The relationship between stress and depression in first onsets versus recurrences: a meta-analytic review

S. M. Monroe and K. L. Harkness reviewed the empirical evidence supporting R. M. Post's kindling model, which suggests the 1st episode of depression is more likely to be preceded by major stressors than are subsequent episodes. Their review highlighted the diverse interpretations of Post's premise in the current literature and the changes in research methods that have contributed to this interpretive shift. The authors conducted a meta-analysis (N=13 studies) to test Post's premise that integrated early and recent research and examined potential moderators. A proportion difference effect size was used. Results indicated that 1st onsets of depression were more likely than recurrences to be preceded by severe life events, supporting Post's premise. The moderator analyses suggested that support may be most evident in patient samples and may vary according to age and gender, with less support for Post's premise evidenced in younger samples and in women. Although these results are preliminary, as the analysis included a small number of studies, they suggest that future research should further examine factors that influence the stress-depression relationship with successive recurrences.     

Weak and global supervenience are strong

Kim argues that weak and global supervenience are too weak to guarantee any sort of dependency. Of the three original forms of supervenience, strong, weak, and global, each commonly wielded across all branches of philosophy, two are thus cast aside as uninteresting or useless. His arguments, however, fail to appreciate the strength of weak and global supervenience. I investigate what weak and global supervenience relations are functionally and how they relate to strong supervenience. For a large class of properties, weak and global supervenience are equivalent to strong supervenience. I then offer a series of arguments showing that it is precisely because of their strength, not their weakness, that both weak and global supervenience are useless in characterizing any dependencies of interest to philosophers.

CHALLENGES FACING FEMALE DOCTORAL STUDENTS AND RECENT GRADUATES

Although increasing the numbers of women and minority faculty in academia is a widely held goal, their numbers remain small. The presence of women and minorities decreases disproportionately at each ascending rung of the academic ladder. This investigation identified factors potentially contributing to attrition in White and non-White women at a critical stage in their careers: as doctoral candidates and recent graduates. Two-hundred and twenty-four women in the life sciences, social sciences, and the humanities described their most pressing professional and personal concerns and offered suggestions for changes in their fields and in academia more generally. Independent raters coded responses by thematic content. Differences in responses by field, educational status, and minority status were examined. The most frequently cited concerns involved practical issues such as finding employment, financial stability, and developing professional expertise, revealing wide-spread concerns about a competitive academic climate. Suggestions included modifications in professional conduct, the employment and pay structure, and training.     

Some Effects of Brief Training Interventions on Perceptions of Sexual Harassment1

In 2 experiments, college undergraduates received brief sexual harassment training or were assigned to a control group; all participants then judged whether sexual harassment occurred in brief written scenarios which had been evaluated previously by experts. In the first study, training increased the tendency to perceive sexual harassment but did not enhance expertise. In the second experiment, training significantly increased perceptual expertise for men but not for women—thereby eliminating a gender difference which has been consistently reported in the sexual harassment literature. These are the first experimental demonstrations that training can influence perceptions of sexual harassment in a laboratory setting; whether training can measurably affect the perception, reporting, or incidence of sexual harassment in real life is not yet known.     

Using Force: Australian Newspaper Depictions of Contacts Between the Police and Persons Experiencing Mental Illness

The media creates and sustains knowledge about socially relevant issues such as crime, mental illness, and policing. Past research suggests that while the media portrayal of the police is undoubtedly complex, their portrayal of people experiencing mental illness remains mainly negative. The depiction of their encounters in the mass media is of considerable interest because of the influential role the media has on public opinion and debate; however, there is a lack of current research in this area. This study aimed to examine media items in the major newspapers across Australia between January 2006 and December 2007 (n = 77) to investigate their portrayal of this interface. The dominant themes encountered in the initial analysis depicted people experiencing mental illness as dangerous and a threat to the public, where the mental health system has failed to manage them adequately. Further analyses found that people experiencing mental illness were stigmatised in a third of the media items reviewed and were represented significantly more negatively in these encounters than the police. Implications of these findings and some suggestions regarding possible strategies that could improve socially responsible media reporting and public discourse on mental illness are proposed.