Anxiety's role in aids prevention

Abstract

Anxiety's role in AIDS risk reduction is discussed. We argue that behavioral techniques will be critical tools for alerting people to the threat of AIDS and their own vulnerability. Informational models have not been found to be sufficient for convincing people of the extent of the threat of AIDS to them. We suggest that techniques aimed at raising people's anxiety over their vulnerability will be necessary to raise their motivation to attend to AIDS messages, and we present techniques aimed at increasing anxiety over vulnerability. Following acknowledgment of vulnerability, people will need to adopt or continue safer sex practices that are viewed as undesirable in contrast to unsafe sex practices that are viewed as less costly and less anxiety provoking. Given a clearer practical and theoretical understanding of the anxiety-producing costs of adopting safer sex behaviors, we present methods for reducing this anxiety. We also discuss the necessity for considering ethnic, minority, and other cultural nuances in social and sexual anxiety and how these might be addressed in efforts to increase safer sex practices.     

Attention switching between global and local elements: Distractor category and the level repetition effect

When selecting information at global and local levels of hierarchical stimuli, there is a robust effect of level repetition in which performance is more efficient when a target is presented at the same level as the previous target. Moreover, the effect is symmetrical; it affects global and local processing equally. Evidence exists to suggest the effect may be automatic; however, we show here that the level repetition effect requires some amount of competition from the ignored level, and that the nature of the irrelevant information can determine whether the level-repetition effect is symmetrical (global and local responses are affected equally) or asymmetrical (global responses are more greatly affected than local responses). In Experiment 1, the level-repetition effect was eliminated when information at the distracting level was invariant across trials; effects of hemisphere bias and level repetition were observed only when suppression or filtering of distractor information was required. Experiment 2 demonstrated that simple featural variance is sufficient to produce the level repetition effect and that the symmetry of the level-repetition effect is sensitive to Garner-type interference that affects global processing to a greater extent than local processing. In Experiment 3, we showed that the absence of a level-repetition effect in the invariant distractor condition persists when the position of relevant stimuli is random within a block, a manipulation which should greatly reduce the contribution of controlled attention. We conclude that simple featural variance at the ignored level is critical to produce the advantage of level repetition, and that the size of the effect can be asymmetrical.     

Images of God and the imaginary in the face of loss: a quantitative research on Vietnamese immigrants living in Canada

ABSTRACT

This study examines the relationships between images of God, the imaginary and experiences of loss among Vietnamese immigrants living in Canada. One hundred twenty-nine participants completed four sets of questionnaires: a demographic questionnaire, a Questionnaire on God Image, the Brief Symptom Inventory, the Davidson Trauma Scale. In the second phase, 32 participants were administered the AT.9 test (an archetypal test with nine elements). In this test, participants are asked to draw, using nine symbolic elements, and then write a story based on their drawing. Results showed that a positive perception of God negatively correlated with somatisation, anxiety and hostility, whereas negative God image was significantly related to high levels of emotional distress. Results also showed that the synthetic categories of the imaginary were associated with a positive perception of God; and were negatively associated with somatisation, intrusion and hyper-vigilance. Further discussions on the main findings will address cultural implications in the fields of Mental Health, Religion and Culture.     

Creativity in Context; The Courage in Therivel’s GAM/DP

The desire to quantify and categorize creativity so that we can easily identify the individual characteristics which serve as its precursors is one which authors have been attempting to successfully complete for some time. In this light, William Therivel’s High Creativity Unmasked, discusses how his GAM/DP theory accounts for highly creative people from history as well as a rationale for the rise and fall of creativity in selected cultures throughout history. By examining the latest published work on how Genetic Endowment, Assistances, Misfortunes and Divisions of Power, and how they relate to creativity, Therivel proposes unique rationales for the rises and declines of cultures. This paper examines how creativity and courage work together and in some cases side by side, to explain more fully the role of creativity in culture. This article examines some of Therivel’s examples and provides alternate explanations for the phenomena he ascribes to the decline of creativity. In addition, the complexity of both creativity and courage are discussed, both in the current context, and in the next steps for research and theoretical discussion.     

A modality congruency effect in verbal false memory

The involvement of working memory sub-systems in syllogistic reasoning problems was assessed by dual task methods. Effects of skill level and training on working memory involvement in syllogistic reasoning were examined. In Study 1, participants were pre-selected into groups of High and Low skill at syllogistic reasoning on the basis of a pencil-and-paper screening test. Six separate High and Low skill groups completed syllogistic reasoning tasks in control conditions and each group was also tested under one of the following six dual task conditions: articulatory suppression, unattended speech, verbal random generation, spatial random generation, tapping in a simple pattern, unattended pictures. The results indicated that the more skilled participants were generally following a high demand strategy, which loaded the central executive, phonological loop and imagery sub-systems, but that lower skill participants were generally following a less demanding strategy which did not load working memory components so heavily. In two Pilot Studies a training procedure was assessed and validated. In Study 2, participants were selected, on the basis of a screening test, as being unskilled at solving syllogisms but as performing above guessing level. These participants underwent the training regime validated in the Pilot Studies. Following training, separate groups of participants carried out syllogistic tests with and without one of the following four secondary tasks: articulatory suppression, unattended pictures, spatial random generation, and verbal random generation. The pattern of results indicated that training had induced high demand strategies (often logic-equivalent), which loaded the central executive and to a lesser extent the phonological loop.     

An exploratory study of the perceptions and experiences of further education amongst the young long‐term unemployed

The aim of this study was to explore, in depth, the perceptions and experiences of Further Education (FE) amongst the young long‐term unemployed. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 16 long‐term unemployed youths of 18–25 years of age divided into three groups: those with no experience of FE; those having recently dropped out of FE; and those currently studying in FE. Grounded theoretical analysis highlighted the importance of both responses to and institutional aspects of unemployment. The impact of unemployment, poor previous educational experience and perceived irrelevance of FE are key barriers to learning. Those that enter FE may drop out as a result of both material and psychosocial factors. Those that stay on commonly emphasize both social support and personal agency in decision‐making alongside positive evaluations of FE. In conclusion, limitations of the findings, policy and practical recommendations for successful widening of participation in FE amongst this group are considered. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Number-of-translation norms for Dutch—English translation pairs: A new tool for examining language production

We collected number-of-translation norms on 562 Dutch-English translation pairs from several previous studies of cross-language processing. Participants were highly proficient Dutch—English bilinguals. Form and semantic similarity ratings were collected on the 1,003 possible translation pairs. Approximately 40% of the translations were rated as being similar across languages with respect to spelling/sound (i.e., they were cognates). Approximately 45% of the translations were rated as being highly semantically similar across languages. At least 25% of the words in each direction of translation had more than one translation. The form similarity ratings were found to be highly reliable even when obtained with different bilinguals and modified rating procedures. Number of translations and meaning factors significantly predicted the semantic similarity of translation pairs. In future research, these norms may be used to determine the number of translations of words to control for or study this factor. These norms are available at http://www.talkbank.org/norms/tokowicz/.