CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS AS SOURCES OF STRENGTH OR OBSTACLES FOR MOTHERS COPING WITH HIV

The current study explores the impact of HIV disease on the interpersonal relationships and social support experiences of mothers living with HIV. Analysis of interviews with 25 mothers with HIV focused on their perceptions of the impact of HIV on close relationships with significant others, including family of origin, children, friends, intimate partners, and parents. The results revealed the following major relationship challenges that mothers had to cope with after the discovery of their HIV-positive status: weighing reasons for and against disclosure of their HIV status, whether HIV disclosure brings relationship partners closer together, finding future caregivers for young children if one's health declines, and coordinating safer-sex practices with sexual partners, especially with the many males who are reluctant to use condoms. The study suggests the importance of understanding both the positive and negative aspects of social interactions in coping with HIV and the struggles that mothers have with the consequences of the HIV diagnosis for both themselves and their significant others.     

Teaching Medical Law in Medical Education

Although the teaching of medical ethics and law in medical education is an old story that has been told many times in medical literature, recent studies show that medical students and physicians lack confidence when faced with ethical dilemmas and medico-legal issues. The adverse events rates and medical lawsuits are on the rise whereas many medical errors are mostly due to negligence or malpractices which are preventable. While it is true that many medical schools teach their students medical law and ethics, there are wide variations in what is being taught because there is no universally agreed syllabus. Yet the knowledge of medical law and ethics is closely relevant to the medical profession and that failure in abiding the law may result in serious civil or even criminal consequences. While this paper does not propose to lay detailed analysis of the relevant areas of law or ethics, it proposes to cover some legal areas so as to highlight and bring to attention the need for a medical law and ethics course. This article also considers the problems faced and recommendation as to future directions to be taken with respect to teaching medical law and ethics. It concludes with a suggested course outline for the teaching of medical law and ethics.     

Can voicing conflict within experiential learning groups facilitate connection? building and developing effective multi-disciplinary team-working skills

In the UK, Clinical Psychologists (CPs) work in a variety of settings within the National Health Service (NHS), often within Multi-Disciplinary Teams (MDTs). Problem-Based Learning (PBL) within CP training at the University of Hertfordshire (UH) offers unique opportunities to combine scientist-practitioner and reflective-practitioner models to learn about group dynamics from the personal experience of working within an experiential learning group.

Further, given Trainees work three days per week on placement within MDTs in the NHS, the learning gained within a ‘safer’ PBL context can be utilised within these clinical settings. For two years, Trainees at UH have to work in small PBL groups with five or six members learning to work together to achieve a goal (four assessed presentations) negotiating their own personal and professional journey, as well as a group journey. Consequently, PBL offers trainees opportunities to learn (1) how individuals work within a group; (2) how personal experiences influence this process; (3) how others influence them and are influenced by them; and (4) how a group of diverse individuals conceptualise, understand and convey case vignettes to an audience. Within these groups, many Trainees learn to speak out, reflect, listen attentively, empathise, validate and accept diverse experiences. Further, when differences dominate they often learn to negotiate these, finding a way to maintain effective team working in order to complete the presentation. Focusing on the conflict that can occur within (any) group, this paper explores themes from the reflective narratives of six trainees: parallels and differences between MDTs and PBL groups, striving for and achieving authenticity; and conflict as a ‘swear’ word. We conclude that exploring the role PBL can play in training individuals to work effectively in teams may be of benefit within the training of other professional groups.     

EMS Treatment of Families in an Ambiguous Out-of-Hospital Child Death: The Role of Attribution Errors

Sometimes children die from maltreatment. However, when first responders enter a scene to save the life of a dying child, the cause of the health problem cannot be immediately determined. EMS professionals are taught to enact the medically appropriate protocols in a family-centered way. This study examines five case studies of infant deaths. When there is ambiguity as to why the death might have occurred, EMS and other emergency personnel seem to be more judgmental and this attitude affects their behavior toward family members. Family members have a more difficult time coping with the loss as a result.     

Distinctiveness helps when matching static faces and voices

Three experiments are reported which examined the capacity to match a voice with a static image of a face. When using a simultaneous same/different matching task, performance was significantly better than chance (Experiments 1 and 2). However, it did not appear to depend either on sex of speaker, sex of listener, stimulus distinctiveness, or self-reported strategies (Experiment 2). Concerns over floor effects as well as a significant response bias prompted a change of task, and when performance was examined through matching a voice to a face lineup, a more interesting pattern emerged. Again, performance was significantly better than chance, but in addition, it was demonstrably affected by the distinctiveness of the speaker’s voice. These results are considered in the context of theoretical discussions regarding face–voice integration, and in the context of more applied considerations regarding multimodal benefits in witness scenarios.     

Impact of anticipatory processing versus distraction on multiple indices of anxiety in socially anxious individuals

In models of social phobia, anticipatory processing before a social-evaluative event is a key maintaining factor for the disorder. This study investigated the impact of anticipatory processing versus distraction before a social-evaluative task on affective (self-reported anxiety), psychophysiological (skin conductance), cognitive (self-reported maladaptive self-beliefs) and behavioural (in-situation performance) responses of participants. High and low socially anxious undergraduates were randomly allocated to either an anticipatory processing or distraction condition, and then completed an impromptu speech task. Relative to distraction, anticipatory processing increased self-reported anxiety in all participants, and increased skin conductance and the strength of conditional and high standard beliefs in the high (but not low) socially anxious participants. Unconditional beliefs were not affected. For high socially anxious individuals, anticipatory processing was also indirectly associated with poorer speech performance by increasing self-reported anxiety. Anticipatory processing appears to have multiple adverse effects in socially anxious individuals.     

Asian American college students' suicide ideation: a mixed-methods study

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to explore the phenomenon of suicide ideation among 293 Asian American college students. Guided by T. Joiner's (2005) interpersonal-psychological theory of suicidal behavior, the authors examined the relationships among perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness, self-construals, and suicide ideation. Compared with thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness was a more robust predictor of suicide ideation. However, thwarted belongingness moderated the positive association between perceived burdensomeness and suicide ideation. Furthermore, interdependent self-construal and independent self-construal both weakened the link between perceived burdensomeness and suicide ideation and between thwarted belongingness and suicide ideation. The authors also conducted a qualitative analysis of participants' open-ended responses about their perceptions of why Asian American college students might consider suicide. The authors identified a core phenomenon of unfulfilled expectations as well as 2 broad themes related to this core phenomenon: unfulfilled intrapersonal expectations and unfulfilled interpersonal expectations, comprising the subthemes of (a) family, (b) relationship, (c) cultural differences, and (d) racism. These findings are discussed in terms of implications for suicide-related clinical interventions and primary prevention efforts among Asian American college students.     

VALUES,DESIRES, AND LOVE: REFLECTIONS ON WOLLHEIM'S MORAL PSYCHOLOGY

In The Thread of Life, Richard Wollheim argues that a person's sense of value is grounded in the power of love to generate certain favourable perceptions of an object. Following from his view is a psychoanalytic conception of valuing as constituted by the imaginative force of phantasy, rather than rational deliberation. In this paper, I shall defend this conception with a view to explaining the relation between values and desires. I suggest that valuing qua phantasy‐making can ‘tune up’ a person's desires to fit his perception of the good. Such power of phantasy is to be contrasted with various types of motivational failure in moral imagination. Finally, I argue that ‘effective valuing’, which makes us capable of desiring what we perceive to be good, requires an affective kind of imagination which assures us that we have the ability to love and to be loved.     

Energy expenditure and enjoyment of small-sided soccer games in overweight boys

When space is limited, it would be preferable to play multiple small-sided soccer games (SSG) simultaneously on small courts, rather than a single game, to maximise participation. Given that the layouts of most gymnasiums incorporate several badminton courts, we examined whether energy expenditure and enjoyment of SSG on a badminton court (6.1 × 13.4 m) were comparable to larger court dimensions (volleyball and basketball courts; 9 × 18 m and 14.2 × 26.5 m, respectively). Twelve overweight boys played 30 min three-a-side SSG on each court in a counterbalanced design. During SSG, energy expenditure was estimated via accelerometry, heart rate was monitored and ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) and enjoyment were obtained. Energy expenditure was similar between badminton and volleyball courts, but lower than the basketball court (p < .05). Mean% HR_max was significantly lower on the badminton court than the volleyball and basketball courts (p < .05). There was no effect of court size on RPE or enjoyment (p > .05). These results suggest that it may be preferable to play SSG on a larger court when space is available. Alternatively, when space is limited the difference in energy expenditure between court sizes can be accounted for by an additional 2.3 min of play on a badminton court.     

Young adult female fragile X premutation carriers show age- and genetically-modulated cognitive impairments

The high frequency of the fragile X premutation in the general population and its emerging neurocognitive implications highlight the need to investigate the effects of the premutation on lifespan cognitive development. Until recently, cognitive function in fragile X premutation carriers (fXPCs) was presumed to be unaffected by the mutation. Here we show that young adult female fXPCs show subtle, yet significant, age- and FMR1 gene mutation-modulated cognitive impairments as tested by a quantitative magnitude comparison task. Our results begin to define the neurocognitive endophenotype associated with the premutation in adults, who are at risk for developing a neurodegenerative disorder associated with the fragile X premutation. Results from the present study may potentially be applied toward the design of early interventions wherein we might be able to target premutation carriers most at risk for degeneration for preventive treatment.