Investigating the true rate of physical intimate partner violence: A review of nationally representative surveys

This review systematically investigates rates of physical intimate partner violence for both sexes in international samples. Surveys that accessed nationally representative samples, used gender inclusive methodology and neutral contexts are reviewed to determine 12-month and lifetime victimization and perpetration rates. Discrepancies between international rates, and the impact that gender equality may have upon these differences is also investigated. Electronic databases were systematically searched to identify surveys that met inclusion criteria. Eleven surveys were reviewed. Of these, Family Violence surveys had the highest methodological quality and showed equal rates for both sexes. Surveys of lesser quality typically showed higher female victimization and male perpetration rates. Countries at the extremes of gender empowerment measure scores differed in their patterns of rates. Gender equality in the US was associated with symmetry for the sexes, and inequality in Uganda associated with higher female victimization. However, as countries tended to use different methods to investigate the problem it was not possible to compare the effects of gender equality on differences in international rates of IPV. It is concluded that survey methodology needs to be consistent across nations, and specifically target family violence if true rates are to be determined and compared across the globe.     

Integrating and Enacting ‘Social and Ethical Issues’ in Nanotechnology Practices

The integration of nanotechnology’s ‘social and ethical issues’ (SEI) at the research and development stage is one of the defining features of nanotechnology governance in the United States. Mandated by law, integration extends the field of nanotechnology to include a role for the “social”, the “public” and the social sciences and humanities in research and development (R&D) practices and agendas. Drawing from interviews with scientists, engineers and policymakers who took part in an oral history of the “Future of Nanotechnology” symposium at the Cornell NanoScale Facility, this article examines how nanotechnology’s ‘social and ethical issues’ are brought to life by these practitioners. From our analysis, three modes of enactment emerge: enacting SEI as obligations and problems-to-be-solved, enacting SEI by ‘not doing it’ in the laboratory, and enacting SEI as part of scientific practice. Together they paint a complex picture where SEI are variously defined, made visible or invisible, included and excluded, with participants showing their skill at both boundary-work (Gieryn Am Sociol Rev 48:781–795, 1983, 1999) and at integration. We conclude by reflecting on what this may mean for the design and implementation of SEI integration policies, suggesting that we need to transform SEI from obligations into ‘matters of care’ (Puig de la Bellacasa Soc Stud Sci 41(1):85–106, 2011) that tend to existing relationalities between science and society and implicate practitioners themselves.     

Do increases in physical activity encourage positive beliefs about further change in the ProActive cohort?

Effects of behaviour change on cognitions are rarely examined within the Theory of Planned Behaviour. We tested whether increases in physical activity resulted in more positive beliefs about further change among a cohort of sedentary adults participating in a behavioural intervention trial (ProActive). At baseline, 6 and 12 months, 365 adults completed questionnaires assessing physical activity and cognitions about becoming more active over the coming year. Objective activity was assessed at baseline and 12 months. Participants reporting larger increases in activity were no more positive about making further increases than those reporting less behaviour change (p-values > 0.05). Participants with larger increases in objective activity reported weaker perceived control (β?=??0.342; p?=?0.001) and more negative instrumental attitudes (β?=??0.230; p?=?0.017) at 12 months. Participants may have felt that they had changed enough or measures of perceived success may be more sensitive to behaviour change. Alternatively, long measurement intervals may have missed immediate cognitive and affective consequences of behaviour change, or such effects may require participants to consistently self-monitor or receive feedback on performance. Future studies could test the effect of such techniques on physical activity and a wider range of cognitive, affective and physiological consequences, using more frequent measurement intervals.     

Spiritual Suffering from Medieval German Mysticism to Mother Teresa: A Psycholinguistic Analysis

Two computer programs, SSWC (Sundararajan-Schubert Word Count) and LIWC (Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count), were used in combination to analyze the texts of 3 religious writers—one true mystic (Johannes Tauler), one false mystic (Thomas Müntzer) from medieval German Christianity, and one modern “saint,” Mother Teresa (Warren, 2010 Warren , R. ( 2010 , Aug. 31 ). Introduction . In D. Van Biema & R. Lacayo (Eds.), Mother Teresa at 100/The life and works of a modern saint (pp. 6 – 7 ). New York , NY : TIME Books .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar], p. 7). Results suggest that reflections on spiritual suffering that loom large in both medieval German mysticism and Mother Teresa constitute an adaptive approach to negative emotions, so far unexplored. Implications for research on negative religious coping, and adaptive versus maladaptive reflections on negative emotions will be discussed.     

An Investigation of Neuronal Integrity in Severe Paediatric Traumatic Brain Injury

Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) and its association with neuropsychological functioning was examined in the chronic injury phase of paediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI). Fifteen children, aged 10-16 years, with severe TBIs were compared with 15 controls, matched for age and gender. The TBI group was found to have significantly lower levels of N-acetyl aspartate (NAA) and Choline (Cho) in the right frontal lobe and generally displayed reduced performances on neuropsychological tests. A correlation between metabolites and reaction times was also obtained. Findings indicate a role of proton MRS as a measure of neuronal integrity following severe paediatric TBI and suggest a potential association of MRS with specific neuropsychological impairments.     

Direct observation of intergranular stress fields in polycrystalline materials

The ability to measure interparticle stress fields is crucial for a number of scientific fields. Detailed knowledge of such interaction stresses can shed light on a number of phenomena such as the fracture mechanics of polycrystalline materials, the mechanics of granular media, and crystallization process of microspheres and nanospheres. In this letter we report the use of a new micro-Raman-spectroscopy-based technique to measure directly the intergranular stress fields in polycrystalline systems. Using Raman active tracers (50Å graphite crystals) dispersed in the system, the technique was shown to be applicable for non-Raman-active polycrystalline systems (e.g. metals). For the first time, stresses within and around individual grains has been monitored in situ as the global system stress was increased to system failure. The effects of grain orientation and shape are monitored and discussed.     

Spatial affect learning restricted in major depression relative to anxiety disorders and healthy controls

Detecting and learning the location of unpleasant or pleasant scenarios, or spatial affect learning, is an essential skill that safeguards well-being (Crawford & Cacioppo, 2002). Potentially altered by psychiatric illness, this skill has yet to be measured in adults with and without major depressive disorder (MDD) and anxiety disorders (AD). This study enrolled 199 adults diagnosed with MDD and AD (n=53), MDD (n=47), AD (n=54), and no disorders (n=45). Measures included clinical interviews, self-reports, and a validated spatial affect task using affective pictures (IAPS; Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 2005). Participants with MDD showed impaired spatial affect learning of negative stimuli and irrelevant learning of pleasant pictures compared with non-depressed adults. Adults with MDD may use a “GOOD is UP” heuristic reflected by their impaired learning of the opposite correlation (i.e., “BAD is UP”) and performance in the pleasant version of the task.     

Actual Reports and Perceptions of Body Image Concerns of Young Women and Their Friends

The present study was conducted to examine the role of friends in women’s body image concerns. Self and peer reports were completed by a convenience sample of 75 pairs of same gender female friends (N?=?150) from a small undergraduate university in Eastern Canada. In a conceptual replication of previous research, we first showed that self-reports of perceived pressure to be thin significantly predicted women’s own body image concerns when controlling for body mass. Of interest was the finding that body-related talk between friends that focused on exercise significantly predicted less body dissatisfaction. Additionally, by examining the relationships between self and peer reports, we showed that women’s perceptions of their friends’ body image concerns aligned to both self-reports and to friends’ actual reports suggesting that women likely projected their own self-views when perceiving friends. Moreover, using multiple regression analyses, we demonstrated that perceptions of friends, and not friends’ actual reports, predicted own body concerns. Besides the suggestions for future research stemming from limitations of the present study, we suggest that researchers interested in similarities between friends on women’s body image concerns include both perceptions of peers and actual peer reports.     

An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis and Repertory Grid Exploration of Anger in Young Offenders

Anger and its treatment is a major issue in a variety of contexts, although it remains underexplored. In this study 10 young people completed semi-structured interviews and repertory grids. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) and repertory grid analysis were conducted. Findings consistently indicated that anger is a more similar than different experience for participants within dialectical processes involving disempowering, empowering, and disengaging narratives that can be affected by positive personal and interpersonal phenomena and socially driven beliefs. Clinical and research implications are discussed.     

Time does not flow without language: Spatial distance affects temporal duration regardless of movement or direction

Much evidence has suggested that people conceive of time as flowing directionally in transverse space (e.g., from left to right for English speakers). However, this phenomenon has never been tested in a fully nonlinguistic paradigm where neither stimuli nor task use linguistic labels, which raises the possibility that time is directional only when reading/writing direction has been evoked. In the present study, English-speaking participants viewed a video where an actor sang a note while gesturing and reproduced the duration of the sung note by pressing a button. Results showed that the perceived duration of the note was increased by a long-distance gesture, relative to a short-distance gesture. This effect was equally strong for gestures moving from left to right and from right to left and was not dependent on gestures depicting movement through space; a weaker version of the effect emerged with static gestures depicting spatial distance. Since both our gesture stimuli and temporal reproduction task were nonlinguistic, we conclude that the spatial representation of time is nondirectional: Movement contributes, but is not necessary, to the representation of temporal information in a transverse timeline.