Marketing Implications of Nonmusical Sounds

This article reviews the concepts of nonmusical sound and noise with respect to sound elements, perception and interpretation. Following a review and synthesis of the literature, which has predominantly been conducted in non-marketing fields, practitioner and researcher implications are identified and discussed.     

The surgical anxiety questionnaire (SAQ): development and validation

Objective: Preoperative anxiety is often assessed using general anxiety measures; existing specific measures might lack content coverage and/or are not psychometrically validated. This study aimed to develop a new self-report measure of surgery-specific anxiety and test its psychometric properties.

Design: The surgical anxiety questionnaire (SAQ) was developed from themes identified in qualitative research and reviewed by an interdisciplinary expert team. It was administered preoperatively to 135 patients (56% female, mean age 51) on the day of surgery alongside additional measures of preoperative anxiety, state anxiety, perceived stress, depression and social desirability. Follow-up assessment was conducted immediately post-surgery and two weeks post-surgery (n?=?114) to examine recovery and predictive validity of the scale.

Results: Factor analysis revealed a three component structure, including: concerns about health (six items), concerns about recovery (four items) and concerns about procedures (four items). Three additional items of relatively high concern were retained in the total score (17 items). The SAQ displayed good reliability, validity (content, construct and predictive) and adequate overall psychometric properties.

Conclusions: Preliminary results suggest that the SAQ is a promising tool for measuring preoperative anxiety and predicting recovery. Recommendations for future research include employing a confirmatory factor analysis and examining test-retest reliability.     

REREADING STRATEGICALLY: THE INFLUENCES OF COMPREHENSION ABILITY AND A PRIOR READING ON THE MEMORY FOR EXPOSITORY TEXT

We examined the extent to which comprehenders read expository texts strategically after a prior reading and test. Sentence reading times and the memory for expository texts were examined across two readings. In Experiment 1, sentence reading times were facilitated during rereading to the extent that the information had been encoded from the initial reading. The memory data revealed that participants incorporated new information into their text representations. In particular, rereading improved the memory for causally important information. In Experiment 2, the pattern of results generalized to both good and poor readers except that the correlation between recall and importance was greater for the better readers. The results suggest that all participants reread strategically to some extent, but the better readers were able to use the incoming information to update their situation model.     

THE EVALUATION OF A SEXUAL ASSAULT SELF-DEFENSE AND RISK-REDUCTION PROGRAM FOR COLLEGE WOMEN: A PROSPECTIVE STUDY

The present study evaluated the efficacy of a sexual assault risk-reduction program that included a physical self-defense component for college women ( N = 500). Program group women significantly increased their protective behaviors over the 6-month follow-up period compared to the waiting-list control group. However, there were no significant differences between the two groups regarding rates of sexual victimization, assertive communication, or feelings of self-efficacy over the follow-up periods. Program group women who were victimized during the 3-month follow-up period evidenced less self-blame and greater offender blame for their assaults than control group women who were victimized following the program. Given that program women evidenced a greater awareness of sexual assault at the end of the study than control group women, the difficulty in addressing the impact of programming on rates of sexual victimization is discussed.     

Suicide across the Life Span: Pathways to Prevention

As reflected in a recent series of highly visible suicide awareness and prevention activities, the call for a comprehensive suicide prevention strategy has never been stronger, nor more unified. Using the framework provided by the transactional model of human development, the author illustrates the central implications that a developmental perspective has for suicide prevention, emphasizing the need to consider multiple pathways to prevention, to place renewed emphasis on prevention strategies that have their impact earlier in the life course and earlier in the course of mental disorder, and to collaborate with prevention specialists and advocates in related fields.