Gender differences over time in medical school stressors,anxiety, and the sense of coherence

Gender differences in the perception of medical school stressors, trait anxiety, and the sense of coherence were investigated in a longitudinal study in an Israeli medical school. The overall stressor score increased for both sexes from orientation to the second year of studies. The increase in the stressor score among women was due primarily to their increasing concern about professional status issues; for men, the academic demands factor contributed most to their increased overall stressor score. Trait anxiety increased and the sense of coherence decreased over time for both sexes. The gender difference in anxiety was significant in the first two stages, but disappeared in the third stage, indicating that although men had lower scores at all stages, their scores increased relatively more than women's over time. The findings suggest that the stressors of medical education have a negative effect on two personality resources needed to deal with life's demands.     

A potential peril of pastoral care: Malpractice

The pastoral counselor may be a full-time counselor trained in pastoral care or a clergyman with a congregation, who from time to time serves his flock as a counselor, ministering to the personal needs of his congregation in a manner designated pastoral care or perhaps, more appropriately, pastoral psychotherapy. Once a therapeutic relationship is established, a congregant acquires certain rights and the clergyman, duties. If these duties are breached due to the negligence of the pastoral counselor and this causes the congregant to be damaged in any way, the pastoral counselor may be liable and may be called upon to respond in damages. The cause of action is called malpractice. This paper isolates areas of actual and potential malpractice.Barton E. Bernstein, M.L.A., J.D., is in the private practice of law with Hochberg, Bernstein & Skor, P. C., Dallas, Texas.He has offered professional workshops throughout the United States and Alaska.     

Primacy effects in self-attribution of ability1

Primacy effects in self-attribution of ability were investigated in an experiment. Subjects' performance on a 30-item test was experimentally manipulated to reflect one of three patterns: ascending, descending, or random success. It was predicted that there would be a primacy effect in self-attribution of ability regarding the task when subjects had no previous expectation or anchor to which performance could be assimilated, but that the primacy effect would be attenuated when a previous anchor existed. The presence or absence of a prior anchor was manipulated by describing the task as either a test related to intelligence or a test of an unsual ability, unrelated to previous experience. Results supported the hypothesis that there is a primacy effect in self-attribution of ability, and that this effect occurs most strongly where an individual has no prior anchor or expectation regarding his ability.     

Reinforcement and substitution in humans: a multiple-response analysis

Three adult human subjects engaged in activities such as reading, sewing, artwork, and candlemaking while living alone in a laboratory apartment 24 hours per day for several weeks. After a baseline period in which the activities were fully available, access to a particular activity (contingent response) was made dependent on engaging in another less-preferred activity (instrumental response). The contingencies produced substantial increases in instrumental responding, and responding decreased toward baseline levels when the dependency was removed. Under the contingent conditions, time earned for the concurrent activity was always less than the baseline level. To determine the contribution of this reduction to the instrumental increase, access to the contingent activity was restricted in the absence of any dependency. The results indicated that increases among responses that filled the newly available time could be selective, e.g., artwork increased when reading was restricted but candlemaking did not. It was concluded that the reductions in the contingent response that accompany contingencies usually do not exclusively determine instrumental increases, but selective increases can contribute to the increase in time devoted to the instrumental response.     

Conditioning Method Dramatically Alters the Role of Amygdala in Taste Aversion Learning

Although an important role for the amygdala in taste aversion learning has been suggested by work in a number of laboratories, results have been inconsistent and interpretations varied. The present series of studies reevaluated the role of the amygdala in taste aversion learning by examining the extent to which conditioning methods, testing methods and lesioning methods, influence whether amygdala lesions dramatically affect conditioned taste aversion (CTA) learning. Results indicated that when animals are conditioned with an intraoral (I/O) taste presentation, lesions of amygdala eliminate evidence of conditioning whether animals are tested intraorally or with a two-bottle solution presentation. Dramatic effects of amygdala lesions on CTA learning were seen whether lesions were made electrolytically or using an excitotoxin. In contrast, when animals were conditioned using bottle presentation of the taste, electrolytic lesions attenuated CTAs but did not eliminate them, and excitotoxic lesions had no effect. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that neural structures critical for CTA learning may differ depending on the extent to which the method of conditioned stimulus delivery incorporates a response component.     

Panic-relevant predictability preferences: a laboratory test

In the present investigation the authors evaluated the role of verbally instructed safety periods as they relate to predictability preference within a single-session challenge paradigm involving recurrent administrations of 20% carbon dioxide (CO-sub-2) enriched air. Participants included 160 nonclinical young adults (91 women, 69 men) between the ages of 18 and 59 (M=21.6 years; SD=7.23). Results indicated that equivalent levels of anxiety were experienced during predictable and unpredictable administrations of 20% CO-sub-2, yet participants preferred predictable compared with unpredictable trials, with women showing a stronger predictability preference than men. Lower anxiety was reported during known safety periods (predictable room air trials) but not during predictable compared with unpredictable administrations of 20% CO-sub-2. Findings are discussed in relation to theoretical and applied implications for the role of predictability in the nature of anxiety and its disorders.