Nature, urban, or treadmill: How walking environment impacts state body satisfaction and appreciation and the role of body sanctification.

This study examined the effects of walking environments on state body satisfaction and state body appreciation and the potential moderating role of body sanctification. Participants included 189 undergraduates from a private Christian University in the Southwestern US, randomly assigned to walk for 20-minutes in a natural, outdoors built, or indoors built environment. Participants completed measures of state body satisfaction and state body appreciation prior to and immediately following the walk. Those who walked in nature experienced increased state body satisfaction but not state body appreciation compared to those who walked in an indoor built environment. Theistic sanctification of the body was associated with greater state body appreciation and moderated the relationship between walking location and body appreciation. Participants who sanctified their bodies to a greater extent experienced increases in body appreciation when walking in a natural environment compared to an indoor built environment relative to those who were lower in body sanctification. Nontheistic sanctification of the body was associated with higher state body satisfaction and state body appreciation but did not moderate links between walking location and these outcomes. Overall, walking in nature is beneficial to body satisfaction and theistic sanctification of the body may bolster these effects.

Walking in nature may improve affect but not cognition.

Beneficial effects of natural environments on affect have been consistently reported, but effects on cognition have been less consistent. We examined affect and cognitive performance in the domains of attention, working memory, executive function, and recall and recognition memory in a sample of 188 undergraduate participants who completed a walk in one of three environments: an outdoor nature environment, an outdoor urban environment, or an indoor (treadmill) environment. Supporting the hypotheses, the outdoor nature environment resulted in the greatest increase in positive affect and decrease in negative affect from pre-to post-walk. However, there were no effects of location on any cognitive measure. These results suggest that cognitive effects do not always occur in tandem with affective benefits. Possible explanations, including prior frequent exposure to nature in our participants and extremity of the natural environment, are discussed.

A Preliminary Validation of the Polish Version of the Comprehensive Intellectual Humility Scale (CIHS).

Background: In the last few years, empirical research on intellectual humility has grown notably, involving the elaboration of promising measures that provide a different outlook on the construct. Although all of them offer valid, theoretically sound, and meaningful contributions, we selected the 22-item Comprehensive Intellectual Humility Scale (CIHS) by Krumrei-Mancuso and Rouse for validation. The rationale for choosing this questionnaire for Polish validation stands in its multidimensional nature, which enables the study of various nuances of this psychological concept. Methods: The research was carried out with the participation of 260 adults (Study 1) and 210 adults (Study 2). The respondents completed a Polish translation of the original version of the CIHS, the Gratitude Questionnaire-Six Item Form (GQ-6), the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES), and the Positive Orientation Scale (P-Scale). Results: The findings obtained in both studies support the four-factor model of the CIHS with the higher order factor. The good fit indices of the CFA and MGCFA show the psychometric solidity of the 22-item structure of the Polish version of the CIHS. With respect to convergent validity, the validation study (Study 2) confirmed that gratitude, self-efficacy, and positive orientation are significant correlates of the CIHS. Conclusion: Since intellectual humility is still a little-known psychological construct, both as a concept and as a possible antecedent or consequence, it would be worth examining it in the future with other variables of an intraindividual and interindividual nature.

The effects of fitspiration and self-compassion Instagram posts on body image and self-compassion in men and women.

Research has demonstrated links between viewing idealized images on social media and body dissatisfaction, but more work is needed to understand how exposure to appearance-related content influences body image. The current research evaluated the effects of viewing fitspiration images and images of self-compassion quotes on Instagram on men and women's body image and self-compassion. This topic was examined in two separate investigations in the U.S.; a sample of undergraduate students (N = 180, 62 men and 118 women) and a community sample recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk (N = 296; 173 men and 123 women). In both studies, participants viewed either same-gender images of fitspiration, self-compassion quotes, a combination of fitspiration images and self-compassion quotes, or neutral images (control). Overall, the findings suggest that viewing fitspiration images only promotes lower body satisfaction and appreciation, whereas viewing self-compassion images only leads to improved body satisfaction and appreciation. There was, however, little support for the buffering effects of self-compassion in the combined condition. Our results demonstrate the detrimental effects of exposure to fitspiration content and the positive effects of exposure to self-compassion content on social media for men and women as well as the need for future research in this area.

Sex Work and Mental Health: A Study of Women in the Netherlands.

This study examined how characteristics of prostitution and quality-of-life factors related to symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress among 88 women engaged in prostitution in the Netherlands. Numerous factors were associated with elevated mental health concerns, including the experience of violence in prostitution, engaging in street prostitution, being motivated to engage in prostitution for financial reasons, having less confidence in one's ability to find alternative work, desiring to leave prostitution, and sense of self-transcendence. In contrast, focusing on achievement, having a sense of fair treatment from others and society, and self-acceptance were associated with better mental health outcomes. Finally, mediation analyses indicated that post-traumatic stress associated with engaging in prostitution against one's deeper desire to exit prostitution was, in part, the result of a lack of self-acceptance. The analyses controlled for relevant demographic factors, including age and level of education. The effect sizes for each of the findings ranged from medium to large. Implications for mental health care and public policy are included.

The Development and Validation of the Comprehensive Intellectual Humility Scale.

A series of studies was conducted to create the 22-item Comprehensive Intellectual Humility Scale on the basis of theoretical descriptions of intellectual humility, expert reviews, pilot studies, and exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The scale measures 4 distinct but intercorrelated aspects of intellectual humility, including independence of intellect and ego, openness to revising one's viewpoint, respect for others' viewpoints, and lack of intellectual overconfidence. Internal consistency and test-retest analyses provided reliable scale and subscale scores within numerous independent samples. Validation data were obtained from multiple, independent samples, supporting appropriate levels of convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity. The analyses suggest that the scale has utility as a self-report measure for future research.