Development of an Interactive Decision Aid for Female BRCA1/BRCA2 Carriers

Shared decision making between patients and providers is becoming increasingly common, particularly when there is no clear preferred course of action. As a result, decision aids are being adopted with growing frequency and have been applied to many medical decision-making issues. One such issue where there is uncertainty is breast cancer risk management among BRCA1/BRCA2 carriers. We present the development of a CD-ROM decision aid to facilitate risk management decision making in this population. Our decision aid was developed with the intention of providing it through a randomized clinical trial. The CD-ROM is a multimedia, interactive intervention which provides information about breast cancer, risks associated with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, risk management options for hereditary breast cancer, and a breast cancer risk management decision aid. The goal of this CD-ROM, offered as an adjunctive intervention, is to reduce decisional conflict and psychological distress and improve comprehension of risk information, decisional satisfaction, medical adherence, and quality of life for this population of women at increased risk for breast cancer.     

An exploration of possible pre- and postnatal correlates of autism: a pilot survey

Biological mothers of children, diagnosed with autism or pervasive developmental disorder, and biological mothers of children without developmental delays and matched on age and sex, were surveyed about a number of possible pre- and postnatal correlates of autism or pervasive developmental disorder. A regression analysis for boys showed the mother not vomiting in the first trimester, not having smell aversions, not craving sweets, the mother reporting fewer food aversions during the pregnancy, and having an infection while pregnant significantly predicted a later diagnosis of autism or pervasive developmental disorder. Not vomiting in the first trimester was the only significant predictor of a diagnosis of autism or a pervasive developmental disorder in girls.     

Developing suicide prevention programs for African American youth in African American churches

Suicide prevention programs for African American youth in African American churches may have broad appeal because: (1) the Black Church has a strong history of helping community members, regardless of church membership; (2) African Americans have the highest level of public and private religiousness; and (3) the church can help shape religious and cultural norms about mental health and help-seeking. The proposed gatekeeper model trains lay helpers and clergy to recognize the risk and protective factors for depression and suicide, to make referrals to the appropriate community mental health resources, and to deliver a community education curriculum. Potential barriers and suggestions for how to overcome these barriers are discussed.     

Adult Attachment and Developmental Personality Styles: An Empirical Study

The current study was designed to test specific hypotheses associated with W. J. Lyddon and A. Sherry's (2001) attachment theory model of developmental personality styles. More specifically, 4 adult attachment dimensions were correlated with 10 personality scales on the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory‐III (T. Millon, R. Davis, & C. Millon, 1997) with a sample of 273 men and women. Findings indicated that the adult attachment dimensions were able to predict 7 of the 10 personality styles.     

Anticipating the inevitable: When leader and member attribution styles clash

This article supported the hypothesis that leaders’ and members’ attribution styles have interactive effects on members’ perceptions of the quality of their leader–member relations. Across two samples, results revealed an interactive effect such that members’ perceptions of poor leader–member relations were most accentuated when they were biased toward external and unstable attributions (i.e. optimistic attributions) for their negative outcomes, while their leaders were biased toward attributing negative outcomes to the internal and stable characteristics of the members (i.e. pessimistic attribution styles). In Study 2, results indicated that the members’ perceptions of distributive and procedural justice mediated the interactive effects of leader pessimism and member optimism on relationship quality.     

Robust dimensions of anxiety sensitivity: development and initial validation of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3

Accumulating evidence suggests that anxiety sensitivity (fear of arousal-related sensations) plays an important role in many clinical conditions, particularly anxiety disorders. Research has increasingly focused on how the basic dimensions of anxiety sensitivity are related to various forms of psychopathology. Such work has been hampered because the original measure--the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI)--was not designed to be multidimensional. Subsequently developed multidimensional measures have unstable factor structures or measure only a subset of the most widely replicated factors. Therefore, the authors developed, via factor analysis of responses from U.S. and Canadian nonclinical participants (n=2,361), an 18-item measure, the ASI-3, which assesses the 3 factors best replicated in previous research: Physical, Cognitive, and Social Concerns. Factorial validity of the ASI-3 was supported by confirmatory factor analyses of 6 replication samples, including nonclinical samples from the United States and Canada, France, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Spain (n=4,494) and a clinical sample from the United States and Canada (n=390). The ASI-3 displayed generally good performance on other indices of reliability and validity, along with evidence of improved psychometric properties over the original ASI.     

Childhood anxiety sensitivity index factors predict unique variance in DSM-IV anxiety disorder symptoms

Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is an established cognitive risk factor for anxiety disorders. In children and adolescents, AS is usually measured with the Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index (CASI). Factor analytic studies suggest that the CASI is comprised of 3 lower-order factors pertaining to Physical, Psychological and Social Concerns. There has been little research on the validity of these lower-order factors. We examined the concurrent and incremental validity of the CASI and its lower-order factors in a non-clinical sample of 349 children and adolescents. CASI scores predicted symptoms of DSM-IV anxiety disorder subtypes as measured by the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (SCAS) after accounting for variance due to State-Trait Anxiety Inventory scores. CASI Physical Concerns scores incrementally predicted scores on each of the SCAS scales, whereas scores on the Social and Psychological Concerns subscales incrementally predicted scores on conceptually related symptom scales (e.g. CASI Social Concerns scores predicted Social Phobia symptoms). Overall, this study demonstrates that there is added value in measuring AS factors in children and adolescents.     

Adult helping qualities preferred by adolescents

Most studies of therapeutic alliance have focused on adult populations and been written from the therapist's perspective. Thus, there is a clear need for studies of therapeutic alliance that focus on adolescent populations from the perspective of the adolescents. The current study is an exploratory process investigation using a focus group methodology with a nonclinical sample of adolescents to determine which traits in adults might foster alliance, with the assumption that the same traits would apply to therapeutic settings. A content analytic approach was used and 12 adult qualities found to be preferred by adolescents from most to least cited were: respect, time shared, openness, role characteristics, recognition, guidance, identification, trust, freedom, like/ dislike, responsibility, and familiarity.     

The interpersonal expression of perfection: perfectionistic self-presentation and psychological distress

A concept involving the interpersonal expression of perfection, perfectionistic self-presentation, is introduced. It is argued that perfectionistic self-presentation is a maladaptive self-presentational style composed of three facets: perfectionistic self-promotion (i.e., proclaiming and displaying one's perfection), nondisplay of imperfection (i.e., concealing and avoiding behavioral demonstrations of one's imperfection), and nondisclosure of imperfection (i.e., evading and avoiding verbal admissions of one's imperfection). Several studies involving diverse samples demonstrate that perfectionistic self-presentation is a valid and reliable construct and a consistent factor in personal and interpersonal psychological distress. It is argued that the need to promote one's perfection or the desire to conceal one's imperfection involves self-esteem regulation in the interpersonal context.     

The elusive nature of self-measurement: the self-construal scale versus the twenty statements test

In the present study, the authors compared 2 frequently used measures to operationalize the construct of the self, namely, the Self-Construal Scale (SCS; T. M. Singelis, 1994) and the Twenty Statements Test (TST; M. Kuhn & T. S. McPartland, 1954), in a sample of 324 male and female undergraduate psychology students of diverse ethnocultural backgrounds. Results demonstrated low intercorrelations between the 2 measures, suggesting that the qualitative and quantitative measures did not evaluate the same construct. A factor analysis of the SCS scale revealed 3 constructs-an independent construct, an interdependent construct, and a power distance or hierarchy construct. Implications for future research included the need for ongoing work in identifying and measuring the constructs of the self.