Do primary care psychological therapists ‘think family’? Challenges and opportunities for couple and family therapy in the context of ‘Improving Access to Psychological Therapies’ (IAPT) services

Very little couple or family work takes place in primary care despite the advantages offered by the context. This pilot study investigated the experiences of primary care adult therapists regarding the place of families in their clinical work. Semi‐structured interviews with seven therapists were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The findings tentatively suggest that primary care psychological therapists ‘think family’ primarily from the perspective of their main therapeutic model when offering individual therapy. Some study participants questioned the appropriateness of their family/context focus. Family members were extremely rarely seen together. Facilitating factors included supervision and training. Barriers to family work were both external (the work setting) and internal (beliefs about it). The impact of the current dominance of cognitive behavioural therapy in National Health Service adult psychological therapy services and the development of Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services on the provision of couple and family therapy are discussed. Some challenges and opportunities presented by IAPT for couple and family therapy are explored.     

The Experience of Former Women Officials and the Impact on the Sporting Community

In an effort to explore the shortage of female sport officials, the authors examined the experience of eight former female basketball officials from five geographically diverse states in the U.S. who voluntarily left the role. Specifically, the authors asked former female basketball officials to describe their workplace experiences. Utilizing a phenomenological approach and workplace incivility framework, the results indicated that the felt social inequity for female officials detracted from the participants experiencing a sense of community in the workplace, which ultimately led to their discontinuation in the role. Results indicate four key factors that created this uncivil work environment. An examination of the data revealed four major themes. Specifically the female basketball officials reported experiencing a Lack of Mutual Respect from male counterparts; Perceived Inequity of Policies; a Lack of Role Modeling and Mentoring for and from female officials; and experiencing more Gendered Abuse than did their male counterparts. The combination of these four factors exacerbated the female officials’ inability to connect to the officiating community and led to their withdrawal from the role. The results further indicate that women officials likely threatened the hegemonic characteristics of a sport setting. Although females have made great strides in terms of sport participation, the practical implications of this research suggest that understanding females in workplace roles, such as officiating, is vital if social equity is to be achieved in the sporting community.     

The Web-Based Assessment of Suicidal and Suicide-Related Symptoms: Factors Associated With Disclosing Identifying Information to Receive Study Compensation

With the increasing utilization of Web-based surveys for suicide and suicide-related research, it is critical to understand factors that affect participants' decision to request study compensation (and thus potentially reveal their identity) or remain anonymous. This study evaluated differences in demographics, suicidal symptoms, and suicide-related constructs between participants electing and declining to provide identifying information to receive study compensation. A sample of 931 firefighters (91.5% male) participated in a Web-based mental health survey; on survey completion, individuals had the option to provide contact information to receive a $10 gift card. Logistic regression analyses were employed to investigate differences between those who did and did not provide this information. Overall, 82.8% provided identifying information, with younger individuals significantly more likely to do so. Participants reporting more severe suicidal symptoms and greater levels of suicide-related constructs appeared equally, and in some cases, significantly more, willing to provide identifying information. Findings indicate that individuals reporting more sensitive or stigmatizing experiences might not systematically opt out of receiving study compensation to remain anonymous on Web-based surveys. Additional research is warranted to replicate these findings in more representative samples and further delineate personality and other factors influencing the disclosure of contact information to receive study compensation.     

Self-disclosure in Latinos' intercultural and intracultural friendships and acquaintanceships: Links with collectivism, ethnic identity, and acculturation

Relationships among collectivism, ethnic identity, acculturation, and self-disclosure rates in Latinos' intercultural and intracultural friendships and acquaintanceships were examined. An online survey collected data from 59 international Latinos and 73 Latino American nationals. Results revealed that relationship type (friend vs. acquaintance) and relationship partner ethnicity (Latino vs. White American) had significant relationships with self-disclosure. Participants disclosed more personal information to friends than acquaintances, and they disclosed more to Latino than to White American persons. Higher collectivism was related to increased self-disclosure across all relationship types. Acculturation exerted a significant main effect only in the context of friendships but interacted significantly with ethnicity in both friendships and acquaintanceships. Ethnic identity did not display any significant direct or interaction effects.     

Media Coverage of Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing

Media coverage of Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) genetic testing shapes public perception of such testing. The purpose of this study was to determine and assess the themes presented by U.S. news media regarding DTC genetic testing. We performed a Lexis-Nexis search with the keywords “Direct-to-Consumer” and “genetic test” for news stories published from 2006–2009. The sample was coded on themes of genetic determinism, privacy, discrimination, validity, regulation, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), utility, and cost. Ninety-two news stories were included. Stories displayed moderate genetic determinism and were neutral about validity and utility. Stories indicated that insurance and employers were the most likely sources of discrimination, yet identified the physicians and DTC companies as groups most likely to violate privacy. Stories claimed lack of regulation would harm consumers, but most post-GINA stories did not discuss the law. The costs of tests were frequently included. The results of this study show a broad range of views toward DTC genetic testing and its potential impacts. The genetics community should be aware that the public has been exposed to multiple views of DTC genetic testing when discussing these tests.     

Sexism and Assertive Courtship Strategies

The popularity of speed-seduction techniques, such as those described in The Game (Strauss 2005) and advocated in the cable program The Pickup Artist (Malloy 2007), suggests some women respond positively to men??s assertive mating strategies. Drawing from these sources, assertive strategies were operationalized as involving attempts to isolate women, to compete with other men, and to tease or insult women. The present investigation examined whether hostile and benevolent sexism and sociosexuality, the degree to which individuals require closeness and commitment prior to engaging in sex, were associated with the reported use of assertive strategies by men and the reported positive reception to those strategies by women. It was predicted men and women who were more sexist and had an unrestricted sociosexuality would report using more and being more receptive to assertive strategies. Study 1 (N?=?363) surveyed a Midwestern undergraduate college student sample, and regression results indicated that sociosexuality was associated with assertive strategy preference and use, but sexism only predicted a positive reception of assertive strategies by women. Study 2 (N?=?850) replicated these results by surveying a larger, national U.S. volunteer sample via the internet. In addition to confirming the results of Study 1, regression results from Study 2 indicated that hostile sexism was predictive of reported assertive strategy use by men, suggesting that outside of the college culture, sexism is more predictive of assertive strategy use. Implications for courtship processes and the dating culture are discussed.     

The Latent Structure of Youth Responses to Peer Provocation

This study examined whether the three categories often applied to children’s behavior—aggressive, avoidant, and assertive—actually capture the structure of a naturalistic sample of youth behavior coded at a more micro level. A sample of lower-income youth (N = 392; M age = 12.69, SD = 0.95) completed a new multiple-choice measure asking them to select responses to scenarios depicting physical, verbal, and relational provocation by a peer. Youth responses to the vignettes showed the expected associations with self-reported aggression and regulation of anger, providing preliminary evidence for the convergent validity of the measure. Factor analysis confirmed that responses loaded on three factors: aggression, avoidance, and assertion. Model fit was adequate (RMSEA = .028) and cross-validated in a second sample (RMSEA = .039). Several types of responses loaded on two factors suggesting that some strategies that youth use to manage provocation are not “pure” examples of these broadband categories. Implications for conceptualization and measurement of youth social behavior are discussed.     

When it matters how you pronounce it: the influence of regional accents on job interview outcome

The visual dimension has featured prominently in person perception in the last 25 years. Alone, this dimension cannot give the complete 'picture' of others because language and speech (i.e., the auditory dimension) are also highly informative. Social-cognition research investigates the role of auditory information for impression formation. In a series of experiments, we tested perceived competence, hirability, and socio-intellectual status of different targets based on their regional accents. Given identical content of statements in different conditions of an alleged job interview, regional German accents (Saxon, Bavarian, and Berlin) resulted in lower perceived competence and hirability than standard German, even though the Bavarian accent at the same time resulted in higher ratings of socio-intellectual status compared to other regional accents (Experiment 1). These findings were confirmed when using a broader population sample and a 'matched guise' technique (Experiment 2). Our findings indicate that regional accents, similar to faces, can be very powerful in creating differentiated pictures of individuals.