Introduction. Very few studies have examined the neuropsychological performance of HIV-positive women, and even fewer have attempted a comparison of cognitive functioning by gender. The aim of this study was to describe the nature of the neuropsychological performance of HIV seropositive patients by gender. Methods. A clinical sample made up of 151 subjects was recruited to participate in this study. All of the subjects underwent the same assessment process, consisting of a neuropsychological evaluation and an interview to gather sociodemographic, toxicological, and clinical data. Results and Discussion. Despite the fact that men obtained higher scores in visual memory, attention/psychomotor speed, and abstract reasoning/verbal intelligence, these differences were not statistically significant. In contrast, significant differences were found depending on subjects' serological status. Seropositive participants' neuropsychological performance was significantly lower than that of the seronegative participants in all of the areas assessed as follows: (1) visual memory; (2) attention/psychomotor speed; (3) abstract reasoning/verbal intelligence; (4) verbal memory for texts; (5) verbal memory for digits and words. Conclusions. The results from this study reveal no significant gender differences in the cognitive performance of patients infected with HIV-1.

OBJECTIVE:To assess the acceptability of the female condom in a sample of young heterosexual Spanish couples.METHODS:The sample was made up of 45 couples (90 participants) from Spain. The age range was from 19 to 42 years. The study was carried out in three stages: pre-trial, post-trial, and follow-up (one year later).RESULTS:Before the intervention, 88 participants (97.8%) had heard about the female condom, although 73 participants (81.2%) claimed to know very little about the method, and barely one-third had seen one. The appraisals after the trial period reveal differing levels of satisfaction with the method, with no significant differences found by gender. Those participants who used a greater number of condoms during the trial period pointed out more positive points about the method, but also more negative points. Of the 17 couples who continued to participate in the follow-up stage (one year after the trial stage), only one (5.9%) still used the female condom. However, 10 men (58.8%) and 8 women (47.1%) expressed a willingness to use it in the future, and 12 women (70.6%) and 11 men (64.7%) had told friends and acquaintances about it.CONCLUSION:This study reveals that although the female condom is considered to be a useful method, it is still largely unknown and requires further promotion if it is to be used by young couples.

En este estudio cuasi-experimental se exponen los resultados derivados de la evaluacion cuantitativa del Programa Agarimos, un programa coeducativo de desarrollo psicoafectivo y sexual implementado con alumnos de primero de Educacion Secundaria Obligatoria (ESO), en el curso academico 2003-2004. Para ello se utiliza un grupo control equiparable al grupo experimental en sexo, edad y nivel de estudios, a los que se evaluan satisfaccion corporal, autoconcepto, autoestima, conocimientos sobre organos sexuales, conocimientos en nutricion, ideologia del rol sexual y actitudes hacia la sexualidad. Se obtienen diferencias significativas en la evaluacion postintervencion entre el grupo control y el grupo experimental en las variables conocimiento de organos sexuales, conocimientos en nutricion e ideologia del rol sexual, confirmando el efecto positivo del programa en la superacion de los condicionantes del genero en el desarrollo psicosexual de los adolescentes. Se pone asi de relieve la necesidad de implementar experiencias que, como la que aqui se presenta, supongan una alternativa a la sobredimensionada educacion de la inteligencia racional en la escuela, en pro de un desarrollo integral de la personalidad de los adolescentes.

In this study we analyze the link between Instrumental/Expressive traits and sexist attitudes. The sample is made up of 496 male and female Spanish university professors (230 women and 266 men). In addition to collecting sociodemographic information from the participants, the following scales were administered: the Personal Attributes Questionnaire by Spence and Helmreich (PAQ, 1978); the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory [ASI, Glick and Fiske: 1996, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 70, pp. 491–512]; and the Neosexism Scale [Tougas et al.: 1995, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21(8), pp. 842–849]. The data reveal that while the participants in our study subscribe less to sexist attitudes than the general population, the men continue to hold more hostile and benevolent sexist attitudes than do the women in our study. Surprisingly, however, we find that both female and male professors are less favorable toward affirmative action aimed at increasing women’s presence in the public sphere than the general population. As expected, women and men are equally instrumental, although women continue to show a greater number of expressive traits than men. Conversely, men score higher on instrumentality/expressiveness, which correlates positively with instrumentality and negatively with expressiveness. We also find some significant differences in levels of instrumentality and expressiveness when comparing the male and female professors and taking field of study into account. Lastly, we find negative correlations between expressiveness and Hostile Sexism (HS) and between masculinity and HS among women, and between expressiveness and Benevolent Sexism (BS) among men. To conclude, we offer some insight into the potential implications of these results.

In the present study we analyzed the impact of vocational goals, sexist attitudes toward women, and motivation on career choice, in a sample of 448 Spanish college students (65.2% women and 34.1% men). Although we found some similarities between men and women in terms of their motivational orientations (extrinsic vs. intrinsic) and vocational goals, men’s extrinsic motivations appear to differ depending on the college major. We also found differences in sexist attitudes toward women by gender and chosen major: both male and female students enrolled in technical majors reported the most sexist attitudes (both hostile and benevolent). These findings underline the importance of taking sexist attitudes toward women into account in attempts to explain gender differences in career choice, something which has been largely overlooked in the research to date.

This study analyses the relationship between buying addiction and a set of individual factors. The results show that addictive buying is significantly associated with the personal variables considered in our research; what is more, the discriminant analysis carried out suggests a "hierarchy" of defining factors common to those individuals who present a high level of addictive buying: anxiety, depression, and obsessive-compulsiveness are the variables which are most closely linked to this psychological addiction, followed by passive coping, low self-esteem, low conscientiousness, external locus of control, and sensation seeking, respectively. The implications and potential limitations of these findings, as well as some recommendations for future research, are presented.