Media presentation of the mental health bill and representations of mental health problems

This paper discusses the findings of a study that examined the way in which the Mental Health Bill of June 2002 was presented in the British national and local media over a 3‐year period. A Lexis Nexis search yielded 256 articles, which were then analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. Overall, and perhaps contrary to what might have been expected given previous studies' conclusions regarding the media's negative portrayal of mental ill health, most articles tended to present a negative view of the Bill as unnecessarily repressive, and consequently were more sympathetic towards mental heath service clients, although this was not the case for tabloid articles. However, this paper then considers the more implicit representations found within the articles. It focuses particularly on the continued linking of mental ill health and violence, and also on the way in which the mental health service user might be portrayed as passive and rather pitiful as an alternative to violent and dangerous. It is suggested that the continued use of such images may stem from the fact that mental health problems have long been constructed as ‘Other’, and are therefore deeply engrained in our society. The implications of this for anti‐stigma campaigns are briefly discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Pre- and Postintervention Factor Analysis of the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale

The effects of a bystander education intervention program on the factor structure underlying a rape myth acceptance scale were examined using exploratory factor analyses on secondary data. The Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale was administered to college students at a northwestern university both before (n = 363) and after (n = 352) receiving a bystander education program. Results from exploratory factor analyses showed changes in the factor structure from pretest to posttest. This suggests some instability in the factor structure of the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale. These pre–post intervention differences in the rape myth acceptance factor structure suggest researchers use caution in using and interpreting scores based on the IRMA without regard to participants’ prevention program status.     

A recognition test of vocabulary using signal-detection measures,and some correlates of word and nonword recognition

In the first of three experiments, university undergraduates were presented a list of 300 words and 100 nonwords in two sessions. Their confidence that an item was a word was indicated for each item on a 6-point scale. This experiment demonstrated the feasibility of creating a recognition test of vocabulary. In Expeiment II, 100 items were chosen to form a subtest, and the subtest was cross-validated on a new sample of subjects. The tests in Experiments I and II were scored using signal-detection measures. The primary criterion, SAT (verbal) scores, correlated approximately .60 with the test scores. In Experiment III subjects scaled the words and nonwords for four psychological attributes. These were submitted to a stepwise regression with the confidence ratings from Experiment I as the dependent variable. It was concluded that associability. frequency, orthography, and pronounceability all may be components of word recognition. However, only frequency was found to be a significant predictor of the confidence of recognition of nonwords.     

Probe similarity and recognition of set membership: A parallel-processing serial-feature-matching model

A model for memory scanning is proposed in which the encoded representation of a probe is compared in parallel with encoded representations of each item in the positive set. The within item matches are serial feature by feature comparisons that terminate when either a positive or negative criterion is reached. This model is shown to predict the results of a probe similarity experiment. The serial location of a similarity within an item affects negative reaction times, but the number of items in the positive set to which the probe is similar has no main effect. The model is also shown to yield predictions consonant with existing data on the relation between reaction times and set size and speed-accuracy trade offs.     

The stability of individual differences in behavior across experimental conflict situations

Four experimental conflict situations having theoretical implications have been reported upon with some frequency. The purpose of this study was to compare individual differences on a common measure, response latency, in order to determine the stability of behavior across these four conflict situations using a comparable latency measure. The results of this study do indicate that behavior in experimental conflict studies shows a stability of performance by individual subjects. There are also group mean differences between the four procedures that reflect situational contribution to conflict behavior.     

Physiological and behavioral concomitants of mild stress: The effects of accuracy of temporal information

Sixty human subjects were exposed to a mild auditory stress after a fixed anticipatory period during which they performed a reaction time task. Suspense subjects were correctly informed of the time of onset of stress; Surprise subjects were told to expect the stress 10 min. later than it actually occurred. Subjects were provided with elapsed time information either automatically or on demand. Suspence subjects showed larger anticipatory electrodermal responses and smaller responses to stress than Surprise subjects but the two groups did not differ in their ratings of the unpleasantness of the stress. Female subjects showed greater anticipatory responses and consistently slower reaction times than males. The data are discussed in terms of explanations of the negative preception effect.