Perceived responsibility for disease onset affects HIV/AIDS Education

Abstract

Ninety-nine participants were assigned to one of three experimental conditions in which they viewed an AIDS education videotape that systematically manipulated whether or not the educator would be perceived as responsible for HIV infection. Participants were administered pre and post-video affect measures, and an HlV/AIDS knowledge test after watching the video. Participants who viewed the speaker who acquired HIV through a blood transfusion (perceived not responsible) and those who viewed the speaker who did not reveal mode of acquisition (control) performed significantly better on the knowledge test compared to those who viewed the speaker who acquired HIV through unprotected sexual inttrcourse (perceived responsible). In addition. male participants in the perceived responsible condition reported a significant increase in sensation-sceking after viewing the video. Finally, females experienced a significantly greater increase in anxiety as a result of seeing the video than did males. Implications of these tindings for the design and implmentation of AIDS education programs were discussed.     

framing of prenatal screening test results and women's health-illness orientations as determinants of perceptions of fetal health and approval of amniocentesis

Abstract

Framing effects of medical test results and interactions of these effects with personal perspectives were investigated in the context of prenatal screening. Hundred and Thirty-three pregnant women undergoing the ‘triple-test’ were assessed as having health or illness orientations, and were randomly presented with reassuring/moderate/severe diagnoses framed in normal/abnormal terms, forming a 2 × 3 × 2 between subjects design. Evaluations of fetus' health and recommendations to perform amniocentesis were assessed. Findings showed healthier evaluations of the fetus and weaker recommendations to perform amniocentesis in normal versus abnormal framings. An interaction was found between framing, diagnosis, and personal orientations: women with health orientations receiving a moderate diagnosis framed in abnormal terms were significantly more inclined to recommend amniocentesis than illness-oriented women given the same diagnosis; the normal/abnormal framing of severe diagnoses yielded opposite effects on health-oriented versus illness-oriented women. The influences of framing effects and health/ illness orientations on health perceptions and behavioral intentions were discussed.     

The effects of scenario-based risk information on perceptions of susceptibility to Chlamydia and HIV

Abstract

Objectives: The Self-Report Habit Index (SRHI) was originally reported as one-dimensional; however, habit has been described as characterised by several features. Moreover, one-dimensional models for the SRHI have demonstrated poor fit. Therefore, we aimed to compare multidimensional models with a one-dimensional model in both snacking and physical activity habits, besides examining further instrument characteristics.

Design: A cross-sectional study was conducted with high school and university students (n?=?555).

Main outcome measure: The SRHI adapted for physical activity and for snaking habits was applied at one time point.

Results: Nested models with one factor, two factors and three factors were compared. Next, a hierarchical second-order model was tested, and further validity issues, as well as invariance between habits, were examined. Three-dimensional models represented a better fit for both habits. However, fit was still inadequate in the snacking version. In addition, discriminant validity concerns emerged for the physical activity SRHI. Moreover, invariance between the snacking and the physical activity versions was not confirmed.

Conclusions: Considering the SRHI as composed by the dimensions of ‘lack of awareness’, ‘lack of control’ and ‘history of behavioural repetition’ seems to be more accurate. Nevertheless, our findings suggest that further research is needed.     

Don't derogate this message! Self-affirmation promotes online type 2 diabetes risk test taking

The aim of the present study was to examine whether self-affirmation promotes acceptance of threatening type 2 diabetes information and risk-testing behaviour. In an experimental study (N = 84), we manipulated self-affirmation by allowing participants to affirm a value that was either personally important or unimportant to them, and measured participants' risk level prior to reading threatening type 2 diabetes information. As dependent variables, we measured message derogation, intentions to do an online type 2 diabetes risk test and online risk-testing behaviour. Findings showed that self-affirmation decreased message derogation, increased intentions to do an online risk test and promoted online risk test taking among at-risk participants. Among participants not at-risk, self-affirmation decreased intentions and online risk test taking. Therefore, it is concluded, that for an at-risk population self-affirmation can decrease defensive responses to threatening health information and promote (online) risk test taking for diseases.     

Integration of five health behaviour models: Common strengths and unique contributions to understanding condom use

The purpose of this research was to select from the health belief model (HBM), theories of reasoned action (TRA) and planned behaviour (TPB), information–motivation–behavioural skills model (IMB) and social cognitive theory (SCT) the strongest longitudinal predictors of women's condom use and to combine these constructs into a single integrated model of condom use. The integrated model was evaluated for prediction of condom use among young women who had steady versus casual partners. At Time 1, all constructs of the five models and condom use were assessed in an initial and a replication sample (n?=?193, n?=?161). Condom use reassessed 8 weeks later (Time 2) served as the main outcome. Information from IMB, perceived susceptibility, benefits, and barriers from HBM, self-efficacy and self-evaluative expectancies from SCT, and partner norm and attitudes from TPB served as indirect or direct predictors of condom use. All paths replicated across samples. Direct predictors of behaviour varied with relationship status: self-efficacy significantly predicted condom use for women with casual partners, while attitude and partner norm predicted for those with steady partners. Integrated psychosocial models, rich in constructs and relationships drawn from multiple theories of behaviour, may provide a more complete characterisation of health protective behaviour.     

Brain Activity and Cognitive Transition during Childhood: A Longitudinal Event-Related Brain Potential Study

This study examined the relation between brain activation and cognitive development using event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and a longitudinal design. Five-year-old girls performed a visual recognition (‘oddball’) task and an experimental analogue of the Piagetian conservation of liquid quantity task at three experimental sessions, with one year between consecutive sessions. The data revealed age-related changes in neurocognitive mechanisms common to both tasks. In comparing children before and after a Piagetian transition on a traditional clinical conservation test the data revealed a major shift in performance and ERPs to the experimental analogue of the liquid quantity task. These findings are consistent with a previously performed cross-sectional study and provide strong support for the hypothesis that cognitive transition is related to new neurocognitive mechanisms emerging during childhood. Possible implications of these findings for child neuropsychology are discussed.     

Latino/a Depression and Smoking: An Analysis Through the Lenses of Culture, Gender, and Ethnicity

Rates of major depressive disorder (MDD) and cigarette smoking increase with Latino/a acculturation, but this varies by gender and ethnic subgroup. We investigated how lived experiences (i.e., discrimination, family conflict, family cohesion, familismo) clustered together in the everyday lives of Latina/os. We further examined associations of cluster profile and Latino/a subgroup with MDD and smoking, and tested whether gender moderated these associations. Data came from the National Latino Asian American Study, which included 2,554 Latino/as (48 % female; mean age = 38.02 years). K-means cluster analysis revealed six profiles of experience, which varied by gender and socio-cultural characteristics. Proportionately more women than men were in groups with problematic family lives. Acculturated Latino/as were disproportionately represented in profiles reporting frequent discrimination, family conflict, and a lack of shared family values and cohesion. Profiles characterized by high discrimination and family problems also predicted elevated risk for MDD and smoking. Findings suggest that Latino/a acculturation comes jointly with increased discrimination, increased family conflict, and reduced family cohesion and shared family values, exacerbating risk for MDD and smoking. This research on pathways to depression and smoking can inform the development of targeted assessment, prevention, and intervention strategies, tailored to the needs of Latino/as.     

Mom told me scary things about this animal: Parents installing fear beliefs in their children via the verbal information pathway

This study investigated whether fear beliefs can be installed in children after parents had received negatively tinted information about a novel stimulus. Parents of children aged 8-13 years (N = 88) were presented with negative, positive, or ambiguous information about an unknown animal and then given a number of open-ended vignettes describing confrontations with the animal with the instruction to tell their children what would happen in these situations. Results indicated that children's fear beliefs were influenced by the information that was provided to the parent. That is, parents who had received negative information provided more threatening narratives about the animal and hence installed higher levels of fear beliefs in their children than parents who had received positive information. In the case of ambiguous information, the transmission of fear was dependent on parents' trait anxiety levels. More precisely, high trait anxious parents told more negative stories about the unknown animal, which produced higher fear levels in children.     

Some thoughts on the concept of the internal parental couple

Some patients are incapable of engaging in a relationship with a partner on a long-term basis. To explain these relationship issues, they invoke reasons that have to do with external reality rather than with their own internal reality. The authors present several clinical examples that have given rise to an initial attempt at theorizing the concept of the internal couple: some patients fail to internalize a positive representation in which they can see themselves as part of a couple. Psychoanalysts tend to think of the father and mother (or their internal representatives) as separate entities, differentiated and complementary, and not in terms of a single object that brings them together as an internal couple. In the author’s view, an internal parental couple is also internalized by the infant under the guise of various internal objects. The internal parental couple thus appears as a complex construction that goes beyond the mere addition of father plus mother. Underneath their neurotic veneer, these patients have severely damaged representations of internal parents and of the internal parental couple. Unable to identify with a stable and procreative internal parental couple, they tend also to attack the psychoanalytic couple. Early distortions in the oedipal sphere may be one cause of the stumbling-block they encounter on the way to introjecting a well-attuned couple-as-object and the idea of parenting.     

Information processing bias against emotional facial expressions in social anxiety

The present study examined whether information processing bias against emotional facial expressions is present among individuals with social anxiety. College students with high (high social anxiety group; n  = 26) and low social anxiety (low social anxiety group; n  = 26) performed three different types of working memory tasks: (a) ordering positive and negative facial expressions according to the intensity of emotion; (b) ordering pictures of faces according to age; and (c) ordering geometric shapes according to size. The high social anxiety group performed significantly more poorly than the low social anxiety group on the facial expression task, but not on the other two tasks with the nonemotional stimuli. These results suggest that high social anxiety interferes with processing of emotionally charged facial expressions.