Poverty, Inequality, And Discrimination As Sources Of Depression Among U.S. Women

Poverty, inequality, and discrimination endanger women's well-being. Poverty is one of the most consistent predictors of depression in women, probably because it imposes considerable stress while attacking many potential sources of social support. Economic inequalities within societies are associated with reduced life expectancy and a variety of negative physical health outcomes. Parallel research on economic inequalities and depression has just begun. Discrimination maintains inequalities, condemns women to lives of lessened economic security, and exposes them to unmerited contempt. Although the mental health impact of poverty is documented and largely understood, the implications of inequality and discrimination are less well known. Much important work remains to be done, particularly research that connects individuals' mental health to ecological characteristics of the communities and societies in which they live.     

Development of an Interview for Anxiety-Relevant Interpersonal Styles: Preliminary Support for Convergent and Discriminant Validity

This report presents preliminary psychometric support for a new approach to assess anxiety-relevant interpersonal styles in close relationships, the Social Anxiety Relationship Interview (SARI). The SARI is a semistructured interview, designed to evaluate relevant interpersonal styles (e.g., lack of assertion, conflict avoidance, and fear of expressing strong emotions). In this report, the convergent and discriminant validity of the SARI are examined. Results indicate that the SARI demonstrated good convergent validity, with correlations ranging from .2 to .5 between the subscales and related constructs such as assertiveness, affective control, assertion of autonomy, lack of social self-confidence, and avoidant problem solving. Examining the relationship between the SARI subscales and four conceptually unrelated constructs (somatization, hostility, paranoia, and psychoticism) indicated few significant associations, controlling for social anxiety. Additionally, most aspects of interpersonal functioning assessed by the SARI appeared specific to social anxiety, on the basis of analyses that controlled for trait anxiety. Finally, SARI responses do not appear to be influenced by social desirability. These data provide promising support for this measure, which will encourage greater exploration of the role of interpersonal factors in social anxiety.     

Public-private partnerships in refugee resettlement: Europe and the US

This article describes the process of resettlement in five states (the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States). The different roles of private, non-governmental actors in the five systems are explored. The nature of the state as a provider of public welfare assistance is a factor that seems to determine the extent to which private actors play a role in resettlement. The article draws preliminary conclusions that could inform future social science research.     

Immediate and Prolonged Effects of Videogame Violence

This study examined the relationship between playing violent videogames and sensitivity to aggressive acts. In 2 experiments, college students were randomly assigned to play violent or less violent videogames. They then read a series of criminal vignettes and assigned prison sentences to violent criminals. In the second experiment, participants returned 1 hr later and completed a second series of vignettes. A significant interaction between gender and videogame was found in both experiments. Men who played the violent game gave more lenient sentences to criminals than did those who played the less violent game. In the second experiment, women, unlike men, assigned harsher sentences after playing the violent game. The effects were found to persist for at least 1 hr.     

MY MOTHER,MY STORY

This piece returns to the writer’s memoir essays about her mother’s chronic lung disease to examine the relationship between the act of caregiving and the act of writing. In arguing for important differences between the clinical, healing imperatives of narrative medicine and the primacy for the writer of self-reflection, personal need and career, the essay demonstrates how writing remains in many ways at odds with the obligations and the hopes of caregiving. At the same time, the essay argues that writing her mother’s stories of illness holds the potential for both honor and mutuality—and can, in fact, constitute a form of caregiving.     

WRITING THE HISTORY OF HISTORIED THOUGHT

Abstract: In Historied Thought, Constructed World , Joseph Margolis identifies the philosophical themes that will dominate philosophical discussions in the twenty-first century, given the recognition of the historicity of philosophical thought in the twentieth century. In what follows I examine these themes, especially cognitive intransparency, and the arguments presented in favor of them, noting the extent to which they rest on a view of language that takes a written text, and not speech, as the paradigm of language. I suggest if one takes speech as a mutual embodied action in a shared space as a model for language, the theme of cognitive intransparency—and the problems it brings in its wake—does not loom so large for those of us working in the history of philosophy. I conclude by showing that if we adopt this suggestion in relation to early Greek philosophy, that is, the period in the history of historied thought in which philosophy itself emerges as a linguistic and intellectual activity, we can better understand how and why philosophy emerged as it did—in the form of dialogues by Plato.     

Behavioral measures of saccade latency and inhibition in manifest and premanifest Huntington's disease

Initiation and inhibition of saccadic eye movements has been shown to be impaired in patients with Huntington's disease (HD) and premanifest gene carriers (PMGC), and may provide biomarkers useful in tracking phenotypic change. Computerized behavioral tests of prosaccade latency and disinhibition presented to 31 non-gene carriers (NGC), 25 PMGC, and 12 HD patients. These tests provided quantitative performance measures without use of eye-tracking equipment. Significant differences on saccade tests were found, with PMGC intermediate between NGC and HD patients. Saccade latency discriminated PMGC from NGC, whereas saccade disinhibition discriminated PMGC from HD patients. Results suggest utility of behavioral saccade measures as premanifest indicators of phenoconversion in HD.     

Can preference for background music mediate the irrelevant sound effect?

Research suggests that listening to background music prior to task performance increases cognitive processes, such as attention and memory, through the mechanism of increasing arousal and positive mood. However, music preference has not been explored with regard to a more common and realistic scenario of concurrent music and cognition, namely the ‘irrelevant sound effect’ (ISE). To examine this, serial recall was tested under quiet, liked and disliked music sound conditions as well as steady‐state (repetition of ‘3’) and changing‐state speech (random digits 1–9). Results revealed performance to be poorer for both music conditions and the changing‐state speech compared to quiet and steady‐state speech conditions. The lack of difference between both music conditions suggests that preference does not affect serial recall performance. These findings are discussed within the music and cognition and auditory distraction literatures. Copyright © 2010 JohnWiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evidence-based mental health interventions for traumatized youth: a statewide dissemination project

Psychological trauma in childhood has been shown to increase a variety of psychological disturbances and psychiatric disorders. Although evidence-based treatments for children who have been traumatized exist, they are infrequently used by clinicians treating children. The present paper describes the creation of the Treatment Collaborative for Traumatized Youth (TCTY) which is a statewide partnership in North Dakota designed to disseminate efficacious treatments for traumatized children and monitor outcomes across a broad, rural, geographic expanse. The paper reviews the dissemination strategy developed by the TCTY, reports outcomes regarding both clinicians and child participants, and highlights problems identified in the project and solutions that were generated.