Breast Cancer Risk Perceptions among Relatives of Women with Uninformative Negative <Emphasis Type="Italic">BRCA1/2</Emphasis> Test Results: The Moderating Effect of the Amount of Shared Information

The most common result of BRCA1/2 mutation testing when performed in a family without a previously identified mutation is an uninformative negative test result. Women in these families may have an increased risk for breast cancer because of mutations in non-BRCA breast cancer predisposition genes, including moderate- or low-risk genes, or shared environmental factors. Genetic counselors often encourage counselees to share information with family members, however it is unclear how much information counselees share and the impact that shared information may have on accuracy of risk perception in family members. We evaluated 85 sisters and daughters of women who received uninformative negative BRCA1/2 results. We measured accuracy of risk perception using a latent variable model where accuracy was represented as the correlation between perceived risk (indicators = verbal and quantitative measures) and calculated risk (indicators = Claus and BRCAPRO). Participants who reported more information was shared with them by their sister or mother about her genetic counseling session had greater accuracy of risk perception (0.707, p?=?0.000) than those who reported little information was shared (0.326, p?=?0.003). However, counselees shared very little information; nearly 20 % of family members reported their sister or mother shared nothing with them about her genetic counseling. Family members were generally not aware of the existence of a genetic counseling summary letter. Our findings underscore the need for effective strategies that facilitate counselees to share information about their genetic counseling sessions. Such communication may help their relatives better understand their cancer risks and enhance risk appropriate cancer prevention.     

Time discounting and time preference in animals: A critical review

Animals are an important model for studies of impulsivity and self-control. Many studies have made use of the intertemporal choice task, which pits small rewards available sooner against larger rewards available later (typically several seconds), repeated over many trials. Preference for the sooner reward is often taken to indicate impulsivity and/or a failure of self-control. This review shows that very little evidence supports this assumption; on the contrary, ostensible discounting behavior may reflect a boundedly rational but not necessarily impulsive reward-maximizing strategy. Specifically, animals may discount weakly, or even adopt a long-term rate-maximizing strategy, but fail to fully incorporate postreward delays into their choices. This failure may reflect learning biases. Consequently, tasks that measure animal discounting may greatly overestimate the true discounting and may be confounded by processes unrelated to time preferences. If so, animals may be much more patient than is widely believed; human and animal intertemporal choices may reflect unrelated mental operations; and the shared hyperbolic shape of the human and animal discount curves, which is used to justify cross-species comparisons, may be coincidental. The discussion concludes with a consideration of alternative ways to measure self-control in animals.     

Determination of Breast Cancer Fatalism in Women and the Investigation of the Relationship Between Women's Cervical Cancer and Pap Smear Test Health Beliefs with Religious Orientation and Fatalism

Journal of Religion and Health - This study aims to determine breast cancer fatalism in women and investigate the relationship between women’s cervical cancer and pap smear test health...     

愉悦追求在自我调节疲劳与大学生智能手机成瘾之间的中介作用:自然联结的调节作用

采用问卷法对564名大学生进行调查,考察愉悦追求在自我调节疲劳和智能手机成瘾之间的中介作用,以及该中介作用是否会受到自然联结的调节。结果表明：（1）自我调节疲劳对大学生智能手机成瘾具有显著的正向预测作用;（2）愉悦追求在自我调节疲劳与大学生智能手机成瘾之间起着部分中介作用;（3）自我调节疲劳和愉悦追求的关系（中介效应的前半段路径）受到自然联结的调节,即自我调节疲劳对愉悦追求的正向影响随着自然联结的增强而减弱。因此,自我调节疲劳和大学生智能手机成瘾之间存在有调节的中介效应。     

社交媒体自我控制失败影响硕士生主观幸福感的心理机制

为探讨社交媒体自我控制失败、时间效能感和消极完美主义对硕士生主观幸福感的作用机制,采用问卷法对广东省408名硕士研究生进行施测。结果发现：（1）社交媒体自我控制失败显著负向预测主观幸福感;（2）时间效能感在社交媒体自控失败和主观幸福感间起部分中介作用;（3）消极完美主义在社交媒体自控失败和时间效能感的关系中起调节作用,具体表现为对于高消极完美主义者,社交媒体自控失败对时间效能感的负向影响更大。     

Gaussian variational estimation for multidimensional item response theory

Multidimensional item response theory (MIRT) is widely used in assessment and evaluation of educational and psychological tests. It models the individual response patterns by specifying a functional relationship between individuals' multiple latent traits and their responses to test items. One major challenge in parameter estimation in MIRT is that the likelihood involves intractable multidimensional integrals due to the latent variable structure. Various methods have been proposed that involve either direct numerical approximations to the integrals or Monte Carlo simulations. However, these methods are known to be computationally demanding in high dimensions and rely on sampling data points from a posterior distribution. We propose a new Gaussian variational expectation--maximization (GVEM) algorithm which adopts variational inference to approximate the intractable marginal likelihood by a computationally feasible lower bound. In addition, the proposed algorithm can be applied to assess the dimensionality of the latent traits in an exploratory analysis. Simulation studies are conducted to demonstrate the computational efficiency and estimation precision of the new GVEM algorithm compared to the popular alternative Metropolis–Hastings Robbins–Monro algorithm. In addition, theoretical results are presented to establish the consistency of the estimator from the new GVEM algorithm.     

The common sense of counseling psychology: introducing the Common-Sense Model of self-regulation

Abstract

The goal of therapy is typically to improve clients’ self-management of their problems, not only during the course of therapy but also after therapy ends. Although it seems obvious that therapists are interested in improving clients’ self-management, the psychotherapy literature has little to say on the topic. This article introduces Leventhal’s Common-Sense Model of Self-Regulation, a theoretical model of the self-management of health, and applies the model to the therapeutic process. The Common-Sense Model proposes that people develop illness representations of health threats and these illness representations guide self-management. The model has primarily been used to understand how people self-manage physical health problems, we suggest it may also be useful to understand self-management of mental health problems. The Common-Sense Model’s strengths-based perspective is a natural fit for the work of counseling psychologists. The model has important practical implications for addressing how clients understand mental health problems over the course of treatment and self-manage these problems during and after treatment.     

Willingness to transmit and the spread of pseudoscientific beliefs

Pseudoscientific beliefs are widespread and can be damaging. If several studies have examined the factors leading people to accept pseudoscientific beliefs, no attention has been paid to the factors contributing to people's willingness to transmit these beliefs. To test whether the willingness to transmit pseudoscientific beliefs contributes to their spread, independent of their believability, we asked participants to rate statements corresponding either to pseudoscientific beliefs (Myths), or to their (correct) negations (Non‐Myths). Statements were rated on believability, on how willing participants would be to transmit them, and on how knowledgeable they would make someone who produces them. Results revealed that participants who believed in Myths were more willing to transmit them than the participants who believed in Non‐Myths were willing to transmit Non‐Myths. A potential factor driving the increased willingness to transmit both Myths and Non‐Myths might be participants' belief that holding the beliefs makes one seem more knowledgeable.