William D. McIntosh’s research while affiliated with William & Mary and other places

Mindful eating is conceptualized as being aware in the present moment when one is eating, paying close attention to the senses, including physical and emotional sensations. There are little published data exploring mindful eating in samples of the general population, and no work evaluating the concept in a university setting; thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationships of mindful eating to BMI and physical activity levels among students at a 4-year university and to assess the potential usefulness of mindful eating interventions in this campus setting. Ninety participants completed the 28-item Mindful Eating Questionnaire, consisting of five subscales (Disinhibition, Awareness, External Cues, Emotional Response, and Distraction) and questions about height, weight, and physical activity. Lower BMI was associated significantly with overall mindful eating. Level of physical activity was not related significantly to overall mindful eating scores; however, students who were more physically active were more likely to lack awareness of their food and to eat in response to negative emotions. These results suggest that mindful eating may be a useful concept to explore further, because the relationships among mindful eating, BMI, and physical activity are not straightforward. A better understanding of these complexities might lead to more effective intervention strategies for addressing overweight and obesity risk in university populations.

Willingness to date members of other races was examined among 200 men with same-sex dating preference (n = 100) and opposite-sex dating preference (n = 100), and 200 women with same-sex dating preference (n = 100) and opposite-sex dating preference (n = 100) who were randomly selected from an Internet dating web site. Overall, results indicated a greater willingness among gay participants than heterosexual participants to date people of other races. A 2 (Sex) x 2 (Sexual Orientation) analysis of variance showed an interaction, with lesbian women more willing to date other races than gay men, while among heterosexual participants men were more willing than women to date other races. The role of mate selection theory, and the importance of the status afforded various races in U.S. society, were applied to interpret people's willingness to date other races.

We examined a range of predictors that might influence the speed with which people recover emotionally from the breakup of a romantic relationship, focusing specifically on concrete, situational variables, including initiator status, presence of social support, length of relationship, amount of time the couple typically spent together day-today, how much in love participants were, how soon they began dating again, how many previous relationships they had, and how often they saw their ex after the breakup. The results showed that relationship length and how quickly the individual began dating someone new were predictors of recovery from the breakup of a romantic relationship. Gender differences were also examined.

Collecting is a pervasive behavior in our culture, yet it has received little attention in the psychological literature. We examine eight aspects of the collecting process, drawing on existing ideas and research in social psychology as well as existing research on collectors and collecting to describe the motivations that underlie collecting behavior. We suggest that collectors are drawn to collecting as a means of bolstering the self by setting up goals that are tangible and attainable and provide the collector with concrete feedback of progress.

We examined the violent content of the top-grossing comedy films from 1951 to 2000. Comedic violence increased sharply around 1970 and has been relatively consistent since then. Aggressors were depicted in somewhat more positive terms than targets, but in general, the message of comedic violence was not one of good triumphing over evil. Top-grossing comedy films featured more violence when unemployment, suicide, homicide, divorce, and the consumer price index were higher.

The purpose of this study was to determine the factors associated with Black Americans' dating preferences. Two hundred profiles of Black individuals in the United States (100 men and 100 women) were accessed on the Internet dating site Match.com. Fourteen demographic and personal variables were correlated with willingness to date Whites, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Asians, as well as other Blacks. Blacks willing to interracially date tended to be male, young, and/or attractive, tended to smoke, abstain from exercise, and either definitely or possibly wanted children. Willingness to date intraracially was related to living in any geographical region except the West, being a nonsmoker, and being sure of either wanting or not wanting children. Factors unrelated to dating preference included having or not having children, education, political standpoint, religion, body type, and drinking habits. Both mate selection theory and exchange theory were applied in interpreting results.

Sexual Strategies Theory supposes that certain characteristics--namely, physical attractiveness in women and dominance and the ability to provide material resources in men--are highly desirable to potential mates because they are evolutionarily advantageous. However, socially based characteristics (e.g., positive personality traits, common interests) are also desirable in potential mates. It was predicted that people who are weaker on evolutionarily advantageous traits (i.e., less attractive women, less wealthy men) would emphasize alternative, socially desirable traits to compensate for these perceived deficiencies. One hundred fifty-one Internet personal advertisements were analyzed for attractiveness, income, mention of physical attributes, and mention of other positive personal characteristics. Results were generally consistent with predictions. In males, both wealth and attractiveness were related to decreased emphasis on other positive personal characteristics, while in women, emphasis on physical attributes (but not objectively rated physical attractiveness) was negatively related to emphasis on other positive personal characteristics.

We blocked subjects on their tendency to link the attainment of lower order goals (e.g., being one's ideal weight) to the attainment of a higher-order goal (i.e., being happy). We then assessed the number of everyday hassles these subjects experienced, the amount of rumination they reported, their level of depression, and the extent to which they were bothered by a number of physical symptoms. These measures were taken at 2 time periods, 2 weeks apart. In the first session, subjects who tended dispositionally to link lower-order goals to higher order ones were more likely than were those who did not make this link to ruminate, experience depression, and complain of physical symptoms. At Session 2, linkers who had experienced a high number of hassles in Session 1 reported higher depression and more bother from physical symptoms than did any of the other groups. These results are consistent with the growing body of evidence indicating a relation between rumination and depression and suggest that one factor that determines rumination is the extent to which people link the attainment of lower-order goals to the attainment of higher-order goals.

After rating male and female characters in the top-grossing comedy films for each year (1951-2000), the authors predicted that during times of greater social and economic threat female film characters who joke about sex would be less physically attractive, and male characters would be lower in socioeconomic status. These qualities have been found in prior research to denote desirability in potential mates. Results were generally consistent with predictions. It was suggested that these results, paired with findings from previous studies, could be taken as support for a lowered expectations hypothesis: during bad times people feel less optimistic, and consequently even people's fantasy partners are less grandiose.