Media Not to Blame for Teen Sex

A new review finds that media exposure to sex does not significantly influence teen sexual behavior.

As such, researchers say proclaiming a link between such so-called sexy media and the sexual behavior of young people is in fact premature. The media neither contributes to the early initiation of sex among young people, nor to their sexual conduct more generally.

The finding comes from a systematic analysis of 22 relevant studies on the topic. Christopher Ferguson of Stetson University and colleagues Patrick Markey at Villanova University and Rune Nielsen at IT University Copenhagen performed the review.

The results of the meta-analysis appear in the journal Psychiatric Quarterly.

Parents and policy makers often raise the concern that so-called sexy media (media depicting or discussing sexual encounters) may promote sexual behavior among teenagers.

The new review finds no conclusive evidence that this occurs.

Ferguson’s team conducted a meta-analysis of 22 previous studies that all measured the influence of some form of media on an outcome related to teenagers’ sexual behavior. Outcome behaviors included becoming pregnant, participation in risky sexual behavior or the initiation of sex.

The studies in total took into account the views of more than 22,000 participants younger than 18 years old.

Researchers discovered only a very weak link between the type of media that teenagers viewed and their eventual sexual behavior. They also found media exposure to sex also plays only a very minor role in the initiation of sex.

The researchers do not exclude the possibility that sexy media may still influence sexual attitudes, but say that this does not seem to carry over into actual behavior.

“Evidence for an association between media and sexual behavior is minimal,” says Ferguson, who believes that parents and peers play a much greater role in how teenagers’ moral values around sexuality develops.

Despite increased availability of sex in the media, US government data suggests teens are waiting longer to have sex, and teen pregnancy rates are at historic lows.

The results do not exclude the possibility that media may have some influence on at-risk youth who are deprived of other socialization influences.

“That is to say, when information from parents or schools are lacking, media may become the only source of information on sexuality,” explains Ferguson.

Researchers warn that simply making the media the scapegoat and giving it considerable public attention might distract parents and policy makers from more pressing and important issues related to teen sexuality.

According to Ferguson, parents must be encouraged to discuss sexuality with their teens, proper sex-education programs must be implemented in schools, and ways should be examined by which peer networks can be used to promote safe sex.

“The encouraging message from our results is that the media is unlikely to thwart parental efforts to socialize children should parents take the initiative to talk directly to their children about sex,” Ferguson adds.

Source: Springer

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Best of Our Blogs: July 1, 2016

With 4th of July just around the corner, I’d like to revisit the word, “freedom.” What does it mean to you?

Since having children, the word seems elusive. But I realized there are a multitude of ways we can feel imprisoned. Our job, relationship(s), or an illness can all prevent us from feeling carefree. Even our thoughts and beliefs can chain us to misery.

The desire is to flee. But all things that feel like imprisonment has the potential to free us if we decide to take control and empower ourselves.

Whether it’s untrue thinking or a wrong relationship that’s got you feeling stuck, our top posts this week have the power to be freeing.

7 Questions to Deepen Your Conversations and Relationship, 1 of 2
(Neuroscience and Relationships) – Your relationship with a significant other has the potential to heal you, if you focus on asking the right questions. Start with these.

10 Common Fears Of The Diagnosis Of BPD
(Caregivers, Family & Friends) – You’ve got a diagnosis. Shouldn’t you be relieved? Here’s why it’s a hard pill to swallow for those who are diagnosed with bipolar personality disorder.

Five Things Positive Psychology Wants You To Know
(Leveraging Adversity) – Think positive psychology is just about being happy? You need to read this.

Are People With Aspergers/NLD As Logical As They Think?
(Divergent Thinkers, Aspergers, NLD & More) – If you think you’re being logical, your thinking might be driven by your emotions. Here’s how to tell the difference.

NPD Survivor Seeks Alcoholic to Love
(Narcissism Meets Normalcy) – Your past loves include an alcoholic, addict and a married man. If you can’t figure out why you keep getting attracted to the wrong guy, you should read this.

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Positive Self-Talk Works

New research assessing motivational strategies discovers telling yourself that ‘I can do better at a given task,’ is the most effect strategy as you really may do better.

In the study, UK researchers compared motivation techniques on more than 44,000 people with the participants divided into 12 experimental groups and one control group.

In conjunction with BBC Lab UK, Professor Andrew Lane and his colleagues tested if particular psychological skills would help people improve their scores in an online game.

Investigators wanted to discover if a particular tactic worked best.

This complex study, found in Frontiers in Psychology, examined if one motivational method would be more effective for any specific aspect of a task. The methods tested were self-talk, imagery, and if-then planning.

Each of these psychological skills was applied to one of four parts of a competitive task: process, outcome, arousal-control, and instruction.

People using self-talk, for example telling yourself “I can do better next time” – performed better than the control group in every portion of the task.

The greatest improvements were seen in self-talk-outcome (telling yourself, “I can beat my best score”), self-talk-process (telling yourself, “I can react quicker this time”), imagery-outcome (imagining yourself playing the game and beating your best score), and imagery-process (imagining yourself playing and reacting quicker than last time).

Investigators also found a short motivational video could improve performance.

Participants watched a short video before playing the online game. The coach for these videos was, none other than, four-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Johnson, an athlete known for advocating mental preparedness in addition to physical training.

If-then planning was found to be one of the least successful of this study, despite being an effective tool in weight management and other real life challenges.

Professor Lane said: “Working on, ‘Can You Compete?’ was inspirational and educational; since we have been developing online interventions to help people manage their emotions and doing this across a range of specific contexts from delivering a speech to fighting in a boxing ring, from taking an exam to going into dangerous places.”

Source: Frontiers

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Survey: How important do you believe are the following brain functions to thrive personally and professionally in the 21st century?

What about concentration power to avoid distractions?  Or the ability to manage stressful situations? Or remembering faces and names? Or the ability to multi-task?

Please answer this question and a few other to help us better understand your thoughts and beliefs about brain health, and how we may be able to serve you better (should take no more than 5 minutes to complete it):

Take the survey

Thank you in advance!

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Are Beets Good for Diabetes?

A number of studies suggest that beets may be beneficial for people with diabetes. This article takes a closer look at their nutritional properties.

Weight Loss

How expert schmoozers trick themselves into liking their target

Big-wigs have much to gain from ingratiating themselves with even bigger ones, because having an in with important people sways decisions made in the executive washroom, on the golf course, or over plates of wagyu carpaccio. But ingratiators face a dilemma: no-one likes a suck-up, and people at the top of the food chain have plenty of practice in detecting and dismissing them.

A new article in the Academy of Management Journal finds that company directors get around this dilemma by employing a clever psychological tactic – before meeting up with those they plan on winning over, they think about them in such a way that they come to like them more, making any flattery or ingratiation seem all the more convincing.

Participants in the study were directors at a range of large US companies, each of whom had at least one scheduled meeting with another director who had something they wanted: a say in the board membership at another company. The meetings occurred during the six months running up to the board nominations meeting, so if the participants played their cards right, maybe they would get appointed.

So what’s the best way to play? Researchers James Westphal and Guy Shani suspected that the key to successful ingratiation is to believe it. Detecting unnatural behaviour comes fairly easily, especially if you know what to look for, meaning pretenders are one feigned smile or wavering compliment away from being dismissed as a brown-noser. Acting is hard!

When we really like someone, on the other hand, we don’t need to act, just let our feelings come through. Increasing one’s authentic liking for a person would therefore be very helpful. Westphal and Shani predicted that one way to do this would be for the participants to mentally emphasise to themselves what they have in common with the director they wanted to influence. After all, there is copious evidence showing that we like more those who resemble us, and that we are more likely to credit the achievements of (and therefore respect) people like ourselves, rather than putting their success down to external factors.

In the study, the 278 participants were surveyed at multiple time points prior to their crucial meet-up(s) with other director, on how much they thought about their similarities, or about their differences. For example, a black woman prior to meeting a much older white male might choose to reflect on how they both spent some years in the same industry. The researchers also surveyed the ingratiation behaviours in the meeting itself: compliments and expressions of admiration, together with the amount of non-verbal affirmation like smiling or laughter.

The data showed that the more a participant had turned their thoughts towards what they had in common with the other director, the more their ingratiation behaviours paid off – they were more likely to get an invitation to join the board in the months that followed – presumably because their flattery was more convincing.

Furthermore, participants were more likely to adjust their thinking in this way when their counterpart was more dissimilar to them – where intentionally searching for common ground is going to be particularly important – and in these cases, use of the tactic was even more likely to be rewarded with a nomination. These effects were striking: those following this strategy to its fullest were nearly three times more likely to get a recommendation than those with an average amount of regulation of their thoughts around the meeting.

The psychological strategy uncovered in this research was certainly effective, but what we don’t know is how aware the participants were of what they were doing. Did they deliberately trick themselves into liking the other director, or was it a more automatic and instinctive process?

Either way, these results aren’t only relevant for top dogs trying to bound their way further up the hierarchy. The study provides another demonstration that changing how we think about other people has an important role in smoothing social interactions. Similar processes might help explain why social contact between out-groups is sometimes found to be helpful, and sometimes not: are the different factions looking for what they have in common, or what sets them apart? This approach is about more than a cushy seat in the board room; it’s about how divided people can find a way to sit down together.

--Psyched-up to Suck-up: Self-regulated Cognition, Interpersonal Influence, and Recommendations for Board Appointments in the Corporate Elite

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Post written by Alex Fradera (@alexfradera) for the BPS Research Digest.

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A personal experience of stuttering

Software Engineer James, discusses how living with a stutter has affected him:

“Well I’ve stuttered on and off throughout my life. It’s not very prominent now and people rarely notice when it happens.

In my first year of university it was particularly bad. It’s usually direct questions that trip me up. Back then it was mainly when people asked me what course I studied at university, where I was from – basically things that have only one answer.

Since then the main issue is more the stress of thinking I might stammer. New situations in particular – for example, I was more worried about giving details to the guy at the garage the other day when I took my car in for a MOT than the car failing.

It can stop you from being social in general, particularly meeting new people where I’m more likely to get questions that I might struggle with.

If I have trouble in general conversation, I can think of different words quick enough for people not to notice.

For me as it’s so mild and people don’t usually notice, it adds more stress. It makes it more stressful than if the stammer was obvious I would imagine.”

Hypnotherapy Directory member Dan Regan explains how hypnotherapy can help with people like James who suffer from stuttering.

“Hypnotherapy can be incredibly helpful for someone seeking help with a stutter.

It is always important that a hypnotherapist works with the individual in front of them, what happens for them, when it happens and so forth. This allows a very individual approach that is much more likely to lead to success.

It may be that there are specific situations, people or other individual triggers. For example, I have helped people who only stutter in situations where they feel they are being judged or observed, such as in social situations or when public speaking. Using hypnotherapy it is possible to help someone develop new strategies or to call upon their resources from other types of situations to learn how to ease stuttering.

Stress and anxiety can play a large role both generally and if someone worries that they may stutter or about what other people might think about them if they do. There can also be the frustration of stammering and it could impact on confidence and self-esteem.

Hypnotherapy is an excellent tool for dealing with any issues such as anxiety, stress and self-esteem to help someone be more relaxed and feel more confident. Once issues such as anxiety and stress are addressed, the stammering will often ease. I would always suggest that someone with a stutter also consults their medical practitioner if they have any concerns.”

If you suffer from stuttering and would like to explore how hypnotherapy can help, you can find a hypnotherapist in your area by using our advanced search tool.

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