The influence of societal factors on female body image

This study was designed to identify factors associated with the perceptual and attitudinal components of female body image. The influence of society and factors thought to mediate the relationship between body image and society (field dependence, locus of control, and self-esteem) were investigated. Age and body mass index (BMI) were also included as independent variables. A total of 101 female university students in Australia ranging in age from 18 to 55 years (M = 24.11) participated in the study. A video camera apparatus (VCA) was used to assess perceptual distortion of body size. The VCA, the Body Esteem Scale, and the Appearance Evaluation subscale of the Multidimensional Body Self Relations Questionnaire were used to assess body satisfaction. On average, women underestimated their body sizes by 4%, and they typically wanted to be smaller than their actual body sizes. About two fifths of the women expressed moderate to strong negative feelings about both individual body parts and their bodies as a whole. Multiple regression analyses revealed that perceptual distortion of body size could not be predicted from the independent variables. Body satisfaction was best explained by societal factors, self-esteem, and BMI.     

Long-term care of an individual with schizophrenia: pharmacologic, psychological, and social factors

Four case reports of mesenchymal neoplasms showing chromosomal abnormalities are presented. In a case of hemangiopericytoma trisomy 2 and centric fusion 19;21 were present. In a mastocytoma a deleted chromosome 35 was seen. A homogeneously staining region (HSR) on chromosome 1 was detected in a histiocytoma. Trisomy 5 and monosomy 31 were observed in a case of granulocytic sarcoma (chloroma). The lack of mutations in exons 1 and 2 of oncogenes N-ras, K-ras, and H-ras and exons 5, 6, 7, and 8 of tumor suppressor gene p53 in these four patients and in a larger series of investigated dogs (25 hemangiopericytomas, 12 mastocytomas, and 8 histiocytomas) is highlighted.     

The psychotherapy of schizophrenia: Patient and therapist factors related to continuance.

The influence of pretreatment patient and therapist characteristics on continuance in individual psychotherapy was investigated using a sample of 143 nonchronic schizophrenic patients. Results showed that 1) most of the usual indicators of patient suitability for psychotherapy were not related to continuance; 2) patients with positive symptoms of schizophrenia were most likely to remain in supportive therapy, whereas patients with negative symptoms were more likely to remain in insight-oriented therapy; and 3) all patients were more likely to continue in treatment with therapists who had a strong commitment to a well-defined treatment approach, be it supportive or insight oriented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The personality of societal groups.

Examined the personality of social situations and evidence for the construct validity of the Multivariate Personality Inventory (MPI). The instrument was administered to 20 car salespersons (mean age 39.75 yrs), 25 fundamentalist church members (mean age 27.8 yrs), 40 campus nondenominational church members (mean age 21.28 yrs), 15 patrons of singles bars (mean age 27 yrs), 50 members of women's social organizations (mean age 32.39 yrs), 131 sorority members (mean age 20.25 yrs), 32 women's softball team members (mean age 27.38 yrs), 31 medical technologists (mean age 31.13 yrs), and 44 computer programmers (mean age 31.58 yrs). ANOVA yielded a significant scale effect and a significant interaction between the social-occupational groups and their scores on the personality scales. Five of the 7 groups about which predictions were made endorsed the predicted personality scale. Church members endorsed more depressive items, computer programmers endorsed more compulsive items, car salespersons endorsed more manic items, and sorority members endorsed more hysteric items. Findings support the hypothesis of the existence of a personality of situations and provide construct validity evidence for the MPI. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The association between social support and course of depression: Is it confounded with personality?

A number of studies have indicated that social support is associated with the course of depression. However, none of these studies have ruled out the potentially confounding effects of personality factors, such as neuroticism. The authors examined whether social support was related to the course of depression after controlling for neuroticism and several possible confounding clinical variables. Participants were 59 patients meeting Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 1987) criteria for major depression. All participants received structured diagnostic interviews and completed self-report measures of social support and neuroticism. Follow-up assessments at 6 months included the Longitudinal Interval Follow-Up Evaluation (M. B. Keller et al., 1987) and the Beck Depression Inventory (A. T. Beck, A. J. Rush, B. E Shaw, & G. Emery, 1979). Results indicated that social support significantly predicted both severity of depression and recovery from depression at follow-up over and above the effects of initial depression severity, dysthymia, and neuroticism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depression, schizophrenia, and social attraction.

J. C. Coyne (see PA, Vol 56:02455 and 61:1146) has shown that after interacting with depressed patients, Ss report feeling depressed themselves and rejecting toward the depressed person. In the present study, measures (e.g., Mood Adjective Check List, Interpersonal Check List) were obtained from 216 undergraduates who listened to tapes of interviews with either hospitalized depressive, hospitalized schizophrenics, or normal hospital staff. Results show that schizophrenics aroused dysphoric feelings similar although not identical to those feelings aroused by depressives, and in the case of males they were equally rejected. In addition, the schizophrenics and, to a lesser extent, the depressives were seen as weak, submissive, and less capable of offering a positive relationship. Modifications of the Coyne position are suggested. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Abstract thinking and social behavior in schizophrenia.

20 normal and 24 schizophrenic Ss were presented a series of cards, each bearing a stimulus word and 2 response words variously related in meaning to the stimulus. The Ss were asked to select the response word which they felt to be "closer in meaning" to the stimulus word. The results confirmed, at the .01 level, the hypotheses that (a) normals will exceed schizophrenics in the ability to select, as most similar in meaning to a given word, that word which is related to it in an essential abstract way; and (b) within a schizophrenic group, the above ability will be positively correlated with adequacy of everyday social interaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived social support and community adaptation in schizophrenia

Prompted by the continuing transition to community care, mental health nurses are considering the role of social support in community adaptation. This article demonstrates the importance of distinguishing between kinds of social support and presents findings from the first round data of a longitudinal study of community adaptation in 156 people with schizophrenia conducted in Brisbane, Australia. All clients were interviewed using the relevant subscales of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule to confirm a primary diagnosis of schizophrenia. The study set out to investigate the relationship between community adaptation and social support. Community adaptation was measured with the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), the Life Skills Profile (LSP) and measures of dissatisfaction with life and problems in daily living developed by the authors. Social support was measured with the Arizona Social Support Interview Schedule (ASSIS). The BPRS and ASSIS were incorporated into a client interview conducted by trained interviewers. The LSP was completed on each client by an informal carer (parent, relative or friend) or a professional carer (case manager or other health professional) nominated by the client. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between community adaptation and four sets of social support variables. Given the order in which variables were entered in regression equations, a set of perceived social support variables was found to account for the largest unique variance of four measures of community adaptation in 96 people with schizophrenia for whom complete data are available from the first round of the three-wave longitudinal study. A set of the subjective experiences of the clients accounted for the largest unique variance in measures of symptomatology, life skills, dissatisfaction with life, and problems in daily living. Sets of community support, household support and functional variables accounted for less variance. Implications for mental health nursing practice are considered.     

Relationship between cognitive and social dysfunction in schizophrenia

Cytogenetic monitoring was carried out on a group of 38 nurses who reconstitute antineoplastic drugs in order to determine the extent of chromosomal damage. Genotoxic activities of antineoplastic drugs are studied by chromosome aberration assay, micronucleus assay, sister chromatid exchange (SCE) frequency high frequency cells (HFC) analysis, and mitotic activity of peripheral lymphocytes. Results confirmed that occupational exposure to a mixture of antineoplastic drugs may cause genome damages. The results of this study show that biomonitoring after exposure to a mixture of antineoplastic drugs which express clastogenic and aneugenic activity should involve a battery of cytogenetic methods.     

The time course of visuospatial processing deficits in schizophrenia: An event-related brain potential study.

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded during a dot enumeration task so as to investigate electrophysiologic correlates of early visuospatial processing in schizophrenia. Twenty-eight patients having a diagnosis of schizophrenia (n?=?19) or schizoaffective disorder (n?=?9) and 28 controls were tested. Patients showed poorer dot enumeration than did controls and also had markedly reduced early negative ERPs, which began about 150 ms after stimulus onset at the peak of the N1 potential and reached its maximum about 275 ms at the N2 peak. The N1 reduction in patients was greatest over left parietal sites for stimuli in the right visual field. The marked N1 and N2 reductions in patients are supportive of models postulating deficits in early visuospatial attention and allocation of conceptual resources in schizophrenia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A conditional approach to dispositional constructs: The local predictability of social behavior.

A conditional approach to dispositions is developed in which dispositional constructs are viewed as clusters of if-then propositions. These propositions summarize contingencies between categories of conditions and categories of behavior rather than generalized response tendencies. A fundamental unit for investigating dispositions is therefore the conditional frequency of acts that are central to a given behavior category in circumscribed situations, not the overall frequency of behaviors. In an empirical application of the model, we examine how people's dispositional judgments are linked to extensive observations of targets' behavior in a range of natural social situations. We identify categories of these social situations in which targets' behavior may be best predicted from observers' dispositional judgments, focusing on the domains of aggression and withdrawal. One such category consists of subjectively demanding or stressful situations that tax people's performance competencies. As expected, children judged to be aggressive or withdrawn were variable across situations in dispositionally relevant behaviors, but they diverged into relatively predictable aggressive and withdrawn actions in situations that required the social, self-regulatory, and cognitive competencies they lacked. Implications of the conditional approach for personality assessment and person perception research are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toward an integration of psychologic, social, and biologic factors in depression: Effects on outcome and course of cognitive therapy.

The present study attempted to integrate key variables from 3 major domains of theory in depression (cognition, stress, and psychobiology) that are typically studied separately in analyses of course and response to cognitive therapy. Dysfunctional attitudes, negative life events, or sleep electroencephalogram were assessed in 53 outpatients before treatment with cognitive therapy. High levels of dysfunctional attitudes were found to be associated with poorer response to treatment but not for those patients who had experienced a severe negative life event. Examination of the length of time required to achieve remission revealed an effect for rapid eye movement (REM) latency as well as the interaction between REM latency and life events. These results are discussed in terms of the promise of integrative research in the study of depression and its treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developing an interface between engineering and the social sciences: An interdisciplinary team approach to solving societal problems.

Maintains that if interdisciplinary teams are to be successful in solving broad societal problems, academicians and practitioners must be cognizant of the interdependence of disciplines. A systems approach is offered to describe an interdisciplinary team engaged in an intensive problem-solving experience. A similar approach is used to evaluate the impact of interdisciplinary team teaching on student attitudes and behavior. The goal of both the course and the problem-solving experience was the development of an interface between engineering and the social sciences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of affective factors on conceptualization in schizophrenia.

2 groups of schizophrenics, distinguished as to their capacity for abstract thinking (see 15: 3039), and normals were presented with stimuli composed of groupings of words constructed so that affect-laden words could be placed in the figure or ground of a gestalt. Schizophrenics characterized as demonstrating "concrete" thinking avoided affect-laden words whether they appeared in the figure or ground of the tachistoscopically presented gestalten. The finding tends to validate the assumption that generalized withdrawal in some schizophrenics is a product of withdrawal from affect-laden stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of psychosocial factors in schizophrenia. Theoretical and practical-therapeutic consequences

The author first comments on the interaction of heredity and environmental factors and the need for an integrative psycho-social-biological model to understand all kinds of psychiatric disturbances. He then gives a selective presentation of research done in the last 20 to 30 years which clearly demonstrate the influence of psychosocial factors on schizophrenia. In the authors' multifactor scheme the above mentioned psycho-social-biological interactions in the premorbid, acute and chronic phases of the illness are shown. Based on the organisational integrating influences of the affects on the way of thinking according to the concept of "affect logic" he concludes that primarily emotional factors which secondarily influence the way of thinking play an important part in the development of schizophrenia. From this point of view schizophrenia could be classified as an "affective psychosis" sui generis (like mania and depression). Various consequences in the field of psychotherapy, sociotherapy and pharmacotherapy ensue.     

The social and academic competence of children vulnerable to schizophrenia and other behavior pathologies.

Presents the rationale behind and the initial findings from a research project investigating the competence of children vulnerable to psychopathology. 4 target groups were studied: (a) children with schizophrenic mothers, (b) children with internalizing mothers, (c) externalizing children, and (d) internalizing children. R. Achenbach's internalizing-externalizing classification system was used. Each of the 120 target children (mean age = 10) was placed in an experimental trial with 120 matched and 116 randomly-selected controls. Judgments of social and intellectual competence were made by peers and teachers in 113 classrooms in 37 elementary schools. Results are presented for each sex separately at the trial and target-group levels. Overall, externalizers were judged least competent, followed in order of increasing competence by children of schizophrenic mothers, internalizers, childern of internalizing mothers, and controls. (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotion recognition and social competence in chronic schizophrenia.

This study evaluated (a) whether chronic, medicated schizophrenia patients show deficits in emotion recognition compared to nonpatients, and (b) whether deficits in emotion recognition are related to poorer social competence. Two emotion recognition tests developed by S. L. Kerr and J. M. Neale (1993) and Benton's Test of Facial Recognition (A. Benton, M. VanAllen, K. Hamsher, & H. Levin, 1978) were given to patients with chronic schizophrenia and nonpatient controls. Patients' social skills, social adjustment, and symptomatology were assessed. Like Kerr and Neale's unmedicated patients, these patients performed worse than controls on both emotion recognition tests and the control test. For patients, facial perception was related to the chronicity of illness and social competence. Chronicity of illness may contribute to face perception deficits in schizophrenia, which may affect social competence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)