Love and space in the nursing home

Nursing homes and other institutionsdesigned for persons with impairments are not,in fact, designed for persons with impairments.They are typically designed for theimpairments, not the persons, and therebybecome a part of the problem by reinforcingphysical and cultural manifestations of theimpairments. In the essay that follows, Idescribe an architectural design project inwhich students were asked to make changes to anexisting nursing home for the persons who livedthere. This requires not only becoming familiarwith the spaces, but with the personsthemselves and designing space to helparticulate their voices and being. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Treatment of Prostitution Using Integrative Therapy Techniques: A Case Study

This case study examines a pattern we believe to be common among female prostitutes: a woman (Bonnie) who, like most prostitutes, is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. Bonnie's prostitution is part of the unconscious repetition compulsion common in trauma victims; by prostituting herself, Bonnie re-creates the scenario of sexual abuse that occurred during her childhood, while maintaining an illusion of control over the situation. We maintain that an effective approach to treatment for Bonnie is integrative therapy, a type of psychological counseling designed to address the major aftereffects of sexual abuse: dissociation from the body and sexuality in general; a profound sense of powerlessness; critically low valuation of the self; and mistrust and fear of intimacy. Bonnie's story shows the dynamics of both prostitute behavior and integrative therapy, providing an example we believe to be applicable far beyond this case study.     

Intended and unintended effects of explicit warnings on eyewitness suggestibility: Evidence from source identification tests

Previous studies have shown that source identification (ID) tests reduce, and in some cases eliminate, eyewitness suggestibility errors. The present study showed that the suggestibility errors participants committed on a source ID test were further reduced when they were given the explicit postwarning that the experimenter was trying to trick them. These postwarnings reduced suggestibility to the same extent as prewarnings, and they did so for both once and repeatedly suggested items. In addition, the benefits of the pre- and postwarnings persisted when participants were retested 1 week later, but only if the suggestions had been repeated. For once-suggested items, the warning had the unintended effect of improving old/new recognition of the suggested information at retest, an effect that offset the improvements in source discrimination accuracy conferred by the warning. The advantages of using source ID tests for investigating group differences in eyewitness suggestibility are discussed.     

Can the Media Create Public Opinion? A Social-Identity Approach

The media remains a powerful presence in U.S. culture. It gives people news of world and local events, it entertains, and it may even function as a companion to children. Because it functions as a window to the outside world, what appears across its landscape actually may become people's reality. Thus, the potential for distorting their view of that world is high if the picture provided is unrepresentative of actual events. For example, the prevalence of violent acts on television has been linked to increased aggression and escalating impressions of a dangerous world, and the overrepresentation of youth and beauty may be a causal factor of eating disorders. In this article, we explore the possibility that the media may also serve as a powerful creator of the very public opinions it seeks to reflect in its news. Subtle nonverbal cues of newscasters have been shown to influence voting behavior, and the media's overrepresentation of the proportion of blacks in poverty may decrease whites' support of welfare. By portraying a world in which people's opinions are based on their ethnic or demographic group membership, the media may also subtly but powerfully create the very opinions they seek to reflect.     

Video game violence: A review of the empirical literature

The popularity of video games, especially violent video games, has reached phenomenal proportions. The theoretical line of reasoning that hypothesizes a causal relationship between violent video-game play and aggression draws on the very large literature on media violence effects. Additionally, there are theoretical reasons to believe that video game effects should be stronger than movie or television violence effects. This paper outlines what is known about the relationship between violent video-game playing and aggression. The available literature on virtual reality effects on aggression is discussed as well. The preponderance of the evidence from the existing literature suggests that exposure to video-game violence increases aggressive behavior and other aggression-related phenomena. However, the paucity of empirical data, coupled with a variety of methodological problems and inconsistencies in these data, clearly demonstrate the need for additional research.     

Assessment and Diagnosis of DSM-IV Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety disorders, the 2nd most common type of mental disorders, are among the most frequently missed or misdiagnosed disorders (Frances & Ross, 1996). Once they are diagnosed, effective treatments exist for them. This article provides a review of current knowledge on the assessment and diagnosis of anxiety disorders classified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Emphasis is on the recognition of anxiety as a dominant symptom, frameworks for determining specific anxiety disorders, and patterns of comorbidity.     

Cultural Effects Rather Than a Bilingual Advantage in Cognition: A Review and an Empirical Study

The bilingual advantage hypothesis contends that the management of two languages in the brain is carried out through domain‐general mechanisms, and that bilinguals possess a performance advantage over monolinguals on (nonlinguistic) tasks that tap these processes. Presently, there is evidence both for and against such an advantage. Interestingly, the evidence in favor has been thought strongest in children and older adults, leading some researchers to argue that young adults might be at peak performance levels, and therefore bilingualism is unable to confer an improvement. We conducted a large‐scale review of the extant literature and found that the weight of research pointed to an absence of positive evidence for a bilingual advantage at any age. We next gave a large number of young adult participants a task designed to test the bilingual advantage hypothesis. Reasoning from the literature that young adults from an East Asian (Korean) culture would likely outperform those from a Western (British) culture, we also compared participants on this factor. We found no evidence for a bilingual advantage but did find evidence for enhanced performance in the Korean group. We interpret these results as further evidence against the bilingual advantage hypotheses.     

The Laboratory-Clinician Team: A Professional Call to Action to Improve Communication and Collaboration for Optimal Patient Care in Chromosomal Microarray Testing

The International Standards for Cytogenomic Arrays (ISCA) Consortium is a worldwide collaborative effort dedicated to optimizing patient care by improving the quality of chromosomal microarray testing. The primary effort of the ISCA Consortium has been the development of a database of copy number variants (CNVs) identified during the course of clinical microarray testing. This database is a powerful resource for clinicians, laboratories, and researchers, and can be utilized for a variety of applications, such as facilitating standardized interpretations of certain CNVs across laboratories or providing phenotypic information for counseling purposes when published data is sparse. A recognized limitation to the clinical utility of this database, however, is the quality of clinical information available for each patient. Clinical genetic counselors are uniquely suited to facilitate the communication of this information to the laboratory by virtue of their existing clinical responsibilities, case management skills, and appreciation of the evolving nature of scientific knowledge. We intend to highlight the critical role that genetic counselors play in ensuring optimal patient care through contributing to the clinical utility of the ISCA Consortium's database, as well as the quality of individual patient microarray reports provided by contributing laboratories. Current tools, paper and electronic forms, created to maximize this collaboration are shared. In addition to making a professional commitment to providing complete clinical information, genetic counselors are invited to become ISCA members and to become involved in the discussions and initiatives within the Consortium.     

The Use of a Family History Risk Assessment Tool within a Community Health Care System: Views of Primary Care Providers

Primary care providers (PCPs) offered input regarding the incorporation of a family health history (FHH) risk assessment tool into a community health care system (CHCS). Sixteen PCPs participated in one of three focus groups. Perceived impediments included the lack of standard screening guidelines, effective screening tests, genetic counseling resources, and services for high-risk patients. The PCPs were concerned about their level of expertise, the cost of preventive health care, and genetic discrimination. They also were concerned about the use of a FHH tool by oncologists within the CHCS because of communication gaps between oncologists and PCPs, lack of clarity regarding follow-up and legal liability, and reimbursement issues. To integrate a FHH tool into a CHCS, PCPs will need consultation and referral services, evidence-based recommendations, and "just-in-time" educational resources. Oncologists who use the tool will need to develop a streamlined communication system with PCPs, establish clearly defined roles, and ensure patient follow-up.