Shaping Medical Students' Attitudes Toward Ethically Important Aspects of Clinical Research: Results of a Randomized,Controlled Educational Intervention

The effects of research ethics training on medical students' attitudes about clinical research are examined. A preliminary randomized controlled trial evaluated 2 didactic approaches to ethics training compared to a no-intervention control. The participant-oriented intervention emphasized subjective experiences of research participants (empathy focused). The criteria-oriented intervention emphasized specific ethical criteria for analyzing protocols (analytic focused). Compared to controls, those in the participant-oriented intervention group exhibited greater attunement to research participants' attitudes related to altruism, trust, quality of relationships with researchers, desire for information, hopes about participation and possible therapeutic misconception, importance of consent forms, and deciding quickly about participation. The participant-oriented group also agreed more strongly that seriously ill people are capable of making their own research participation decisions. The criteria-oriented intervention did not affect learners' attitudes about clinical research, ethical duties of investigators, or research participants' decision making. An empathy-focused approach affected medical students' attunement to research volunteer perspectives, preferences, and attributes, but an analytically oriented approach had no influence. These findings underscore the need to further examine the differential effects of empathy-versus analytic-focused approaches to the teaching of ethics.     

Psychiatry Residents' Attitudes on Ethics and Professionalism: Multisite Survey Results

Recent studies show that psychiatry residents express a relatively greater need for ethics curricula than their colleagues in other specialties. Such studies have been limited in their generalizability because they were conducted at one site. This study of 151 psychiatry residents at seven U.S. psychiatry programs aims to address that limitation. Residents were surveyed on issues pertaining to ethics and professionalism education. Participants were found to support such curricula during training and to value its relevance to the practice of psychiatry. Gender differences and the influence of the “hidden curriculum” on such results merit further study.     

Do Undergraduate Student Research Participants Read Psychological Research Consent Forms? Examining Memory Effects,Condition Effects,and Individual Differences

Although research has examined factors influencing understanding of informed consent in biomedical and forensic research, less is known about participants' attention to details in consent documents in psychological survey research. The present study used a randomized experimental design and found the majority of participants were unable to recall information from the consent form in both in-person and online formats. Participants were also relatively poor at recognizing important aspects of the consent form including risks to participants and confidentiality procedures. Memory effects and individual difference characteristics also appeared to influence recall and recognition of consent form information.     

Contextual Connections Within Puns: Effects on Perceived Humor and Memory

The supposition that perceived humor or cleverness would be enhanced by adding separate content to the alternative meanings of a pun was explored, using Tom Swifties as the research vehicle. Because detecting a punning word relationship might induce arousal, requiring more effort and attentional resources for processing than noting a contextual connection, memory strength for adverbs was also examined using a recognition procedure. Five studies were conducted in which college students were asked to judge 24 Swifties (content counterbalanced across participants) in which presence of pun and context were manipulated. The punning relationship was primarily responsible for perceived humor and cleverness. Presence of a pun also enhanced memory strength (d') as long as the familiarization task focused on humor and cleverness. Coherent context enhanced perceived cleverness inconsistently. It was suggested that a coherent contextual connection may make a greater contribution in more lengthy forms of pun-based word play, such as fables or “shaggy dog” stories.     

The Baby Boomers Meet Menopause: Fertility, Attractiveness, and Affective Response to the Menopausal Transition

The purpose of this study was to identify social factors that affect women’s concerns about menopause. Data from a sample of 1,037 baby-boomer women who took part in two waves of the Midlife in the United States survey (MIDUS) were utilized. Two waves of survey data were collected in 1996 and 2005 from a nationally representative sample of women born between 1946 and 1964 residing in the United States. Women’s concerns about the effects of menopause on attractiveness, fertility, and the cessation of menstruation were examined. Analyses were replicated in Wave I and II of the study. Women who occupied multiple roles had fewer concerns about the loss of fertility. Women who had more symptoms were significantly more concerned about the effects of menopause on attractiveness. Concerns about the effects of menopause were also related significantly to women’s age, education, and financial security.     

Infantile Trauma,Therapeutic Impasses and Recovery

Throughout his writings Ferenczi examines the role of the mother–infant relationship in healthy development as well as the difficulties that occur when that relationship is problematic. This paper using Ferenczi and Bion as theoretical background explores the clinical development of impasse in the treatment of hard to reach patients. These patients present special difficulty for analysis because they are not self reflective although they can be addicted to “processing,” which is in lieu of emotional connection. Impasse occurs when the analyst does not detect the mimicry involved in processing. The paper offers the idea of recovery, rather than repair, in that such patients have “gone missing” in infancy. Recovery of lost potential can be found in relationship with the analyst and with significant others.     

The Role of Prototypical Situations in the Perceptions of Prejudice of African Americans1

Inman and Baron (1996) found that African Americans and Whites possess prototypes for racist behavior that involve Whites oppressing African Americans. However, prototypical content may be more detailed and specific for African Americans because of differing cultural experiences. In the present experiment, undergraduates read stories about interpersonal encounters representing prototypical and nonprototypical situations. Actor race ambiguity was manipulated by the presence or absence of photographs. As expected, Whites tended to make equal ratings of prejudiced behavior for prototypical and nonprototypical situations. However, African Americans perceived more prejudice in prototypical vignettes than in nonprototypical vignettes. They also perceived stronger prejudicial displays and more dispositional motivation for targets in prototypical vignettes. The results suggest that African Americans have heightened sensitivity to prejudice in specific situations, a factor that may contribute to racial confrontations and misunderstandings.     

Volunteer Mentoring Relationships With Minority Youth: An Analysis of Same‐ Versus Cross‐Race Matches1

Despite the growth of youth mentoring programs in recent years, key questions remain regarding the relative importance of making matches on the basis of shared racial background. Both sides of the argument regarding racial matching are presented, followed by a comparison of the effects of same‐ vs. cross‐race matches involving minority youth (N= 476). Minority adolescents were less likely to report initiating alcohol when placed in cross‐race matches. In addition, minority boys in same‐race matches reported smaller decrements in scholastic competence and self‐worth than did minority boys in cross‐race matches. Minority girls in same‐race matches reported smaller decrements in school value and self‐worth than did minority girls in cross‐race matches. Youth, parent, and caseworker impressions of the 2 relationship types largely converged, but the few impressions that differed tended to favor cross‐race matches. The methodological limitations and implications of this study are discussed.