Roles of Perceived Provider Cultural Sensitivity and Health Care Justice in African American/Black Patients’ Satisfaction with Provider

The present study tests a refined first component of the Patient-Centered Culturally Sensitive Health Care (PC-CSHC) Model—the evidence supported component that links perceived provider cultural sensitivity to patient satisfaction with provider care and identifies trust of provider as the mediator of this linkage. The refined first component of the PC-CSHC Model tested in the present study is novel in that it includes the three dimensions of provider cultural sensitivity and includes perceived provider impartiality (fairness), a core aspect of perceived health care justice, as a mediator in addition to trust of provider (the other core aspect of perceived health care justice). Study participants were 298 African American/Black primary care clinic patients with low household incomes. Mediation analyses revealed that the three dimensions of patients’ perceived provider cultural sensitivity were significant predictors of the participating patients’ reported satisfaction with their provider, and that some of these predictive relationships were partially mediated by (1) patients’ perceived provider impartiality (fairness), and (2) patients’ trust of their provider. Implications of these findings for providers’ interactions with patients, development of the PC-CSHC Model, and the roles of psychologists in facilitating patient-provider interactions are discussed.     

THE ROLE OF AN IMMIGRANT MOTHER IN HER ADOLESCENT’S IDENTITY FORMATION: “WHO AM I?”

Immigration is a complex bio-psycho-social process and the immigrant mother has a truly complex task in lending her ego strength to her adolescent offspring. The normal adolescence’s decathexis of the love object and the consequent search for a new object may not happen smoothly for those adolescents whose mothers are immigrants. The immigration experience may cause the immigrant mother, who lost her motherland, deeper disturbance in self-identity as well as disequilibrium in her psychic structure, which in turn impacts adversely her adolescent’s development. The adolescent’s inadequate early experience with an immigrant mother may result in a deeper disturbance in his separation-individuation process as well as his identification process. An immigrant mother who has not mourned adequately, with a different sociocultural background has to go through a far more complex development of motherhood. The case of an adolescent boy, Jason, demonstrates the impact of immigrant motherhood on his ego development.     

Tribute to Don S. Browning (1934–2010)

This tribute adapts words originally written to honor Don S. Browning, one of the foremost pastoral and practical theologians and ethicists of his time, on the occasion of his death on June 3, 2010. The tribute appeared in the funeral worship bulletin on June 10, 2010 at Hyde Park Union Church in Chicago and was revised for a newsletter of a major educational institution with which he had many significant relationships and responsibilities (The Disciples Divinity House of the University of Chicago Bulletin 80, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 2010); used with permission). Although we embellished the tribute slightly, we did not change its main intent: It captures the remarkable depth and breath of Browning’s scholarly achievement, the mark he made on public and academic discussion, and the extent to which he is missed by his colleagues, friends, and family.     

The effect of question expectedness and experience on lying about intentions

In recent years researchers have started to focus on lying about intentions (Granhag, 2010). In the present experiment participants were interviewed about their forthcoming trip. We tested the hypothesis that liars (N=43) compared to truth tellers (N=43) would give fewer details to unexpected questions about planning, transportation and the core event, but an equal amount or more detail to expected questions about the purpose of the trip. We also tested the hypothesis that participants who had previously experienced the intention (i.e., they had made such a trip before) would give more detail than those who had never experienced the intended action. The unexpected question hypothesis was supported, whereas the previous experience effect only emerged in interactions. The benefit of using different types of questions for lie detection purposes is discussed.     

Workplace support, discrimination, and person-organization fit: tests of the theory of work adjustment with LGB individuals

The present study explored the links of 2 workplace contextual variables--perceptions of workplace heterosexist discrimination and lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB)-supportive climates--with job satisfaction and turnover intentions in a sample of LGB employees. An extension of the theory of work adjustment (TWA) was used as the conceptual framework for the study; as such, perceived person-organization (P-O) fit was tested as a mediator of the relations between the workplace contextual variables and job outcomes. Data were analyzed from 326 LGB employees. Zero-order correlations indicated that perceptions of workplace heterosexist discrimination and LGB-supportive climates were correlated in expected directions with P-O fit, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to compare multiple alternative measurement models evaluating the discriminant validity of the 2 workplace contextual variables relative to one another, and the 3 TWA job variables relative to one another; SEM was also used to test the hypothesized mediation model. Comparisons of multiple alternative measurement models supported the construct distinctiveness of the variables of interest. The test of the hypothesized structural model revealed that only LGB-supportive climates (and not workplace heterosexist discrimination) had a unique direct positive link with P-O fit and, through the mediating role of P-O fit, had significant indirect positive and negative relations with job satisfaction and turnover intentions, respectively. Moreover, P-O fit had a significant indirect negative link with turnover intentions through job satisfaction.     

How should “acceptance of responsibility” be addressed in sexual offending treatment programs?

Sexual offenders in treatment programs are usually expected to take responsibility for their offending—which we define, on the basis of a literature review, as giving a detailed and precise disclosure of events which avoids external attributions of cause and matches the official/victim's account of the offense. However, research has not established that a failure to take responsibility for offending is a risk factor for future recidivism. In this paper, we critically review and evaluate the literature on taking responsibility for offending, to determine the rationale for the popularity of this treatment target. We consider the reasons why sex offenders fail to take responsibility for their offending and examine some potential problems with focusing on this goal in treatment programs. We also describe alternative treatment strategies for taking responsibility and conclude that there is less need for offenders to take responsibility for their past offending than there is for them to take responsibility for their future actions.