“I Am Uncertain About What My Uncertainty Even Is”: Men’s Uncertainty and Information Management of Their BRCA-Related Cancer Risks

Men with a germline pathogenic BRCA1 or BRCA2 variant have increased risks for developing breast, pancreatic, prostate, and melanoma cancers, but little is known about how they understand and manage their cancer risks. This study examines how men with BRCA-related cancer risks manage uncertainty and information about their risks. Twenty-five men who were either a BRCA carrier or have a BRCA-positive first-degree family member that put the participant at 50% chance of also being a BRCA carrier were interviewed for this study. Using uncertainty management theory as a theoretical framework, this study demonstrates that men manage uncertainty by seeking information from female family members, websites, and healthcare providers, and are under-informed about their cancer risks. Further, in handling their information, men prefer information about cancer risk percentages and screening recommendations in the form of lists presented to them via websites, printed literature, proactive healthcare providers, and an identifiable male spokesperson. Finally, men used BRCA-related cancer risk information to make decisions about whether or not to engage in screening and prevention, manage their BRCA-related cancer risks, and overall family well-being—yet often at the expense of their own individual risks. Implications for genetic counseling and family conversations are discussed.     

“It's Just Your Turn”: Performing Identity and Muslim Australian Popular Culture

Academic accounts of Muslim integration and inclusion in multicultural Australia are often at pains to emphasize that Muslim identity and Australian national identity are compatible with each other. While this political manoeuvre remains both important and relevant, it nevertheless chances reinscribing the very terms of debate it seeks to contest and worryingly aligns closely with prevalent governmental techniques to “domesticate” Muslim difference. Furthermore, it risks presenting both “Muslim” and “Australian” identities as self-evident, taken-for-granted categories. In this article, I consider two Muslim Australian popular cultural productions – namely, the television programme Salam Café and the stand-up comedy show Fear of a Brown Planet – in order to explore how Muslim and Australian identities, and the relationships between them, are performed, contested and rearticulated. What is most salient about both productions, the article argues, is that they present the identity of “Australian” as a site of political and cultural contestation, with the “nation” a contingent site through which multicultural politics are actualized. Such a move is salient for Australian multiculturalism more broadly, but is especially so for Muslim communities – not least because it undermines the West/Islam dichotomy altogether.     

Conceptually Downstream: Revisiting Old Tributaries of Thought for “New” Constructivist Ideas and Practices

Contemporary constructivism occurs at the confluence of three tributaries of thought and practice: hermeneutics, phenomenology, and linguistic philosophy. Selectively tracing the contributions of each tributary, or tradition of thought, a case is made for integrating cultural meanings and customs, lived experience, and people's uses of language in a generative and socially grounded approach to constructivism.     

Lost in translation: “Risks,” “needs,” and “evidence” in implementing the First Step Act

In this article, we focus on two highly problematic issues in the manner in which the First Step Act of 2018 is being implemented by the Bureau of Prisons: an uncritical separation of “dynamic risks” and “criminogenic needs”; and a spurious reliance on “evidence-based” interventions to reduce recidivism risk. We argue that if the Act is to live up to its promise of being a game-changing development in efforts to reduce crime while simultaneously shrinking mass incarceration, “needs assessment” must be subject to vastly increased empirical attention, variable and causal risk factors must be identified and validly assessed, and interventions to reduce risk must be rigorously evaluated both for their fidelity of implementation and impact on recidivism. Rather than further proliferating programs that ostensibly reduce risk, we believe that serious consideration should be given to the Bureau of Prisons offering one signature, well-established cognitive-behavioral program that can simultaneously address multiple risk factors for moderate and high-risk prisoners.     

“Just another pretty face”: A multidimensional scaling approach to face attractiveness and variability

Findings on both attractiveness and memory for faces suggest that people should perceive more similarity among attractive than among unattractive faces. A multidimensional scaling approach was used to test this hypothesis in two studies. In Study 1, we derived a psychological face space from similarity ratings of attractive and unattractive Caucasian female faces. In Study 2, we derived a face space for attractive and unattractive male faces of Caucasians and non-Caucasians. Both studies confirm that attractive faces are indeed more tightly clustered than unattractive faces in people’s psychological face spaces. These studies provide direct and original support for theoretical assumptions previously made in the face space and face memory literatures.     

On Ideas of “the Good” and “the Ideal” in George Eliot's Novels and Post-Kleinian Psychoanalytic Thought

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

Retention by “fast” and “slow” learners

Four experiments were conducted to replicate and extend the findings by Shuell and Keppel (1970) as well as others, that when properly equated for original learning, “fast” and “slow” learners have parallel forgetting curves. In Experiments I and II, the Shuell-Keppel findings, originally demonstrated on American students learning lists of words, were replicated on samples of Nigerian students. In Experiments III and IV, Nigerian and American students, respectively, learned poems to a criterion of 75–90% correct and were tested for retention. In all studies, “fast” and “slow” learners were brought to a similar learning criterion, with the result that their forgetting curves were parallel.     

“In Sickness and in Health”? Disclosures of Genetic Risks in Dating

Individuals who have, or are at risk for, various genetic disorders face many challenges concerning disclosures of genetic information in dating situations. We conducted a qualitative interview study of 64 individuals confronting Huntington’s disease, breast cancer, or Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, examining what issues these individuals encountered, and how they viewed and addressed these—including issues of understandings, privacy, and disclosures of genetic information to various groups (e.g., family members). Incidental to the primary research questions addressed, participants also often described a series of dilemmas in dating situations that they and/or family members, friends, and fellow patients faced of whether to date, and if so, whether, what, how, why, and when to disclose their genetic risk or illness. At times, these individuals feared and experienced rejection, and hence delayed, avoided, or opposed disclosure, or disclosed indirectly or inadvertently. These data are reported in this paper and highlight the importance of patients, their loved ones, genetic counselors, and other health care providers being aware of these issues, and appreciating the complex factors involved, which can affect patients’ coping and social support. This paper, the first to explore several key aspects of disclosures of genetic information in dating, thus suggests needs for public and professional education, and future research in this area.     

Sexuality and Exercise Motivations: Are Gay Men and Heterosexual Women Most Likely to be Motivated by Concern About Weight and Appearance?

This study was designed to investigate the relationship between sexuality and exercise motivations in 93 British bar staff. Participants who self-identified as heterosexual, gay, or lesbian completed the revised version of the Exercise Motivations Inventory and reported exercise frequency. Heterosexual men scored lower on appearance motives than did heterosexual women and gay men, higher on enjoyment motives than did gay men, and higher on competition motives than did women and gay men. Men were significantly less likely than women to be motivated by weight management. Heterosexual men also reported exercising significantly more frequently than the other three groups. Suggestions for targeted exercise promotion initiatives are discussed.     

“A Forgotten History” and Related Risks for Speech Genre Users in Trauma Mental Health: A Commentary

This paper utilizes the concept of the speech genre as defined by the Russian literary scholarly Mikhail Bakhtin to examine several discourses related to trauma psychotherapy. It explores the theme of A Forgotten History in trauma mental health and then relates it to current problematic patterns in trauma mental health work with international survivors of human rights violations. It considers the theme of A Forgotten History which has been an important narrative in shaping the trauma mental health movement. It argues that it may put genre users at risk of undesirable practices, and cites as examples current trends in torture treatment and trauma training being used with international survivors of human rights violations. Several recommendations for how the trauma mental health field can better conduct itself as a speech genre are proposed.     

Discrimination of “Four” and “Two” by Pigeons

The Psychological Record - Two pigeons learned to respond to four objects while withholding response to two objects. The birds maintained their numerical discrimination when new objects were...     

A Review of: “Let's Talk About Taking Care of You:”

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how military wives’ coping mechanisms are related to their emotional connection with their deployed husbands. Conceptualizing the marital relationship as an attachment system, we explored how military wives adopted various coping mechanisms during their husbands’ deployment and identified two types of efforts toward independence: self-sufficient independence through emotional avoidance, and autonomous interdependence through emotional connection. These are consistent with those coping behaviors informed by secure and avoidant attachment styles. Clinical implications are offered based on the discussion of the results.