Surgeons and the Spirit: A Study on the Relationship of Religiosity to Clinical Practice

This study aimed to identify the religious practices and beliefs of surgeons and the relationship between surgeons locus of control and religiosity. Thirty-five surgeons completed a survey that included items from the Duke University Religion Index, the Salesian Center Intrinsic Religiosity Scale for Clinicians, and Rotters Locus of Control Scale. Over 68% of sampled surgeons affirmed that their religious beliefs play a part in their practice, 47% attend religious services at least weekly, and 44% pray daily. There was no correlation between locus of control and religiosity. These results challenge the myth of the egocentric, agnostic surgeon.     

Work–Family Conflict: The Importance of Family-Friendly Employment Practices and Family-Supportive Supervisors

In the study reported in this paper, we examined the relationship between the use of four family-friendly employment practices (i.e., telecommuting, ability to take work home, flexible work hours, and family leave) and work–family conflict. In addition, we examined whether reporting to a family-supportive supervisor was related to the use of the four practices and to work–family conflict. We found that the use of three of the four practices was related to work–family conflict. In addition, our results showed that reporting to a family-supportive supervisor was related to the use of certain practices and to work–family conflict.     

The Impact of Adolescent Suicide on Siblings and Parents: A Longitudinal Follow-Up

The psychiatric sequelae of loss of a family member to suicide were evaluated in parents and siblings of adolescent suicide victims and controls, who were followed up to 3 years after the suicide. Siblings did not show an increased risk for the development of depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), or other conditions over the course of follow-up, despite showing a prolonged elevated level of grief symptomatology. Mothers showed an increased rate of recurrence of depression over follow-up, whereas fathers did not show an increased incidence of disorder compared to fathers of controls. The interrelationship of bereavement and depression for siblings, parents, and others exposed to suicide is discussed.     

Negative priming without probe selection

Responses to an object may be slower or less accurate if that object shares attributes with a recently ignored object(negative priming). Some studies have found negative priming only if the probe trial required selection against a distractor stimulus. In the present experiment, subjects responded to the location of a target (O), ignoring a distractor (X) if it appeared in another location. Reaction time was slower to probe targets that appeared in the same location as the prime distractor, regardless of whether or not the probe target was accompanied by a distractor.     

Correlates of adult and child perceptions of social competency

In this study, the relationship between two commonly used measures of social competency, peer ratings of perceived status and adult ratings of assertiveness, were examined. In Phase I, high and low sociometric status children were videotaped responding to a series of role-play scenes; performance on these scenes was then rated retrospectively by adults for overall assertiveness. In Phase II, a second group of children who were unfamiliar with the videotaped children observed the taped scenes and provided ratings of likability, intelligence, working together, and attractiveness. In general, results revealed that children and adults differed in their ratings of the videotaped children. Further, boys used different cues in their ratings than did girls. More specifically, the sociometric status of girls was related to perceived attractiveness, whereas the sociometric status of boys was more closely related to perceived intelligence. Such findings suggest that children and adults look for and use different cues in their judgments. Given these differences, it is concluded that child and adult ratings should not be used interchangeably in the assessment of, and evaluation of, social competency in children.Portions of this research were supported by a grant from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services.     

The value of believing in free will: encouraging a belief in determinism increases cheating

Does moral behavior draw on a belief in free will? Two experiments examined whether inducing participants to believe that human behavior is predetermined would encourage cheating. In Experiment 1, participants read either text that encouraged a belief in determinism (i.e., that portrayed behavior as the consequence of environmental and genetic factors) or neutral text. Exposure to the deterministic message increased cheating on a task in which participants could passively allow a flawed computer program to reveal answers to mathematical problems that they had been instructed to solve themselves. Moreover, increased cheating behavior was mediated by decreased belief in free will. In Experiment 2, participants who read deterministic statements cheated by overpaying themselves for performance on a cognitive task; participants who read statements endorsing free will did not. These findings suggest that the debate over free will has societal, as well as scientific and theoretical, implications.     

Factors influencing the temporal relationship between alcohol consumption and experiences with aggression among college women.

The authors assessed temporal relationships among alcohol use, aggression, and mood using daily data from 179 college women. Participants called an interactive voice response system over an 8-week period. The odds of experiencing verbal, sexual, and physical aggression (odd ratios = 2.25, 19.44, and 11.84, respectively) were significantly higher on heavy drinking days (M = 7.46 drinks) compared to nondrinking days. Both a history of victimization and greater psychological symptom severity influenced the odds of involvement in verbal aggression. The odds of alcohol consumption were 3 times higher during the 24 hr following verbal aggression compared with days in which verbal aggression did not occur. On the day immediately following involvement in either verbal or physical aggression, positive mood decreased and negative mood increased. During the week (2-7 days) following sexual aggression, women's positive mood was decreased. These findings reinforce the need for interventions aimed at reducing heavy episodic drinking on college campuses.