Risk-appraisal,outcome and self-efficacy expectancies: Cognitive factors in preventive behaviour related to cancer

Abstract

Health education often attempts to influence or persuade through risk-appraisal of impending danger or harm. Risk: appraisal implies cognitive processes concerning the severity of the threatening event and the probability of its occurrence. In two studies we investigated whether risk factors could adequately predict preventive behaviour with respect to cancer. The tint study concerned the health belief model. the second study the protection motivation theory. Protection motivation theory includes the health belief factors but also self-efficacy expectancy. The most important finding is that risk-appraisal does not predict preventive behaviour adequately: outcome expectancy and self-efficacy expectancy should be included in the prediction of preventive behaviour. In general, our findings suggest the superiority of the protection motivation theory to the health belief model in predicting preventive behaviour with respect to cancer.     

The Effect of Self-Imposed Brevity on the Structure of Dyadic Communication

Differences between concise and natural communications in problem solving were investigated by comparing the communications generated by pairs of S s asked to use as few words as possible with the communications by pairs of S s of whom no such request was made. Sixteen male pairs and 16 female pairs, all undergraduate students, were tested. Two modes of communication were used: voice and teletypewriter. An analysis of message function revealed that when S s tried to be brief, they used a larger percentage of messages concerned with the exchange of information and lower percentages of messages that dealt with the rate of communication, judgments, and feedback than under the natural condition. An analysis of parts of speech revealed that those S s who restricted their communications used higher percentages of nouns and adjectives and lower percentages of pronouns, verbs, prepositions, interjections, and articles than did S s who did not restrict their communications. Most of these findings held for both modes of communication.     

Predictors of early person reference development: Maternal language input,attachment and neurodevelopmental markers

In a longitudinal natural language development study in Germany, the acquisition of verbal symbols for present persons, absent persons, inanimate things and the mother–toddler dyad was investigated. Following the notion that verbal referent use is more developed in ostensive contexts, symbolic play situations were coded for verbal person reference by means of noun and pronoun use. Depending on attachment classifications at twelve months of age, effects of attachment classification and maternal language input were studied up to 36 months in four time points. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that, except for mother absence, maternal verbal referent input rates at 17 and 36 months were stronger predictors for all referent types than any of the attachment organizations, or any other social or biological predictor variable. Attachment effects accounted for up to 9.8% of unique variance proportions in the person reference variables. Perinatal and familial measures predicted person references dependent on reference type. The results of this investigation indicate that mother-reference, self-reference and thing-reference develop in similar quantities measured from the 17-month time point, but are dependent of attachment quality.     

Eek! A Mickey mouse! The post‐Fuddist recomposition of urban space

Variations on a Theme Park: The New American City and the End of Public Space, by Michael Sorkin, ed., New York: Noonday Press, 1992, 252 pages, pb $15     

Peer and school problems in the lives of urban adolescents: Frequency, difficulty, and relation to adjustment

This study examined the occurrence of problem situations in the peer and school domains and their relation to adjustment among urban adolescents. Students from three urban middle schools (N = 176) serving a predominantly African American population rated 61 problem situations identified in a previous qualitative study and completed measures of adjustment. Ratings of frequency and difficulty confirmed the relevance of these situations for this population. Confirmatory factor analyses suggested that covariation in the frequency and difficulty of problem situations could be represented by separate factors representing peer situations involving friends, other peer situations, and school situations. The number of different problem situations experienced was significantly correlated with physical and relational aggression, delinquency, depression, anxiety, and self-worth. Several of these relations were strongest for peer situations that did not involve friends. There were few gender differences in the strength of these relations.     

Post-traumatic psychocultural therapy (PTpsyCT): Integration of trauma and shattering social labels of the self

This article discusses the interaction between psychological Iraumatization and elhnocultural considerations in psychotherapy. Black veterans are highlighted to demonstrate the complexities of cultural and traumatic factors. The importance of recognizing the powerful and detrimental impact of stigmatizing social labels borne by certain groups of patients is discussed, as well as a specialized treatment model, post-traumatic psychocultural therapy, to help minority persons whose presenting complaints include suffering the aftereffects of psychological trauma. As the model integrates trauma and cultural issues, the veteran-therapist dynamics (particularly related to countertransference and cultural counterresistance), cultural stigma, and the therapist's achieving of transexperiential and transcultural competencies in therapy are emphasized.