The influences of cultural values, ethnic identity, and language use on the mental health of Korean American college students

Little research has examined ethnic identity, cultural values, and native language maintenance as predictors of mental health in Korean Americans. The authors explored the influences of ethnic identity, maintenance of Asian cultural values, and maintenance of Korean language usage on self-esteem, anxiety, and depression in Korean American college students (N = 133). Findings indicated that Korean American men reported relatively high levels of state and trait anxiety and that the overall sample reported a relatively high level of depression. Whereas language and ethnic identity had a minimal influence on the mental health of students, greater cultural value maintenance was associated with decreased self-esteem and increases in state anxiety, trait anxiety, and depression. The positive relationship between cultural values and mental health problems may be indicative of being caught in an ethnic bind, in which the clash of traditional and modern values contributes to psychological distress. The authors discuss clinical implications of the findings.     

Learning Emotional Intelligence: An Exploratory Study in the Domain of Health

This research examines the role of emotional intelligence (EI) on the adoption and maintenance of a healthy weight. We implemented an intervention over a 6‐week period demonstrating that EI can be learned to promote the use of cognitive health knowledge in the adoption and maintenance of a healthy weight. Results suggest that improving EI reduces the negative impact of low EI on positive health outcomes, and promotes quality decision making related to health (i.e., reduced calorie intake).     

A Comparison of Active Student Response and On-Task Instruction on the Acquisition and Maintenance of Health Facts by Fourth Grade Special Education Students

An alternating treatments design was used to compare the effects of active student response (ASR) and on-task (OT) instruction on the acquisition and maintenance of health facts during small-group lessons. Five students with learning difficulties (4 students identified as developmentally handicapped and 1 student identified as learning disabled) participated in daily instruction on weekly sets of 20 unknown health facts (10 facts assigned to the ASR condition and 10 to the OT condition). During ASR instruction, the teacher modeled the correct response to a health question that was presented visually on a health fact card, and the students immediately repeated the correct response in unison three times. During OT instruction, students attended visually to the health fact card as the teacher modeled the correct response. All 5 students made more correct responses on end-of-day tests on health facts taught with ASR instruction than they did on health facts taught with OT instruction. ASR instruction also produced consistently superior results on maintenance tests administered 2 weeks after instruction.     

Psychological determinants of health and performance: the tangled web of desirable and undesirable characteristics.

Correlations were determined for male (n = 225) and female (n = 242) college students between sets of undesirable personality traits (anxiety, stress reactivity, anger, and alienation) and desirable personality traits (instrumentality, achievement strivings, and optimism measured by the Scheier-Carver [1987] Life Orientation Test), and a series of outcome variables related to health (self-reported health complaints and health maintenance behaviors and beliefs) and academic performance (academic expectations and actual grade point average). Significant correlations were found between many of the personality variables and the outcome variables. However, partial correlations revealed different relationships for the various criteria. With other variables held constant, health complaints were related to several undesirable characteristics, whereas health maintenance behaviors and beliefs were related to several desirable attributes. Only achievement strivings made an independent contribution in both sexes to the 2 measures of academic performance. The theoretical and methodological wisdom of using measures of multiple personality constructs and outcome variables is discussed.     

Establishing and maintaining healthy environments. Toward a social ecology of health promotion.

Earlier research on health promotion has emphasized behavior change strategies rather than environmentally focused interventions. The advantages of integrating lifestyle modification, injury control, and environmental enhancement strategies of health promotion are substantial. The author offers a social ecological analysis of health promotive environments, emphasizing the transactions between individual or collective behavior and the health resources and constraints that exist in specific environmental settings. Directions for future research on the creation and maintenance of health promotive environments also are examined.     

The link between women's body image disturbances and body-focused cancer screening behaviors: A critical review of the literature and a new integrated model for women

A large body of literature demonstrates the association between body image disturbances and health compromising behaviors among women (e.g., pathological eating, substance use, inappropriate exercise). However, given that disturbed body image is a pervasive problem, it is likely inversely related to health maintenance behaviors. Cancer screenings for breast, skin, and cervical cancer represent an important type of health maintenance behavior, yet adherence rates are low. Given the body-focused nature of these screenings, body image may be a salient predictor. This paper reviews the literature on the relationship between body image disturbances and cancer screening behaviors among women culminating in the proposal of a theoretical model. This model posits that body shame and body avoidance predict performance of cancer screenings and that variables drawn from the cancer literature, including risk perception, health anxiety, subjective norms, and self-efficacy, may moderate this relationship. Clinical implications and suggestions for research are discussed.     

近五十年美国医疗保健制度演进对我国医疗制度改革的启示

通过对美国自1945年以来50余年医疗保健制度演进的研究。涵概了四个发展时期;民办医疗保险体制;公办免费医疗保健制度和健康维持组织;医疗费用控制政策的实施;医疗保健制度的全面改革,以求对我国从计划经济向市场经济转轨后,医疗保健制度的改革提供借鉴。     

Regulation of behaviour in pursuit of health goals

Abstract

Prediction of health related behaviours and the specification of cognitive processes which might guide development of effective interventions may be promoted by the identification of processes which mediate between intentions and health behaviour. The present commentary addresses theoretical developments concerning the role of cognitive and personality processes in volitional pursuit of health related goals and in the maintenance of behavioural change.     

Psychological factors associated with maintenance of improved health behaviors in postcoronary patients

Multiple regression analyses of interview data determined whether certain behavioral, personality, and social support variables were associated with maintenance of changes in exercise, weight loss, and smoking cessation for a group of postcoronary patients. The results indicate that the psychological reactions to success or failure at one health behavior change, especially smoking, may affect the ability to maintain changes in other health behaviors. Also, the affective psychological sequelae to heart attacks may disrupt attempts to change health habits or may themselves be alleviated once successful health changes are achieved.     

Psychology,health and health care

This article traces the development of the World Health Organization's emphasis on psychological and behavioural factors in health and notes its encouragement of recognition of these factors by member states. The article further outlines the reasons for this increasing recognition and stresses the important role of psychological and behavioural factors in the maintenance of health and prevention of illness.     

Trajectories of scholastic well-being: The effect of achievement emotions and instructional quality in the first year of secondary school (fifth grade)

Social Psychology of Education - Due to their connections with positive educational outcomes, the maintenance of good health and scholastic well-being are highly relevant topics. However, to date,...     

心理健康标准研究的争鸣综述及其进一步的思辨

综述了近五年来教育心理学界关于心理健康标准问题讨论的十余篇文章的观点。进而进一步阐述了自己关于心理健康标准的主张。文章认为,心理健康标准应分为卫生学标准和教育学标准;精英的理想发展标准和大众的现实适应标准,形成一个二维结构。     

中国古代养生体育思想简论

中国古代养生体育思想是建立在其关于生命的认识基础上.传统文化从天人合一、天人相应的高度观照人的生命现象,认为人的生命是天地自然运化的产物,人的生命与天地自然运化具有相同的节律,与此相应,传统养生观要求顺应自然大化,遵循自然规律,按照自然运化节律调养身心;传统哲学认为人的生命是一个形体与精神相结合的整体,因此,在养生观上主张养神与养形相结合,提出了静以养神,动以养形的养生法则.     

Law enforcement and crisis intervention services: a critical relationship

Law-enforcement officers tend to look at traditional mental health services as being of little help to them in dealing with persons they encounter experiencing emotional emergencies. They are frequently skeptical that emergency mental health programs offer more than they deliver. Because of their traditional base as the primary, and frequently only, available emergency "field" service in a community, a mental health emergency program must have a cooperative working relationship with law enforcement to serve a community successfully. This paper describes the development and maintenance of such a relationship, designed to increase the police case-finding potential.     

Adherence with universal precautions after immediate, personalized performance feedback

We evaluated the effects of immediate, personalized performance feedback on adherence with hand hygiene by health‐care staff in the context of a multiple baseline design across participants. Target behaviors reached mastery levels and were maintained near 100% throughout 2 months of maintenance probes.     

Well-Being and Physical Health: A Mediation Analysis

This paper’s aim is to propose a mediation framework and test whether lifestyle choices and social capital are pathways through which baseline levels of well-being affect subsequent physical health among older adults. Using large-scale panel data for Australia, we find that past levels of well-being have strong direct effects on present physical health. We also show that more frequent socialization and more frequent participation in physical activity are two pathways through which higher levels of well-being lead to better physical health. These mediating effects vary across gender. Our findings highlight a protective role of subjective well-being in physical health. Interventions taking into account not only the direct but also the indirect effects of well-being are promising avenues for physical health maintenance in the older population.

     

Improving adherence to fluid restrictions in male hemodialysis patients: a comparison of cognitive and behavioral approaches.

A cognitive intervention and a behavioral intervention were compared to determine their relative effectiveness in reducing interdialytic weight gain (IWG) among eight adult male hemodialysis patients. The behavioral model consisted of positive reinforcement, shaping, and self-monitoring. The cognitive model consisted of a counseling intervention designed to modify health beliefs. Three small-sample experimental studies showed that both interventions produced immediate reductions in IWG. However, the behavioral intervention was superior to the cognitive intervention in producing maintenance of reduced weight gain. Combining the interventions resulted in no improvement over the behavioral intervention alone. Continuation of self-monitoring procedures produced maintenance of improvements up to 2 months posttreatment. Repeated-measures analysis of variance showed changes for only the "barriers" dimension of the health belief model (Hartman & Becker, 1978) (p < .001), and this occurred only following or concurrent with adherence behavior change. Suggestions for treatment and future research are offered.     

儒家文化对当前中国心理健康服务实践的影响

心理健康服务是以心理学的理论和方法为主导来维护与促进人们心理健康的活动。它与个人的心理因素和社会文化因素有必然联系, 中国心理健康服务植根于中国文化的土壤之中, 它本身就是文化的产物。而儒家文化作为中国社会的主流文化, 它在中国心理健康服务过程中具有表征、构建、指导、唤起功能; 对心理健康服务者和被服务者的人格、应对方式以及服务态度和行为产生直接和间接影响。中国心理健康服务模式与儒家文化传统的关系问题实际上涉及的是心理健康服务与文化的普遍性与特殊性问题。构建适合中国文化土壤的心理健康服务体系需要研究儒家文化传统对心理健康服务模式的观念、理论及实践操作层面的作用和影响。