(Teen)Age is More than a Number: Generational Identity within the Context of HIV and AIDS

This study explored some of the complexities through which young adults construct and represent their sexual identities within the context of HIV/AIDS. The sample comprised a total of 136 (female = 77; male = 59) Indian and African learners, who were between the ages 15–19 years, in a co-educational school in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The main methods of data collection employed were questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The findings revealed that most young people understand their teenage years as transitional, hormonal and necessarily experimental, and particularly with regard to sexual experimentation. The dominance of heterosexual morality and the transitional status of the adolescents appeared to erode young adults' power to act as responsible agents.     

Factors Predicting Likelihood of Eating Irradiated Meat

Perception of risk associated with meat irradiation was investigated in a sample of 478 respondents. Fears associated with irradiation, the relative severity and risk of bacterial infection versus potential risks due to the irradiation, and perceptions of the safety of the meat irradiation process combined to strongly predict participants' reports of their likelihood of eating irradiated meat in the present investigation. Overall, respondents were skeptical with regard to eating irradiated meat if it became locally available. Respondents' acceptance of meat irradiation was clearly driven by concerns about the risks of irradiation, but not the risks of bacterial contamination, confirming findings in the literature on differences in perception of “natural” and “technological” risks.     

Creating Safer and More Nurturing Schools: Expanding the Capacity of Schools in the Era of Future National Reform

ABSTRACT

Positive academic performance is a strong indicator of subsequent positive life course outcomes (e.g., employment) as well as underrepresentation in psychiatric populations, drug use, school dropout, and subsequent legal trouble (A. Farn & J. Adams, 2016). As such, helping all children to be successful in school is a top priority for parents, educators, and politicians alike. However, schools are challenged by an increasing demand to meet children's health and metal health needs in order for them to benefit from, and progress in, their educational experience. Public concerns regarding violent acts on school property have highlighted the need to address student and teacher safety. The authors provide recommendations for school psychologists regarding promising practices that respond to national initiatives to prevent school violence, increase access to health and mental health care, and enhance equity among students.     

The fallacy of intimacy: sexual risk behaviour and beliefs about trust and condom use among men who have sex with men in South Africa

The objective of this study is to assess (1) whether beliefs about trust and condom use affect sexual risk behaviour, and (2) if beliefs about trust and condom use impact sexual risk behaviour directly or if this relationship is mediated by other determinants. The Information-Motivation-Behavioural Skills model was used as a framework for the mediation analysis. A diverse cohort of three hundred 18-40 year old men who have sex with men (MSM) residing in Pretoria, South Africa, were recruited and surveyed for this project. Findings indicate that men who report a high frequency of past unprotected anal intercourse are more likely to believe that it is not necessary to use condoms with a trusted or steady partner regardless of their current partnership status. This fallacy of intimacy appears to affect sexual risk behaviour through intentions and attitudes regarding safer sex practices. Based on these findings, we recommend that more attention be given in gaining a better understanding of how beliefs about trust and condom use are formed and how they can be changed among MSM in South Africa.     

Obsessive-compulsive disorder with and without tic disorder: a comparative study from India

Introduction: Evidence from phenomenological, family, genetic, and treatment studies from Western centers have suggested that tic-related obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) could be different from non-tic-related OCD. This study from India investigated the differences in OCD with and without tics, with respect to sociodemographics, symptom profile, and comorbidity, including obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders, to examine whether the clinical profile of tic-related OCD is similar to that reported previously. Methods: Fifty subjects with OCD and tics (chronic motor tics and Tourette syndrome) were compared with 141 OCD subjects without tics. Results: Subjects having OCD with tics tended to be males, and had an earlier onset of illness. They had more of symmetry/aggressive and religious obsessions, and cleaning, ordering/arranging, hoarding, and repeating compulsions and were associated with trichotillomania and hypochondraisis. Stepwise backward (Wald) regression analysis showed that an early age of onset, male gender, aggressive obsessions, cleaning compulsions, and trichotillomania were significantly associated with tic-related OCD. Conclusion: The findings of this study from India are broadly similar to those reported previously from the West indicating the universality of differences in tic- and non-tic-related OCD. Our findings also support the existing evidence that tics contribute to the heterogeneity of OCD.     

Regulation of rat maternal behavior by broadband pup vocalizations.

Pups emit a broadband vocalization ranging from 2 to 40 kHz that generally occurs when the mother sits or steps on her pups. In an earlier study (Ihnat, White, and Barfield, under review), we noted that the mother was more likely to move on the pups and step on them when she was temporarily deafened with ear plugs. This research was extended in the present study by using two different methods to prevent 2-day-old pups from emitting broadband vocalizations. In the first experiment, the female was presented with six of her pups for a 10-min test. In half the tests, the pups had been anesthetized with pentobarbital; in the other half, the pups received saline. In the second experiment, females were presented with pups whose mouths had been sealed with an adhesive substance. In a final study, pups received the adhesive substance on their ventral surface as a control. When the pups were unable to vocalize, there was an increase in the amount of time per bout that the mother spent in incidental contact with her pups; in the sham condition, however, there was no change in her behavior. In addition, the female was less likely to group all her pups within the 10-min duration of the test when the pups could not call. Since pups emit primarily broadband vocalizations in response to handling prior to 4 days of age, broadband calls appear to reduce incidental contact and facilitate retrieval into a group.     

Mediation of Social Density by Coalition Formation1

Past research has indicated that three-person groups are more likely to produce isolates than two-person groups, with isolates experiencing the greatest difficulties, least confidence, and most intense crowding stress. The present study extended these findings by examining the role of coalition formation as a mediator of social density in three- and four-person groups using a survey technique. As expected, coalition formation between two roommates, resulting in one or more isolates, was more likely to occur in three-person than four-person groups. Consistent with previous research, isolates in both three- and four-person groups reported more crowding, more somatic complaints, dissatisfaction with room and roommates, difficulty in maintaining control, and less confidence in their ability to regulate social interaction than nonisolates. Tripled isolates, however, consistently reported more significant feelings of not being understood by roommates and loneliness, as well as greater exclusion from group decisions, more extreme difficulties in maintaining control and regulating social interaction, and more intense crowding stress. Counterintuitively, with an increase in group size from three to four, reported crowding stress did not increase. Implications for group dynamic processes in ameliorating some of the problems associated with crowding stress are discussed.     

How do valence and meaning interact? The contribution of semantic control

The hub-and-spoke model of semantic cognition proposes that conceptual representations in a heteromodal ‘hub’ interact with and emerge from modality-specific features or ‘spokes’, including valence (whether a concept is positive or negative), along with visual and auditory features. As a result, valence congruency might facilitate our ability to link words conceptually. Semantic relatedness may similarly affect explicit judgements about valence. Moreover, conflict between meaning and valence may recruit semantic control processes. Here we tested these predictions using two-alternative forced-choice tasks, in which participants matched a probe word to one of two possible target words, based on either global meaning or valence. Experiment 1 examined timed responses in healthy young adults, while Experiment 2 examined decision accuracy in semantic aphasia patients with impaired controlled semantic retrieval following left hemisphere stroke. Across both experiments, semantically related targets facilitated valence matching, while related distractors impaired performance. Valence congruency was also found to facilitate semantic decision-making. People with semantic aphasia showed impaired valence matching and had particular difficulty when semantically related distractors were presented, suggesting that the selective retrieval of valence information relies on semantic control processes. Taken together, the results are consistent with the hypothesis that automatic access to the global meaning of written words affects the processing of valence, and that the valence of words is also retrieved even when this feature is task-irrelevant, affecting the efficiency of global semantic judgements.     

Self and Peer Ratings and Evaluations of Group Process in Mixed-Sex and Male Medical Training Groups

Medical students randomly assigned to mixed-sex or male anatomy dissection groups completed two questionnaires assessing self and peer evaluations and perceptions of group functioning. Results indicated that women and men respondents from mixed-sex groups had similar perceptions of group functioning. Respondents from both groups had similar self-evaluations and perceptions of leadership and role determinants. Significant differences were found between respondents from mixed-sex and male groups for peer evaluations, perceptions of certain aspects of group functioning (e.g., quality of communication), and for causal explanations of problems in group functioning. These differences were associated with significant differences in cohesiveness as indicated by desire for and actual change of group.