Depressive symptoms interfere with post-rehabilitation exercise: Outcome expectancies and experience as mediators

The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between depressive symptoms and physical exercise by unveiling how outcome expectancies regarding exercise and positive exercise experience could mediate between depressive symptoms and exercise. A longitudinal study included 178 cardiac and orthopedic rehabilitation patients in Germany. Patients responded to psychometric scales at two points in time with a six-week interval, assessing depressive symptoms (Time 1), outcome expectancies regarding exercise (Time 1), exercise experiences (Time 2), and exercise behavior (Times 1 and 2). Depressive symptoms were negatively related to physical exercise (r?=-?0.18), to positive outcome expectancies (r?=-?0.23), and to positive exercise experiences (r?=-?0.26). In a multiple-step mediation model, expectancies and experiences mediated between depressive symptoms and exercise. In total, 15% of the exercise variance was accounted for. Outcome expectancies and a lack of positive experience seem to partly explain why depressed individuals are less likely to exercise.     

Pure versus guided mirror exposure to reduce body dissatisfaction: a preliminary study with university women

While effectiveness of mirror exposure to reduce body dissatisfaction has been demonstrated, the exposure was almost always combined with other interventions. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a pure mirror exposure intervention compared with a guided mirror exposure (participants are guided to describe their body shape in a non-evaluative manner) and an imagery exposure intervention (participants are guided to describe their body through mental representation). Thirty-one women with high body dissatisfaction received five sessions of treatment under one of the three conditions. All interventions reduced body dissatisfaction, but only the mirror exposures successfully reduced the frequency of negative thoughts and feelings of ugliness. Pure mirror exposure was more effective than guided exposure for reducing body discomfort within and between sessions. Pure mirror exposure, based on the traditional extinction paradigm, led to strong emotional activation followed by a fast decrease in emotional reactivity.     

Religious Discrimination in the Workplace: A Review and Examination of Current and Future Trends

Purpose

Over the last decade, religious discrimination claims have risen more rapidly compared to most other protected categories under the Civil Rights Act (CRA). The goal of this review paper is to summarize the psychological and HR practitioner-focused research on religious discrimination as it relates to the CRA to understand these religious discrimination claims. In doing so, this review also highlights what future research is needed, and what the challenges and practical implications of religious discrimination are for managers.

Design/methodology/approach

We conduct a systematic literature review of the psychology and business research on religious discrimination.

Findings

Building from the literature review and case law, we highlight four trends that contribute to religious discrimination in the workplace: (1) legal ambiguities, (2) increased religious diversity in the American workforce, (3) increasing expression of religious beliefs, and (4) the unique nature of religion.

Implications

The trends identified in our review paper highlight the need for employers to understand and address religious discrimination issues in the workplace and the lack of empirical research in this area points to a critical gap in our understanding of workplace religious discrimination that warrants future research.

Originality/value

In addition to highlighting trends that contribute to religious discrimination in the workplace, this literature review addresses where there are gaps in the existing research that call for further research and offers practical implications for employers and organizations.     

Medical Genetics and Genetic Counseling in Chile

In the South American Republic of Chile genetic counseling is not currently recognized as an independent clinical discipline, and in general is provided by physicians with training in clinical genetics. At present only one genetic counselor and 28 clinical geneticists practice in this country of over 16 million inhabitants. Pediatric dysmorphology constitutes the primary area of practice in clinical genetics. Although the country has a universal health care system and an adequate level of health care, genetic conditions are not considered a health care priority and there is a lack of clinical and laboratory resources designated for clinical genetics services. Multiple educational, cultural and financial barriers exist to the growth and development of genetic counseling services in Chile. However, during the last 10 years increased awareness of the importance of identifying individuals at risk for inherited cancer syndromes led to growing interest in the practice of cancer genetics.     

Facial identity and emotional expression as predictors during economic decisions

Two sources of information most relevant to guide social decision making are the cooperative tendencies associated with different people and their facial emotional displays. This electrophysiological experiment aimed to study how the use of personal identity and emotional expressions as cues impacts different stages of face processing and their potential isolated or interactive processing. Participants played a modified trust game with 8 different alleged partners, and in separate blocks either the identity or the emotions carried information regarding potential trial outcomes (win or loss). Behaviorally, participants were faster to make decisions based on identity compared to emotional expressions. Also, ignored (nonpredictive) emotions interfered with decisions based on identity in trials where these sources of information conflicted. Electrophysiological results showed that expectations based on emotions modulated processing earlier in time than those based on identity. Whereas emotion modulated the central N1 and VPP potentials, identity judgments heightened the amplitude of the N2 and P3b. In addition, the conflict that ignored emotions generated was reflected on the N170 and P3b potentials. Overall, our results indicate that using identity or emotional cues to predict cooperation tendencies recruits dissociable neural circuits from an early point in time, and that both sources of information generate early and late interactive patterns.     

Reauthoring One's Own Life in the Face of Being HIV+: Promoting Healthier Narratives with Metacognitive Interpersonal Therapy

We describe here a narrative-based psychotherapy for a woman in her 40s who had been HIV+ since the age of 21 and who suffered from posttraumatic symptoms related to having received the diagnosis. She had also suffered from self-stigma and had lost the capacity to envision a future filled with hope. Treating individuals with HIV who face posttraumatic symptoms and stigma can be challenging for the clinician. A narrative approach to therapy can be helpful for these persons, in order to overcome symptoms, build a more benevolent self-image, feel accepted by society, and promote posttraumatic growth. Current evidence indicates that such an approach is mostly lacking. We describe how we applied metacognitive interpersonal therapy—an approach rooted in narrative constructivism. By using this treatment, the patient could overcome posttraumatic symptoms, participate in social activities after years of avoidance and isolation, and recover her sense of being a person able to make plans for the future with strength and dignity. Discussion includes ideas of how to generalize some of the mechanisms that have likely been effective in this therapy to other individuals with HIV.     

Desired,Repeated, Replaced: Power and Loss in Titian’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Noli Me Tangere</Emphasis>

The depiction of larger unconscious symbols, such as popular Gospel themes, can become particularized through the individual experience of the artist. They can express sublimated desires or displaced wishes, disguised like dream-elements in a work of art. Classical Freudian theory explores the process of sublimation and dream-work as two sides of the psychoanalytic interpretation of art. Titian’s Noli Me Tangere represents his efforts to sublimate his sexual and aggressive drives through this Gospel theme. It also suggests his Oedipal feelings of love and competition for his mentor Giorgione, as he anxiously maneuvered to take his mentor’s place. The death of his mentor and his own anxiety are worked out in his art, exemplified by his appropriation of Giorgione’s style and the repetition of Giorgione’s landscapes in Titian’s early work. As Titian reworked and radically changed this painting, he expressed his own ambivalence through this most ambivalent of Gospel scenes.     

How planning facilitates behaviour change: Additive and interactive effects of a randomized controlled trial

Planning interventions have proven effective to change behaviour. However, less is known about their underlying mechanisms. To better understand the processes by which planning interventions unfold their effects, a combined action planning and coping planning intervention was tested in a field setting, with the focus on mediating and moderating effects of theory‐derived social‐cognitive variables. In a randomized controlled trial, 374 employees of a logistics company were asked to participate in either a combined action planning and coping planning intervention or an active control group. Four weeks later, self‐reported changes in fruit and vegetable intake, action planning, coping planning, intentions and self‐efficacy were measured. Single and simultaneous mediating effects on behaviour were tested with intention‐to‐treat analyses, along with interaction effects between planning processes. Action planning and coping planning mediated intervention effects on fruit and vegetable intake not only separately, but also simultaneously (multiple mediation). Action planning and coping planning had main and interactive effects on behaviour change (moderation). Action planning and coping planning may exert both additive and synergistic effects on health behaviour change. Volitional interventions should include both action planning and coping planning components and stimulate the use of planning in everyday life. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

For a psycholinguistic model of handwriting production: testing the syllable-bigram controversy

This study examined the theoretical controversy on the impact of syllables and bigrams in handwriting production. French children and adults wrote words on a digitizer so that we could collect data on the local, online processing of handwriting production. The words differed in the position of the lowest frequency bigram. In one condition, it coincided with the word's syllable boundary. In the other condition, it was located before the syllable boundary. The results yielded higher movement durations at the position where the low-frequency bigram coincided with the syllable boundary compared to where the low-frequency bigram appeared before the syllable boundary. Syllable-oriented strategies failed with the presence of a very low-frequency bigram within the initial syllable. Further analysis showed that children in grades 3 and 4 privileged syllable-oriented programming strategies. The production times of children in grade 4 were also affected by syllable frequency and, to a lesser extent, bigram frequency. The adults writing durations were modulated by bigram frequency. Therefore, both bigrams and syllables regulate handwriting production although the influence of bigrams was stronger in adults than children. In the light of these results, we propose a psycholinguistic model of handwriting production.