Digital Animation as a Method to Disseminate Research Findings to the Community Using a Community-Based Participatory Approach

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) has garnered increasing interest over the previous two decades as researchers have tackled increasingly complex health problems. In academia, professional presentations and articles are major ways that research is disseminated. However, dissemination of research findings to the people and communities who participated in the research is many times forgotten. In addition, little scholarly literature is focused on creative dissemination of research findings to the community using CBPR methods. We seek to fill this gap in the literature by providing an exemplar of research dissemination and partnership strategies that were used to complete this project. In this paper, we present a novel approach to the dissemination of research findings to our targeted communities through digital animation. We also provide the foundational thinking and specific steps that were taken to select this specific dissemination product development and distribution strategy.     

A note on john venn as a collector and bibliographer of works on logic

A short characterization is given of the contents and origin of the collection of books on logic donated by John Venn to the Cambridge University Library and of its relation to the bibliography in Venn’s treatise on symbolic logic     

Gender Differences in Associations with Deviant Peer Groups: Examining Individual,Interactional, and Compositional Factors

Researchers have long known that boys are more likely to have deviant peers than are girls. Yet, little research has tried to explain why boys and girls differ in their decision to associate with deviant peers. With the salience of deviant peers well established as a robust predictor of delinquency, we address the question, are the predictors of association with deviant peers different for boys and girls? In our examination of family and community processes, individual effects, and peer group composition factors, we find that the predictors of association with deviant peers differ by gender. In addition, our findings suggest gender divergences in the causes of both deviant peer association and deviant peer pressure. We discuss the implications of our research for both theoretical development and appropriate model estimation.     

The prediction of safe sex behaviour: The role of intentions,attitudes, norms and control beliefs

Abstract

The present study was designed to examine the utility of the theory of reasoned action (Fishbein and Azjen, 1975) in relation to people's propensity to engage in a range of different safe sex strategies, including engaging in an exclusive sexual relationship, avoiding casual sex, and asking sexual partners about their previous sexual and IV drug use history. It was proposed that the intention to engage in a particular safe sex practice would be influenced by the person's attitude towards engaging in the practice, as well as his or her perception of the extent to which others thought they should do so (subjective norm), while behavioural intentions were proposed to predict actual behaviour. The study was also designed to examine whether, after control of the effects of the components of the theory of reasoned action, the person's generalised control beliefs would explain any additional variance in either behavioural intentions or actual behaviour. One hundred and two sexually active heterosexual students participated in the study. At the first wave of data collection, subjects completed measures of intentions, attitudes, and norms appropriate to each of the different behaviours. Measures of actual behaviour were obtained at follow-tip (three months after first period of data collection). The results of the study indicated that attitudes and norms predicted intentions for avoiding casual sex and asking sexual partners about their previous sexual and IV drug use history, while intentions predicted actual behaviour for all three safe sex strategies. Although there were no significant main effects of control beliefs on intentions or behaviour, subjects with internal control beliefs were more likely than their counterparts with external control beliefs to behave in accordance with their intentions to engage in an exclusive sexual relationship and ask sexual partners about their previous sexual and IV drug use history. Additional analyses revealed that the levels and determinants of intentions and actual behaviour were, in general, similar for males and females.     

Exercise environment,self-efficacy,and affective responses to acute exercise in older adults

Abstract

Increasing evidence suggests that regular physical activity can have considerable psychological, as well as physical, benefits in the elderly. Although factors such as exercise dosage may be implicated in exercise-induced affect responses, it has also been suggested that social and psychological factors might influence this relationship. This study examined the roles played by exercise environment (group versus alone) and self-efficacy in affective change in 80 older adults (M age = 66 yrs) over the course of three acute exercise bouts. Using latent growth curve methodology and statistically controlling for duration and intensity of exercise, we were able to demonstrate that social (group) environments resulted in statistically significant improvements in feeling state responses when contrasted with a condition in which the participants exercised alone. In addition, increases in self-efficacy were associated with more positive and less negative feeling states. Environmental factors that might influence the exercise-affect response are discussed and recommendations for subsequent exercise, efficacy, affect research made.     

The Contribution of Executive Skills to Reading Comprehension

Although word recognition deficits (WRD) are a known cause of reading comprehension deficits (RCD), other contributions to RCD, including executive function (EF), have not been fully explored. We examined the contribution of EF (working memory and planning), along with attention, decoding, fluency, and vocabulary to reading comprehension in 60 children (including 16 WRD and 10 RCD), ages 9–15 years. After controlling for commonly accepted contributors to reading comprehension (i.e., attention, decoding skills, fluency, and vocabulary), EF continued to make a significant contribution to reading comprehension but not to word recognition skills. These findings highlight the need for consideration of the role of EF in RCD.     

Determinants of coach motivation and autonomy supportive coaching behaviours

ObjectiveThe objective of the present study is to build upon the existing literature examining the coaching context and how it relates to coaches' use of autonomy-supportive interpersonal behaviours (i.e. Stebbings, Taylor, Spray, & Ntoumanis, 2012) by identifying additional environmental factors and exploring the role of coach motivation.DesignAn academic model designed by Pelletier, Seguin-Levesque, and Legault (2002) to predict teacher motivation and autonomy-supportive styles in academic settings, was adapted to the coaching context.MethodsThe influence of pressure from above (sport administrations) and pressure from below (athlete motivation) on coach motivation and autonomy-supportive coaching behaviours was tested using structural equation modeling.ResultsResults support the fit of the model in a sport context.ConclusionsPressure from above, pressure from below, and coach motivation predict coaches’ reported use of autonomy-supportive behaviours.     

Working with psychosis: Part 2 – encounters with an omnipotent super-ego

This is the second in a series of four papers presenting work with a man suffering from a bipolar disorder. The present paper describes the second year of the work and my encounters with an omnipotent super-ego which made ferocious attacks on the work, especially when there were any developments. The attacks were particularly disabling because my own implacable super-ego was mobilized in the counter-transference. Consequently developments seemed to melt away as my patient and I were often reduced to mindless states. I came to understand that these omnipotent attacks were stirred by feelings of infantile helplessness and dependency, and were a means of trying to manage a dread of falling to pieces and unintegration.     

Influence of response time frame on mood assessment

Abstract

Dental anxiety and the related avoidance of dental treatment can result in severe impairment of health. We investigated the influence on avoidance behavior of phobic severity, gender, characteristics related to generalized anxiety and depression, such as dysfunctional cognitions and sensitivity of bodily symptoms, as well as personality traits of self-efficacy and locus of control. Forty-eight dental phobics were given an initial assessment and avoidance behavior was determined by the degree of observance of three subsequent dental appointments. Principal component analysis revealed separate factors for trait and phobic anxiety as well as for avoidance and dysfunctional cognitions. Women showed a higher degree of avoidance than men. Regression analysis revealed a high desire for control over dental treatment combined with a low level of perceived control as the only significant predictor variable of avoidance. The results suggest that avoidance behavior in dental phobia could be reduced by extending patients’ control over treatment conditions.