Finding voice in a year of collective trauma: Case study of an online photovoice project with youth

In this article, we share findings from a qualitative case study of a virtual youth photovoice program implemented across three regions of the United States. The purpose of the program was to engage youth in research on a social issue relevant to them during an unprecedented year marked by two public health crises, COVID-19 and anti-Black racial violence. Results of an analysis of curriculum and archival program materials lend support for online strategies for youth engagement including individualized support and online audiovisual presentations with avatars. Racial justice and trauma-informed adaptations were designed to be responsive to youth needs for flexible programming and safe spaces. Themes captured in the first online gallery of youth photos include (1) tools for mental health, (2) meaningful connection, and (3) community advocacy, bringing attention to structural issues as well as family and community strengths. Findings suggest photovoice can be thoughtfully adapted for youth researchers and support individual and group storytelling in response to collective trauma.     

Cost analysis of the utilization of new vascular grafts

A cost analysis of the utilization of new expensive vascular grafts is performed, applying the methodology of decision analysis to the theoretical case of a sixty year old male patient undergoing femoropopliteal grafting for limb threatening ischemia. The problem is presented graphically as a decision tree, uncertainties are quantified in terms of probabilities and end outcomes are evaluated in monetary terms. This informations is then utilized to calculate cost values associated with alternative actions. Based on initial cumulative patency figures of the new more expensive grafts and the known performance of the older grafts, the initial high expense for the new grafts is justified economically, if the saphenous vein is not available. This analysis, apart from giving an answer to a specific clinical problem, can be viewed as a general model for cost analysis of surgical procedures.     

The relationship between sensory responsiveness profiles,attachment orientations,and anxiety symptoms

Individual variations in the way people respond to sensory stimuli can sometimes lead to maladaptive representations of the world. Indeed, sensory responsiveness profiles were found to be associated with mood symptoms such as depression and anxiety. The goal of the current study was to investigate whether attachment orientations can account for the relationship between sensory responsiveness profiles and anxiety symptoms. Participants (N = 194) completed a battery of questionnaires assessing sensory responsiveness profiles, attachment orientations, and anxiety symptoms. As expected, various associations between sensory responsiveness profiles and anxiety symptoms were accounted for by attachment anxiety and avoidance. We suggest a possible causal path, in which early‐developing sensory responsiveness profiles lead to attachment insecurities, which in turn may lead to mood symptoms such as anxiety.     

Beliefs About God and Mental Health Among American Adults

This study examines the association between beliefs about God and psychiatric symptoms in the context of Evolutionary Threat Assessment System Theory, using data from the 2010 Baylor Religion Survey of US Adults (N = 1,426). Three beliefs about God were tested separately in ordinary least squares regression models to predict five classes of psychiatric symptoms: general anxiety, social anxiety, paranoia, obsession, and compulsion. Belief in a punitive God was positively associated with four psychiatric symptoms, while belief in a benevolent God was negatively associated with four psychiatric symptoms, controlling for demographic characteristics, religiousness, and strength of belief in God. Belief in a deistic God and one’s overall belief in God were not significantly related to any psychiatric symptoms.     

Gender Bias Produces Gender Gaps in STEM Engagement

We explored whether the existence of gender bias causes gender gaps in STEM engagement. In Experiment 1 (n?=?322), U.S. women projected less sense of belonging, positivity toward, and aspirations to participate in STEM than did men when exposed to the reality of STEM gender bias. These gender differences disappeared when participants were told that STEM exhibits gender equality, suggesting that gender bias produces STEM gender gaps. Experiment 2 (n?=?429) explored whether results generalized to a specific STEM department, and whether organizational efforts to mitigate gender bias might shrink gender gaps. U.S. women exposed to a biased chemistry department anticipated more discrimination and projected less sense of belonging, positive attitudes and trust and comfort than did men. These gender differences vanished when participants read about an unbiased department, again suggesting that gender bias promotes STEM gender gaps. Further, moderated mediation analyses suggested that in the presence of gender bias (but not gender equality), women projected less positive attitudes and trust and comfort than did men because they experienced less sense of belonging and anticipated more discrimination. Results were largely unaffected by whether departments completed a diversity training, suggesting that knowledge of diversity initiatives alone cannot close STEM gender gaps.     

Children can optimally integrate multisensory information after a short action‐like mini game training

Combining information across different sensory modalities is of critical importance for the animal's survival and a core feature of human's everyday life. In adulthood, sensory information is often integrated in a statistically optimal fashion, so that the combined estimates of two or more senses are more reliable than the best single one. Several studies have shown that young children use one sense to calibrate the others, which results in unisensory dominance and undermines their optimal multisensory integration abilities. In this study we trained children aged 4–5 years with action‐like mini games, to determine whether it could improve their multisensory as well as their visuo‐spatial skills. Multisensory integration abilities were assessed using a visuo‐haptic size discrimination task, while visuo‐spatial attention skills were investigated using a multiple object tracking task (MOT). We found that 2‐weeks training were sufficient to observe both optimal multisensory integration and visuo‐spatial enhancements selectively in the group trained with action‐like mini games. This plastic change persisted up to 3 months, as assessed in a follow‐up. Our novel findings reveal that abilities that are commonly known to emerge in late childhood can be promoted in younger children through action‐like mini games and have long‐lasting effects. Our data have clinical implications, in that they suggest that specific trainings could potentially help children with multisensory integration deficits.     

Religion, Forgiveness, Hostility and Health: A Structural Equation Analysis

Religious participation has been shown to increase certain factors thought to be protective of health, including social support and positive health habits. The current study considers whether religious participation may likewise have a positive influence on health by increasing forgiveness and diminishing hostility. A structural equation analysis of data collected from a national survey of 1,629 participants supported the hypothesized model that (a) religiosity is related to greater forgiveness, (b) greater forgiveness, in turn, is related to reduced hostility and finally, (c) reduced hostility is related to better subjective health.     

Gender and the structure and salience of values: An example from israeli youth

The current report is designed to study the structure of the value system of adolescents and the inter-relationships among the facets of that structure as they relate to gender differences. Unitary values are described as of faceted design; and the system of values of the individual as consisting of structure. As defined by the Mapping Sentence, the structure of values may be seen as composed of five facets, four of which are sampled in this report on gender differences. For the purposes of this research, Facet A samples two directional orientations: Individual and Societal. Facet B samples four content areas of values: Personal Pleasures, Skills and Studies, Society and Nation, and Interpersonal Relations. Facet C assesses three behavioral modalities: Guiding Principles, Choice Under Conditions of Dilemma, and Level of Activity. A level of Judgment in Values is assessed by Facet D on a three level scale: Egotistical, Conventional-Social and Principled-Autonomous. 910 eleventh grade youths of both sexes were tested according to a stratified sampling of Tel Aviv high schools. The structure of the system of values is confirmed and is found to be similar for both males and females, with differences expressed primarily in the salience of different elements of the structure. Sex was found to contribute to the multiple regression analysis in each of the values sampled—even after having discounted the effect of family background—but to a small degree in each case, never contributing more than 4% to the understanding of the variance generated. As far as content is concerned, girls, in general, stress Interpersonal Relations, Style of Clothing, and Study for Study Sake. Boys stress Achievement and National Security. As regards behavioral modalities, girls were found to stress Guiding Principles much more frequently than boys. There was general consistency between Guiding Principles and Level of Activity, while there was frequent inconsistency between Choice Under Conditions of Dilemma and one or both of the other behavioral modalities. A high level of Value Judgment was evident for all of the subjects, i.e., more of the judgments at Level III were favored as the rationale for the values chosen under dilemma, than any other level. Girls, however, responded more frequently at Level III than did boys. There is some evidence that there is a relationship between the content of values and the level of judgment used as a rationale for that judgment.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the International Conference, Private Woman—Public Work, convened at the University of Haifa in June, 1988. It is based, in part, on a Ph.D. thesis presented to Bar Ilan University (Maslovaty, 1987) under the supervision of the second author. The study was partially supported by the Eliezer Stern Institute for Research and Advancement in Religious Education of Bar Ilan University.     

Using ambiguous plaid stimuli to investigate the influence of immediate prior experience on perception

In a series of three experiments, we used an ambiguous plaid motion stimulus to explore the behavioral and electrophysiological effects of prior stimulus exposures and perceptual states on current awareness. The results showed that prior exposure to a stimulus biased toward one percept led to subsequent suppression of that percept. In contrast, in the absence of stimulus bias, prior perceptual experience can have a facilitative influence. The suppressive effects caused by the prior stimulus were found to transfer to an ambiguous plaid test stimulus rotated 180º relative to the adaptation stimulus, but were abolished if (1) the ambiguous test stimulus was only rotated 90º relative to the adaptation stimulus or (2) the adaptation stimulus was heavily biased toward the component grating percept. Event-related potential recordings were consistent with the involvement of visual cortical areas and suggested that the influence of recent stimulus exposure may involve recruitment of additional brain processes beyond those responsible for initial stimulus encoding. In contrast, the effects of prior and current perceptual experience appeared to depend on similar brain processes. Although the data presented here focus on vision, the work is discussed within the context of data from a parallel series of experiments in audition.