Do health beliefs about COVID-19 predict morbidity? A longitudinal study

In a highly powered (N ≈ 5000), six-months longitudinal study (December 2020-May 2021), we tested the assumption that beliefs concerning COVID-19 and the precautions against it predicted morbidity. Six months after having filled out a survey measuring beliefs about the disease and the precautions against it, participants reported if they were or had been ill with COVID-19. A lower likelihood of being or having been ill with COVID-19 was predicted by personal optimism concerning infection, perceived personal control over infection, perceived effectiveness of precautions, and self-reported personal or better-than-average adherence to the precautions. A higher likelihood of being or having been ill with COVID-19 was predicted by perceived personal control over a good outcome of an infection, egocentric impact perception concerning the impact of the disease, perceived difficulty of adherence to the precautions, and both personal and egocentric impact perception concerning the impact of the precautions. Comparative optimism did not predict morbidity, nor did personal optimism concerning severe disease or a good outcome, perceived personal control over severe disease, and moralization of the precautions. We discuss implications for public health communication.     

Information and Counseling: A Dilemma

The revolutionary changes in data processing, and the resulting increases in the quantity and quality of information about counselees and their prospective environments, will make the work of the counselor more difficult in several ways. The one problem that is highlighted is the difficulty of maintaining a true counseling process and relationship while at the same time collecting necessary information about the client and about the environments regarding which he must make decisions. 2 solutions and their relative merits are discussed, one involving separation of the information and counseling functions, and the other requiring an integration of the functions by a single counselor.     

The scapegoat archetype

Summary Relying on some of the principles of Jung's analytical psychology, the writer has presented a hypothesis of the primordial image of the scapegoat, tracing its origins in antiquity and in the collective unconscious of man, its associations with the God-image and its development in the history of Judaeo-Christian religion, of the administration of justice and of the treatment of mental illness. The conclusion is reached that the scapegoat is an anachronism that the human race has outgrown, a luxury we can no longer afford to keep, and that a realization of this fact is important for the times in which we live.     

We have a prejudice against ourselves—Sentiment,ethics, and reason

Briefly stated my point is that the well-being of each person in a community conceived abstractly may be all too easily sacrificed for the sake of the abstraction. Physicians may offer critically ill patients places in programs of experimental treatment, but there is commonly a catch to the offer. To take part in a program of clinical experiment a patient must not only risk a possible failure of a fresh drug and the chance of destructive side effects from the drug, but the patients must risk only getting the traditional treatment along with a placebo rather than the experimental drug. Placebo control, double blind critical protocols for testing effects of fresh drugs on critically ill patients are a commonplace. I question the scientific objectivity of the protocols and the underlying ethic, and suggest use of alternate protocols. Experimental tests in the treatment gram-negative bacteria blood infections, muscular dystrophy, and AIDS and AIDS-related diseases are examples.     

Menarche: A crossroads that previews developmental change

In recent years the developmental implications of menarche have garnered particular attention. Investigators have determined that this developmental event tends to affect three significant domains of the adolescent girl's function: psychological status, relationships with peers, and role in the family. This paper explores these issues and introduces a new technique, referred to as previewing, that may help the teenage girl acclimate to the status of sexual maturity. Derived from the early life interactions of caregiver and infant, previewing promotes representational skills and enhances self-esteem as the adolescent confronts developmental challenges.     

FACIAL EXPRESSION AND SPEECH: NEUROANATOMICAL CONSIDERATIONS

This paper discusses the neuroanatomy and pathology of facial expression and findings on the neuroanatomical connections between expressions of the face and speech. The facial musculature is briefly dealt with in terms of its innervation by the facial nerve and its relationship to the soft palate at the peripheral system level. After considering the facial nuclei, the supranuclear innervation of volitional and emotional facial expression is reviewed. Then supranuclear relations between facial movements and some speech organs are considered. Finally, attention is paid to aspects of facial paralysis stemming from peripheral and central origins.     

The conceptual structure of sex role stereotypes in college students

This study investigated sex stereotypes as natural language categories. Ten years ago, sex stereotypes were found to have a core-peripheral structure similar to that of the nonevaluative categories studies by Rosch (1973). Changes and stability in these conceptions were studied by having 56 female and 56 male undergraduate students rate 217 adjectives on Likert scales according to how well each adjective represented their own view of typical Men or Women. Mean ratings were analyzed to reveal a structure of core, peripheral, and nonmembers for Men and for Women. As was the case ten years ago, core traits reflected dimensions of “niceness-nurturance” for Women and “potency-strength” for Men. Female students also viewed Women as “competent,” while male students also viewed Women as “socially effective.” Adjectives that constituted the core for one category were generally placed in the periphery for the other category. As compared to ten years ago, the peripheries of the categories were expanded and showed a greater degree of overlap. College students' conceptions of Men and Women are best characterized as overlapping rather than as bipolar opposites. The formation of sex stereotype categories was discussed in terms of cognitive and social learning processes.