Shakespeare,Psychoanalysis and Creativity: Commentary on Paper by Lauren Levine

This discussion speaks to the creative dimension in the clinical encounter described by Levine in her paper. In particular, it addresses the creativity necessary to move beyond impasses in the treatment. The positive and negative associations to enactments are discussed as well as the creative possibilities offered in dreamwork and the analytic relationship.     

Chain letters: Players and their accounts

Even though it is unlawful to send chain letters through the mails, thousands of Americans send them to friends, acquaintances, and strangers in hopes that their names will move to the top of the pyramid, and they will receive the influx of tax‐free dollars from those at the bottom of the chain. This paper analyzes the content and structure of the chain letter and also describes the accounts which chain letter players (N=129) provide for their participation. Differences between male and female accounts and participation strategies are provided. The implications for these differences for understanding participation in the underground economy are discussed.     

Perspectives of Adults Living With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Psychosocial and Occupational Implications

The incidence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has increased over the past decade suggesting a need for further research. This article describes a two phase phenomenological study which explored the lived experience of ASD and its psychosocial effects on relationships, socialization, and occupational participation. Phenomenological interviews were given to three women and three men with high functioning ASD. Phase two of the research included two additional individual interviews and four focus groups. Results indicated themes regarding participants' desires to engage in social occupations, and barriers caused by the nature of the ASD which may successfully be addressed by occupational therapy.     

The Social Psychology of Sustainability

The earth cannot support humanity's increasing population and consumption. Concerned scientists and citizens are therefore wondering how we might work toward a sustainable, survivable human future. Sustainability involves increased technological efficiency and agricultural productivity, but also incentives and attitudes that moderate consumption. Social psychology contributes to changing attitudes and behavior with evidence that a) materialism exacts psychic as well as environmental costs, and b) economic growth has failed to improve human morale. Two principles-the adaptation level phenomenon and social comparison-help explain why materialism and increasing affluence fail to satisfy.     

Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Social Dominance Orientation in a Canadian Military Sample

The Sexual Experiences Questionnaire (SEQ) was administered to 1,060 male and 305 female soldiers from combat support and combat service support units in the U.S. Army. Eighty-four percent of women and 74% of men experienced at least 1 of the behaviors listed in the SEQ during the previous year. However, only 30% of women and 8% of men acknowledged having been sexually harassed in the same time period. Men who experienced SEQ behaviors were less likely to acknowledge harassment than women who experienced these behaviors. The 3 SEQ subscales—gender harassment, unwanted sexual attention, and coercion—were examined as predictors of organizational commitment, turnover wish, the perception of sexual harassment as a personal and work-unit problem, and as predictors of acknowledged harassment. The more serious behaviors were more likely to be acknowledged as harassment than the milder behaviors when the type of behavior was defined as either present or absent. On the other hand, when milder behaviors occurred frequently, they were the main predictors of the perception of sexual harassment as a personal and work-unit problem. Sexual harassment predicted turnover wish and Army commitment for male soldiers only.     

Knowing That P without Believing That P

Most epistemologists hold that knowledge entails belief. However, proponents of this claim rarely offer a positive argument in support of it. Rather, they tend to treat the view as obvious and assert that there are no convincing counterexamples. We find this strategy to be problematic. We do not find the standard view obvious, and moreover, we think there are cases in which it is intuitively plausible that a subject knows some proposition P without—or at least without determinately—believing that P. Accordingly, we present five plausible examples of knowledge without (determinate) belief, and we present empirical evidence suggesting that our intuitions about these scenarios are not atypical.     

Perfectionism and health: A mediational analysis of the roles of stress,social support and health-related behaviours

This study tested a model derived from personality theory in which perceived stress, perceived social support, health-risk and health-promotion behaviours mediate the relationship between perfectionism and perceived physical health. A sample of 538 undergraduate students completed a web-based survey assessing multi-dimensional perfectionism, perceived stress, perceived social support, health behaviours, physical health and a scale tapping elements of the five-factor model of personality. Analyses that account for the effects of traits from the five-factor model (e.g., neuroticism, conscientiousness and extraversion) indicated that socially prescribed perfectionism was associated with poorer physical health and this association was fully mediated by higher levels of perceived stress and lower levels of perceived social support. Self-oriented perfectionism was related complexly to health such that it was related to poorer health via higher levels of perceived stress, but was also related to better health via higher levels of perceived social support. Our findings illustrate the need for considering key mediators of the link between perfectionism and poor health outcomes.     

An Exploration of Family Problem-Solving and Affective Involvement as Moderators Between Disease Severity and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescents with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Little is known about how family functioning relates to psychosocial functioning of youth with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The study aim was to examine family problem solving and affective involvement as moderators between adolescent disease severity and depressive symptoms. Participants were 122 adolescents with IBD and their parents. Measures included self-reported and parent-reported adolescent depressive symptoms, parent-reported family functioning, and physician-completed measures of disease severity. Disease severity was a significant predictor of adolescent-reported depressive symptoms, but not parent-reported adolescent depressive symptoms. Family affective involvement significantly predicted parent-reported adolescent depressive symptoms, while family problem-solving significantly predicted adolescent self-report of depressive symptoms. Neither affective involvement nor problem-solving served as moderators. Family affective involvement may play an important role in adolescent emotional functioning but may not moderate the effect of disease severity on depressive symptoms. Research should continue to examine effects of family functioning on youth emotional functioning and include a sample with a wider range of disease severity to determine if interventions aimed to enhance family functioning are warranted.