Gender Differences in Problem Drinking and Depression: Different “Vulnerabilities?”

This study examines the relationship between stressors and resources and the functioning of a sample of 515 men and women who had a drinking problem. At a one-year follow-up, both women and men had improved on three functioning measures: alcohol consumption, days intoxicated, and depression. There were no gender differences at Time 2 on alcohol consumption, but men had more days intoxicated and women had more symptoms of depression. The impact of stressors and resources varied by life domain, functioning criterion, and gender. Although the predictors varied, the amount of variance in depression accounted for was the same for women and men. The most striking gender difference was the stronger impact of friendships for women on all aspects of functioning. This study provides support for reconsideration of the stress vulnerability of women and men.     

Abortion attitudes and personality

Attitudes toward abortion were predicted by age, sex, and religiosity but not personality in a sample of 99 college students.     

Regional associations of methods used for suicide

The pattern of associations between the suicide rates by various methods over the American states differed from that found over nations.     

Predicting the suicide rate of children in America

The time-series regressions for suicide rates by race and sex for those aged 5 to 14 years in the USA from 1933-1980 were predicted by scores on two factors which had high loadings for year and for the marriage rate.     

Depression and suicidal preoccupation in South African students

Xhosa, Zulu, and colored students in South Africa did not differ on depression scores, but there was some evidence that the pattern of the symptoms of depression differed among the three groups.     

Suicide notes in alcoholism

Alcoholism is associated with a vast number of suicides. The most systematic study of suicide among alcoholics is the work of Eli Robins and George Murphy. The suicide notes in these studies have remained unanalyzed to date. The present analysis suggested that these suicide notes of alcoholics did not differ from those of nonalcoholics; core themes in their deaths are unbearable psychological pain, cognitive constriction, indirect expressions, rejection-aggression, and identification-aggression. Although caution is in order in accepting the null hypothesis, we can at least suggest that further study is needed.     

Medical Students' Perceptions of and Willingness to Treat Patients Who Are HIV Infected1

The purpose of this study is to examine the independent and joint influences of a patient's mode of acquisition of illness (blood transfusion vs. multiple sexual partners), attributions of responsibility (self-blame vs. chance blame), and sexual orientation (homosexual vs. heterosexual) on female and male medical students' attitudes toward and willingness to treat a patient who is HIV infected. One hundred nineteen 1st through internship-year medical students were randomly assigned to read and respond to case vignettes. Greater consistency between attribution of blame and mode of acquisition was related to more positive perceptions. Furthermore, the patient's sexual orientation influenced the providers' willingness to offer treatment, particularly for male medical students. Implications concerning health practices and medical education are considered.     

Family-Based Intervention with High-Risk Infants and Their Families

A model of family-based intervention for high-risk infants hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit and their families is presented. The theoretical underpinnings, principles, and nature of the intervention are described. The adaptation of the model from a clinical–research demonstration project to a clinical consultation service is highlighted, with particular emphasis on the practical application of the model. Domains of the intervention include infant behavior, family organization and functioning, caregiving environment, and home discharge/community resources. Three case illustrations are provided to demonstrate the breadth of the intervention and how it can be individualized based upon the presentation of the infant and family.     

Task predictability and remembered duration

The effects of structural predictability on remembered duration judgments were examined within the context of the performance of a series of highly familiar tasks. Across a set of three experiments, task predictability was manipulated by the presence or absence of advance expectancies of what tasks were to be performed (Experiment 1), an (in)variant ordering of task performance (Experiment 2), and the placement of interruptions at between- versus within-task locations (Experiment 3). In each case, a higher degree of predictability led to more accurate and reliable duration estimates that were relatively free of bias, while uncertainty decreased accuracy through an overestimation bias. These results not only render insight into the mediational mechanisms responsible for temporal judgments, but also sug-gest some practical applications for everyday behavior.