Sexual Harassment and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms among Asian and White Women

Sexual harassment is a prevalent problem that has been associated with negative psychological and physical health outcomes. Although sexual harassment has been linked to posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms, little is known about how PTS symptoms that arose from sexual harassment experiences might be associated with psychological and physical health. This study examined the associations among sexual harassment, PTS symptoms, and psychological and physical well-being in a sample of Asian and White women. In addition, given the lack of research on sexual harassment among Asian women, we investigated the moderating role of ethnicity. Results indicated that greater sexual harassment frequency and PTS symptom severity predicted more depression, overall psychological distress, and physical symptoms. PTS symptom severity and ethnicity moderated the relationship between sexual harassment frequency and physical symptoms. We discuss the implications of these findings and directions for further research.     

The Relation Between Child Maltreatment and Adolescent Suicidal Behavior: A Systematic Review and Critical Examination of the Literature

A large body of research suggests that child maltreatment (CM) is associated with adolescent suicidal ideation and attempts. These studies, however, have not been critically examined and summarized in a manner that allows us to draw firm conclusions and make recommendations for future research and clinical work in this area. In this review, we evaluated all of the research literature to date examining the relationship between CM and adolescent suicidal ideation and attempts. Results generally suggest that childhood sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect are associated with adolescent suicidal ideation and attempts across community, clinical, and high-risk samples, using cross-sectional and longitudinal research designs. In most studies, these associations remain significant when controlling for covariates such as youth demographics, mental health, family, and peer-related variables. When different forms of CM are examined in the same multivariate analysis, most research suggests that each form of CM maintains an independent association with adolescent suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. However, a subset of studies yielded evidence to suggest that sexual abuse and emotional abuse may be relatively more important in explaining suicidal behavior than physical abuse or neglect. Research also suggests an additive effect—each form of CM contributes unique variance to adolescent suicide attempts. We discuss the current limitations of this literature and offer recommendations for future research. We conclude with an overview of the clinical implications of this research, including careful, detailed screening of CM history, past suicidal behavior, and current suicidal ideation, as well as the need for integrated treatment approaches that effectively address both CM and adolescent suicidal ideation and suicide attempts.     

The limits of visual resolution in natural scene viewing

We examined the limits of visual resolution in natural scene viewing, using a gaze-contingent multiresolutional display having a gaze-centred area-of-interest and decreasing resolution with eccentricity. Twelve participants viewed high-resolution scenes in which gaze-contingent multiresolutional versions occasionally appeared for single fixations. Both detection of image degradation (five filtering levels plus a no-area-of-interest control) in the gaze-contingent multiresolutional display, and eye fixation durations, were well predicted by a model of eccentricity-dependent contrast sensitivity. The results also illuminate the time course of detecting image filtering. Detection did not occur for fixations below 100 ms, and reached asymptote for fixations above 200 ms. Detectable filtering lengthened fixation durations by 160 ms, and interference from an imminent manual response occurred by 400-450 ms, often lengthening the next fixation. We provide an estimate of the limits of visual resolution in natural scene viewing useful for theories of scene perception, and help bridge the literature on spatial vision and eye movement control.     

The pigeon's discrimination of shape and location information

Two groups of pigeons (n = 4) were trained with 16 line drawings portraying a fixed shape and a variable shape. The four variable shapes (a wedge, a cone, a cylinder, and a handle) appeared to the left of, to the right of, above, or below the fixed shape (a cube). Group Shape (S) was required to discriminate the identity of the variable shape that was mated with the cube, whereas Group Location (L) was required to discriminate where the variable shape appeared relative to the cube. Three of the four pigeons in each group mastered their respective tasks. Later tests revealed that the two groups of pigeons had attended to different aspects of the shape pairs, even though the visual stimuli and general procedures they had been given were the same. Group S had attended to the identity of the variable shape and had ignored the identity and location of the cube, whereas Group L had attended to the configuration of the two shapes. The methods and stimuli could be useful in delineating the biological bases of shape and location perception.     

Accurate identification but no priming and chance recognition memory for pictures in RSVP sequences

In 1969, Potter and Levy reported that recognition memory of accurately perceived RSVP pictures was extremely low, an effect that they attributed to disruption of memory consolidation. Here we report that the repetition of an RSVP picture (72-126 msec/picture) up to 31 times prior to when it became a target had no effect on identification accuracy. At these rates, forced-choice recognition memory was at chance. Single presentations of the pictures outside of the RSVP sequences readily resulted in substantial priming of their identification within the sequences. We offer a neural interpretation of Potter and Levy's explanation, as well as contemporary two-stage accounts of RSVP memory and attentional phenomena, based on the recent finding (Tovee & Rolls, 1995) that most of the information in inferior temporal cells is conveyed in the first 50msec of firing but the cells continue their activity for an additional 350msec. The additional activity, by our account, is required for memory and it is this activity that may be disrupted by attention to the next image during RSVP presentations. The critical factor for priming, if not memory in general, may be attention to the stimulus for a few hundred milliseconds beyond that required for its identification. Single-trial presentations thus manifest robust memory and priming effects - even when the stimulus cannot be identified - whereas RSVP conditions in which the stimulus can be identified result in poor memory.     

Psychology as a discipline of discourse

This paper begins with a discussion of various layers of meaning now associated with the term ‘discourse’. Particular attention is paid to one aspect of discourse, namely the notion of ‘dialogue’. Some of Mikhail Bakhtin's ideas on dialogue are outlined, leading towards his emphasis on life, itself, being dialogical by its very nature. The author then articulates some of his own activities in psychotherapy,identifying various ways in which aspects of discourse are involved in his daily practice as a ‘professional conversationalist’. He then spells out an agenda for developing a psychology viewed and approached as a ‘discipline of discourse’. He finishes by indicating some of the implications of this perspective.     

The path and price of personal development

Personal development follows an inevitable path. The initial focus is upon social factors which gives way to emphasis on ‘self’, and ultimately enters a spiritual phase. It is a one-way process, and initial social gains may be lost as the process unfolds.     

Patterns of On-line Resource Allocation to Narrative Text by Younger and Older Readers

Younger and older adults read narrative texts word by word for immediate recall. There were no age differences in recall performance, showing that older adults were effective in narrative memory. Analysis of reading times demonstrated the existence of interindividual variability in sensitivity to text demands, which was predictive of subsequent memory performance. Contrary to the view that older readers do not encode text analytically, for these naturalistic narratives both younger and older adults optimized memory through the allocation of processing resources to the construction of a proposition-based representation of content. Overall, attentiveness to narrative structure also facilitated narrative memory, but this relationship was more reliable among older readers.     

Satisfaction with Time Allocations Within the Family: The Role of Family Type

This study examines the links between inequality in the time allocations of partners in couple families and the satisfaction they have with the way they spend their time. It uses time diary and self-reported satisfaction data from the 2006 Australian Time Use Survey. It shows that inequality in the time allocations of partners in couple families affects the satisfaction with the current allocation of time in families without children, but not in families with children. It is argued that the patterns of time use associated with children, specifically specialization in specific tasks, are the main reason for this finding.