Being Dismissed: The Politics of Emotional Expression

My intent is to bring a key group of critical terms associated with the emotions—bitterness, sentimentality, and emotionality—to greater feminist attention. These terms are used to characterize emoters on the basis of how we express ourselves, and they characterize us in ways that we need no longer be taken seriously. I analyze the ways in which these terms of emotional dismissal can be put to powerful political use.     

Organizational Hierarchy,Employee Status,and Use of Employee Assistance Programs

This study examined the role of organizational hierarchy and staff status in the number of suggested Employee Assistance Program (EAP) referrals made by potential helpers and the relationship of these variables to personal EAP use. Results and implications are discussed.     

A Model for Cultural Diversity Training

We are fast becoming a multicultural, multiracial, and multilingual society. Such demographic changes are having a major impact on economic, social, legal, political, educational, and cultural systems. For businesses and industries to survive, they will need to meet the inevitable challenge of cultural diversity. A model for incorporating cultural diversity in organizations is presented. The model is based on a 3 × 3 × 3 matrix, which analyzes an organization's functional focus (recruitment, retention, and promotion), barriers (differences, discrimination, and systemic factors), and cross-cultural competencies (beliefs/attitudes, knowledge, and skills). Although it was originally developed for business and industry, the model seems to have usefulness in application to education and mental health organizations as well. Estamos llegando a ser rápidamente una sociedad multicultural, multiracial, y multilingue. Estos cambios demográficos han tenido un gran impacto en los sistemas económico, social, legal, politico, educativo, y cultural. Para que los negocios e industrias sobrevivan, necesitarán enfrentarse al desafío inevitable de la diversidad cultural. Se presenta un modelo para incorporar la diversidad cultural en organizaciones. El modelo se basa en una metriz 3 × 3 × 3 que analiza el foco funcional de una organizacion (reclutamiento, retención, y promoción), bloques (diferencias, discriminación, y factores sistémicos), y competencias interculturales (creencias/actitudes, conocimientos, y habilidades). A la vez que se desarrolló el modelo originalmente para negocios e industria, se vio que el modelo también tiene utilidad para aplicarse en organizaciones educativas y de salud mental.     

Still living in a war zone: Perceived health and wellbeing of partners of Vietnam veterans attending partners' support groups in New South Wales,Australia

Post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in veterans is well documented, less so the long‐term impact on the health of their partners and families. The perceived health and wellbeing of women partners of Australian Vietnam veterans who were members of partners of veterans support groups is reported. This qualitative study used data from 76 participants in 10 focus groups in metropolitan, regional, and rural and remote areas of New South Wales (NSW). The data were tape‐recorded, transcribed and thematically analysed using constant comparison methods. The impact of living with a partner with war‐related PTSD appears to be significant and ongoing with women drawing parallels to living in a war zone. The biggest negative impact was on their mental health. They felt burdened as carers and struggled to find explanations for their husbands' problems. Support groups were very helpful. There are implications for partners of veterans who have returned from active military duty and from peacekeeping in current conflicts.     

The emergence of Cognitive Hearing Science

Cognitive Hearing Science or Auditory Cognitive Science is an emerging field of interdisciplinary research concerning the interactions between hearing and cognition. It follows a trend over the last half century for interdisciplinary fields to develop, beginning with Neuroscience, then Cognitive Science, then Cognitive Neuroscience, and then Cognitive Vision Science. A common theme is that an interdisciplinary approach is necessary to understand complex human behaviors, to develop technologies incorporating knowledge of these behaviors, and to find solutions for individuals with impairments that undermine typical behaviors. Accordingly, researchers in traditional academic disciplines, such as Psychology, Physiology, Linguistics, Philosophy, Anthropology, and Sociology benefit from collaborations with each other, and with researchers in Computer Science and Engineering working on the design of technologies, and with health professionals working with individuals who have impairments. The factors that triggered the emergence of Cognitive Hearing Science include the maturation of the component disciplines of Hearing Science and Cognitive Science, new opportunities to use complex digital signal-processing to design technologies suited to performance in challenging everyday environments, and increasing social imperatives to help people whose communication problems span hearing and cognition. Cognitive Hearing Science is illustrated in research on three general topics: (1) language processing in challenging listening conditions; (2) use of auditory communication technologies or the visual modality to boost performance; (3) changes in performance with development, aging, and rehabilitative training. Future directions for modeling and the translation of research into practice are suggested.     

Psychologists' perceptions of legal and ethical requirements for breaching confidentiality

This paper outlines the legal and ethical duties of psychologists in relation to preserving as well as breaching confidentiality in therapeutic relationships. It analyses the results of a questionnaire examining psychologists’ perceptions of the legal and ethical constraints on confidentiality and their likelihood of breaching confidentiality in different situations. The vast majority of participants indicated that the law permits them to disclose confidential information and that there is an ethical duty to disclose information to a third party when the patient is perceived to be dangerous. The results suggest that there is some uncertainty as to when confidentiality should be breached in practice and it is argued that the law is overly complex in this area and that guidelines are needed to assist psychologists in their clinical practice.     

Visual processing speed in old age

Mental speed is a common concept in theories of cognitive aging, but it is difficult to get measures of the speed of a particular psychological process that are not confounded by the speed of other processes. We used Bundesen’s (1990) Theory of Visual Attention (TVA) to obtain specific estimates of processing speed in the visual system controlled for the influence of response latency and individual variations of the perception threshold. A total of 33 non‐demented old people (69–87 years) were tested for the ability to recognize briefly presented letters. Performance was analyzed by the TVA model. Visual processing speed decreased approximately linearly with age and was on average halved from 70 to 85 years. Less dramatic aging effects were found for the perception threshold and the visual apprehension span. In the visual domain, cognitive aging seems to be most clearly related to reductions in processing speed.