Psychobiological Factors Predicting the Course of Breast Cancer

Drawing on a carefully controlled sample of 52 women with a history of breast carcinoma and 34 healthy controls, this prospective study examined empirical associations between psychological factors and the progression of neoplastic disorders over a follow-up period averaging 624 days. Psychological variables were psychometrically assessed by self-report measures. A multiple regression analysis which controlled for disease stage at original diagnosis, age, total length of disease course, hematological factors, and blood chemistries measured at study onset showed neoplastic spread to be associated with a repressive personality style, reduced expression of negative affect, helplessness-hopelessness, chronic stress, and comforting daydreaming. The identified model of medical and psychological variables accounted for 56% of the observed variance. A psychobiological model of brain-body disregulation provided the best account of the observed associations between psychological functioning and the progression of disease. Future research is necessary to examine the role which psychological functioning may exert upon health-relevant behaviors that might blunt the benefits of professional health care.     

Stability and Change in Type A Components and Cardiovascular Reactivity in Medical Students During Periods of Academic Stress1

This study examined the effects of academic stress upon components of Type A behavior and cardiovascular reactivity. In a longitudinal design, heart rate and blood pressure responses to the Type A Structured Interview (SI) and additional laboratory challenges were measured in medical students at three points during an academic semester. Sessions 1 and 3 were scheduled during vacation periods; Session 2 took place during an intensive examination week. Results indicated that three “stylistic” components of Pattern A derived from the SI—loud and explosive speech, short response latency, and potential for hostility—increased significantly during the exam period. Similar increases achieved marginal significance for another stylistic component, rapid and accelerated speech. By contrast, global Type A assessments did not increase with academic demands. Cardiovascular reactivity was significantly but only moderately stable across the three sessions, showing less consistency than has been reported in previous research. In addition, there was little evidence in this study that cardiovascular reactivity was potentiated by academic stress or by Type A behavior. These results demonstrate the influence of naturalistic environmental factors on overt behavioral components that have recently been suggested as coronary risk factors. Therefore, it is advisable for future experimental and epidemiological research to examine the social and environmental context in which these behaviors occur.     

Psychoanalytic training and its effect on the candidate's clinical work

This paper explores the effects of the psychoanalytic candidate's role, supervision, training analysis, office setting, and emerging professional identity on his clinical work. The strains associated with institute candidacy and how these may be perceived by patients are explored. The author suggests that further study of the process of becoming an analyst could ultimately improve training.     

Gender,sex roles,and attitudes toward war and nuclear weapons

The observation that men are usually more supportive of war than women had led several authors to suggest that masculinity plays a causal role in the decision to make war and stockpile nuclear arms. In order to examine the relationship between sex role orientation and attitudes towards war and nuclear weapons, gender and measures of sex role orientation were used to predict three attitudes about nuclear weapons and the use of military force. Two specific and two classes of hypotheses regarding the possible relationships among these variables were tested: masculinity, femininity, Masculinity × Femininity interaction, and Gender × Sex Role Orientation hypotheses. The results provided limited support only for the femininity hypothesis—that attitudes toward war are associated with feminine traits. However, neither masculinity nor femininity was found to be the only mediators of the gender/war attitude relationship, indicating that sex role orientation (and especially masculinity) should be given less emphasis when trying to explain the relationship between gender and attitudes toward war.The author gratefully acknowledges the helpful comments of Douglas Kenrick, Nancy Russo, and an anonymous reviewer on a earlier version of this paper.     

Postnatal development of respiratory and vocal responses during aversive classical conditioning in cats

Respiratory rate, respiration amplitude, and vocal responses were recorded in cats of different ages during classic conditioning. Vocal responses to the conditional stimulus (CS) appeared first in 8-week-old kittens, and became prominent at older ages. An increase in respiration rate occurred after the onset of the CS in cats of all ages. Similarly, the decrease of respiration amplitude was observed at all ages, but only in 8-week-old and older subjects did this response resemble an adult pattern. In 4-week-old kittens the response was characterized by an early and brief peak, suggesting an alpha conditional response (CR). Clear and significant discrimination between a warning and a safety signal was present in both respiratory and vocal responses after the age of 8 weeks.