Attitudes towards women managers: Development and validation of a new measure with Turkish samples

This study reports the development of a new instrument measuring attitudes towards women managers (ATWoM). To test its reliability and validity data were collected from 456 Turkish employees from 23 organizations. Reliability and validitiy of ATWoM's final version were also tested with a separate sample comprised 312 students enrolled in junior–senior undergraduate and MBA programmes. ATWoM's psychometric properties were superior to one of the most widely used instruments measuring the same construct, Women as Managers Scale (WAMS). ATWoM was negatively correlated with traditional attitudes towards gender roles and positively correlated with respondents' report of quality in their interaction with women managers and general preference to work with women managers.     

Association of Fine Motor Loss and Allodynia in Fibromyalgia: An fNIRS Study

Recent studies showed that fine motor control dysfunction was observed in fibromyalgia (FM) syndrome as well as allodynia. However, brain signatures of this association still remain unclear. In this study, finger tapping task (FTT) and median nerve stimulation (MNS) were applied to both hands of 15 FM patients and healthy controls (HC) to understand this relationship. Hemodynamic activity was measured simultaneously using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Experiments were analyzed separately by using 2x2 repeated measures ANOVA. Results for the FTT experiment revealed that HC showed higher activity than FM patients in bilateral superior parietal gyrus (SPG), left supramarginal gyrus (SMG) and right somatosensory cortex (SI). Furthermore, right-hand FTT resulted in higher activity than left-hand FTT in left SPG, left SI and right motor cortex (MI). In the MNS experiment, FM patients showed higher activity than HC in bilateral SPG, right SMG, right SI and right middle frontal gyrus (MFG). Negative correlation was observed in left SPG between FTT and MNS activities. Besides, MNS activity in left SPG was negatively correlated with left-hand pain threshold.This study revealed that left SPG might be an important indicator to associate fine motor loss and allodynia in FM.     

The role of attention in the localization of odors to the mouth

Odors can be perceived as arising from the environment or as part of a flavor located in the mouth. One factor that may dictate where an odor is perceived to be is concurrent gustatory stimulation in the mouth. A taste may impair the ability to attend to an odor, especially if they are perceptually similar. Alternatively, salient mouth-based features of a flavor might command attention at the expense of smell. Experiment 1 and 2, using different stimulus sets, explored the impact of perceptually similar and dissimilar pairings of tastes in the mouth and odors at the nose. In each case, these were followed by judgments of the odor's location (mouth vs. nose). Perceptual similarity had no impact on localization judgments. Experiment 3 then manipulated the salience of the olfactory and gustatory cues and showed that each could independently shift the perceived location of an odorant-salient olfactory cues toward the nose and gustatory cues toward the mouth. These findings suggest that the salient features of a flavor may command attention at the expense of olfaction and, thereby, contribute to oral localization, with implications for flavor binding.     

Olfactory test performance and its relationship with the perceived location of odors

Odors are generally perceived as arising via the nose when sniffed and as part of an orally located flavor during ingestion. The perceived location of an odor may in part be an attentional phenomenon, with concurrent oral stimulation occurring at the expense of access to the olfactory channel. Two predictions were derived from this account: (a) tasks dependent on a capacity to attend to the olfactory channel--odor discrimination and naming--should be adversely affected by oral localization; and (b) tasks not dependent upon a capacity to attend--incidental learning/recognition memory--should not. Using a procedure to generate oral localization, in which odors were presented via the nose with concurrent oral stimulation (sucrose, a viscous fluid or water), greater reported oral localization was associated with poorer odor discrimination and naming, but not with recognition memory performance. These results support the notion that attentional processes contribute to oral localization of odors by reducing the capacity to attend to the olfactory channel.     

Parental Decisions Regarding a Prenatally Detected Fetal Chromosomal Abnormality and the Impact of Genetic Counseling: An Analysis of 38 Cases with Aneuploidy in Southeast Turkey

This study investigated parental decision-making to terminate or continue a pregnancy after prenatal diagnosis of a chromosomal abnormality among a sample of patients in Southeast Turkey. Between 2004 and 2007, 1068 amniocentesis tests were performed in the Medical Biology and Genetic Department Laboratory at Dicle University. Aneuploidy was found in 38 cases (3.56%). Genetic counseling was provided for the couples that received abnormal results, and they were later interviewed and asked if they had continued or interrupted the pregnancy after the diagnosis. When confronted with autosomal aneuploidy in which a severe prognosis was expected, 85% of cases decided to terminate the pregnancy. When confronted with sex chromosome aneuploidy with a low risk of an abnormal clinical phenotype 60% of cases decided to continue the pregnancy. Among the diagnoses with aneuploidy, pregnancy was continued in 21.1% of cases due to religious beliefs regardless of whether there was a low or severe risk of an abnormal clinical phenotype. These findings indicate that both severity of abnormality and religiosity play an important role in genetic counseling patients’ decision-making processes and outcomes in Turkey. In addition, the findings suggest the need for legislation that reduces the differences in approaches between the physicians and institutions regarding parental decision-making to terminate or continue a pregnancy in our country.     

Apport démographique de l’immigration internationale dans la région Métropolitaine de recensement (RMR) de Montréal, 1976–1996

This study assesses the total net demographic contribution of international immigrants in the census metropolitan area (CMA) of Montreal in 1996. Most work on this topic uses the “place of birth” criterion implied by the concept of a “native born” population. However, this limits the “immigrant population”, by inappropriately assigning births to immigrants to the non-immigrant or “native born” sub-population. This has a direct effect on the levels of observed indicators of both groups, such as the proportion of the immigrant population, the mean age, the median age etc. In addition to the total number of surviving migrants (direct contribution), the estimate here also includes children born to the immigrants during the period (1976–1996) and surviving in Montreal at the end of the period (indirect contribution). Montreal’s total population in 1996 can therefore be broken down into the “extended immigrant population” (EIP) and the “restricted native population” (RNP). One of the main consequences of this new approach is a marked change in the age structure for each restructured sub-group. For instance, once the births to immigrants during the period under study are included in the EIP instead of the “native population”, the median age of immigrants drops from 43.9 years to 38.2 years, a reduction of almost six years, bringing it much closer to that age in the population as a whole (36.2 years).     

Prevalence of bulimic behaviors and trends in eating attitudes among Turkish late adolescents

The eating attitudes and the prevalence of bulimic behaviors in a group of 300 late adolescents were investigated using the key questions from the Bulimia Investigatory Test, Edinburgh (BITE), and additional questions. Only four subjects (1.3%) scored above the cut-off point on the BITE, and prevalence rates of males and females were the same. Results showed that higher symptom scale scores were associated with the emergence of binge eating behavior and high energy intake. Females were less likely than males to see themselves as normal eaters and more likely to feel "miserable" when they binge. Higher score groups evidenced more dieting behavior than other groups and also more abnormal eating behavior. It was concluded that the prevalence of bulimic behaviors in Turkish late adolescents was low, but there was an increasing risk since they share Western ideals of slimness and engage in dieting.     

All you fear is love: The roles of rejection by intimate others

Interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory (IPARTheory) asserts that recollections of parental rejection in childhood tend to result in psychological maladjustment and intimacy problems in later romantic relationships. Informed by IPARTheory, we investigated the association between maternal & paternal rejection, and fear of intimacy by the mediating role of psychological maladjustment in a Turkish sample with 462 mostly young adults. We further explored the moderator role of gender in Model 1 and the moderating roles of both gender and intimate partner rejection in Model 2. Model 1 revealed that adults who had experienced maternal and paternal rejection in childhood tended to be psychologically maladjusted. Consequently, they also tended to have a fear of intimacy, regardless of gender. Model 2 revealed that women who recall having been rejected in childhood by their mothers tended to be psychologically maladjusted and to have a significant fear of intimacy when they also experienced moderate or more than moderate intimate-partner rejection. However, both women and men who experienced paternal rejection in childhood tended to be psychologically maladjusted and to experience a greater fear of intimacy when they perceived any degree of intimate partner rejection. Implications of the results for theory, research, and practice are discussed.     

Lens on International Clinical Supervision: Lessons Learned from a Cross-National Comparison of Supervision

Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy - Clinical supervision is an essential mechanism for training psychologists internationally. But although it is performed globally, scholarship has primarily...     

The characteristics of non-criminals with high psychopathy traits: Are they similar to criminal psychopaths?

This study compared the findings from a sample of non-criminals with high and low psychopathy levels to published findings with criminal psychopaths and non-psychopaths. Congruent to findings with criminal psychopaths, participants with high psychopathy traits (High-P) compared to those with low psychopathy traits (Low-P) performed significantly worse on the Iowa Gambling Task, a task sensitive to orbital frontal cortex dysfunction. Moreover, the High-P group also evidenced a lack of empathy, a hallmark feature of psychopathy. These findings could not be explained by differences in estimated IQ or performance on a task sensitive to an executive functioning deficit. The discussion focuses on possible differences between non-criminal and criminal psychopaths, concluding criminal psychopaths manifest more extreme degrees of the interpersonal-affective and antisocial features of psychopathy.