T. John Akamatsu

Exercise Involvement and Eating-Disordered Characteristics in College Students

Abstract While several reports have suggested a relationship between involvement in regular exercise activity and the presence of eating disorders or eating-disordered characteristics, other research has demonstrated no such association. Methodological difficulties and interpretive differences among researchers contributing to these disparate findings are reviewed. The present study investigated the relationship between exercise involvement and eating-disordered characteristics in 159 “exerciser” and 129 “nonexer-ciser” male and female undergraduates. Women who were involved in regular exercise demonstrated more bulimic/anorectic eating attitudes and a greater drive for thinness than the women who were not involved in regular exercise. Further, results suggest that women involved in regular exercise who show disordered eating concerns do not manifest the personality characteristics associated with eating disorders that are shown among female nonexercisers with similar levels of disordered eating concerns....

Psychosis Proneness, Coping, and Perceptions of Social Support

The current study examined coping styles and perceived levels of social support in hypothetically psychosis-prone individuals. Results suggest that psychosis-prone individuals did not differ from a comparison group on levels of adaptive coping or positive social support but that they did endorse higher rates of nonadaptive coping and negative social support compared with the comparison group.

Cognitive self-guidance training with juvenile delinquents: Applicability and generalization

Since the development of internalized self-control would seem to be important in the treatment of juvenile delinquents, the present study was designed to assess the applicability of the cognitive self-guidance procedure (Meichenbaum & Goodman, 1971) to delinquents and to test generalization of effects. One group received cognitive self-guidance training on Kagans (1966) Matching Familiar Figures (MFF) test. An attention-control group, which received nonspecific training on the MFF, and an assessment-control group were also employed. It was hypothesized that (a) the cognitive self-guidance group would perform better than the other groups on the MFF, and that effects would generalize to a picture arrangement task; (b) the attentioncontrol group would perform better than the assessment-control group on both tasks. Generalization of effects to a delay-of-gratification task was also assessed. The subjects, 15 male and 15 female residents of a medium-security facility for juvenile delinquents, were randomly assigned to treatment conditions with the one constraint of equating the groups on sex composition. Each subject was tested individually in two sessions 1 week apart. In the first session, all subjects were given preassessment measures consisting of (a) odd-numbered items from the MFF (adult version), (b) the WISC

Model consequences and model affect: Their effects on imitation

Children’s imitation of a buttonpressing response was assessed as a function of model consequences and model affect. Three levels of model affect (positive, neutral, and negative) were orthogonally combined with three levels of model consequences (positive, neutral, and negative). There were no significant main or interaction effects. However, under positive model affect, subjects who observed the positive consequences model imitated significantly more than subjects who observed the no consequences model. A difference between comparable groups was not found under neutral model affect. These findings were replicated in a second experiment.

The Influence of a Model's Reinforcement Contingency and Affective Response on Children's Perceptions of the Model.

Abstract Following their observation of a videotaped model, boys and girls were asked to rate various characteristics of that model. In each of two experiments, the subjects were 90 primary grade children. The models reinforcement (reward, punishment, or no consequences) and affective response (positive, neutral, or negative) constituted the independent variables. In both experiments, children who observed an affectively neutral model receive punishment, perceived his affective state as more negative than children who observed this model receive reward or no consequences. The converse attribution (i.e., inferring consequences based on depicted model affect) did not obtain. Also, data from both experiments supported the conclusions that (a) the punished model was less attractive than no-consequences and rewarded models, and (b) the model was perceived as less competent when he demonstrated negative affect or received punishment.