A comparison of coping strategies in patients with fibromyalgia,chronic neuropathic pain,and pain‐free controls

Patients suffering from chronic pain may benefit from learning adaptive coping strategies. Consensus on efficient strategies for this group of patients is, however, lacking, and previous studies have shown inconsistent results. The present study has examined coping strategies in two distinctly different groups of chronic pain patients and a group of healthy controls. Thirty neuropathic pain (NP) patients, 28 fibromyalgia (FM) patients, and 26 pain‐free healthy controls completed the Coping Strategy Questionnaire (CSQ‐48/27) and rated their daily pain. The results showed that FM and NP patients did not cope differently with pain. The only difference between the groups was that FM patients felt more in control of their pain than NP patients. Both patient groups used more maladaptive/passive coping strategies, but surprisingly also more adaptive/active coping strategies than healthy controls. However, FM patients with high levels of passive strategies felt less in control than FM patients with low levels of passive strategies. This was not seen in NP patients. An important implication for clinical practice is therefore that passive coping strategies should be restructured into active ones, especially for FM patients. Otherwise, the same psychological treatment model can be applied to both groups since they use similar coping styles.     

CAUSATION,DISPOSITIONS, AND PHYSICAL OCCASIONALISM

Even though theistic philosophers and scientists agree that God created, sustains, and providentially governs the physical universe and even though much has been published in general regarding divine action, what is needed is a fine‐grained, conceptually coherent account of divine action, causation, dispositions, and laws of nature consistent with divine aseity, satisfying the widely recognized adequacy conditions for any account of dispositions.¹ Such an account would be a basic part of a more comprehensive theory of divine action in relation to the fundamental concepts of science and of mathematics. Our aim in this article is simply to present such a theory.     

Young,unassimilated hispanic offenders: Absolutist vs. relativist cultural assumptions

California State Law §288(a) defines any sexual contact between a person 18 or older with someone under the age of 14 as illegal and punishable by incarceration. Data from the State Department of Justice shows that Young, Unassimilated Hispanic Offenders (YUHO) are arrested for these crimes at rates disproportionately greater than their numbers in the population. Through a review of the pertinent literature and clinical archives, we argue that YUHOs have been acculturated into a sexual morality that violates legally codified American sexual standards. While their sexual behavior is deemed morally deviant and illegal in the United States, this same behavior is not considered morally deviant or illegal within their internalized, home culture. This contrasts with the typical §288(a) offender who is motivated by a sexual perversion. Should the criminal justice system regard YUHOs differently from typical §288(a) offenders? “relativists” suggest that cultural considerations should be taken in the adjudication of these cases. Our preliminary work is to inform and articulate this debate at the crossroads of psychology, anthropology and criminal justice, without advocating either of the above perspectives. We suggest that legislatures did not anticipate the population of YUHO sexual offenders when these laws were written, and argue that YUHOs differ significantly from the typical pedophile for which these statutes were intended.     

大学二年级学生人际宽恕与报复心理及其与抑郁的关系研究

采用沉思量表、报复动机量表、宽恕倾向量表、宽恕态度量表和流调中心用抑郁量表对236名大二学生进行问卷调查,综合探讨大学生人际宽恕和报复心理及其与抑郁的关系。研究发现:(1)男大学生的报复倾向显著高于女大学生。(2)宽恕倾向与报复倾向及对侵犯的沉思程度显著负相关。沉思程度和抑郁显著正相关。(3)沉思程度和宽恕倾向对抑郁分别具有显著的正向和负向的预测作用。(4)大学生的宽恕倾向和宽恕态度的相互作用以及宽恕倾向和报复倾向之间的交互作用对抑郁均没有显著预测作用。     

Differential Effects of Strategic Planning on Community Change in Two Urban Neighborhood Coalitions

Community coalitions represent a promising approach for addressing the interrelated and multiply- determined issues affecting urban neighborhoods of concentrated poverty. The literature suggests a number of community processes that may affect coalition efforts to change and improve communities. This study uses an interrupted time-series design to examine the effects of a strategic planning intervention on community change in two urban neighborhoods in the Kansas City metropolitan area. Results showed that strategic planning was associated with increased rates of community change in the two urban neighborhood coalitions. Under appropriate conditions, such as the presence of consistent leadership, strategic planning may be a particularly effective mechanism for stimulating community change and addressing locally-determined goals in urban neighborhoods.     

Experimental analysis of preschool playmate preferences as a function of smiles and sex

Differential emotions theory (DET) (The face of emotion. Appleton‐Century‐Crofts: East Norwalk, CT, 1971) posits that the smile functions in part to communicate and/or reflect social affiliation and plays an important role in children's social development. While children's positive emotion expressions have received attention from peer relations researchers in observational studies and within correlational designs, there is almost no experimental evidence for the impact of the smile. Building on existing studies, the present study examined DET predictions within an experimental design. More specifically, we examined the impact smiles have on lower‐income preschool children's nominations for preferred playmates. Both boys and girls tended to nominate unfamiliar playmates who smiled. Additionally, some evidence suggested that preference for smiling playmates seemed more critical to girls' than boys' social functioning. Unlike among boys, teachers rated girls who exhibited a greater preference for smiling playmates as higher in social competence. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Using Public Service Announcements to Change Behavior: No More Money and Oil Down the Drain1

Radio and television offer promising media for addressing large‐scale social problems. Unfortunately, very few mass‐media messages have utilized social psychological theories of persuasion and influence. This article summarizes 2 studies that evaluated the effectiveness of a state‐sponsored public service announcement aimed at reducing improper disposal of used motor oil among do‐it‐yourself oil changers. Study 1 was a field experiment with 120 oil changers in San Diego County. Inertial resistance and low perceived behavioral control were identified as obstacles to proper disposal. In Study 2 , we used the disrupt‐then‐reframe technique to successfully overcome these obstacles and promote proper disposal of used oil. The results underscore the usefulness of empirically validated persuasion techniques in changing behavior via mass media.     

Superior temporal activation in response to dynamic audio-visual emotional cues

Perception of emotion is critical for successful social interaction, yet the neural mechanisms underlying the perception of dynamic, audio-visual emotional cues are poorly understood. Evidence from language and sensory paradigms suggests that the superior temporal sulcus and gyrus (STS/STG) play a key role in the integration of auditory and visual cues. Emotion perception research has focused on static facial cues; however, dynamic audio-visual (AV) cues mimic real-world social cues more accurately than static and/or unimodal stimuli. Novel dynamic AV stimuli were presented using a block design in two fMRI studies, comparing bimodal stimuli to unimodal conditions, and emotional to neutral stimuli. Results suggest that the bilateral superior temporal region plays distinct roles in the perception of emotion and in the integration of auditory and visual cues. Given the greater ecological validity of the stimuli developed for this study, this paradigm may be helpful in elucidating the deficits in emotion perception experienced by clinical populations.