Barbara Lloyd

Adolescent smoking: the control of mood and body image concerns

Adults use food, alcohol, and drugs, including cigarettes, to alter their mood states. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that adolescents follow a similar course. This paper explores adolescents’ use of cigarettes to moderate negative emotions. The authors examine questionnaire and qualitative data from a longitudinal study of over 3,500 East Sussex secondary school pupils in the context of published accounts of stress, coping and smoking. Together, these studies raise the possibility that smokers perceive more stress in their lives and use different coping strategies from non‐smokers. Results indicate that despite the popular belief that adolescent girls experience greater stress than do teenage boys, the gender differences in smoking prevalence observed in recent years cannot be attributed directly to differences either in perceived stress, or in coping strategies. Finally, beliefs about smoking and weight control are explored in the context of young adolescents’ views about their bodies. The widely held assumption that teenage girls use cigarettes to control body weight is challenged.

Expressing social gender identities in the first year of school

Tests and spot observations were undertaken in first year classes in four primary schools to study children’s knowledge of and employment of social representations of gender. The use of these resources in children’s expression of social gender identities was re-assessed at the end of the first year in two classes.Analysis of spot observations identified distinct masculine and feminine styles in patterns of association, the masculine style emphasising gender exclusivity. Children also used group size to express social gender identities.Analyses showed that at the beginning of the school year girls interact in smaller groups, but by the end of the year they associate in groups as large as those of boys. Despite differences in group behaviour test data revealed that girls and boys share a similar knowledge of the interrelationship between the gender marking of social category membership and material culture.

Constructing Representations of Gender in the Classroom@@@Gender Identities and Education: The Impact of Starting School

Starting school is seen as a significant event in childhood not only by parents and teachers, but by children themselves. Although it seems clear that gender identities have been firmly developed in domestic settings, we also know that school has a major influence on further development as evidenced by achievements and choices of subjects in later educational careers. How do children come to negotiate such a social gender identity? Gerard Duveen and Barbara Lloyd examine the beginnings of this process through an investigation of four- and five-year-old childrens reconstruction of gender during their first year at school. Their research is informed by the theory of social representations, and their approach combines the psychology of development with that of social gender identities.

Problems and issues in research on gender differences

Problems specific to the study of gender differences — terminology, conceptualization, commonsense beliefs, evaluation and objectivity — are considered before reviewing reports of differences in psychological and social behaviour. Exploration of the interrelation of individual psychological and social variables is followed by reflection on the nature of an adequate theory of gender differentiation.

Why some children smoke: could measuring personality improve intervention success?

Observes that UK smoking prevention programmes have limited success. However, there is evidence that individual differences may mediate the effectiveness of such programmes. In order to measure personality, which is a major source of individual difference, a questionnaire suitable for use with English 11 to 16‐year olds was developed in three distinct phases. First, the words teenagers use to describe their friends were collected in individual interviews. Second, a subset of these terms was tested with a group of young people of various ages and qualitative analyses undertaken. Finally the factor structure of the questionnaire was explored and a 49 statement, self‐report personality instrument was constructed. The personality questionnaire was then used in a two‐wave prospective study of smoking in four English, state secondary schools. Presents the findings from matched data from 2,023 students. The personality questionnaire predicted smoking uptake above and beyond that achieved from knowledge of gender, school year, and family smoking behaviour.

The Significance of Sex Differences in Developmental Psychology

The division of the human species into male and female is such a basic fact that it has rarely required explanation. One need not search far, however, to find accounts of the differences between the sexes. St Thomas described the female as but a male manque, biologically, intellectually and, of course, spiritually less than the male. Today we may dismiss medieval scholasticism for not being scientific but what have we learned from the scientific study of the sexes? The scientific study of the sexes has a brief history. Biologists only began to understand the contribution of both egg and sperm in reproduction towards the end of the nineteenth century when the microscope came into general use.

Looking back and looking ahead

There will be challenges ahead: most notably that we are operating with significantly fewer state dollars than four years ago. But Fresno State continues to have a strong appeal throughout the state of California. A record number of first-time freshman applications were received for fall 2013 –17,294. This is a 10% increase over last year. Our transfer student applicant pool experienced a whopping 26% increase over last year. And the 6,735 upper division transfer student applications also set a school record.

Book Review: The Really Hard Questions

Book reviewed in this article: E. E. Maccoby (1998), The Two Sexes: Growing Up Apart, Coming Together

Intonation and Function of Four-year-olds’ Tag Constructions

In a classic study, Brown and Hanlon (1970) demonstrated that four-year-old children accurately formed and regularly used English tag questions. Their study was undertaken within the paradigm of transformational grammar, which was predominant at that time. It focused on syntactic development, and mastery of the construction was seen as a purely syntactic problem. In a later summary Brown (1973) observed, ‘the peculiar beauty of the English tag question is that it is semantically rather trifling, a request for confirmation, and it has such simple equivalents as huh? right?’ (p. 408).

Let's pretend: casting the characters and setting the scene

Studies of the lexicon-syntax relationship in preschool children’s language have suggested that the role played by lexical structure may be weaker than in adult grammar. It has been proposed that verbs’ argument structures can be overridden by a preference for canonical sentence schemas, and by discourse pressure. It has also been claimed that children freely create unadultlike causative (*don’t fall me down) or anticausative forms (*my shorts undid) by overgeneralizing the application of lexical rules. This paper reports two experimental investigations of these issues. In