The nature of stress experienced by lesbians and gay men

Abstract

This study examined both the meanings and sources/causes of stress from the perspectives of lesbians and gay men (n=30), using a series of focus groups. The findings suggest that stress is considered a part of life itself, and is perceived to contain both negative (e.g. detrimental effects on health and overall functioning, unfairness, out-of-control), and positive (e.g. a motivator, growth-facilitator) elements. The sources/causes of stress (i.e. stressors) identified include stress experienced from the “coming out” process, stress in family relations and intimate relationships, conflict over one's sexuality given society's homophobic and heterosexist attitudes toward lesbians and gay men, as well as stress from financial and work-related issues. More importantly, this study suggests that culture/ethnicity, gender, and aging, which are interconnected with one's sexual identity, play an important role in shaping the experiences of stress among lesbians and gay men.     

Aging,imagery, and the bizarreness effect

ABSTRACT

This study examined the bizarre imagery effect in young and older adults, under incidental and intentional conditions. Intentionality was manipulated across experiments, with participants receiving an incidental free recall test in Experiment 1 and an intentional test in Experiment 2. This study also examined the relation between working memory resources and the bizarreness effect. In Experiment 1 young and older adults were presented with common and bizarre sentences; they later received an incidental recall test. There were no age differences in sensitivity to the bizarreness effect in Experiment 1 when ANOVAs were used to analyze the data. However, when the bizarreness effect was examined in terms of effect size, there was evidence that younger adults produced larger bizarreness effect sizes than younger adults. Experiment 2 further explored age differences in sensitivity to the bizarreness effect by presenting young and older adults with bizarre and common sentences under intentional learning conditions. Experiment 2 failed to yield age differences as a function of item type (bizarre vs. common). In addition, Experiment 2 failed to yield significant evidence that the bizarreness effect is modulated by working memory resources. The results of this study are most consistent with the distinctiveness account of the bizarreness effect.     

Religious support and psychosocial well-being among a religious Jewish population

The three subscales of the Religious Support Scale assess perceived support from a person’s religious community, religious leaders, and God. This three-factor structure was replicated in the current study with a sample of 277 religious Jewish persons residing in Israel. Hierarchical canonical analysis showed that, even after controlling for general social support, Religious Leader and God Support were related to lower emotional distress, Religious Leader and Religious Community Support contributed to a higher level of life satisfaction, and Religious Community and God Support contributed to the prediction of perceived health. Findings are discussed in terms of religious support’s generalizability as a psychosocial resource for persons of various faiths.     

Depth of Transference in Groups

An ongoing controversy in the field of group psychotherapy is whether transference regression is greater in groups than in individual treatment. There appears to be a general consensus that group behavior may be understood as operating on at least three levels—the conscious–rational, the oedipally determined transference, and the preoedipal maternal transference level. The more rational levels are associated with transference dilution, whereas the more primitive levels accompany transference intensification. Dilution occurs as a result of reality demands and inputs of the group situation and because of multiple targets of displacement. Transference intensification is a product of mutual stimulation, contagion effect, frustrating inputs, and support of the group theme. Certain patients benefit most from the dilution features of a group, and others profit most from intensification. The therapist's technique and the patient's pathology are the main determinants of which aspect gets emphasized and utilized.     

Anxiety Indexes in the Draw a Person Test; A Scoring Manual

Summary

A scoring manual for anxiety indexes in the Draw A Person Test (DAP) was based, in part, on the work of Hoyt, and of Goldworth, with a number of additions and modifications by the author. Twenty indexes of anxiety were described. Alternative scoring procedures were suggested for some indexes. The scoring was based on both a four-point scale and a two-point scale. Interrated reliabilities ranged from .67 to 1.00.     

Figure Drawing Anxiety Indexes: A Review of the Literature

The authors reviewed 51 studies of human figure drawings with reference to 21 anxiety indexes. The research findings for each of 21 indexes with traditional clinical interpretation were categorized as: a) in agreement b) in disagreement: opposite direction, or, c) nonsignificant. The authors conclude that on the whole, research results seem to uphold the validity of a number of anxiety indexes. A total of 147 findings were found to be in agreement with traditional interpretation, while only 30 findings were significant in the opposite direction, and 78 findings were nonsignificant. Omission, distortion, detail loss, line pressure increase, heavy line, size increase and decrease, head simplification, and trunk simplification have consistently yielded significant results in the expected direction (increase indicates anxiety). Evidence was less consistent for reinforcement, line discontinuity, light line, vertical imbalance, delineation line absence, and transparency. Some studies found significantly less shading, hair shading, erasure, reinforcement, placement in the upper left hand corner and less emphasis line in situations where more was predicted. The article includes a discussion and an interpretation of these findings.