Experiencing Sexism and Young Women\u27s Body Esteem

This two-study investigation examined the relationship between sexist attitudes and experiences with young women’s body esteem. Specifically, we examined whether young women\u27s body esteem was related to their own and their parents\u27 endorsements of benevolent and hostile sexist beliefs and also whether women’s body esteem was related to their actual everyday experiences with benevolent and hostile sexism. In Study 1, fathers\u27 endorsement of benevolently sexist beliefs was positively correlated with daughters\u27 weight-related and physical condition body esteem. No similar evidence was found for mothers or for either parent\u27s endorsements of hostile sexist beliefs. In Study 2, young women’s body esteem was positively related to their benevolently sexist experiences and negatively related to their hostile sexist experiences. These findings are consistent with ambivalent sexism theory. The results are discussed for their clinical and theoretical implications

During visual word recognition, phonology is accessed within 100 ms and may be mediated by a speech production code: evidence from magnetoencephalography

Debate surrounds the precise cortical location and timing of access to phonological information during visual word recognition. Therefore, using whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG), we investigated the spatiotemporal pattern of brain responses induced by a masked pseudohomophone priming task. Twenty healthy adults read target words that were preceded by one of three kinds of nonword prime: pseudohomophones (e.g., brein–BRAIN), where four of five letters are shared between prime and target, and the pronunciation is the same; matched orthographic controls (e.g., broin–BRAIN), where the same four of five letters are shared between prime and target but pronunciation differs; and unrelated controls (e.g., lopus–BRAIN), where neither letters nor pronunciation are shared between prime and target. All three priming conditions induced activation in the pars opercularis of the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFGpo) and the left precentral gyrus (PCG) within 100 ms of target word onset. However, for the critical comparison that reveals a processing difference specific to phonology, we found that the induced pseudohomophone priming response was significantly stronger than the orthographic priming response in left IFG/PCG at ∼100 ms. This spatiotemporal concurrence demonstrates early phonological influences during visual word recognition and is consistent with phonological access being mediated by a speech production code

Revising the Body Esteem Scale with a U.S. College Student Sample: Evaluation, Validation, and Uses for the BES-R

The Body Esteem Scale (BES; Franzoi and Shields 1984) has been a primary research tool for over 30 years, yet its factor structure has not been fully assessed since its creation, so a two-study design examined whether the BES needed revision. In Study 1, a series of principal components analyses (PCAs) was conducted using the BES responses of 798 undergraduate students, with results indicating that changes were necessary to improve the scale’s accuracy. In Study 2, 1237 undergraduate students evaluated each BES item, along with a select set of new body items, while also rating each item’s importance to their own body esteem. Body items meeting minimum importance criteria were then utilized in a series of PCAs to develop a revised scale that has strong internal consistency and good convergent and discriminant validity. As with the original BES, the revised BES (BES-R) conceives of body esteem as both gender-specific and multidimensional. Given that the accurate assessment of body esteem is essential in better understanding the link between this construct and mental health, the BES-R can now be used in research to illuminate this link, as well as in prevention and treatment programs for body-image issues. Further implications are discussed

Exploring Body Comparison Tendencies: Women Are Self-Critical Whereas Men Are Self-Hopeful

Our study examined similarities and differences in women’s and men’s comparison tendencies and perfection beliefs when evaluating their face, body shape, and physical abilities, as well as how these tendencies and beliefs relate to their body esteem. College students (90 women and 88 men) completed the Body Esteem Scale (Franzoi & Shields, 1984) and answered questions concerning their social comparison and temporal comparison tendencies related to face, body shape, and physical abilities evaluations as well as personal perfection body beliefs. As predicted, women were more likely than men to compare their face and bodies to other same-sex persons whom they perceived as having either similar or better physical qualities than themselves in those body domains, with their most likely comparison tendency being upward social comparison. More men than women held body-perfection beliefs for all three body domains, and men were most likely to rely on future temporal comparison when evaluating their body shape. Comparison tendencies and perfection beliefs also were differentially related to women\u27s and men\u27s body esteem; whereas women rely on self-critical social comparison strategies associated with negative body esteem, men’s comparison strategies and perfection beliefs are more self-hopeful. Implications for practitioners treating body-image issues are discussed

Feeding ecology of juvenile Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) in a northeast Pacific fjord: diet, availability of zooplankton, selectivity for prey, and potential competition for prey resources

We investigated the feeding ecology of juvenile salmon during the critical early life-history stage of transition from shallow to deep marine waters by sampling two stations (190 m and 60 m deep) in a northeast Pacific fjord (Dabob Bay, WA) between May 1985 and October 1987. Four species of Pacific salmon—Oncorhynchus keta (chum) , O. tshawytscha (Chinook), O. gorbuscha (pink), and O. kisutch (coho)—were examined for stomach contents. Diets of these fishes varied temporally, spatially, and between species, but were dominated by insects, euphausiids, and decapod larvae. Zooplankton assemblages and dry weights differed between stations, and less so between years. Salmon often demonstrated strongly positive or negative selection for specific prey types: copepods were far more abundant in the zooplankton than in the diet, whereas Insecta, Araneae, Cephalapoda, Teleostei, and Ctenophora were more abundant in the diet than in the plankton. Overall diet overlap was highest for Chinook and coho salmon (mean=77.9%)—species that seldom were found together. Chum and Chinook salmon were found together the most frequently, but diet overlap was lower (38.8%) and zooplankton biomass was not correlated with their gut fullness (%body weight). Thus, despite occasional occurrences of significant diet overlap between salmon species, our results indicate that interspecific competition among juvenile salmon does not occur in Dabob Bay

Comparison of noise impacts from urban transport

When new transport schemes are considered, a key issue is the potential impact of noise. The reaction of people to noise however is both personal and subjective. Whereas all types of new urban transport scheme have noise evaluations, little work has been undertaken to date to compare the noise generated by the different modes of transport namely, a tram, car, bus and guided bus. The lack of such evaluations has implications for scheme perception when new modes are introduced, and such comparisons frequently form part of the public debate when systems are proposed. This paper outlines the assessment of noise and its measurement, reviews the limited published comparisons between modes and presents the results of an extensive series of noise measurements of in-service trams, buses and cars, (taken mainly within the Greater Nottingham area). The measurements have been made across a range of similar operational circumstances to allow comparison between the relative noise of particular modes. The paper concludes that from measurement across operational circumstances there should be little perceived difference in noise from buses and trams, but that proportionately cars can generate significant emissions

Implementation of a workplace parking levy: lessons from the UK

The UK government has made its funding contribution towards major local transport investment conditional on introducing some form of complementary innovative Transport Demand Management measures such as road user charging (RUC). It is intended that this will help constrain traffic and generate local funding contributions towards schemes. Nottingham a major UK City has consequently chosen to implement a workplace parking levy (WPL). This paper presents a case study of the project, outlining its development and explaining the public consultation process used and its findings. It presents a summary of the perceptions of the WPL scheme from the consultations undertaken. From this lessons can be learned which will aid other Cities contemplating such schemes. The findings reveal that a communication strategy is vital, that WPL is not perceived as the most equitable of systems by many stakeholders but can be considered as an easy and quick policy to implement where the transport funding needs outweigh the negative aspects. WPL could perhaps be considered as a precursor to full RUC as the costs and technological barriers to RUC are reduced. It is also shown that promoters need to produce complementary strategies in order to assist implementation of WPL at an early stage in scheme development. This includes measures for assistance with employer travel planning and parking restraint. Promoters must have a clear strategy as to where the funding created by WPL will be hypothecated and what the benefits will be both to WPL payers and the general population as a whole