exploring drug users' illness representations of hiv,hepatitis b and hepatitis c using repertory grids

Abstract

Hepatitis B and C viruses are more prevalent among injecting drug users than HIV. This study explored drug users' illness representations of hepatitis B and C using repertory grid methodology. Initially, nine drug users were presented with six elements including hepatitis B and C, and HIV. Constructs were elicited via the sequential form variation of the method of triads. Elements were rated on elicited constructs using a five-point scale, and analyzed using “Flexigrid”. In a second quantitative research stage, 52 drug users were presented with six elements and supplied constructs. Results of the first stage indicated participants were able to generate constructs relating to Leventhal et al.'s (1980) features of illness representations. Most constructs, however, were causal in nature. Participants perceived hepatitis B, C and HIV similarly along the causal component. This similarity on the causal component was largely replicated in the second research stage. Participants, however, distinguished HIV from hepatitis B and C along serious, cure and timeline features. Participants did not distinguish hepatitis B from hepatitis C. The implications of these results for health promotion are discussed.     

Spatial orienting in the visual field: a unified perceptual space?

Visual attention can be oriented toward a spatial location in the visual field exogenously by an abrupt onset of a peripheral cue. In a series of behavioral studies on exogenous orienting of attention with a double-cue paradigm, we demonstrated a functional subdivision of perceptual space in the visual field. Specifically, inhibition of return (IOR) is much stronger at periphery relative to perifoveal visual field up to approximately 15° eccentricity, suggesting two dissociable functional areas in the visual field. To further investigate the generality of this functional subdivision of the visual field, we measured IOR effects with another single-cue paradigm and applied a very short cue-target interval that was typically anticipated not to observe any inhibitory effect at all. Consistent with this expectation, no IOR effects at the eccentricities up to 15° were observed. However, significant IOR effects beyond 15° eccentricities were consistently demonstrated. These results not only revealed an early onset of IOR for more peripheral stimuli, but also confirmed that the perceptual space in the visual field is not homogeneous but underlies a functional subdivision with a border of ca. 15° eccentricity.     

Time Perspective and Procrastination in the Workplace: An Empirical Investigation

In the workplace, procrastination is typically viewed as a sub-optimal behavior that undermines productivity. As a construct, psychologists typically conceptualize procrastination as a stable and enduring personality trait. It has recently been argued that time perspective is also a personality trait, which has an important influence on procrastination behavior (Ferrari and Díaz-Morales, 2007 Journal of Research in Personality 41:707–714). Time perspective helps to guide not only employees’ judgments and decisions, but also their actions at the individual level. In this study, we examine the extent to which five qualitatively different types of time perspective (defined by Zimbardo and Boyd, 1999 Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 77:1271–1288) predict the tendency to procrastinate in the workplace. Participants were 236 managers and executives sampled from seven major information technology and financial organizations in India. Regression analyses revealed that of the five time dimensions, two were significantly positively related to procrastination, whereas two others showed negative relationships. From a basic science perspective, these findings help to extend our theoretical understanding of both time perspective and procrastination. From an applied standpoint, the results suggest an important individual difference dimension that might be considered during the personnel selection process.     

Threats to Moral Identity: Testing the Effects of Incentives and Consequences of One's Actions on Moral Cleansing

Individuals engage in moral cleansing, a compensatory process to reaffirm one's moral identity, when one's moral self-concept is threatened. However, too much moral cleansing can license individuals to engage in future unethical acts. This study examined the effects of incentives and consequences of one's actions on cheating behavior and moral cleansing. Results found that incentives and consequences interacted such that unethical thoughts were especially threatening, resulting in more moral cleansing, when large incentives to cheat were present and cheating explicitly harmed others. Implications are discussed in terms of ethics training, using incentives as motivators, and the depersonalized norms of science.     

Frequency and predictability effects in eye fixations for skilled and less-skilled deaf readers

The illiteracy rate in the deaf population has been alarmingly high for several decades, despite the fact that deaf children go through the standard stages of schooling. Much research addressing this issue has focused on word-level processes, but in the recent years, little research has focused on sentence-levels processes. Previous research (Fischler, 1985) investigated word integration within context in college-level deaf and hearing readers in a lexical decision task following incomplete sentences with targets that were congruous or incongruous relative to the preceding context; it was found that deaf readers, as a group, were more dependent on contextual information than their hearing counterparts. The present experiment extended Fischler's results and investigated the relationship between frequency, predictability, and reading skill in skilled hearing, skilled deaf, and less-skilled deaf readers. Results suggest that only less-skilled deaf readers, and not all deaf readers, rely more on contextual cues to boost word processing. Additionally, early effects of frequency and predictability were found for all three groups of readers, without any evidence for an interaction between frequency and predictability.     

Patient Satisfaction with Cancer Genetic Counseling: A Psychometric Analysis of the Genetic Counseling Satisfaction Scale

Satisfaction is an important patient reported outcome of genetic counseling, as it is one of the elements used by professional organizations and healthcare accrediting bodies to determine the quality of professional work. However, empirical research on patient satisfaction with genetic counseling has been limited, partly due to the lack of standardized measures available to assess this construct. The purpose of this study was to conduct a psychometric analysis of a new satisfaction measure, the Genetic Counseling Satisfaction Scale (GCSS), within a sample of women participating in a no-cost cancer genetic counseling and testing program. The sample consisted of 61 women undergoing counseling and testing for hereditary breast-ovarian cancer risk (BRCA1/2 testing) who completed the GCSS following pretest counseling. The results suggest that the GCSS was reliable (Cronbach's coefficient alpha = 0.90) and that participants were highly satisfied with the care they received. In addition, there were no differences in satisfaction between cancer genetic counseling and prenatal counseling participants (based on preexisting norms), and satisfaction did not vary by sociodemographic characteristics. Implications and recommendations are discussed.     

Implicatures et développement

We summarize our work on pragmatic inference-making in children, while generally focusing on scalar implicatures. Such inferences arise when a relatively weak term implies the rejection of a stronger one. For example, some is often understood to mean not all. While adults readily draw such implicatures, children tend to rely on the terms’ minimal, lexically encoded meanings (with which some is compatible with all). Given that children’s treatments coincide with logical ones, children end up appearing more logical than adults on standard reasoning tasks. We describe this effect in detail while showing that (a) even young children can be encouraged to carry out implicatures and, that; (b) evidence of non-pragmatic behavior is best explained as due to unavailable effort.