Breast Cancer in Men: A Need for Psychological Intervention

Male breast cancer is a serious issue that needs to be addressed more fully by the medical and public community. However, due to a lack of awareness and limited research on the topic, there is a general absence of knowledge concerning the psychological implications of this disease in men as well as a need for greater understanding of the medical diagnosis and treatment of male breast carcinoma. Similarly, there still remains a considerable gender difference between the awareness of female breast cancer and male breast cancer Although breast cancer in men makes up only 1% of all breast cancers reported in the United States, it is increasing in incidence. There are approximately 2000 new cases and approximately 450 deaths due to male breast cancer each year. Breast cancer diagnosis and treatment in men is very similar to that described in women, however, it has been shown that men are being diagnosed at a later stage of the disease than women.     

Intelligence in childhood and risk of psychological distress in adulthood: The 1958 National Child Development Survey and the 1970 British Cohort Study

Lower cognitive ability is a risk factor for some forms of severe psychiatric disorder, but it is unclear whether it influences risk of psychological distress due to anxiety or the milder forms of depression. The participants in the present study were members of two British birth national birth cohorts, the 1958 National Child Development Survey (n = 6369) and the 1970 British Cohort Study (n = 6074). We examined the association between general cognitive ability (intelligence) measured at age 10 (1970 cohort) and 11 years (1958 cohort) and high levels of psychological distress at age 30 (1970 cohort) or 33 years (1958 cohort), defined as a score of 7 or more on the Malaise Inventory. In both cohorts, participants with higher intelligence in childhood had a reduced risk of psychological distress. In sex-adjusted analyses, a standard deviation (15 points) increase in IQ score was associated with a 39% reduction in psychological distress in the 1958 cohort and a 23% reduction in the 1970 cohort [odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) were 0.61 (0.56, 0.68) and 0.77 (0.72, 0.83), respectively]. These associations were only slightly attenuated by further adjustment for potential confounding factors in childhood, including birth weight, parental social class, material circumstances, parental death, separation or divorce, and behaviour problems, and for potential mediating factors in adulthood, educational attainment and current social class. Intelligence in childhood is a risk factor for psychological distress due to anxiety and the milder forms of depression in young adults. Understanding the mechanisms underlying this association may help inform methods of prevention.     

Treatment for Deliberate Self-Harm: Integrating Emotion-Focused Therapy

This article proposes that Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) can be effectively utilized as a treatment modality for deliberate self-harm or integrated with existing treatment approaches. A brief literature review examines evidence suggesting that attachment and emotion regulation are important etiological variables associated with deliberate self-harm. EFT addresses these variables by emphasizing the importance of the therapeutic relationship and assisting clients in the regulation and transformation of negative, maladaptive emotions. The article describes the basic tenets of EFT, comparing and contrasting this approach with therapeutic models most commonly used in the treatment of deliberate self-harm. Finally, it is recommended that future outcome research utilize randomized clinical trials to evaluate the effectiveness of EFT and compare it with other treatment modalities.     

Wittgenstein's therapies: From rules to hinges

Recently Wittgenstein's claim to be primarily engaged in a kind of therapy for the problems that trouble people in the grip of a certain picture of how things must be has been strongly emphasized. The form the therapy takes is to display various kinds of grammatical errors in the pathological practice. In Wittgenstein's late work, On Certainty, the role of the concept of rule as the ground of a practice is extended to include a different kind of grounding in “hinges”. I argue that there is a therapeutic role for the work of bringing to light the “hinges” that hold fast when the door of philosophy turns. I contrast examples of Wittgensteinian therapy where the cure is achieved by a display of grammatical rules, to cases in which the cure depends on emphasizing the role of a hinge or hinges in pathological confusions of thought in psychology.     

The Mediating Effects of Psychological Contracts on the Relationship Between Human Resource Systems and Role Behaviors: A Multilevel Analysis

Purpose  The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effect of the psychological contracts on the relationship between human resource (HR) systems and role behavior. Design/Methodology/Approach  Multilevel analyses were conducted on data gathered from 146 knowledge workers and 28 immediate managers in 25 Taiwanese high-tech firms. Findings  Relational psychological contracts mediated the relationship between commitment-based HR systems and in-role behaviors, as well as organizational citizenship behaviors. Transactional psychological contracts did not significantly mediate these relationships. In addition, the results also indicated that commitment-based HR systems related positively to relational psychological contracts and negatively to transactional psychological contracts. Practical Implications  Commitment-based HR systems could elicit a wide range of knowledge workers’ behaviors that are beneficial to the goals of the firms. Furthermore, our findings also provide insight into, how HR systems potentially elicit employees’ role behaviors. Organizations could elicit employees’ in-role behaviors by providing financial and other non-financial, but tangible, inducements and facilitate employees’ extra-role behaviors by providing positive experiences, such as respect, commitment, and support. Originality/Value  The study is one of the primary studies to empirically examine the mediating effect of psychological contracts on HR systems and employee behaviors.

就业危机形势下——大学生就业心理问题分析及对策研究

在当前就业危机的严峻形势下,大学生就业是一个社会热点和难点问题。大学生的就业压力越来越大,由此导致大学生出现了自卑、不平衡、自负等一系列的就业心理问题。本文就大学生就业心理问题的表现、产生就业心理问题的原因以及应采取的措施作以分析。     

Predictors of Parenting Stress for Abusive and Nonabusive Mothers

We examined a model of parenting stress for abusive mothers (n = 80) and nonabusive mothers (n = 86) using linear regression analyses. Predictors in the model included (a) the degree to which mothers were bothered by child misbehavior, (b) mothers’ general psychological functioning, and (c) observed child behavior during parent–child interactions. Whether abuse status moderated the relations between each predictor and parenting stress was also explored. Results indicated that mothers’ psychological functioning significantly predicted parenting stress; however, neither mothers’ intolerance for their children’s misbehavior nor observed child behavior were significant predictors of parenting stress in the regression model. A test of moderation revealed a significant interaction between parental intolerance and abuse status such that intolerance predicted parenting stress level only for abusive mothers. A comparison of correlations indicated that abusive mothers’ level of parenting stress was more closely related to their intolerance for child conduct problems than to the child’s behavior during play with their mothers. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for interventions to reduce parenting stress experienced by nonabusive and abusive mothers.     

Psychometric Evaluation of the Meaningful Life Measure

The 23-item Meaningful Life Measure (Morgan and Farsides 2008) comprises five subscales, each designed to assess a distinct component of personal meaning: purposeful life; valued life; accomplished life; principled life; and exciting life. In addition to providing a comprehensive composite meaning measure, this instrument presents the possibility of measuring these components separately in future research applications. To demonstrate the utility of their separate measurement, the present study therefore aimed to show differential patterns of correlation between these five subscales and meaning correlates identified in the literature. The MLM’s factor structure and internal reliability were replicated on the present sample. Evidence was then provided for the MLM’s convergent validity, and it was demonstrated that its five subscales were indeed differently predicted by the meaning correlates from the literature. Findings attest to the practical utility of a five-factor conceptualisation of meaning in life. In addition to identifying people who score low and high on different factors of meaning in life, the MLM facilitates the further investigation of specific antecedents and consequences of different meaning components.

Social neuroscience of child and adolescent depression

The social neuroscience of child and adolescent depression is inherently multidisciplinary. Depressive disorders beginning early in life can have serious developmental and functional consequences. Psychopathology research has described depression's defining clinical and contextual features, and intervention research has characterized its response to treatment and prevention programs. Neuroendocrine, electrophysiological, and neuroimaging studies have identified core neurobiological aspects of early-onset mood disorders. These areas are reviewed using a developmental social neuroscience perspective for integrating disparate observations. The paper introduces a dynamic adaptive systems framework, and it discusses hedonic capacity, stress sensitivity, ruminative self-focus, and attentional impairments as fundamental components of mood disorders.     

Incremental Validity of Coping-oriented Marijuana Use Motives in the Prediction of Affect-based Psychological Vulnerability

The present investigation examined whether coping-oriented motives to use marijuana, as measured by the Marijuana Motives Measure (MMM; Simons et al. in J. Couns. Psychol. 45:265–273, 1998), were uniquely related to affect-based psychological vulnerability factors among marijuana users. Participants were 131 adult current marijuana users (72 women, M _age = 20.14, SD = 3.37 years). As hypothesized, after controlling for gender, cigarettes smoked per day, past 30-day marijuana use, total years of marijuana use, and alcohol consumption, coping motives were significantly and incrementally related to negative affect-based psychological vulnerability factors. No other marijuana use motives demonstrated a similar type of relationship to the dependent variables, providing a high degree of explanatory specificity. These data suggest that coping-oriented motives to use marijuana may be an important explanatory construct in better understanding marijuana and psychological vulnerability relations.