The Imperatives of Narrative: Health Interest Groups and Morality in Network News

This article examines some of the story conventions of network television news to explain the ways in which healthcare interest groups develop and maintain their presence in this medium—a process that has significant implications for public understanding of healthcare issues, and therefore to bioethics. The article is divided into three sections. The first section focuses on three major normative conventions of television news: adherence to a simple narrative structure, the balance ethic, and avoidance of the “think-piece” and outlines the basic strategies available to interest groups for exploiting these normative conventions. Section two introduces three case studies of organizations and individuals who have run high-profile media campaigns. Section three explores the implications for bioethics of the observations made in this article.     

Do Disagreeable Political Discussion Networks Undermine Attitude Strength?

How attitudes change and affect behavior depends, in large part, on their strength. Strong attitudes are more resistant to persuasion and are more likely to produce attitude‐consistent behavior. But what influences attitude strength? In this article, we explore a widely discussed, but rarely investigated, factor: an individual's political discussion network. What prior work exists offers a somewhat mixed picture, finding sometimes that disagreeable networks weaken attitudes and other times that they strengthen attitudes. We use a novel national representative dataset to explore the relationship between disagreeable networks and attitude strength. We find, perhaps surprisingly, no evidence that disagreements in networks affect political attitude strength. We conclude by discussing likely reasons for our findings, which, in turn, provide a research agenda for the study of networks and attitude strength.     

Demonstrating the Effects of Presentation Rate on Aging Memory Using the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT)

Previous research has repeatedly found that the elderly demonstrate significant declines in direct measures of memory. This study examined verbal learning and memory in the young and old participants using the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT). We hypothesized that slowing down the presentation rate of a list of words, therefore giving the participants more time to rehearse while learning new information, would decrease the normal differences found between the young and old adults on memory recall. However, at a faster presentation rate, the usual differences would be found. Participants took the CVLT, and correct recall responses were measured as a function of age and presentation rate. It was found, as expected, that at the faster presentation rate, the young did significantly better than the old on recall, but at the slower presentation rate, the differences between age groups diminished. It was concluded that by giving the elderly more time to rehearse information, age-related differences in memory recall could be greatly diminished.     

The impact of ethnicity,nationality, counseling orientation,and mental health standards on stereotypic beliefs about women: A pilot study

People vary in the extent to which they hold stereotypic beliefs about women. The recently developed Beliefs About Women Scale (BAWS) was used in five investigations to examine the following aspects of people's stereotypic beliefs about women: (Study I) the impact of ethnicity (Hispanics and Anglos) on women's endorsement of traditional beliefs about women; (Study II) the impact of national culture (Mexico and the United States) on women's responses to the BAWS; (Study III) the extent to which U.S. women define women's and men's mental health in terms of stereotypic beliefs about women; (Study IV) the extent to which preferences for counseling orientation influence the beliefs about women attributed to mentally healthy women and men; and (Study V) the impact of national culture (Mexico and the United States) on the beliefs about women ascribed to mentally healthy women and men. The results indicated that (a) U.S. Anglo females disagreed more strongly with traditional beliefs about women than did U.S. Hispanic females; (b) U.S. women expressed greater agreement with traditional stereotypes about women's interpersonal abilities and greater disagreement with traditional stereotypes about women's personal competencies than did women from Mexico; (c) the beliefs about women held by U.S. psychology trainees, and the beliefs about women that they attributed to mentally healthy females, were more nontraditional than those that they attributed to mentally healthy males; (d) particular counseling preferences were associated with the stereotypic beliefs about women that female counseling trainees imputed to mentally healthy males and females; and (e) similarities and differences exist on the beliefs about women that female psychology trainees from the United States and Mexico ascribe to mentally healthy females and males. The discussion focuses on mentally healthy beliefs about women, and the implications of these findings for the delivery of mental health services to women and men from various cultures.     

Validation of the UPPS impulsive behaviour scale: a four‐factor model of impulsivity

The current study attempts to clarify the multi‐faceted nature of impulsivity through the use of the four‐factor UPPS Impulsive Behaviour scale. In order to build the nomological network surrounding this scale, the UPPS was administered to individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD), pathological gamblers (PG), alcohol abusers (divided into two groups based on the presence of antisocial features), and a control group. Several of the UPPS scales (e.g. Urgency, lack of Premeditation, and Sensation Seeking) differentiated the BPD, PG, and alcohol abusers with antisocial features from a group of non‐antisocial alcohol abusers and a control group. Overall, the UPPS scales accounted for between 7% (pathological gambling) and 64% (borderline personality disorder features) of the overall variance in the psychopathology measures. Individual UPPS scales also made unique contributions to several of these disorders, which may provide insight into which of these personality traits may predispose individuals to behave in maladaptive or problematic ways. The results provide support for the differentiation of impulsivity‐related constructs into the current four‐factor model. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Measuring "negative body image": validation of the Body Image Disturbance Questionnaire in a nonclinical population

Despite numerous measures of facets of the body image construct, no single assessment broadly measures a continuum of body image disturbance. Accordingly, this study developed the Body Image Disturbance Questionnaire (BIDQ), derived from the Body Dysmorphic Disorder Questionnaire. Participants were 220 college women and 75 college men who completed an online survey containing this new assessment and established measures of body image and psychosocial functioning. Results confirmed that the Body Image Disturbance Questionnaire was internally consistent and free of impression-management response bias. For both sexes, the measure converged appropriately with other body image indices (evaluation, affect, investment, and impact), was positively correlated with depression, social anxiety, and eating disturbance. Scores on this assessment also predicted psychosocial functioning above and beyond body dissatisfaction as a predictor. Greater body image disturbance was observed among women than men, among heavier than lighter women, and among White than African American women. Limitations and future research implications are discussed.     

An examination of the Validity of the Elemental Psychopathy Assessment: Relations with Other Psychopathy Measures,Aggression, and Externalizing Behaviors

The Elemental Psychopathy Assessment (EPA) is a new self-report measure of psychopathy designed to assess the personality traits associated with psychopathy from a Five Factor Model perspective. The current study examined the validity of the EPA in sample of undergraduates by examining the relations between the EPA scales and three validated self-report psychopathy instruments, as well as assessments of aggression, substance use, and antisocial behavior. The EPA scales manifested strong convergent validity with the extant psychopathy measures and an expected pattern of relations with measures of externalizing behaviors. Overall, the EPA appears to be a promising measure of psychopathy which provides new opportunities to explore the underlying structure of this construct and parse its relations with constructs central to its nomological network.     

How semantic categorization influences inhibitory processing in middle-childhood: an Event Related Potentials study

Throughout middle-childhood, inhibitory processes, which underlie many higher order cognitive tasks, are developing. Little is known about how inhibitory processes change as a task becomes conceptually more difficult during these important years. In adults, as Go/NoGo tasks become more difficult there is a systematic decrease in the P3NoGo response, indicating the use of effective inhibitory strategies (Maguire et al., 2009). This paper investigates the age at which children employ similar inhibitory strategies by studying behavioral and Event Related Potential (ERP) measures of response inhibition for three Go/NoGo tasks. Seventeen 7-8 year-olds and twenty 10-11-year-olds completed three Go/NoGo tasks that differed in the level of categorization necessary to respond. Both age groups displayed slower reaction times as the tasks became more difficult. Further, both groups displayed the predicted Go vs. NoGo P3 amplitude differences in the two simplest tasks, but no significant P3 differences for the most complex task. The reason for this pattern of responses was different in the different age groups. Similar to adults in previous work, the oldest children showed an attenuation of the P3 NoGo response with task difficulty, and no corresponding changes in the Go amplitude. The younger children displayed the opposite pattern, a significant increase in the Go amplitude with task difficulty, and no changes in the NoGo response. These response patterns indicate that efficient inhibitory strategies are developing throughout middle-childhood.     

Interpersonal competence across domains: relevance to personality pathology

Interpersonal problems are significant markers of personality disorders (PDs). There is little research examining the specific interpersonal problems which lead to social impairment in PD. This study used canonical correlation analyses to examine the relationship between interpersonal competence and PDs, first as categorized by DSM-IV diagnoses, then as categorized by empirically-derived factors, in a sample at risk for recurrence of major depression. The most significant sources of shared variance were social inhibition and self-disclosure competence. The empirically-derived PD categories accounted for more variance in interpersonal competence than the DSM-IV diagnostic categories. Social skills training in initiation and self-disclosure may be useful for treating individuals with PD who experience interpersonal problems. Empirically-derived categories of PD symptoms may capture interpersonal problems experienced by individuals with PD which DSM-IV categories do not.