Effects of homophobic name‐calling and verbal sexual harassment on substance use among young adults

Verbal aggression victimization, such as homophobic name‐calling, has been linked to heavier substance use among young people, but little longitudinal research has examined how different types of victimization may affect substance use or whether certain psychosocial factors moderate these risks. In a diverse cohort (N = 2,663), latent transition analysis was used to model heterogeneity in victimization (age 19) and substance use (age 20). Four victimization (high victimization, homophobic name‐calling only, verbal sexual harassment only, and low victimization) and three substance use (poly‐substance use, alcohol, and cannabis only, low all) classes were identified. The high victimization and homophobic name‐calling only classes had the highest probabilities of transitioning into the poly‐substance use class, and the high victimization class had the highest probability of transitioning into the alcohol and cannabis only class. The probability of transitioning into the low all substance use class was highest in the low victimization class and lowest in the high victimization class. For the high victimization class, greater depressive symptoms increased the odds, and better peer relationship quality decreased the odds, of transitioning into the poly‐substance use and alcohol and cannabis only classes. For the homophobic name‐calling only class, greater depressive symptoms increased the odds of transitioning into the poly‐substance use class. Homophobic name‐calling, alone or in combination with verbal sexual harassment, is a risk factor for escalating substance use in young adulthood, especially among victims with depressive symptoms.     

Biobanks and Individual Health Related Findings: from an Obstacle to an Incentive

Science and Engineering Ethics - This paper explores the gray area of questionable research practices (QRPs) between responsible conduct of research and severe research misconduct in the form of...     

Steady happiness on a wheel-chair. Denial,masochism or after-effects of a near-death experience?

The author describes his weird affective condition of steady happiness, after a severe haemorrhagic stroke, that brought to a sudden stop of all his professional activities and caused multiple severe motoric symptoms. The author suggests that his affective state, wholly different from his baseline condition before the stroke, is very close to what is reported by survivors of near-death experience (NDE), as long-time after-effects of the experience. Therefore, it is suggested that the psychoanalyst, in confronting with weird conditions of well-being, should consider the possibility of after-effects of an NDE, alongside with the operation of primitive defences.     

Social relationships,stressful life events,and self-reported physical health: Genetic and environmental influences

Abstract

This study investigates how the associations between self-reported health, stressful life events, and social relationships are mediated by genetic and environmental influences and how much of the variance in health is in common with variation in these psychosocial factors. The analyses are based on questionnaire data from 576 pairs of twins reared apart and twins reared together. The data revealed that for men environmental influences were solely important for variation in the psychosocial measures and were the primary mediators of the relationship with health. For women, on the other hand, a substantial portion of the variance in the psychosocial factors was due to genetic influences and these influences also contributed to the bulk of the correlations with health. The gender differences for the relationships and their mediation indicate that what should be regarded as a psychosocial factor of importance for health might differ between genders.     

Later life health optimism,pessimism and realism: Psychosocial contributors and health correlates

Prior research has established positive outcomes of health optimism (appraising one's health as good despite poor objective health (OH)) and negative outcomes of health pessimism (appraising health as poor despite good OH), yet little is known about their contributors. We examined the role of psychosocial factors (life event stress, depression, dispositional optimism, perceived social support) in health realism (appraising health in accordance with OH), optimism and pessimism among 489 older men and women. We then accounted for the psychosocial factors when examining multiple health correlates of health realism, optimism and pessimism. Controlling for age, gender and income, regression results indicate that depression and social support were associated with less health optimism, while dispositional optimism was associated with greater health optimism among those in poor OH. Dispositional optimism was associated with less health pessimism and life event stress was associated with greater pessimism among those in good OH. Beyond the effects of the psychosocial factors, structural equation model results indicate that health optimism was positively associated with healthy behaviours and perceived control over one's health; health pessimism was associated with poorer perceived health care management. Health optimism and pessimism have different psychosocial contributors and health correlates, validating the health congruence approach to later life well-being, health and survival.     

Remembering parts and wholes: Configural processing in face recollection

In two experiments, we examined the role of configural processing on states of awareness in face recognition. Configural processing was manipulated by presenting upright and inverted faces during study and test. After studying facial photographs of humans (Experiment 1) and horses (Experiment 2), participants provided a remember/know judgement for each recognised test face. In both experiments, disrupted configural processing had selective effects on states of awareness, so that inversion reduced remember, but not know, responses. Experiment 2 revealed disproportionate inversion effects in that the difference in remember responses between upright and inverted items was significant for human faces but not horses. These findings suggest that configural processing facilitates explicit recollection by providing a distinctive combination of nonsalient event attributes.     

Fonagy and Freud. Psychological versus psychic reality

Peter Fonagy and Mary Target present their Playing with reality theory as a developmental theory centred on the concept of psychic reality. This paper compares Fonagy and Target's use of the concept of psychic reality with Freud's original concept. It is argued that the concept of psychic reality has been redefined from delineating a psychic reality stemming from the unconscious to denoting a kind of conscious or preconscious psychological reality characterized by an experience of equality between the internal and the external worlds. The theoretical discussion is illustrated by being applied to eating disorder pathology, which by Fonagy and colleagues is described as associated with thought processes characterized by psychic reality.