“SLANG”—Sensitive Language and the New Genetics—an Exploratory Study

SLANG—Sensitive Language and the New Genetics—is a concept that arose out of informal discussions between a number of interested parties, both consumers and professionals, who were becoming increasingly uneasy with some of the language commonly used in medical genetics. Some language choices were felt by the authors to be inappropriate for a variety of reasons. Poor language choice may impede an individual's understanding of a genetic condition or important medical information and the chosen words themselves may simply be perceived as discriminatory and even offensive. SLANG is an important concept to explore partly because literature in this area confirms that language choices in medical settings can be of great significance to both patients and families. Studies have shown how language choices impact on professional practice by, as one example, changing the intended meaning of medical information and affecting individual perception of risk and choice which, in turn, may affect individual or familial well-being. In addition language choice has the power to affect how individuals perceive themselves and are viewed by others. This paper presents the results from our pilot study and discusses the implications for health professionals with particular reference to medical genetics settings.     

Intervening to improve communication between parents, teachers, and primary care providers of children with ADHD or at high risk for ADHD

This study examines interventions designed to improve communication between individuals who take care of children with ADHD. A teacher rating of 6,171 elementary school children identifies 1,573 children with ADHD or with high risk for ADHD. Parent interviews and information from teachers are collected on 243 children who are randomized into treatment and control conditions and followed for 39 months. The interventions consisted of group workshops and single one-on-one tutorials with parents, teachers, and providers about the evaluation and treatment of ADHD that stressed the need for communication between the three parties. There are few significant effects on communication that are short lived. Results suggest that the interventions are insufficient to cause significant increase in communication. Future attempts to improve parent-teacher-provider coordination should be continuing rather than single-session interventions.     

Determining sociability, social space, and social presence in (a)synchronous collaborative groups.

The effectiveness of group learning in asynchronous distributed learning groups depends on the social interaction that takes place. This social interaction affects both cognitive and socioemotional processes that take place during learning, group forming, establishment of group structures, and group dynamics. Though now known to be important, this aspect is often ignored, denied or forgotten by educators and researchers who tend to concentrate on cognitive processes and on-task contexts. This "one-sided" educational focus largely determines the set of requirements in the design of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments resulting in functional CSCL environments. In contrast, our research is aimed at the design and implementation of sociable CSCL environments which may increase the likelihood that a sound social space will emerge. We use a theoretical framework that is based upon an ecological approach to social interaction, centering on the concept of social affordances, the concept of the sociability of CSCL environments, and social presence theory. The hypothesis is that the higher the sociability, the more likely that social interaction will take place or will increase, and the more likely that this will result in an emerging sound social space. In the present research, the variables of interest are sociability, social space, and social presence. This study deals with the construction and validation of three instruments to determine sociability, social space, and social presence in (a)synchronous collaborating groups. The findings suggest that the instruments have potential to be useful as measures for the respective variables. However, it must be realized that these measures are "first steps."     

Not Very Smart,thus Moral: Dimensional Comparisons Between Academic Self-Concept and Honesty

Three studies explored the influence of self-evaluation in one domain (e.g., the academic domain) on self-evaluation in another domain (e.g., morality), assuming a process of intra-personal dimensional comparisons (i.e., comparisons between self-evaluations in two different domains). A pre-study with N = 143 university students replicated the Muhammad Ali effect, that is, the tendency to rate one's own honesty higher than one's own intelligence. As suggested in our assumptions regarding dimensional comparisons, Study 1 (N = 70) then showed that low self-concept students rated their honesty slightly more positive than high self-concept students. More important, in Study 2 (N = 64) participants who just experienced academic failure in an experimental task rated their honesty slightly more positive than students who experienced academic success. Therefore, it was demonstrated that academic outcome influenced self-concept in a non-academic domain. Results are discussed with regard to their implications for the extension of the I/E model.     

Outcome Questionnaire: item sensitivity to change

Although high levels of reliability are emphasized in the construction of many measures of psychological traits, tests that are intended to measure patient change following psychotherapy need to emphasize sensitivity to change as a central and primary property. This study proposes 2 criteria for evaluating the degree to which an item on a test is sensitive to change: (a) that an item changes in the theoretically proposed direction following an intervention and (b) that the change measured on an item is significantly greater in treated than in untreated individuals. Outcome Questionnaire (Lambert et al., 1996) items were subjected to item analysis by examining change rates in 284 untreated control participants and in 1,176 individuals undergoing psychotherapy. Results analyzed through multilevel or hierarchical linear modeling suggest the majority of items on this frequently used measure of psychotherapy outcome meet both criteria. Implications for test development and future research are discussed.     

Ethnicity in America and feeling "American"

Ethnic group acculturation remains a concern in the United States today. In the present study, the authors explored the extent to which members of three ethnic groups (White American women, African American women, and Cuban American women) perceived themselves to be "American," how much each group felt that its members were perceived as being American by White Americans, and how these perceptions related to beliefs about their own group's economic and social status. The results showed that African Americans felt American but felt that they were not perceived as such by White Americans. African Americans also reported feeling economically and socially excluded. In contrast, Cuban Americans reported neither feeling they were American nor believing they were perceived as such by White Americans, but feelings of inclusion increased with length of residence. Implications of these results for the common ingroup identity model are discussed.     

Anterior Hypothalamic Stimulation Decreases Serum Immunoglobulin G Concentrations

The Psychological Record - Neuroimmunological research has indicated that hypothalamic structures play an important role in the modulation of immunoresponsivity. We report that electrical...     

Jesus and the holy spirit in the writings of Nūr al‐Din al‐Raniri

In the 17th century Nūr al‐Din al‐Raniri was one of the most prominent scholars of the Sultanate of Aceh (now a province of the Indonesian Republic). In a book on Islamic law he commented critically on Hindus, Jews and Christians. In other works he contributed more positively to the Muslim debate on the significance of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Al‐Raniri sometimes deviates from the mainstream of Muslim scholarship, especially in stating his theory of the Spirit as a mediate and independent substance between God and man. Thus, he can hardly be accepted as representing orthodox Muslim thought.     

Therapists' judgments of mentally healthy beliefs for women and men

Clinical and counseling literature indicates that practicing psychologists often observe different mental health standards for women and men. Most of this research has examined mental health in terms of personality attributes, and as such there is a noticeable lack of research concerned with mentally healthybeliefs. The present research was concerned with the investigation of a possible gender bias in therapists' mental health standards, defined in terms of personal beliefs. For this purpose, the Irrational Beliefs Test (IBT; Jones, 1969) was completed three different times by a group of licensed psychologists in private practice, measuring their beliefs of how (1) a mentally healthy sex-unspecified adult, (2) a mentally healthy male adult, and (3) a mentally healthy female adult would respond to the IBT. The results indicated that both women and men therapists associated unique beliefs with women's and men's mental health.The late Dr. Frank B. Lambert studied the philosophical foundations of psychotherapy theory and was concerned about value issues in the practice of psychotherapy. He was pursuing his Ph.D. in counseling psychology at the time of his untimely death.Portions of these data were presented at the 1985 annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Los Angeles, California. Graditude is extended to Lucia Gilbert and Mark R. Leary for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this article.