Psychological correlates of cancer.

Administered the Recent Life Changes Questionnaire and the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale to 30 male lung cancer patients, 30 male emphysema patients, and 30 male well controls. Data suggest that there are definite indications of distinctive personality characteristics possessed by people who have cancer, which may have been characteristic of those people before their illness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological correlates of blood pressure.

As a physiological measure of emotion, blood pressure has been relatively neglected in recent years. This review considers 3 questions: Do certain stimuli produce replicable changes in blood pressure? Do cognitive states influence blood pressure reactivity? Is there a causative relationship between personality and high blood pressure? Available research indicates that the 1st 2 questions can be answered affirmatively, though there are a number of methodological problems yet to be resolved. No direct evidence is available for the 3rd question and tangential studies offer conflicting results. (78 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex roles and unwanted pregnancy in adolescent and adult women.

Discusses the stresses of unwanted pregnancy for women, their partners and families, and health professionals. Psychologists are considered capable of reducing the likelihood of unwanted pregnancy as well as contributing to a constructive resolution of the crisis. Factors that are often associated with contraceptive use and nonuse are highlighted. It is also shown that socialization in traditional sex roles contributes to ineffective contraceptive protection. Problems associated with the resolution of unwanted pregnancy are presented, such as resentment toward the child, the sense of loss for the adopted child or the aborted fetus, and depression. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological correlates of overall quality of figure drawings.

The aim of this study was to identify psychological correlates of overall quality (OAQ) of figure drawings. The drawings of 75 female and 62 male psychiatric patients were rated for OAQ on a 9-point scale. Psychological test data, interview and behavioral ratings, and information regarding social background and adjustment were also available for many of the Ss. Results were as follows: (1) OAQ was not related to specific aspects of psychopathology, improvement in clinical condition, nor to a wide variety of personality trait ratings. (2) Low, but statistically significant, relationships were found between OAQ and 3 independently obtained indexes of adjustment in specific situations. (3) OAQ was related positively with vocabulary intelligence and father's occupational level and negatively with age. (36 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological correlates of fertility plans in unmarried women.

Examined the childbearing plans of 198 female unmarried undergraduates in relation to their scores on the Personality Research Form and to their educational or career goals. Ss planning to remain childless were more likely to plan to delay marriage than their counterparts planning to have children. Ss planning to remain childless as well as those planning to delay having children perceived a career as more important than Ss for whom educational and career considerations were less salient. Voluntarily childless Ss possessed more stereotypically masculine traits and fewer feminine ones than women planning to have children, showing lower scores on nurturance and abasement and higher scores on such factors as dominance and autonomy. There was no evidence that career considerations had substituted for children as a primary source of satisfaction in voluntarily childless Ss. (French abstract) (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological test and organismic correlates of interview interaction patterns.

Certain behavioral variables which characterize an individual's interview interaction pattern can be assessed by the Interaction Chronograph method. It was found that individuals who speak in short utterances are less intelligent and more stereotyped in their psychological test productions. Initiative during the silence period of the interview is hypothesized to be related to self-assurance. The individual with a high "patient's dominance" score tends toward stereotypy and rigidity. It was also found that female patients are relatively less submissive than male patients. 16 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conflict over emotional expression: Psychological and physical correlates.

This study addresses the construct of conflict or ambivalence over emotional expression. Ambivalence is seen as an important mediator in the link between emotional styles and psychological and physical well-being. Using the "personal striving" framework, a questionnaire measure of ambivalent emotional strivings (AEQ) was designed. In Study 1, 292 Ss completed this measure along with questionnaire measures of expressiveness, social desirability, and intense ambivalence. Women scored significantly higher than men on both the AEQ and expressiveness. In Study 2, scores on the AEQ were found to be negatively correlated with self-reported and peer-rated expressiveness. In Study 3, 48 Ss participated in a 21-day study of mood and health. Expressiveness was positively correlated with some measures of well-being and with daily negative affect. Ambivalence was positively correlated with several indices of psychological distress. Although the AEQ correlated with questionnaire measures of physical symptomatology, neither the AEQ nor the expressiveness measures correlated with daily symptom reports. Results support the contention that conflict over emotional expressiveness is a variable worthy of study in its own right, having implications for research on personality and health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological correlates of survival on renal dialysis

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory was administered to 47 male patients on the Renal Dialysis Unit at the Seattle VA Hospital. The patients were divided into three survival groups for comparison. Group A died within 1 year of initiating dialysis. Group B had been alive on dialysis between 3 and 7 years, while group C had been alive between 7 and 10 years at the time of data analysis. Group A differed significantly from group B on the Hs, D, and Hy scales, and from group C on the F, Hs, D, and Pt scales. Interpretation of the mean MMPI profiles implies that persons in group A are characterized by feelings of helplessness, high levels of depression, anxiety, and preoccupation with somatic difficulties, whereas those in groups B and C tended to be dependent, have mild levels of depression, and have a sense of hopefulness about the future. The authors suggest that psychiatric intervention might increase the longevity of those patients judged to be moderately to severely depressed with somatic preoccupations.     

Psychological correlates of obesity: Moving to the next research generation.

Studies comparing obese and nonobese persons have generally failed to find differences in global aspects of psychological functioning (e.g., depression, anxiety). The resulting conclusion, that obesity does not carry risk for psychological problems, is inimical to clinical impression, reports from overweight individuals, and a consistent literature showing strong cultural bias and negative attitudes toward obese persons. The often-cited notion that obesity has no psychological consequences may be an inevitable byproduct of the manner in which the first generation of studies in the field has been conducted. The authors propose a second generation of studies that begins with a risk factor model to identify the individuals who will suffer from their obesity and the areas of functioning most affected. Recommendations are also made for a third generation of studies that will establish causal pathways linking obesity to specific areas of distress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological test sales and internet auctions: Ethical considerations for dealing with obsolete or unwanted test materials.

Psychological test publishers have longstanding policies prohibiting the sale of psychological tests to unqualified persons. Psychologists are also ethically bound to maintain test security. The emergence of Internet auction sites, however, poses a heretofore unrecognized threat to test security. This 3-month survey of auction listings on eBay found that both personality and intelligence tests, including test manuals, are available, and that sales to unqualified persons are not always restricted. These findings highlight a need to strengthen the ethics code to specify standards for the disposal of unwanted test material. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Most unwanted

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) can travel thousands of miles, accumulate in the food chain, and persist in the environment, taking as long as centuries to degrade. POPs are known to play a role in birth defects, cancer, immune system dysfunction, and reproductive problems in wildlife. While the effects of POPs on human health are unclear, many researchers believe that long-term exposure contributes to increasing rates of birth defects, fertility problems, greater susceptibility to disease, diminished intelligence, and certain cancers. Twelve POPs have been identified by the United Nations Environment Programme as requiring urgent regulatory attention. They include the pesticides aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene, mirex, and toxaphene. Of the remaining three POPs, polychlorinated biphenyls are industrial products (used in electrical transformers), and dioxins and furans are unintentional by-products of industrial processes.     

Psychological changes accompanying pregnancy and motherhood

This study was an attempt to investigate some of the psychological changes that occur during first pregnancy and the early postpartum months. The major theoretical assumption was that pregnancy and early motherhood may be viewed as a series of developmental tasks, and that the way in which these are coped with will be predictive of adaptation to the maternal role. The aims of the study were (a) to identify the affective changes that occur in women during first pregnancy and to assess the extent to which pregnancy and motherhood are experienced as a period of psychological crisis; (b) to trace the development of maternal feeling; and (c) to assess the extent to which characteristics measured early in pregnancy are predictive of attitudes and adjustment to later stages of pregnancy and the degree to which these factors are themselves predictive of adaptation to parenthood. The sample consisted of 19 white, middle class primigravidas, with an age range of 22-33 years. Only women who had no previous gynecological or psychiatric difficulties and who were currently living with their husbands were accepted as Ss. Each woman was interviewed at each trimester of pregnancy, on the third postpartum day, and at 2 months postpartum. A follow up questionnaire was mailed at 7 months postpartum, The data obtained were derived from ratings of extensive interview schedules and a number of personality measures. Results indicated that although emotional upheaval and rapid change were characteristic of pregnancy, for some women a growing sense of adulthood, of fulfillment, and integration of a new maturational stage clearly co-existed with the emotional disequilibrium. Analysis of the interrelationship among characteristics shown in early pregnancy, adjustment to the pregnancy overall, and adaptation to parenthood indicated that the degree of personality integration achieved by early pregnancy was predictive of the extent to which psychological growth was experienced throughout pregnancy and early parenthood.     

Adult attachment and the suppression of unwanted thoughts.

Dismissing-avoidant adults are characterized by expressing relatively low levels of attachment related distress. However, it is unclear whether this reflects a relative absence of covert distress or an attempt to conceal covert distress. Two experiments were conducted to distinguish between these competing explanations. In Experiment 1, participants were instructed to suppress thoughts of their romantic partner abandoning them. Relative to control conditions, suppression resulted in a decrease in the accessibility of abandonment-related thoughts for dismissing-avoidant adults. Experiment 2 demonstrated that attempts to suppress the attachment system resulted in decreases in physiological arousal for dismissing-avoidant adults. These experiments indicate that dismissing-avoidant adults are capable of suppressing the latent activation of their attachment system and are not simply concealing latent distress. The discussion focuses on developmental, cognitive, and social factors that may promote detachment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social support in pregnancy: Psychosocial correlates of birth outcomes and postpartum depression.

Examined the effects of prenatal social support on maternal and infant health and well-being in a sample of 129 low-income pregnant women. Three aspects of support (amount received, quality of support received, and network resources) and 4 outcomes (birth weight, Apgar scores, labor progress, and postpartum depression) were studied. Results indicate that women who received more support had better labor progress and babies with higher Apgar scores. Women with higher quality support had babies with higher Apgar scores and experienced less postpartum depression. Also, women with larger networks had babies of higher birth weight. Further analyses indicate that the outcomes as a whole were more consistently predicted by instrumental rather than emotional forms of support. Finally, although there was some evidence for stress-buffering effects of support, the overall findings were more consistent with a main effect model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological correlates of salivary cortisol secretion among unemployed men and women

By their 10th month of life, typically developing infants produce canonical babbling, which includes the well-formed syllables required for meaningful speech. Research suggests that emerging speech or language-related disorders might be associated with late onset of canonical babbling. Onset of canonical babbling was investigated for 1,536 high-risk infants, at about 10-months corrected age. Parental report by open-ended questionnaire was found to be an efficient method for ascertaining babbling status. Although delays were infrequent, they were often associated with genetic, neurological, anatomical, and/or physiological abnormalities. Over half the cases of late canonical babbling were not, at the time they were discovered associated with prior significant medical diagnoses. Late canonical-babbling onset may be a predictor of later developmental disabilities, including problems in speech, language, and reading.     

Born unwanted: Observations from the Prague Study.

The authors followed 220 children born in 1961-1963 to women twice denied abortion for the same pregnancy in Prague (Czech Republic) and 220 pair-matched controls, whose mothers were pair-matched for age and socioeconomic status and the partner's presence in the home. They were medically, psychologically, and socially assessed in ages 9, 14-16, 21-23, 30, and 35. Although differences between the unwanted study participants and pair-matched controls were not dramatic and changed over time, the differences were consistently in disfavor of the unwanted pregnancy participants. When siblings were used as controls, the findings supported the hypothesis that being born from an unwanted pregnancy is a risk factor for poor mental health in adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intentional suppression of unwanted memories grows more difficult as we age.

People often encounter reminders to memories that they would prefer not to think about. When this happens, they often try to exclude the unwanted memory from awareness, a process that relies upon inhibitory control. We propose that the ability to regulate awareness of unwanted memories through inhibition declines with advancing age. In two experiments, we examined younger and older adults' ability to intentionally suppress retrieval when repeatedly confronted with reminders to an experience they were instructed to not think about. Older adults exhibited significantly less forgetting of the suppressed items compared to younger adults on a later independent probe test of recall, indicating that older adults failed to inhibit the to-be-avoided memories. These findings demonstrate that the ability to intentionally regulate conscious awareness of unwanted memories through inhibitory control declines with age, highlighting differences in memory control that may be of clinical relevance in the aftermath of unpleasant life events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)