Agentic and Communal Personality Traits: Their Associations with Depression and Resilience among Transgender Women

Research reports the perpetuation of communal traits by transgender women, possibly to affirm their core gender identity. Transgender women in the United States are nearly 6 times more likely than the general population to experience significant depressive symptoms. Studies among non-transgender individuals in the United States demonstrate that agentic traits are associated with less depressive symptoms, while studies on communal traits are more inconsistent in their association with indicators of depression. Our study’s central objective was to examine the associations of agency and communion with depression and resilience (i.e., personal competence and acceptance of self and life) among transgender women living part-time and full-time in the female gender role. Participants in the United States were recruited through online and offline purposive sampling. One hundred and twenty-two transgender women (primarily Caucasian; ages ranging from 22 to 75) completed a web-based questionnaire. Results indicated that agentic and communal traits were significantly associated with decreased symptoms of depression and increased levels of resilience. One component of resilience – acceptance of self and life – mediated the relationship between agentic/communal traits and depression, however, for communal traits this pattern was only found for transgender women living in the female role full-time. There were no significant differences on depressive symptoms and one component of resilience - personal competence – among transgender women living full-time compared to transgender women living in the female role part-time. Transgender women living full-time in the female gender role reported higher levels of agentic/communal traits and acceptance of self and life compared to those living part-time in the female gender role. Our findings are discussed in the context of mental health among transgender women.     

Influence of background on precision of 3D depth judgment tasks in a real environment

Presently, little is known about the effect of curved backgrounds against which the target stimulus is presented on precision in stereoacuity. The experiment analyzed the influence of stimulus orientation and 3D background configuration on stereoscopic vision. Participants were instructed to perform 3D visual alignment tasks on a modified version of the Howard-Dolman apparatus, whereupon precision in depth perception for different curved backgrounds (flat, black, concave, and convex) was evaluated. In addition, the influence of stimulus orientation (0 degrees, 45 degrees, and 90 degrees) on precision was examined. The findings revealed an underestimation in the perceived depth in all background configurations, indicating highest and lowest precision outcomes for convex and concave backgrounds, respectively. In addition, a significant interaction of background and orientation was found. It was concluded that, in a real environment, background local depth cues are integrated with target stimuli to contribute to depth perception.     

Development of Clinical Psychology and Mental Health Resources in Vietnam

In this paper, we discuss development of the Vietnam National University graduate Clinical Psychology Program, which has the goal of training both Vietnamese researchers who will develop and evaluate culturally appropriate mental health treatments, as well as Vietnamese clinicians who will implement and help disseminate these evidence-based treatments. We first review the background situation in Vietnam regarding mental health, and its infrastructure and training needs, and discuss the process through which the decision was made to develop a graduate program in clinical psychology as the best approach to address these needs. We then review the development process for the program and its current status, and our focus on the schools as a site for service provision and mental health task shifting. Finally, we outline future goals and plans for the program, and discuss the various challenges that the program has faced and our attempts to resolve them.     

Chilean validation of the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-Civilian version (PCL-C) after the earthquake on February 27, 2010

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder in which an individual re-experiences a traumatic event, avoids situations related to it, and shows excessive arousal. The disorder appears after experiencing a life-threatening event, such as a war or a natural disaster. Thus, the validation of tests which assess the disorder after the earthquake on February 27, 2010, in Chile is crucial for its evaluation and subsequent intervention. The present study includes psychometric data for the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-Civilian version (PCL-C) on a sample of 509 survivors of the disaster. Values indicate good psychometric properties of the questionnaire.     

Validation of the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R) in a sample of persons recovering from myocardial infarction--the Swedish version

When people's health is threatened, they generally develop illness perceptions to make sense of their illness. The Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R), developed by Moss-Morris et al (2002), has been widely used in many countries to measure such representations. However, since studies in this crucial research area are lacking in Sweden a Swedish version of IPQ-R was validated with a focus on the seven subscales: timeline acute/chronic, timeline cyclical, consequences, personal control, treatment control, illness coherence and emotional representations. Using confirmatory factor analysis, the aim of the present study was to validate the internal structure of the Swedish version in a sample of 202 persons (144 men and 58 women) who had been diagnosed with myocardial infarction four months earlier. Additionally, inter-correlations among the seven subscales and external concurrent validity were also investigated. The results of confirmatory factor analysis revealed that, in line with the English version of the IPQ-R, the specified seven-factor model had a satisfactory fit. One item was however not considered reliable and was therefore excluded from the instrument. The internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha coefficients) and the inter-factor correlations were relatively similar to those reported in the validation study of the original English IPQ-R. In tests of concurrent validity, the seven IPQ-R subscales were, as hypothesized, mainly associated with external variables. To conclude, the Swedish version of the IPQ-R's seven dimensions, with one item removed, (total 37 items) was found to be a reliable and valid measure of illness perception.     

Motivational predictors of coping with academic examination

The present study focused on the motivational predictors of coping with academic examination through the test of the contribution of self-determination for academic studies and achievement goals. Coping strategies, academic motivation and achievement goals were assessed among 199 undergraduate students. Regression analysis revealed that problem-focused coping is positively predicted by identified regulation and negatively by amotivation, whereas emotion-focused coping is positively predicted by introjected regulation and amotivation. Mastery approach goals contributed positively to problem-focused coping. Identified regulation and mastery approach goals made a unique positive contribution to problem-focused coping, and amotivation was negatively related. Students' coping actions may vary according to both the reasons why they engage in academic studies and the goals they pursue in this setting.     

Compatible Operations on Residuated Lattices

This work extend to residuated lattices the results of [7]. It also provides a possible generalization to this context of frontal operators in the sense of [9]. Let L be a residuated lattice, and f : L ^k ?? L a function. We give a necessary and sufficient condition for f to be compatible with respect to every congruence on L. We use this characterization of compatible functions in order to prove that the variety of residuated lattices is locally affine complete. We study some compatible functions on residuated lattices which are a generalization of frontal operators. We also give conditions for two operations P(x, y) and Q(x, y) on a residuated lattice L which imply that the function ${x \mapsto min\{y \in L : P(x, y) \leq Q(x, y)\}}$ when defined, is equational and compatible. Finally we discuss the affine completeness of residuated lattices equipped with some additional operators.