Processing strategy moderates the cultivation effect

This study tested the hypothesis that processing strategy moderates the effect of television viewing on social perceptions (cultivation effect). One hundred twenty‐two male and female students provided estimates of the prevalence of crime, occupations, affluence, and marital discord under one of three conditions. Some participants were induced to process heuristically (heuristic group) through instructions to provide their estimates spontaneously with little elaboration. Other participants were induced to process systematically (systematic group) through an accuracy motivation/task importance manipulation. A third (control) group received instructions to simply answer the questions. The results indicated that processing strategy moderated the cultivation effect such that cultivation effects were noted in the heuristic and control groups but not in the systematic group. These results are consistent with the notion that the cultivation effect can be explained in part as the result of heuristic processing through lack of source discounting, and they provide support for the heuristic processing model of cultivation effects.     

Occupational prestige and appropriateness: The views of mental health specialists

Because of the extensive social and cultural changes associated with the women's equal rights movement, this study asked questions about how occupational prestige is related to differential views of women's roles with female and male psychotherapists, advanced graduate students, and secondary school counselors. The samples differ very little in their rankings of occupational prestige. However, differences did emerge between each sample's judgments of which occupations are appropriate for women, with school counselors being the most likely to rate occupations as inappropriate for women.     

An Investigation of Psychology Staffing in Australian Metropolitan Acute Public Hospitals

Psychology is one component of the multidisciplinary services provided to patients in acute public hospitals, with research demonstrating that psychological intervention significantly enhances clinical outcomes for patients across a range of health issues. Despite the increasingly important role that psychologists play in Australian hospitals, there remains a lack of information available about staff levels, discipline structures, and clinical activity for psychological services within acute hospital settings. The most recent Australian data about hospital‐based psychology services was collected 20 years ago. The current study provides updated information from a survey of 15 Australian metropolitan, acute public hospitals: presenting and critically reviewing staffing configurations and models of service delivery. Results suggest that: (a) hospitals employ a highly skilled workforce at a rate of 0.16 full‐time equivalent psychology staff for every 10 hospital beds; (b) psychologists have a viable career pathway within the hospital‐based health sector; (c) role diversity is common, with the primary focus varying as a function of position level; (d) neuropsychology staffing requires urgent attention to address significant delays in access to services; and (e) public hospitals actively contribute to current and future workforce development through supervision, research, and training. The implications of these results for the future of psychological services in Australian healthcare are discussed.     

University Campus Consultation: Opportunities and Limitations

Consultation on a university campus is an important adjunct mental health service to individual and small-group counseling. It serves as a preventive and an early identification resource for both emotional-social and educational-vocational problems. Interventions with faculty, staff, and campus organizations are made possible with a consultation service. Consultation projects have enhanced support networks for ethnic-minority students and increased the humanization of the campus for all students.     

Advance Directives: Assessing Stage of Change and Decisional Balance in a Community-Based Educational Program

This study assessed the applicability of the transtheoretical model (TTM) to completing/revising advance directives (ADs). Participants in a community-based educational program completed pre- and post-program questionnaires concerning the completing/revising of ADs. Multiple-item scales were constructed to categorize participants into a stage of change: precontemplation (8%), contemplation (44%), preparation (4%), action (22%), and maintenance (19%). A decisional balance scale was constructed using 5 positive and 5 negative perceptions of ADs. The findings provided support for the applicability of the TTM to completing/revising ADs. The cons outweighed the pros among participants in the precontemplation stage, while the pros outweighed the cons among those in the action stage. One pro was that an AD would relieve family members of decision-making burdens.     

Causal Attributions and Parent-Child Relationships in a Self-Help Group for Families of the Mentally III1

A study of a local chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally 111 (NAMI) suggests that parents think about the causes of their offsprings' psychiatric disabilities in terms of psychogenic, organic and moral attributions. Comparisons of retrospective and current self-reports suggest that parents' attributional processes were influenced by their organizational participation. Comparatively stronger endorsement of the organic attribution (that biochemical illness is a primary causal factor) and comparatively weaker endorsement of the psychogenic attribution (that deficits in parenting are a primary causal factor) were associated with participation. Increased comfort in parent-child relationships was also associated with participation. It was speculated that these cognitive and behavioral changes were mediated by learning a comprehensive schema of information about schizophrenia that included information about causes, symptoms and methods of treatment.     

Communal Orientation and Burnout Among Self-Help Group Leaders

To assess the relationship between burnout, communal orientation, and leaders' perceptions of balance in their relationships with group members 102 self-help group leaders were interviewed. Leaders had low to moderate levels of burnout as measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory subscales of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment. As hypothesized, leaders' communal orientation was negatively related to the burnout subscales of depersonalization and personal accomplishment. Contrary to the study hypothesis, burnout was not related to balance. It was speculated that the salience of need-based norms in the group's helping relationships reduced expectations of reciprocity. The findings illustrate the usefulness of applying equity theory to studies of helping relationships within the setting of self-help groups.     

Using Television to Create More Favorable Attitudes Toward Community Facilities for Deinstitutionalized Psychiatric Patients

Prebroadcast screenings were organized to measure the impact of a TV documentary, "Back Wards to Back Streets", on information levels, attitudes toward community-based treatment facilities, and beliefs about mental illness. Audiences of mental health professionals, political decision makers, and public TV subscribers were invited to screenings in New York City and Albany, New York. Based on an experimental design, half of each audience was randomly selected to respond to both pre- and postfilm questionnaires; others responded to postfilm questionnaires only. Among the New York City audience the film raised information levels, created more favorable attitudes, and changed beliefs about mental illness. One methodological implication is that small-scale screenings are a viable technique for studying TV's impact.     

DECISION MAKING ABOUT ADVANCE DIRECTIVES BY MARRIED WOMEN

One goal of this exploratory study was to describe the experiences of 41 wives engaged in a congregationally based educational program promoting the discussion of advance directives (ADs). Other goals were to explore whether marital commitment was an antecedent for engaging in AD discussions, as well as whether it was positively associated with wives' increased trust that their husbands would carry out their AD preferences. Eighty percent of the wives discussed ADs with their husbands, and 44% revised/signed an AD. Slightly over half of the couples discussed ADs for 1 hour or less.There was marginal support for the hypothesis that there would be a positive association between wives' discussing ADs with their husbands and marital commitment. There was strong support for the hypothesis that wives' level of commitment would be positively associated with their trust that their husbands would carry out their AD preferences.