Coping with human immunodeficiency virus: Do optimists fare better?

Individuals who test positive for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) face a difficult adjustment task. It was hypothesized that those who were more optimistic would cope more effectively and experience less distress. Both general and health-specific measures of coping were used. Optimism and distraction were negatively related to state anxiety, whereas emotional preoccupation was positively related to state anxiety. Optimism was not a predictor of depression. Rather, distraction was negatively related to depression, whereas palliative coping, emotional preoccupation, and the interaction of palliative coping and optimism were positively related to depression. The mediation of optimism by coping variables indicated that emotion-oriented coping was a negative mediator of optimism on both state anxiety and depression. Distraction (which includes some social diversion content) was a mediator of the impact of optimism on depression.     

Ovarian cancer patients' psychological distress: the role of physical impairment, perceived unsupportive family and friend behaviors, perceived control, and self-esteem.

Although research has indicated that illness-related and interpersonal stress are associated with greater psychological distress among cancer patients, little empirical attention has been given to mechanisms that account for these relationships. In the present study, 2 mechanisms for the association between illness-related stress (physical impairment) and interpersonal stress (family and friend unsupportive responses) and psychological distress of 143 ovarian cancer patients were examined cross-sectionally. Separate structural equation models tested whether physical impairment impacted patients' distress via decrements in perceived control over their illness and whether unsupportive behaviors impacted patients' distress via decrements in patients' self-esteem. Results supported the proposed models and suggest that perceived control and self-esteem are 2 mechanisms for explaining how illness-related and interpersonal stress may be associated with psychological distress among women with ovarian cancer.     

The Impact of More Fully Implemented Guidance Programs on the School Experiences of High School Students: A Statewide Evaluation Study

Relationships between the statewide implementation of comprehensive guidance programs and the school experiences of high school students were explored. Data from 22,964 students attending 236 Missouri high schools were analyzed by using hierarchical linear modeling. Schools with more fully implemented model guidance programs had students who were more likely to report that (a) they had earned higher grades, (b) their education was better preparing them for their future, (c) their school made more career and college information available to them, and (d) their school had a more positive climate. Positive program effects were found after removing differences due to school enrollment size, socioeconomic status, and percentage of minority students in attendance. Results highlight the important roles school counselors play in promoting the central educational goals of their schools and support a comprehensive guidance program focus for university counseling faculty who train school counselors.     

Indirect Self-Destructive Behavior in Chronic Hemodialysis Patients

ABSTRACT: As one of a series of investigations of indirect self-destructive behavior, a pilot study was conducted with a group of 32 chronic hemodialysis patients for those characteristics of such behavior which had emerged as most salient in earlier studies: self-esteem, locus of control, rigidity, impulsivity, futurity, risk-taking and denial. Using an average of ratings of cooperativeness obtained from the head nurse, physician, dietician, technician, and staff nurse, the group was divided into two subgroups of more and less cooperative patients, and the demographic, medical, and psychological data from the two groups were compared. The findings suggest that the less cooperative hemodialysis patients have experienced the illness as a more severe blow to their self-concept and have failed to integrate their illness into an effective adaptive life pattern. The uncooperative patients feel less valued and less appreciated not only by their family but also by fellow patients and by hospital staff. They show significantly more anger and withdrawal than the more cooperative group and appear to have compensated for a significantly greater sense of powerlessness by the development of manipulative behaviors in relating to their medical caretakers.     

Neuroendocrine responses to psychological stress in eumenorrheic and oligomenorrheic women

Neuroendocrine adaptive responses to psychological stress include activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and sometimes suppression of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis. In women who experience chronic stress, these responses are probably responsible for disturbances in the menstrual cycle. In the present experiment, we investigated the effect of an acutely stressful situation on the physiological and neuroendocrine responses in college age women. We hypothesized that females who are experiencing some degree of abnormal menstrual function or women who have less-robust cycles (oligomenorrheic females) would exhibit differences in gonadotropin secretion from eumenorrheic females when exposed to psychological stressors. Fifteen women completed this study: eumenorrheic (n = 5) and oligomenorrheic women (n = 5) who experienced a series of psychological stressors, and eumenorrheic controls (n = 5). Blood samples were taken at 10 min intervals for 8 h (09:00-17:00) in each woman during the mid-follicular phase of the menstrual cycle. The psychological stressors were administered for 1 h beginning at 13:00 h. Luteinizing hormone (LH), growth hormone (GH) and cortisol were measured in each sample to assess the effect of stress on secretion of these hormones. Deconvolution analysis was used to analyze pulsatile hormone secretion and the approximate entropy (ApEn) statistic analyzed the regularity of release of each hormone. Although, there were significant changes in heart rate (HR), skin resistance (SR) and cortisol levels in the stressed women during the psychological stressor compared to resting baseline values but not in the controls, there was no difference in either LH or GH secretion between women who experienced stress and those who did not. Furthermore, there were no differences in the LH or GH secretion patterns in the oligomenorrheic and eumenorrheic women exposed to the psychological stressor.     

The Language of Thought and The Embodied Nature of Language Use

Philosophical Studies -     

Effects of sucrose concentration and goal units on runway behavior in the rat

Experiment 1 investigated the between-S and within-S effects of sucrose concentration (32 and 6%) and number of goal units (equal volumes of sucrose presented in single or multiple goal cups). The goal-unit variable had no effect on behavior under any of several test conditions employed. Within-S effects of sucrose concentration were approximately equal to between-S effects; no contrast effects were found. When 64 and 6% sucrose solutions were used as reinforcers in Experiment 2, a simultaneous, but not a successive, negative contrast effect was found. Results were discussed in terms of possible functional differences between the successive and simultaneous contrast paradigms and between sucrose solutions and solid food as reinforcers.