Healing Faith: A Qualitative Exploration of Latina Breast Cancer Survivors

Latina cancer survivors report higher levels of distress and depression and lower levels of social quality of life and overall health‐related quality of life when compared with all other cancer survivors. Cultural values influence cancer survivorship; however, little research to date has examined how aspects of the Latina culture may be healing during the cancer journey. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to present findings from a qualitative study exploring the influence of culture on quality of life for Latina breast cancer survivors. The authors use consensual qualitative research to understand the lived experiences of Latina breast cancer survivors.     

Innateness as a natural cognitive kind

Innate cognitive capacities are widely posited in cognitive science, yet both philosophers and scientists have criticized the concept of innateness as being hopelessly confused. Despite a number of recent attempts to define or characterize innateness, critics have charged that it is associated with a diverse set of properties and encourages unwarranted inferences among properties that are frequently unrelated. This criticism can be countered by showing that the properties associated with innateness cluster together in reliable ways, at least in the context of the study of cognition (though perhaps not in other scientific domains). Even though the causal connections between these cognitive properties are not always strict, they are robust enough to warrant considering innateness to be a natural kind as used in contemporary cognitive science.     

Cortisol response and psychological distress predict susceptibility to false memories for a trauma film

For eyewitness testimony to be considered reliable, it is important to ensure memory remains accurate following the event. As many testimonies involve traumatic, as opposed to neutral, events, it is important to consider the role of distress in susceptibility to false memories. The aim of this study was to investigate whether cortisol response following a stressor would be associated with susceptibility to false memories. Psychological distress responses were also investigated, specifically, dissociation, intrusions, and avoidance. Participants were allocated to one of three conditions: those who viewed a neutral film (N?=?35), those who viewed a real trauma film (N?=?35), and a trauma “reappraisal” group where participants were told the film was not real (N?=?35). All received misinformation about the film in the form of a narrative. Participants provided saliva samples (to assess cortisol) and completed distress and memory questionnaires. Cortisol response was a significant predictor of the misinformation effect. Dissociation and avoidance were related to confabulations. In conclusion, following a stressor an individual may differ with regard to their psychological response to the event, and also whether they experience a cortisol increase. This may affect whether they are more distressed later on, and also whether they remember the event accurately.     

Reflections on the Reflections

Pastoral Psychology -     

The affect heuristic in judgments of risks and benefits

This paper re‐examines the commonly observed inverse relationship between perceived risk and perceived benefit. We propose that this relationship occurs because people rely on affect when judging the risk and benefit of specific hazards. Evidence supporting this proposal is obtained in two experimental studies. Study 1 investigated the inverse relationship between risk and benefit judgments under a time‐pressure condition designed to limit the use of analytic thought and enhance the reliance on affect. As expected, the inverse relationship was strengthened when time pressure was introduced. Study 2 tested and confirmed the hypothesis that providing information designed to alter the favorability of one's overall affective evaluation of an item (say nuclear power) would systematically change the risk and benefit judgments for that item. Both studies suggest that people seem prone to using an ‘affect heuristic’ which improves judgmental efficiency by deriving both risk and benefit evaluations from a common source—affective reactions to the stimulus item. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Endorsement of Minority Rights: The Role of Group Position, National Context, and Ideological Beliefs

The present research was conducted in the Netherlands and used an experimental design to examine the endorsement of minority rights among Turkish and Kurdish participants in two framed, national contexts: the Netherlands and Turkey. In the Dutch context, each group is a minority, whereas in the Turkish context the Kurds are an oppressed national minority and the Turks are the national majority. The results showed that the Turks were less in favor of minority rights in the Turkish context than in the Dutch context, whereas the Kurds were more in favor of minority rights in the Turkish than in the Dutch context. In addition, the endorsement of minority rights was related to beliefs about majority rule, state unity, and ingroup identification, as well as to cultural diversity and perceived pervasive discrimination. The associations with the former three measures differed between the two groups and the two national contexts, whereas the latter two measures had main effects on the endorsement of minority rights.     

“WHITE CRISIS” AND/AS “EXISTENTIAL RISK,” OR THE ENTANGLED APOCALYPTICISM OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

In this article, I present a critique of Robert Geraci's Apocalyptic artificial intelligence (AI) discourse, drawing attention to certain shortcomings which become apparent when the analytical lens shifts from religion to the race–religion nexus. Building on earlier work, I explore the phenomenon of existential risk associated with Apocalyptic AI in relation to “White Crisis,” a modern racial phenomenon with premodern religious origins. Adopting a critical race theoretical and decolonial perspective, I argue that all three phenomena are entangled and they should be understood as a strategy, albeit perhaps merely rhetorical, for maintaining white hegemony under nonwhite contestation. I further suggest that this claim can be shown to be supported by the disclosure of continuity through change in the long‐durée entanglement of race and religion associated with the establishment, maintenance, expansion, and refinement of the modern/colonial world system if and when such phenomena are understood as iterative shifts in a programmatic trajectory of domination which might usefully be framed as “algorithmic racism.”     

Systemic and intrahippocampal administrations of the glucocorticoid receptor antagonist RU38486 impairs fear memory reconsolidation in rats

Reconsolidation is the process by which previously consolidated memories are stabilized after retrieval. Several lines of evidence indicate that glucocorticoids modulate distinct phases of learning and memory. These effects are considered to be mediated by mineralocorticoid receptors and glucocorticoid receptors (GRs), which display a high concentration and distinct distribution in the hippocampus. The role of glucocorticoid system in fear memory reconsolidation is the subject of some controversy. Moreover, we found no studies that assessed the role of hippocampal GRs in fear memory reconsolidation. Here, we investigated the effect of GR blockade on fear memory reconsolidation in rats. Rats were trained and tested in an inhibitory avoidance task. Intrahippocampal or systemic administration of the GR antagonist RU38486 immediately following memory reactivation produced a deficit in post-retrieval long-term memory that persisted over test sessions, and memory did not re-emerge following a footshock reminder. These results indicate that hippocampal GRs are required for reconsolidation of fear-based memory.     

Association of intimate partner violence with sociodemographic factors in married women: a population-based study in Iran

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a neglected public health issue in Iran. This study was conducted among married women residing in urban Rasht (northern Iran), to estimate the prevalence and frequency of different forms of IPV from husband and their associations with socio-demographic factors. We carried out a population-based cross-sectional survey with cluster sampling design from February to October 2015. The samples consisted of married women aged ≥ 18 years with total household in Rasht city (north Iran) as the sample frame. We administered the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS-2) to estimate prevalence of past-year IPV. Of 2091 women, 57.1% had suffered psychological aggression, 27.6% physical abuse, 26.6% sexual abuse, and 6.9% injury. A significant association with IPV was found for women with, age ≤ 40 years, unemployed, low education, husband’s addiction and rented-householders. Women who experienced physical abuse, had less age at marriage than women without violence. Also women with sexual coercion had less length of marriage than other non-abused women. On logistic regression, the strongest predictor of psychological, physical and sexual abuse was unemployment of spouse, whereas for injury it was low educational level (<12 years) of women. Our findings suggest that risk of IPV is high in our population. There is an obvious need of preventive and treatment activities. Our findings point at that various forms of abuse are different from each other in terms of differing characteristics of the perpetrators and it might be that also different strategies are needed to reduce and prevent these violence. Confirmation by further research is needed.