristics of targets more accurately than men, given that the former might be a more female-relevant domain of interest among perceivers. Participants watched a videotaped target and then completed a surprise test of their memory for her/his appearance. Men were as accurate as women at remembering the target’s physical features but less accurate than woman at recalling what the target was wearing. Discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for eyewitness accuracy.     

LAWS IN ECOLOGY: DIVERSE MODES OF EXPLANATION FOR A HOLISTIC SCIENCE

Ecology's reputation as a holistic science is partly due to widespread misconceptions of its nature as well as shortcomings in its methodology. This article argues that the pursuit of empirical laws of ecology can foster the emergence of a more unified and predictive science based on complementary modes of explanation. Numerical analyses of population dynamics have a distinguished pedigree, spatial analyses generate predictive laws of macroecology, and physical analyses are typically pursued by the ecosystem paradigm. The most characteristically ecological laws, however, are found in biotic analyses in the functional trait paradigm. Holistic credentials for ecology may thus be restored on two bases: its accommodating complementary modes of analysis and explanation, and its having some laws within the least reductionistic mode consistent with its subject matter. These claims, grounded in the aspectual theory of Herman Dooyeweerd, lead to some suggestions for enhancing the versatility and usefulness of ecology—and other sciences—by balancing different research paradigms under a holistic vision.     

‘I think a little bit of a kick is sometimes what you need’: Women’s accounts of whole-body scanning and likely impact on health-related behaviours

Objective: This study was designed to investigate whether whole-body scanning might promote healthy eating and physical activity in women, and to explore the effects of scanning on body image.

Design: Fourteen women aged 22–45 years without histories of eating disorders or whole-body scanning took part in semi-structured interviews before and after scanning. Data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis.

Results: Scans did not look as expected, and participants expressed ‘surprise’ and ‘shock’. Participants focused on perceived negative aspects of their bodies as revealed in scan images, and agreed that women with body concerns would find scans too ‘real’ and ‘raw’. Eleven women who met UK Government physical activity and healthy eating guidelines reported that the scan provided additional motivation to maintain, and in nine cases to increase, those behaviours. Two women who neither exercised nor ate healthily would not increase physical activity or change their diets significantly following scanning.

Conclusion: Whole-body scanning may enable maintenance or even acceleration of physical activity and healthy eating, but is unlikely to be useful in promoting initiation of these behaviours. Participants engaged in unhelpful body critique when viewing scans; scanning needs to be confined to contexts where support is provided, to avoid increasing body-related concerns.     

Gender Symmetry and Asymmetry in Violent Relationships: Patterns of Mutuality Among Racially Diverse Women

Three patterns of mutual intimate partner violence (IPV) are proposed, based on frequency and severity: Male primary perpetrator (MPP), female primary perpetrator (FPP), and symmetrical (SYM). Patterns and effects of ethnicity were examined with 445 African American, Euro-American, and Mexican American low-income women experiencing mutual IPV. More relationships were classified as MPP (54%) than SYM (35%) or FPP (11%). Comparing women's and men's perpetration of several types of IPV (e.g., threats, severe physical) indicated MPP-pattern women experienced all IPV types more often and were more likely to sustain injury than their male partners. Fewer gender differences were found in the FPP pattern. Racial/ethnic groups were more similar than different; previously reported differences may be explained by variation in socioeconomic status. The larger part of the study was funded by grant R49/CCR610508 from the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, awarded to the third author. This article was also made possible by grant 2001-WT-BX-0504 from the National Institute of Justice awarded to the first and third authors. These agencies are not responsible for the results. Portions of this paper were presented by the first and third authors at the International Family Violence Conference in Portsmouth, NH, July, 2003.     

青少年身体自我的发展特点和性别差异研究

对1699名青少年学生用自编具有较好信度和效度指标的身体自我量表进行测试。结果表明：青少年学生对身体的满意度从“最满意”到“最不满意”依次是负面特征、相貌特征、性特征、运动特征和身材特征,随年龄的增长其发展呈现波动性,青春期早期和中期呈明显下降趋势,青春期后期有缓慢上升;身体自我在相貌特护、身材特征、性特征、负面特征方面都存在显著的性别差异,男生比女生对身体更满意;城市学生比农村学生对自己的身体更满意。     

积极情绪与身心健康关系研究的进展

积极情绪与身体健康、心理健康和社会适应有密切的关系。首先,积极情绪不仅能够降低传染性疾病的感染风险,能够影响非传染性疾病病情、病程及死亡率。其次,积极情绪能够降低个体的心理易感性,使个体更好的应对负性或压力事件。最后,现有的研究表明积极情绪和社会交往存在相互促进的关系。现存的直接效应模型和压力缓冲模型解释了积极情绪直接和间接促进健康的机制。未来的研究还需在研究方法和模型完善等方面进一步改进。     

The mediating and moderating effects of differentiation of self on body mass index and depressive symptomatology among an American college sample

Differentiation of self – a core construct of Bowen's (Bowen, M. (1978). Family therapy in clinical practice. New York: Jason Aronson) family systems theory – was examined as a possible predictor of psychological health and physical health and as a mediator and moderator of the relation between overall functioning and psychological health and physical health. A total of 818 American college students participated (mean age?=?23.72, SD?=?4.79) in this study. Differentiation of self was correlated and was predictive of psychological health, as measured by the Beck depression inventory, and physical health, as measured by body mass index (BMI). A multivariate multiple regression model revealed that differentiation of self partially mediated the effects of overall functioning on depressive symptomatology and on BMI. Results from a hierarchical regression model showed that differentiation of self moderated the relation between overall functioning and depressive symptomatology but did not moderate the relation between overall functioning and BMI. Taken together, these preliminary findings provide initial evidence of the importance of the associations between family systemic factors (differentiation of self) and psychological and physical health factors among American college populations.     

身体清洁对低龄幼儿选择扩散效应的消除

研究以105名4岁幼儿为被试,采用选择扩散范式的盲选-双选法考察身体清洁能否消除低龄幼儿的选择扩散效应。通过操纵自变量(洗手vs.不洗手),观察幼儿是否出现选择扩散。结果发现,不洗手组的被试出现明显的选择扩散效应,洗手组则没有。说明4岁幼儿已经表现出选择扩散效应,且能通过身体清洁得以消除。除了自我心理学和行为倾向的解释之外,研究结果说明,具身认知可能也是影响选择扩散效应的心理机制。