Women, psychology, and public policy: Selected issues.

Asserts that the dramatic changes in women's work and family roles in recent decades have profound implications for employment and family policy. It is argued that the market forces used by economists to adjust salary levels do not counteract the forces that devalue women's contributions to the economy. Depressed wages and a benefit structure based on earnings increases the likelihood of poverty of women. Many employment issues, such as the assumption that workers and family members are physically and mentally able-bodied, disabled women's employment status, and the relationships among women's physical and mental health status and work and family roles, require psychological research. The slowness of public policies to reflect women's changing roles is discussed, and tools for meeting the challenges of change, including science and technology and educational equity, are presented. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Equality, public policy, and professional psychology.

Views psychologists as having substantial roles to play in the advocacy, development, and implementation of federal, state, and local policies that promote equality. Research, evaluation, education, and consultation are considered important components of strategies that professional psychologists can use to effect change. Specifically, the roles of psychologists in formulating public health care practices and in understanding the impact of child care services are discussed. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role stress, role socialization, and cigarette smoking: Examining multiple roles and moderating variables.

The current study examined the relations among role stress, role socialization, and cigarette smoking in a community sample of 1,841 young adult smokers. We considered multiple roles (occupational, marital, and parental roles, as well as conflict between roles) and also considered whether role socialization variables (variables associated with role requirements and norms that deter substance use) moderated the relations between smoking and role stress. Results suggested that stress in each social role (as well as conflict among roles) predicted smoking behavior. However, the relations between role socialization variables and smoking were more complex and showed curvilinear relations to smoking as well as varying relations for the different roles. Moreover, there was only modest support for role socialization variables as buffering the relation between role stress and smoking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender-specific models of homosexual prejudice: Religiosity, authoritarianism, and gender roles.

Utilizing moderated hierarchical multiple regression analyses, the researchers examined the relative roles of right wing authoritarianism (RWA), religious fundamentalism (RF), general religiosity, sex, gender role traits, and self-discrepancy along gender role traits in predicting multiple dimensions of prejudice toward homosexuals. The goal was to identify gender-specific correlates of homosexual prejudice. Findings revealed that RWA exhibited a consistently positive relationship with prejudice, which along the Condemnation-Tolerance dimension of prejudice was stronger for men. Also, RF's and general religiosity's relationship with prejudice was consistently fully mediated by the presence of RWA. Gender roles were inconsistently correlated with dimensions of prejudice, and the interaction of masculine gender roles and perceived self-discrepancy from gender roles was only significant in predicting the Condemnation-Tolerance homosexual prejudice scale. Lastly, for females, general religiosity was a significant positive predictor for only the Condemnation-Tolerance and Neutral Contact Apprehension homosexual prejudice scales. Implications are reviewed related to authoritarianism as a universal correlate of homosexual prejudice, RF's and RWA's distinctiveness, perceived self-discrepancy from masculine gender roles as a male-specific correlate of homosexual prejudice, and general religiosity as a female-specific correlate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

California state senator as manager: People, resources, and legislation.

The author describes his roles and duties as a California state senator. The rewards and frustrations of being a senator are discussed, as are the author's career decisions, motives, and aspirations that led him to the California Senate. The impact of the author's psychological training on the management aspects of his role is examined, and the potential for other psychologists in a political environment is explored. (2 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Maladaptive perfectionism, hassles, coping, and psychological distress in university professors.

This study examined the roles of hassles, avoidant and problem-focused coping, and perceived social support as mediating the relationship between maladaptive perfectionism and psychological distress in a sample of university professors. Hassles and avoidant coping both partially mediated a strong association between maladaptive perfectionism and psychological distress. These results are discussed in terms of the need to better understand how coping styles and social support are associated with the negative impact of perfectionism on the lives of university professors. The implications of these findings for counseling practice are also explored. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stressors in highly valued roles, religious coping, and mortality

This study examines the relationships among stress, religious coping, and mortality. It is hypothesized that religious coping will offset the effects of stressors arising in highly valued roles on mortality, but similar stress-buffering effects will not emerge with events in less important roles. It is further predicted that the beneficial properties of religious coping will be especially evident among older adults with less education. Data from a nationwide survey of older adults (N = 819; M age = 73.8 years; 41% male) indicate that religious coping offsets the effects of stressors in highly valued roles on mortality, but only among older adults with less educational attainment (p < .05). In contrast, events in roles that are not valued highly do not have significant additive effects on mortality or significant interaction effects with religious coping.     

Men, family-role quality, job-role quality, and physical health.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 12(2) of Health Psychology (see record 2008-10479-001). In this article the title for Table 1 (p. 50) should be "Correlations Between Rewards and Concerns in the Job, Marital, and Parent Roles." Also, the last item in the first column of the table should read "6. Parent-role concerns."] The relationship between the quality of men's family roles, as spouse and as parent, and the quality of men's job role, on the one hand, and their reports of physical symptoms, on the other, was examined in men drawn from a random sample of 300 dual-earner couples. The main effect of marital-role quality (i.e., rewards and concerns) on physical health was estimated, as was the Marital-Role Quality&×&Job-Role Quality interaction effect. With respect to the present role, the effect of both parent-role occupancy and parent-role quality was estimated. After controlling for job-role quality, it was found that parent-role occupancy had neither main nor interactive effects. However, among the men who occupied all 3 roles (n&=&180), only parent-role concerns were a significant predictor of physical health reports. Thus, concerns in the parent role are a major unmeasured source of variance in studies of the stress–illness relationship in men. [An erratum concerning this article appears in Health Psychology, 1993(Mar), Vol 12(2), 92. Table 1 is corrected.] (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A symposium on skill dissemination for paraprofessionals: Models of training, supervision, and utilization.

Proposes designing better programs for training mental health paraprofessionals and presents a comprehensive training package focusing on skills that facilitate client life development. A broad conception of the roles proper for paraprofessionals is needed, and potential new roles are suggested. (76 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marital roles, sex differences, and interpersonal attraction.

Tested the hypothesis that role and dispositional factors can alter the usual link between similarity and attraction. In 2 replications, 64 undergraduate females and 64 males with traditional or nontraditional attitudes toward sex roles and marriage (measured by the Marital Role Decisions Questionnaire) rated similar or dissimilar opposite-sex strangers on 3 attraction measures. Results show that sex and traditionality interacted with similarity in determining ratings of the strangers' general likability and personal role attraction (e.g., desirability as a dating partner), but not their functional role attraction (e.g., desirability as a debater on sex roles). The discussion suggests that previous attempts to find interactions have often failed because of a lack of correspondence between dispositional factors and similarity manipulations. Reinforcement and informational explanations could account for the overall findings, but communication factors of extremity and discrepancy could not. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Organising activities of engrailed, hedgehog, wingless and decapentaplegic in the genital discs of Drosophila melanogaster

The genes engrailed (en), hedgehog (hh), wingless (wg) and decapentaplegic (dpp) have been shown to play vital organising roles in the development and differentiation of thoracic imaginal discs. We have analysed the roles of these genes in organising the development and differentiation of the genital discs, which are bilaterally symmetrical and possess different primordia, namely, the male and female genital primordia and an anal primordium. Our results suggest that the organising activity of en in genital discs programs the normal development and differentiation of the genital disc by regulating the expression of hh. Hh in turn induces wg and dpp, the genes whose products act as secondary signalling molecules. Moreover, the complementary patterns of wg and dpp expression are essential for the bilateral symmetry and are maintained by mutual repression.     

Ethics, prisoner interrogation, national security, and the media.

The role of psychologists in the interrogation of prisoners and consultants to law enforcement agencies is discussed within the context of military involvement and National Security. There has been considerable discussion in the media about the role of health care professionals as interrogators and consultants. The American Psychological Association (APA) established a Presidential Task Force on Psychological Ethics and National Security (PENS), which examined the current APA Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct. The report concluded that psychologists may be involved in the role of supporting an interrogation but are not to be involved in any way in unethical behaviors and have a duty to report acts that involve torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading acts. Psychologists are also expected to consult when they face ethical dilemmas and must be sensitive to the problems involved in mixing inconsistent roles such as health care provision with services as consultants to interrogators. They must refrain from involving themselves in multiple relationships. Comments and criticisms of the PENS report are discussed and there is elaboration on the current state of the debate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Patterns of inner experience: Daydreaming styles, depressive moods, and sex roles.

Used standard scales (in the original form or modified) to assess daydreaming styles, depression, and sex roles in 40 women and 23 men. Factor analyses indicated that 3 attitudes toward events characterize inner experience: Positive, Expressive, and Instrumental. Regression analyses showed that a unique pattern of inner experience is associated with each of the 2 types of depressive mood. These patterns are consistent with the 2 modes of emotional response and superego functioning—shame and guilt—that H. B. Lewis (1976) identified. Examination of sex differences and sex role differences in the data suggests that (a) psychological sex roles have more consistent relations to daydreaming styles and depressive experiences than does biological sex; (b) previous reports of sex differences in depression may be partly explained in terms of differences in distractability and sex roles; and (c) psychological sex roles have different meanings for women and men. (48 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Counseling psychology, health psychology, and beyond: A reply to Klippel and DeJoy.

J. A. Klippel and D. M. DeJoy (see record 1984-20998-001) identified 3 areas of health psychology in which counseling psychology can make a contribution: communication-skills training, community health care, and consultation services. Using their proposal as a basis, the present author examines each of the areas in terms of several potential pitfalls that counseling psychologists may want to avoid. Three reminders for counseling psychologists desiring to work in this setting are to move beyond (1) process to define measurable outcomes, (2) subjective reports and focus on actual behavior change, and (3) catchphrases and focus on their roles as members of health-services teams. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Asian Indians' responses to discrimination: A mixed-method examination of identity, coping, and self-esteem.

The focus on racial injustice in ethnic minority psychology recognizes a need to understand the effects of racism experienced by Asian Indians in the U.S. Utilizing a mixed-method approach with 102 first and second generation Asian Indians, we examined (a) when and why race and ethnicity are salient for Asian Indians, (b) the mediating roles of racial identity and ethnic identity, and (c) the moderating roles of generational status and racial socialization on the relationship between racism related stress, self-esteem and coping. Qualitative analyses revealed distinct and overlapping themes related to race and ethnicity highlighting the relevance of both constructs to participants. Quantitative analyses revealed racial identity to be a significant mediator in the relationship between racism related stress, self-esteem, and coping. Neither generational status nor racial socialization experiences moderated this relationship. Implications of these findings for research and clinical intervention with Asian Indians are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Power, leadership, and the management of stress.

The management of aggression and dependency are presented in terms of the psychology of humans. Stress is considered as the increase in the distance between the ego ideal (a picture, only partly conscious, of oneself at one's future best) and the self-image (a picture of oneself in the present). The emphasis is on personality dynamics in relation to group dynamics and organizational factors. The function of leadership is central to the anticipation, alleviation, and amelioration of stress. Leaders, like parents, cannot abdicate power, for when they do, they are no longer in leadership roles. Leaders must understand that they must deal with ministration, maturation, and mastery needs. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family-Responsive Interventions, Perceived Organizational and Supervisor Support, Work-Family Conflict, and Psychological Strain.

This study examined organizational family-responsive policies, perceptions of the organization as family supportive, and supervisor support as issues that may be salient to the experience of conflict between paid employment (work) and family roles. Data were collected from 355 managerial personnel in New Zealand. Although work-family conflict and psychological strain were strongly linked, the availability of organizational policies had no significant association with levels of conflict or strain, whereas policy usage was related only to work-to-family interference and not to family-to-work interference. On the other hand, perceptions of the organization as family supportive and supervisor support for work-family balance displayed significant relationships with key variables, highlighting the importance of these variables for interventions designed to ameliorate the negative impact of work-family conflict on managerial well-being. Implications for the effective implementation of family-responsive interventions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Information needs, sources of information, and decisional roles in women with breast cancer

PURPOSE: To describe preferred and actual roles in treatment decision making among women with newly diagnosed breast cancer, to describe their sources of information, and to identify and prioritize their information needs. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SAMPLE: Seventy-four women recently diagnosed with breast cancer. SETTING: Two tertiary, outpatient oncology clinics in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. METHODS: Three measures were completed: control preferences card sort, Thurstone scaling of information needs, and ranking of information sources. MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES: Decisional roles, sources of information, and information needs. FINDINGS: More women (43%) preferred and more (57%) actually assumed a passive role in treatment decision making. This is particularly true of older women. Although 37% of women preferred a collaborative role, only 19% were able to assume such a role. The women preferred personal sources of information (physician, nurse, friend, or relative) over written sources. A medical journal was more relevant to women with higher levels of education. Most information needs included stage of disease, likelihood of cure, and treatment options. The women ranked self-care issues and sexuality as least important; older women, however, ranked self-care issues as more important. CONCLUSIONS: Women who want collaborative roles in decision making may experience difficulty in achieving such roles. Personal sources of information were more important to women than written sources. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE: Nurses can use a knowledge of women's priorities for information to guide information sharing. Nurses can assess women's desired roles in treatment decision making and facilitate women achieving their preferred roles.     

Status, communality, and agency: Implications for stereotypes of gender and other groups.

Four studies addressed the hypothesis, based on correspondence bias, that low- relative to high-status individuals are perceived as more communal and less agentic. Study 1 instantiated status in terms of occupations, and findings were as expected. The findings of Study 2 reconciled those of Study 1 and of A. H . Eagly and V. J. Steffen (see record 1984-23015-001) in that they demonstrated that high-status occupations are differentially construed in terms of their interpersonal communal demands. The hypothesis received clear support in Studies 3 and 4, in which a general instantiation of status independent of occupations, social roles, and gender was adopted. The findings are discussed in terms of gender stereotypes and social role theory of gender (A. H. Eagly, 1987) as well as in terms of other stereotypes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How the public perceives psychiatrists, psychologists, nonpsychiatric physicians, and members of the clergy.

Accompanying two decades of change in the mental health system have been a diffusion of the roles and practices of mental health professionals as well as shifts in the public's perceptions of the various specialties. In the present study, samples of patients and nonpatients used a 4-point Likert scale to rate (a) the competence of psychologists, psychiatrists, nonpsychiatric physicians, and the clergy to treat 10 different patient types, and (b) the personal qualities of the four practitioner groups along nine different dimensions. Psychiatrists and psychologists received significantly higher ratings than both nonpsychiatric physicians and the clergy on competence to treat most mental health problems. Intergroup differences on the ratings of personal qualities suggest a less uniformly favorable perception of psychiatrists and psychologists in comparison with the other two groups. Implications for the marketing and public relations efforts of mental health practitioners are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)