The specific action of different personality risk factors on cancer of the breast, cervix, corpus uteri and other types of cancer: A prospective investigation

We report the results of a prospective study of a random sample of 1353 elderly but healthy men and women who were followed up for a period of 10 yr, when mortality and cause of death were ascertained. Overall results have been reported elsewhere for mortality from cancer, coronary heart disease and other causes; here we are concerned with the personality factors predicting breast cancer, cervical cancer, cancer of the corpus uteri specifically, as well as other types of cancer in women. Ten specific hypotheses were tested, using specially constructed questionnaires for the purpose, and for most of these statistically significant support was obtained. The results justify belief that specific types of cancer may be related to specific stress/personality factors.     

Power and Personality: An Analysis of Gay Male Intimate Abuse

A study was conducted to investigate the issue of gay male intimate abuse in a sample of 52 couples. The objective of the study was to explore the association between relationship power dynamics and the perpetration of psychological abuse, and to investigate the correspondence between intimate abuse and factors associated with the Abusive Personality [D. G. Dutton and A. J. Starzomski (1993) Borderline Personality in Perpetrators of Psychological and Physical Abuse, Violence and Victims, Vol. 8, pp. 327–337; D. G. Dutton (1994a) Behavioral and Affective Correlates of Borderline Personality Organization in Wife Assaulters, International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, Vol. 17, pp. 265–279.] The majority of participants were middle to upper class and their ethnic/racial breakdown is as follows: White (86%), Native American (7%), Asian (4%), and Other (3%). In terms of power, results indicated that the more frequent form of psychological abuse was significantly higher in relationships characterized by divided power (i.e., partners sharing decision-making authority by the partners each making decisions in different domains). This finding supports the supposition that abuse can occur in relatively egalitarian relationships. An association between intimate abuse and the Abusive Personality was also clearly observed and this personality profile seemed to characterize both members of abusive dyads. Conclusions are drawn regarding the generalizability of intimate abuse across lines of sexual orientation.     

The dimensionality of the flanker compatibility effect: A psychophysiological analysis

The psychophysiological approach was used to evaluate the effects of feature similarity and intrinsic response mapping on the flanker compatibility effect. Symbol (e.g., < > < and < / <) and letter arrays (e.g., HCH and SCS) were used. Results showed that delays in stimulus evaluation and both peripheral and central response competition contributed to the compatibility effect, with the contribution of these processes depending on feature similarity and the intrinsic response mapping of the stimuli. For letter stimuli, the difference in the size of the compatibility effect for similar and dissimilar arrays could be accounted for in terms of stimulus evaluation. For symbol arrays, differences in size of the compatibility effect could be accounted for by response competition. Thus, symbol and letter arrays do not appear to be processed differently; what is different is the degree to which stimulus and response-related processes are affected by incompatibility.     

Sexuality education and young people's sexual behavior: a review of studies

Sexuality education for children and young adults is one of the most heavily debated issues facing policy-makers, national AIDS program planners, and educators, provoking arguments over how explicit education materials should be, how much of it there should be, how often it should be given, and at what age instruction should commence. In this context, the World Health Organization's Global Program on AIDS' Office of Intervention Development and Support commissioned a comprehensive literature review to assess the effects of HIV/AIDS and sexuality education upon young people's sexual behavior. 52 reports culled from a search of 12 literature databases were reviewed. The main purpose of the review is to inform policy-makers, program planners, and educators about the impact of HIV and/or sexuality education upon the sexual behavior of youth as described in the published literature. Of 47 studies which evaluated interventions, 25 reported that HIV/AIDS and sexuality education neither increased nor decreased sexual activity and attendant rates of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). 17 reported that HIV and/or sexuality education delayed the onset of sexual activity, reduced the number of sex partners, or reduced unplanned pregnancy and STD rates Only 3 studies found increases in sexual behavior associated with sexuality education. Inadequacies in study design, analytic techniques, outcome indicators, and the reporting of statistics are discussed.     

Gender bias and individualism: Responses to case vignettes among psychologists, professors, and students

This study examined the extent to which psychologists, when compared to university professors and evening school students, employ individualist values differentially in their responses to vignettes describing males and females. The participants responded to 6 vignettes by choosing initial hypotheses that reflected either utilitarian (tradition-ally masculine) or expressive (traditionally feminine) themes. Two vignettes involved a sex of client manipulation, but neither resulted in a sex of client effect. An analysis of the responses to the remaining 4 vignettes indicated a marked preference for the masculine form of individualism for males, but were evenly divided for females in all three groups. These results suggest that psychologists were just as likely to engage in bias as others.     

TIME COURSE OF ACTIVATING BRAIN AREAS IN GENERATING VERBAL ASSOCIATIONS

Abstract— Generating a use far a visual word in comparison with reading the word aloud activates frontal attention areas first (170 MS), a left lateral frontal area next (250 ms), and then a left temporoparietal (Wernicke's) area (650 ms). A brief period of practice reduces these activations. If subjects are asked to respond to a word from the same practiced list by giving a novel use, the original activations reappear and are joined by activity similar in location and time to Wernicke's activation but in the right hemisphere. These findings demonstrate the time course of activations of neuroanatomical areas in word processing and indicate a role for the right hemisphere when semantic processing is more difficult, such as in generating a less frequent association in the presence of a highly practiced one.     

Referenzsemantik in der Partnermodellierung

How can we explain that an assertion on something perceived can be understood in the same manner by somebody who cannot perceive that scene? This problem bases the interest in computational linguistics in how listener modeling could possibly be harmonized with reference semantics. Mental images substituting real perception appear as a way out. The architecture of the listener model has to be adapted to the creation and use of such pictorial data structures. Furthermore, the relation between the latter and a verbal (i. e., propositional) representation must be understood. The resulting architecture of a listener model with reference semantics can be employed to solve communicational problems from three general classes in a better way, as is demonstrated by an example implementation.     

Changes in Newcomers' Person–Climate Fit following the First Stage of Socialization

The development of attitudes and activities of newcomers in the 18 months following the first period of socialization was investigated. At two points in time, persons' preferences for seven work climates were compared with perceived climate. Changes in person-climate fit were assessed, using a squared difference index, after alternative fit-indices were tested with hierarchical regression analysis. Person-climate fit and work attitudes at T1 (eight to ten months after entry) were examined by comparing three groups of respondents who did not change jobs, changed jobs within the organization or changed organizations. Results showed no alpha, beta or gamma changes for the total group of 108 respondents. Alpha changes were only found for respondents who changed jobs. They showed higher ratings for job satisfaction at T2. Finally, work attitudes at T1 were related to turnover. Organizational changers showed higher turnover intentions and higher discrepancies between preferred and perceived risk orientation and work pressure at T1.