Gender differences in social consequences of perceived overweight in the United States and Australia

This study investigated attitudes about body weight and appearance in a group of young adults. Undergraduate psychology students at the Flinders University of South Australia and at the University of Vermont were asked about their weight and dieting, consciousness about their body, the degree to which their weight had interfered with social activities, their perceptions about the causes of obseity, and their stereotypes about fat and thin men and women. Although 20% of the sample was overweight, 50% of subjects perceived themselves to be overweight to some degree. As expected, weight was a much greater issue for women, who felt more overweight, dieted more, expressed more body consciousness, and reported that weight had interfered more with social activities than did men. Also as expected, Vermont students reported greater frequency of dieting, more concern about weight, and more body consciousness than did students in Australia. Finally, men and women in both cultures stereotyped obese targets significantly more negatively than they did nonobese targets. The results indicate excessive and maladaptive concerns with weight in general, and among women and U.S. students in particular.     

ANSEC: A BASIC package for lag sequential analysis of observational data

Three BASIC programs for processing observational, nonconcurrent sequential data are presented. The programs follow Sackett’s lag sequential analysis method and have the innovations of running on interactional microcomputers and of providing plots of results. The outcome of the analysis is stored on a magnetic disk, facilitating a further application of probabilistic models to the transformed data. The Allison-Liker correction for the comparison test between expected and observed lag probabilities is included in the programs.     

Fixed ratio and extinction performance of infants in the second year of life

Five 14(1/2)- to 19(1/2)-month-old infants were trained to lever press for snacks on small fixed ratio schedules of reinforcement. Within four to nine sessions, responding under FR 10 was established for four subjects and FR 15 for the other. Each subject's last session revealed behavioral patterns similar to animal and human FR trained subjects-a high and constant ratio rate, mixed with a zero rate following reinforcements. Deviations were mostly in the form of prolonged and variable post-reinforcement pauses. These and other irregularities were probably due to the limited deprivation conditions and improper training procedures in which the ratio (for two subjects) was ascended too early and too quickly. Extinction was instituted during the last session. The degree to which extinction performance matched that of other organisms depended upon how stable and "ratio-like" performance was during conditioning.     

Social Interactions of Obese and Nonobese Women

The stigma associated with obesity is likely to limit the opportunities obese women have to develop social skills. This hypothesis was tested by having obese (n = 15) and nonobese (n = 22) women converse on the telephone with college students who were unaware of the women's weights. Ratings made by judges who listened to the women's contributions to the conversations but who were unaware of their weights showed that obesity was negatively related to judgments about the women's likability, social skills, and physical attractiveness. The telephone partners of obese women rated the women and themselves more negatively than did the partners of nonobese women. Obese and nonobese women generally did not differ in their evaluations of their own and their telephone partners' behavior, and they also did not differ on a measure of social self-esteem. These findings suggest that there are real differences in the social behavior of obese and nonobese women and that these differences affect the impressions formed by those with whom they interact.     

Using computer conferencing to formulate a computer simulation of transitive behavior

The activities of a group engaged in simulation modeling via computer conferencing are described, and the model which resulted from those activities is briefly outlined. The phenomena which were modeled were initially described in a series of studies by Trabasso and his colleagues. These studies centered upon exhibition of transitive choices by children and adults, and supported the hypothesis that the choices were guided by formation of “linear arrays“ of the choice objects.     

WISC-R subtest but no overall VIQ-PIQ difference in Dutch children with PDD-NOS

VIQ-PIQ differences have been studied in children with autism and Asperger syndrome but have not been studied in a separate group of children with PDD-NO, although, PDD-NOS has a much higher prevalence rate than autism and deficits in communication and social interaction are severe. The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) was administered to 100 children, aged 6-12 years, with PDD-NOS (n = 76), autism (n = 13), and Asperger syndrome (n = 11). PDD-NOS was diagnosed using explicit research criteria. No overall differences between VIQ and PIQ were found in PDD-NOS and autism. Peaks in the subtest scores on Information, Similarities, Picture Arrangement, and Mazes, and troughs in the subtest scores on Comprehension, Digit Span, and Coding were demonstrated in children with PDD-NOS. Their score on the Freedom from Distractibility factor was lower than the scores on the Verbal Comprehension factor and the Perceptual Organization factor. Children with PDD-NOS seemed to have a similar VIQ-PIQ profile as children with autism, and on the subtest level children with PDD-NOS showed some similarities to children with Asperger syndrome or autism. It was not possible to distinguish PDD-NOS from autism or Asperger syndrome by using IQ scores.     

Stress regulation and incision in borderline personality disorder-a pilot study modeling cutting behavior

Emotion dysregulation in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is characterized by high baseline negative intensity, high reactivity, and slow return to baseline. Patients with BPD often engage in self-injurious behavior because it leads to immediate relief of stress levels. We aimed to assess stress regulation as well as the influence of tissue damage on subjective (aversive tension) and objective (heart rate) stress correlates in BPD. In 14 unmedicated patients with BPD and 18 healthy controls, a stress induction was followed by an incision into the forearm conducted by an investigator. For aversive tension, we found elevated baseline levels as well as slower return to baseline in BPD. In controls, incision resulted in a short-term increase of aversive tension, whereas tension and heart rate decreased in the BPD group. Our preliminary results support the hypothesis that tissue damage may play a role in disturbed stress regulation in BPD.     

We Agree: Fat IS a Feminist Issue! Response to Commentators

In our review of the literature on women and weight bias (Fikkan and Rothblum 2011), we attempted to cull findings from multiple disciplines that demonstrate the impact (social, educational, and financial) of the stigma of women’s weight. We undertook this for two purposes: the first was to address a gap in the weight bias literature, which tends to make only a side note mention that fat women suffer worse penalties than do fat men; the second, to raise the point that feminist scholars, though highly attuned to pressures on women to be thin, have spent less time discussing the disparate impact for women of being fat, despite the mounting evidence of how much weight bias impacts women. We offered some of our own thoughts on the persisting neglect of this topic among feminist writers, despite previous calls to action (Rothblum 1992, 1994). Given the dearth of attention to what has become one of the most frequent types of discrimination against women (Puhl et al. 2008), we asked: “is fat a feminist issue?” We were delighted with the response from the commentators and the thoughtful exploration they devoted to our question and to this issue within feminist scholarship. Here, we briefly summarize some of the main themes identified by these writers, offer our own thoughts on these themes and repeat their call to action for further study of this important area of women’s lives.     

A comparison of working memory profiles in school-aged children with Specific Language Impairment, Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Comorbid SLI and ADHD and their typically developing peers

The association between specific language impairment (SLI), attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and working memory (WM) was examined. WM has been implicated in language acquisition and models of ADHD; however, evidence for WM deficits in SLI and ADHD has been inconsistent. The components of Baddeley's WM model were investigated in 18 children with SLI, 16 children with ADHD, 11 children with comorbid SLI+ADHD, and 24 typically developing (TD) children. The presence of SLI resulted in deficits in more components of WM than the presence of ADHD indicating that children with SLI are more vulnerable to WM deficits than those with ADHD.