White Racial Identity Attitudes and the Ego Defense Mechanisms Used by White Counselor Trainees in Racially Provocative Counseling Situations

This exploratory study examined the relationship between racial identity attitudes and the use of ego defense mechanisms by White counselor trainees during cross‐racial counseling and supervision dyads. The sample consisted of 145 White counselor trainees enrolled in both master's and doctoral programs at 2 small private universities located in the northeastern United States. Results indicated that White counselor trainees at less mature statuses of racial identity attitudes relied on more primitive ego defenses to manage the anxiety experienced during racially provocative counseling and supervision dyads. Implications for counseling and counselor training are discussed in the context of the study's findings.     

Prevalence of Cognitively Intact Individuals Residing in Extended Care Nursing Facilities

There appears to be a relative absence of studies that have examined the prevalence of cognitively intact individuals who reside in extended care facilities. Prevalence data were collected on 296 persons who resided in 3 extended care nursing facilities in Central Virginia. Cognitive intactness was evaluated via the Minimum Data Set Cognitive Performance Scale (CPS) and an author-generated survey (i.e., Cognitively Intact Survey [CI Survey]) of select nursing staff members at each facility. The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) was utilized to examine the accuracy of the two measures in identifying cognitive intactness. Findings indicated that prevalence rates of cognitively intact residents varied as a function of the measures utilized to assess intactness. Specifically, a significantly greater proportion of the total sample of residents was judged to be cognitively intact via the CI Survey (34.12%) as compared to the CPS (26.01%). The level of interjudge agreement between the two measures was found to be moderately high (K = 0.68). When the MMSE was employed to verify individuals' levels of intactness, the percentages of residents predicted to actually be cognitively intact were somewhat lower for each measure. Specifically, based on the data obtained via the CI Survey, 22.75% of the total sample were predicted to actually be cognitively intact, whereas 17.85% of the sample were predicted to be intact based on the CPS results. Findings are discussed in light of factors that may have contributed to the differential prevalence rates of cognitively intact individuals obtained across the measures utilized in this study. Concerns regarding the utilization of the MMSE as a criterion measure of cognitive intactness in persons residing in extended care nursing facilities are provided, along with data on the living environments/roommate statuses of those residents judged to be intact via the CI Survey. Implications for the design of future extended care nursing units, as well as future research, are also included.     

Clinical Predictors of Depression in Patients with Low-Grade Brain Tumors: Consideration of a Neurologic Versus a Psychogenic Model

Few studies have examined quality of life issues in patients with brain tumors, though coping with cancer is stressful and is associated with heightened levels of depression. We used regression to examine the clinical factors that might predict depression in a group of 57 adults with low-grade brain tumors after surgery but prior to radiotherapy and chemotherapy. A neurological model comprised of tumor characteristics and treatment was compared with a psychogenic model comprised of both psychosocial and psychodynamic variables. Demographic variables and level of fatigue were also included. A model consisting primarily of fatigue (also clinically elevated) and secondarily of tumor location and aggressiveness of surgical treatment accounted for 33% of the depression score. In a small group at a later follow-up when patient depression was clinically elevated (4–6 years after baseline), fatigue, female sex, cognitive dysfunction, increased family support, and increased report of physical symptoms were associated with depression. The late out findings remain exploratory because of the small sample size, but they suggest that depression develops over time and results from a combination of neurological and psychosocial problems that ensue initial treatments. Treating these collateral problems may reduce the complications from depression.     

The School-Based Mourning Project: A Preventive Intervention in the Cycle of Inner-City Violence

This paper describes the origin, facilitation, and effectiveness of an innovative model of early secondary prevention designed to help high-risk, inner-city, elementary school children deal with multiple losses and trauma. Grieving is especially difficult for inner-city children who live in a chaotic environment of poverty and are often traumatized by witnessing and enduring violence. These emotionally vulnerable and often developmentally impaired children are unable to deal with the feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, the pain of grief, violent fantasies, and guilt. The result can be an underlying depression that children and adolescents try to avoid through aggressive acting out or self-destructive behavior. An innovative school-based model promotes mourning work. Clinical pre- and posttesting indicate the effectiveness of the intervention. Various extensions of the project are described.     

Investigating stereotype structure with empirical network models

In this work we present empirical network models as a new approach in the investigation of stereotype structure. We will argue that empirical network models can provide more insight into stereotype structure because they do not suffer from the inherent constraints of factor analysis and multidimensional scaling (e.g., group features interpreted homogeneously only on the basis of their shared variance, impossibility to adequately represent cognitive schemas, difficulties to make inferences on the basis of dimensions potentially overlapping). In the present research we show how empirical network models can represent stereotypes as dynamic cognitive structures clustered in different substructures. These structures will be based on both the stereotype content and the co-occurrence of features in each group target. Additionally, this research shows how using empirical networks can contribute to broadening the interpretation of stereotypes representing them in the framework of prejudice or intergroup attitudes.     

“God Smites You!”: Atheists’ Experiences of Stigma,Identity Politics,and Queerness*

Existing research on Atheists is sparse. The lived experiences of Atheists have been ignored almost entirely. Triangulating from autoethnographic materials and life-history interviews, this project documents the ways that Atheist individuals understand the stigmas attributed to them and their responses to it. Some of the behaviors are framed as “techniques of information control” such as “compartmentalizing” and “passing.” Others are framed as “Identity Politics.” Techniques of information control and identity politics may serve to impede efforts toward effective activism on behalf of Atheists. Taken from an alternative perspective, Atheism is deconstructed as a form of “queerness” in relation to religion.     

Will They Listen to Me? An Examination of In-Group Gender Bias in Children’s Communication Beliefs

Sex Roles - We assessed developmental and gender differences in children’s beliefs about their peers’ communication styles. We hypothesized that children hold more favorable beliefs...     

The impact of alcohol intoxication on witness suggestibility immediately and after a delay

Intoxicated witnesses are common, making it important to understand alcohol's impact on witness accuracy and suggestibility. Participants assigned to an immediate retrieval condition encoded and recalled in one of the three intoxication conditions: sober control, placebo, or intoxicated. Participants in the delayed retrieval condition were assigned to encode in one of the three intoxication conditions, returned a week later, and were assigned to retrieve in one of the three intoxication conditions. Intoxication condition at encoding was fully crossed with intoxication condition at retrieval in the delayed condition. Participants encoded a mock crime video and retrieved via a forced‐choice test, with answers already circled (purportedly by a prior participant); half of the precircled responses were incorrect. When recalling after a delay only, intoxication at encoding increased agreement with incorrect suggested answers and decreased accuracy. Results suggest intoxicated witnesses may benefit from being interviewed immediately rather than after a sobering delay.     

Computing Qur’ans: A Suggestion for a Digital Humanities Approach to the Question of Interrelations between English Qur’an Translations

The present article is primarily intended as a methodological contribution to Islamic Studies providing an example of how the power of computer-aided text analysis can benefit the field. The data consists of a set of 51 lexicons created out of translations of the Qur’an into English. The analysis applies simple programming to calculate the lexical overlap between translations and uses the results in a preliminary discussion of possible influence of earlier on later translations. The results are compared with conclusions arrived at in previous research on the interrelationship between translations and are also used to identify and suggest new areas for in-depth studies.