Perceptions of alcohol risk among people on antiretroviral treatment in South Africa: a qualitative study

This study explored perceptions of alcohol abuse risk among people on antiretroviral treatment (ART) who self-identified as alcohol users. Twenty six people receiving ART from an out-patient setting were interviewed on their alcohol abuse risk perception. Data were thematically analysed. Findings suggest participants developed routines to drink alcohol around the times they took their antiretroviral medications to reduce adverse impact. They also reported alcohol abuse risk reduction strategies such as reducing alcohol use because of the event of an HIV positive diagnosis and/or getting on antiretroviral treatment, and alcohol use reduction following health education or counselling by health care staff. These findings suggest a need for alcohol interventions tailored to ART patients.     

Dynamics of Peer Victimization in Early Adolescence

ABSTRACT

This study addressed the stability of victimization across four consecutive years from Grades 4 to 7, and the concurrent correlates, short-term consequences, and predictors of victimization in early adolescence. Participants were 600 students (49% girls) enrolled in 10 elementary schools in Grades 4-5 and 2 middle schools in Grades 6-7 in an ethnically diverse school system. Data collection included peer nominations, self-reports, and teacher reports in each year. Victimization was highly stable across all years, including the transition from elementary to middle school. Both concurrent and short-term consequences showed that victimized 6th graders, especially girls, experienced significantly greater maladaptive outcomes than their nonvictim counterparts. For both genders, risk factors for adolescent victimization included externalizing and internalizing behaviors, while protective factors included academic and peer sociability elements. Implications for prevention and intervention are discussed.     

Chapter 8: “Always Green and Full of Sap”: Facilitating Wholeness in Aging

SUMMARY

Wholeness in aging is difficult to define, especially in the face of physical disability or catastrophic illness. How one meets the challenges of aging depends upon numerous physical, emotional, and spiritual factors. Rehabilitation may play an important role in restoring wholeness to those with physical disabilities. Likewise, a physical fitness program may lessen some of the effects of aging, helping the older person maintain a higher quality of life. The lived theologies of the older patients and their caregivers also interact, providing an important ground of connection in rediscovery of wholeness as well. Ultimately, our most important role as healthcare providers is to help our older patients regain and maintain this multidimensional wholeness even in times of physical challenge.     

Exploration of a Factor Mixture-Based Taxonic-Dimensional Model of Anxiety Sensitivity and Transdiagnostic Psychopathology Vulnerability Among Trauma-Exposed Adults

The aim of this study was to evaluate the associations between a factor mixture-based taxonic-dimensional model of anxiety sensitivity (AS) and posttraumatic stress, panic, generalized anxiety, depression, psychiatric multimorbidity, and quality of life among a young adult sample exposed to traumatic stress (N = 103, n _females = 66, M _age = 23.68 years, SD _age = 9.55). Findings showed support for the conceptual and operational utility of the AS taxonic-dimensional model with respect to concurrent transdiagnostic vulnerability among trauma-exposed adults. Specifically, relative to the low-AS group, the high-AS group demonstrated elevated levels of panic, depressive, and posttraumatic stress symptom severity as well as greater psychiatric multimorbidity and poorer quality of life. Furthermore, past-month MDD, GAD, PTSD, and panic attacks occurred nearly exclusively among the high-AS group. Continuous AS physical and psychological concerns scores were found to be significantly related to levels of panic and posttraumatic stress symptom severity, psychiatric multimorbidity as well as panic attack status only among the high-AS group and not among the low-AS group. Findings are discussed with respect to their implications for the conceptual and operational utility of the FMM-based taxonic-dimensional model of AS, related vulnerability for psychopathology in the context of trauma, and the clinical implications of these findings for assessment and intervention.     

跨文化判断与决策(英文)

本文对判断和决策研究领域所发现的跨文化差异进行了回顾。鉴于大多数判断和决策的跨文化研究都集中于对亚洲和西方文化的比较,本文也主要关注这方面的研究发现。具体来说,本文回顾了在概率判断及信心、风险知觉、冒险行为、消费者行为以及经济判断和决策中所存在的跨文化差异。综述结果表明尽管亚洲人和西方人的判断和决策行为存在很大的跨文化差异,研究也发现了显著的文化内差异。目前关于判断和决策的跨文化差异的研究还相对匮乏,未来还需要更多的研究来进一步了解判断和决策行为的跨文化差别及机制。     

当局者迷,旁观者清?自我-他人决策的理性差异及其机制

生活充满抉择,由于知识经验的局限,人们常需寻求他人建议,抑或直接请他人代己决策.诸多研究探讨了自我决策、向他人建议,以及代他人决策之间的差异.探究这种差异的动因之一在于考察何种条件下的决策更优或更“理性”.以往研究表明,自我决策或他人决策(向他人建议或代他人决策)均有可能更易违背理性决策原则,隐含着他人决策优于自我决策的“当局者迷,旁观者清”这一传统智慧有一定的边界条件.研究者一般从认知(建构水平理论)、情绪(类型和卷入度),以及动机(调节聚焦理论)三种视角对自我-他人决策差异进行解释.本文作者提出基于理由的决策(reason-based account)假设来解释自我-他人决策在理性程度上的差异.未来研究可从决策过程及脑机制上深入考察自我-他人决策差异及其机制.     

Multicriteria Classification with Unknown Categories: A Clustering–Sorting Approach and an Application to Conflict Management

This work proposes an approach to cluster and sort a set of alternatives considering multi‐criteria categories with a partial order structure. It can be considered a heuristic approach because it does not attempt to derive an optimal partial order among all conceivable clusters of alternatives. Rather than this, it intends to be a simple approach that is transparent to the Decision Maker (DM) whose assistance is sought to help shaping the results. The approach proposed arises from the conjugation of traditional Clustering analysis and Multi‐criteria sorting tools. At the outset, the number of categories and their characteristics is unknown. First, we need to detect only the clusters themselves on the basis of a similarity measure independent of the preferences of the DM. Next, we detect potential partial order relations that might exist between them, according to the subjective preferences of the DM. Such preferences are elicited only after the DM has examined the clusters detected and deemed that these categories made sense. The new approach performs very well in a real‐world problem of management of intragroup conflicts and conflict handling strategies. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Environmental anxiety: Assessing emotional distress and concerns after toxin exposure

Abstract

Anxiety in face of environmental risks is common, but few attempts have been made to assess individual differences psychometrically and to validate the measures in samples that have suffered from exposure to neurotoxic substances. The present study deals with this problem in two ways. First, levels of general anxiety were determined in two large independent samples of workers who were exposed to multiple organic solvents and in their nonexposed referents. In both samples, anxiety was substantially higher in exposed subjects than in their referents. Second, an Environmental Worry Scale (EWS) was developed and validated in three samples. This 17-item instrument and its 8-item subscale yielded satisfactory psychometric properties and also succeeded in discriminating solvent exposed from nonexposed subjects. Finally, the EWS was used in a structural equation model that was designed to predict the intention to avoid chemicals. The worry factor served as a mediator between exposure and intention, whereas exposure by itself did not influence intentions.     

Social Services Workers and Workplace Violence

Researchers and workplace violence experts have cited risk factors that theoretically increase the likelihood that individuals will experience workplace violence. Those include working alone, contact with the public, traveling to dangerous areas, as well as other factors. By the very nature of what social services workers do, many encounter these risk factors on a regular basis. Using national data, trends in workplace violence experienced by social services workers are examined, and comparisons are made between the rates of workplace violence among similar workgroups. Results suggest that social services workers are nearly six times more likely than other workers to experience workplace violence. In the discussion, attention is given to strategies to prevent violence against social services workers.     

Women Experiencing Psychological Abuse: Are They a Homogenous Group?

Dichotomizing women as “abused” versus “not abused” assumes that any psychological maltreatment results in similar outcomes. A national sample of women in conflictual relationships completed an online survey. Women with no incidence (N = 33), the lowest quartile (N = 86), and the top quartile (N = 81) of psychological maltreatment demonstrated significant differences in reactions to the maltreatment, mental health indicators, personality variables, perceived harm, problematic relationship schemas, and response styles. Women with no psychological abuse and women in the lowest quartile produced similar scores that were typically distinct from the top-quartile women. Effective treatment of women with lower amounts of psychological abuse might not require a unique intervention likely necessary for women experiencing much psychological abuse.