Beatrice A. Wright

Continuity and change in the evaluation of ideal and acceptable body sizes across a wide age span.

OBJECTIVE Continuity and change in the evaluation of ideal and acceptable body sizes across a wide subject age span were examined. METHOD Ratings of ideal and socially acceptable body sizes were elicited from 303 children, 427 adolescents, 261 young adults, and 326 middle-age adults. Line drawing arrays of babies, children, young adults, middle-age, and older adults were portrayed, ranging in size from very thin to very obese. RESULTS All subject groups selected, in all arrays, similar ideal body sizes, rated sizes in the midrange of fatness as socially acceptable, and were least accepting of very thin and obese body sizes. Tolerance for body size variations increased with subject age. DISCUSSION Continuity throughout a wide subject age span was observed in evaluations of body sizes. However, adults were more accepting of body size variations than younger subjects, especially children. Implications of endorsing midrange body sizes for the fashion industry are discussed.

Thinner females and heavier males: Who says? A comparison of female to male ideal body sizes across a wide age span

OBJECTIVE To examine the possibility of a more restrictive thinness standard for females than males across a wide age span. METHOD Ratings of ideal male and female body sizes were elicited from 303 children, 427 adolescents, 261 young adults, and 326 middle-age adults. Line drawings of babies, children, young adults, and middle-age and older adults were portrayed, ranging in size from very thin to very obese. RESULTS Most subjects irrespective of gender selected similar ideal body sizes for males and females in each comparison. Very few consistently selected a thinner female than male ideal size. Young adults were more likely than other groups to prefer thinner females. DISCUSSION The selection of similar thinness standards for both genders is encouraging from a health perspective. However, in all groups, a small bias existed favoring thinner females. This bias may contribute to body concerns in the female population.

Extension of Heider's ideas to rehabilitation psychology.

Fritz Heider received the Psychological Science Gold Medal Award at the 1987 Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association. This article was prepared for the symposium honoring his contributions. It shows the power of his conceptual framework as a basis for systematizing attitude-change attempts involving disability, as well as the need for affirmative action. The analysis involves such concepts as balance, unit-forming factors, sentiment, and ought.

A New Look at Overprotection and Dependency

TIlE OBSERVATIONS that led me to re-examine the meaning and significance of such concepts as overprotection, dependency, and independence, are simple and common ones. We know that in work with persons who have severe disabilities there is much emphasis placed on independence training, and understandably so, for to be able to feed oneself and dress oneself can spell the difference hetween eventual custodial care and living at home. Certainly to he able to earn ones living-that is, to be economically independent-is of vital concern to the individual and society. Yet it seemed to me, after observing parents in relationship with their children who had severe disabilities as well as the work of several rehabilitation specialists, that the emphasis placed on getting the child to help himself often was all out of proportion to what the child could be expected to do. More than that, the emphasis frequently seemed to provoke a situation that was filled at best with a seriousness of purpose and at worst with a hostile and anxious atmosphere between adult and child that destroyed good-will between them. As part of the emphasis on independence, it seemed to me that investigators and interpreters of