Topic-relevant cognition and empathic accuracy in laboratory discussions of safer sex

Abstract

The present study sought to identify some of the mechanisms that make safer sex such a difficult topic to talk about. Fifty six dating couples participated in a laboratory study in which the opposite-sex members of two pairs of couples engaged in two discussions of safer sex (or a control topic), each time with a different opposite-sex partner (their own dating partner or an opposite-sex stranger). The results indicated that discussions of safer sex evoke in dating partners a high level of perceived goal-incompatibility, difficulty maintaining one's focus on the topic, and difficulty in reading the other partner's thoughts and feelings. These reactions did not occur in response to the control topic. This initial demonstration study is important with respect to the processes it implicates, but further clarification is needed regarding the specific real-life conditions in which these processes do, and do not, occur.     

What makes labour and birth traumatic? A survey of intrapartum ‘hotspots’

Evidence suggests between 1% and 6% of women develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after childbirth. ‘Hotspots’ are moments of extreme distress during traumatising events that are implicated in symptoms of PTSD. This cross-sectional internet survey of hotspots examined (1) the content of intrapartum hotspots and (2) whether particular events, cognitions or emotions during hotspots are related to PTSD. Women (N?=?675) who experienced a difficult or traumatic birth completed a questionnaire composed of a validated measure of PTSD, questions concerning the existence of hotspots, and a newly developed measure of emotions and cognitions during hotspots. The majority of women (67.4%) reported at least one hotspot during birth and 52.9% had re-experiencing symptoms of these hotspots. Women were more likely to have PTSD if hotspots involved fear and lack of control (odds ratio (OR) 1.30, 95% CI 1.17–1.43) or intrapartum dissociation (OR 1.12, 95% CI 1.05–1.19). Risk of PTSD was higher if hotspots concerned interpersonal difficulties (OR 4.34, 95% CI 2.15–8.77) or obstetric complications (OR 3.35, 95% CI 1.64–6.87) compared to complications with the baby.     

医学实验设计的几点思考

通过分析医学实验设计中常见的问题,思考其原因,提出了解决这些问题的初浅体会:针对研究主题,全面考量研究环节;重视知识积累,合理预知"未知"的结果;对他人和自己的研究行不间断反思;在研究活动持有客观的态度。     

Revisioning Fordham's ‘Defences of the self’ in light of modern relational theory and contemporary neuroscience

This paper explores the evolution of Michael Fordham's ideas concerning ‘defences of the self’, including his application of this concept to a group of ‘difficult’ adult patients in his famous 1974 paper by the same name. After tracing the relevance of Fordham's ideas to my own discovery of a ‘self‐care system’ in the psychological material of early trauma patients (Kalsched 1996 ), I describe how Fordham's seminal notions might be revisioned in light of contemporary relational theory as well as early attachment theory and affective neuroscience. These revisionings involve an awareness that the severe woundings of early unremembered trauma are not transformable through interpretation but will inevitably be repeated in the transference, leading to mutual ‘enactments’ between the analytic partners and, hopefully, to a new outcome. A clinical example of one such mutual enactment between the author and his patient is provided. The paper concludes with reflections on the clinical implications of this difficult case and what it means to become a ‘real person’ to our patients. Finally, Jung's alchemical views on transference are shown to be useful analogies in our understanding of the necessary mutuality in the healing process with these patients.     

An integrative review of process dissociation and related models in social cognition

This chapter reviews the use of formal dual process models in social psychology, with a focus on the process dissociation model and related multinomial models. The utility of the models is illustrated using studies of social and affective influences on memory, judgement and decision making, and social attitudes and stereotypes. We then compare and contrast the process dissociation model with other approaches, including implicit and explicit tests, signal detection theory, and multinomial models. Finally we show how several recently proposed multinomial models can be integrated into a single family of models, of which process dissociation is a specific instance. We describe how these process models can be used as both theoretical and measurement tools to answer questions about the role of automatic and controlled processes in social behaviour.     

医学方法的演进与循证医学

医学方法是医学理论发展的显著标志。随着医学方法由自然观察、科学实验到循证医学的依次演进,医学也由古代医学、近代实验医学日益提升为现代循证医学。客观、辩证地认识医学方法的演变过程,对于更好地掌握和应用先进的循证医学法,促进人类医学事业的发展具有重要的理论意义和实践意义。     

Towards Working Life: Effects of an intervention on mental health and transition to post-basic education

The Towards Working Life group method was designed to promote the transition to the upper secondary level or vocational studies and to support mental health among young people finishing their basic education. This study examined the effects of the intervention during upper secondary and vocational studies in a randomized field experimental study among a total of 1034 students. At the one-year follow-up, the program had increased both education related social ties and the number of adults in these ties. The group intervention had interaction effects with baseline risk of depression and learning difficulties on symptoms of depression and school burnout. Among those initially at risk of depression, the intervention decreased symptoms of depression. For students who were at risk of depression and had learning difficulties, the intervention decreased school burnout.