Protecting Sexual Minority Youth from Research Risks: Conflicting Perspectives

This paper examines how a younger white female graduate student and an African American female undergraduate viewed the relationship between the graduate student and older African American working class women. This relationship was formed around a community garden project. The graduate student understood the relationship to be based on gender and class background similarities; the undergraduate viewed it based on race differences and unexamined white privilege. Both interpretations are challenged as unidimensional. Through this re-telling, questions are raised about why situating ourselves via our identities is not practiced more frequently. Possible explanations of this lack of attention to situativity include a Cartesian philosophy of science that separates objectivity and subjectivity, a general unawareness of privilege by those who have it, and a dominant scientific discourse that neglects the role of the researcher. This paper illustrates why reflexivity is crucial for the work of community psychology.     

To Use or Not to Use: The Prenatal Genetic Technology/Worry Conundrum

We conducted an exploratory, qualitative study investigating the factors influencing the use of genetic counseling and prenatal genetic testing for two groups: pregnant women 35 years of age and over (AMA) at the time of delivery and pregnant women with an abnormal maternal serum triple screen (MSAFP3). The convenience sample consisted of 25 semistructured interviews of women/couples and 50 observations of genetic counseling sessions. Worry turned out to be the most important variable influencing decision making about prenatal genetic testing and was greater in the MSAFP3 group than in the AMA group. The women in the AMA group appeared to assign the risk of having a child with Down syndrome to their age category rather than to themselves individually, whereas, the risk perception for women with an abnormal MSAFP3 appeared to have shifted from a general population risk for pregnant women to an individual, personal risk. There was a general lack of understanding and also more misinformation about the MSAFP3 screen compared to amniocentesis. Women in both groups were torn between fear of an invasive test and worry about the health of their fetus for the rest of their pregnancy if they did not undergo amniocentesis.     

It is better to smile to women: Gender modifies perception of honesty of smiling individuals across cultures

Social perception studies have revealed that smiling individuals are perceived more favourably on many communion dimensions in comparison to nonsmiling individuals. Research on gender differences in smiling habits showed that women smile more than men. In our study, we investigated this phenomena further and hypothesised that women perceive smiling individuals as more honest than men. An experiment conducted in seven countries (China, Germany, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Republic of South Africa and USA) revealed that gender may influence the perception of honesty in smiling individuals. We compared ratings of honesty made by male and female participants who viewed photos of smiling and nonsmiling people. While men and women did not differ on ratings of honesty in nonsmiling individuals, women assessed smiling individuals as more honest than men did. We discuss these results from a social norms perspective.     

African-American Teenagers’ Stories of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Cultural differences in illness perceptions and treatment access of teens with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are evident yet under studied. The purpose of this qualitative paper is to explore how African-American teenagers describe and narrate stories about their lives with ADHD. Data were gathered from four African-American teens in the Southern United States through a qualitative experience sampling method, and stories were analyzed using narrative analysis framed within the context of African-American rhetorical traditions. We argue that the study of teen-constructed narratives and culturally-situated talk are tools that can improve communication between healthcare providers and teens by illuminating the ways teens construct their personalized realities of ADHD.     

Dual adaptation and adaptive generalization of the human vestibulo-ocular reflex

In two experiments, we examined the possibility that the human vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) is subject todual adaptation (the ability to adapt to a sensory rearrangement more rapidly and/or more completely after repeated experience with it) andadaptive generalization (the ability to adapt more readily to a novel sensory rearrangement as a result of prior dual adaptation training). In Experiment 1, the subjects actively turned the head during alternating exposure to a visual-vestibular rearrangement (target/head gain=0.5) and the normal situation (target/head gain=0.0). These conditions produced both adaptation and dual adaptation of the VOR but no evidence of adaptive generalization when tested with a target/head gain of 1.0. Experiment 2, in which exposure to the 0.5 gain entailed externally controlled (i.e., passive) whole body rotation, resulted in VOR adaptation but no dual adaptation. As in Experiment 1, no evidence of adaptive generalization was found.     

Nameless Desire: Alexithymia and the Anorexic Patient

In this article, the author attempts to provide a psychoanalytic understanding of the anorexic patient who is disconnected from her affective experience and is considered to be alexithymic. Through her restrictive food ritual, this type of patient may organize her internal states by repeatedly creating an illusion of what it is that she needs and desires. The author asserts that the task of the therapist working with the anorexic patient with alexithymia is to be aware of his own sensation-based reverie as lived within the intersubjective arena. This will enable the therapist to assist the patient in building an affective vocabulary to accurately identify, differentiate, and label the internal signals of her body. It is suggested that the subjective emotional experience of the patient will continue to be reorganized, expanded, and enriched as the therapist and patient mutually influence one another in this unique relational matrix. A clinical vignette is provided to illustrate intersubjective treatment interventions with a difficult-to-reach anorexic patient.     

THE EFFECTS OF DEFENDANT AND COMPLAINANT INTOXICATION ON MOCK JURORS' JUDGMENTS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT

The present study investigates the impact of participant gender, rape-myth beliefs, and alcohol intoxication on the part of either the defendant and/or alleged victim on mock jurors' decisions within the context of a sexual-assault trial. Participants ( N = 152) were exposed to a sexual-assault case in which the beverage consumption (alcohol, cola) on the part of both the defendant and complainant prior to the sexual intercourse was varied systematically. Results indicated that when the defendant had consumed alcohol, as opposed to cola, participants were more likely to view the case as one of assault, to perceive the defendant as less credible, and to find the defendant guilty. When the complainant had consumed alcohol, as opposed to cola, participants found the complainant's claim less credible and were less likely to view the defendant as guilty. In addition, participants' rape-myth acceptance, which was related to guilt, mediated the relation between gender of participant and guilt.     

Anti-NMDA-Rezeptor-Enzephalitis

Die Anti-NMDA(N-Methyl-D-Aspartat)-Rezeptor-Enzephalitis ist eine seltene autoimmunologisch bedingte Erkrankung mit verschiedenen neuropsychiatrischen Symptomen, die durch den Nachweis von NMDA-Rezeptor-Antikörpern im Liquor diagnostiziert wird. Die gängigen Behandlungsprotokolle beinhalten ein Stufenschema der Immuntherapien; allerdings beruhen die therapeutischen Entscheidungen derzeit auf einem Grad-IV-Evidenzniveau. Wir berichten hier über zwei junge, unterschiedlich betroffene Patientinnen und beschreiben die Therapiestrategien inklusive der Kombination verschiedener Immuntherapien einschließlich Ocrelizumab und Überlegungen bezüglich Fertilitätserhalt.     

Findings on the relationship between Internet addiction and psychological symptoms in Brazilian adults

This study evaluated the prevalence of Internet addiction (IA) and its association with negative psychological symptoms in Brazilian adults. A network analysis was conducted to estimate specific variables and their expected influence on IA. In this cross-sectional study, 15,476 adults (M_age = 37.5, SD = 9.59) completed an open web-based survey. Three questionnaires were used: the Internet Addiction Test (IAT), Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) and Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS). Based on IAT scores, participants were classified as No-Risk user (NRU), Low-Risk user (LRU) or High-Risk user (HRU). We observed that 4.8% of the participants were classified in the HRU group. In addition, their risk for severe symptoms of depression was 10 times higher and, for anxiety, seven times higher than that in the NRU group (p < .001). Time spent using smartphones was also significantly higher in the HRU group (M_hours = 5.1, p < .001). The main factors associated with IA were depression, gender and anxiety, but the variable “having children” was the most influential in the IA network. These findings suggest that psychiatric symptoms are the main factors associated with IA among the adult population.