Validity of the Cognitive Representations of Hypertension Scales (CRHTN)1

Leventhal and Diefenbach's (1991) self‐regulatory theory is discussed in explaining the dynamic nature of “how” and “what” people think about hypertension and how this information is different according to severity of hypertension. Using a sample of hypertensive adults who had controlled and uncontrolled blood pressure (BP) status, the factor structure of the Cognitive Representations of Hypertension (CRHTN) scales, an instrument based on self‐regulatory theory of Leventhal & Diefenbach, is examined through exploratory, confirmatory, and multigroup factor analyses. Results indicate that a 5‐factor model is representative of theoretical constructs of disease label or symptoms, consequences, and controllability. The model accurately fits observed data for outpatients with controlled and uncontrolled BP status. Results provide support for an understanding of individuals’ cognitive structuring of disease‐specific attitudes, beliefs, and self‐management skills.     

THE WOMEN'S STUDIES EXPERIENCE

This study included 212 women and 38 men students from nine women's studies classes and 101 women and 35 men from nine non-women's studies classes. At pretesting and posttesting students completed the Performance Self-Esteem Scale (PSES) and measures of their educational and job certainty and motivation. Comparison students were similar to women's studies students in having a woman teacher and having an interest in the women's studies curriculum. At posttesting women's studies students showed greater gains in PSES scores ( p < .01) and in job motivation and job certainty ( p < .01) than did the comparison students. The results support the value of women's studies for men as well as women students.     

Do you get what you pay for? Preventing insufficient effort responding in MTurk and student samples

Previous research has developed multiple indices to detect instances of insufficient effort responding (IER; Huang et al., 2015, 0.1037/a0038510). Although these techniques are largely successful, conflation between effort and insufficient effort leads to unnecessary data removal, thus warranting investigation into IER prevention strategies such as warning statements. For example, Brühlmann et al. (2020, 10.1016/j.metip.2020.100022) reported that close to 60% of participants were flagged for IER on at least one IER detection index. The current study used positive, negative, and no warning statements in two samples (MTurk and university participant pool) to examine their impact on two types of IER. Results do not support the use of warning statements to reduce IER covertly, overtly, or overall. Although slightly more university participants were flagged for IER for two of five IER indices, the remaining three indices did not differ between samples. This finding represents an important contribution to survey research literature by directly comparing samples on a variety of IER indices. Implications for survey research necessitate the examination of additional prevention strategies and sample differences in IER.     

Impact of health beliefs, quality of life, and the physician-patient relationship on the treatment intentions of inflammatory bowel disease patients.

The research tested a model of treatment decision making in chronic illness that includes health beliefs, quality of life, and relationship with the physician (shared or not). Inflammatory bowel disease patients (N = 218) reported on their physician-patient relationship, general and disease-specific quality of life, and intentions to take a drug, for which perceived benefits and costs were manipulated. For more symptomatic patients, both costs and benefits predicted intentions; however, for less symptomatic patients, costs played a more important role. Physician recommendation predicted intention primarily among those who shared a decision-making relationship with their physician. Overall, the model accounted for 57.8% of the variance in medication-taking intention. Findings suggest that an integrative consideration of relationship factors, health beliefs, and health status may help explain treatment intentions among the chronically ill.     

Struggling To Be Happy — Even When I'm Old

My thesis seeks to reduce what may be a natural human antipathy to ageing and/or the elderly by working with one distinctive and consistently approved feature of some older people. This feature is a bold and cheerful struggle within a self-chosen project. The argument opens by distinguishing short-term gratification from lasting, fulfilling happiness, and showing the link between gratification and dependence. Three kinds of struggle (non-voluntary, part-voluntary and positive) are then outlined and exemplified. Gerontological and anthropological research suggest that attitudes to struggle are fixed early in life, and while in the past they mitigated for or against successful survival, they now influence happiness and coping in later life. I argue that the negative effects of the first two kinds of struggle - which are often misguided, grudging or 'no-win' struggles - are responsible for the rigidity, narcissism and resentment disliked in some older people. Self-respect, contrasted with self-righteousness, is shown to accrue only from the positive (voluntary and congenial) struggle that seems at any age to deflect or compensate for depression, disappointment, loneliness and illness.     

Neurocognitive influences on health behavior in a community sample.

CONTEXT: Dominant models of individual health behavior omit biological variables entirely and are composed almost exclusively of social-cognitive and conative variables. Research from the neurosciences suggests a role for brain function in explaining behaviors that require active self-regulation for consistent performance. However, the association between brain function and health behavior is underexplored. OBJECTIVE: To examine the predictive power of executive function for 2 health risk behaviors and 2 health protective behaviors in healthy adults. DESIGN: A cross-sectional community sample (N = 216) of adults 20-100 years of age were administered a battery of neuropsychological tests and completed self-report questionnaires regarding their health practices. It was hypothesized that poor performance on neuropsychological tests tapping executive function would be associated with poor health behavior tendencies. RESULTS: Errors on the Stroop task were positively associated with health risk behavior and negatively associated with health protective behavior after controlling for demographics, education, and IQ. CONCLUSION: Executive function is associated with health behavior tendencies. If the association is causal, explanatory models of individual health behavior should be revised to account for individual differences in biologically imbued self-regulatory abilities.     

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Clusters and Acquired Capability for Suicide: A Reexamination Using DSM-5 Criteria

This study used the interpersonal–psychological theory of suicide to explore the relationships among DSM-5 posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom clusters derived from the six-factor anhedonia model and facets of acquired capability for suicide (ACS). In a sample of 373 trauma-exposed undergraduates, most PTSD symptom clusters were negatively associated with facets of ACS in bivariate correlations, but the anhedonia cluster was positively associated with ACS in regression models. Structure coefficients and commonality analysis indicated that anhedonia served as a suppressor variable for the other symptom clusters. Our findings further elucidate the complex relationship between specific PTSD symptom clusters and ACS.     

The Growing Use of Firearms by Suicidal Older Women, 1979–1992: A Research Note

Suicide among older women (65 +) has received very little attention despite increasing numbers of suicides in this population. An examination of national mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics for the years 1979 through 1992 shows an increasing trend in rates of suicide among older women and a declining trend among women under 65. Over the 14-year period, firearms replaced poisoning as the most prevalent method of suicide by women 65 and over. The results seem consistent with the assertion that the availability, familiarity, and cultural acceptability of firearms may play a role in the choice of suicide method among older women. Although violent death and the use of firearms are generally associated with males in our society, the trends reported here indicate that greater attention to firearm suicides among older women is warranted.