(My) spirituality in medical education

During these times of the situated, contingent text, it is not unusual for an author to disclose her biases and other sources of potential partiality as a researcher or theorist. That is, an author often discloses her race, class origins, or sexual orientation at the onset, announcing particularities that enable readers to adjust their reading to the subjectivities inherent to knowledge production. One glaring omission to these announcements, especially in medicine, has to do with the spiritual domain. This essay, written as a personal narrative, provides one example of how one's spirituality is connected to what and how one chooses to teach, even in the medical academy. Acknowledging those beliefs and considering how our spirituality (along with our other subjectivities that are known to us) may influence our work is an important process in developing a more reflective practice.     

Reporting Race and Ethnicity in Genetics Research: Do Journal Recommendations or Resources Matter?

Appeals to scrutinize the use of race and ethnicity as variables in genetics research notwithstanding, these variables continue to be inadequately explained and inconsistently used in research publications. In previous research, we found that published genetic research fails to follow suggestions offered for addressing this problem, such as explaining the basis on which these labels are assigned to populations. This study, an analysis of genetic research articles using race or ethnicity terms, explores possible features of journals that are associated with improved reporting of race and ethnicity in genetic research. A journal’s expressed commitment to improving how race and ethnicity are used in genetic research, demonstrated by an editorial or in its instructions to authors, was the strongest predictor of following recommendations about reporting race and ethnicity. Journal impact factor had only a limited positive effect on attention to these issues, suggesting that editorial resources associated with higher impact factor journals are not sufficient to improve practices. Our findings reiterate that race and ethnicity variables are used inconsistently in genetic research, but also shed light on how journals might improve practices by highlighting the need for scientists to carefully scrutinize the use of these variables in their work.     

A comparison of African American and White American veteran MMPI-2 profiles

The present study compared a matched sample of 180 African American and 180 White American veterans who completed the MMPI-2 as a part of their evaluation while receiving inpatient psychiatric treatment. Findings indicated no significant multivariate or univariate effects associated with race on the basic validity and clinical scales, a significant multivariate effect but no significant univariate effects associated with race across the supplementary scales. Overall the two groups had very similar mean profiles across the basic validity, clinical, and supplementary scales. Comparison of the two groups on the content scales yielded a significant multivariate and significant univariate effects with African Americans scoring higher on the FRS, BIZ, CYN, and ASP scales. Because the two groups differed in terms of frequency and type of drug abuse, follow-up 2 x 2 univariate analyses of variance were conducted for the FRS, BIZ, CYN, and ASP content scales comparing participants classified in terms of presence or absence of a primary or secondary drug abuse diagnosis by race. A significant main effect associated with drug abuse was obtained for ASP. Results are discussed and considered in light of earlier research on the MMPI-2 and race. Content scale differences are also discussed in terms of possible differences in worldview.     

Multiple Cues in Social Perception: The Time Course of Processing Race and Facial Expression

The purpose of the present study was to examine the time course of race and expression processing to determine how these cues influence early perceptual as well as explicit categorization judgments. Despite their importance in social perception, little research has examined how social category information and emotional expression are processed over time. Moreover, although models of face processing suggest that the two cues should be processed independently, this has rarely been directly examined. Event-related brain potentials were recorded as participants made race and emotion categorization judgments of Black and White men posing either happy, angry, or neutral expressions. Our findings support that processing of race and emotion cues occur independently and in parallel, relatively early in processing.     

Is Racial Profiling More Benign in Medicine Than Law Enforcement?

It might seem that racial profiling by doctors raised few of the same concerns as racial profiling by police, immigration, or airport security. This paper argues that the similarities are greater than first appear. The inappropriate use of racial generalizations by doctors may be as harmful and insulting as their use by law enforcement officials. Indeed, the former may be more problematic in compromising an ideal of individualized treatment that is more applicable to doctors than to police. Yet doctors, unlike police, should not attempt to ignore race altogether. Race and ethnicity are associated with the geography of disease, with social and cultural factors relevant to disease, and, to some extent, with genetic predispositions to disease. Moreover, greater attention to the distinctive health conditions of certain racial and ethnic groups is necessary to make up for past neglect. But it will be a tricky business to steer a middle course between a naïve, reckless, or dogmatic color blindness and a stereotype-driven overreliance on race and ethnicity. In trying to steer such a course, the doctor can only hope for the day when a combination of more individualized genomic medicine and greater social equality will make it possible for her to pay less attention to race and ethnicity without detriment to her patients?? health.     

A Black Theological Response to Race-Based Medicine: Reconciliation in Minority Communities

The harm race-based medicine inflicts on minority bodies through race-based experimentation and the false solutions a race-based drug ensues within minority communities provokes concern. Such areas analyze the minority patient in a physical proxy. Though the mind and body are important entities, we cannot forget about the spirit. Healing is not just a physical practice; it includes spiritual practice. Efficient medicine includes the holistic elements of the mind, body, and spirit. Therefore, the spiritual discipline of black theology can be used as a tool to mend the harms of race-based medicine. It can be an avenue of research to further particular concerns for justice in medical care . Such theology contributes to the discussion of race-based medicine indicating the need for the voice, participation, and interdependence of minorities. Black theology can be used as a tool of healing and empowerment for health equity and awareness by exploring black theology’s response to race-based medicine, analyzing race in biblical literature, using biblical literature as a tool for minority patient empowerment, building on past and current black church health advocacy with personal leadership in health advocacy.

     

Causal attributions and emotional reactions to outcome in a sporting contest

24 male and 22 female undergraduates competed in same-sex pairs in a bicycle ergometer ‘race’. Ratings of how important participants felt it was to win were gathered before the race. After the contest, ratings of satisfaction with performance and attributions for the causes of winning or losing together with ratings of the intensity of a variety of emotional feelings, were made by participants. Results showed that both male and female race winners attributed their win to internal factors (the effort they made, their motivation and personality). Losers attributed their loss to external factors (their opponent's effort and personality). For both winners and losers, however, emotional reactions were related only to internal attributions. Feelings of satisfaction among winners, and feelings of irritation experienced by losers, were related to internal attributions irrespective of how important participants thought it was to win the race. But the relationship between attributions and feelings of pride in winners and feelings of unhappiness in losers were influenced by the importance attached to winning the race. Some evidence emerged to suggest that losers who had considered it important to win, used defences against emotional feelings of disgust, dissatisfaction and discontent.     

Contact,configural coding and the other‐race effect in face recognition

The other‐race effect (ORE) in face recognition describes a well‐established finding of better recognition for own‐race than other‐race faces. Although widely thought to reflect differences in contact between own‐ and other‐race faces, little is known about how different contact levels relate to changes in processing of those faces. This study investigated how contact affects the size of the ORE and the use of expert configural face‐coding mechanisms. Using inversion decrements as an index of configural coding, we predicted that increased self‐reported contact would be associated with greater use of configural‐coding mechanisms. Chinese and Caucasian participants varying in contact with other‐race faces were recruited. The Chinese participants also varied in their length of residence in a Western country. Results showed that higher levels of contact were associated with a reduction in the ORE in both face recognition and configural coding. Importantly, smaller cross‐race differences in configural coding were also associated with a smaller ORE in face recognition.     

吸毒者：病人还是罪犯

如何认定吸毒者的社会身份是禁毒工作中亟待解决的问题。概述常见的毒品和吸毒的流行趋势。通过分析吸毒与医学和犯罪的关系,了解吸毒是病态还是犯罪。提出如何正确对待吸毒与戒毒,社会有关人员有责任关怀吸毒品走私案者,消除偏见,给予他们应有的帮助和治疗。     

Perceiver and relationship effects on perceptions of HIV status: A naturalistic study in a high drug use sample.

This article examines the effect of target, perceiver, and relationship characteristics on the perceiver's assessment that the target may be HIV seropositive (HIV+). A sample of 267 persons was recruited from low income, high drug use neighborhoods. Respondents (perceivers) were asked to name people (targets) with whom they had a social, drug sharing, or sexual relationship. Perceivers described 1,640 such relationships. Perceivers were asked about the targets' age, gender, and race/ethnicity, whether the targets were good-looking, their level of trust with the target, and how long they had known them. Perceivers were then asked to evaluate the chances that the target mentioned was HIV+. Two regression models were estimated on the 1,640 relationships mentioned. Model 1 included variables reflecting only target characteristics as independent variables. Model 2 included variables reflecting target characteristics as well as variables reflecting perceivers and perceiver-target relationship characteristics. The results showed that targets that were female, younger, and good-looking were perceived as being less likely to be HIV+. However, when accounting for perceiver and relationship effects, some of the target characteristic effects disappeared.     

How Race Matters and Does Not Matter for White Women in Relationships with Black Men

SUMMARY

Drawing on a qualitative research study, this article provides a beginning exploration for how race both matters and does not matter in white women's relationships with black men. As a means of protecting themselves and their families from pathologizing stereotypes about interracial couples, women make claims that race does not matter. At the same time, they describe ways that stereotypes impact their self identities and their couple interactions. Different situations and relationships create shifts in racial interpretations, and contact with extended family members can change racial meanings. The article offers suggestions for how to create a therapeutic space for discussing race without over-determining its significance.     

Nuclear Boundaries: Material and Discursive Containment at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation

Abstract

Current controversies in the field of genetics are provoking a reassessment of claims that race is socially constructed. Drawing upon Bruno Latour's model of how to analyse scientific controversy, this article argues that race is ‘gaining in reality’ in such a way that renders claims about its social construction tenuous and uncertain. Such claims can be seen as failing in two key regards. The first relates to changes in the way genetics is practised and promoted, which are undermining the stability of fundamental assertions that there is ‘no biological basis for race’ or that ‘race does not exist’. The second involves the confusion of analytical domains in making assertions about race. This problem stems from investing genetics research with hopes that it would reveal the ‘truth’ about race. This confidence has led to equating the ‘cultural’ with ‘bias’, while ignoring the cultural dynamics which shape race. Subsequently, I argue for making a domain claim for the primacy of cultural analysis that does not simply dismiss the possible relevance of biology or genetics to racial issues.     

Client and therapist variability in clients' perceptions of their therapists' multicultural competencies

This study examined therapist differences in their clients' ratings of their therapists' multicultural competencies (MCCs) as well as tested whether therapists' who were rated as exhibiting more MCCs also had clients who had better therapy outcomes (N = 143 clients and 31 therapists). All clients completed at least 3 sessions. Results demonstrated that therapists accounted for less than 1% of the variance in their clients' Cross-Cultural Counseling Inventory–Revised (CCCI-R; T. D. LaFromboise, H. L. K. Coleman, & A. Hernandez, 1991) scores, suggesting that therapists did not differ in terms of how clients rated their MCCs. Therapists accounted for approximately 8.5% of the variance in therapy outcomes. For each therapist, their clients' CCCI-R scores were aggregated to provide an estimate of therapists' MCCs. Therapists' MCCs, based on aggregate CCCI-R scores, did not account for the variability in therapy outcomes that were attributed to them. Additionally, clients' race/ethnicity, therapists' race/ethnicity, or the interaction of clients'–therapists' race/ethnicity were not significantly associated with clients' perceptions of their therapists' MCCs.     

A cross-race effect in metamemory: Predictions of face recognition are more accurate for members of our own race

The Cross-Race Effect (CRE) is the well-replicated finding that people are better at recognizing faces from their own race, relative to other races. The CRE reveals systematic limitations on eyewitness identification accuracy, suggesting that some caution is warranted in evaluating cross-race identification. The CRE is problematic because jurors value eyewitness identification highly in verdict decisions. We explore how accurate people are in predicting their ability to recognize own-race and other-race faces. Caucasian and Asian participants viewed photographs of Caucasian and Asian faces, and made immediate judgments of learning during study. An old/new recognition test replicated the CRE: both groups displayed superior discriminability of own-race faces. Importantly, relative metamnemonic accuracy was also greater for own-race faces, indicating that the accuracy of predictions about face recognition is influenced by race. This result indicates another source of concern when eliciting or evaluating eyewitness identification: people are less accurate in judging whether they will or will not recognize a face when that face is of a different race than they are. This new result suggests that a witness's claim of being likely to recognize a suspect from a lineup should be interpreted with caution when the suspect is of a different race than the witness.     

Development and Risk Behavior Among African American, Caucasian, and Mixed-race Adolescents Living in High Poverty Inner-city Neighborhoods

Youths growing up in low-income inner-city neighborhoods are at substantial risk for initiating substance use, violent behavior, and sexual intercourse at early ages; these risk behaviors continue at comparatively high rates through adolescence. Hopelessness has been implicated as a risk factor for these behaviors. In this paper, we consider how race influences this process. African Americans form a demographic minority within the United States, but they are often the majority within inner-city neighborhoods. For Caucasians, the opposite typically holds. Mixed-race populations form a minority within both contexts. Using longitudinal data, we examine the relationship between race and risk behaviors in several impoverished inner-city neighborhoods where African Americans form the distinct majority and Caucasians and people of mixed racial heritage form a small minority. We also consider how race moderates the relationship between hopelessness and risk behavior. Our findings show that compared to Caucasian or mixed-race adolescents, African American adolescents are less likely to engage in risk behaviors, and that hopelessness has a less important impact on their behaviors.     

Race and the Criminal Justice System Response to Sexual Assault: A Systematic Review

Prior research has consistently documented that the vast majority of sexual assault cases do not progress through the criminal justice system. However, there is less agreement in prior work on how race influences case progression, resulting in a literature frequently described as “inconsistent.” This systematic review examines all prior research that has included race as an independent variable in predicting the criminal justice system response to sexual assault (N = 34) in an effort to provide insight into seemingly disparate findings. We assess each study for the degree to which race was a focal point of interest, if and what theory was used to inform the investigation of race, how samples were drawn, and how and whose race was measured. Results illustrate that findings in prior research are not inconsistent, but rather unite to tell a nuanced story of the role of race in the criminal justice system response to sexual assault. The review demonstrates how decisions made by researchers throughout the research process can have significant impacts on reported findings, and how such findings may be used to influence policy and practice.     

Shifting Winds: Using Ancestry DNA to Explore Multiracial Individuals’ Patterns of Articulating Racial Identity

This study explored how genotype information affects identification narratives of multiracial individuals. Twenty-one multiracial individuals completed individual interviews before and after receiving a DNA analysis to clarify their genetically based racial ancestry. Based on results, this article proposes patterns of articulating racial identity by multiracial individuals. Four patterns extend evolving research in multiracial identification, namely (1) the individual articulates a monoracial identity; (2) the individual articulates one identity, but this can shift in response to various conditions; (3) the individual articulates an extraracial identity, opting out of traditional categories applied to race; and (4) the person distinguishes traditional categories of race from culture and owns the two identities in different ways. Implications of these findings are discussed. First, adding new ancestry DNA information further muddles the neat categories of race, consistent with the view of race as socially constructed. Second, results emphasize the fluidity of identification for multiracial individuals. Third, DNA information challenges the neat percentages people tend to associate with their backgrounds. Particularly for younger multiracial individuals, there was less of a sense that race was a real thing and more that culture played a big part in how they saw themselves.     

A politics of affect: Re/assembling relations of class and race at the museum

This article takes as its focus a politics of affect and its potentially transformative effects. Drawing on feminist new materialism and the process philosophy of Deleuze, I map moments in which this politics is enacted as school children encounter museum exhibits designed to address issues of class and race. Taking affect to be a matter of the capacity of bodies to affect and be affected, I attend to how the body's power of acting is increased or diminished through these encounters. Affect emerges as central to negotiations around issues relating to class and race, with some assemblages produced being particularly able to effect changes in capacities. Politics presents as a process of affective encounter through which dominant cultural norms of class and race can be contested and their exclusions ‘undone’. The argument is made that a politics of affect has the potential to unsettle normative power relations and address issues of social inequality and do so in an affirmative way. And, that attending to affect extends identity-based framings of class and race by bringing the constitutive role and contribution of the material, the micropolitical and the radically relational into view.     

Categorising intersectional targets: An “either/and” approach to race- and gender-emotion congruity

Research on the interaction of emotional expressions with social category cues in face processing has focused on whether specific emotions are associated with single-category identities, thus overlooking the influence of intersectional identities. Instead, we examined how quickly people categorise intersectional targets by their race, gender, or emotional expression. In Experiment 1, participants categorised Black and White faces displaying angry, happy, or neutral expressions by either race or gender. Emotion influenced responses to men versus women only when gender was made salient by the task. Similarly, emotion influenced responses to Black versus White targets only when participants categorised by race. In Experiment 2, participants categorised faces by emotion so that neither category was more salient. As predicted, responses to Black women differed from those to both Black men and White women. Thus, examining race and gender separately is insufficient to understanding how emotion and social category cues are processed.     

She Got Herself There: Narrative Resistance in the Drug Discourse of Strippers

There has been ample literature on strip clubs regarding interactions between strippers and patrons, power and social control, and how dancers manage their identities as stigmatized workers. Few studies have explored how dancers grapple with their doubly deviant identities as dancers and as drug and alcohol users. Through interviews and fieldwork, I explore how dancers frame their drug use. At times, dancers stigmatize other dancers by using damaging stereotypes to “other” sister workers for drug abuse. At other times, strippers do not malign other dancers for drug and alcohol use. Instrumental or recreational drug use is relatively unstigmatized.