The Power of Perception: Toward a Model of Cultural Oppression and Liberation

Oppression is defined and identified as the basis of a considerable range of psychopathology. An exploratory transcultural model of counseling based on oppression is introduced with the goal of serving both oppressed and oppressive clients. Perception, as perspicacity, is the key to this exploratory model. The authors suggest that oppressed persons generally possess a considerable degree of perception of their oppressors even though they may be unaware of it. Research from the literature on depressive realism is used to infer support. Counseling approaches to oppressed persons are introduced including a new approach to cognitive therapy and an emphasis on liberation rather than adjustment. Counseling approaches to oppressors are also discussed based on the rehabilitation of empathy and perception.     

Evaluations and Aggression Directed at a Gay Male Target: The Role of Threat and Antigay Prejudice1

This research was designed to understand heterosexual men's interpersonal reactions toward a gay male individual and to examine how threat and pre‐existing antigay prejudice impact these encounters. In one experiment, we manipulated the ostensible sexual orientation of an assigned work partner and assessed participants' perceptions of threat indirectly, using a measure of psychological distancing. Results revealed that, regardless of antigay prejudice, participants psychologically distanced more from the gay male than from the heterosexual male. In the second experiment, we manipulated threat and the sexual orientation of the work partner to examine aggressive responding toward the work partner. Participants exposed to a threat to their masculinity behaved more aggressively toward the gay work partner, regardless of their level of antigay prejudice.     

Different types of environmental enrichment have discrepant effects on spatial memory and synaptophysin levels in female mice

Environmental enrichment paradigms that incorporate cognitive stimulation, exercise, and motor learning benefit memory and synaptic plasticity across the rodent lifespan. However, the contribution each individual element of the enriched environment makes to enhancing memory and synaptic plasticity has yet to be delineated. Therefore, the current study tested the effects of three of these elements on memory and synaptic protein levels. Young female C57BL/6 mice were given 3h of daily exposure to either rodent toys (cognitive stimulation) or running wheels (exercise), or daily acrobatic training for 6 weeks prior to and throughout behavioral testing. Controls were group housed, but did not receive enrichment. Spatial working and reference memory were tested in a water-escape motivated radial arm maze. Levels of the presynaptic protein synaptophysin were then measured in frontoparietal cortex, hippocampus, striatum, and cerebellum. Exercise, but not cognitive stimulation or acrobat training, improved spatial working memory relative to controls, despite the fact that both exercise and cognitive stimulation increased synaptophysin levels in the neocortex and hippocampus. These data suggest that exercise alone is sufficient to improve working memory, and that enrichment-induced increases in synaptophysin levels may not be sufficient to improve working memory in young females. Spatial reference memory was unaffected by enrichment. Acrobat training had no effect on memory or synaptophysin levels, suggesting a minimal contribution of motor learning to the mnemonic and neuronal benefits of enrichment. These results provide the first evidence that different elements of the enriched environment have markedly distinct effects on spatial memory and synaptic alterations.     

Evidence for a detrimental relationship between hypertension history, prospective memory, and prefrontal cortex white matter in cognitively normal older adults

Hypertension affects many older adults and is associated with impaired neural and cognitive functioning. We investigated whether a history of hypertension was associated with impairments to prospective memory, which refers to the ability to remember to perform delayed intentions, such as remembering to take medication. Thirty-two cognitively normal older adult participants with or without a history of hypertension (self-reported) performed two laboratory prospective memory tasks, one that relied more strongly on executive control (nonfocal prospective memory) and one that relied more strongly on spontaneous memory retrieval processes (focal prospective memory). We observed hypertension-related impairments for nonfocal, but not focal, prospective memory. To complement our behavioral approach, we conducted a retrospective analysis of available structural magnetic resonance imaging data. Lower white matter volume estimates in the anterior prefrontal cortex were associated with lower nonfocal prospective memory and with a history of hypertension. A history of hypertension may be associated with worsened executive control and lower prefrontal white matter volume. The translational implication is that individuals who must remember to take antihypertensive medications and to monitor their blood pressure at home may be impaired in the executive control process that helps to support these prospective memory behaviors.     

Sexual Self‐Concept Ambiguity and the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide Risk

Mechanisms (i.e., thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, hopelessness) derived from the interpersonal theory of suicide which are hypothesized to account for the relation between sexual orientation self‐concept ambiguity and active suicide ideation were examined. Participants included 349 women, among whom 42% currently self‐ascribed a non‐exclusively heterosexual sexual identity. Among women reporting higher levels of sexual self‐concept ambiguity, greater risk for active suicide ideation is found when perceptions of burden and feelings of thwarted belonging co‐occur with feelings of hopelessness. Results support relevant theory useful for understanding suicide risk among sexual minority women who acknowledge ambiguity with regard to their sexual orientation.