The effectiveness of attentional diversion and situation redefinition for reducing stress due to a nonambiguous Threat

After receiving a sample shock, subjects in a Threat Condition were told that they would receive additional painful shocks while subjects in a Nonthreat Condition were not threatened with additional shocks. Subjects in an Attentional Diversion Condition were then instructed to read and think about an amusing story, subjects in a Situation Redefinition Condition were instructed to write down reasons why they should not be afraid in this situation, and subjects in a Control Condition were not given any instructions for coping with stress. (Coping Conditions were factorially crossed with Threat Conditions and 192 subjects were employed.) Physiological measures (pulse rate, finger pulse volume, skin resistance) indicated that unlike the results of previous research, attentional diversion was effective in reducing stress but situation redefinition was not. Discussion was focused on the parameters which determine whether or not a coping strategy will be effective.     

RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES ON THE HOME PLANET

Abstract. Earth is the home planet, right for life. But rights, a notable political category, is, unfortunately, a biologically awkward word. Humans, nonetheless, have rights to a natural environment with integrity. Humans have responsibilities to respect values in fauna and flora. Appropriate survival units include species populations and ecosystems. Increasingly the ultimate survival unit isglobal; and humans have a responsibility to the planet Earth. Human political systems are not well suited to protect life atglobal ranges. National boundaries ignore important ecologicalprocesses; national policies do not favor an equitable distribution of sustainable resources. But there are signs of hope.     

Parsing strategies and discourse context

Two experiments investigated syntactic processing during comprehension of sentences presented either in isolation or in a discourse context. Comprehension of a range of different types of surface structurally ambiguous sentences was studied. To explain the interpretations generally given to the sentences processed in isolation, two parsing principles were proposed: Kimball's (1973) Right Association and Verb Dominance. When the ambiguous sentences were read in context, the interpretations computed were still determined by these structurally based principles, even when this meant that the meanings were at variance with the prior context. These results indicate that surface structure parsing of sentences proceeds in the same way whether sentences are processed alone or in context.This research was supported by a grant from the Australian Research Grants Scheme. I thank Linda Cupples for her help in conducting the experiments and in analyzing the data. I am indebted to Marilyn Ford for her critical comments on an earlier, version of the article. Thanks are also due to Dianne Bradley, Ken Forster, and Roger Wales for their helpful comments on the topic.     

Loss, Healing, and the Power of Place

Human beings have a tendency to transform geographical spaces into dwelling places which assume significance in terms of their social, cultural and personal identities. The authors describe the ways in which this occurs, how it is disrupted by a natural disaster - an Australian bushfire - and how the reciprocal relationship between place and person can contribute to personal and communal healing. The discussion draws on a doctoral thesis conducted by the principal author, and is illuminated by excerpts from narratives provided by those who experienced the bushfire. The discussion is informed by insights from phenomenological geography and ecological philosophy.     

Chronometric comparison of actual and imaged complex movement patterns

The authors' aim in this study was to consider the functional equivalence of internal imagery, external imagery, and action execution. Sixteen elite gymnasts imaged and performed a complex gymnastic vault. Ten performers imaged from an internal perspective, and 6 used an external perspective. Although the results revealed that the time to image the entire motor task did not significantly differ from the time required to physically perform it, irrespective of the imagery perspective used, the temporal organization of the action was different within the imagery conditions than it was in the physical condition. The results do not provide support for the principle of temporal functional equivalence. The authors discuss the results in light of recent findings from the cognitive neuroscience and psychology literatures.     

Optimizing assurance: the risk regulation system in relationships

A model of risk regulation is proposed to explain how people balance the goal of seeking closeness to a romantic partner against the opposing goal of minimizing the likelihood and pain of rejection. The central premise is that confidence in a partner's positive regard and caring allows people to risk seeking dependence and connectedness. The risk regulation system consists of 3 interconnected "if--then" contingency rules, 1 cognitive, 1 affective, and 1 behavioral. The authors describe how general perceptions of a partner's regard structure the sensitivity of these 3 "if--then" rules in risky relationship situations. The authors then describe the consequences of such situated "if--then" rules for relationship well-being and conclude by integrating other theoretical perspectives and outlining future research directions.     

Health service use costs by personality disorder following specialist and nonspecialist treatment: a comparative study

The impact of specialist psychosocial treatment on health service use costs by patients with personality disorder is not yet sufficiently documented. In this prospective study we compare patterns of health service costs by three groups of people with personality disorder treated in a hospital-based program (IPP), a step down program (SDP), and a general psychiatric program (GPP). Total service use costs at follow up, compared with intake costs, showed that significantly higher savings were achieved by SDP and IIP compared with GPP. Cost reductions in SDP were significantly greater than in IPP. Significant cost reductions were found between treatment programs in social worker and community psychiatric nursing and psychotherapy. The cost-effectiveness of the two specialist treatment programs was indicated by the significant association between total cost reduction and clinical outcome in GPP and IPP, but not in GPP. The effect of Major Depression and Borderline Personality Disorder on health service use alone and in combination was also investigated. The finding that Major Depression was found to be more significantly associated with higher health service use costs than Borderline Personality Disorder is discussed.     

Women in group and women's groups

Female development is characterized by the introjection of maternal and paternal objects, which creates a rich internal world for women. However, the feminine tendency to become diffused in identifications sometimes results in women feeling overpowered in mixed-gender groups. The author advocates women's groups for the traditionally "feminine" woman, that is, the woman who has a rather impoverished sense of self in terms of her internalized objects. Women's groups are also helpful during adolescence, pregnancy, and menopause, milestones of female development. These are times when women are in profound crisis and may find it difficult to speak about these quintessentially feminine events in the presence of men.     

Emotional stimuli, divided attention, and memory

The emotion-memory literature has shown that negative emotional arousal enhances memory. S. A. Christianson (1992) proposed that preattentive processing could account for this emotion-memory relationship. Two experiments were conducted to test Christianson's theory. In Experiment 1, participants were exposed to neutral and negative arousing slides. In Experiment 2, participants were exposed to neutral, negative arousing, and positive arousing slides. In both experiments, the aforementioned variable was factorially combined with a divided-attention or non-divided-attention condition. The authors predicted that, in contrast to the nondivided condition, dividing attention would adversely impact neutral and positive stimuli more than negative stimuli. The hypothesis was supported; participants recalled more high negative-arousal slides than positive or neutral slides when their attention was divided rather than nondivided.     

Attachment Relationships as Predictors of Cognitive Interpretation and Response Bias in Late Adolescence

We investigated behavioural and cognitive representations of attachment style. Specifically, we sought to test continuity in attachment style and whether participants' perceptions of their attachments to parents, peers, and romantic partners would predict cognitive interpretation and responses to 12 ambiguous situation scenarios. Participants were 161 undergraduate students (17–20 years) who completed the Parental Bonding Instrument, the Attachment Style Questionnaire and the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (peer subscale). Participants then indicated whether they interpreted ambiguous situations as threatening versus non-threatening and how they would respond (proactively, aggressively, or avoidantly). Regression analyses revealed that insecure parental attachments were the main predictor of participants' interpretations and their planned responses, followed by romantic attachments. Peer attachments played little role in the predictions. These results suggest that interpretation of situations and subsequent plans of action may be influenced by attachment related experiences. We discuss our findings in terms of their relevance to attachment theory and their application to our understanding of the concepts of attachment in development of interpersonal relationships.