Effects of sex-role deviant lifestyles in otherwise normal persons on the perception of maladjustment

Subjects rated 12 stimulus persons (SPs) on maladjustment in several areas, and on the likelihood of requiring psychiatric help, in a person perception task. Half of the SPs were male and half female. Half of each were sex-role congruent and half sex-role deviant in terms of occupation, life styles, or interests, though normal in all other respects. Bias scores were constructed for subjects reflecting the extent to which each was influenced by sex-role deviance. Measures of gender stereotyping and sex-role ideology were also obtained. Results showed that sex-role deviant SPs were rated as significantly more maladjusted than congruent SPs and more likely to require psychiatric help. Sex-role deviance had a much greater effect on male than female SPs. Gender stereotyping and sex-role ideology showed only a moderate relationship, which suggests that these concepts should be distinguished. Measures of evaluative bias showed low to moderate relationships with sex-role ideology and very low correlations with gender stereotyping.This research is based on parts of a doctoral dissertation by the first author. It was supported by an Ontario Mental Health Foundation Research Studentship Award to the first author and by Canada Council Grant #S74-0707 to the second author.     

Organization of and access to semantic memory in aphasia

Previous experiments with picture sorting and matching tasks have shown aphasics to give more deviant responses than controls when decisions require the identification of single features of concepts, whereas their responses are close to normal whenever decisions have to be based on the relative overlap of broad associative fields. The present experiment was designed to compare picture matching based on single features (property verification) with picture matching based on category membership (category verification). Fifty-five aphasics (14 amnesics, 18 Brocas, 13 Wernickes, 10 global aphasics) and 29 right-brain-damaged control patients served as subjects. Aphasics were poorer than right hemisphere controls on property as well as on category sortings, especially when the sorting criterion was not a dominant property of the object or when the object in question was not a typical member of the criterion category. Contrary to other studies, the "semantic distance" variable did not differentially affect Brocas as compared to Wernickes aphasics. Verbal labels denoting the sorting criterion and added to the picture presentation did not affect the performance of the right hemisphere controls but significantly improved that of the aphasics.     

NT-3 facilitates hippocampal plasticity and learning and memory by regulating neurogenesis

In the adult brain, the expression of NT-3 is largely confined to the hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG), an area exhibiting significant neurogenesis. Using a conditional mutant line in which the NT-3 gene is deleted in the brain, we investigated the role of NT-3 in adult neurogenesis, hippocampal plasticity, and memory. Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU)-labeling experiments demonstrated that differentiation, rather than proliferation, of the neuronal precursor cells (NPCs) was significantly impaired in DG lacking NT-3. Triple labeling for BrdU, the neuronal marker NeuN, and the glial marker GFAP indicated that NT-3 affects the number of newly differentiated neurons, but not glia, in DG. Field recordings revealed a selective impairment in long-term potentiation (LTP) in the lateral, but not medial perforant path-granule neuron synapses. In parallel, the NT-3 mutant mice exhibited deficits in spatial memory tasks. In addition to identifying a novel role for NT-3 in adult NPC differentiation in vivo, our study provides a potential link between neurogenesis, dentate LTP, and spatial memory.     

Memory self-efficacy predicts memory performance: results from a 6-year follow-up study

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between memory self-efficacy (MSE) and a 6-year follow-up assessment of memory functioning in a sample of Dutch older adults. MSE was assessed by a Dutch abridged version of the Metamemory in Adulthood questionnaire (MIA; R. A. Dixon, D. F. Hultsch, & C. Hertzog, 1988; C. Hertzog, D. F. Hultsch, & R. A. Dixon, 1989; R. W. H. M. Ponds & J. Jolles, 1996). The total MSE score predicted memory performance at 6 years, as measured by the Visual Verbal Learning Task (VVLT; N. Brand & J. Jolles, 1985). A separate analysis of the different MSE subscales indicated that the MIA Change score was the most salient domain-specific MSE predictor of subsequent memory performance after 6 years. An extreme groups analysis of the MIA Change score revealed a pattern of performance for those who perceived that their memory was worsening, performing less well on the 3 trials of the VVLT when these were readministered at the 6-year follow-up.     

Innovation across cultures: Connecting leadership,identification, and creative behavior in organizations

Innovation is considered essential for today's organizations to survive and thrive. Researchers have also stressed the importance of leadership as a driver of followers' innovative work behavior (FIB). Yet, despite a large amount of research, three areas remain understudied: (a) The relative importance of different forms of leadership for FIB; (b) the mechanisms through which leadership impacts FIB; and (c) the degree to which relationships between leadership and FIB are generalizable across cultures. To address these lacunae, we propose an integrated model connecting four types of positive leadership behaviors, two types of identification (as mediating variables), and FIB. We tested our model in a global data set comprising responses of N = 7,225 participants from 23 countries, grouped into nine cultural clusters. Our results indicate that perceived LMX quality was the strongest relative predictor of FIB. Furthermore, the relationships between both perceived LMX quality and identity leadership with FIB were mediated by social identification. The indirect effect of LMX on FIB via social identification was stable across clusters, whereas the indirect effects of the other forms of leadership on FIB via social identification were stronger in countries high versus low on collectivism. Power distance did not influence the relations.     

Sensitization and aversive conditioning: Effects on the startle reflex and electrodermal responding

Animal data suggest that shock sensitization as well as aversive learning potentiates the acoustic startle reflex. The present experiment tested, whether this shock sensitization also occurs in human subjects and whether it precedes aversive conditioning. Sixty subjects viewed—prior to conditioning—a series of slides of different emotional contents including the to be conditioned stimuli (CSs). Afterwards, the experimenter attached the shock electrodes and initiated shock exposure. Then, subjects were randomly assigned to view a series of two slides, each for eight acquisition trials in which one slide was followed by a shock. Subsequently, extinction trials (12 for each slide) were administered. During preconditioning, acquisition, and extinction, startle probes occurred unpredictably during and between slide viewing. Preconditioning data replicated previous results by Lang and his associates, showing that the startle response magnitude is directly related to the affective valence induced by the slides. Shock exposure strongly facilitated the startle reflex magnitude. This shock sensitization was absent for the skin conductance response. Course of learning also varied for both response systems. The data suggest that startle reflex potentiation indexes the acquisition of an avoidance disposition, which is preceded by a general sensitization of the protective reflexes. Skin conductance learning follows arousal changes and is modulated by cognitive processes.     

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans’ Experiences Living with their Parents after Separation from the Military

When military service members separate from the military, many return to their families of origin, living with their parents for a period of several weeks to years. While research with veterans and their spouses has documented the particular strain of this reintegration period on veterans and their partners, little research to date has examined veterans’ experiences living with their parents. The present study sought to fill this research gap by investigating veterans’ experiences living with their parents using qualitative, in-depth interviews with Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in California. Overall, veterans appreciated the instrumental and emotional support their parents provided when they separated. However, in some cases, living with parents also produced conflict and strain. In situations where adult veteran children had difficulty with the transition to civilian life or returned with mental health problems, parents were often the first to identify these problems and to support their children in accessing appropriate care. We analyze these findings in light of family systems theory, identifying ways in which adult veteran children continue a process of differentiation while living with their parents and maintaining emotional connectedness. We suggest ways that clinicians can better support veterans and their parents through the reintegration period and recommend that programming for military families explicitly include parents of service members in addition to conjugal families.     

BONE MARROW TRANSPLANTATION IN A PATIENT WHO EXPERIENCED TORTURE IN A PRISONER OF WAR CAMP: NARCISSISM AND SURVIVAL

Post-traumatic stress disorder has been described as a syndrome from which an individual may suffer as a result of extraordinary trauma. Torture of prisoners of war in Serbian camps during the war in Croatia is just such a stressful situation that requires mobilization of all defense mechanisms of an individual. The authors present a case study of a former prisoner of war who acquired acute myelogenous leukemia several months after release and was treated with bone marrow transplantation. On release the patient was medically examined, like all prisoners of war, and the findings did not suggest any disease. Because of the situation, the patient was in psychotherapeutic observation and treatment after his illness was diagnosed and throughout the transplantation treatment.     

Global problems,globalization, and predictability

The term globalization is questioned in its validity and applicability to structures other than verbal. Globalization is a historical term which changes its meaning with time and culture. It is not only that its content changes but the validity of a globalization concept changes with the historical perspective. Morever, solution of global problems depends heavily on the correct analysis of the problem. Without such an analysis there is no possibility to find even an approximate solution. Hence, predictability is impossible. There is no trend which is sufficiently long to make any reliable prediction for global problems other than the most simple ones.