The effects of general and homophobic victimization on adolescents' psychosocial and educational concerns: the importance of intersecting identities and parent support

Many adolescents experience peer victimization, which often can be homophobic. Applying the minority stress model with attention to intersecting social identities, this study tested the effects of general and homophobic victimization on several educational outcomes through suicidality and school belonging among 15,923 adolescents in Grades 7 through 12 on account of their sexual orientation and race/ethnicity. Parent support also was tested as a moderator of these effects. Homophobic victimization had different effects on suicidality across groups, indicating the importance of considering individuals' multiple social identities. However, homophobic victimization had universal negative effects on school belonging for all groups. Nearly all indirect effects of general and homophobic victimization on reported grades, truancy, and importance of graduating were significant through suicidality and school belonging across groups. Parent support was most consistent in moderating the effects of general and homophobic victimization on suicidality for heterosexual White and racial/ethnic minority youth. In nearly all cases, it did not moderate the effects of general or homophobic victimization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth. Furthermore, in most cases, parent support did not moderate the effects of general or homophobic victimization on school belonging. Findings underscore the need for counseling psychologists to work with parents of all youth on ways to provide support to those who experience homophobic victimization. Furthermore, they highlight the need for counseling psychologists to be involved as social justice advocates in the passage and implementation of school policies that address homophobic bullying and other forms of bias-based bullying and harassment.     

Beliefs about God,Psychiatric Symptoms,and Evolutionary Psychiatry

The present study analyzed the association between specific beliefs about God and psychiatric symptoms among a representative sample of 1,306 U.S. adults. Three pairs of beliefs about God served as the independent variables: Close and Loving, Approving and Forgiving, and Creating and Judging. The dependent variables were measures of General Anxiety, Depression, Obsessive-Compulsion, Paranoid Ideation, Social Anxiety, and Somatization. As hypothesized, the strength of participants’ belief in a Close and Loving God had a significant salutary association with overall psychiatric symptomology, and the strength of this association was significantly stronger than that of the other beliefs, which had little association with the psychiatric symptomology. The authors discuss the findings in the context of evolutionary psychiatry, and the relevance of Evolutionary Threat Assessment Systems Theory in research on religious beliefs.     

Measuring Religiousness in Health Research: Review and Critique

Although existing measures of religiousness are sophisticated, no single approach has yet emerged as a standard. We review the measures of religiousness most commonly used in the religion and health literature with particular attention to their limitations, suggesting that vigilance is required to avoid over-generalization. After placing the development of these scales in historical context, we discuss measures of religious attendance, private religious practice, and intrinsic/extrinsic religious motivation. We also discuss measures of religious coping, wellbeing, belief, affiliation, maturity, history, and experience. We also address the current trend in favor of multi-dimensional and functional measures of religiousness. We conclude with a critique of the standard, “context-free” approach aimed at measuring “religiousness-in-general”, suggesting that future work might more fruitfully focus on developing ways to measure religiousness in specific, theologically relevant contexts.

NCCN成人临床癌痛指南中心理问题、精神症状和精神用药的解读

疼痛的体验是主观的,疼痛与痛苦相伴而行。NCCN成人癌痛指南对癌痛的评估和治疗中涉及大量的心理问题与干预、精神症状评估和精神药物应用,本文力求对这方面进行解读,以揭示癌痛治疗中对人的尊重和对“总疼痛”的理解。     

在高校跨越式发展进程中落实科学发展观

科学发展观是关于发展规律和策略方法的辩证的哲学思考。在高校跨越式发展进程中贯彻落实科学发展观,需要以辩证的哲学思维处理协调好跨越式发展与波浪式发展的关系;规模扩张与内涵建设的关系;办学资源合理利用与不断积累完善的关系;高校自身发展目标与外部环境条件的关系;继承发展传统优势与培育新增长点的关系;发展特色与全面发展的关系。     

高等医药院校专业建设原则的思考——江苏省医学本科专业设置分析与探讨

江苏省1999年～2005年医药本科专业设置和毕业生就业及部分医疗卫生单位的人才需求状况研究结果显示,各类医学专业设置逐年增加,相关医学类专业增设明显,医疗单位需求和学生就业率也较高,但医学专业区域结构有待进一步优化.高校专业建设应注重适应性原则,顺应经济社会发展需求;实行开放性原则,拓宽专业人才培养口径;坚持科学性原则,遵循医学教育办学规律;把握协调性原则,优化区域医学专业结构.     

The bivalency effect represents an interference-triggered adjustment of cognitive control: An ERP study

When bivalent stimuli (i.e., stimuli with relevant features for two different tasks) occur occasionally among univalent stimuli, performance is slowed on subsequent univalent stimuli even if they have no overlapping stimulus features. This finding has been labeled the bivalency effect. It indexes an adjustment of cognitive control, but the underlying mechanism is not well understood yet. The purpose of the present study was to shed light on this question, using event-related potentials. We used a paradigm requiring predictable alternations between three tasks, with bivalent stimuli occasionally occurring on one task. The results revealed that the bivalency effect elicited a sustained parietal positivity and a frontal negativity, a neural signature that is typical for control processes implemented to resolve interference. We suggest that the bivalency effect reflects interference, which may be caused by episodic context binding.     

Religiosity/Spirituality of German Doctors in Private Practice and Likelihood of Addressing R/S Issues with Patients

This study examined the self-assessed religiosity and spirituality (R/S) of a representative sample of German physicians in private practice (n = 414) and how this related to their addressing R/S issues with patients. The majority of physicians (49.3 %) reported a Protestant denomination, with the remainder indicating mainly either Catholic (12.5 %) or none (31.9 %). A significant proportion perceived themselves as either religious (42.8 %) or spiritual (29.0 %). Women were more likely to rate themselves R/S than did men. Women (compared to men) were also somewhat more likely to attend religious services (7.4 vs. 2.1 % at least once a week) and participate in private religious activities (14.9 vs. 13.7 % at least daily), although these differences were not statistically significant. The majority of physicians (67.2 %) never/seldom addressed R/S issues with a typical patient. Physicians with higher self-perceived R/S and more frequent public and private religious activity were much more likely to address R/S issues with patients. Implications for patient care and future research are discussed.     

关于完善我国医学教育体系的思考

当前我国社会经济的迅猛发展,已经对现行的医学教育体系提出了强有力的挑战。从医学教育自身特点出发,探讨我国现行医学教育体系的一些重要缺陷及其对策。建议全面引入医学教育国际标准,调整培养要求,积极稳妥地推行长学制医学教育,建立严格而规范的毕业后基本职业技能培训及职业准入制度,理顺高等教育体系内的医学教育统一管理体制,以完善我国医学教育体系。