Psychological distress and well-being in advanced cancer: The effects of optimism and coping

This study examined the relations among optimism, coping, functional status, and psychological adjustment in 75 adults diagnosed with cancer. Both the positive and the negative aspects of psychological adjustment were assessed. All participants had been diagnosed with advanced stages of cancer (i.e., Stages II, III, and IV). Participants completed three assessments across a 4-month time period. Both optimism and coping were associated with psychological adjustment, even after controlling for functional status and prior adjustment. Additionally, optimism and coping were differentially related to distress and well-being. Optimism was strongly and positively associated with well-being and inversely related to distress. Escape-Avoidance coping was positively associated with distress and Accepting Responsibility coping was negatively associated with well-being. Comparisons between the current and prior studies indicated that individuals who are diagnosed with more advanced stages of cancer or who have survived bone marrow transplantation exhibit higher levels of optimism than do healthy individuals and individuals with early-stage disease.     

Helping Groups Determine Their Most Accurate Member: The Role of Outcome Feedback1

One of the difficulties groups have when making quantitative judgments is determining the relative quality of members’ inputs. Outcome feedback was investigated as a method for improving the ability of groups to identify their most accurate member. Results indicate that groups given outcome feedback were better at identifying their best member than were groups that practiced without feedback. This occurred even though the same individual was seldom the most accurate across items. However, groups given feedback were not as accurate as their best member any more often. This suggests that groups given feedback are learning how to discriminate valid from invalid cues, but are not using this information consistently when making their group estimates.     

Culture change: A training program for recent immigrant professionals from the former Soviet Union

The article describes a training program in structural/integrative family therapy for immigrant professionals from the former Soviet Union at the Training Center of the Shiluv Institute for Family and Couple Therapy in Jerusalem. The program was instituted to meet the pressing needs of a mass immigration of half a million people that came to Israel between 1990 and 1992. This is a retrospective look at the journey of the initial group of psychiatrists and psychologists who changed country, culture, language, and professional orientation in just two years. The authors state their conclusions as to the most expedient way to organize therapy for families from the former Soviet Union — a population in need of help but lacking an awareness of therapy and suspicious of the outsider.     

What readers bring to the processing of fictional texts

Research on text processing has generally focused on the types of inferences that all readers draw in common. Our research examines aspects of processing that depend on the particular relation of the reader to the text. Students read fictional stories that contained weak and unsupported assertions and that were set either at their own school or at another school. We expected that they would be prompted to process the story information thoroughly enough to reject the assertions only if they were familiar with the story setting. Consistent with this expectation, the results showed that the away-school story, but not the home-school story, had a significant impact on students’ beliefs. These results support the view that readers must actively construct disbelief when processing fictional information.     

Systemically-Based Psychotherapeutic Techniques in Genetic Counseling

The uses of systemically-based psychotherapeutic methods in genetic counseling are discussed in the context of the origin of genetic counseling, the definition of genetic counseling, and the adjustments that one must make in order to implement these methods. Selected systemic methods which can be readily incorporated into genetic counseling are presented: use of genograms to explore family attitudes and beliefs about genetic risk, communications skills, and applications of family of origin work in genetic counseling. The need for research regarding the methodology and process of genetic counseling is presented with discussion of the need for theories of practice for genetic counseling.     

Monitoring of comprehension: The role of text difficulty in metamemory for narrative and expository text

The effect of text difficulty on metamemory for narrative and expository text was investigated. In Experiment 1, we found an interaction between type of text and type of question (thematic or detailed). For readers of narrative texts, correlations between predicted and actual performance were highest for detailed questions, but this pattern was reversed for readers of expository texts. Next, text difficulty was explored as a possible factor affecting metamemory accuracy. In Experiments 2 and 3, metamemory accuracy was a nonmonotonic function of text difficulty. Subjects made remarkably accurate predictions of future performance (meanG > .6) for both narrative and expository texts that were of intermediate difficulty (approximately a 12th-grade reading level). We propose anoptimum effort hypothesis, predicting greatest metamemory accuracy when the texts are of intermediate difficulty.     

Organizational characteristics of empowering community settings: A multiple case study approach

Although empowerment is often cited as a major guiding construct for community psychology, relatively little is known about the characteristics of empowering community settings. The current paper uses a multiple case study methodology to generate a number of key organizational characteristics of empowering community settings to guide future work in the area. In-depth, multilevel, longitudinal research was conducted on three empowering community settings: a religious fellowship, a mutual help organization for persons with severe mental illness, and an educational program for African American students. The organizational features found to characterize all three settings were (a) a belief system that inspires growth is strengths-based, and is focused beyond the self; (b) an opportunity role structure that is pervasive, highly accessible, and multifunctional (c) a support system that is encompassing, peer-based, and provides a sense of community; and (d) leadership that is inspiring, talented, shared, and committed to both setting and members. Limitations of the research are discussed, and directions for future research suggested.     

A time-limited group for patients with HIV infection and their partners

This paper presents the authors' experience coleading a time-limited group treatment for HIV-positive patients and their partners. Because of the impact of this disease not only on the infected person, but also on his or her partner, a couples group format was used. This 12-week group consisted of four couples, heterosexual and homosexual, of diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. While the group focused primarily on couples' issues, individual concerns, conflicts, and experiences relating to the HIV diagnosis were also explored. Clinical vignettes demonstrate the process and benefits of this group experience.     

Trust and Missed Opportunities in International Relations

With the end of the Cold War, we must wonder whether there were missed opportunities to regulate the arms race and global competition, which nearly bankrupted the United States and contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union. A missed opportunity for agreement is a situation where there was at least one alternative that the parties to a conflict preferred or would have preferred to nonagreement. Hard-core Realists argue that states compete for territory, arms, and influence because they have conflicting national interests. Soft-core Realists maintain that such conflicts are effects of international anarchy and uncertainty, and that states can cooperate contingent on reciprocity. I argue that states often fail to cooperate even when they have compatible preferences because policy-makers make incorrect inferences about the opponent's motives and intentions, a process that can be illuminated by social psychology. I present three alternative explanations of trust and distrust in international relations—rational choice, domestic structures, and social psychology. If policy-makers are prudent, they will assess the other's interests in observing an agreement as well as its reputation. Often, domestic political structures encourage leaders to promote distrust of an external enemy to legitimize their internal rule or foreign policy. Finally, distrust may lead policy-makers to dismiss the other side's cooperative signals or proposals. Distrust can be overcome by making a series of step-by-step agreements in which each side can test the other's good faith at limited cost, or through unilateral concessions as part of a consistent policy.     

The Effect of a Prejudice-Reduction Simulation on Attitude Change1

The effectiveness of a well-known prejudice-reduction simulation, “Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes,” was assessed as a tool for changing the attitudes of nonblack teacher education students toward blacks. The three outcomes were (a) virtually all of the subjects reported that the experience was meaningful for them; (b) the statistical evidence supporting the effectiveness of the activity for prejudice reduction was moderate; and (c) virtually all of the participants, as well as the simulation facilitator, reported stress from the simulation.