Development and Feasibility of a Group Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Fear of Cancer Recurrence

This paper describes the development, content, and preliminary results of a group cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for fear of cancer recurrence (FCR). A manualized CBT intervention was developed and offered to 38 patients with various cancer types and stages in two hospitals. Four weekly group CBT sessions were administered by two licensed psychologists as part of routine care. Patients completed self-report scales before the first treatment session and, a second time, 1 month after the last session.Overall, 33 patients had clinical levels of FCR at baseline. The participants’ satisfaction toward the group CBT for FCR was high. Significant reductions on the total score and most subscales of the Fear of Cancer Recurrence Inventory (FCRI) were observed, as well as significant improvements on most of the other psychological variables measured (i.e., insomnia, anxiety, depression, dysfunctional beliefs about cancer, and intolerance of uncertainty). In addition, 52% of the patients with clinical levels of FCR (FCRI-severity subscale score ≥ 13) at baseline no longer reached this clinical threshold at posttreatment.These preliminary results suggest that our group CBT for FCR is well accepted and feasible, and shows promising efficacy for decreasing FCR and improving other psychological variables among cancer patients. The next step is to investigate the efficacy of this minimal intervention in larger and controlled clinical trials, as well as its usefulness as part of a stepped care approach.This low-cost intervention is easy to implement in various clinical settings and has a strong potential to help large numbers of patients with FCR.     

Effects of post-encoding wakeful rest and study time on long-term memory performance

Recent work shows that post-encoding wakeful rest, in contrast to a cognitive task delay period, supports memory performance. The present study aimed at investigating whether study time modulates the impact of post-encoding rest on delayed memory performance. Healthy young adults were allocated to one of two “study time” groups (fixed-paced vs. self-paced). Participants encoded two word lists. After immediate recall of one word list, participants wakefully rested for 8?min, after the other, they performed a visual problem solving task. A delayed recall took place at the end of the experimental session (Experiment 1) and again after 7 days (Experiment 1?+?2). We found that participants in the self-paced group outperformed those in the fixed-paced group. In Experiment 1, participants showed higher memory performances after 7 days in the resting condition independent of study time. No significant differences between post-encoding (rest vs. problem solving) and study time conditions were found in Experiment 2. Combined analyses of both experiments revealed that an additional recall (Experiment 1) supported memory retention in both post-encoding conditions. Our findings suggest that resting is beneficial over the long term, but only when the encoded information is repeatedly retrieved at the end of a learning session.     

The Development of a Methodology for Examining the Process of Family Communication of Genetic Test Results

It is important to study communication processes in families where members are undergoing testing for genetic conditions because the information received from such testing is crucial not just to the individual concerned but also to other members of the biological family. This topic has received little research attention, in part because of the complexities of methodology required. In this paper we present the development of a method specifically designed for the examination of the content and process of communication of genetic information in families. The method aims to maximize ecological validity as far as is possible. We describe how participants and other family members are recruited and how data were collected. We outline three main data analytic strategies: a graphic to show how genetic information changes as it flows from clinic and through the family, an intensive qualitative analysis of the meaning and impact of the genetic information to different family members, and an informative genogram which plots key family dynamics. This method will be illustrated in relation to a study of ten family-groups where one individual has been found to carry a genetic mutation predisposing them to hereditary breast and ovarian cancer.     

Demanding kin relations and depressive symptoms among low-income African American women: mediating effects of self-esteem and optimism

Association of demanding kin relations, depressive symptoms, self-esteem, and optimism was assessed among 130 low-income African American women. Demanding relations with kin were positively associated with depressive symptoms and negatively linked to self-esteem and optimism. Self-esteem and optimism were negatively associated with depressive symptoms and mediated the association of demanding relations with kin and women's depressive symptoms. Findings were discussed in terms of the detrimental effects of demanding social relations with kin and the possible role that other relationships may play in compensating for poor relations with extended family.     

Young infants' generalization of emotional expressions: effects of familiarity

From birth, infants are exposed to a wealth of emotional information in their interactions. Much research has been done to investigate the development of emotion perception, and factors influencing that development. The current study investigates the role of familiarity on 3.5-month-old infants' generalization of emotional expressions. Infants were assigned to one of two habituation sequences: in one sequence, infants were visually habituated to parental expressions of happy or sad. At test, infants viewed either a continuation of the habituation sequence, their mother depicting a novel expression, an unfamiliar female depicting the habituated expression, or an unfamiliar female depicting a novel expression. In the second sequence, a new sample of infants was matched to the infants in the first sequence. These infants viewed the same habituation and test sequences, but the actors were unfamiliar to them. Only those infants who viewed their own mothers and fathers during the habituation sequence increased looking. They dishabituated looking to maternal novel expressions, the unfamiliar female's novel expression, and the unfamiliar female depicting the habituated expression, especially when sad parental expressions were followed by an expression change to happy or to a change in person. Infants are guided in their recognition of emotional expressions by the familiarity of their parents, before generalizing to others.     

Tactile sensitivity in Asperger syndrome

People with autism and Asperger syndrome are anecdotally said to be hypersensitive to touch. In two experiments, we measured tactile thresholds and suprathreshold tactile sensitivity in a group of adults with Asperger syndrome. In the first experiment, tactile perceptual thresholds were measured. Two frequencies of vibrotactile stimulation were used: 30 and 200 Hz. The results demonstrated significantly lower tactile perceptual thresholds in the Asperger group at 200 Hz but not at 30 Hz, thus confirming tactile hypersensitivity but only for one class of stimulus. A second experiment investigated whether self-produced movement affected the perception of touch in a group of adults with Asperger syndrome. A suprathreshold tactile stimulus was produced either by the participant (self-produced condition) or by the experimenter (externally produced condition) and participants were asked to rate the perception of the tactile stimulation. The results demonstrated that, while both Asperger and control groups rated self-produced touch as less tickly than external touch, the Asperger group rated both types of tactile stimulus as significantly more tickly and intense than did the control group. This experiment confirms the finding of tactile hypersensitivity, but shows that the perceptual consequences of self-produced touch are attenuated in the normal way in people with Asperger syndrome. An abnormality in this process cannot therefore account for their tactile hypersensitivity.     

Newborn Screening for Cystic Fibrosis: Parents’ Preferences Regarding Counseling At the Time of Infants’ Sweat Test

Newborn screening (NBS) protocols for cystic fibrosis (CF) are the first regional population-based programs to incorporate DNA analysis into their procedures. Research about these programs can inform policy and practice regarding how best to counsel families with abnormal NBS results. The grounded theory method guided interviews with 33 families whose infants had abnormal CF NBS results. A dimensional analysis of these interviews provided a theoretical framework describing parents’ preferences regarding counseling during their infant's sweat test appointment. This framework describes the contexts and characteristics of the two main dimensions of parents’ preferences: factual information and emotional support. Factual information included learning about the probability of a CF diagnosis, CF disease facts, sweat test procedure, and CF genetics. Social support consisted of offering parents a choice about the timing and amount of CF information, showing empathy for their distress, instilling hope, personalizing counseling, and providing hospitality. This framework also explains the consequences of counseling that matched versus mismatched parental preferences in these domains. Counseling that matched parents preferences reduced parents’ distress while mismatched counseling tended to increase parents’ worry about their infant.     

Cultural representations of thinness in women, redux: Playboy magazine's depiction of beauty from 1979 to 1999

Playboy's portrayal of the male ideal of feminine beauty, in terms of overall body size, percent normative weight, and waist-to-hip ratios (WHRs), was analyzed for the years 1979–1999. Trends were examined through body measurements obtained from Playboy centerfolds. Results reveal a continuation of the low body mass index (BMI) found in the Playmates by earlier studies; however, for the 21 years examined, the trend towards increasing thinness seems to have stabilized and may have begun to actually reverse. There was also an increase in the centerfolds’ WHRs over the 21-year time period. Overall, the results support the continued valuing in American society of a thin ideal for women; while the images of beauty have become somewhat heavier over the 21-year period reviewed, the Playmates remain markedly below weights normative for their age group.