Barriers and Bridges to Intimacy and Mutuality: A Critical Review of Sexual Advice Found in Self-Help Bestsellers

Sexuality in a committed relationship is based ideally on both intimacy and mutuality. Gender socialization may limit women's and men's capacities in these two important areas of sexual relationships. This article describes the results of a content analysis of nine best-selling popular press books on the New York Times Bestseller List between 1988 and 1998 according to their advice related to sexual intimacy and mutuality. Books were analyzed to determine the degree to which they built barriers or bridges to the development of intimacy and mutuality. Results indicate that while most authors offered advice that built bridges to intimacy, several built barriers to the development of mutuality. Implications for therapists are discussed.     

Tend and Befriend: Biobehavioral Bases of Affiliation Under Stress

ABSTRACT— In addition to fight-or-flight, humans demonstrate tending and befriending responses to stress—responses underpinned by the hormone oxytocin, by opioids, and by dopaminergic pathways. A working model of affiliation under stress suggests that oxytocin may be a biomarker of social distress that accompanies gaps or problems with social relationships and that may provide an impetus for affiliation. Oxytocin is implicated in the seeking of affiliative contact in response to stress, and, in conjunction with opioids, it also modulates stress responses. Specifically, in conjunction with positive affiliative contacts, oxytocin attenuates psychological and biological stress responses, but in conjunction with hostile and unsupportive contacts, oxytocin may exacerbate psychological and biological stress responses. Although significant paradoxes remain to be resolved, a mechanism that may underlie oxytocin's relation to the health benefits of social support may be in view.     

Patient Perceptions of Telephone vs. In-Person <Emphasis Type="Italic">BRCA1/BRCA2</Emphasis> Genetic Counseling

Telephone genetic counseling (TC) for hereditary breast/ovarian cancer risk has been associated with positive outcomes in high risk women. However, little is known about how patients perceive TC. As part of a randomized trial of TC versus usual care (UC; in-person genetic counseling), we compared high risk women’s perceptions of: (1) overall satisfaction with genetic counseling; (2) convenience; (3) attentiveness during the session; (4) counselor effectiveness in providing support; and (5) counselor ability to recognize emotional responses during the session. Among the 554 participants (TC, N?=?272; UC, N?=?282), delivery mode was not associated with self-reported satisfaction. However, TC participants found counseling significantly more convenient than UC participants (OR?=?4.78, 95 % CI?=?3.32, 6.89) while also perceiving lower levels of support (OR?=?0.56, 95 % CI?=?0.40–0.80) and emotional recognition (OR?=?0.53, 95 % CI?=?0.37–0.76). In exploratory analyses, we found that non-Hispanic white participants reported higher counselor support in UC than in TC (69.4 % vs. 52.8 %; OR?=?3.06, 95 % CI?=?1.39–6.74), while minority women perceived less support in UC vs. TC (58.3 % vs. 38.7 %; OR?=?0.80, 95 % CI?=?0.39–1.65). We discuss potential research and practice implications of these findings which may further improve the effectiveness and utilization of TC.     

Attention allocation in social anxiety during a speech

Cognitive models assume that social anxiety is associated with and maintained by biased information processing, leading to change in attention allocation, which can be measured by examining eye movement. However, little is known about the distribution of attention among positive, neutral and negative stimuli during a social task and the relative importance of positive versus negative biases in social anxiety. In this study, eye movement, subjective state anxiety and psychophysiology of individuals with high trait social anxiety (HSA) and low trait social anxiety (LSA) were measured during a speech task with a pre-recorded audience. The HSA group showed longer total fixation on negative stimuli and shorter total fixation on positive stimuli compared to the LSA group. We observed that the LSA group shifted attention away from negative stimuli, whereas the HSA group showed no differential attention allocation. The total duration of fixation on negative stimuli predicted subjective anxiety ratings. These results point to a negative bias as well as a lack of a positive bias in HSA individuals during social threat.     

Temple Gairdner of Cairo revisited

Temple Gairdner was a prominent and respected figure in his own time, and remains an intriguing and engaging character worthy of occasional re‐examination. This paper presents some of the salient features of his biography and highlights some aspects of his life and work that deserve emphasis because of their continuing importance for the Christian approach to Islam. In particular, it describes the evolution in his assessment of Islam, how this affected his apologetic interpretation of Christianity for Muslims, his contribution to the training of missionaries to Islam, and how his contribution has been creatively continued within the Anglican Communion.     

Processing impairments in OCD: it is more than inhibition!

The study aimed to address a significant gap in the literature on inhibition impairments in OCD, by concurrently studying facilitation and inhibition processes and the effect of threat on these twin mechanisms. Participants were 20 persons with symptomatic OCD, 11 with remitted OCD, 20 with panic disorder and 20 normal control participants. Participants were required to respond to words that were either neutral or personally threatening, which during an immediately preceding trail, were responded to as targets (facilitation) or inhibited as non-targets (inhibition). OCD participants displayed greater facilitation and reduced inhibition, differences that were related to their diagnostic status but unrelated to symptomatic status. Threat had no effect on facilitation, but exacerbated inhibition problems in the symptomatic OCD and panic groups. This research suggests that underlying differences in both facilitation and inhibition, combined with influences of activated threat-schema on inhibition may play a role in the development and maintenance of OCD.     

The Effect of a Swarm of Local Tornados on Tornado Preparedness: A Quasi‐Comparable Cohort Investigation1

Previous research has indicated that experience with natural disasters appears to affect the extent to which populations act to mitigate and prepare for these events. Such efforts, however, have failed to disclose precisely why this relationship appears viable. Furthermore, rarely have these investigations included pre‐ and post‐tornado data from similar populations. In an effort to investigate further the effects of the mechanisms underlying the relationship between experience with disasters and preparedness actions, relevant data were assessed for 2 samples from the same population before and after the occurrence of a swarm of local tornados. Results indicate that tornado preparedness levels increased significantly following the tornados. Furthermore, appraised threat of tornados and personal responsibility for preparedness actions also increased significantly following the tornados. Implications of these results are discussed.     

Social Comparisons and Adjustment Among Cardiac Patients1

The research examined social comparisons, affiliative choices, and their relation to adjustment among patients in a cardiac rehabilitation program. Consistent with Taylor and Lobel (1989), evaluative and affiliative processes diverged, with patients making downward evaluations (Wills, 1981) but choosing to affiliate with those who were better off than themselves. Consistent with predictions, downward evaluation was associated with better psychological adjustment, supporting the idea that these comparisons meet self-enhancement needs; upward affiliations were associated with hopefulness and inspiration, as well as with the perception that such comparisons provide information that is useful for improving one's own condition. The implications of evaluative comparison and affiliative activities for coping is discussed.     

Are Traditional Gender Role Attitudes Associated With Risky Sexual Behavior and Condom-related Beliefs?

Traditional gender role attitudes, which emphasize an unequal distribution of power in the family and stereotypical norms about masculinity, may be associated with unsafe sexual behavior and beliefs in young men and women. This study was designed to examine associations between gender role attitudes including gender-based family role attitudes and masculinity ideology, sexual behaviors, and condom-related beliefs in a sample of sexually active college students (N = 154). Family role attitudes were related to risky condom-related beliefs but not to risky sexual behavior. Masculinity ideology was related to both sexual behaviors and condom-related beliefs but, in some cases, in a direction opposite to that predicted. These unexpected findings and the utility of examining masculinity ideology among women are discussed.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2002 Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence, New Orleans, Louisiana.