A Relational Approach to Genetic Counseling for Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer

Ethical issues arise for genetic counselors when a client fails to disclose a genetic diagnosis of hereditary disease to family: they must consider the rights of the individual client to privacy and confidentiality as well as the rights of the family to know their genetic risk. Although considerable work has addressed issues of non-disclosure from the client’s perspective, there is a lack of qualitative research into how genetic counselors address this issue in practice. In this study, a qualitative approach was taken to investigate whether genetic counselors in Australia use a relational approach to encourage the disclosure of genetic information from hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) clients among family members; and if so, how they use it. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 16 genetic counselors from selected states across Australia. Data collection and analysis were guided by a basic iterative approach incorporating a hybrid methodology to thematic analysis. The findings provide indicative evidence of genetic counselors employing a relational approach in three escalating stages––covert, overt and authoritative––to encourage the disclosure of genetic information. The findings lend credence to the notion that genetic counselors envision a form of relational autonomy for their clients in the context of sharing genetic information, and they depart from individualistic conceptions of care/solely client-centered counseling when addressing the needs of other family members to know their genetic status.     

Religiosity and attitudes towards professional mental health services: analysing religious coping as a mediator among Mexican origin Latinas/os in the southwest United States

In this study, we examined the relationship between religiosity and attitudes towards professional mental health services. We further examined whether internal religious coping and external religious coping mediated both relationships. Results indicated a significant association with religiosity and negative attitudes towards mental health services, as well as external religious coping and internal religious coping. Results also showed a nonsignificant association with both religious coping and negative attitudes towards mental health services. Finally, external religious coping mediated the relationship between religiosity and negative attitudes towards mental health services for men but not for women.     

Developing a model of adolescent friendship formation on the internet.

Previous research has been largely silent about what precisely influences online friendship formation and has ignored motives for online communication as potential explanations. Drawing on a sample of 493 adolescents, this study tested a path model of adolescent friendship formation including as predictors introversion/extraversion, online self-disclosure, motive for social compensation, and frequency of online communication. Our path analysis showed that extraverted adolescents self-disclosed and communicated online more frequently, which, in turn, facilitated the formation of online friendships. Introverted adolescents, by contrast, were more strongly motivated to communicate online to compensate for lacking social skills. This increased their chances of making friends online. Among introverted adolescents, a stronger motive for social compensation also led to more frequent online communication and online self-disclosure, resulting in more online friendships. The model suggests that the antecedents of online friendship formation are more complex than previously assumed and that motives for online communication should be studied more closely.     

Black Adolescent Girls: Do Gender Role and Racial Identity: Impact Their Self-Esteem?

This study was designed to explore Black adolescent girls' gender roles, racial identity, and self-esteem. These variables have not been examined together in a study of Black girls, yet studies of girls from other racial/cultural groups have demonstrated significant relationships. This type of exploration is important because Black girls do not experience the same declines in self-esteem as girls from other racial/cultural groups. Gender role orientation and racial identity have been put forth as possible explanations for Black girls' bolstered levels of self-esteem. Results indicated that Black girls with androgynous and masculine characteristics reported high levels of self-esteem. The results also indicated that Black girls with internally defined Black racial identity attitudes reported high levels of domain-specific self-esteem. In addition, androgyny was associated with high scores on internalization (Black racial identity).     

In the Midst of a Hurricane: A Case Study of a Couple Living With AIDS

This case study provides insight into 1 heterosexual couple's experience with AIDS. Through a series of interviews, the authors examined the experiences of a husband in the advanced stages of AIDS and of his wife, the primary caregiver. A thematic analysis revealed 4 themes: the emotional impact of the diagnosis, changes in the couple's daily lives, needs for social support, and spiritual journeys. Recommendations are given for counselors working with persons with AIDS and their heterosexual partners.     

With task experience students learn to ignore the content,not just the location of irrelevant information

Presentation of irrelevant additional information hampers learning. However, using a word-learning task, recent research demonstrated that an initial negative effect of mismatching pictures on learning no longer occurred once learners gained task experience. It is unclear, however, whether learners consciously suppressed attention to the content of the mismatching pictures. Therefore, we examined the effects of a picture location change towards the end of the learning phase: for half of the participants, the picture location was changed after they gained task experience. If participants only ignore the location of mismatching pictures, word learning in the mismatched condition should be hampered after the location change. Changing the location of the mismatching pictures did not affect recall in the mismatched condition, but, surprisingly, the location change did hamper learning in the matched condition. In sum, it seems that participants learned to ignore the content, and not just the location of the irrelevant information.     

The Mediating Role of Rumination in the Relation Between Quality of Attachment Relations and Depressive Symptoms in Non-Clinical Adolescents

This study examined associations between indices of the quality of attachment relationships of adolescents with parents and peers, rumination, and symptoms of depression. More specifically, a mediation model was investigated in which rumination was hypothesized to mediate the relation between quality of attachment relations and symptoms of depression. A total of 455 high school students completed a battery of questionnaires, including quality of attachment relations, rumination, and depression. Results showed that most indices of quality of attachment relations were significantly associated with rumination and symptoms of depression. When examining the relative contribution of these variables in explaining variance in depression symptoms, trust in parents, communication with peers, and alienation from peers accounted for a significant portion of the variance in depression scores. Finally, the relation between communication with peers and depressive symptoms was fully mediated by rumination, whereas partial mediation was found for the relations between parental trust and depressive symptoms, and between alienation from peers and depressive symptoms. Implications of the findings may be that the treatment of depression in adolescence should consist of both cognitive interventions aimed at targeting ruminative thinking as well as a focus on interpersonal relationships of the adolescent with parents and peers.     

The influence of sexually explicit Internet material and peers on stereotypical beliefs about women's sexual roles: similarities and differences between adolescents and adults

Previous research on the influence of sexually explicit Internet material (SEIM) on adolescents' stereotypical beliefs about women's sexual roles has three shortcomings. First, the role of peers has been neglected; second, stereotypical beliefs have rarely been studied as causing the use of SEIM and the selection of specific peers; and third, it is unclear whether adolescents are more vulnerable to the effects of SEIM than adults. We used data from two nationally representative two-wave panel surveys among 1,445 Dutch adolescents and 833 Dutch adults, focusing on the stereotypical belief that women engage in token resistance to sex (i.e., the notion that women say "no" when they actually intend to have sex). Structural equation modeling showed that peers who supported traditional gender roles elicited, both among adolescents and adults, stronger beliefs that women use token resistance to sex. Further, the belief that women engage in token resistance predicted adolescents' and adults' selection of gender-role traditional peers, but it did not predict adolescents' and adults' use of SEIM. Finally, adults, but not adolescents, were susceptible to the impact of SEIM on beliefs that women engage in token resistance to sex.     

Empirical study of Kanji as archetypal images: understanding the collective unconscious as part of the Japanese language

Chinese characters originated as a semiotic system independent from spoken language and in the Japanese language they function non-phonetically with speakers exhibiting right-hemispheric advantage in their processing. We tested the hypothesis that Chinese characters are archetypal images and therefore part of our collective unconscious memory. Our study builds on the first empirical study of archetypal memory of Rosen et al. (1991) which demonstrated that archetypal symbols presented matched with their correct meaning were better learned and recalled. In a series of three experiments we used 40 Chinese characters instead of the archetypal symbols used by Rosen, et al. (1991). The results provided empirical evidence that Chinese characters matched with their correct meaning were significantly better recalled than the ones that were mismatched. Thus, we demonstrated that there appears to be unconscious knowledge of the meaning of the Chinese characters which was triggered as a result of priming when the characters were correctly matched with their meaning. On this basis, we suggest that Chinese characters exhibit the same cognitive qualities as archetypal symbols. Thus, in the Japanese language an archetypal image is integrated non-phonetically into the system of language and signifies the concept independent from the phonetic signifier and is equal to it.     

Blinded by the accent! The minor role of looks in ethnic categorization

The categories that social targets belong to are often activated automatically. Most studies investigating social categorization have used visual stimuli or verbal labels, whereas ethnolinguistic identity theory posits that language is an essential dimension of ethnic identity. Language should therefore be used for social categorization. In 2 experiments, using the "Who Said What?" paradigm, the authors investigated social categorization by using accents (auditory stimuli) and looks (visual stimuli) to indicate ethnicity, either separately or in combination. Given either looks or accents only, the authors demonstrated that ethnic categorization can be based on accents, and the authors found a similar degree of ethnic categorization by accents and looks. When ethnic cues of looks and accents were combined by creating cross categories, there was a clear predominance of accents as meaningful cues for categorization, as shown in the respective parameters of a multinomial model. The present findings are discussed with regard to the generalizability of findings using one channel of presentation (e.g., visual) and the asymmetry found with different presentation channels for the category ethnicity.