The Unmet Information and Support Needs of Women with a Family History of Breast Cancer: A Descriptive Survey

This study aims to survey the unmet support needs of women at increased risk of developing breast cancer. In total, 173 unaffected women with a family history of breast cancer completed a 28-item purposely-designed mailed survey. The majority of participants did not report a high level of unmet need for support. Receiving further information about cancer genetics was the most commonly reported area of unmet need. Only about 20% of participants reported a moderate to high degree of interest in attending a hypothetical support group. However, a higher degree of interest was expressed in internet-based information and supportive interventions. Amongst those interested in attending a support group, discussion, and receiving further information were the most preferred activities. Higher levels of unmet support needs were significantly associated with interest in attending groups. No demographic variables were found to predict interest in attending a support group. Implications for those considering establishing support groups are discussed.     

Kelly Oliver,Witnessing: Beyond Recognition

Continental Philosophy Review -     

Ideal selves and self‐esteem in people with independent or interdependent self‐construal

Not living up to one's ideal self has been shown to coincide with decreased self‐esteem. In the present paper, this notion is applied to the differentiation between people with independent versus interdependent self‐construal. We suggest that the ideal self of independents differs in two respects from the one of interdependents: with respect to its contents (autonomous versus social self‐knowledge) and with respect to the degree of context‐dependency of the encoded knowledge (context‐independent versus context‐dependent self‐knowledge). In three studies, via a priming we either manipulated contents or degree of context‐dependency of what participants considered themselves to actually be like. On both explicit and implicit measures, participants with independent construal indicated higher self‐esteem after priming of autonomous and context‐independent knowledge than after priming of social and context‐dependent knowledge. The opposite pattern was observed in participants with interdependent construal. Results suggest that independent and interdependent construals mirror different ideals which are applied as a comparison standard when evaluating the self. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An exploratory study on self‐evaluated aggression and androgens in women

Healthy, premenopausal women completed the Buss‐Perry Aggression Questionnaire. Venous blood samples were taken at the mid‐cycle phase of the menstrual cycle to determine plasma androgen levels. Total and free testosterone, 5α‐dihydrotestosterone, androstenedione, and dehydroepiandrosterone were assessed. Path analyses were aimed at finding out which of the five circulating hormones might best predict a latent aggression construct derived from the four subscales of the Aggression Questionnaire. A significant correlation was found between free testosterone and physical and verbal aggression subscales. In addition, the results demonstrate for the first time in women a significant link between 5α‐dihydrotestosterone and anger. Thus, both testosterone and 5α‐dihydrotestosterone may affect, by separate pathways, the basal regulation of aggression‐proneness in women. Aggr. Behav. 28:273–280, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Romantic relationships and fading of affect for memories of the shared past

The tendency for the affect associated with positive autobiographical events to fade less over time than the affect associated with negative autobiographical events (the fading affect bias, FAB) has been observed in a variety of contexts, but numerous mediators have been reported. This current study searches for the FAB, and for potential moderators of the FAB, in the context of romantic relationship memories. Both nonsexual types of memories and sexual types of memories showed the FAB. Moreover, the FAB emerged for memories of current relationships, but not for memories of past failed relationships. The FAB also emerged for securely attached individuals, but not for individuals exhibiting other attachment styles. In addition, the FAB was moderated by relationship quality, (for failed relationships) need to belong, sexual esteem, and sexual depression. Implications of these findings both for memory and for relationships are discussed.     

Cutaneous saltation within and across arms: A new measure of the saltation illusion in somatosensation

A new objective procedure was used to measure the strength of cutaneous saltation, in order to clarify current debates about the nature of this illusion. Three taps were presented successively to three possible forearm locations. Participants attended to the middle location and reported whether a tap was perceived there. When all stimuli were delivered to the same arm and intertap intervals were short, participants were unable to distinguish real and illusory stimuli at the middle location. When both arms were stimulated, location judgments on one arm were shifted toward a tap subsequently delivered to the other arm. These results challenge the view that saltation is a purely attentional phenomenon, but they are inconsistent with the idea that this illusion is produced in the primary somatosensory cortex.     

Dimensionality and construct validity of a video-based, objective personality test for the assessment of willingness to take risks in road traffic

The study at hand reports first results about the dimensionality and construct validity of a newly developed objective, video-based personality test, which assesses the willingness to take risks in traffic situations. On the basis of the theory of risk homeostasis developed by Wilde, different traffic situations with varying amounts of objective danger were filmed. These situations mainly consisted of situations with passing maneuvers and speed choice or traffic situations at intersections. Each of these traffic situations describes an action which should be carried out. The videos of the traffic situations are presented twice. Before the first presentation, a short written explanation of the preceding traffic situation and a situation-contingent reaction is provided. The respondents are allowed to obtain an overview of the given situations during the first presentation of each traffic situation. During the second presentation the respondents are asked to indicate at which point the action that is contingent on the described situation will become too dangerous to carry out. Latencies for items were recorded as a measure for the magnitude of the person's subjectively accepted willingness to take risks in the sense of the risk homeostasis theory by Wilde. In a study with 243 people with different education and sex, the one-dimensionality of the test corresponding to the latency model by Scheiblechner was investigated. Analysis indicated that the new measure assesses a one-dimensional latent personality trait which can be interpreted as subjectively accepted amount of risk (target risk value). First indicators for the construct validity of the test are given by a significant correlation with the construct-related secondary scale, adventurousness of the Eysenck Personality Profiler with, at the same time, nonsignificant correlations to the two secondary scales, extroversion and emotional stability, that are not linked to the construct.     

The effect of hemispatial neglect on the perception of centre

Highly variable bisection performance in neglect patients has been attributed to an increased 'zone of indifference'. The indifference zone indicates the discrepancy between two line lengths which are judged as equal in length. Following this argumentation, the central area of a line should be expanded in neglect patients. The present two experiments investigated for the first time the expansion of the central area using a modified version of the Landmark Task. The location of a central or asymmetrical bisection mark on a horizontal line had to be judged (centre/left/right). In both experiments neglect patients, unlike healthy and patient controls, showed clear deficits in judging the location of the mark correctly and tended to judge asymmetrical marks of up to 4 cm as centrally positioned. The results are in agreement with and provide the first clear evidence of an enlarged perceptual zone of indifference in patients with hemispatial visual neglect.     

Motor limitation in dual-task processing under ballistic movement conditions

The standard bottleneck model of the psychological refractory period (PRP) assumes that the selection of the second response is postponed until the first response has been selected. Accordingly, dual-task interference is attributed to a single central-processing bottleneck involving decision and response selection, but not the execution of the response itself. In order to critically examine the assumption that response execution is not part of this bottleneck, we systematically manipulated the temporal demand for executing the first response in a classical PRP paradigm. Contrary to the assumption of the standard bottleneck model, this manipulation affected the reaction time for Task 2. Specifically, reaction time for Task 2 increased with execution time for Task 1. This carryover effect from Task 1 to Task 2 provides evidence for the notion that response execution can be part of the processing bottleneck.