Working Together with God: Religious Coping,Perceived Discrimination,and Hypertension

This study examined the relationships of perceived discrimination and religious coping with hypertension in a sample of Black and White Seventh-day Adventists. Data come from a community-based sample of 6128 White American, 2253 African American and 927 Caribbean American adults (67% women; mean age = 62.9 years). Results indicate lifetime unfair treatment was significantly associated with hypertension regardless of race/ethnicity. Positive religious coping was associated with lower odds of hypertension and did not interact with unfair treatment. Both positive and negative religious coping were indirectly associated with increased hypertension risk through an increase in perceived discrimination.

     

Sampling methods for identifying differences in source reliability

This study explored observer performance in using across-trial and within-trial variability information to weight sources based on reliability. Three trained observers performed a multi-element, visual signal-detection task under 3 block-type conditions: a fixed block condition and 2 random conditions. In the fixed block condition, the observers had both within- and across-trial variability information to identify differences in source reliability. The random conditions eliminated the across-trial information, leaving only within-trial variability information in 1 case and neither within- nor across-trial variability information in another case. There was a significant block-type effect. Observers could use differences in across-trial variability of individual sources to assign weights. Although there was a difference in the weights assigned to reliable and unreliable sources in the partial-random condition (in which within-trial variability information was available), only 1 participant showed a significant difference in the weight assignment relative to the full-random condition. Thus, altogether, observers were not very efficient at using within-trial variability to weight sources accordingly.     

Silencing the self in college settings and adjustment

The correlations among several measures of silencing the self and scores on the College Adjustment Scale were assessed for male and female students at a midwestern university (N = 143). Analysis showed that high scores on Jack's 1991 Silencing the Self Scale and on one of three new measures designed to extend silencing the self to social group settings were associated with scores indicating poorer college adjustment. Also, men scored higher than women on Jack's 1991 measure, and no significant interactions were found for sex and adjustment for any of the silencing the self measures. Thus, silencing the self was generally associated with poorer adjustment scores and similarly for both women and men.     

Response Expectancies and Irrational Beliefs Predict Exam-Related Distress

Individual differences in cognitive factors such as response expectancies and irrational beliefs (IBs) have been shown to contribute to variability in distress associated with stressful situations. However, their independent influence on distress when examined within the same study has not been established, nor has the potential of mediational relationships. The purpose of this study was to investigate the contribution of response expectancies and IBs (both general and exam-specific) to exam-related distress in a prospective study. Results revealed that both response expectancies and general IBs separately predicted exam-related distress (p’s<.05; N=105). Observed effects of general IBs were perfectly mediated by, and observed effects of exam-specific IBs were partially mediated by, response expectancies using the Baron and Kenny approach. These data support the view that cognitive factors contribute to psychological distress and are consistent with response expectancy and rational emotive behavior theories. The results suggest that interventions focused on response expectancies and IBs might be an effective means to reduce psychological distress associated with real life stressors such as exams. Future research is needed to determine whether this effect generalizes to other stressful situations. Dr. Montgomery is Director of the Integrative Behavioral Medicine Program at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Dr. David is an associate professor at Babes-Bolyai University, in Romania. Dr. DiLorenzo is an assistant professor in the Psychology Department of Stern College. Dr. Schnur is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Oncological Sciences at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. This work was supported by the National Cancer Institute (CA81137) and the American Cancer Society (PF-05-098-01-CPPB).