Perceived dyadic coping,anxiety, depression and satisfaction with life of women diagnosed with fibromyalgia

Women diagnosed with fibromyalgia face a wide range of challenges impacting multiple aspects of their lives, such as their relationship with their partner. This study aims to examine how women diagnosed with fibromyalgia manage stress in their own couple and to investigate the role of dyadic coping in anxiety and depression symptoms, and in life satisfaction. Seventy-three women diagnosed with fibromyalgia and 73 matched women filled questionnaires to examine dyadic coping, anxiety and depression symptoms, and life satisfaction. Results show that women diagnosed with fibromyalgia perceived themselves and their partner as using more negative dyadic coping, more delegated dyadic coping and less common dyadic coping. Moreover, negative dyadic coping predicted higher anxiety symptoms and poorer life satisfaction. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of dyadic stress management in understanding psychological adjustment better in women diagnosed with fibromyalgia and the need to develop better-adapted interventions to support them effectively.     

Communication of Information about Genetic Risks: Putting Families at the Center

Genetic information is a family affair. With the expansion of genomic technologies, many new causal genes and variants have been established and the potential for molecular diagnoses increased, with implications not only for patients but also their relatives. The need for genetic counseling and intrafamilial circulation of information on genetic risks grew accordingly. Also, the amount and, particularly, the complexity of the information to convey multiplied. Sharing information about genetic risks with family members, however, has never been an easy matter and often becomes a source of personal and familial conflicts and distress. Ethical requisites generally prevent healthcare professionals from directly contacting their consultands' relatives (affected or still at risk), who often feel unsupported throughout that process. We discuss here the communication of genetic risks to family members. We first consider genomic testing as a basis for family‐centered health care, as opposed to a predominant focus on the individual. We reviewed the literature on sharing genetic risk information with family members, and the associated ethical issues for professionals. Some clinical cases are presented and discussed, and key issues for meeting the needs of individuals and families are addressed. We argue that genetic information is inextricably linked to the family and that communicating about genetic risks is a process grounded within the broader milieu of family relationships and functioning. We conclude for the need for a more family‐centered approach and interventions that can promote sensitive attitudes to the provision of genetic information to and within the family, as well as its inclusion in educational and training programmes for genetic healthcare professionals.     

The Mandate of the Ecumenical Movement

This is the text of the address given by Willem A. Visser 't Hooft to the Uppsala Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in 1968 after being named honorary president of the WCC, following his retirement as general secretary two years earlier. In this address, Visser 't Hooft reviews the 20th‐century history of the ecumenical movement and the contemporary mandate of the WCC, in which the central issue is the relationship between the church and the world, where the vertical dimension to God of the church's unity determines the horizontal dimension of its service to the world. The address concludes with four challenges: no horizontal advance without vertical orientation; the ecumenical movement and the churches need each other; church unity is important; and youth expects answers.     

Does childhood general cognitive ability at age 12 predict subjective well-being at age 52?

Drawing on a broad, multidimensional conceptualization of subjective well-being, this study examined the power of childhood general cognitive ability to predict life satisfaction, satisfaction with eight individual life domains, and the frequency of experiencing positive and negative affect in middle adulthood. Data were obtained from a representative Luxembourgish sample (N = 738; 53% female) in a longitudinal study conducted in 1968 and 2008. Childhood general cognitive ability was unrelated to life satisfaction, negatively related to negative affect and satisfaction with free time, and positively related to positive affect and satisfaction with some of the life domains associated with socioeconomic success (i.e. finances, self, housing, work, or health). This predictive power persisted even when childhood socioeconomic status was controlled.     

Does personality moderate reaction and adaptation to major life events? Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey

A nationally representative panel study of British households was used to examine the extent to which Big Five personality traits interact with the experience of major life events (marriage, childbirth, unemployment, and widowhood) to predict increases and decreases in life satisfaction following the event. Results show that major life events are associated with changes in life satisfaction, and some of these changes are very long lasting. Personality traits did not have consistent moderating effects on the association between stressful life events and life satisfaction over time.     

The General Factor of Psychosocial Development and its relation to the General Factor of Personality and Life History strategy

It was hypothesized that the eight Eriksonian psychosocial stages form a single latent variable or General Factor of Psychosocial Development (GFPD) and that this latent factor is associated with the General Factor of Personality (GFP) and Life History (LH) strategy to the extent that the variables form a higher order Super-K factor. Correlational analyses and confirmatory factor analyses each supported the hypothesized GFPD. Additionally, correlational and confirmatory factor analyses supported the hypothesis that the three variables form a single Super-K factor. The results of Study 3 suggest that the relationship between the psychosocial stages and between the GFPD, GFP, and LH strategy remained after controlling for social desirable response biases.     

The role of optimism in patients with tinnitus and in patients with hearing impairment

Abstract

Optimism was investigated in a sample of audiology clinic patients, consisting of one group of tinnitus sufferers (N = 30) and one group of hearing impaired subjects not experiencing tinnitus (N = 44). Optimism was measured by the Life Orientation Test (LOT). In the tinnitus group the LOT correlated significantly with measures of tinnitus related distress and in the hearing impaired group with measures of disability and emotional reactions due to the hearing impairment. Cronbach's alphas for the measures used were generally high. Principal components analysis of the LOT confirmed earlier findings by showing two separate factors; one with the positively worded LOT items reflecting the presence of optimism and one with the negatively worded LOT items reflecting the presence of pessimism. The results indicate that dispositional optimism is an usable concept in research with audiological samples, and that optimism is related with tinnitus distress and experienced disability and emotional reactions due to hearing impairment. Further research should investigate the possible role of personality factors in tinnitus and hearing impairment.     

Slow and steady wins the race: Life history,mate value,and mate settling

Life history theory explains how individuals decide to invest their limited resources, which involves several trade-offs. Particularly relevant to the current work, individuals can choose to invest in current or delayed reproduction (a slow life history strategy), which implicates a trade-off between the quantity and the quality of one’s offspring. Choosing to delay reproduction allows for increased self-investment, and previous research has demonstrated that traits requiring self-investment are related to higher mate value. As such, the current study hypothesizes that slow life history strategy will predict high personal mate value and high levels of partner mate-value within heterosexual partnerships. Similarly, those with a slow life history strategy should display fewer tendencies toward mate-settling. The current work employs both subjective and objective measures of mate value within mateships to investigate these hypothesized relationships. As hypothesized, significant positive relationships among life history and mate value were detected, suggesting that a slower life history strategy corresponds to high ratings of mate value for both self and partner. Also, life history strategy is a significant predictor of subjective, objective, and Mate Value Inventory ratings of partner and self. Further implications and potential future works are discussed.     

The measurement of Human Life History strategy

This retrospective essay appraises J. Philippe Rushton’s application of life history to understanding the covariation among human traits in light of subsequent developments in the measurement and latent structure of Human Life History, covitality, and personality. We conclude that Rushton should be recognized for having initiated a theoretically and empirically highly fertile paradigm in human individual differences research.     

Global behavioral variation: A test of differential-K

Despite Rushton’s path-breaking work into evolutionary forces affecting life history traits, not many attempts at operationalizing the differential-K spectrum at the level of countries or racial groups have been made so far. We report the construction of a “national K” factor from country-level behavioral variables. This K factor is closely related to country-level intelligence (“g”), operationalized by a composite score of IQ and scholastic achievement. We further demonstrate relationships of both g and K with measures of current environment and hypothesized evolutionary antecedents. Whereas K is predicted most powerfully by intelligence, log-transformed GDP (lgGDP) and skin reflectance, g is predicted by skin reflectance, lgGDP, cranial capacity, and a measure of evolutionary novelty.