Discrimination,Internalized Homonegativity,and Attitudes Toward Children of Same‐Sex Parents: Can Secure Attachment Buffer Against Stigma Internalization?

With increasing numbers of same‐sex couples raising children in the United States, discriminatory attitudes toward children of same‐sex parents (ACSSP) are of increasing concern. As with other forms of stigma and discrimination, lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals are at risk for internalizing these societal attitudes, which can negatively affect parenting‐related decisions and behaviors and the mental and physical health of their children. Secure attachment is characterized by positive views of the self as loveable and worthy of care that are understood to develop in early relationships with caregivers. Secure attachment has been associated with positive mental and physical health, including among LGB individuals and couples. This study aimed to test the potential buffering role of secure attachment against stigma internalization by examining associations among secure attachment, discrimination, internalized homonegativity (IH), and ACSSP in an online survey study of 209 U.S. adults in same‐sex relationships. Bootstrap analyses supported our hypothesized moderated mediation model, with secure attachment being a buffer. Greater discrimination was indirectly associated with more negative ACSSP through greater IH for individuals with mean or lower levels, but not for individuals with higher than average levels of secure attachment, specifically because among those with higher levels of secure attachment, discrimination was not associated with IH. These findings build on and extend past research, with important implications for future research and clinical work with LGB individuals, same‐sex couples, and their families, including potential implementation of interventions targeting attachment security.     

Curing Psychopathology: Can Philosophy Help?

Abstract

It is argued that philosophers can contribute indirectly to the cure of psychopathology by helping to resolve problems that impede the development of effective treatments. Two such problems are discussed. The first arises because different schools of therapy use conflicting criteria in evaluating therapeutic outcomes. A theory of Defective Desires is developed to deal with this problem. The second issue, which divides the field of psychotherapy, concerns the need for experiments, especially in validating claims of therapeutic efficacy. An epistemological foundation is developed to support the need for experiments.     

Genetics: Can Moral Theology Help?

The article discusses Marc Lappé's use of the Principle of Double Effect (PDE) for justifying Germ Line Gene Therapy as a secondary effect of Somatic Gene Therapy. The author argues that Lappés argumentation is mistaken because it is based on a inadequate interpretation of the PDE's scope and function as a means of moral justification. Through an investigation into the history of PDE in Catholic theology, the author gives arguments that use of PDE relies upon some form of deontological framework which is not present in contemporary bioethics. The author concludes that isolated use of PDE, as Lappé seems to suggest, does therefore not warrant moral justification.     

Can We Help Belligerent Counselees?

This article presents a framework and principles for counseling belligerent counselees. It integrates moral reasoning and behavior contracting with the counseling process and describes the limited rationales of victimization, guilt, and helplessness. Then, a moral reasoning framework is presented whereby counselors move the counselees from the punishment stage to a trade-off and socially responsive stages through contracting. Finally, the counseling and contract principles are delineated for establishing a relationship aimed at improved behavior, facilitating recognition that behavior causes consequences, inducing positive behavior through rewards, and encouraging transfer to new situations.     

Behavioural Problems in Children with Headache and Maternal Stress: Is Children's Attachment Security a Protective Factor?

Headache is a potentially disabling condition involving enduring pain that negatively influences the quality of family life. Behavioural problems are more common in children with headache and are potentially associated with higher levels of parental stress. The aim of this study was to evaluate the extent to which children's behavioural problems were associated with maternal stress and how the child's perception of security in the maternal attachment relationship moderates this association. Seventy‐one school‐aged children with headache (headache group (HG), age M = 9.8 years old, SD = 1.3) and 71 children from a low‐risk normative population (control group (CG), age M = 9.2 years old, SD = 1) and their mothers were involved in the study. Mothers' reports of children's behavioural problems were associated with higher maternal stress in the caring task both in the HG and in the CG. Results also showed that the HG was more at risk for behavioural problems, whereas no difference between groups was detected for parenting stress and for attachment insecurity. In children with headache, perception of attachment security decreased the strength of the association between maternal stress and externalizing behavioural problems. Secure attachment may provide children with headache and their parents with support in managing the negative emotions that arise in the context of significant health issues. Implications for practice are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Toward a More Complete Understanding of Bystander Willingness to Help: What Role Does Critical Consciousness Play?

Sexual assault is a common phenomenon on university campuses with about one in five women victimized while in college. Consequently, bystander intervention programs have been gaining momentum. To improve such programs, research has begun to identify factors that may facilitate or impede individuals’ willingness to help a potential victim of sexual assault. The current study adds to this literature by: (a) examining potential differences in rape myth acceptance, critical consciousness, and willingness to help based on types of self-reported exposure to sexual assault; (b) exploring the previously unexamined mediating role of critical consciousness in the relationship between exposure to sexual assault and willingness to help; and (c) clarifying how the extent of rape myth acceptance impacts the relationship between exposure to sexual assault and willingness to help. Using a sample of 511 U.S. undergraduate students, results generally demonstrated that those with multiple types of exposure to sexual assault victimization demonstrated the highest levels of critical consciousness and greater willingness to help. Additionally, there was both a significant indirect effect of exposure to sexual assault on willingness to help via critical consciousness and a conditional effect of exposure to sexual assault on willingness to help that was stronger at lower levels of rape myth acceptance. Results highlight the importance of programming targeted at increasing critical consciousness.

     

Can Facilitation Imagery Alter the Effects of Semantic Priming?

This study examined if task motivational imagery suggestions could facilitate a semantic priming effect, relative to general relaxation suggestions and no specific suggestions; and if the participants’ hypnotizablity moderated the effects of the three types of instructions. Participants (n = 127) were assigned randomly in groups to one of the three instructional conditions (imagery, relaxation, or control) and two versions of a stimulus list for counterbalancing. A 3-way analysis of variance suggested that the semantic priming effect was found to be stronger for stimulus list version 2 than for version 1. A stronger semantic priming effect was found for the high, relative to the low and medium, hypnotizable groups. When medium hypnotizable participants were excluded, an instructional group X hypnotizability group interaction was found for list 1 suggesting that while the low hypnotizable participants benefited more from the relaxation suggestion, the high hypnotizables benefited more from the imagery instruction. The results suggest that imagery instructions may moderate automatic processes for highly hypnotizable individuals.     

Belief in Supernatural Evil and Mental Health: Do Secure Attachment to God and Gender Matter?

This study examines whether belief in supernatural evil is associated with mental health. In addition, it assesses how secure attachment to God moderates this association and how gender conditions the moderating effect of secure attachment to God. Among a variety of mental health outcomes, this study focuses on general mental health problems as well as anxiety-related disorders (e.g., general anxiety, social anxiety, and paranoia). Using data from the 2010 Baylor Religion Survey (N = 1,627), the analyses reveal that belief in supernatural evil is positively associated with general anxiety and paranoia. In addition, secure attachment to God buffers the positive associations between belief in supernatural evil and social anxiety and paranoia. Yet, when general mental health problems and general anxiety serve as the outcome measures, secure attachment to God attenuates the positive associations of belief in supernatural evil with mental health only for women, but not men. These results underscore the ways that religious beliefs have both positive and negative implications for mental health. Furthermore, they highlight the importance of gender in the complex relationships between religious beliefs and mental health.     

Attachment Style Differences and Depression in African American and European American College Women: Normative Adaptations?

This study examined ethnic differences in attachment styles and depression among African American and European American college women. African American women reported less favorable views of others, which suggests that attachment styles emphasizing caution in relationships may be normative and adaptive for these women. There were no differences between groups in views of self or reports of depressive symptoms. Implications for long‐term relationships and counseling are discussed. Este estudio examinó las diferencias étnicas en estilos de apego y depresión entre estudiantes universitarias Afroamericanas y Euroamericanas. Las mujeres Afroamericanas expresaron una visión menos favorable sobre los demás, lo que sugiere que los estilos de apego que enfatizan la precaución en las relaciones pueden ser normativos para estas mujeres, y el resultado de su adaptación. No hubo diferencias entre los grupos en cuanto a la visión de sí mismas o expresión de síntomas depresivos. Se discuten las implicaciones para las relaciones a largo plazo y la consejería.     

Mother–toddler attachment in a paediatric setting: Presentation and validation of the Paediatric Attachment Style Indicator

The paediatric examination with immunization is a stressful event for toddlers. Its characteristics are close to the classic “Strange Situation”: a perceived threat, which activates the attachment system, a stranger, and an unfamiliar environment. As such, it can be used as a natural situation to assess the quality of the mother–child attachment, on one hand to manage the stress of the toddler during the paediatric examination, and on the other to screen for relationship disturbances. To this end, we have developed a specific coding instrument, the Paediatric Attachment Style Indicator (PASI), which allows classification of infant and toddler behaviour in the paediatric examination as secure, anxious–avoidant, or anxious–ambivalent. This article presents the PASI instrument and its validation. Paediatric examinations (N = 41 mother and toddler dyads) were videotaped during a booster session of the regular immunization schedule for toddlers in Switzerland. Results of the PASI coding were compared with other methods of direct observation of emotional behaviour of the toddler (distress signals) and of the mother (verbal behaviours), with the information given by the mother to the toddler before the examination, and with the assessment of temperament of the toddler by the paediatrician. Results show good face validity and construct validity for the instrument.     

Averting Dementia of the Alzheimer's Type in Women: Can Counselors Help?

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in late life, taking its greatest toll on women over age 80. This article provides an overview of AD, including risk factors and counseling strategies targeting risk. Counseling strategies address stress, cardiovascular health, social integration, depression, and holistic wellness.     

Philosophy in Schools: Can Early Exposure Help Solve Philosophy's Gender Problem?

In this article, I explore a new reason in favor of precollegiate philosophy: It could help narrow the persistent gender disparity within the discipline. I catalog some of the most widely endorsed explanations for the underrepresentation of women in philosophy and argue that, on each hypothesized explanation, precollegiate philosophy instruction could help improve our discipline's gender balance. Explanations I consider include stereotype threat, gendered philosophical intuitions, inhospitable disciplinary environment, lack of same‐sex role models for women students in philosophy, and conflicting “schemas” for philosophy and femininity. I argue that, insofar as some combination of these hypothesized explanations accounts for some portion of the underrepresentation of women in philosophy, those of us concerned to make things better have reason to participate in and promote efforts to share philosophy with younger students.