Are Religious Women More Likely to Have Breast Cancer Screening?

The study objective was to investigate whether women who frequently attend religious services are more likely to have breast cancer screening—mammography and clinical breast examinations—than other women. Multivariate logistic regression models show that white women who attended religious services frequently had more than twice the odds of breast cancer screening than white women who attended less frequently (Odds Ratio (OR) = 2.61; 95% Confidence Interval (CI) = 1.12, 6.06). The behavior of white women was different from African American women (religious attendance-race interaction term p-value = 0.008); African American women who attended religious services frequently were possibly less likely to have breast cancer screening (OR 0.49; CI = 0.19–1.31).     

Why Susie sells seashells by the seashore: implicit egotism and major life decisions

Because most people possess positive associations about themselves, most people prefer things that are connected to the self (e.g., the letters in one's name). The authors refer to such preferences as implicit egotism. Ten studies assessed the role of implicit egotism in 2 major life decisions: where people choose to live and what people choose to do for a living. Studies 1-5 showed that people are disproportionately likely to live in places whose names resemble their own first or last names (e.g., people named Louis are disproportionately likely to live in St. Louis). Study 6 extended this finding to birthday number preferences. People were disproportionately likely to live in cities whose names began with their birthday numbers (e.g., Two Harbors, MN). Studies 7-10 suggested that people disproportionately choose careers whose labels resemble their names (e.g., people named Dennis or Denise are overrepresented among dentists). Implicit egotism appears to influence major life decisions. This idea stands in sharp contrast to many models of rational choice and attests to the importance of understanding implicit beliefs.     

The sandwich effect reassessed: Effects of streaming, distraction, and modality

The degree of disruption from interleaving auditory irrelevant items within a sequence of to-be-remembered items--the sandwich effect--was examined in two experiments. Previous demonstrations of the effect have shown that the penalty for interleaving items is small and that changing irrelevant tokens is no more damaging than repeating ones (contrary to the classic changing state effect of irrelevant sound). The results of Experiment 1 suggest that these earlier results were due to the lack of tokens in the irrelevant sequence (in part, the result of using a span method). The results of Experiment 2 also show that the sandwich effect was marked and, further, that it comprised two elements, one due to the partitioning of relevant from irrelevant streams (which may be promoted by similarity of identity within sequence or pitch disparity between sequences), and the other a classic irrelevant sound effect (with effects of changing state). The results are discussed in terms of the role of perceptual organization within and between modalities in short-term memory.     

Predictors of cognitive change from preclinical to clinical Alzheimer's disease

We examined individual-difference variables in relation to the rate of change in global cognitive performance, measured by the MMSE, from 3 years prior to diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) to the time of diagnosis. The population-based sample consisted of 230 incident AD persons who were followed over a 3-year interval. The average annual decline in MMSE was 1.81 points. Being older and acquiring additional diseases during the 3 years preceding diagnosis predicted a faster rate of decline in global cognitive functioning. However, other individual difference variables such as sex, education, depression, vitamin levels (vitamin B12 and folic acid), apolipoprotein status, and social network did not precipitate the rate of decline in the preclinical phase of AD.     

The effect of situation-evoked anxiety and gender on pain report using the cold pressor test

The aims of the present study were to investigate the influence of anxiety on pain perception and to test whether gender differences in pain perception are anxiety dependent. Sixty male and female university students exposed to situation-evoked anxiety or a control procedure were measured for their pain threshold, tolerance, and perceived intensity during a cold pressor test. Both subjective and autonomic responses indicated that anxiety was successfully induced in participants exposed to the anxiety condition. Increased situational anxiety had no significant effect on pain threshold or pain tolerance. Significant increases in pain intensity were found for the anxiety group. Levels of anxiety, however, did not correlate with this increased intensity, raising doubt as to the role of anxiety in producing this effect. No gender differences were found for pain tolerance or pain intensity. Gender differences were found for pain threshold in the anxiety group with, contrary to past findings, females showing significantly higher pain thresholds than males. The results are discussed in the light of related studies.     

Race-related stress,quality of life indicators,and life satisfaction among elderly African Americans

This article examined the relationships among race-related stress, quality of life indicators, and life satisfaction among elderly African Americans. A sample of 127 elderly African Americans, consisting of 87 women and 26 men (and 14 missing values), were administered the Index of Race-Related Stress, the Satisfaction With Life Scale, and the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey. Results indicated that elderly African American men and women differed significantly with regard to institutional and collective racism-related stress. In addition, the authors found that institutional racism-related stress was a significant predictor of psychological health in this sample of elderly African Americans.