The Body Grid as an Assessment Tool for Body Image

The aim of this study was to analyze the body grid (BG) as an assessment tool for body image in a sample of patients with breast cancer, after surgery. We explored two measures of cognitive structure, percentage of variance accounted for by the first factor (PVAFF) and polarization, and we compared measures of body image and body self-esteem obtained by means of the BG with those obtained via a validated body image questionnaire. Our sample was composed of 23 patients (12 subjected to radical mastectomy, 11 subjected to conserving surgery) and 24 healthy controls. Participants were administered the BG and the Multidimensional Body Self Relations Questionnaire (MBSRQ). We analyzed the similarities between instruments using correlations and nonparametric tests. We have also provided two case studies to exemplify the use of the BG.

?We found statistical differences in cognitive structure between patients and healthy controls. There were no differences between women subjected to mastectomy and women with breast conserving surgery in the level of PVAFF, but there were significant differences between them in the level of polarization. We found significant correlations between body image indices of both instruments, especially self-evaluated attractiveness (MBSRQ) and distance between real and ideal body (BG). We found similar distributions of these indices in all of the samples. We concluded that the BG provides useful information about body image. The results show that both instruments assess similar constructs. This suggests that the BG is a valid instrument for body image assessment.     

Transient error or specificity? An alternative to the staggered equivalent split-half procedure

The data-based partial and complete reliability coefficients defined by G. Becker (2000) in his staggered equivalent split-half procedure (SESHP) were compared with the model-based specificity and consistency reliability coefficients defined by R. Steyer, M. J. Schmitt, and M. Eid (1999) in their latent state-trait model (LSTM). Partial reliability is based on coefficient alpha, which contains transient error. State and trait anxiety, measured using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory on 2 occasions among French adults, illustrated both approaches. Theoretical and empirical analyses demonstrated that the specificity and consistency coefficients offer a testable alternative to the SESHP coefficients. In addition, dynamics of the state residual variance could be modeled and estimated in LSTM.     

The Multi-Center Dilemma Project: an investigation on the role of cognitive conflicts in health

The Multi-Center Dilemma Project is a collaborative research endeavour aimed at determining the role of dilemmas--a kind of cognitive conflict, detected by using an adaptation of Kelly's Repertory Grid Technique--in a variety of clinical conditions. Implicative dilemmas appear in one third of the non-clinical group (n = 321) and in about half of the clinical group (n = 286), the latter having a proportion of dilemmas that doubles that of the non-clinical sample. Within the clinical group, we studied 87 subjects, after completing a psychotherapy process, and found that therapy helps to dissolve those dilemmas. We also studied, independently, a group of subjects diagnosed with social phobia (n = 13) and a group diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome (n = 13) in comparison to non-clinical groups. In both health related problems, dilemmas seem to be quite relevant. Altogether, these studies, though preliminary (and with a small group size in some cases), yield a promising perspective to the unexplored area of the role of cognitive conflicts as an issue to consider when trying to understand some clinical conditions, as well as a focus to be dealt with in psychotherapy when dilemmas are identified.     

Viewing Cognitive Conflicts as Dilemmas: Implications for Mental Health

The idea that internal conflicts play a significant role in mental health has been extensively addressed in various psychological traditions, including personal construct theory. In the context of the latter, several measures of conflict have been operationalized using the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT). All of them capture the notion that change, although desirable from the viewpoint of a given set of constructs, becomes undesirable from the perspective of other constructs. The goal of this study is to explore the presence of cognitive conflicts in a clinical sample (n = 284) and compare it to a control sample (n = 322). It is also meant to clarify which among the different types of conflict studied provides a greater clinical value and to investigate its relationship to symptom severity (SCL-90-R). Of the types of cognitive conflict studied, implicative dilemmas were the only ones to discriminate between clinical and nonclinical samples. These dilemmas were found in 34% of the nonclinical sample and in 53% of the clinical sample. Participants with implicative dilemmas showed higher symptom severity, and those from the clinical sample displayed a higher frequency of dilemmas than those from the nonclinical sample.     

Mindestanforderungen für Schuldfähigkeitsgutachten*

Ohne Zusammenfassung Wegen der besonderen Bedeutung für die Bemühungen um die Qualit?tssicherung in den forensischen Disziplinen wird der folgende Artikel, entstanden aus einer interdisziplin?ren Diskussion am BGH, hier nochmals den Fachkollegen zur Kenntnis gegeben. H. Sa? * bereits 2005 erschienen in NStZ 25:57–62     

Evidence for a Comprehensive Sexuality Education Intervention that Enhances Chinese Adolescents’ Sexual Knowledge and Gender Awareness and Empowers Young Women

While Chinese adolescents become more sexually active, their sexual attitudes are profoundly influenced by traditional gender and sexual norms. The tensions between the rapid transition in youth sexuality and lags in sex education call for a paradigm shift of sexuality education in China. The present study examined the effectiveness of a school-based empowerment comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) intervention in changing adolescents’ sexual knowledge, gender and sexual attitudes, and sexual self-efficacy. We used data from a quasi-experimental intervention study with self-administered pretest and posttest surveys conducted among 1131 10th grade high school students in Lanzhou, northwest China. Whereas 583 participants in two intervention schools attended 12 45-min CSE sessions focusing on gender, rights, and critical thinking skills across 4–7 months, 548 participants in two comparison schools received no or limited conventional sex education. After controlling for differences in sociodemographics and in the influence of family, peers, and internet use between the two groups, female and male adolescents exhibited significantly more accurate sexual knowledge, stronger endorsement of nontraditional gender roles, and greater rejection of sexual double standards immediately after the intervention. Additionally, young women reported significantly higher sexual self-efficacy following the intervention. The findings suggest that the school-based empowerment CSE intervention is helpful in creating an environment in which both young men and young women benefit in sexual knowledge and gender awareness and young women increase their sexual decision-making skills, thereby lending support to the theory and practice of an empowerment CSE approach.