Paul C. Raffeld

Female attractiveness and eating disorders: Do children's television commercials play a role?

The differential rate of eating disorders in males and females has been partially attributed to gender socialization. Media influences, even in childrens programming, may contribute to the greater emphasis on physical attractiveness for girls compared to boys. Commercials from Saturday morning cartoon programming were analyzed for the number of male/female main and supporting characters, sex of narrator, sex of intended consumer, and appearance enhancement of person, doll, or animal. A majority of the commercials (60.6%) were for food products. Chi-square comparisons revealed significantly more male than female main characters and narrators in these commercials. Of those commercials (13.8%) scored for appearance enhancement, all male/female chi-square comparisons were significant with more female supporting characters, female main characters, female narrators, and female consumers. With the combined emphases on food and, for girls, on appearance, support for possible influences of commercials in eating disorders is noted.

Gender roles, computer attitudes, and dyadic computer interaction performance in college students

Females tend to score lower than males on measures of computer aptitude and attitudes. This study examined the potential effects of several mediating factors, sex of experimenter, sex of experimental partner, sex typing (Bem Sex Role Inventory score), and level of past experience, on a computer interaction task involving a dyad. College students, drawn from a primarily white college population, after completing paper-and-pencil measures assessing computer experience, computer attitudes, and gender roles, participated in a computer task involving drawing up to ten prescribed geometric patterns on a computer screen. Research assistants recorded the number of correctly completed patterns and videotaped participant interaction through a one-way mirror. Males reported experiencing more computer involvement than females. For males, past computer experience and masculinity were correlated with more positive computer attitude scores. For females, only past computer experience related to more positive computer attitude scores. Analyses of the computer interaction variable indicated that participants asked male research assistants significantly more questions than female research assistants. Several interaction effects were also found.

The effects of student verbal and nonverbal responsiveness on teacher self‐efficacy and job satisfaction

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of student verbal and nonverbal responsiveness on teacher self‐efficacy and job satisfaction. Over a quarter (26%) of the total variance in teacher self‐efficacy and over half (53%) of the total variance in teacher job satisfaction were attributable to student verbal and nonverbal responsiveness. Rather than student verbal and nonverbal responsiveness interacting, the analyses of variance yielded significant main effects for both the verbal responsiveness and nonverbal responsiveness independent variables on each of the teacher self‐efficacy and job satisfaction dependent variables. Overall, student nonverbal responsiveness had a greater effect on teacher self‐efficacy and job satisfaction than verbal responsiveness. Also, teacher job satisfaction was more susceptible to student verbal and nonverbal responsiveness than teacher self‐efficacy. Limitations and implications are reviewed.

Testing the neutralizing effect of instructor immediacy on student course workload expectancy violations and tolerance for instructor unavailability

This study investigates how an instructors use of relational messages, specifically nonverbal immediacy behaviors, may neutralize how students interpret instructor course workload demands and student expectations for instructor availability. It was hypothesized that instructor immediacy would temper instructor course workload demands that violated student expectations in a way that preserved student affect for the instructor (H1), student compliance with instructor course workload demands (H2), and student tolerance for instructor unavailability (H3). The first hypothesis was supported; however, the second and third hypotheses were not supported. The data suggest that instructor course workload demands negatively impacted student compliance (H2) and neither instructor immediacy nor workload demands impacted student tolerance for instructor unavailability in a meaningful manner (H3). Implication and directions for future research are discussed.

The Effects of Written Comments on the Quality of Student Compositions and the Learning of Content.

This study investigated the effects of two types of written comments on student compositions and learning of course content. One type of comment, the content comment, was designed to encourage students to view their papers as readers, to add and delete content, and to restructure content as needed. The other type of comment, the surface comment, focused on problems such as word choice, spelling, punctuation, and/or language usage. The comments occurred after students’ first drafts which they then revised. Significant differences among groups for holistic scores and for learning course content were revealed. The treatment group that received content comments wrote significantly better essays than the other treatment group or the control group. The treatment group that received content comments and the control group received significantly better scores on the course content test.

The Effects of Student Responsiveness on Teachers Granting Power to Students and Essay Evaluation

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of student responsiveness on teachers granting relational power to students, and to determine if this power influenced how teachers evaluated student essays. Rather than student verbal and nonverbal responsiveness interacting, student nonverbal responsiveness significantly impacted the coercive, reward, and referent power that teachers granted students. Student verbal and nonverbal responsiveness affected the expert power that teachers granted students. Nine to 18% of the variance in relational power was attributed to student responsiveness. Additionally, student referent power significantly predicted teachers’ evaluation of student essays accounting for 11% of the variance.

Perceptions of two television cartoons: Powerpuff girls and Johnny Bravo

“Powerpuff Girls” (PPG) and “Johnny Bravo” (JB) are two recent additions to cartoon programming on the Cartoon Network. In Study 1 over three‐fourths of 187 elementary school children indicated that they had watched JB and PPG. These children perceived PPG to be significantly more aggressive than JB. In Study 2 two trained, independent raters scored JB, compared to PPG, as more likely to make appearance‐enhancing actions and more likely to use come‐ons while the PPG were more aggressive and more likely to giggle/laugh. Johnny was more likely to be the recipient of aggressive behaviors, rather than be aggressive himself.