Patients are not fully human: a nurse's coping response to stress

In this article, dehumanization of patients was studied as a strategy used by nurses to cope with stress. Affective organizational commitment (AOC) and affective commitment to patients (ACP) were tested as moderators. We also explored how nurses' humanity attributions to their in‐group relate to stress symptoms. Participants were nurses working in different wards of an Italian urban hospital. Findings showed that perceiving patients as not fully human was related to lower levels of stress symptoms for nurses with high AOC and ACP, but not for nurses with low AOC and ACP. Moreover, for highly committed nurses, the attribution of uniquely human traits to the in‐group was associated with increased stress symptoms. Implications of findings for the relationship between nurses and patients are discussed.     

Scientific Communication and Stereotype Change1

The aim of this experiment is to examine whether communicating the results of social psychological research improves out‐group stereotypes and diminishes in‐group bias. The experimental material consisted of 2 communications: one described Hamilton and Gifford's (1976) experiment on illusory correlation (Experiment 1); the other described Sherif's (1966) studies on summer camps. The results of the present experiment show that knowledge of Sherif's findings had no effect on evaluations, whereas an awareness of the experiment on illusory correlation produced a boomerang effect, accentuating, rather than diminishing, in‐group bias. A second experiment revealed that the persuasive power of a scientific message on stereotypes depends on whether in‐groups and out‐groups are cogni‐tively present in the message acquisition phase.     

The relationship between men's endogenous levels of testosterone and their penile responses to erotic stimuli.

The endogenous levels of testosterone of six nonclinical, sexually functional men were compared to the magnitude and speed of development of their objectively measured penile erections to repeated presentations of an erotic film und to their self-reported sexual activity. Plasma testosterone concentrations were significantly correlated with two measures of the magnitude of film-elicited sexual arousal (i.e., both peak and mean erection) and with one measure of the speed of development of sexual arousal (i.e., the latency to 90% of full erection) but not with the other (i.e., the latency to 20% of full erection). There was also a significant inverse relationship between testosterone levels and their reported frequency of orgasm by any means. but the reported time from their last orgasm was not related to testosterone levels.     

Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities: Do educators assign them a fully human status?

The present research investigates the humanity attributions to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). In three studies, professional educators, who worked in day‐care or community centers, were examined. Humanity attributions were assessed using emotion‐based and trait‐based measures. As expected, individuals with IDD were denied a fully human status: they were perceived as having more non‐uniquely than uniquely human attributes. Furthermore, a lower human status was assigned to individuals with IDD in relation to educators. We also discovered that humanity attributions, but not attitudes, were related to approach/avoidance responses. Altogether, findings show the importance of considering humanity perceptions in the study of social relationships of individuals with IDD. Dehumanizing perceptions can explain the differential treatment these individuals face in various social settings.