The majority of studies examining the role of prenatal androgens on abnormal behavior have focused on developmental disorders showing large male to female ratios (i.e., autism and Tourette's Syndrome). There is a scarcity of research examining the role of prenatal sex hormones on female-linked disorders or disorders showing adult onset. This study is the first to evaluate the organizational and activational influences of sex hormones on adult levels of anxiety, while simultaneously examining previously reported hormone-behavior associations. In addition, this study explores the relation between prenatal and postnatal sex hormones and two other female-linked disorders, depression and borderline personality. As part of this study, participants (n = 110) completed a battery of psychopathology questionnaires, gender role measures, and spatial/cognitive tasks. Prenatal androgen levels were indirectly measured by means of the index to ring finger ratio (2D:4D), and testosterone and estrogen levels were obtained from saliva samples. Results replicate previously reported sex differences in anxiety and gendered behavior and confirm various hormone-behavior associations. More importantly, results provide preliminary evidence for the organizational role of prenatal androgens in two female-linked conditions, anxiety and borderline personality. Individuals with a higher (i.e., more feminine) 2D:4D reported greater symptoms of trait anxiety and borderline personality (i.e., affective instability), and this effect appeared to be strongest in males.

In this paper an upper level compulsory school is examined from a gender perspective. The purpose of the paper is to analyse how girls and boys acquire space in the classroom (during a Swedish lesson) and in the sports hall (during a lesson in physical education). To fullfil the purpose of this paper a seventh grade class was observed during a lesson in Swedish as well as in sports. In addition to this on pupil was interviewed.  In this paper the results are compared to and measured against results from earlier research in the field. Used as a theoretical basis are Simone de Beauvoir’s theories on gender. The results attained indicate that girls and boys claims space in different ways during time in the classroom as well as in the sports hall. Boys are the ones acquiring the largest space. They talk out loud more often and they have more possession of the ball during ball games. Furthermore the girls ask for the word less often than the boys.

Successful adaptation to changes is of great importance to today’s workforce and for organizations. Built on the I-ADAPT theory (Ployhart & Bliese, 2006), this dissertation research explored the relationships among ability and personality factors, adaptability, and adaptive performance. Using a relatively simple skill acquisition task, the noun-pair lookup task, this research examined whether those relationships would be affected by the skill acquisition stages at which a change is introduced. As such, unexpected changes were introduced at different performance stages of the noun-pair lookup task. In one condition, participants experienced an unexpected change to the varied mapping (VM) version of the noun-pair lookup task at early stages of consistent mapping (CM) task learning. In the other condition, the change from the CM task to the VM task was introduced at late stages of the CM task learning. Two hundred and twenty five participants completed the noun-pair lookup task in one of two conditions. They also completed measures of two Big Five factors (openness to experience at the construct level and conscientiousness at the facet level), the I-ADAPT-M measure of adaptability, and tests of working memory capacity and perceptual speed. It was found that the timing of introducing a change did matter. Controlling for pre-change performance, participants had greater performance decrements when the change was introduced at late stages of the CM task practice than when it was introduced at early stages of the CM task practice. Ability factors and personality traits were found to be predictive of strategy choice in the CM task. There was no evidence of the moderating effect of the performance stage at which a change was introduced on the relationship between ability factors and adaptive performance. The mediation effect of adaptability on the relationship between ability and personality factors and adaptive performance was not supported. Adaptability as measured by I-ADAPT-M was also correlated with personality traits but not with ability factors or performance on the noun-pair lookup task. In conclusion, this dissertation showed the importance of making a clear distinction between adaptability and adaptive performance, and taking into consideration skill acquisition stages in task-related adaptive performance.

The time-course of the attentional bias to threat in women and men was examined in order to clarify the validity of the "vigilant-avoidant hypothesis" and extend findings with spider pictures (Rinck and Becker, 2006) to other ecologically valid stimuli. Two hundred thirty-one (104 men, 127 women) participants pre-selected for high and low trait anxiety completed a battery of mood measures and viewed a series of slides with competing angry versus friendly faces. For a subset of these participants (54 men, 50 women), fixations and gaze durations were recorded via an eye tracker. All participants completed a face recognition task and provided copy and live measures of digit ratio (2D:4D), a putative marker of prenatal androgen exposure. Consistent with results from Rinck and Becker (2006), it was predicted that highly anxious individuals would show a vigilant-avoidant pattern toward angry faces while lesser anxious individuals would attend equally to angry and friendly faces over time. In addition, it was hypothesized that the vigilant-avoidant pattern would be stronger in highly anxious women. For secondary hypotheses, it was expected that digit ratio would correlate positively with trait anxiety and that attentional patterns for threat would differ between those with low and high digit ratio. Results did not support a heightened threat bias in high anxious versus low anxious individuals. Both groups showed an early bias for the angry female face during the first 1500 ms of presentation and a general avoidance for the angry male face over the course of 60 s. Although no association was found between trait anxiety and digit ratio, there was a negative correlation between reports of obsessive-compulsive symptoms and live left hand digit ratio in men. Moreover, early attentional patterns for angry faces appeared to differ between women with low and high digit ratio, suggesting that prenatal androgen action may lead to cognitive biases associated with the development and maintenance of anxiety.

The majority of studies examining the role of prenatal androgens on abnormal behavior have focused on developmental disorders showing large male to female ratios (i.e., autism and Tourette's Syndrome). There is a scarcity of research examining the role of prenatal sex hormones on female-linked disorders or disorders showing adult onset. This study is the first to evaluate the organizational and activational influences of sex hormones on adult levels of anxiety, while simultaneously examining previously reported hormone-behavior associations. In addition, this study explores the relation between prenatal and postnatal sex hormones and two other female-linked disorders, depression and borderline personality. As part of this study, participants (n = 110) completed a battery of psychopathology questionnaires, gender role measures, and spatial/cognitive tasks. Prenatal androgen levels were indirectly measured by means of the index to ring finger ratio (2D:4D), and testosterone and estrogen levels were obtained from saliva samples. Results replicate previously reported sex differences in anxiety and gendered behavior and confirm various hormone-behavior associations. More importantly, results provide preliminary evidence for the organizational role of prenatal androgens in two female-linked conditions, anxiety and borderline personality. Individuals with a higher (i.e., more feminine) 2D:4D reported greater symptoms of trait anxiety and borderline personality (i.e., affective instability), and this effect appeared to be strongest in males.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Open University. BLDSC no. DX184762.

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Psychology, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 65-72).

Thesis (M.A.)--Humboldt State University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 54-66). Also available via Humboldt Digital Scholar.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains v, 131 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 60-75).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.