Exploring Perceived Social Support from Peer Facilitators in an HIV Treatment Adherence Intervention for African American Patients: A Content Analysis of Participant Perspectives

HIV treatment adherence interventions increasingly rely on peer facilitators to promote treatment adherence and improve patient retention, yet little is known about how participants perceive the role performed by peer facilitators. The present study examined participant perceptions in terms of the social support from peer facilitators in a hospital‐based intervention in Chicago. Content analysis was conducted with reference to four types of social support (instrumental, informational, emotional and affiliational) on exit interviews with 11 participants enrolled in the intervention that targeted African‐American patients living with HIV/AIDS. We examined how the type of social support perceived by participants was related to their self‐reported behaviours in three domains: adherence, sexual safety and general coping. Our analysis revealed that most participants perceived informational and emotional support from their peer facilitators, followed by instrumental support. Affiliational support was the least frequently perceived type of social support. We found that perceived informational support from peer facilitators with regard to adherence had greater impact and credibility amongst participants than the same type of support from medical providers. Informational support was cited most frequently with regard to influencing adherence and sexual safety behaviours, whereas perceived emotional support was cited primarily with helping participants cope with HIV. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Consciousness and content‐formation

General opposition to ‘progress’ is often seen as involving a personification of technology as an evil spirit. One version of ‘luddism’ is defended here as worthy of serious debate. ('Luddism’ is an attempt to justify a general presumption that technical progress is bad for us, so technical innovations should not count as true achievement.) Our luddite says, ‘If technical powers, misused, will cause more harm than good, these powers should count as bad. And such harmful misuse is likely, since the dramatic, half‐blind changes resulting from technology will shortly damage world systems, swamping their adjustment‐mechanisms. “Superhuman”; powers go sour with merely human wisdom. “Know‐how”; tends inherently to pull ahead of “know‐whether”; ‘. This version of luddism is contrasted with various caricatures; luddite research priorities are outlined. Serious discussion is invited of the dangers inherent in further empowering fallible humanity.     

Dads or cads? Women’s strategic decisions in the mating game

We report the findings of two studies (N = 142; N = 28) investigating women’s preference for men in short- and long-term mating scenarios and perceptions of honesty of dating adverts written by men high or low in Machiavellianism. Overall, men low on Machiavellianism (viz., dads), were preferred as long-term mates; and men high on Machiavellianism (viz., cads) as short-term mates. Fertile women preferred cads for a short-term relationship and dads as a long-term partner. Higher ratings were given to all adverts when females were fertile, suggesting generally higher levels of desire for a partner when the possibility of conception is highest. In contrast to previous work suggesting traits like Machiavellianism may facilitate a deceptive or exploitative mating strategy in men, the present results suggest (1) women are attuned to differences in men’s personality as a function of fertility and (2) affirms that women prefer cads for short-term mating and dads for long-term mating.     

Our Immigration and Human Rights Work Group in Action: Psychoanalysts Evaluating Asylum Seekers,Trauma and Family Devastation

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the story of a family of four refugees from Central America seeking asylum in the United States, and of the experience of a group of psychoanalysts, members of the New York University Postdoctoral Program Immigration and Human Rights Work Group, who evaluated each member of the family and wrote affidavits in support of their applications for asylum. The work described provides an example of how clinicians can apply their skills and understandings outside the consulting room to address the dire needs of refugees who have fled from their homes. We discuss the process of refugees seeking asylum and the role of a psychological evaluation in the asylum process. We elaborate on the content and process of the evaluations of each member of the family with a focus on the trauma suffered and its sequelae on two school-aged children, their adolescent aunt, and their courageous and protective mother. We also address the analysts’ experience of doing psychological evaluations and writing affidavits for asylum seekers who have experienced trauma.     

Temporal judgements of internal and external events in persons with and without autism

When participants make judgments about the onset of self-initiated movements they typically report the movement occurred earlier than it had [Obhi, S. S., & Haggard, P. (2004). Free will and free won't. American Scientific, 92, 358-365.]. One interpretation is that feed-forward processes lead to awareness of the movement prior to execution. Because individuals with autism experience reduced preparatory activity prior to a voluntary movement, the present study sought to determine whether these anticipatory biases are exhibited by persons with autism. Participants watched a dot move in a circle and pressed the spacebar any time after one revolution. A tone either followed the participants' voluntary movement or was computer generated. Participants in both groups made anticipatory judgements regarding movement initiation ( approximately 100 ms). When the movement and tone occurred together this anticipatory bias was also present, regardless of which event participants focused on. Individuals with autism appear to have access to a similar representation of voluntary movements, however this representation may be more variable.     

Exploring the Relationship Between Conduct Disorder and Residential Treatment Outcomes

We examined the differential outcomes in residential treatment for youths with conduct disorder (CD)—with special attention paid to interactions with age and gender—in a sample of children and adolescents in 50 residential treatment centers and group homes across Illinois. Multi-disciplinary teams rated youths ages 6–20 (N = 457) on measures of mental health and other factors within 30 days of admission, about 7 months after admission, and at discharge. While both groups initially responded similarly to treatment, the CD group performed better relative to the non-CD group over the full course of treatment, showing healthier relative change on five outcomes variables and more significant improvement. Age range moderated the relationship between CD group membership and change in work/school performance. There were significant between groups differences within the youngest age group (6–11 years) in which the CD group worsened relative to the non-CD group.     

Extending Energy Optimization in Goal-Directed Aiming from Movement Kinematics to Joint Angles

Energy optimization in goal-directed aiming has been demonstrated as an undershoot bias in primary movement endpoint locations, especially in conditions where corrections to target overshoots must be made against gravity. Two-component models of upper limb movement have not yet considered how joint angles are organized to deal with the energy constraints associated with moving the upper limb in goal-directed aiming tasks. To address this limitation, participants performed aiming movements to targets in the up and down directions with the index finger and two types of rod extensions attached to the index finger. The rod extensions were expected to invoke different energy optimizing strategies in the up and down directions by allowing the distal joints the opportunity to contribute to end effector displacement. Primary movements undershot the farthest target to a greater extent in the downward direction compared to the upward direction, showing that movement kinematics optimize energy expenditure in consideration of the effects of gravity. As rod length increased, shoulder elevation was optimized in movements to the far-up target and elbow flexion was optimally minimized in movements to the far-down target. The results suggest energy optimization in the control of joint angles independent of the force of gravity.     

Toward a Purely Axiological Scientific Realism

The axiological tenet of scientific realism, “science seeks true theories,” is generally taken to rest on a corollary epistemological tenet, “we can justifiably believe that our successful theories achieve (or approximate) that aim.” While important debates have centered on, and have led to the refinement of, the epistemological tenet, the axiological tenet has suffered from neglect. I offer what I consider to be needed refinements to the axiological postulate. After showing an intimate relation between the refined postulate and ten theoretical desiderata, I argue that the axiological postulate does not depend on its epistemological counterpart; epistemic humility can accompany us in the quest for truth. Upon contrasting my axiological postulate against the two dominant non-realist alternatives and the standard realist postulate, I contend that its explanatory and justificatory virtues render it, among the axiologies considered, the richest account of the scientific enterprise.     

Are Gender Differences in Basic Human Values a Generational Phenomenon?

The Schwartz Value Survey (SVS) was administered to 979 Canadian knowledge workers to determine whether differences in value priorities between men and women differed significantly between members of the Baby Boomer generation and members of Generation X. Multivariate analysis of covariance controlling for education, income, and scale use revealed a significant gender-by-generation interaction, which signifies that the patterns of differences between men's and women's value priorities were different for Baby Boomers and Generation Xers. Four of the 10 SVS value types (i.e., power, tradition, universalism, and achievement) were associated with both gender and generation. A number of other value types were associated solely with generation. The findings suggest that both gender and generation are important variables in the study of values and should not be considered in isolation of each other.