Transient manic behavior after pallidotomy

We report two cases of transient hypomanic behavior following pallidotomy. Both of the reported patients had lesions involving non-motor portions of the globus pallidus. Patient 1 had a lesion in the left anteromedial portion of GPi, while patient 2 had one lesion involving the anteromedial portion of GPi on the right and a second lesion involving the postero-ventral most portion of the putamen on the left. These cases emphasize the importance of placing lesions within the sensori-motor portion of GPi without infringing on adjacent non-motor portions. Cases involving transient manic behavior after pallidotomy have not been previously reported. Centers performing pallidotomy or DBS should be aware that lesions or stimulation too anterior in the GPi might lead to manic behavior.     

Assessing volunteer motives: a comparison of an open‐ended probe and Likert rating scales

The purpose of the present study was to compare the motives of volunteers (career, esteem, protective, social, understanding, and value) as assessed by an open‐ended probe and the Volunteer Functions Inventory (VFI) which employs a Likert rating scale. One‐hundred‐and‐twenty‐nine individuals, who volunteered for an organization that focuses on episodic volunteering in the community, completed both measures of volunteer motives and reported their frequency of volunteering for the organization. The Spearman rank correlation between the rankings of the six volunteer motives in the two distributions was 0.71. The maximum variance shared between the same motive as assessed by the two methods was 0.14. Frequency of volunteering for the organization was predicted by the value (positive predictor) and social (negative predictor) VFI scale scores. A post hoc analysis of the data from the open‐ended probe revealed three additional motives for volunteering—enjoyment, religiosity, and team building. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sleep disturbances and modulations in inflammation: Implications for pregnancy health

When a woman becomes pregnant, there is a vast series of physiological, vascular, and psychological changes. Among the most commonly reported changes are those involving sleep. Pregnant women report that their ability to maintain sleep and acquire continuous refreshing sleep is impaired during the perinatal period as compared to the non‐pregnant period. A growing literature supports the hypothesis that disturbed sleep (which comes in many forms) during the perinatal period is associated with an increased risk of adverse maternal, delivery, and infant outcomes. Among the suggested biological pathways linking sleep and adverse outcomes are disturbances in the immune and hormonal systems. The following paper will discuss (a) the various sleep processes that are commonly disturbed during the perinatal period and the methods used to collect sleep data; (b) the evidence linking sleep to adverse outcomes; and (c) how one specific biological pathway, the immune system, likely mediates these associations. The goal of this paper is to clarify the role that sleep disturbance has during pregnancy.     

Unpacking the relation between extraversion and volunteering in later life: The role of social capital

This study tested the hypothesis that the relation between extraversion and volunteering by older adults is fully mediated by social capital (participation in clubs and organizations, church attendance, and contact with friends). Data for this study come from 888 adults between the ages of 65–90 years old who participated in the Later Life Study of Social Exchanges (LLSSE). In support of our hypothesis, structural equation modeling revealed that extraversion exerted: (a) a significant total effect on volunteering (0.122), (b) significant indirect effects on volunteering via contact with friends (0.042), church attendance (0.034), and clubs and organizations (females only: 0.042), and (c) a non-significant direct effect on volunteering (0.010). These findings suggest that social capital provides a viable explanation for the association between extraversion and volunteering.     

Structure of subjective well-being among the elderly

This article interprets subjective well-being within the framework of cognitive theories of emotion. A model consisting of three recurrent components of expressions of well-being--positive affect, negative affect, and cognition--was compared with two variations of models proposed by Liang. Drawing two random samples of persons with minimum age equal to 65 from the Myth and Reality of Aging in America Survey, lisrel analyses were undertaken on 17 items from the Affect Balance Scale and the Life Satisfaction Index Form A. All models provided an acceptable fit as indicated by ratios of chi-square to degrees of freedom. Implications are noted for the conceptualization and study of subjective well-being.     

Form of evaluation and audience expertness as joint determinants of audience effects

A more stringent test was made of Martens and Landers' (1972) conclusion that direct evaluation of performance and outcomes leads to greater performance impairment than indirect evaluation of outcomes only. Expert and nonexpert audiences viewed Subjects performing a motor task with visual information and knowledge of outcomes (direct evaluation), with no visual information but knowledge of outcomes (indirect evaluation), and the absence of both visual information and knowledge of outcomes (no evaluation). Contrary to Martens and Landers, with an expert audience, both direct and indirect evaluation impaired performance equally. Results indicated that at least two factors in social facilitation research, audience characteristics and form of evaluation, can be considered interactive determinants of evaluation potential. These results directly support Cottrell's (1968) notion that the potential for evaluation characterizing a social situation is the chief source of audience and coaction effects in humans.     

Positive and negative social ties among older adults: Measurement models and the prediction of psychological distress and well-being

The factor structure of positive and negative social ties was studied among 246 older adults who were either recently physically disabled, recently conjugally bereaved, or matched controls. Covariance structure analyses were carried out on a network measure to determine whether positive and negative social ties represent independent domains of social experience, and to assess the degree to which their structure is invariant across groups undergoing major loss transitions. Positive and negative social ties were found to be independent and there was substantial similarity in their factor structure across the three groups. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that, whereas positive social ties were related to psychological well-being, negative social ties were predictive of both psychological well-being and distress. These results demonstrate the importance of assessing both positive and negative ties in explaining the psychological adjustment of older adults.     

Does Age Moderate the Relation Between Social Negativity and Psychological Distress?: A Meta-Analytic Investigation

Recently, Finch et al. (Journal of Personality, 1999) reported the results of a meta-analysis in which social negativity was demonstrated to be positively related to psychological distress. In the present investigation, we employed meta-analytic techniques to test competing hypotheses as to whether age amplifies or dampens the relation of social negativity and psychological distress. A total of 104 effect sizes (e.g., concurrent correlations between self-report measures of social negativity and psychological distress) from 53 independent samples were extracted from 46 journal articles. Contrary to hypotheses, the relation between social negativity and psychological distress was not significantly different for samples of older (60 + years) and younger (<60 years) adults. An explanation was provided for why the present meta-analysis and previous narrative reviews have resulted in discrepant conclusions about negativity effects.     

A quantitative synthesis of literature on work status and subjective well being

Metanalytic techniques were used to synthesize results of studies on the relation of work status (retired, employed part time, employed full time) and subjective well being (SWB). The weighted mean of the work status/SWB relation across all studies was .18. When zero-order associations between work status and SWB were used as dependent variables, significant predictors of that relation were the way in which work status was operationalized, ratings of quality of study, year of publication for studies, and age midrange of samples. Gender was not a significant predictor of the work status/SWB relation.     

The Effects of a Female Role Model on Academic Performance and Persistence of Women in STEM Courses

Women are more likely to leave science, technology, engineering, and mathematics compared to men, in part because they lack similar role models such as peers, teaching assistants, and instructors. We examined the effect of a brief, scalable online intervention that consisted of a letter from a female role model who normalized concerns about belonging, presented time spent on academics as an investment, and exemplified overcoming challenges on academic performance and persistence. The intervention was implemented in introductory psychology (Study 1, N?=?258) and chemistry (Study 2, N?=?68) courses. Relative to the control group, the intervention group had higher grades and lower failing and withdrawal rates.