Understanding Vietnamese Refugee Women's Identity Development From a Sociopolitical and Historical Perspective

The authors address the lack of information about the identity development of Vietnamese refugee women. Although their age and time of arrival to the United States have a major impact on Vietnamese refugee women's identity development, a review of the historical and sociopolitical influences on the identity development of this group also plays an important role in understanding their resiliency, traditional and nontraditional frames of references, and coping mechanisms.     

‘Freud's speculations in ethnology’: A reflection on anthropology's encounter with psychoanalysis

In the early 20th century, many analysts – Freud and Ernest Jones in particular – were confident that cultural anthropologists would demonstrate the universal nature of the Oedipus complex and other unconscious phenomena. Collaboration between the two disciplines, however, was undermined by a series of controversies surrounding the relationship between psychology and culture. This paper re‐examines the three episodes that framed anthropology's early encounter with psychoanalysis, emphasizing the important works and their critical reception. Freud's Totem and Taboo began the interdisciplinary dialogue, but it was Bronislaw Malinowski's embrace of psychoanalysis – a development anticipated through a close reading of his personal diaries – that marked a turning point in relations between the two disciplines. Malinowski argued that an avuncular (rather than an Oedipal) complex existed in the Trobriand Islands. Ernest Jones’ critical dismissal of this theory alienated Malinowski from psychoanalysis and ended ethnographers’ serious exploration of Freudian thought. A subsequent ethnographic movement, ‘culture and personality,’ was erroneously seen by many anthropologists as a product of Freudian theory. When ‘culture and personality’ was abandoned, anthropologists believed that psychoanalysis had been discredited as well – a narrative that still informs the historiography of the discipline and its rejection of psychoanalytical theory.     

Family Caregivers of Persons With Spinal Cord Injury: Predicting Caregivers at Risk for Probable Depression

OBJECTIVE: To determine the percentage of family caregivers of persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) with probable depression and to test the hypothesis that dysfunctional problem-solving abilities would be significantly predictive of risk status after taking into account important demographic characteristics and caregiver health. DESIGN: Correlational and logistic regression analyses of data collected in a cross-sectional design. PARTICIPANTS: Eighteen men and 103 women caregivers (mean age of caregivers = 45.66 years, SD = 12.88) of individuals with SCI. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: The Inventory to Diagnose Depression. RESULTS: Nineteen caregivers (15.7%) met criteria on the Inventory to Diagnose Depression for a major depressive disorder. A dysfunctional problem-solving style was significantly predictive of caregiver depression, regardless of the severity of physical impairment of the care recipient or the physical health of the caregiver and caregiver demographic variables. CONCLUSIONS: The percentage of caregivers with probable depressive disorder may parallel that observed among persons with SCI, using a more conservative self-report measure designed to assess symptoms associated with a depressive syndrome. Family caregivers with a dysfunctional problem-solving style and assisting individuals with more severe injuries may have probable depression.     

The neuroanatomy and neuroendocrinology of fragile X syndrome

Fragile X syndrome (FXS), caused by a single gene mutation on the X chromosome, offers a unique opportunity for investigation of gene-brain-behavior relationships. Recent advances in molecular genetics, human brain imaging, and behavioral studies have started to unravel the complex pathways leading to the cognitive, psychiatric, and physical features that are unique to this syndrome. In this article, we summarize studies focused on the neuroanatomy and neuroendocrinology of FXS. A review of structural imaging studies of individuals with the full mutation shows that several brain regions are enlarged, including the hippocampus, amygdala, caudate nucleus, and thalamus, even after controlling for overall brain volume. These regions mediate several cognitive and behavioral functions known to be aberrant in FXS such as memory and learning, information and sensory processing, and social and emotional behavior. Two regions, the cerebellar vermis, important for a variety of cognitive tasks and regulation of motor behavior, and the superior temporal gyrus, involved in processing complex auditory stimuli, are reported to be reduced in size relative to controls. Functional imaging, typically limited to females, has emphasized that individuals with FXS do not adequately recruit brain regions that are normally utilized by unaffected individuals to carry out various cognitive tasks, such as arithmetic processing or visual memory tasks. Finally, we review a number of neuroendocrine studies implicating hypothalamic dysfunction in FXS, including abnormal activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. These studies may help to explain the abnormal stress responses, sleep abnormalities, and physical growth patterns commonly seen in affected individuals. In the future, innovative longitudinal studies to investigate development of neurobiologic and behavioral features over time, and ultimately empirical testing of pharmacological, behavioral, and even molecular genetic interventions using MRI are likely to yield significant positive changes in the lives of persons with FXS, as well as increase our understanding of the development of psychiatric and learning problems in the general population.     

The Role of the Family in Promoting Responsible Substance Use in Adolescence

The aim of this study was to examine the role of family dimensions in tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis use among adolescents. Furthermore, we investigated how demographic variables (adolescents’ gender and age) influence substance use and moderate the relationship between family dimensions and substance use. The sample consisted of 14,825 adolescents aged 13–14, 15–16, and 17–18 who participated in the 2006 edition of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study in Spain. The HBSC-2006 questionnaire included demographic variables (gender and age), substance use variables (tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis use), and family dimensions (parental affection, parental promotion of autonomy, family activities, adolescent disclosure, parental solicitation, and parental knowledge). The results indicated that adolescent disclosure, family activities, and parental knowledge had a significant effect on substance use. Specifically, maternal variables were shown to be slightly more relevant than paternal variables. Additionally, substance use was higher in older adolescents than in younger adolescents, and boys smoked less than girls. The discussion focused on how family dimensions promoted responsible substance use in adolescence.     

Ethical beliefs and behaviors in applied sport psychology: The AAASP ethics survey

Abstract

AAASP members (N = 508) were surveyed to obtain preliminary data on ethical beliefs and behaviors specific to the practice of applied sport psychology. Completed surveys were received from 165 individuals. On the structured response portion of the survey, there were few differences in ethical beliefs and behaviors as a function of gender, professional/student status, and academic discipline. Nevertheless, a large number of controversial behaviors (N = 24) and difficult judgments (N = 8) were identified. Results of the open-ended portion of the survey indicated that most of the questionable ethical practices cited by respondents corresponded to violations of American Psychological Association (APA) Ethical Standards. The findings lend initial support for AAASP to adopt the APA Ethical Standards and suggest the need for ethics training specific to applied sport psychology.