The plural taboo

The human incest taboo is here conceptualized as a plural, gender-related psychological reality whose major strands are (1) an instinctual female incest inhibition and (2) a cultural father incest prohibition. These strands are experienced in a plural phenomenology - as a mother taboo, father taboo, daughter taboo, son taboo, and brother-sister taboo. The instinctual inhibition can be demonstrated in a wide range of plant and animal life, not just humans. The cultural prohibition would appear to have originated out of the instinctual inhibition after humans realized the existence of the previously unrecognized father-daughter relationship. The individual ontology of the taboos is explained in terms of object relations theory; the inhibition and prohibition are seen as psychodynamically unique and their differences are compared. It is proposed that the fuller realization of the plural nature of the incest taboo will not only maximize human ability to prevent actual incest but also lead to greater effectiveness for both males and females in the arena of sexual politics. Finally, the notion of the plural taboo is a clinical standpoint from which to explore sexual transference and countertransference in psychotherapy.     

Perfectionism and Sexual Satisfaction in Intimate Relationships

This study sought to provide information on the relations between trait perfectionism and perfectionistic self-presentation and sexual satisfaction in married couples. A sample of 74 married or cohabiting couples were recruited from the community to participate in the study. They completed measures of perfectionism, perfectionistic self-presentation, sexual satisfaction, dyadic adjustment, and depression. The results showed that the interpersonal dimensions of trait perfectionism were negatively related to general sexual satisfaction and sexual satisfaction with the partner for both husbands and wives. After partialing out marital satisfaction and depression, the husband's sexual satisfaction was significantly negatively correlated with his own socially prescribed perfectionism and with his wife's ratings of other-oriented perfectionism. The wife's satisfaction was significantly negatively correlated both with her husband's socially prescribed perfectionism and with her own socially prescribed perfectionism, other-oriented perfectionism, and perfectionistic self-presentation. Regression analyses suggest that the wife's other-oriented perfectionism is a unique predictor of her general lower sexual satisfaction and her husband's lower satisfaction with her contribution to the sexual relationship. Overall, the findings suggest that perfectionistic expectations have an important role to play in sexual satisfaction in married couples.     

Sexual and Physical Abuse Among Adolescent Girls with Disruptive Behavior Problems

We examined the prevalence and age of onset of physical and sexual abuse in a clinic-referred sample of adolescent girls, as well as differences in diagnoses and symptoms among abused and non-abused girls. Forty-nine girls (aged 13–17 years) with disruptive behavior were interviewed along with their primary caretaker. Data were gathered through both a structured interview with the girl and her parent, as well as self and parent-report questionnaires. Findings indicated that the prevalence of Conduct Disorder (CD) and Major Depression were higher for abused girls. Somatoform Pain Disorder was significantly less likely for physically abused girls, compared to girls who were both physically and sexually abused. Of CD symptoms, truancy was twice as high for the physically and sexually abused group, compared to the prevalence for non-abused girls. Internalizing symptoms were also highest for the dual abuse group. Onset graphs show that the onset of sexual abuse usually occurred at an earlier age than the onset of physical abuse. Abused girls showed an earlier age of onset of CD symptoms. Results indicated that the experience of combined types of abuse is associated with a poorer psychiatric prognosis.     

Reducing HIV risk-associated sexual behavior among african american adolescents: Testing the generality of intervention effects

This randomized controlled trial tested the effects of a theory-based culture-sensitive HIV risk-reduction intervention among 496 inner-city African American adolescents (mean age = 13 years) and examined the generality of its effects as a function of the facilitator's race and gender and the gender composition of the intervention group. Adolescents who received the HIV risk-reduction intervention expressed more favorable behavioral beliefs about condoms, greater self-efficacy, and stronger condom-use intentions postintervention than did those who received a control intervention on other health issues. Six-month follow-up data collected on 93% of the adolescents revealed that those who received the HIV risk-reduction intervention reported less HIV risk-associated sexual behavior, including unprotected coitus, than did their counterparts in the control condition. Self-reported sexual behavior and changes in self-reported behavior were unrelated to scores on a standard measure of social desirability response bias. There was strong evidence for the generality of intervention effects. Moderator analyses testing eight specific interaction hypotheses and correlational analyses indicated that the effects of the HIV risk-reduction intervention did not vary as a function of the facilitator's race or gender, participant's gender, or the gender composition of the intervention group. This research was supported in part by grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01-HD24921), the National Institute of Mental Health (R01-MH45668), and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions to this research of Margaret Bleier, Daria Boccher-Lattimore, Nancy L. Moore, Tatiana Perrino, Paul Pintella, and Fran Rosenfeld and the helpful suggestions of Isabel Fernandez, Caryn Lerman, and Ann O'Leary regarding an earlier version of this article.     

Dimensions of perfectionism and constructive thinking as a coping response

The present study examined perfectionism and general coping ability as assessed by a new measure of constructive thinking. A sample of 77 students completed the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS) and the Constructive Thinking Inventory (CTI). The MPS provides measures of selforiented, other-oriented, and socially prescribed perfectionism, while the CTI provides various measures, including summary scores of global constructive thinking, emotional coping, behavioral coping, categorical thinking, personal superstitious thinking, naive optimism, and esoteric thinking. Subjects also completed a measure of depressive symptoms so that we could examine perfectionism and coping independent of current levels of adjustment. The main finding was that socially prescribed perfectionism was associated with less constructive thinking and more negative coping across most of the CTI subscales, and these associations remained significant after removing variance due to levels of depression symptoms. Self-oriented perfectionism was adaptive in that it was associated with active forms of behavioral coping, but it was maladaptive in that it was associated with a form of emotional coping involving reduced self-acceptance. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the cognitive treatment of perfectionists. Queen's University This research was supported by grant #410-91-0856 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada awarded to the authors     

The nature of sexual reinforcement.

Sexual reinforcers are not part of a regulatory system involved in the maintenance of critical metabolic processes, they differ for males and females, they differ as a function of species and mating system, and they show ontogenetic and seasonal changes related to endocrine conditions. Exposure to a member of the opposite sex without copulation can be sufficient for sexual reinforcement. However, copulatory access is a stronger reinforcer, and copulatory opportunity can serve to enhance the reinforcing efficacy of stimulus features of a sexual partner. Conversely, under certain conditions, noncopulatory exposure serves to decrease reinforcer efficacy. Many common learning phenomena such as acquisition, extinction, discrimination learning, second-order conditioning, and latent inhibition have been demonstrated in sexual conditioning. These observations extend the generality of findings obtained with more conventional reinforcers, but the mechanisms of these effects and their gender and species specificity remain to be explored.     

The psychopathology of anorexia nervosa: A factor analytic investigation

To examine the psychopathology of anorexia nervosa, behavioral assessment measures sampling a wide range of relevant constructs were collected on 150 women diagnosed as having anorexia nervosa. The data were subjected to an exploratory factor analysis using maximum-likelihood estimation and oblique rotation. Five factors were extracted, which were titled Fasting and Restrictive Eating, Depression, Anxiety, and Negative Self-image, Bulimic Behaviors, Fear of Fatness/Body Image Disturbance, and Impulsive Behavior/Post-Traumatic Response. Discriminate function analysis suggested that, other than the bulimic behaviors factor, the Impulsive Behavior/Post-Traumatic Response factor best discriminated between bulimic and restrictor subtypes of anorexics. These data suggest that the underlying dimensions of anorexia nervosa are very similar to those of bulimia nervosa. The findings also have implications for the multidimensional assessment and treatment of anorexia nervosa as well as conceptual models of the disorder.     

AN ANALYSIS OF AND INTERVENTION IN THE SEXUAL TRANSMISSION OF DISEASE

Sexually transmitted diseases are a serious threat to the public health. Indeed, when an individual seeks medical treatment for a sexually transmitted disease, health authorities frequently attempt to identify, procure, and treat that individual's sexual contact(s). We conducted a comparative analysis of three alternative approaches to tracing the sexual partners of individuals diagnosed as having a sexually transmitted disease. The first approach involved counseling individuals (n = 27) infected with either gonorrhea or nongonococcal urethritis and exhorting them to procure their sexual partners for treatment. In addition to counseling, the second and third approaches involved distributing “occasion cards” for patients to use when informing sexual contacts of the need for treatment. Moreover, in the second approach, the counselor (a nurse or physician) informed infected patients (n = 19) that they and their partners could waive the $3 clinic fee contingent upon the partners seeking treatment within 1 week. In the third approach, the counselor asked infected persons (n = 19) to accept a follow-up telephone contact if their sexual partners failed to seek treatment within 1 week. The third approach was most effective. Ninety percent of the partners identified through this approach sought treatment, versus only about 60% of the partners in the other two conditions. The third approach was also the least expensive, costing about $2.95 to procure each partner for treatment.