exploring drug users' illness representations of hiv,hepatitis b and hepatitis c using repertory grids

Abstract

Hepatitis B and C viruses are more prevalent among injecting drug users than HIV. This study explored drug users' illness representations of hepatitis B and C using repertory grid methodology. Initially, nine drug users were presented with six elements including hepatitis B and C, and HIV. Constructs were elicited via the sequential form variation of the method of triads. Elements were rated on elicited constructs using a five-point scale, and analyzed using “Flexigrid”. In a second quantitative research stage, 52 drug users were presented with six elements and supplied constructs. Results of the first stage indicated participants were able to generate constructs relating to Leventhal et al.'s (1980) features of illness representations. Most constructs, however, were causal in nature. Participants perceived hepatitis B, C and HIV similarly along the causal component. This similarity on the causal component was largely replicated in the second research stage. Participants, however, distinguished HIV from hepatitis B and C along serious, cure and timeline features. Participants did not distinguish hepatitis B from hepatitis C. The implications of these results for health promotion are discussed.     

Reassessing the Work Ethic: A New Look at Work and Other Activities

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to argue that psychological research on the work ethic, or work centrality, uses too narrow a focus for understanding shifts in behaviour and attitudes over time. The appropriate unit of analysis is activity. Working is a subcategory of this larger unit. Six areas of activity are distinguished: education and training in early life, paid tasks or work, updating education throughout life, unpaid tasks or voluntary activity, education of the third age, and active or passive leisure. Historical, sociological, and anthropological evidence is reviewed and related to the psychological analysis of the meaning of working. It emerges that work is a controversial topic; it is extensively praised by some and condemned by others. Few would deny that paid work is a necessary way of obtaining basic and supplementary human requirements under present-day circumstances, but the differential conditions and constraints under which it is carried out are not always accepted as a necessary corollary. Is paid work a necessary or a desirable means of obtaining a standard of living? The answer depends on whether paid work is seen in isolation or as a subsystem of a wider range of activities which together result in a fulfilling life.     

Comments on Monte Carlo simulations of void-lattice formation

We study the coalescence of neighbouring voids along close-packed directions in recent computer simulation studies of void-lattice formation. The stability against coalescence of a developing void lattice is found to depend very much on the detailed geometry of the local void distribution. The possibility of void coalescence as an artifact, caused by the incorrect assumption of homogeneous void nucleation in these simulations, is suggested and discussed.     

Personality and Fears

The contribution to self-reported fears of individual differences in extraversion-introversion (E) and neuroticism (N) was studied in 102 female college students. Four groups of 20 Ss each were constituted - high E high N, high E low N, low E high N, and low E low N. A fear survey schedule and the Eysenck Personality Inventory were employed. By analysis of variance, total fear scores were a significant function of N but not E. Extreme or phobic fears were a significant function of neither personality dimensions, though the N effect approached conventional significance levels. Correlational analyses on the full sample confirmed these findings, except that a statistically significant though slight (6 percent) proportion of extreme fear variance was accountable by N.     

McColl and Minimization

In 1952, Quine showed that the problem of reducing a propositional formula to a simplest normal equivalent can be solved in two steps, viz., (i) express the given formula, Φ, equivalently as the disjunction of all its prime implicants, and (ii) find all non-redundant disjunctions of the latter that are equivalent to Φ (Quine 1952 Quine, W. V. 1952. ‘The problem of simplifying truth functions’. American Mathematical Monthly, 59: 521–531. [Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]). However, it seems not generally known that an ingenious form of the same two-step process was published by Hugh McColl in 1878.     

Beyond the Mainstreams

My interest in the theory and art of psychoanalysis is traced to some of its sources—my childhood and expulsion from Germany in the late 1930s, my experience as a member of a discriminated-against minority, my nonacceptance as a psychologist by American psychoanalytic societies, my invitation to participate in the development of self psychology, and my fortuitous encounter with personal and professional friends who have contributed to the scope of my psychoanalytic endeavors (e.g., to my abiding interest in research and, in particular, the empirical studies of the early mother–infant dyad). I offer this account as evidence of the varied and creative opportunities that await psychoanalysts not outside but beyond the mainstream of American psychoanalysis.     

Psychoanalysis and Politics by R. E. Money-Kyrle

Abstract

Group psychotherapists in their everyday practice confront a series of ethical problems, some of which rise to the level of ethical dilemmas. This two-part special series will address how the group psychotherapist can address these problems and dilemmas in a way that leads to an ethical course of conduct. This article introduces the series by examining ethical principles and decision-making processes that are relevant to the wide range of issues that confront the group psychotherapist. The article also considers the person of the group psychotherapist him or herself and notes that certain personal qualities might create a foundation for ethical thinking and behavior.