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Objective: This study investigated the relation between flow and aesthetic salience during sport, specifically whether heightened aesthetic salience interfered with flow for adolescent athletes. This study further tested whether neuroticism strengthened the relation between aesthetic salience and flow for boys and girls and whether this relation was stronger for year 9 or year 11 high school students. Method: Data were from wave two of the Youth Activity Participation Study (YAPS) of Western Australia. The sample included 1,812 students (814 boys, 988 girls). The YAPS survey was administered using laptop computers or in pen and paper format. Results: Results indicated a significant four‐way interaction between aesthetic salience, gender, neuroticism, and year level for experiences of flow. Probing of the four‐way interaction indicated that aesthetic salience was positively predictive of flow at lower levels of neuroticism, but negatively predictive of flow at higher levels of neuroticism, for year 11 girls. For boys, there was a conditional main effect such that more experiences of aesthetic salience predicted more flow in sport. Conclusions: These findings illustrate that experiences of aesthetic salience in sport are complex and vary according to individual attributes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Biggest Loser(TBL) is a reality television weight-loss programme that positions itself as a response to the so-called “obesity crisis”. Research onTBLhas thus far focussed on audience responses and its effect on viewers’ beliefs about weight loss. This article focuses instead on how meaning is constructed inTBL. We conducted a multimodal critical discourse analysis of a key episode ofTBL(the 2012 Australian season finale) to examine how the textual, visual and auditory elements combine to construct meanings beyond the ostensible health messages. Although the overt message is that all contestants have worked hard, turned their lives around and been “successful”, examination of editing choices, lighting and colour, clothing and time spent on contestants allows us to see that the programme constructs varying degrees of success between contestants and provides accounts for these differences in outcomes. In this way the programme is able to present itself as a putative celebration of all contestants while prescribing narrow limits around what constitutes success.TBLreinforces an ideology in which “success” is a direct result of “the work” of weight loss (both physical and emotional), which can apparently be read straightforwardly off the body.TBL’s “celebration” of weight loss thus reproduces and strengthens the widespread view of fat bodies as physical manifestations of individual (ir)responsibility and psychological dysfunction, and contributes to the ongoing stigmatisation of obesity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personal trainers hold an important position as intermediaries between their clients and the vast amount of available information regarding health, fitness and body weight. Research to date has largely neglected to explore how they interpret and respond to their clients' goals. This paper reports interviews with 12 Australian personal trainers to investigate how they view the goals and motivations that their clients bring to training, and explore how they view their role in working with clients towards these goals. The personal trainers reported that their clients primarily came to them with weight loss goals, which the trainers understand as being motivated by aesthetic and social concerns. The only reservations expressed by trainers about their clients' weight loss goals concerned unrealistic timeframes; there were no other concerns expressed about the advisability or achievability of weight loss goals. When prompted, the trainers did acknowledge biological differences in clients' capacity for weight loss; however, this was strongly downplayed relative to the importance of diet, exercise and “mindset”. These findings suggest that personal trainers encourage the view that weight loss is straightforward and achievable for everyone who is sufficiently motivated and self-disciplined, despite the emerging scientific literature that suggests that weight loss goals, especially when motivated by appearance concerns, may undermine sustained exercise participation and other health-enhancing practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taken together, evolutionary psychology and neuroscience combine to provide a compelling heuristic account of sex/gender differences. In this article, I explore how the meta-theoretical framework provided by evolutionary psychology provides support for a reading of sex/gender effects in neuropsychological research that sees these as evidence of a ‘hardwired’ neurobiological basis for sex/gender. I discuss the resistance of these ‘hardwired’ accounts to arguments that—like other neuropsychological phenomena—sex/gender could be theorised in terms of experience-dependent neuroplasticity. I conclude that the evolutionary-neuropsychology heuristic obtains much of its appeal from the apparently ‘scientific’ evidence it provides for understanding sex/gender as a ‘natural’ rather than ‘sociocultural’ phenomenon—a view which is aligned with postfeminist ideologies of sex/gender in the contemporary west. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As a result of developments in assisted reproductive technology (ART), it is now possible to choose the sex of a baby. However, the procedures are currently not allowed for this purpose in Australia. This article explores how the positions for and against the use of ART for social sex selection are constructed by parents and parents-to-be in online discussion forums. Critical Discourse Analysis is employed to identify the arguments, evidence and experience drawn upon in the negotiation of the topic. We identify an important distinction between the legitimacy of using ART procedures for social sex selection, and the appropriateness of individuals actually wanting to use the procedures. We further show that expectations about the parent/child relationship, the nature of parental love and implications for society are mobilized in the debate, much of which is underscored by traditional gender constructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is concerned with questions of sexism and misogyny in the context of post-feminism. it examines the particular case of former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard's 'misogyny speech', a rare instance of a woman in high political office directly accusing her opponent of sexism. Through a critical discourse analysis of the coverage of that speech in the Australian print media, the article explores the radical disjuncture between how the speech resonated with women, both in Australia and internationally, and its construction in the print media as an illegitimate and ill-conceived 'playing of the gender card'. In forwarding this analysis, the article highlights how, in a post-feminist media environment, the possibilities for women of naming experiences of sexism are being closed down not least because such naming is positioned as a strategic choice on the part of women deployed only to gain advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years increasing media attention has highlighted the possibility that antidepressants may cause many disturbing side effects, including suicide. However, coverage of these issues has been criticised as negatively affecting people who suffer from depression. Employing the methods of discursive psychology, this paper examines how arguments are constructed for and against providing information about the full range of side effects of antidepressant medications, via the analysis of a public debate in which the potential side effects of SSRIs were the topic of concern. We demonstrate how one speaker draws on repertoires of consumer rights pitted against corporate profit motives to construct a case for the provision of warnings as a reasonable and obvious responsibility of pharmaceutical companies. The other speaker relies on separating practical from academic problems, and constructs the 'academic' question of serious side effects of SSRIs as a contentious and illegitimate concern in the public realm. The arguments employed by both opponents are discussed in terms of their rhetorical construction and social consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

General practitioners (GPs) have historically been at the centre of primary health-care delivery in Australia, including delivery of mental health-care services. Recent changes, however, by the Australian Federal government have led to the creation of a number of mental health-care items provided by psychologists that are now available on the Medicare Benefits Schedule. The aim of the present study was to examine GPs' perceptions of psychologists and the ways in which GPs have responded to these policy changes in making referrals for mental health patients. Nine GPs were interviewed regarding the provision of mental health-care services. Analysis of the interviews indicated a number of themes including the benefits of the new Medicare policy in increasing accessibility of psychologists, GPs' frustrations with the bureaucracy surrounding the use of this policy, GPs' knowledge about the specific skills and training of psychologists, and the importance of GPs' matching patients and clinicians. Recommendations are made to facilitate the professional and clinical relationship between GPs and psychologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents research paper abstracts presented at the fifth Annual Meeting of the Society of Australasian Social Psychologists in Fremantle, Western Australia. 'Consumption of Basic Foods As Expression of Materialistic Values,' by M.W. Allen; 'Stereotype Knowledge and Prejudice in Children,' by M. Augoustinos.