Spiritual health locus of control and breast cancer beliefs among urban African American women.

The present study examined the relationship between spiritual health locus of control, breast cancer beliefs, and mammography utilization among a sample of 1,227 African American women from urban public health centers. Spiritual health locus of control was conceptualized as having an active and passive dimension, empowering individuals in their health beliefs and behaviors or rendering them to rely on a higher power (e.g., God) to determine their health outcomes, respectively. The active dimension was negatively associated with perceived benefits of mammography and positively associated with perceived barriers to mammography. The active and passive spiritual dimensions are distinct from internal and external health locus of control. Further study of their associations with other health-related beliefs and behaviors is warranted.     

Fanon and Marx Revisited

ABSTRACT

On this 200th anniversary of Marx’s birth, what can we learn from Fanon’s turn to Marx over 60 years ago? This paper reviews Fanon’s active engagements with Marx throughout his work from Black Skin, White Masks to The Wretched of the Earth; from the importance of Marx’s 18th Brumaire in Fanon’s thinking, to what he calls stretching Marxian concepts. In this moment of crisis and retrogression, what can we learn from Fanon’s creative use of Marxian categories?     

Ethical Challenges Arising in the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Overview from the Association of Bioethics Program Directors (ABPD) Task Force

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised a host of ethical challenges, but key among these has been the possibility that health care systems might need to ration scarce critical care resources. Rationing policies for pandemics differ by institution, health system, and applicable law. Most seem to agree that a patient’s ability to benefit from treatment and to survive are first-order considerations. However, there is debate about what clinical measures should be used to make that determination and about other factors that might be ethically appropriate to consider. In this paper, we discuss resource allocation and several related ethical challenges to the healthcare system and society, including how to define benefit, how to handle informed consent, the special needs of pediatric patients, how to engage communities in these difficult decisions, and how to mitigate concerns of discrimination and the effects of structural inequities.     

The relationship between naturally occurring dysphoric moods,elaborative encoding,and recall performance

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to examine the effects of levels of naturally occurring dysphoria and elaborative encoding on recall. Previous research has indicated that the facilitative effects of elaborative encoding on recall are reduced by the induction of negative moods in laboratory settings. However, the effects of endogenous dysphoria on recall are less clear. In the present study, 82 subjects from a college population were categorised as dysphoria or nondysphoric on the basis of two self-report measures. They were then presented with sentences in both elaborated and nonelaborated form, and recall for target words embedded in the sentences was assessed. Results demonstrated that nondysphoric individuals benefited from elaborative encoding in recall performance, whereas dysphoric individuals did not. Results are discussed in terms of Ellis and Ashbrook's (1988) resource allocation model of depression.