Patient preferences for psychological counsellors: Evidence of a similarity effect

This study sought to examine the individual difference variables that affect potential patient preferences for hypothetical psychological counsellors. A representative British sample of 257 adults indicated their preferences for eight psychological counsellors differentiated by sex, age, and training location. A five-way mixed analysis of variance (participant sex and age as within variables, and counsellor sex, age, ethnicity as between variables) indicated a significant main effect for only counsellors’ ethnicity. There were also sex and age interactions showing evidence of a matching hypothesis: participants preferred counsellors of their own sex and age. The implications of these findings are considered.     

Personality and individual difference correlates of positive body image

In the present study, 101 women and 106 men from a community sample of British adults completed the Body Appreciation Scale (BAS), along with a battery of individual difference measures and demographics. Contrary to previous findings, there were no sex differences in BAS scores, either before or after controlling for individual differences in other measures. The results also showed that, moderating for participants’ sex, self-assessed attractiveness, educational qualifications, neuroticism, extraversion, and BMI were all significant predictors of body appreciation. In addition, higher media consumption and higher (male-stereotypic) instrumentality were associated with, but did not predict, higher body appreciation. These results are discussed in relation to the extant work on body image.     

Relationships between worry, psychotic experiences and emotional distress in patients with schizophrenia spectrum diagnoses and comparisons with anxious and non-patient groups

BACKGROUND: This study tests the hypothesis that worry is associated with psychotic experiences and examines whether worry would contribute significantly to emotional response independently of the intensity of psychotic experiences. This study also explores differences in worry between patients with a diagnosis of a schizophrenia spectrum disorder, patients with anxiety disorders and non-patients. METHOD: Fifty-one patients with psychotic diagnoses, 40 patients with anxiety disorders and 60 non-patients were assessed on measures of psychotic experiences, cognitive components of anxiety and depression. RESULTS: Dimensions of worry were associated with dimensions of delusional ideation and with psychotic experiences and social worry predicted emotional responses over and above the intensity of psychotic experiences. Both clinical groups had significantly higher levels of worry in comparison with non-patients. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that worry may be implicated in psychotic experiences and that people with psychotic diagnoses experience high levels of worry. The clinical implications of the findings are also discussed.     

Relationships between personal values and reported behavior on ethical scenarios for law students

Lawyers' values might be considered to play some role in the decisions that are made in everyday legal practice. This study aimed to explore the effects of personal value hierarchies on ethical decision making within the context of several ethical dilemmas. A questionnaire was administered utilizing hypothetical situations presented in 11 ethical scenarios and including the Rokeach Value Survey. Logistic regression results suggested that different personal values were significant predictors of reported behavioral choices on respective ethical scenarios. However, the most important values associated with behavior consistent with ethical conduct in scenarios were 'honesty' and 'equality'. The implications of results are discussed in the contexts of ethics education in a tertiary educational environment and in relation to regulation for the professions.     

Music while you work: the differential distraction of background music on the cognitive test performance of introverts and extraverts

The current study looked at the distracting effects of ‘pop music’ on introverts' and extraverts' performance on various cognitive tasks. It was predicted that there would be a main effect for music and an interaction effect with introverts performing less well in the presence of music than extraverts. Ten introverts and ten extraverts were given two tests (a memory test with immediate and delayed recall and a reading comprehension test), which were completed, either while being exposed to pop music, or in silence. The results showed that there was a detrimental effect on immediate recall on the memory test for both groups when music was played, and two of the three interactions were significant. After a 6-minute interval the introverts who had memorized the objects in the presence of the pop music had a significantly lower recall than the extraverts in the same condition and the introverts who had observed them in silence. The introverts who completed a reading comprehension task when music was being played also performed significantly less well than these two groups. These findings have implications for the study habits of introverts when needing to retain or process complex information. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Restlessness in Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Using Actigraphy to Measure Physiological Reactions to Threat

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is characterized by excessive, uncontrollable worry accompanied by symptoms of physiological arousal. Although individuals with GAD report greater subjective arousal than healthy individuals, they show equivalent or even attenuated physiological reactions to threat. This may result from using physiological measures better suited to fear than anxiety. To test this possibility, 102 adults with and without GAD were assessed for restlessness, a core physiological symptom of GAD. They were exposed to an in vivo threat task designed to elicit anxiety in the laboratory. Throughout the task, restlessness was measured physiologically with actigraphy sensors on both ankles and both wrists, and subjectively with self-report ratings. The GAD group reported higher subjective restlessness than the no-GAD group, and in the subset of cases who had restlessness as a clinically significant symptom, actigraphy scores were reliably elevated as well. However, although actigraphy scores increased with proximity to the threat, the increases did not differ by group. These findings provide initial validation for actigraphy as a novel measure of motor restlessness in GAD. In addition, they underscore the value of measuring restlessness using multiple assessment methods. These methods suggest that, in GAD, restlessness reflects a chronic state of arousal rather than a heightened physiological reaction to threat.     

Combating Contagion and Injustice: The Shared Work for Public Health and Faith Communities During COVID-19

Journal of Religion and Health - Faith communities are uniquely positioned for essential public health work to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and address the chronic pre-existing health disparities...     

Personality and police selection: Trait differences in successful and non-successful applicants to the metropolitan police

Three hundred and nineteen applicants to the Metropolitan Police Force (270 men and 49 women) were asked to complete the EPQ. Successful candidates were more extraverted and less neurotic than unsuccessful ones. No differences were found for P or L scores. All candidates ‘faked good’ displaying unusually high E and L scores and low N and P scores. The 64 applicants who declined to complete the questionnaire were less likely to be accepted into the force than the rest. It is hypothesized that this is because they are less outgoing types than their more willing counterparts. There was no difference in acceptance rates for men and women.