Tendency For Women Research Articles

The nature and correlates of young women's peer-directed protective behavioral strategies

ObjectiveRecently, a number of studies have identified self-employed Protective Behavioral Strategies (PBS) as effective in decreasing the level of alcohol-related harm among young people. However, much of the published research has ignored important gender differences, such as women's increased tendency to rely on PBS that are social in nature. To further the understanding of women's PBS, the current study sought to investigate the nature and correlates of the strategies young women employ to keep their friends safe when drinking (i.e., peer-directed PBS). MethodA scale measuring peer-directed PBS was developed and administered in conjunction with existing measures of alcohol consumption, personal PBS, and peer attachment. Participants consisted of 422 women aged 18–30years, recruited among psychology students and the general public. ResultsExploratory factor analysis revealed two clusters of peer-directed PBS; those that were aimed at reducing intoxication among one's friends and those that were designed to minimize alcohol-related harms. Further analysis found a positive relationship between women's tendency to implement personal and peer-directed PBS and that risky drinkers were less likely to engage in personal or peer-directed PBS (either type). ConclusionFindings indicate that personal and peer-directed PBS are related behaviors that are less frequently adopted by risky drinkers.

The development and validation of the Physical Appearance Comparison Scale-Revised (PACS-R)

The Physical Appearance Comparison Scale (PACS; Thompson, Heinberg, & Tantleff, 1991) was revised to assess appearance comparisons relevant to women and men in a wide variety of contexts. The revised scale (Physical Appearance Comparison Scale-Revised, PACS-R) was administered to 1176 college females. In Study 1, exploratory factor analysis and parallel analysis using one half of the sample suggested a single factor structure for the PACS-R. Study 2 utilized the remaining half of the sample to conduct confirmatory factor analysis, item analysis, and to examine the convergent validity of the scale. These analyses resulted in an 11-item measure that demonstrated excellent internal consistency and convergent validity with measures of body satisfaction, eating pathology, sociocultural influences on appearance, and self-esteem. Regression analyses demonstrated the utility of the PACS-R in predicting body satisfaction and eating pathology. Overall, results indicate that the PACS-R is a reliable and valid tool for assessing appearance comparison tendencies in women.

Investigation of The Socio-cultural Factors Affecting the Women’s Tendency Toward Cesarean Section in the Hospitals of Ilam, Iran

Cesarean surgery is a small incision in the lower part of the abdomen for the embryo and placenta to exit. Nowadays, cesarean section is one of the most common modes of delivery particularly in developing countries. Since keeping in shape, family size, and fear from natural delivery are considered as the reasons for tendency toward cesarean section, the present study aimed to investigate the socio-cultural factors affecting the women's tendency toward this method. The statistical population included all the women referring to the hospitals for delivery and the sample included 200 women referring to the hospitals and childbirth centers. The study sample was selected using the Cochran's formula. Regression model was used in order to determine the correlation between the study variables. Besides, chi-square test was utilized for determining the effect of the dependent variable on the independent variable. According to the results, 64.5 of the study women had no history of cesarean surgery and 32.5 had a high tendency toward cesarean section. In addition, 34.5 had to undergo cesarean section and 50 had a low tendency toward this surgery. A significant relationship was observed between selection of cesarean delivery and the physicians' persuasion, keeping in shape, cesarean complications, lack of knowledge about the benefits of natural delivery, and socio-economic status (P<0.05). A large number of women referring to the childbirth centers of Ilam tend to select cesarean delivery which is mostly due to the lack of using pain relief methods, the physicians' persuasion, and the women's belief in keeping in shape.

The Female Homer: An Exploration of Women's Epic Poetry

The Female Homer: An Exploration of Women's Epic Poetry

Anxiety, Demoralization, and the Gender Difference in Job Satisfaction

The tendency for women in Canada and the United States to report being more satisfied than men with their jobs is considered paradoxical because women, on average, receive fewer job-related resources than men. Theory and research suggest that the magnitude of the gender difference that underlies that paradox may increase as levels of negative affect increase. Using data from people living and working in Toronto, Canada, this study evaluates hypotheses about the joint association of gender and two forms of negative affect, anxiety and demoralization, with job satisfaction. Data collected in telephone interviews are analyzed using ordinal probit regression. As job satisfaction decreases with increasing negative affect, the size of the gender difference in job satisfaction increases. When job characteristics indicative of job quality are controlled, the interaction between gender and demoralization is reduced to a non-significant level, but the interaction between gender and anxiety changes little, and remains significant. The results are interpreted as indicating that as negative affect increases, women are more likely to reference standards that counterbalance decreases in their satisfaction (e.g., standards linked to “communion” with co-workers), and men are more likely to reference standards that further decrease their satisfaction (e.g., standards linked to relative advantage). The persistence of the interaction between gender and anxiety after job characteristics are controlled suggests that anxiety-provoking experiences outside of the workplace may contribute to the gender difference in job satisfaction. The associations among quality of work, demoralization, and job satisfaction are stronger among men than women, explaining the interaction of gender with demoralization.

Women, War, and World Order: Gender Difference in Security Attitudes in Europe and the United States, 2002-2011

This paper focuses on a change in the politics of democratic societies with important implications for national security policy: the increasing political mobilization of women. This change takes several forms, including an increase in the political interest and engagement of women, a growing gender differentiation in policy preferences, and an increasing tendency of women to identify with parties of the left. Despite the importance of these changes, they have been neglected by scholars of national security. In this paper, I examine cross-national evidence on gender difference for a number of security policy issues. I draw on survey measures on a wide variety of issues, including support for international involvement, multilateral institutions, the NATO Alliance, opinions of military power and balance of power, international threats, defense spending, and the use of military force. The study covers up to 14 nations. The most important cross-national finding is that overall gender polarization on security policy issues is strongly correlated with the level of the political mobilization of women. Within nations, gender difference is most prominent on issues of military power, the cost of defense, the acceptability of war, and the use of military force. Gender difference toward international involvement and multilateral institutions are smaller. However, gender difference on each of these issues show variation by nation and over time, which suggests that particular contexts condition the degree of gender polarization. Hypotheses that cast gender difference as universal are therefore suspect. I conclude with a discussion of the implications of the findings for theories of gender difference and for the politics of Western security.

The Cognitive Fictions and Functions of Gender in Evolutionary Psychology and Poststructuralist Theory

This essay uses the Popular Science writing of nineteenth-century American zoologist William Keith Brooks to analyze modern approaches to evolution and sexual difference. Brooks’s popular writing invented a Darwinian model of sexual difference that has received little scholarly attention. Although the little it has received has criticized Brooks for reducing supposedly gendered cognitive processes to the physiology of sex cells, this essay argues that none of Brooks’s questionable conclusions actually follow from such a reduction. Brooks’s essays instead mobilized the notion of “tendency,” which created a class of characteristics that could exist even where they did not reliably appear. Brooks’s use of this notion developed out of his rhetorical appeal to functions, allowing us to put a long-standing debate within the philosophy of science over that term in dialogue with feminist critiques of functionalism. More specifically, Brooks viewed the generation of racial difference as the function and tendency of men and the preservation of those differences as the function and tendency of women—a definition that reworks historical accounts of the relationship between race and gender. Finally, Brooks’s notion of tendencies provided a template for the application of evolution to human psychology, making it possible to argue that the mind preserved notions of sex and race even as they became less reliably fixed in the body. This final notion of tendencies reveals surprising commonalities between the contemporary evolutionary psychology of gender, which has been the target of intense feminist criticism, and recent efforts to reinterpret the legacy of Darwinism for the humanities generally and for feminist theory in particular.

Techniques frequently used during London Olympic judo tournaments: a biomechanical approach

Feedback between training and competition should be considered in athletic training. The aim of the study was contemporary coaching tendencies in women’s and men’s judo with particular focus on a biomechanical classification of throws and grappling actions. 359 throws and 77 grappling techniques scored by male and female athletes in Olympic Judo Tournaments (London 2012) have been analyzed. Independence of traits (gender and weight category by technique classes) was verified via c2 test. Comparison between frequency of each subsequent technique class and rest/inconclusive counts was made in 2×2 contingency tables. The significance level was set at p£0.05. Throwing technique frequencies grouped in the seven biomechanical classes were dependent on gender. A significant difference was found between frequencies of variable arm of physical lever technique scored by males (27.09%) and females (16.67%) as compared to the rest/inconclusively techniques counts. Significant differences between men who competed in extra lightweight and heavy weight concerned the frequency of the techniques used with maximum arm or variable arm of physical lever and a couple of forces applied by trunk and legs. In females, a tendency to higher frequency of techniques that used couple of forces applied by arm or arms and leg was observed in extra lightweight compared to the heavy weight. Because the technique preferred in the fight depends on a gender and weight category of a judoka, the relationships found in this study, which can be justified by the biomechanics of throws, should be taken into consideration in technical and tactical coaching of the contestants. A method used in this study can be recommended for future research concerning coaching tendencies.

Gender differences in antifat attitudes

Differences between women and men in the expression of prejudice toward obese people coexist with widespread antifat attitudes. It has been argued that these differences stem from women's tendency to internalize the social norm of slimness and to develop eating concerns, while men tend to resort to externalization and to showing antifat attitudes. Data obtained from 597 students (264 male and 333 female) revealed that men showed more prejudice against obese people, and that women had high scores in eating problems questionnaires. Finally, it is discussed why men and women adopt different strategies to deal with the social norm of thinness.

Gender and age differences in obesity among Korean adults

Gender and age differences in obesity among Korean adults

Challenges of Work–Life Balance for Women Physicians/Mothers Working in Leadership Positions

Female leadership in medicine is still disproportionately small, which might be due to the barriers of combining work and family. The aim of this study was, first, to perform a strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis and, second, to create a strategic concept for career development. In this study, all women in leadership positions in the health care system in Vienna, Austria, with at least 1 child (n = 8), were interviewed about the advantages and disadvantages of gender with regard to career development, the strengths and weaknesses of female leadership, and their work-life balance. Different factors that influenced the work-life balance were specified, and career strategies to realize adequate solutions were developed. The sporadic focus on career advancement, time-consuming child care, responsibility for family life, and a woman's tendency toward understatement were barriers to career development. Work-family enrichment has a positive spillover effect that spreads positive energy and helps to balance the work-life relationship. For each individual, the allocation and interaction of different resources such as time, money, scope of decision making, and physical, emotional, and social resources, were essential to maintain the individual work-life balance. In addition to the existing "glass ceiling," the predominant responsibility for child care is still borne by the woman. However, mentoring programs, coaching, networking, and support of the partner or of other people help to strengthen female "soft" skills and achieve a work-life balance.

Oxytocin facilitates accurate perception of competition in men and kinship in women

Despite the dominant role of the hormone oxytocin (OT) in social behavior, little is known about the role of OT in the perception of social relationships. Furthermore, it is unclear whether there are sex differences in the way that OT affects social perception. Here, we employed a double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover design to investigate the effect of OT on accurate social perception. Following treatment, 62 participants completed the Interpersonal Perception Task, a method of assessing the accuracy of social judgments that requires identification of the relationship between people interacting in real life video clips divided into three categories: kinship, intimacy and competition. The findings suggest that OT had a general effect on improving accurate perception of social interactions. Furthermore, we show that OT also involves sex-specific characteristics. An interaction between treatment, task category and sex indicated that OT had a selective effect on improving kinship recognition in women, but not in men, whereas men's performance was improved following OT only for competition recognition. It is concluded that the gender-specific findings reported here may point to some biosocial differences in the effect of OT which may be expressed in women's tendency for communal and familial social behavior as opposed to men's tendency for competitive social behavior.

Sex Differences in the Use of Delayed Semantic Context When Listening to Disrupted Speech

Female as opposed to male listeners were better able to use a delayed informative cue at the end of a long sentence to report an earlier word which was disrupted by noise. Informative (semantically related) or uninformative (semantically unrelated) word cues were presented 2, 6, or 10 words after a target word whose initial phoneme had been replaced with noise. A total of 84 young adults (45 males) listened to each sentence and then repeated it after its offset. The semantic benefit effect (SBE) was the difference in the accuracy of report of the disrupted target word during informative vs. uninformative sentences. Women had significantly higher SBEs than men even though there were no significant sex differences in terms of number of non-target words reported, the effect of distance between the disrupted target word and the informative cue, or kinds of errors generated. We suggest that the superior ability of women to use delayed semantic information to decode an earlier ambiguous speech signal may be linked to women's tendency to engage the hemispheres more bilaterally than men during word processing. Since the maintenance of semantic context under ambiguous conditions demands more right than left hemispheric resources, this may give women an advantage.

Effects of Egonomy Tendency on Their Self-makeup and Appearance Management Behavior of University Women in Jeonbuk Province

The purpose of this study was to identify egonomy tendency on their self-makeup and appearance management behavior of university women in Jeonbuk province. A self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Frequency analyses, reliability analyses, cross-tabulations and multiple regression analyses were used. Factors of university women's egonomy tendency were individuality, value, luxury good, style, design, appearance, and economic feasibility. University women were classified into the egonomy retarde group(G1), the value pursuing group(G2), the economic feasibility pursuing group(G3), and the highly egonomy pursuing group(G4). G1 were indifferent to their makeup methods and appearance management, had the least experience in buying recommended cosmetics or idea cosmetics. G2 invested time and efforts in makeup and managed their appearance with cosmetics or folk remedies, had less experience in buying artist brand cosmetics. G3 performed makeup frequently, were not much interested in appearances while showing the most frequent appearance management behaviors using cosmetics of folk remedies, and spent small amount of money to buy cosmetics. G4 showed high frequencies of all factors of self-makeup and appearance management behaviors, had the most experience in buying artist brand cosmetics and spent much amounts of money to buy cosmetics. Self-makeup behavior was affected by their tendencies to pursue individuality, values, appearance and appearance management behavior was affected by their tendencies to pursue luxury goods, appearance, and economic feasibility.

Maternal tendencies in women are associated with estrogen levels and facial femininity

Previous studies have shown that women with higher maternal tendencies are shorter and have lower testosterone levels than those with lower maternal tendencies. Here we report two studies that investigated the relationships between maternal tendencies and two further measures of physical masculinization/feminization; urinary estrogen metabolite (estrone-3-glucuronide: E1-3G) levels (Study 1) and rated facial femininity (Study 2). In Study 1, nulliparous women reported both their ideal number of children and ideal own age at first child and also provided urine samples. There was a significant positive correlation between measured late-follicular estrogen levels and reported ideal number of children. In Study 2, analyses of facial cues in two independent samples of women showed that the average facial characteristics of women who reported desiring many children were rated as more feminine than those desiring fewer children. Collectively, these results support the proposal that maternal tendencies are related to physical feminization and that this effect may, at least in part, reflect the influence of the hormone estrogen.

Abstract A5: Psychometric evaluation of cervical cancer literacy assessments with Black, Latina, and Arab women

Abstract Background: This research examined the psychometric properties of the newly revised Cervical Cancer Literacy Assessment Tool (C-CLAT) in a diverse sample (N = 543) of Black, Latina and Arab women in the United States. This study was in response to the Institute of Medicine's report Health Literacy A Prescription to End Confusion (2004) that indicated a gap in health literacy measurements. Methods: Data to validate the C-CLAT were collected in the context of a community based research intervention, Kin KeeperSM Cancer Prevention Intervention. Twentyone community health workers (CHWs) who reflected the ethnicity of the research participants, recruited women from their respective public health programs. The CHWs administered the C-CLAT in the homes of their clients. The C-CLAT is a multidimensional scale consisting or 21 items in three health literacy domains, Awareness, Knowledge &amp; Screening, Prevention &amp; Control. Modern psychometric methods were used including multigroup confirmatory factor analysis and analysis of differential item function. Practical aspects include interpretation of scores from a criterion-referenced framework. Results: The overall scale difficulty was .33 or 67.24% (SD = 18.78) correct. This score represents the percent of cervical cancer literacy knowledge attained at the time of testing. This score was sufficiently low so that knowledge improvements can be monitored without ceiling effects. Individual scales, were similar in difficulty level, with 63.12%, 62.15%, and 65.23% correct, for Awareness, Knowledge &amp; Screening, Prevention &amp; Control, respectively. The overall scale reliability was .65 in the total sample and .68, .67, and .55 for Black/African American, Latina/Hispanic, and Arab American, respectively. The subscales were moderately correlated (r's =, .26, .38, .49), each contributed significantly to the overall functional literacy score, and factor to scale relations did not differ across ethnic groups. In addition, the rank order correlations of item difficulties across ethnic groups were high (r's = .97, .98, .98). One subscale, Awareness, appeared to be easier for Hispanics. The C-CLAT total score did not differ by age, education, income, self-rated health, or insurance coverage. Divorced or separated women had higher scores (p &amp;lt; .05), and unemployed or self employed women had the lowest scores (p &amp;lt; .05). Two trends in the data were only marginally significant. There was a tendency for women with a history of cervical cancer in their family (n = 27) to have lower C-CLAT scores (p = .098) and for women with any cancer history in their family (n = 210) to have higher C-CLAT scores (p = .073). Conclusions: The psychometrics analysis supports the use of the revised C-CLAT for use in Black/African American, Latina/Hispanic, and Arab American populations. Additionally this study demonstrated that psychometric evaluation can be conducted within the context of community based methods. This study was supported by the NIH/NINR 1R21NR010366. Citation Information: Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2011;20(10 Suppl):A5.

Asking for Trouble

Asking for Trouble

Scoring of hand eczema: good agreement between patients and dermatological staff

Assessment of hand eczema in a clinical study has been achieved using a scoring system which documents extent of eczema on different areas of the hand. To investigate whether the same scoring system could be used by patients to communicate current status of hand eczema. In a study of 62 patients (36 women and 26 men, age range 19-75 years), the patient's own assessment was compared with the assessment by a dermatologist and a dermatological nurse. Standardized information was given to the patient and the form was filled in independently by the patient, the nurse and the dermatologist, during the patient's visit to the clinic. Individual area scores were summed to a total score. The overall agreement was good, with an interclass correlation (ICC) of 0·61 between patient and dermatologist for the total score. The ICC between nurse and dermatologist was 0·78. Differences between observers were more pronounced for the more severe cases - those with higher numerical scores as assessed by the dermatologist. There was a tendency for women and for patients over the median age of 44 years to set a lower point score than the dermatologist. The concordance of observations from individual anatomical areas was higher for fingertips and nails and lower for the palm and dorsum of the hand. Patients are able to report the extent of hand eczema with good accuracy. Self-assessment protocols for hand eczema may well have a place in the monitoring of hand eczema extent over time.

Relationship status and elevated avuncularity in Samoan fa’afafine

“Androphilia” and “gynephilia” refer to sexual attraction to adult males and females, respectively. Samoan androphilic males are known as fa’afafine. Previously, fa’afafine reported greater avuncular tendencies compared to those of men as well as the materteral (i.e., aunt‐like) tendencies of women. Here, the Samoan male sexual orientation difference in avuncular tendencies was replicated. Furthermore, we hypothesized fa’afafine might form and invest in intimate sexual/romantic relationships less, leaving them with more resources, thus facilitating increased avuncularity. Fa’afafine, men, and women were comparable for sexual/romantic relationship involvement. Men and women tended to lower avuncular/materteral tendencies when involved in sexual/romantic relationships, which partially mediated the difference between fa’afafine and women for avuncular/materteral tendencies. Discussion detailed alternate explanations for elevated avuncularity among Samoan fa’afafine.

Anticipating Public Performance: Do Women Fear Appearing Intellectually Less Able?

Two ecologically valid studies involving anticipated public performance offer insight into women's tendencies to avoid placing their abilities under a spotlight. First, in an experimental study, women felt less comfortable than did men and experienced more personal risk when they anticipated that their test scores would be public. Second, in a naturalistic observational setting, students taking an experiential forensic psychology course were required to perform intellectually challenging activities in public. Women displayed more concern about the course requirements than did men, and subsequently dropped the course in disproportionate numbers. Higgins' (1997) regulatory focus theory provides a theoretical framework for interpreting the data.