Five-factor personality traits and subjective health among caregivers: the role of caregiver strain and self-efficacy

This study examined the association among caregivers' five-factor personality traits and subjective health with particular emphasis on the role of two theoretically implicated mediators: multi-domain self-efficacy and caregiver strain. The sample comprised 536 informal caregivers (mean age = 62.9 years, SD = 19.9, 72% female, 98% White) of community-dwelling older adults with multiple functional impairments. Both physical health and mental health were negatively associated with neuroticism and positively associated with extraversion and conscientiousness. Agreeableness and openness were associated with better subjective mental health and physical health, respectively. Multiple mediation analyses indicated that self-efficacy mediated all observed associations between personality and subjective health, whereas caregiver strain selectively mediated the associations of neuroticism and agreeableness with mental health.     

Neurobehavioral sequelae of child sexual abuse.

This study examined intellectual and memory functioning in a sample of sexually abused children compared to demographically and age-matched controls. The severity of abuse and other pertinent factors were also examined in relation to cognitive performance. Elevated levels of psychopathology were present in the abused children, as well as diminished performance on tasks influenced by attention/concentration. However, after controlling for differences in IQ and socioeconomic status (SES), significant differences in memory function were not found. Results are discussed in the context of stress effects on cognition and the potential resiliency of cognitive function in children undergoing treatment for sexual abuse.     

Personality traits and subjective health in the later years: The association between NEO-PI-R and SF-36 in advanced age is influenced by health status

This study examined the association between personality traits (as measured by the NEO-PI-R) and subjective ratings of mental and physical health (as measured by the SF-36) in two samples of older adults differing in health status (Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, BLSA, n = 393, vs. Medicare Primary and Consumer-Directed Care Demonstration, Medicare PCC, n = 648). The association between personality traits and subjective mental health did not differ significantly across samples. The association between personality and subjective physical health, however, was significantly stronger in the healthy BLSA sample than in the medically challenged Medicare PCC sample. Differences in health conditions and recent hospitalizations partially accounted for this effect. Lifespan developmental considerations and implications for the use of subjective health ratings as outcome measures in clinical studies are discussed.     

World Poverty as a Problem of Justice? A Critical Comparison of Three Approaches

With regard to the problem of world poverty, libertarian theories of corrective justice emphasize negative duties and the idea of responsibility whereas utilitarian theories of help concentrate on positive duties based on the capacity of the helper. Thomas Pogge has developed a revised model of compensation that entails positive obligations that are generated by negative duties. He intends to show that the affluent are violating their negative duties to ensure that their conduct will not harm others: They are contributing to and profiting from an unjust global order. But the claim that negative duty generated positive obligations are more acceptable than positive duties is contestable. I examine whether Henry Shue’s model that is integrating negative duties and positive duties is more convincing concerning the foundation of positive duties to protect others. I defend the idea that there are positive duties of justice. This approach can integrate an allocation of positive duties via responsibility and maintain the advantage of an independent foundation of positive duties.

Analyses of mental contamination: Part I,experimental manipulations of morality

The fear of contamination is thought to be comprised of two separate but related fears: those pertaining to physical and mental contamination. Previous research on mental contamination involved studies in which more than one independent variable was manipulated simultaneously. In particular, an immoral act (e.g., a non-consensual kiss) had been coupled with an immoral man (e.g., the person who forces the kiss) in each manipulation. The purpose of this study was to separate manipulations of the immorality of the man from the immorality of the act. Female undergraduate students (n = 148) listened to an audio recording and imagined that they were experiencing either sharing a consensual kiss with a man described as moral or immoral, or receiving a forced, non-consensual kiss from a man described as moral or immoral. Participants indicated the presence and degree of mental contamination and then completed a behavioural task for which spontaneous washing was recorded. Results indicated that a non-consensual kiss evoked greater feelings of mental contamination than a consensual kiss. In particular, participants who imagined a non-consensual kiss from a man described as either moral or immoral reported the greatest feelings of mental contamination, whereas participants who imagined a consensual kiss from a man described as moral reported the least. Results are discussed in terms of cognitive–behavioural conceptualizations of and treatments for contamination fears.     

Separating hoarding from OCD

There is confusion about the status of excessive hoarding. In particular, there is an unresolved question about whether or not it is a manifestation of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). There are some definite similarities between ‘compulsive’ hoarding and OCD, but they are outweighed by the differences between them. It is proposed that the matter can be clarified by separating hoarding from OCD, and that this would advance clinical work and research.     

Reviews

S tein , M urray , (ed.) Jungian Analysis.
J affé , A. (Ed.) Word and Image.
H ogenson , G. B. Jung's Struggle with Freud
S chafer , R oy . The Analytic Attitude.
G ear , M., H ill , M., L iendo , E. Working Through Narcissism: Treating its Sadomasochistic Structure.
R ollins , W. G. Jung and the Bible.     

Reviews

H umbert , E lie G. Jung.
C ampbell , J oseph (Ed.) Man and Time: Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks.
U lanov , A nn and B arry . Cinderella and her sisters: The Envied and the Envying.
G rotstein , J ames S. Splitting and Protective Identification.     

Reviews

B aker , I. F. (Ed.). Methods of Treatment in Analytical Psychology
C ampbell , J oseph (Ed.). Man and Transformation: Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks
H ook , R. (Ed.). Fantasy and Symbol; Studies in Anthropological Interpretation
N eumann , E rich . Kunst und Schöpferisches Unbewusstes
R othstein , A. The Narcissistic Pursuit of Perfection