Qualitative Evaluation of Medical Information Processing Needs of 60 Women Choosing Ovarian Cancer Surveillance or Prophylactic Oophorectomy

Thirty women who had prophylactic oophorectomy (PO) and thirty women undergoing ovarian cancer surveillance (OCS) completed a one-time in-depth telephone interview exploring information gathering and decision-making processes. There were close similarities between groups, including age, race, marital status, education, menopausal status, number undergoing genetic testing for BRCA mutations, and number of prophylactic mastectomies. The majority of participants indicated overall satisfaction with their final decision. However, many described the information gathering process as frustrating and anxiety provoking. Participants in both groups expressed a need to process medical information within the context of individual psychosocial needs and personal perceptions and experiences. There were recurrent themes with regard to informational and psychosocial needs and personal perceptions and experiences that impacted decision-making process for these women. The present paper is a companion paper to Swisher et al. (J Repr Med 2001, 46:87–94) with the focus of this paper to illustrate the medical informational processing needs identified by this group of women.     

Promoting positive community relations: what can RE learn from social psychology and the shared space project?

In this article we considered the relevance of specific claims that ‘multi-faith’ approaches to Religious Education (RE) play a role in promoting good community relations. In doing so, we adopted a social-psychological perspective where engaging in positive and meaningful interactions with diverse others reduces prejudice. Survey responses from 92 RE teachers across the UK were examined to determine the extent to which strategies for promoting positive community relations were embedded within classroom practice. We next examined whether teachers intuitively used social psychological theory – namely the contact hypothesis – to promote positive communities in their classrooms. Results demonstrated that the majority of surveyed RE practitioners perceived community relations to be a core aim of RE and that contact theory was applicable to their practice. Teachers reported examples of how they embed both contact theory and RE in their classrooms but not all of these aligned with social psychological theory. Findings suggest that successful practice in RE may be further developed by integrating theoretical principles of the contact hypothesis. Implications and future directions will be discussed.     

Gender Stereotypes and the Coordination of Mnemonic Work within Heterosexual Couples: Romantic Partners Manage their Daily To-Dos

Couples appear to help each other remember outstanding tasks (“to-dos”) by issuing reminders. We examine if women and men differ in the frequency with which they offer this form of mnemonic assistance. Five studies measure how heterosexual couples coordinate mnemonic work in romantic relationships. The first two studies demonstrate that men are assumed to do less of this form of mnemonic work (Study 1) and experience less societal pressure to do so than women do (Study 2). The next three studies suggest that men tend to do less of this mnemonic work than women do and that, when men do mnemonically help their partners, the help tends to involve errands for which they are stakeholders. This notion was evidenced in the greater accessibility of examples of women’s reminding acts than men’s reminding acts for both partners (Study 3) and in the less helpful reminders that men provided, compared to those women provided, as rated by both partners (Study 4a) and independent coders (Study 4b). These results converge on the possibility that men, relative to women, are less inclined to be concerned with keeping track of their partners” outstanding needs, perhaps because doing so is a behavior that is less strongly prescribed for men than for women. Implications for helping behavior and the possible consequences associated with performing disproportionate mnemonic work in relationships are discussed.     

The efficacy of cognitive-behavioral interventions for reducing anxiety sensitivity: a meta-analytic review

The present study meta-analytically reviewed the efficacy of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) vs. control conditions in the reduction of anxiety sensitivity. A computerized search was conducted to indentify CBT outcome studies that included the Anxiety Sensitivity Index as a dependent variable. Of the 989 studies that were identified, 24 randomized-controlled trials with a total of 1851 participants met inclusion criteria and were included in the analysis. Data were extracted separately for treatment-seeking (16 studies) and at-risk (eight studies) samples. Results indicated large effect sizes for treatment-seeking samples, Hedges' g=1.40, SE=0.21, 95% CI: 1.00-1.81, p<0.001, and moderate to large effect sizes for at risk samples Hedges' g=0.74, SE=0.18, 95% CI: 0.39-1.08, p<0.001. Additionally, both the amount of therapist contact and control modality (waitlist vs. psychological control) moderated the effect sizes for treatment-seeking samples. Our review indicates that CBT is efficacious in reducing anxiety sensitivity. However, more research is needed to determine the mechanisms by which CBT exert its effects on anxiety sensitivity.     

A reputation for success (or failure): the association of peer academic reputations with academic self-concept, effort, and performance across the upper elementary grades

The associations between children's academic reputations among peers and their academic self-concept, effort, and performance were examined in a longitudinal study of 427 students initially enrolled in Grades 3, 4, and 5. Assessments were completed in the fall and spring of 2 consecutive school years and in the fall of a 3rd school year. Peer academic reputation (PAR) correlated moderately strongly with teacher-rated skills and changed over time as a function of grades earned at the prior assessment. Path-analytic models indicated bidirectional associations between PAR and academic self-concept, teacher-rated academic effort, and grade point average. There was little evidence that changes in self-concept mediated the association between PAR and effort and GPA or that changes in effort mediated the association between PAR and GPA. Results suggest that peers may possess unique information about classmates' academic functioning, that children's PARs are psychologically meaningful, and that these reputations may serve as a useful marker of processes that forecast future academic engagement and performance.     

Familiarity and retrieval processes in delayed judgments of learning

Two processes are postulated to underlie delayed judgments of learning (JOLs)--cue familiarity and target retrievability. The two processes are distinguishable because the familiarity-based judgments are thought to be faster than the retrieval-based processes, because only retrieval-based JOLs should enhance the relative accuracy of the correlations between the JOLs and criterion test performance, and because only retrieval-based judgments should enhance memory. To test these predictions, in three experiments, the authors either speeded people's JOLs or allowed them to be unspeeded. The relative accuracy of the JOLs in predicting performance on the criterion test was higher for the unspeeded JOLs than for the speeded JOLs, as predicted. The unspeeded JOL conditions showed enhanced memory as compared with the speeded JOL conditions, as predicted. Finally, the unspeeded JOLs were sensitive to manipulations that modified recallability of the target, whereas the speeded JOLs were selectively sensitive to experimental variations in the familiarity of the cues. Thus, all three of the predictions about the consequences of the two processes potentially underlying delayed JOLs were borne out. A model of the processes underlying delayed JOLs based on these and earlier results is presented.     

Units of English spelling‐to‐sound mapping: a rational approach to reading instruction

In this paper a rationale for choosing how many and what types of spelling‐to‐sound units of English to teach children to learn to read is introduced. The rationale is based on an analysis of the frequency with which various units of spelling‐to‐sound mapping occur in monosyllabic words of the English language. Analysis of spelling‐to‐sound mappings at three levels (whole words, onsets and rimes and graphemes) reveals that the distribution of these mappings in English text approximates Zipf's Law. Further analyses reveal that a substantial proportion of text can be read if knowledge of the most frequent mappings at each level is assumed. It is suggested that viewing reading from this perspective can be useful in developing reading instruction so that children are taught information that is most useful in achieving the endpoint of learning to read. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.