Eye movements measured with a solid state photodiode matrix

The apparatus described uses the corneal reflex technique to measure horizontal and vertical eye movements with a metal oxide semiconductor matrix array of 64 by 64 photodiodes. A simple optical system forms a reflex image on the array and also determines the device range, which can vary from ±25 deg to ±3 deg; sensitivity is 50 arc min and 6 arc min, respectively. Mounted on a simple lightweight headband complete with universal mechanical adjusters, the instrument weighs less than 100 g, excluding connecting cable, and samples eye movements every 5 msec.     

The Effects of Health Threat Seriousness and Personal Efficacy upon Intentions and Behavior1

Eighty dental patients were pretested with a scale measuring health locus of control and then exposed to a persuasive communication designed to manipulate their beliefs about the seriousness of periodontal disease and their susceptibility to it. The high seriousness condition increased feelings of fear, concern, and threat as well as intentions and reported compliance with recommended oral hygiene procedures. However, patient's perceived personal efficacy in performing the recommended behavior was the most important predictor of subsequent behavior. The implications of the results for Roger's protection motivation theory are discussed.     

Book review

Science and Its Fabrication A. Chambers (1990) Milton Keynes, Open University Press, £22.50 ISBN 0335 09318 3     

Lay theories of rape

This study examined ‘la’ theories of rape and compared them to numerous academic theories. One hundred and thirty subjects-52 male, 78 female-completed two questionnaires, one regarding attitudes/beliefs to rape in general, the other on the possible causes of the crime. Factor analysis revealed five factors in the attitude/belief items: Subjects generally perceived the rape victim as moral, responsible, and unprovoking; the rapist was perceived as a repressed delinquent. Subjects agreed with two of the six explanation factors, seeing rape as resulting from a desire for aggression induced by societal factors. The rapist was believed to be a psychopath. Lay theories did not correspond to any formal academic rape model or explanations. Beliefs about the causes of, and attitudes to rape, correlated highly. Age was the greatest determinant of perspective; older subjects believed more in victim precipitation. Suggestions are made for further research in this comparatively neglected area.     

Effects of programme context on memory of humorous television commercials

This study examined the effects of programme context on the memory of humorous television advertisements among a youth sample aged 16 to 18 years. Additionally, the relationship between the enjoyment and involvement properties of the programme and memory for advertisements were investigated. An experimental design was developed to test the memory for a set of six humorous and a set of six non-humorous advertisements within two programme contexts—a news bulletin and a comedy show. Findings indicated that unaided recall for advertisements was affected by programme type with memory for advertising being better from news than from comedy. Further, memory for humorous advertisements was better than that for non-humorous advertisements. Audience involvement with, and enjoyment of, the surrounding programme were found to be associated with poorer memory for advertisement content. Copyright © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Therapeutic Utility of Discussing Therapist/Client Intersectionality in Treatment: When and How?

The impact of the therapeutic alliance on positive clinical outcomes has been established in the literature; however, literature is lacking on how the intersection of therapist and client identities influences this process. We propose that the relational intersectionality resulting from similarities or differences in therapist and client identities has the potential to impact the bonds, tasks, and goals of treatment (key components of the therapeutic alliance; Bordin, 1979) depending on how it is addressed or avoided in therapy. In this paper, we present a model containing pragmatic steps therapists can follow to navigate these conversations with clients in a way that is therapeutically beneficial and culturally sensitive and attuned. Additionally, we provide suggestions for using the proposed model to train new student therapists (or expose experienced therapists) to ideas of intersectionality and social justice by reflecting on the intersection of their own identities, acknowledging dynamics of power and oppression, and understanding how this could shape their relationship with clients.     

Last rights: the ethics of research on the dead

People often have strong views about being the subjects of research after their deaths. Should these views be given any weight and, if so, how much? How could we find out what the views are and what should we do if we cannot? This paper defends the idea of posthumous interests and discusses the significance of those interests for research ethics. It argues that we can be guided by a symmetry between the interests of living and dead people and uses posthumous privacy as an example. It also claims that the weight of those interests might not decline even over long periods of time. The arguments have important implications for the ethics of (amongst others) biomedical, archaeological, anthropological, historical, and sociological research.     

Parental consent and the use of dead children's bodies

It has recently become known that, in Liverpool and elsewhere, parts of children's bodies were taken postmortem and used for research without the parents being told. But should parental consent be sought before using children's corpses for medical purposes? This paper presents the view that parental consent is overrated. Arguments are rejected for consent from dead children's interests, property rights, family autonomy, and religious freedom. The only direct reason to get parental consent is to avoid distressing the parents, which carries implications for the consent process, secret harvesting of body parts, and the weight to be given to parental feelings.     

Attributional Style and Personality as Predictors of Happiness and Mental Health

This paper contains two studies which set out to examine to what extent attributional style (internal, stable, global) and personality traits predicted happiness and psychiatric symptoms in a normal, non-clinical, population of young people in their early twenties. Two hundred and three participants completed five questionnaires: the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ) (version one & version two), Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, Oxford Happiness Inventory, and Langner 22-Item Measure. Sample 1 (n = 120) completed ASQ version one (in both positive and negative situations) and sample 2 (n = 83) completed ASQ version two (in expanded negative situations). Regressional analysis showed that ASQ (in both versions) was the significant predictor of happiness and mental health accounting for 20% to 38% of variances. The ASQ was significantly associated with extraversion and neuroticism. Further, with happiness and mental health as dependent variables and attributional style, personality traits, and demographic variables as independent variables respectively, extraversion and attributional stability (in positive situations) were the significant predictors of happiness accounting for 59% of the total variance whilst neuroticism and psychoticism were the significant predictors of mental health accounting for 53% of the total variance. The results indicated that optimistic attributional style in positive situations was a stronger predictor of self-reported happiness than mental health and pessimistic attributional style in negative situations was a predictor of both happiness and mental health. Extraverts tended to have optimistic explanatory style for positive outcomes whereas neurotics tended to have pessimistic explanatory style for negative outcomes.