Maintaining perceived control with unemployment facilitates future adjustment

Unemployment is a major challenge to individuals' development. An important personal resource to ameliorate the negative impact of unemployment may be perceived control, a general-purpose belief system. Little is known, however, about how perceived control itself changes with the experience of unemployment and what the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of such change in perceived control are in different ages. We use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (N = 413 who experienced unemployment and N = 413 case-matched controls; time period of data collection: 1994–1996) to examine whether perceived control changes with unemployment, explore the role of socio-demographic, psychosocial and health factors in moderating such change, and investigate whether levels of perceived control prior to unemployment and unemployment-related change in perceived control predict unemployment-related outcomes up to five years following. Results indicated that, on average, perceived control remained relatively stable with unemployment, and that younger and older workers did not differ in this regard. However, there were sizeable individual differences in change in perceived control, with women and those with fewer years of education experiencing greater unemployment-related declines in perceived control. Lower levels of perceived control prior to unemployment and steeper unemployment-related decrements in perceived control were each associated with a higher risk of remaining unemployed in the 12 months immediately following unemployment. Steeper unemployment-related declines in perceived control also predicted lower life satisfaction up to five years following. We discuss possible pathways by which perceived control may facilitate adjustment to unemployment, consider the role of perceived control for better understanding the dynamics of unemployment, and suggest routes for further more process-oriented inquiry.     

Positive and problematic support,stress and quality of life in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

Background and Objectives: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disease. Previous studies showed that perceived social support has an important role in enhancing patient's quality of life (QOL). However, the precise mechanisms through which social support exerts such an effect are not completely understood. The aim of this paper is to test two alternative models explaining the relationship between social support (positive and problematic) and two dimensions of QOL: Health-Related (HR-QOL) and Non-Health-Related (NHR-QOL). Design: Model A (mediation) hypothesized that positive support would reduce stress while problematic support would increase stress), and that this in turn would reduce QOL. Model B (moderation) hypothesized that the effect of support on QOL would be moderated by the experience of stress in that more stressed individuals would show stronger effects. Methods: Three hundred and forty-four Italian patients with SLE completed an online questionnaire. Results: Stress partially mediated the relationship between support and QOL dimensions (either HR-QOL and NHR-QOL) thus supporting Model B. As hypothesized, positive support reduced stress, while problematic support increased stress. Conclusions: These findings help to explain the complex relationship between social support, stress and QOL in patients with SLE.     

Cognitive bias modification as a strategy to reduce children's fears and concerns about the secondary school transition

Background and objectives: Cognitive Bias Modification of Interpretations (CBM-I) has emerged as an anxiety-reducing tool for children and adolescents, targeting maladaptive interpretations of everyday situations. This literature falls short of addressing whether the effects of CBM-I extend to worries about a real-life stressor, such as a school transition. Design: The study comprised a between-groups design comparing the effects of CBM-I to an active control (AC) intervention in children. Method: We recruited 38 children within two months of their primary–secondary school transition and investigated the capacity for multi-session, parent-administered CBM-I, compared to an AC condition, to modify cognitive style and reduce anxiety symptoms and school concerns. Results: While benign interpretations increased significantly and negative interpretations tended to decrease following CBM-I, both interventions significantly reduced anxiety symptoms and school concerns. Conclusions: These findings indicate that anxiety-reducing effects of CBM-I in children extend to a real life stressful event, but that equivalent anxiety reduction may be achieved through exposure to potentially worrying situations and parent–child interaction in the absence of bias modification.     

L’indépendance du médecin à nouveau proclamée

In the must-known “Vincent Lambert case”, many jurisdictions have had to adjudicate on what was submitted to them. The latest decision from Châlons-en-Champagne's administrative court almost went unnoticed. However, the judgment turns out to be truly significant. It reminds that the principles of medical doctor's independence and freedom of action are simply fundamentals and unavoidable. The patient management practitioner shall not be regarded as a mere executor of an earlier decision taken by a medical colleague.     

Dental pain related to quality of life and mental health in South Korean adults

High levels of stress, anxiety and depression have been reported in patients with orofacial pain. Dental pain has the potential to reduce quality of life (QOL), and pain relief is important aspect of QOL. The purpose of this study was to assess the relationships of dental pain with QOL and mental health using a nationally representative, population-based study. This study analyzed data from the 2012 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (N = 5469). Oral health status was assessed using the oral health questionnaire, and oral examination was performed by trained dentists. Health-related QOL (HRQOL) was evaluated using EQ-5D and EQ-VAS, and mental health was evaluated by questionnaires. Logistic regression was applied to estimate adjusted odds ratios (AOR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Among 5469 adults, 1992 (36.42%) presented self-reported dental pain. Participants with anxiety/depression or pain/discomfort, and participants with stress, melancholy, suicidal thought or depression showed significantly higher prevalence of dental pain. After adjusting for covariates, five aspects of QOL and five aspects of mental health were related with dental pain. The AORs (95% CI) for dental pain were 1.39 (1.06–1.81) for mobility, 1.77 (1.19–2.63) for self-care, 1.38 (1.02–1.85) for usual activities, 1.73 (1.43–2.09) for pain/discomfort and 1.50 (1.13–1.98) for anxiety/depression. For mental health status factors, the AORs (95% CI) for dental pain were 1.29 (1.11–1.51) for stress, 1.37 (1.09–1.74) for melancholy, 1.26 (1.01–1.58) for suicidal thoughts, 1.43 (.93–2.19) for consultation to psychiatrist and 1.53 (1.07–2.19) for depression. This study showed that dental pain has an association with lower HRQOL and worse mental health status in South Korean adults.     

The experience of meditation for people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and their caregivers – a qualitative analysis

There is a lack of studies about psychological interventions for people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and their caregivers. We investigated the experience of a meditation training program tailored for ALS needs. People with ALS (pALS) and their caregivers that joined a meditation program for ALS were interviewed at the end of the program. Verbatims were analyzed with a qualitative approach. Both pALS and their caregivers reported a positive impact on their psychological well-being, promoted by an increase in acceptance and non-judgmental attitude. Furthermore, coping strategies seem to improve, with a positive effect on resilience skills. The ALS meditation training program seems to be an effective psychological intervention for the promotion of well-being in pALS and their caregivers.     

Physical activity and psychosomatic-related health problems as correlates of quality of life among university students

This study aimed to investigate the role of psychosomatic problems in the relationship between physical activity and healthrelated quality of life. Participants were a convenience sample of 703 students from a South African university (males = 38.8%, females = 61.2%, mean age = 19.6 years, SD = 1.26 years). The students completed measures of physical activity, psychosomatic-related health problems and quality of life-related. The hypothesised model was tested using structural equation modelling (SEM). The empirical findings revealed that psychosomatic problems mediated the relationship between physical activity and quality of life. In fact, the mediation analyses showed a partial effect of physical activity on quality of life in that those students with less self-reported activity experienced several psychosomatic-related health problems.     

Timelines for difficult times: use of visual timelines in interviewing suicide attempters

The stories of people who attempt suicide are insufficiently reflected in suicide research in psychology. This article outlines a method using a visual timeline during the interviews to explore the narratives of suicide attempts. The method was successfully employed in two studies to collect data on the suicidal process from people with prior experience of suicide attempts. The advantages of the method in collecting comprehensive data, building rapport, and fostering participants’ insight are outlined. Strategies that were used to ensure safety of participants are described in addition to the requirements for interviewers seeking to apply this method.     

Is Philosophy All About the Meaning of Life?

This article defends a conception of philosophy popular outside the discipline but unpopular within it: that philosophy is unified by a concern with the meaning of life. First, it argues against exceptionalist theses according to which philosophy is unique among academic disciplines in not being united by a distinctive subject matter. It then presents a positive account, showing that the issue of the meaning of life is uniquely able to reveal unity between the practical and theoretical concerns of philosophy, while meeting a range of desiderata for a typical specification of subject matter. After showing how recent analytic work on “the meaning of life” has conflated the traditional question with issues of social meaningfulness, it offers an explanation of why the traditional question has become marginalised in philosophy. The reasons are not good, however, so it concludes that philosophy should embrace its popular image.     

Cognitive exercise through body movement: Using a fun and short neuropsychological tool to adapt physical activity and enhance pleasure in individuals suffering from mental illnesses

Mental illness is associated to both metabolic and cognitive deficits. The idea here is to use adapted physical activity (APA) to help both aspects of pathology within a personal-targeted cognitive intervention program in order to enhance self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation. Using a multi-experience neuropsychological tool set (comprising touch pad exercises, wood puzzles and one-on-one semi-structured interviews), the different domains of action, timing, executive functions and social cognition were evaluated in a short 30-minute session. These computerized neuropsychological data were then used to adapt the difficulty of the proposed physical activity. Results obtained in a small group of ten patients revealed that the battery was well accepted. Both quantitative and qualitative results were collected and suggested that after 4 sessions of 2 h activity, the scores were improved for motor planning, motivation and the subjective report of quality of life. These preliminary data are important as they show that new technology can now be used to adapt automatically physical activities to the motor, cognitive and emotional capacities of the targeted individuals. Touch pads may also afford an innovating way to evaluate efficiently cognitive abilities while preserving the pleasure of the moment.