Optimism, pessimism, and change of psychological well-being in cancer patients

Whereas most previous studies have assessed optimism/pessimism as a unidimensional construct, there is increasing awareness that optimism and pessimism may represent two partially independent dimensions. In this study, the role of optimism and pessimism for the maintenance of psychological well-being was assessed in 161 newly diagnosed cancer patients. Before the start of chemotherapy, more positive affect balance was associated with higher optimism and lower pessimism. Over the course of 9 months following diagnosis, pessimism predicted negative change in affect balance, whereas no effect of optimism appeared. Higher levels of perceived side-effects of chemotherapy were associated with negative change in affect balance. However, an interaction effect of perceived side-effects with pessimism indicated that this was only the case in patients with above-median levels of pessimism. The conclusion is drawn that it may be more important to be less pessimistic than to be optimistic when diagnosed with cancer.     

Different types—Different rights

Drawing on a social construction theory of ownership in biological material this paper discusses which differences in biological material might motivate differences in treatment and ownership rights. The analysis covers both the perspective of the person from whom the material originates and that of the potential recipient. Seven components of bundles of rights, drawing on the analytical tradition of Tony Honoré, and their relationship to various types of biological material are investigated. To exemplify these categories the cases of a heart, a kidney, stem cells and hair are used.     

Editorial

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Localization of moving sound

The final position of a moving sound source usually appears to be displaced in the direction of motion. We tested the hypothesis that this phenomenon, termed auditory representational momentum, is already emerging during, not merely after, the period of motion. For this purpose, we investigated the localization of a moving sound at different points in time. In a dark anechoic environment, an acoustic target moved along the frontal horizontal plane. In the initial, middle, or final phase of the motion trajectory, subjects received a tactile stimulus and determined the current position of the moving target at the moment of the stimulus by performing either relative-judgment or pointing tasks. Generally, in the initial phase of the auditory motion, the position was perceived to be displaced in the direction of motion, but this forward displacement disappeared in the further course of the motion. When the motion stimulus had ceased, however, its final position was again shifted in the direction of motion. The latter result suggests that representational momentum in spatial hearing is a phenomenon specific to the final point of motion. Mental extrapolation of past trajectory information is discussed as a potential source of this perceptual displacement.     

Cyber-Islamophobia? The case of WikiIslam

A large amount of academic research has analysed and documented the fact that Muslims are often presented in a negative or stereotypical way in Western media and popular culture. This article focuses on how the Internet can also be used in spreading and publishing anti-Islamic and anti-Muslim opinions. Although the Internet is significant in the development of contemporary society, no studies have focused on the importance of information and communication technologies in spreading Islamophobic opinions. However, the new technologies can also be used for monitoring and combating Islamophobia, and many Muslim organisations are today using the Internet for these purposes. The article is based on an indepth analysis of both anti-Muslim and pro-Muslim homepages that can be related to the debate over Islamophobia.     

Self‐esteem discrepancies and defensive reactions to social feedback

Recent research has provided increasing evidence that discrepancies between implicit and explicit self‐esteem (SE) are related to defensiveness. However, only one pattern, called fragile SE (a combination of high explicit and low implicit SE), has been the focus of research so far. Relatively little attention has been paid to the second possible SE discrepancy (low explicit/high implicit). We propose that both types of discrepancies are maladaptive, because they indicate a lack of integration in self‐representation. We conducted two studies on the correlates of discrepant SE in the sphere of defensiveness. We hypothesized that persons with discrepant SE exhibit more defensive behaviour than individuals with congruent SE. In two student samples, explicit SE was measured by means of the Multidimensional Self‐Esteem Scale. Implicit SE was measured with the Name Letter Technique (Study 1) and an Implicit Association Test (Study 2). In Study 1 (N = 102) we examined effects of implicit and explicit SE on defensive reactions to ambiguous statements. For this purpose, we adapted the Ambiguous Statements Task (AST, Tafarodi, 1998 ), a procedure that measures participants' tendency to interpret ambiguous expressions in a positive vs negative manner. We found that the combination of low explicit SE and high implicit SE was associated with a more positive interpretation of the ambiguous statements. Study 2 (N = 87) investigated the effects of discrepant SE on reactions to SE threat in an experimental setting. The time participants spent reading positive or negative social feedback was used as an unobtrusive measure of defensiveness. We found that people with discrepant SE went through the negative feedback faster than people with congruent SE. In sum, the studies provide converging evidence that both kinds of discrepancies between implicit and explicit SE are related to defensive behaviour.     

The interplay between values,acculturation and adaptation: A study on Turkish‐Belgian adolescents

Although there is a bulk of evidence for the relations between values, acculturation, and adaptation, the interrelations between these key concepts of the acculturation literature have not yet been investigated simultaneously. The present study proposes a model connecting value orientations (separatedness and conformity) to adaptation outcomes (sociocultural and psychological). Furthermore, this link was hypothesized to be strengthened by an indirect relationship where acculturation strategies (culture maintenance and culture adoption) would relate certain values to certain aspects of adaptation. The model was tested on 287 Turkish‐Belgian adolescents with an average age of 16.27 years (SD = 1.86 years). SEM analysis confirmed the hypothesized indirect links underlining the crucial role of acculturation strategies as mediators in the adaptation process. Separatedness predicted sociocultural adaptation via culture adoption whereas conformity impacted psychological adaptation via culture maintenance. In addition, separatedness predicted poorer psychological adaptation. Results were discussed with reference to inverse benefits and costs of individualism and collectivism.     

Self-analysis and post-termination improvement after psychoanalysis and long-term psychotherapy

Long-term follow-up studies of long-term psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy or psychoanalysis are extremely rare, and few have focused on the post-treatment process itself. In the Stockholm Outcome of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy project, one of the results was that patients in psychoanalysis continued to improve after termination to a higher degree than patients in long-term psychotherapy. In this study 20 patients selected from the project were interviewed on two occasions, one and two years after termination, in order to explore how they described their post-treatment processes. The interviews were studied qualitatively using a multiple case study design, and categories of different types of post-treatment development were created from these case studies. Results indicate that the variation within treatment groups is large, and that development may continue in several ways after termination. The most striking difference between psychoanalysis and psychotherapy was not, as hypothesized, in the self-analytic function, but in various self-supporting strategies described by former analysands but not by former psychotherapy patients. However, only self-analysis was significantly correlated with post-termination improvement across both treatments. Three patients improving after termination and three deteriorating are described in detail as illustrations. Some methodological constraints of the design limit the generalizeability of results.