E. Mansell Pattison,M.D. 1933–1989

E. Mansell Pattison, M.D. 1933–1989     

Mood changes associated with blood glucose fluctuations in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus

Individuals with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) and their healthcare practitioners believe that extreme blood glucose (BG) fluctuations are characterized by changes in subjective mood states and emotional behavior, as well as physical symptoms. This study examined relationships between BG levels and self-reported mood in a group of 34 IDDM adults. The method followed a within-subject, repeated-measures design employed in previous studies of physical symptoms associated with diabetic glucose. Four times each day, participants completed a mood/symptom checklist just prior to a self-measurement of BG until 40 checklists had been completed. Half the items on the checklist described physical symptoms and half described mood states. In addition, half the mood items described negative states and half described positive states. Within-subject correlations and regressions showed that moods were related to BG for the majority of participants and that, like physical symptoms, mood-BG relationships were highly idiosyncratic. Low BG levels tended to be associated with negative mood states, primarily self-reported "nervousness." Positive mood items were almost always associated with high BG. High BG levels also frequently correlated with negative mood states, although the negative mood items that tended to relate to high glucose (anger, sadness) differed from those that tended to relate to low BG. The implications of these findings for self-treatment and glucose perception in the IDDM individual are discussed.     

STRANGER AND ACQUAINTANCE RAPE

Most published research on the victim–offender relationship has been based on small samples that consisted mainly of women who were raped by nonintimate and nonromantic acquaintances, who viewed their experience as rape, and/or who were seeking treatment. In the present study, 489 rape victims were located among a national sample of 3,187 female college students by a self-report survey that avoided reliance on help-seekers. Two sets of comparisons were performed. First, the experiences reported by victims of stranger rape ( n = 52) were compared with those of victims of acquaintance rape ( n = 416). Then, the experiences of women assaulted by different types of acquaintances were compared including nonromantic acquaintances ( n = 122), casual dates ( n = 103), steady dates ( n = 147), and spouses or other family members ( n = 44). Rapes by acquaintances, compared with strangers, were more likely to involve a single offender and multiple episodes, were less likely to be seen as rape or to be revealed to anyone, and were similar in terms of the victim's resistance. In general, acquaintance rapes were rated as less violent than stranger rapes. The exception was rapes by husbands or other family members which were rated equally violent to stranger rapes but were much less likely to occur in a context of drinking or other drug use. In spite of these different crime characteristics, virtually no differences were found among any of the groups in their levels of psychological symptoms. A significant feature of these data is that they have tapped the experiences of unreported and unacknowledged rape victims, a group that is potentially much larger than the group of identified victims.     

Social comparison after success and failure: Biased search for information consistent with a self-serving conclusion

Based on the traditional and attributional perspectives on social comparison, it was hypothesized that the search for social comparison information after performance outcomes is biased so as to provide evidence consistent with a favorable self-evaluation. In Experiment 1, subjects were led to believe that they obtained 16 or 8 out of 20 items correct on a bogus social sensitivity test and were then led to expect that most other students performed either well or poorly on the test. They were then given the opportunity to inspect up to 50 scored answer sheets from previous subjects. Consistent with the hypothesis, failure subjects requested more information when they expected it to reveal that most students performed poorly than when they expected it to reveal that most students performed well; success subjects showed little interest in this additional information, regardless of their expectancies as to what it would reveal. Experiment 2 employed a different approach to manipulating performance outcomes and led subjects to expect that most other subjects performed better, the same, or worse than themselves. Regardless of their own performance, subjects showed the least interest in additional information in the higher score expectancy condition and the most interest in additional information in the lower score expectancy condition. The role that this information search bias may play in producing self-serving attributions for success and failure and maintaining positive self-evaluations was discussed.     

Order of scale administration and concurrent validity of the Anxiety Rating Scale

The Anxiety Rating Scale-2 and the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 were administered to 100 male university intramural volleyball players 15 min. before a match began. For 50 participants, the above order of presentation was used; for the other 50 the order was reversed. Correlations for cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety, and self-confidence between the two inventories were .47, .63, and .67, respectively, for scores from Order 1 and .56, .75, and .84 for Order 2.     

Preferences for Spousal Support Among Individuals With Cancer1

Although it is known that individuals have preferences for different forms or amounts of social support from others when dealing with life events, such preferences have not been subject to extensive empirical examination. We examined preferences for spousal emotional and instrumental support, as well as preferences for spousal control-encouraging responses, among 151 individuals with cancer. Dispositional and situation-specific factors were placed into a hypothetical model predicting support preferences. Results confirmed predictions: Preferences for emotional and instrumental aspects of support were related to dispositional (affiliative need), person (gender), and contextual (disease impairment) variables. As predicted, higher affiliative need predicted higher preference for emotional support. However, functional impairment did not predict preferences for more instrumental support, and this variable only predicted preferences for more emotional support among female patients. Individuals’ preferences for control encouragement from their spouses were associated with attributions of personal responsibility for solving general life problems and indirectly associated with internal locus of control. These results provide an initial conceptual model for understanding cancer patients’ preferences for support.     

Effect of Interleukin-1beta on Pituitary-Adrenal Responses and Body Weight in Neonatal Rats: Interaction with Maternal Deprivation

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis of the infant rat is normally hyporesponsive during postnatal days (pnd) four to fourteen. This interval is termed the stress hyporesponsive period (SHRP). The HPA axis, however, does respond to selective stimuli, such as interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) during this period. Furthermore, maternal deprivation has been shown to alter the system so that it is responsive to mild stimuli. The present studies examined the interaction between 24 h of maternal deprivation and intraperitoneal administration of recombinant human (rh) IL-1beta (4 μg/kg) at 3 ages (i.e., pnd 6, 12, 18) during or after the SHRP. The results demonstrate that maternal deprivation modifies the response of the HPA axis induced by IL-1beta in an age-dependent fashion: 1) a greater response at pnd 6; 2) a quicker response at pnd 12; and 3) a suppressed response pattern at pnd 18. Moreover, these responses across ages differ as a function of maternal contact postinjection: 1) deprivation augments the ACTH and CORT response and maternal contact postinjection further augments this response at pnd 6; 2) deprivation increases the ACTH and CORT response to vehicle and the CORT response to IL-1beta in 12 day-old pups and the mother has a modest inhibitory effect; and 3) at pnd 18 deprivation leads to lower ACTH concentrations, but higher overall CORT levels and maternal contact postinjection effectively suppresses both the ACTH and CORT response to IL-1. These differences in the HPA response do not appear to be due to differences in the immune response. Plasma concentrations of endogenous rat IL-1beta determined 1 and 2 h after injection of rhIL-1beta were not modified by deprivation and were reduced at pnd 18 compared to pnd 6 and 12 in NDEP pups. Finally, IL-1beta reduced food intake, as reflected by a decrease in body weight, in deprived pups at all 3 ages. The findings in the present experiments suggest that there are additional pathways through which IL-1beta can act on the CNS to activate the HPA axis besides direct action at the hypothalamus.     

Assessing the similarity of burnout dimensions in two business samples.

The concept of career burnout has been investigated in a wide variety of human services settings. Several investigations have extended the study of burnout to individuals in private sector reorganizations although burnout factors have only been derived on one sample of private sector employees. In the current research, burnout factors from previous private sector research were replicated. Results showed a strong congruency between factors from the two studies. Support was provided for rewording burnout questions from the human services scales for private sector research.     

Counselling with the ‘worried well’

This paper introduces the ‘worried well’ as the last in a long line of categories which define people who have concerns about their health. In this case, people who are convinced they have AIDS. The paper describes: 1) their presentation, 2) the main dificulties involved in treatment, and 3) suggests a step wise model for counselling the ‘worried well’.     

Q’Hand: A fully automated apparatus for studying haptic processing of spatially distributed inputs

Q’Hand is an electromechanical system that permits fully automated preparation and presentation of spatially distributed stimulus displays, as well as on-line data acquisition, all under software control. Selected inputs may be presented to any one or combination of the middle three fingertips of both hands. Both accuracy and reaction times are collected on line. Q’Hand was specifically designed to investigate tactile/haptic preattentive and attentive processing of single and multidimensional stimuli. However, it may also be used to study a variety of other research topics, such as pattern recognition, psychophysical issues, and lateralization of somatosensory function. Further, it may be adapted relatively easily for use in clinical settings. For example, with this apparatus, automated psychophysical tests may be designed for the evaluation of the extent of sensory impairment due to peripheral nerve damage otheihander to cortical dysfunction.