Social Determinants of HIV Among Men Who Have Sex with Men in Cape Town

Little is known about how social factors influence vulnerability to, and consequences of, HIV infection among men who have sex with men (MSM) in South Africa. This study aimed to analyse social stratification and its links with HIV among MSM in Cape Town, South Africa. Six interviews and six focus group discussions (n = 25) were conducted. Tools were based on the World Health Organisation’s Commission on the Social Determinants of Health framework. Directed content analysis was used to analyse data. Race and education were directly linked to social position. MSM from lower social positions were more vulnerable to HIV, and had more negative consequences of HIV infection, compared to wealthier MSM. Engagement with community leaders, health workers and police to promote inclusion could reduce vulnerability of MSM to HIV. Increased access to free, non-discriminatory HIV-related services would reduce inequities in access to HIV services by MSM.     

Toward a developmental psychology of Sehnsucht (life longings): the optimal (utopian) life

The topic of an optimal or utopian life has received much attention across the humanities and the arts but not in psychology. The German concept of Sehnsucht captures individual and collective thoughts and feelings about one's optimal or utopian life. Sehnsucht (life longings; LLs) is defined as an intense desire for alternative states and realizations of life. Presenting a first effort at capturing this phenomenon, the authors conceptualize LLs as composed of 6 interrelated core characteristics: (a) utopian conceptions of ideal development; (b) sense of incompleteness and imperfection of life; (c) conjoint time focus on the past, present, and future; (d) ambivalent (bittersweet) emotions; (e) reflection and evaluation of one's life; and (f) symbolic richness. Self-report data from 299 adults (19-81 years) support the postulated structure and support predictions regarding the functional role of Sehnsucht. Having LLs was evaluated as providing direction to development and helping to manage life's incompleteness. At the same time, the frequent and intense experience of LLs was associated with lower well-being. When LLs were perceived as controllable, however, this negative association disappeared.     

Evaluation of living conditions of free-ranging animals by automated chronobiological analysis of behavior

A biorhythmical method has been developed to assess behavior patterns and to evaluate the living conditions of animals that can be applied also to humans. All kinds of continuous and equidistant long-term recordings of behavior are suitable for this method. Time functions from an automatic telemetry system (ETHOSYSII) were analyzed macroscopically (comparison of daily levels) and microscopically (autocorrelation function and power spectral analysis). Degrees of functional coupling (DFCs) were calculated to identify and evaluate disturbances in behavior. Hierarchic frequency tuning of complex rhythmic functions of behaviors, leads primarily to period lengths that are synchronized with the 24-h period. DFCs, a measure of harmony between internal rhythms and the external 24-h period, were found to be high in well-adapted, healthy, and undisturbed individuals but were lowered during periods of adaptation, sickness, or social interaction. Specific stress conditions could be identified and evaluated in several species, under various conditions, using these biorhythmic analyses.     

Assessing posttraumatic stress disorder with the MMPI-2 in a sample of workplace accident victims

In this study, the predictive capacity of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 Posttraumatic Stress Disorder-Keane (MMPI-2 PK) scale was examined in a sample of trauma victims who experienced a serious workplace-related accident and subsequent injury. In keeping with a number of previous investigations, the PK scale was largely ineffective in identifying posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) beyond overall symptom and functional severity. In contrast, sets of clinical and content scales proved to be significant predictors of PTSD. These findings suggest that the PK scale is not particularly useful in detecting PTSD in civilian trauma samples. Clinicians might be best advised to use the MMPI-2 clinical and content scales in their assessment of PTSD in civilian patients presenting with a history of trauma.     

Age differences in affective forecasting and experienced emotion surrounding the 2008 US presidential election

In everyday life, people frequently make decisions based on tacit or explicit forecasts about the emotional consequences associated with the possible choices. We investigated age differences in such forecasts and their accuracy by surveying voters about their expected and, subsequently, their actual emotional responses to the 2008 US presidential election. A sample of 762 Democratic and Republican voters aged 20 to 80 years participated in a web-based study; 346 could be re-contacted two days after the election. Older adults forecasted lower increases in high-arousal emotions (e.g., excitement after winning; anger after losing) and larger increases in low-arousal emotions (e.g., sluggishness after losing) than younger adults. Age differences in actual responses to the election were consistent with forecasts, albeit less pervasive. Additionally, among supporters of the winning candidate, but not among supporters of the losing candidate, forecasting accuracy was enhanced with age, suggesting a positivity effect in affective forecasting. These results add to emerging findings about the role of valence and arousal in emotional ageing and demonstrate age differences in affective forecasting about a real-world event with an emotionally charged outcome.     

Influencing organizational commitment through office redesign

Prior research on the effects of office redesign on work-related outcomes has been largely atheoretical and yielded mixed and conflicting findings. Expanding on individual reactions to office design changes as specified by social interference theory, we propose that office redesign affects organizational commitment and this relationship is mediated by employee perceptions of the broader work environment. This conceptual model is tested using 121 financial services employees who experience office redesign and 136 who do not. Results indicate that perceptions of innovation and collaboration mediate the effects of office redesign over and above negative personal reactions such that affective organizational commitment is enhanced among those experiencing reconfigured offices. Findings provide support for an expanded rendition of social interference theory that provides for favorable (as well as unfavorable) employee reactions to office redesign. Such a theoretical explanation is asserted to increase understanding of how the physical environment influences employee attitudes.     

Age-related differences in valence and arousal ratings of pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS): Do ratings become more extreme with age?

The International Affective Picture System (IAPS) has been widely used in aging-oriented research on emotion. However, no ratings for older adults are available. The aim of the present study was to close this gap by providing ratings of valence and arousal for 504 IAPS pictures by 53 young and 53 older adults. Both age groups rated positive pictures as less arousing, resulting in a stronger linear association between valence and arousal, than has been found in previous studies. This association was even stronger in older than in young adults. Older adults perceived negative pictures as more negative and more arousing and positive pictures as more positive and less arousing than young adults did. This might indicate a dedifferentiation of emotional processing in old age. On the basis of a picture recognition task, we also report memorability scores for individual pictures and how they relate to valence and arousal ratings. Data for all the pictures are archived at www.psychonomic.org/archive/.     

Emotional experience improves with age: evidence based on over 10 years of experience sampling

Recent evidence suggests that emotional well-being improves from early adulthood to old age. This study used experience-sampling to examine the developmental course of emotional experience in a representative sample of adults spanning early to very late adulthood. Participants (N = 184, Wave 1; N = 191, Wave 2; N = 178, Wave 3) reported their emotional states at five randomly selected times each day for a one week period. Using a measurement burst design, the one-week sampling procedure was repeated five and then ten years later. Cross-sectional and growth curve analyses indicate that aging is associated with more positive overall emotional well-being, with greater emotional stability and with more complexity (as evidenced by greater co-occurrence of positive and negative emotions). These findings remained robust after accounting for other variables that may be related to emotional experience (personality, verbal fluency, physical health, and demographic variables). Finally, emotional experience predicted mortality; controlling for age, sex, and ethnicity, individuals who experienced relatively more positive than negative emotions in everyday life were more likely to have survived over a 13 year period. Findings are discussed in the theoretical context of socioemotional selectivity theory.