Age and subcultural differences on personal and general beliefs about memory

This study examined age and cultural differences on both personal and general beliefs about memory by comparing three age groups within two subcultures belonging to the same country: Milanese and Sardinian. Two innovative instruments on general and personal beliefs with graphic-rating-scale format (General Beliefs about Memory Instrument and Personal Beliefs about Memory Instrument) and a memory task (recall of 40 words) were administrated to participants. Sardinians held more positive attitudes about the effects of aging on memory reporting a later onset of declining memory ability and control over memory across the life span. They were also more optimistic in rating their global memory efficacy, control, and retrospective change. The two subcultural groups differed in terms of memory performance, with Sardinian individuals outperforming the Milanese. Findings are discussed in relation to the view of aging in different subcultural contexts.     

Sex differences in the vocabulary of college students

The present study replicated Jastrow's 1891 experiment concerning differences between male and female vocabulary. Participants were 20 male and 20 female Caucasian middle‐class college students. They recorded up to 100 nouns in a 15‐minute period. Results indicate that women have increased their use of unusual words compared to women in 1891. Males used more scientific words and more body part words than females. In contrast to the previous study, there are no significant differences between the sexes in use of animal, nature, and food words. Females used more clothing words than males in this study, as in the previous study, and produced more different words than males. Vocabulary changes appear to reflect changes in the social structure of the society.     

Sex differences in the use of psychiatric outpatient facilities

Previous research has shown that both symptoms and sociocultural factors are related to use of psychiatric outpatient facilities. However, the utility of using treatment rates from these facilities to make etiological inferences depends on whether sociocultural effects on utilization are trivial or substantial. In this paper data are presented for one such inference, that women are more in need of treatment than men. We find that observed sex differences in the use of a student psychiatric clinic are due both to differential propensities to seek help for problems and also to differential numbers of problems, both of which are higher among women than men. However, the differential propensity to seek help is found to be by far the more important of these two effects.     

Gender differences in union membership,preferences, and beliefs

This study uses moderated regression analysis and two major sources of individual data to examine gender differences in union membership, pro-union voting intent, union instrumentality, and relative confidence in union leaders. Some specific male-female differences are noted, particularly involving union-related variables. Overall, however, the authors report a minimal role for gender as a determinant of the alternative union-related measures examined. The authors acknowledge the research assistance of Marlene Wechselblatt. Jack Fiorito also acknowledges support for this research from the University of Iowa’s Old Gold Summer Fellowship program. Helpful comments on an earlier draft were provided by William N. Cooke, John A. Fossum, Daniel G. Gallagher, Cynthia L. Gramm, and Ronald L. Seeber.     

Sex differences in how heterosexuals think about lesbians and gay men: Evidence from survey context effects

Two experiments were embedded in a 1997 telephone survey of U.S. households to assess possible differences in how heterosexuals think about lesbians versus gay men. In each experiment, one half of the sample first responded to one or more attitude items about lesbians, followed by comparable items about gay men. The other half received the gay male item(s) first. Results are reported separately for White (N = 976) and Black (N = 479) heterosexuals. For White and Black men alike, self‐reported attitudes toward lesbians tended to be more favorable when they were assessed without reference to gay men (i.e., lesbian items presented first). White men's reactions to gay men tended to be less negative when assessed after the questions about lesbians were presented, but Black men's responses did not consistently show this pattern. For some items, women gave more favorable ratings of lesbians and less favorable ratings of gay men when the lesbian items were presented first. The findings suggest possible gender differences in the cognitive organization of heterosexuals ‘ attitudes toward lesbians and gay men.     

Sex differences in the encoding and decoding of negative facial emotions

To study the effects of gender on ability to recognize facial expressions of emotion, two separate samples of male and female undergraduates (727 in Study 1, 399 in Study 2) judged 120 color photographs of people posing one of four negative emotions: anger, disgust, fear, and sadness. Overall, females exceeded males in their ability to recognize emotions whether expressed by males or by females. As an exception, males were superior to females in recognizing male anger. The findings are discussed in terms of social sex-roles.Portions of this paper were presented at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, New York: August, 1987.     

A qualitative study of attitudes, beliefs, and practices among 40 undergraduate smokers

OBJECTIVE: Because little is known about college-age smokers, the authors conducted a qualitative study to better understand this population. PARTICIPANTS: Forty college student smokers from 12 Pacific Northwest colleges participated in the study. METHODS: The authors identified themes and built models to ascertain important factors related to smoking and smoking cessation. Four models emerged: smoking facilitators, smoking barriers, cessation facilitators, and cessation barriers. RESULTS: The authors observed physical, psychological, and social influences across models, and social influences were strongly associated with both smoking and cessation. Many smokers were unlikely to define themselves as regular smokers. Most smokers had made prior quit attempts. CONCLUSIONS: College students are a unique category of smoker and colleges can play a role in helping them achieve cessation.     

Lie experts' beliefs about nonverbal indicators of deception

Beliefs about behavioral clues to deception were investigated in 212 people, consisting of prisoners, police detectives, patrol police officers, prison guards, customs officers, and college students. Previous studies, mainly conducted with college students as subjects, showed that people have some incorrect beliefs about behavioral clues to deception. It was hypothesized that prisoners would have the best notion about clues of deception, due to the fact that they receive the most adequate feedback about successful deception strategies. The results supported this hypothesis.     

Talking about Russian Sex in the Era of Pussy Riot

Abstract

An attempt is made to sketch a strategy for reading Kronos (2013), Witold Gombrowicz’s (1904–1969) recently published intimate journal, which he kept in the years 1952–1969. It treats Kronos as belonging to Gombrowicz’s corpus, not merely as a literary sensation or an indiscretion, but as an important artistic and philosophical exhibit, which throws further light on Gombrowicz’s preoccupation with the expression of the body and the existentialist concept of person as presence, one of his Nietzschean strategies for countering metaphysics and its ideal transcendence. The key concepts that bring together the artistic, the autobiographical/somatic, and the philosophical are pain and aging. This reading, in demonstration of the artistic unity of Gombrowicz’s corpus, situates Kronos in the context of the novel Pornografia (1960) and the Diary (1953–1969), which share the major themes of aging and pain.     

Sex differences in psychosocial consequences of alcohol and drug abuse

This paper reports analyses of the 1985 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse to evaluate three perspectives on sex differences in the relationship of psychosocial problems to levels of substance use. The results are more consistent with a styles of deviance perspective than with either the generalized feminine vulnerability or the convergence theses. Compared to women, men report higher levels of alcohol and drug abuse during the past year and are more likely than women to have experienced each of 17 psychosocial problems resulting from alcohol or drug use. Significant sex by substance use interaction tests for problem indices and for individual problems suggest that substance abuse is related more strongly to intrapsychic problems among women and to problems in social functioning among men. Decompositions of the sex differences in mean levels of psychological and social/behavioral problems suggest that most of the differences can be explained by males' greater frequency of intoxication and drug use.     

Sex and the census: why surveys should not conflate sex and gender identity

ABSTRACT

The UK census authorities have proposed guidance for the 2021 census indicating that the sex question may be answered according to subjective gender identity. This raises issues about the measurement of sex and gender identity which other data collection exercises are also contending with. This paper addresses the questions that have arisen regarding the census, before going on to explain how these questions have emerged more widely. Finally, I address the difficulties of discussing the collection of data on sex in a climate of policy capture and silencing.