Towards Youth Happiness and Mental Health in the United Arab Emirates: The Path of Character Strengths in a Multicultural Population

Happiness, good mental health and the possession of character strengths have been proposed in the context of positive psychology as important conditions for achieving a life full of gratification. However, there is a scarcity of studies examining those conditions in Eastern cultural contexts, in order to replicate findings from the Western countries. In this vein, the present study aims to explore the influence of strengths on happiness and mental health in the multicultural context of United Arab Emirates and it is hypothesised that certain strengths are better predictors of happiness and mental health than others, also after controlling for potential sociodemographic confounders. A sample of young university students, in the majority coming from eastern countries was assessed through the Global Happiness Scale, the GHQ-12 and the VIA-IS-120. The results of the regression analyses revealed that the group of character strengths under the denomination of Transcendence together with being young was associated with higher levels of happiness and better mental health. In addition, the possession of strengths of Restraint was associated with less happiness, whilst being a man indicated a better mental health. Such results have important implications regarding the replication of previous results from Western contexts in the context of UAE, highlighting the need for implementation of culturally context-tailored strategies for achieving happiness and mental health through the use of character strengths.     

The influence of cancer impact on patients’ preparatory grief

The aims of this study were to investigate the preparatory grief and traumatic distress in advanced cancer patients in a palliative care unit. A total of 94 advanced cancer patients completed the Preparatory Grief in Advanced Cancer Patients (PGAC) scale and the Greek version of the Impact of Events Scale- Revised (IES-R-Gr). The Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group was used to measure patients’ performance status. Statistically significant associations were found between PGAC, patients’ performance status, and all the IES-R-Gr scales (avoidance, intrusion, hyperarousal) and IES-R-Gr total score. The multiple regression analysis revealed that preparatory grief was predicted by patients’ young age, poor performance status, as well as by their high levels of intrusion and hyperarousal, in a model explaining 51.5% of the total variance. Concluding, in advanced cancer patients, preparatory grief is significantly correlated with the impact of cancer and patients’ physical condition, and seems to be influenced by components of the event impact, patients’ age, and physical performance.     

Reliability of 2D:4D measurements using a direct method suitable for clinical settings

The second to fourth digit ratio (2D:4D) indicates androgen exposure during early development. Numerous methods are used in the assessment of 2D:4D, however, some are not reliable enough and others are difficult to perform in large epidemiological studies. We assessed the reliability of 2D:4D using a direct method with a caliper, and compared it with a computer-assisted analysis on scanned images. Both methods were moderately correlated, but the scan method produced slightly lower 2D:4D. The main source of variation was differences between subjects (real variation). Reliability was higher among men and among younger participants. All reliability coefficients were higher than 0.8 when three repeated measurements were averaged. Our results suggest that reliability is influenced by participants’ characteristics. Digit ratios determined directly with calipers are reliable when repeated measurements are averaged.     

Unattended exposure to components of speech sounds yields same benefits as explicit auditory training

Learning a second language as an adult is particularly effortful when new phonetic representations must be formed. Therefore the processes that allow learning of speech sounds are of great theoretical and practical interest. Here we examined whether perception of single formant transitions, that is, sound components critical in speech perception, can be enhanced through an implicit task-irrelevant learning procedure that has been shown to produce visual perceptual learning. The single-formant sounds were paired at subthreshold levels with the attended targets in an auditory identification task. Results showed that task-irrelevant learning occurred for the unattended stimuli. Surprisingly, the magnitude of this learning effect was similar to that following explicit training on auditory formant transition detection using discriminable stimuli in an adaptive procedure, whereas explicit training on the subthreshold stimuli produced no learning. These results suggest that in adults learning of speech parts can occur at least partially through implicit mechanisms.     

Political ideology,helping mechanisms and empowerment of mental health self‐help/mutual aid groups

Self‐help/mutual aid groups share common attributes such as they are peer‐led, address a common problem or condition, have a voluntary character and little or no connection with professionals. However, these groups may vary according to their political ideology and focus on personal or/and societal change. This study examines the role of political ideology of self‐help/mutual aid groups and differences in psychosocial characteristics of group members. Fourteen mental health self‐help/mutual aid groups in England were studied. On the basis of stated aims and principles and following semi‐structured interviews with group leaders (facilitators/chairpersons), these were classified according to Emerick's typology as conservative (eight groups), combined (three groups), and radical (three groups). Group members (n = 67) completed questionnaires to assess personal empowerment, mental wellbeing, social networks and support, group identification and helping processes in the groups. Findings suggested that all self‐help group members experienced a large number of naturally occurring helping process and felt empowered whilst they shared limited social networks and support and marginal mental wellbeing. Different ideological types of self‐help groups may be related to specific helping processes and particular aspects of personal empowerment. Specifically, members of conservative and combined groups reported more expressive group processes like sharing of feelings and self‐disclosure, while radical group members reported more optimism/control over their lives. Furthermore, group identification was associated with specific helping processes and aspects of personal empowerment in the three group categories. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Policy and Financing of the Professional Psychology Workforce

The federal government has played a significant role in the financing the education of healthcare professionals since the introduction of Medicare in 1965. However, professional psychology's limited ability to argue the critical nature of its services to the welfare of the nation, and its lack of national workforce information and policy, has hindered its inclusion in Medicare's Graduate Medical Education (GME) program. This paper discusses the evolution and current status of healthcare workforce policy in the United States, and the implications for psychology and the training of future professionals. Also described are recent efforts by the American Psychological Association (APA) and a few psychologists to include professional psychology in the GME program. The importance of organized psychology's sustained involvement in national health policy is emphasized.     

The associations of illness perceptions and self-efficacy with psychological well-being of patients in preparation for joint replacement surgery

Patient well-being on referral to surgery likely affects their surgical experience yet few studies examine pre-surgical correlates of well-being. Guided by the Common Sense Model of Self-Regulation and Social Cognitive theory, this study examined whether illness and emotional representations, general and domain self-efficacy were associated with pre-surgical well-being. The pre-surgical assessment of a three-wave prospective study is reported. Fifty-four hip and knee replacements patients (mean age = 69.33; SD = 8.57) were recruited in the pre-surgery educational clinic at a UK general hospital. Patients completed a questionnaire-pack including the Revised Illness Perceptions Questionnaire, the General Self-Efficacy Scale, the Self-Efficacy for Rehabilitation Outcome Scale, the Falls-Efficacy Scale, and the Short Form of Psychological Well-Being Index. Multiple hierarchical regression analyses showed that above and beyond demographic and clinical characteristics, negative emotional representations were associated with lower psychological well-being while strong general self-efficacy beliefs were positively related to psychological well-being. Independent of demographic and clinical characteristics, joint replacement patients’ psychological well-being was associated with their cognitions and emotional reactions to their condition before surgery. Early interventions could potentially target these modifiable factors to improve pre-surgical well-being in this group of patients, with potential for additional post-surgical benefit.