Psychological Distress and Help Seeking in Rural America

The implications of exposure to acute and chronic stressors, and seeking mental health care, for increased psychological distress are examined. Research on economic stress, psychological distress, and rural agrarian values each point to increasing variability within rural areas. Using data from a panel study of 1,487 adults, a model predicting changes in depressive symptoms was specified and tested. Results show effects by size of place for men but not for women. Men living in rural villages of under 2,500 or in small towns of 2,500 to 9,999 people had significantly greater increases in depressive symptoms than men living in the country or in larger towns or cities. Size of place was also related to level of stigma toward mental health care. Persons living in the most rural environments were more likely to hold stigmatized attitudes toward mental health care and these views were strongly predictive of willingness to seek care. The combination of increased risk and less willingness to seek assistance places men living in small towns and villages in particular jeopardy for continuing problems involving depressed mood.     

The Structure of Personal Commitments

ABSTRACT This article examines the structure of personal commitments across several dimensions ot commitment experience and across multiple samples In Sample 1, one hundred ninety-seven subjects rated 41 commitment items along the dimensions of importance, expectancy to achieve, effort, and distress, in Sample 2, two hundred five subjects rated the same items along the dimensions of importance, current commitment, and visibility Principal components analyses produced six component solutions within each of the rating dimensions Using a multitrait-multimethod format, comparisons of the component solutions suggested that the six components ( a ) represented independent groupings within each solution and ( b ) remained consistent across the different dimensions of commitment experience The six components of commitment were identified as Affiliation, Power/Achievement, Personal Growth, Altruism, Stress Avoidance, and Sensation-Seeking     

Extraversion and happiness

The relationship between extraversion and happiness or subjective well-being (SWB) is one of the most consistently replicated and robust findings in the SWB literature. The present study was conducted in order to examine three key aspects of the relationship: (1) Whether it is primarily substantive in nature, or a product of self-report response artifacts, such as social desirability; (2) What the underlying systems or mechanisms involved in the relationship are; and (3) Whether Eysenck's two dimensions of extraversion and neuroticism combine additively or interactively in their influence upon an individual's level of SWB. The results are supportive of the substantive nature of the relationship, and suggest that both situational and personality factors combine to produce the positive correlation between extraversion and SWB. In terms of the interaction of extraversion and neuroticism, the results are mixed in supporting both an additive and interactive relationship.     

Developmental differences in the use of retrieval cues to describe episodic information in memory

In four experiments, this study examined some reasons why second and fourth grade children use cues relatively ineffectively to retrieve episodic information in memory. Retrieval success was conceptualized as using a cue to describe episodic information in memory. The experiments manipulated factors hypothesized to affect the discriminability and constructability of compatible encodings of context cue information at retrieval. In general, the effects were accomplished by varying the specificity of cue-target information at acquisition, and similar or different samplings of cue information alone at retrieval by means of orienting questions. Experiment 1 varied the encoding of item specific or categorical information. Experiment 2 varied the encoding of supercategorical or subcategorical information. Experiment 3 used two acquisition trials, crossing Categorical × Item Specific encoding and repeating identical encoding experiences. Experiment 4 varied Separate and Interactive Imagery encoding instructions. The results showed that problems of both discriminability and constructability contribute to developmental differences in the use of retrieval cues.     

Research note: Peak velocity timing invariance

Summary Subjects used arm movements to move a dot on a visual display into a predefined target area. Measures of the peak velocity values and the timing of the peaks were taken for the initial (preplanned) and the immediately subsequent (corrective) phases of movement. In both phases the value of the maximum velocity depended on task parameters such as amplitude. However, the time of the peak of each phase relative to its onset was invariant. Some implications of these observations for the nature of motor programs are discussed.     

The narcissistic personality in group psychotherapy

The author presents an interesting version of the Narcissus myth which she combines with the legend of Peter Pan for a better understanding of the narcissistic personality in group therapy. A lively case is presented of a young man named Jeffrey, whose narcissistic defenses were dismantled during a three-year group participation. A particular encounter between Jeffrey and another client and a powerful intervention by the therapist is described. The therapeutic importance of the group therapist as a firm but protective parent for these clients is emphasized. Definitions of narcissistic are given and some generalizations about these personalities in group therapy are explored.She has completed a book entitledChange in the Context of Group Therapy to be published by Brunner/Mazel in 1984.