Coping strategies and quality of life in women with advanced breast cancer and their family caregivers

Abstract

This study examines the effects of personal resources of both heart patients and their close social partners on patients' coping and quality of life. Generalized personal resources (self-efficacy beliefs, dispositional optimism, self-regulation competence) and outcomes were assessed by questionnaire 1–3 days before surgery (n = 122) and again six months later (n= 50). Outcome variables were coping styles, social resources (social support and social integration), emotional states, and further measures of quality of life. Patients' personal resources were dominant in the prediction of most of the outcomes. Partners' resources were uniquely related to social support, social integration, and quality of life as perceived by the patients. Further, partners' personality resources predicted changes in patients' loneliness and energy levels during the six-month interval.     

The Relationship‐specific Interpretation Bias Mediates the Link between Neuroticism and Satisfaction in Couples

Neuroticism has repeatedly been shown to be a predictor of relationship dissatisfaction in couples. The aim of the current research was to uncover the underlying cognitive processes of this robust effect. We focused on anxiety as one aspect of neuroticism that is associated with different kinds of cognitive biases. On the basis of the assumption that biased information processing will also affect specific interpersonal contexts such as romantic relationships, it was expected that the tendency to interpret ambiguous partner and relationship scenarios in a rather negative way would work as a potential mediator. In Study 1, parallel forms of a new measure to capture the relationship‐specific interpretation bias (RIB) were developed (N = 182). In Study 2, the proposed meditational role of the RIB was investigated in a dyadic sample of 210 couples. Dyadic analysis using the Actor–Partner Interdependence Mediation Model showed mediation of the interpretation bias even when the general interpretation bias and attachment styles were controlled. Results support the assumption that biased relationship‐specific interpretations are one important mechanism for how neuroticism exerts its negative influence on relationship satisfaction. We conclude that personality‐congruent cognitive processing may not only have individual consequences but also affect overall couple functioning. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A novel method for assessing rival models of recognition memory

A general comparison is made between the multinomial processing tree (MPT) approach and a strength-based approach for modeling recognition memory measurement. Strength models include the signal-detection model and the dual-process model. Existing MPT models for recognition memory and a new generic MPT model, called the Multistate (MS) model, are contrasted with the strength models. Although the ROC curves for the MS model and strength model are similar, there is a critical difference between existing strength models and MPT models that goes beyond the assessment of the ROC. This difference concerns the question of stochastic mixtures for foil test trials. The hazard function and the reverse hazard function are powerful methods for detecting the presence of a probabilistic mixture. Several new theorems establish a novel method for obtaining information about the hazard function and reverse hazard function for the latent continuous distributions that are assumed in the strength approach to recognition memory. Evidence is provided that foil test trials involve a stochastic mixture. This finding occurred for both short-term memory procedures, such as the Brown–Peterson task, and long-term list-learning procedures, such as the paired-associate task. The effect of mixtures on foil trials is problematic for existing strength models but can be readily handled by MPT models such as the MS model. Other phenomena, such as the mirror effect and the effect of target-foil similarity, are also predicted accurately by the MPT modeling framework.     

Research note: A motivational perspective on change processes and outcomes

A reengineering process in a chemical plant with technostructural and human-process-oriented interventions was analysed in order to develop and test a generalized expectancy?–?valence-theory model for participation in the change process and effective change. It was assumed that both supervisory support and favourable colleagues' change attitudes enhance one's change motivation, and participation in the change process, by increasing participation opportunities, and positive attitudes toward change. In turn, employee participation should have a positive impact on outcomes of the change process. After 2 years of restructuring, 104 employees participated in the evaluation of the change process. Path analyses revealed results that supported our model by and large. Employee participation in the change process predicts positive organizational effects. Favourable change attitudes as well as perceived participation opportunities, and supervisory support, which were integrated into one scale, predict the degree of employee participation. The latter also showed a direct path to organizational effects.     

Can the Media Help Women Be Better at Math? Stereotype Threat,Selective Exposure,Media Effects,and Women's Math Performance

This study examines women's media selections when under the gender–math stereotype threat and the subsequent media effects on their math performance through the lens of the Selective Exposure Self‐ and Affect‐Management (SESAM) model, mood management theory, and social comparison theory. Female college students were randomly assigned to the stereotype threat condition or the control condition; then, they selectively browsed magazine pages showing female role models in stereotypical domains (beauty or family) and counterstereotypical domains (career or science) before taking the math test. The results show that women spent more time on career magazines when under threat, and this selective exposure's effect on their math performance was moderated by their assimilation to the role models.     

Moving targets: A developmental framework for understanding children's changes following disasters

This paper proposes a developmental framework for disaster studies with children that allows researchers to explore the interaction between developmental change (defined as change that is extended, self-regulated, qualitative, and progressive) and cataclysmic change. It outlines three levels of analysis related to disasters: 1) observing the harm of disasters in the context of age-related changes in children, 2) demonstrating how children are restored to age-typical developmental trajectories following disasters, and 3) investigating how specific disaster experiences are integrated over time with children's ongoing developmental processes, such as their understanding of self and their views of the world. The paper identifies existing studies at each level of the framework, outlines how these levels of analysis can be used in constructing developmental models of disaster response, and offers suggestions for expanding disaster research into additional developmental areas.     

Attentional factors in conceptual congruency

Conceptual congruency effects are biases induced by an irrelevant conceptual dimension of a task (e.g., location in vertical space) on the processing of another, relevant dimension (e.g., judging words' emotional evaluation). Such effects are a central empirical pillar for recent views about how the mind/brain represents concepts. In the present paper, we show how attentional cueing (both exogenous and endogenous) to each conceptual dimension succeeds in modifying both the manifestation and the symmetry of the effect. The theoretical implications of this finding are discussed.     

Intimate partner violence in the military: Treatment considerations

While considerable research has examined the prevalence of IPV in civilian couples, much less information is available on married or cohabitating couples in which one or both parents are active duty soldiers or veterans of foreign wars. In this review, we explore various aspects of the partner violence phenomena among military personnel (i.e., active duty and veterans) and their implications for intervention. We highlight (a) the scope of the problem, (b) discuss domestic violence as defined by the Department of Defense (DoD), (c) list prevalence rates of IPV among military families, (d) identify correlates of IPV, and (e) discuss treatment options for providers working with these couples. We also discuss the barriers to intervention and their implications for victims, perpetrators, and providers. Conclusions and recommendations for future research directions are also briefly discussed.