Research has documented the impact of peer influences on adolescents for health risk behaviors such as smoking and drinking alcohol. However, few studies have done an in-depth investigation of peer-related risk and protective factors affecting body dissatisfaction and disordered eating among adolescent girls. The study sample consisted of 344 adolescent girls from high schools in Pasco County, Florida. Participants completed questionnaires assessing the impact of peers on their weight and appearance attitudes, beliefs and behaviors. Participants also identified their close friends (using a coding system) and rated their own figures. Trained research assistants provided objective figure ratings for the participants. The participants completed measures assessing body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, bulimic symptoms and self-esteem (criterion variables). Results of the analyses indicated that participants were not significantly similar to their nominated friends in the criterion variables. Correlations between peer variables and criterion variables were significant supporting peer-related risk factors. Findings of correlation and regression analyses were inconsistent for the predicted protective factor of friend anti-dieting advice. A significant amount of variance in the criterion variables of body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, bulimic symptoms and self-esteem was predicted by the peer influence variables. Results supported the hypothesis that comparison would serve as a mediator between peer influence and the criterion variables. Internalization and peer suppression of feelings functioned as mediators in the relationship between peer influence and self-esteem, bulimic symptoms and body dissatisfaction. Implications for future research and application of findings in intervention programs are discussed.

Although the research on expectancy theory and body image and eating disturbance is very limited, it appears to be an extremely useful and promising line of study. It appears likely that the application of expectancy theory would lend itself well to the area of body image disturbance and eating disorders. Within the field of body image disturbance and eating disorders research, expectancies would most likely refer to the anticipated consequences of being thin. Such expectancies may be established by an individual's direct experience with weight loss and dieting or through the observation of the messages concerning the societal "thin ideal" projected by the media, parents, and peers. The current study attempted to develop and validate a measure of women's expectancies, or anticipated consequences of being thin. The Thinness Expectancy Questionnaire (TEQ) was developed in a series of three studies: Item Generation, Item Analysis, and Validity and Reliability Analysis. First, a pilot study was conducted in order to generate a broad range of items regarding expectancies about being thin. Second, the initial measure was administered to 355 undergraduate females. A factor analysis and item analysis produced a final version of the TEQ. Last, reliability and validity analyses were conducted. Overall, results indicate that positive thinness expectancies are related to body image and eating problems whereas negative expectancies appear to have a limited connection with or are unrelated to body image/eating disorders. Although hypothesized models indicated poor to mediocre fits of the data, they represent an initial attempt at examining the role of thinness expectancies in the development of body image concerns and eating disturbance. The results indicate that positive expectancies of thinness are related to women's body dissatisfaction and eating disturbance. In other words, women's positive expectations and assumptions about being thin may put them at risk for developing difficulties with body image and eating concerns. As a result, preventative interventions that incorporate techniques that challenge or modify these cognitions would seem to be most effective.

The existence of sexism in American society is well known but seldom remedied in modern-day workplaces. One method of understanding this is to turn to third and fourth-wave feminism, which promote a meritocratic belief system, highlighting the importance of individual empowerment, personal agency, and success. Third and fourth-wave feminism have been criticized for lacking theory, as well as for inadvertently fortifying sexism by neglecting systemic and structural forces of discrimination. Coupled with the current emphasis on political correctness in American society, overt expressions of sexism (hostile sexism) have become subtler or even imperceptible (benevolent sexism). Therefore, the study explored how women internalize benevolent and hostile sexism in the workplace. The goal of the study was to investigate what women perceive is the cause of being denied a promotion at work: personal failings (internal locus of causality) or systemic external forces related to sexism (external locus of causality). The results revealed attributions of stability and controllability are important in determining causality for both hostile and benevolent sexism conditions, but not for the no sexism control condition. An advanced feminist identity is related to internalized hostile sexism when the scenario is perceived as unstable, whereas denial of sexism is related to internalized hostile sexism regardless of other factors. Both primary and advanced stages of feminist identity are related to internalized benevolent sexism when the scenario is perceived as unintentional. Meritocracy beliefs are directly related to internalized benevolent sexism. Meritocracy beliefs do not directly impact internalization of hostile sexism after taking into account feminist identity and other attributional factors. Therefore, a sense of empowerment may be most detrimental for modern day forms of sexism.

The purpose of the study is to confirm the reasons behind young Chinese women’s eating disturbances and self-esteem. The researcher uses the Tripartite Influence model to illustrate the relationship between internalization and pressures in the form of peer, family, and media pressure. It further reveals the relationship between internalization and self-esteem and eating disorders. Besides conforming with the mode of young Chinese females, it aims at finding out the reasons behind each relevant relationship. One point of the study is the different impact of media pressure on young Chinese females; the influence of media tends to be much lower in China and the reasons have been discussed in their entirety.

The sociocultural model of eating disorders suggests that awareness of a thin physical ideal directly affects internalization of that ideal, which in turn, directly affects body dissatisfaction. The current study evaluated the general accuracy of the sociocultural model and examined the potential for ethnicity to protect against eating disorder symptomatology by moderating the relationships between awareness and internalization and between internalization and body dissatisfaction. Spanish (n = 100), Mexican American (n = 100), and Euro-American (n = 100) female participants completed various questionnaires measuring sociocultural attitudes towards appearance and body dissatisfaction. Analysis of covariance with tests of homogeneity of slope and path analysis using maximum likelihood with robust standard errors tested the two relationships by ethnic group. Results supported the sociocultural model: there was strong evidence for the mediational effect of internalization on the relationship between awareness and body dissatisfaction. Furthermore, ethnicity moderated the relationships such that both relationships were significantly stronger for Euro-American women than for Mexican American or Spanish women. Within the Mexican American group level of acculturation also moderated these relationships. Taken together, the results of this study highlight how ethnicity can protect against the development of eating disorder symptoms. Denouncing the thin ideal, minimizing appearance as an indicator of female value, and emphasizing personal traits other than appearance as determinants of worth are important in protecting against the development of body dissatisfaction and more severe eating pathology.

Adenoviruses belong to the most common human pathogens. The severity of infection varies greatly, from subclinical to lethal, depending on the virus type and immune status of the infected host. The 51 known human adenovirus serotypes are divided into six species (A-F) based on characteristics such as tropism. Species B adenoviruses, which are the subjects of this thesis, are further divided into subspecies B:1 that contains Ad3, Ad7, Ad16, Ad21 and Ad50 and subspecies B:2 that contains Ad11, Ad14, Ad34 and Ad35. Species B adenoviruses primarily cause ocular and respiratory tract infections, but certain serotypes (Ad11, Ad34 and Ad35) are also associated with renal disease. The main aim of this thesis was to identify and characterize cellular receptors for species B adenoviruses. This will ultimately help to understand the diverse tropism shown by different adenoviruses and perhaps contribute to development of antivirals. Also, since adenoviruses are among the most commonly used vector for gene therapy it is of importance to characterize the initial steps of adenovirus life cycle. Members of species B adenoviruses have been shown to utilize both the complement regulating membrane cofactor protein (MCP), i.e. CD46, and a still unknown receptor. CD80 and CD86, usually found on antigen-presenting cells, have also been suggested as receptors We found first that Ad11 used CD46 as a cellular receptor on respiratory A549 cells, and subsequently that CD46 is a cellular receptor for all species B adenovirus serotypes, except for adenovirus types 3 and 7, using cells that represent the tropism of species B adenoviruses, i.e. respiratory, conjunctival and renal epithelial cells. We further compared the relative roles of CD46 with CD80 and CD86 using cells that represent species B adenovirus tropism. Using soluble candidate receptors and antibodies against corresponding receptors to challenge virus binding to and infection of cells, we found that on these cells, CD46 is a cellular receptor for all species B adenoviruses except Ad3 and Ad7, and that CD80 and CD86 do not play an important role. We have further pinpointed the interaction site for Ad11 on CD46 by X-ray crystallography. The extracellular region of CD46 contains four short consensus repeats (SCR1-4) of which the outermost N-terminal SCR1 and SCR2 mediate binding to Ad11. This interaction was confirmed by inhibiting infection and binding of Ad11 to A549 cells using soluble SCR1-2 fragments. Surprisingly the conformation of bound CD46 differs profoundly from its unbound state, with the bent surface structure straightened into an elongated rod. Viral proteins can sometimes undergo large conformational changes upon receptor binding, but this is, to the best of our knowledge, the first example of a virus protein dramatically changing the overall structure of its receptor. CD46 serves as a receptor for a large number of viral and bacterial pathogens and it is structurally and functionally related to other viral receptors such as CD21 and CD55. The mode of interaction presented here may serve as a conceptual framework for studies of many other receptors that are constructed from SCR domains.

The subject matter of this dissertation is children’s use and development of emotive expressions. While prior studies have either focused on facial expressions of emotions or on emotions in the social mechanisms of in situ interactions, this thesis opts to merge two traditions by applying an interactional approach to the interpretation of child–child and child–adult encounters. This approach is further supplemented with an interpretational frame stemming from studies on child development, sociology and psychology. In order to depict the multi-leveled process of socialization, a number of sub-areas are investigated such as the emotive expressions per se; how and when these expressions are used in interaction with parents and siblings; the kinds of responses the children get after using an emotive expression; parental acts (verbal or nonverbal) that bear on children’s conduct and their choice of such expressions. Finally, the relation between nonverbal displays and language as expressive means for emotions is analyzed from a developmental perspective. The data consists of video-recordings of five sibling groups in the ages between 1 ½ and 5 ½ who were followed for 2 ½ years in their home environment. In all, 19 recordings (15 h) were transcribed and analyzed. The results from the study lead to several different taxonomies previously not discussed in the pertinent literature: (i) the nonverbal, vocal and verbal emotive expressions used by children; (ii) the different means these expressions were put to in child–parent encounters; (iii) the ways relations to siblings can be seen as creating and shaping certain emotive processes. Furthermore, this work demonstrates that parental responses are of vital importance for the outcome of specific child expressions. As parents reprimand, comfort, praise and mediate in their interaction with their children, they create paths later used by the child as she practices and acquires her own expressive means for handling emotions in interactional contexts. Finally, a developmental frame of language and nonverbal acts is elaborated and suggested as a tool for discovering the paths of linguistic and emotional socialization. / För att köpa boken skicka en beställning till exp@ling.su.se/ To order the book send an e-mail to exp@ling.su.se

In Purple Hibiscus, Adichie describes what happens in a family when one person, Papa Eugene, takes control and completely subjugates other family members to his wishes and demands. The author shows the dire consequences his actions have on his family but also how those actions ultimately lead to his own destruction. This essay links the restrictions and abuse suffered by Kambili and her family to Michel Foucault’s theories on torture and surveillance as detailed in Discipline and Punish. Foucault’s theories are linked to Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon in order to further introduce the concept of surveillance. The essay describes the physical and psychological abuse suffered by the family and also details the surveillance and torture techniques used by Papa Eugene to stay in control. Moreover, it argues that power can be lost through applying too much control and by metering out punishment that is too harsh and it shows how such actions ultimately lead to rebellion.

This study examined relationships among self-esteem, media internalization, sexual orientation, and ethnicity in predicting drive for muscularity in a diverse group of men (N = 217) who work out in gyms. Investigations examined media internalization and sexual orientation as moderators of the relationship between self-esteem and drive for muscularity. Additional analyses examined media internalization as a moderator of the relationships between a) sexual orientation and drive for muscularity and b) ethnicity and drive for muscularity. Standardized questionnaires were utilized to assess drive for muscularity, media internalization, self-esteem, sexual orientation, and ethnicity. While lower self-esteem predicted greater drive for muscularity, neither media internalization nor sexual orientation were significant moderators of this relationship. However, media internalization mediated the relationships between sexual orientation and drive for muscularity and between ethnicity and drive for muscularity. Findings suggest that the internalization of ideal muscularized images explain demographic differences in the drive to be more muscular.

<p>A classic question in moral philosophy asks "Why be moral?" In other words, what reason or motive do people have to act in accordance with the requirements of morality? In the tradition of Thomas Hobbes and David Hume, this project defends the thesis that nearly all people have reason to be moral nearly all of the time, because moral conduct generally serves individuals' desires and needs. It's argued, first, that a reason for action must be capable of motivating an agent to act, and second, that reasons for action motivate through the desires of the agent. This view is defended against the objection that reasons for action are not contingent on any particular agent's desires. Turning to morality, the case is made that the desires of an individual can be consonant with the demands of morality in any of three possible ways: (1) moral action serves one's other-regarding desires to help others; (2) moral action serves one's moral desires, which are formed when one internalizes the moral norms of his or her community; and (3) moral action serves one's self-regarding desires to avoid punishments that one incurs by violating moral norms. In the final chapter, it is acknowledged that the moral norms which happen to prevail in a society sometimes conflict with the moral convictions of individuals. Under certain conditions, however, it can be rational for nearly all members of a society to collectively change existing moral norms. Furthermore, it is within the power of individuals to foment the conditions for collective transitions to alternative moral norms.</p> / Dissertation