Analysis of long-term stress reactions in emergency room patients: An initial study

The psychological stress reactions of 44 family medicine patients who were treated in the emergency room were examined approximately a year after the event. Patients were assessed on several psychological measures, including one for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and on their perception of how stressful the event was initially and now. Results show continuing stress reactions related to the emergency room event. Three patients endorsed symptoms indicating full PTSD and 13 appeared to have at least partial PTSD. Age appeared to be a factor in the presence of stress symptoms and in degree of perceived communication with the physician.     

The total workload of male and female white collar workers as related to age, occupational level, and number of children

A questionnaire assessing various aspects of paid as well as unpaid forms of productive activity was mailed to stratified samples of male and female white collar workers, approximately matched for educational and occupational level. Data from 501 men and 679 women employed full time revealed traditional gender differences in terms of main responsibility for household duties, child care etc. In keeping with this, women reported higher levels of work overload, stress and conflict than men, which increased significantly with the number of children at home. The various stress indices reached a peak between the ages of 35 and 39. Men reported more autonomy in their paid work whereas women reported more control at home. Men and women at the upper managerial levels reported more control over their total work situation and less conflict between demands.     

A spanish translation and validation of the daily stress inventory and a comparison of the level of stress experienced by three culturally distinct hispanic groups

Two studies were conducted, the first to establish a valid Spanish version of the Daily Stress Inventory (DSI). A second study was conducted using the bilingual version of the DSI to assess differences in the level of stress experienced by three selected Hispanic groups: (a) very Hispanic/Hispanic-oriented bicultural, (b) true bicultural, and (c) Anglo-oriented bicultural/very Anglicized as determined by the adapted version of the Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans (ARSMA). It was expected that stress levels would be highest for the least acculturated group. The results of the first study indicate that the Bilingual DSI scores are highly correlated with the scores of the original DSI when both instruments are responded to simultaneously by fully bilingual individuals. In Study 2, the initial data analyses showed no difference in the level of stress reported by Hispanics at different levels of acculturation as measured by the ARSMA. When a median-split method was employed, differences in the DSI I/E measures between the two groups were significant, suggesting that acculturation level may be related to stress level.     

Circular definitions,circular explanations,and infinite regresses

This paper discusses some of the ways in which circular definitions and circular explanations entail or fail to entail infinite regresses. And since not all infinite regresses are vicious, a few criteria of viciousness are examined in order to determine when the entailment of a regress refutes a circular definition or a circular explanation.I would like to thank Professors Robert Tully, Howard Sobel, and Derek Allen for their constructive comments.     

Organizational stress and stress management programs

There is a growing awareness of how stress adversely affects organizational efficiency. The implementation of stress management programs to counteract this problem has been slow. This study examined such programs in companies who claimed that they were active and successful in stress management for their employees. The successful features of these organizational stress management programs are identified, discussed, and a model for organizations is presented.     

Health and behavior: The coming together of science and practice in psychology and medicine after a century of benign neglect

For thousands of years, physicians had available only a few drugs with which to minister to patients and the practice of psychology was an integral and therapeutically powerful component in the practice of medicine. Thus, good bedside medicine consisting of empathy, compassion, and a nurturant attitude toward the ill individual was a major component of the physician's armamentarium until relatively recently. However, the explosion in scientific knowledge in biology, physiology, chemistry, and microbiology which began a century ago and has continued through the twentieth century helped produce several generations of physician specialists and subspecialists with little knowledge of the powerful role psychological factors play in health and illness. As a result, practitioners of medicine and practitioners of psychology have had little or no contact during most of this century. However, as advances in microbiology, public health, and nutrition have eradicated many of the infectious diseases, infirmities associated with one's lifestyle have replaced the latter as the major causes of death today. One offshoot of this shift is that after a century of benign neglect, physicians and psychologists have rediscovered a common ground in the arena labeled health and behavior. Some factors responsible for these recent developments are highlighted.This article was an invited address delivered to a group of Japanese health psychologists as part of a Health Sciences Seminar in Tokyo on July 24, 1993. Concurrent with its publication here in English, it is being published in the Japanese language in the March 1994 issue of the journal,Japanese Health Psychology.     

‘community psychology and politics’ by David Smail

Demystification, eschewing roles that disempower others and enhancing accessibility to the tools of knowledge, are consistent with the aims of community and applied social psychology. Although a focus on psychological empowerment can be a distraction from the need for actual power, it can also enhance it. Psychologists who avoid victim blaming and individual causal attribution biases can contribute to the discourse about social change. This requires both a reinterpretation of the known facts, and a reframing of social analysis. Social scientists and professionals are today's theologians and priests. Our power lies in our legitimation as interpreters of social reality. Teaching the psychology of empowerment, participative decision making and informed consent can influence the powerful as well as the powerless.     

Reflexive research and the grounding of analysis: Social psychology and the psy-complex

This paper is concerned with reflexivity in research, and the way research is grounded in the operations of the psy-complex in social psychology. A central argument is that qualitative research in general, and a focus on reflexivity in particular, requires theoretical grounding. Distinctions are drawn between ‘uncomplicated subjectivity’, ‘blank subjectivity’ and ‘complex subjectivity’; and the analytic device of the ‘discursive complex’ is described. It is argued that such theoretical grounding can usefully draw on developments in discourse analytic, deconstructionist, and psychoanalytic social research. The opposition between objectivity and subjectivity is deconstructed, and psychoanalytic conceptual reference points for an understanding of the discursive construction of complex subjectivity in the context of institutions are explored with particular reference to the location of the researcher in the psy-complex. The paper discusses the reflexive engagement of the researcher with data, and the construction of the identity of the researcher with reference to professional bodies. An analysis of a document produced by the British Psychological Society is presented to illustrate conceptual issues addressed in the first sections. This illustrative analysis is designed to show how the material is structured by a series of six discursive complexes, and that the institutional structure facilitates, and inhibits, certain forms of action and reflection.     

USING REINFORCEMENT-BASED METHODS TO ENHANCE MEMBERSHIP RECRUITMENT IN A VOLUNTEER ORGANIZATION

The present study employed reinforcement-based methods to induce existing members to recruit new members to join a chamber of commerce. Three interventions took place during June and July of 3 successive years. The investigators trained chamber leaders to use reinforcement methods (e.g., contingent tokens) to reinforce recruitment and dues collections. All three interventions produced substantial increases in their targets.