Gender is what you look like: Emerging gender identities in young children and preoccupation with appearance

Abstract

Our work examining young children’s strong desire to wear gender-stereotypical clothing suggests that physical appearance may be early reflections of developing gender identities. We test implications of this association between gender and appearance with two studies examining young children’s preoccupation with looking pretty or handsome. Findings revealed that being more attuned to gender information was linked to greater appearance preoccupation. Girls were more preoccupied with their appearances compared to boys. Age was associated with greater appearance preoccupation in two of our three measures. These studies suggest that appearances may reflect developing gender identities, and that gender identity development can influence children’s appearance preoccupation. We suggest that future research examine the stability and generalizability of appearance preoccupation.     

The Relationship Between Right‐wing Attitudes and Cognitive Style: A Comparison of Self‐report and Behavioural Measures of Rigidity and Intolerance of Ambiguity

Two recent meta‐analytic studies addressing the relationship between cognitive style and right‐wing attitudes yielded some discrepancies. We argue that these discrepancies can be accounted for when one considers the types of cognitive style measures included in those analyses. One of these analyses primarily relied on self‐report measures, whereas the other relied on behavioural measures of cognitive style. Based on a new meta‐analysis of 103 samples (total N = 12 714) focussing on behavioural and self‐report measures of rigidity and intolerance of ambiguity, we confirmed the hypothesis that self‐report scales yield stronger relationships with right‐wing attitudes than behavioural measures. We point out potential conceptual and validity issues with both types of cognitive style measures and call for cautiousness when interpreting the magnitude of their relationships with ideology. Copyright © 2016 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Setting the record straight: System justification and rigidity-of-the-right in contemporary Hungarian politics

Despite international concern about the resurgence of right-wing authoritarianism and xenophobic prejudice throughout Central and Eastern Europe, researchers have argued recently that rightists may be less cognitively rigid and system-justifying than liberals and leftists in the context of Hungary (Kelemen, Szabó, Mészáros, László, & Forgas, 2014; Lönnqvist, Szabó, & Kelemen, 2019). We identify shortcomings of the research on which these claims are based and provide evidence that “rigidity-of-the-right” does indeed characterise contemporary Hungarian politics. Specifically, we hired professional survey firms to administer measures of personal needs for order and structure, system justification and political orientation to two large, nationally representative samples in Hungary. Results revealed that self-identified rightists scored higher than leftists on needs for order and structure and system justification (Study 1, N = 1005) and that supporters of right-wing parties (Fidesz and Jobbik) scored higher on both general and economic system justification than supporters of liberal and leftist parties (Study 2, N = 886). In exploratory analyses, we also observed that rightists expressed more intolerance than leftists toward groups that are commonly mistreated in Eastern Europe, including the Roma, religious minorities and sexual minorities.     

The Unmanageability of Characterologic Couples in Managed Care

ABSTRACT

This article explores the issues associated with treating characterologic couples in the managed care environment. The article focuses on the definition of the characterologic couple and the specific issues that emerge when the characterologic couple is attempting brief treatment in the managed care environment. Attention is focused on the difficulties in the two-stage approach to character treatment, the potential for hurting the non-characterologic member of the couple, and the problems that emerge when the character is identified, but not worked with.     

Authoritarianism,Cognitive Rigidity,and the Processing of Ambiguous Visual Information

Intolerance of ambiguity and cognitive rigidity are unifying aspects of authoritarianism as defined by Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik, Levinson, and Sanford (1982/1950), who hypothesized that authoritarians view the world in absolute terms (e.g., good or evil). Past studies have documented the relationship between authoritarianism and intolerance of ambiguity and rigidity. Frenkel-Brunswik (1949) hypothesized that this desire for absolutism was rooted in perceptual processes. We present a study with three samples that directly tests the relationship between right wing authoritarianism (RWA) and the processing of ideologically neutral but ambiguous visual stimuli. As hypothesized, in all three samples we found that RWA was related to the slower processing of visual information that required participants to recategorize objects. In a fourth sample, RWA was unrelated to speed of processing visual information that did not require recategorization. Overall, results suggest a relationship between RWA and rigidity in categorization.     

If I Were Kripke … Attributive Names and the Necessary A Posteriori

According to Naming and Necessity, proper names usually work referentially as rigid designators. In this paper, I argue that proper names have also attributive uses that systematically emerge in particular contexts. Attributive uses are then exploited to show that simple identity claims (such as “Hesperus is Phosphorus”) are open to a double interpretation. The main aim of the paper is arguing that the impression that certain true identities are a posteriori is mostly due to one of the two readings, a reading according to which, however, the expressed truth is only contingently true.     

风险社会中公众政治信任的形成机制及影响

风险社会中如何提升公众的政治信任成为焦点。以政治信任形成的终生学习理论为基础,将理性选择理论和社会文化理论相整合,探讨影响政治信任形成的因素,以及政治信任对政治合作的影响。对291名被试进行问卷调查,层次回归结果发现：政治信任在政治透明度感知、宽容度感知和政治合作之间发挥正向中介作用;在负面认知固化程度和政治合作之间发挥负向中介作用;政治氛围感知在政治信任和政治合作行为之间起调节作用。最后,对该结果形成的原因与在现实生活中的应用进行讨论,并对未来研究的发展方向进行展望。     

Development of Rigid Motion Perception in Response to Radially Expanding Optic Flow

A radially expanding flow with a linear positive speed gradient is perceived as a rigid object approaching the observer, whereas such a flow having no or a reduced speed gradient is perceived as a non‐rigid, two‐dimensionally deforming object (De Bruyn & Orban, 1990). We tested elementary school‐aged children (younger children, 6–9 years, and older children, 9–11 years) and adults (20–22 years) to examine the development of the perception of rigidity. The results suggest that the perception of rigidity in response to a radial flow pattern with a speed gradient is similar in older (but not younger) children and adults. The development of rigidity perception from a radial flow pattern may be related to the maturation of the dorsal and ventral visual pathways during the elementary school years. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Objects are individuals but stuff doesn't count: perceived rigidity and cohesiveness influence infants' representations of small groups of discrete entities

Young infants construct models of the world composed of objects tracked through time and occlusion. To date little is known about the degree to which these models are sensitive to the material make-up of the represented individuals. Two experiments probed 8-month-olds' ability to represent different kinds of entities: rigid, cohesive objects, flexible, cohesive objects, and non-rigid, non-cohesive portions of sand. In Experiment 1, infants represented an array of two rigid, cohesive objects hidden behind a single screen, but failed to represent hidden arrays of two flexible objects or two portions of sand. In Experiment 2, entities were hidden behind two screens instead of one, thereby reducing the information processing demands of the task. In that case, infants succeeded in representing arrays of both types of object stimuli, but again failed to represent the portions of sand. It is argued that (1) the processes by which infants individuate and track entities are sensitive to material kind, (2) rigid cohesive objects occupy a privileged status in this system, and (3) early knowledge about objects and substances has a quantificational aspect.     

Rigidity and flexibility of gender stereotypes in childhood: developmental or differential?

Previous research has shown that the early learning of male–female categories is characterized by rigid beliefs about stereotypic differences, but that once gender knowledge is well established, the beliefs become more flexible. Because most studies are cross‐sectional, it is not known if the early rigidity represents a normative transitional developmental stage that passes, or if early individual differences in rigidity continue into later childhood. To answer that question, analyses were performed on longitudinal data of 64 children who had been questioned about their gender concepts yearly from ages 5 to 10 years. Supporting a cognitive‐developmental approach, the findings showed that the period of rigidity was short‐lived whether rigidity began early or late or whether the level of peak rigidity was high or low. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.