Psychosocial Adjustment in Male-to-Female Transsexuals: An Overview of the Research Evidence

Transsexualism has been defined as an extreme gender dysphoria; it refers to unhappiness with one's biological sex and the desire to have the body of the opposite sex and to be regarded by others as a member of that other sex. Transsexualism is not a common condition, but its prevalence is not yet known. A large number of transsexuals receive hormonal treatment and sex reassignment surgery (SRS). In spite of years of poor quality research, due in part to methodological problems, recent research on surgical outcomes has provided important information. However, psychological research into transsexualism has ignored the cognitive style and psychological functioning of transsexuals, and very little effort has been made to incorporate research findings into the development of psychological treatments to improve the quality of life for transsexuals.     

Cognitive guidelines for simplifying medical information: Data framing and perception

In this paper, 1 describe psychological guidelines for simplifying medical information — methods to aid the perception and recognition of abnormalities in medical test reports. These techniques resemble natural human editing strategies outlined in prospect theory. The methods pre-edit data as humans do but to reduce human effort. I review empirical studies assessing these techniques and discuss needs for further research.     

HIV counselling in the 1990s and beyond

It is 15 years since AIDS was first described in the medical literature. Reports of immune system disorders among gay men in large cities in the USA in 1981 signalled the start of what has now become a pandemic affecting millions of people. The psychological impact of HIV infection has been well-documented and it is widely reported that psychological treatment is mosdy provided for the treatment of adjustment reactions. Counselling for HIV prevention and HIV antibody testing has also been at the forefront of psychological support services. More recenuy, there has been a determined effort among counsellors to develop a range of psychotherapeutic approaches to help people to cope with and adjust to living with terminal illness. Most research published in the 1980s on the psychological impact of HIV addressed the infected individual. This symposium introduces a growing interest in the field for counselling those who are affected by HIV, including families, health-care workers and communities. This trend is becoming the focus of many counselling programmes worldwide and is likely to continue throughout the 1990s and beyond.     

Tokenism in Psychology: Standing on the Shoulders of Small Boys

Tokenism is a situation in which a member of a distinctive category is treated differently from other people. This article is about the situation in which Tokens (people perceived as distinctive) are considered experts on something for having the properties of a token (the thing which makes them distinctive). Tokens who differ by appearance or by being born into another culture might be considered experts on cultures grouped into the same racial/cultural category. Tokens who differ by being skilled in number-related mathematics might be considered experts on the mathematization of phenomena. Tokens might say that some result is valid for all people in some racial/cultural category without sufficient evidence, or use number-related mathematics as a mathematization of psychological phenomena without trying to find more abstract mathematizations. This harms psychological research. A possible future genesis of cultural and number tokenisms is discussed, and some suggestions to improve the discourse offered. The effect of tokenism might be diminished if psychologists focus on more proper thinking about psychological phenomena.     

On data-limited and resource-limited processes

This paper analyzes the effect on performance when several active processes compete for limited processing resources. The principles discussed show that conclusions about the interactions among psychological processes must be made with caution, and some existing assumptions may be unwarranted. When two (or more) processes use the same resources at the same time, they may both interfere with one another, neither may interfere with the other, or one may interfere with a second without any interference from the second process to the first. The important principles are that a process can be limited in its performance either by limits in the amount of available processing resources (such as memory or processing effort) or by limits in the quality of the data available to it. Competition among processes can affect a resource-limited process, but not a data-limited one. If a process continually makes preliminary results available even before it has completed all its operations, then it is possible to compute performance-resource operating characteristics that show how processes interact. A number of experiments from the psychological literature are examined according to these processing principles, resulting in some new interpretations of interactions among competing psychological processes.     

The personality of the teacher as a patient type in psychological diagnosis]

The report concerns the questioning of 200 pedagogues using the questionnaire concerning introversion, neuroticism, rigidity and autonomic instability. All the patients are teachers and pupils in working relationships who were chosen from medical dispensary care with present symptoms of exhaustion and conflicting reactions, and who were transferred to psychological supervision. From the resulting data in the scales investigated, a configuration frequency analysis of the symptoms of introversion, neuroticism, rigidity and autonomic instability is given. Three oft-occurring typical configurations of scale can be found. From this a configuration type (with stikingly rigid behaviour and an otherwise unobtrusive scale constellation) can be interpreted as the "typical tacher" product of lengthy pedagogic activity.     

Generating and sharing of market intelligence in sales teams: an economic social network perspective

In this research, we take a multimethod approach to shed light on the potential costs to sales teams that generate and share market intelligence (MI). First, we introduce an analytical model to propose the respective levels of effort that sales managers, experts, and team members spend generating and sharing MI. To test our propositions, we utilize social network data from 40 independent, business-to-business (B2B) sales teams, representing 287 salespeople. Interestingly, our results support the premise that team members become dependent (reduce MI efforts) when their sales manager or team expert shares MI among the team. We term this a “sharing tax” that sales managers and team experts pay when they share MI. Consequently, sales managers demonstrate greater MI-generation efforts the more they share MI. We also find that experts who share more (less) also show greater (lesser) MI-generation efforts, but only for teams where sales managers share low (high) levels of MI. In summary, our research innovatively conducts an empirical test of the Nash Equilibrium pattern of sales team effort to show that two critical team members, the sales manager and expert, are at a disadvantage when they share valuable MI.     

器官移植患者社会心理因素分析

器官移植给晚期疾病的病人提供了第二次生存的机会,但同时亦带来了一系列社会、心理问题.移植患者围手术期常常出现焦虑、抑郁等心理反应,多数受者出院后仍存在不同程度的社会功能缺陷,在健康教育中应重视心理支持及培养受者社会适应能力,充分调动家庭及社会资源,促进受者尽快适应社会和家庭生活,提高生活质量.     

Mathematical analysis in psychology of education: Computation of stimulation,rapport, and instructor's driving power

Mathematical expressions are derived for such concepts as stimulation of student by instructor, student-instructor rapport, and driving power of instructor, in terms of the student's and the instructor's foci of attention, their strength of concentration, and the intensity of the presentation and of the reception of details of subject matter. Under the assumption of normal distribution, the mathematical methods of combination and integration yield conclusions on summary integral effects of interrelations within the educational team. The psychological interpretation of the mathematical results thus obtained conforms with common sense. The main emphasis of the article is the exposition of how the mathematical method of combination and integration can be used to estimate the resultant effect of various independent combined simple factors acting independently within the individuals forming the educational team. No claim is made as to the absolute truthfulness and reliability of the psychological postulates used at the beginning stage of the mathematical analysis.In presenting this paper the primary intention of the author has been to apply certain mathematical techniques to the field of psychology. The method presented is illustrative and the mathematical techniques are the main emphasis of the article. The absolute truthfulness of the psychological postulates used and of their implications will doubtless be questioned by readers of higher competence in the field of psychology. If psychological postulates of less uncertain and less questionable character should be substituted by experts in the field to lay a basis for the mathematical analysis, the psychological content and the psychological implications derived should doubtless be on a higher level of credibility.The author wishes to express his indebtedness to Mr. Willard Skolnik of the Illinois Institute of Technology for his valuable suggestions regarding the form of presentation of the material involved.     

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in Medical Settings

Meditation, as a psychological intervention, has become of increasing interest to psychologists who conduct clinical research with or provide clinical services to medical populations. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is a manualized program which teaches a variety of meditation techniques and has frequently been used in medical settings with mixed medical populations. The following is a review of the literature, which provides preliminary support for the effectiveness of MBSR in specific medical populations, including persons with chronic pain, cancer and heart disease. Despite these encouraging findings, experts agree that continued research is needed, especially controlled studies with more rigorous methodology.     

Contemplative/emotion training reduces negative emotional behavior and promotes prosocial responses

Contemplative practices are believed to alleviate psychological problems, cultivate prosocial behavior and promote self-awareness. In addition, psychological science has developed tools and models for understanding the mind and promoting well-being. Additional effort is needed to combine frameworks and techniques from these traditions to improve emotional experience and socioemotional behavior. An 8-week intensive (42 hr) meditation/emotion regulation training intervention was designed by experts in contemplative traditions and emotion science to reduce "destructive enactment of emotions" and enhance prosocial responses. Participants were 82 healthy female schoolteachers who were randomly assigned to a training group or a wait-list control group, and assessed preassessment, postassessment, and 5 months after training completion. Assessments included self-reports and experimental tasks to capture changes in emotional behavior. The training group reported reduced trait negative affect, rumination, depression, and anxiety, and increased trait positive affect and mindfulness compared to the control group. On a series of behavioral tasks, the training increased recognition of emotions in others (Micro-Expression Training Tool), protected trainees from some of the psychophysiological effects of an experimental threat to self (Trier Social Stress Test; TSST), appeared to activate cognitive networks associated with compassion (lexical decision procedure), and affected hostile behavior in the Marital Interaction Task. Most effects at postassessment that were examined at follow-up were maintained (excluding positive affect, TSST rumination, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia recovery). Findings suggest that increased awareness of mental processes can influence emotional behavior, and they support the benefit of integrating contemplative theories/practices with psychological models and methods of emotion regulation.     

The prevalence and correlations of medical student burnout in the pre-clinical years: a cross-sectional study

Burnout is a psychological syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and impaired personal accomplishment induced by repeated workplace stressors. Current research suggests that physician burnout may have its origins in medical school. The consequences of medical student burnout include both personal and professional distress, loss of empathy, and poor health. We hypothesized that burnout occurs prior to the initiation of the clinical years of medical education. This was a cross-sectional survey administered to third-year medical students at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine (MSSM) in New York, New York (a traditional-style medical school with a marked division between pre-clinical and clinical training occurring at the beginning of the third year). Survey included an instrument used to measure job burnout, a sleep deprivation screen, and questions related to demographic information, current rotation, psychiatric history, time spent working/studying, participation in extracurricular activities, social support network, autonomy and isolation. Of the 86 medical students who participated, 71% met criteria for burnout. Burnt out students were significantly more likely to suffer from sleep deprivation (p?=?0.0359). They were also more likely to disagree with the following statements: "I have control over my daily schedule" (p?=?0.0286) and "I am confident that I will have the knowledge and skills necessary to become an intern when I graduate" (p?=?0.0263). Our findings show that burnout is present at the beginning of the third year of medical school, prior to the initiation of the clinical years of medical training. Medical student burnout is quite common, and early efforts should be made to empower medical students to both build the knowledge and skills necessary to become capable physicians, as well as withstand the emotional, mental, and physical challenges inherent to medical school.     

男科临床工作中的人文关怀

随着现代医学模式的转化和男科学诊治技术的发展,在男科临床工作中应该注重树立人文关怀理念和强化人性化服务意识。实施人文关怀的方法包括：重视心理应激,应用心理疗法;关注患者生活,有效预防疾病;营造人文环境,提供人性化服务;遵循最优化原则,做到适度医疗;关心老年人健康,关注社会特殊群体。在男科临床工作中应提高人文关怀的自觉性。     

Stuck like glue: the formation and consequences of brand attachments among salespeople

Although managers and researchers put utmost importance on uncovering factors that affect effort and performance of sales representatives, they have largely overlooked a key factor. This research aims to remedy this neglect by shedding light on salesperson brand attachment. A qualitative study first examines the prevalence of attachment and uncovers several potential antecedents. Two follow-up empirical studies show that identification and psychological ownership are significant predictors of salesperson brand attachment. Informed by this research, managers can encourage brand attachment, with the end goal of increasing salesperson effort and ultimately performance, by increasing feelings of identification and psychological ownership among salespeople. This impact is particularly notable among brands with low market share, which are often a key concern of managers. The findings provide novel insights into how attachment affects sales representatives, as well as potential methods to cultivate such an attachment.     

The Caregivers' Attachment and Relationship Education Class: A New and Promising Group Therapy for Caregivers of Individuals with Parkinson's Disease

The authors examined whether a newly developed group therapy, based on principles of attachment theory and emotionally focused couples therapy, can potentially address the unique mental health and relationship difficulties in caregivers of individuals with Parkinson's disease. A comprehensive outreach effort, involving a review of 251 military veterans' medical records, yielded enrollment of seven spousal caregivers in the group therapy. At 1-month follow-up, caregivers who initially reported mild or greater levels of caregiver burden demonstrated statistically reliable declines in psychological distress, relationship distress, or both. Posttreatment surveys indicated positive perceptions in overall helpfulness of treatment goals, as well as positive changes in insight (e.g., greater understanding of the patient's attachment needs) and behaviors (e.g., greater social contact and self-care of the caregiver). Results are considered in the context of inadequate access to treatment for caregivers of spouses with Parkinson's disease or other major medical issues.     

Effects of Dohsa‐hou relaxation on body awareness and psychological distress1

Relaxation is one of the most frequently used methods for treating psychological and physical problems. Many relaxation methods are effective treatments for various psychological problems. Body awareness could be an important component of body‐oriented psychological treatment. In this study, a self‐report measure for the assessment of body awareness was developed, and its psychometric characteristics and relationships with other psychological constructs were examined. The effect of Dohsa‐hou relaxation was investigated using the developed Body Awareness Scale (BAS). The results showed that the BAS had good internal consistency and test‐retest reliability, and that it was associated with related psychological constructs. Dohsa‐hou relaxation led to increased body awareness and decreased psychological distress. The BAS can be a useful instrument in the field of body‐oriented psychotherapy research and related treatment methods, and increased body awareness has an important role in Dohsa‐hou relaxation therapy.     

癫痫诊治中医患同盟建立的实践与策略

癫痫治疗目前仍以长期科学规范的药物治疗为主,为保证医生的治疗计划得到贯彻,在诊治中努力寻求医患同盟的建立尤为重要,让患者清楚地认识到医生对他的关注,认识到医生治疗的计划性、和具有应对各种情况的措施方法和能力,是寻求患方合作的基本条件。本文就医生首诊中的任务、人文关怀的重要性、如何共同进行药物选择、副反应规避、家属不良治疗心态纠正等问题进行探讨。     

The Psychology of Health and Illness: The Mental Health and Physiological Effects of Intimate Partner Violence on Women

Violence against women is a global public health problem with about one in three women experiencing either physical and or sexual intimate partner violence during their lifetime. Globally as many as 38% of homicides committed against women are by a male intimate partner. Violence against women may have negative effects on their mental, physical, and reproductive health (WHO fact sheet, 2016). Untreated individuals who have experienced violence or life-threatening situations may develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This disorder has the potential to be life-changing and cause negative psychological and medical issues (Rokach, Ahmed, & Patel, 2017). This potentially life-changing nature and consequence of violence affecting women world-wide deserves greater attention to ensure elimination of risk factors, financial support of investigational studies to promote detection of victims, and research to increase therapeutic efficacy of remediation. These efforts should be bolstered by all physicians, mental health experts, social service specialists, and public health advocates.     

Les publications des experts médicaux : l’exemple de l’anesthésie-réanimation

Forensic expertise becomes dominant in our society. Several reports questioned the competence of medical experts. We analysed the scientific competence of the 136 experts in Anaesthesia, Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine from senior courts in France. For that purpose, we made the choice of the H-Index and the number of scientific publications as markers of quality, using Google Scholar and PubMed databases. Thirty-five percent of experts have an H-Index equal to zero and 27 % never published. Out of the 104 experts who published at least one scientific article, 27 (26 %) did not publish for at least 10 years. The present study illustrates the great heterogeneity of the medical expert population regarding our criterions of judgement. This questions the selection and the operating mode of legal experts. There is a major difference with the selection process performed by the French Conciliation and Compensation Commissions. We propose that the official scholarly societies should be consulted during the appointment process.     

DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES IN THE TREATMENT OF DIABETIC WOMEN

The physiological and psychological effects of diabetes on women show changes with age. Behavioral interventions on behalf of diabetic women must be based on an understanding of these life span changes. A review of selected articles from the medical and psychological literature that focus on special issues for a diabetic woman during preadolescence, adolescence, and adulthood is presented. Recommendations are made for behavioral interventions with diabetic women in regard to "sick" role adjustment, peer conformity pressures, eating disorders, sexuality, and pregnancy.