Gender differences in evaluations of tobacco and alcohol advertisements.

Examined the relation between gender and reactions to different styles of advertising tobacco and alcohol products among 41 females and 34 males (aged 12–16 yrs) and their parents (39 mothers and 36 fathers). Self-monitoring was also examined as a possible correlate. Ss rated magazine advertisements oriented toward the product's image or qualities. Girls liked image-oriented advertisements more and perceived them to be more persuasive than quality-oriented advertising. This gender difference was not observed among adults. All Ss liked image-oriented more than quality-oriented advertising. Moreover, image-oriented advertisements were seen as more persuasive than quality-oriented advertisements by girls' parents who were high in self-monitoring. Results suggest that girls in early adolescence may be particularly attentive to image-oriented commercials that portray smoking and drinking as desirable behaviors. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological adjustment of children with sickle cell disease: Stability and change over a 10-month period.

Rates of poor psychological adjustment of children with sickle cell disease remained relatively constant over initial and follow-up assessment points. 50 children (aged 7–12 yrs) and their mothers completed the initial protocol. 30 children completed the follow-up plus 5 additional children and their mothers. These Ss were aged 7–24 yrs at follow-up. With initial levels of adjustment controlled, children's strategies for coping with pain accounted for a significant increment in child-reported symptoms and mother-reported internalizing behavior problems at follow-up beyond the contribution of illness and demographic parameters and follow-up interval. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family burden following traumatic brain injury.

Investigated burden experienced by 60 spouses and 71 parents who served as primary caregivers to individuals with traumatic brain injury (BI). Burden levels, as assessed by the Questionnaire on Resources and Stress (QRS-SF), were compared for spouses and parents. Both parents and spouses exhibited high levels of burden. Relative to spouses, parents reported significantly greater burden related to lifespan care. Spouses reported significantly less personal reward than did parents. The presence of social aggression and cognitive disability in the individual with BI was found to have a greater association with subjective burden of caregivers than was the presence of physical disability or injury severity. Results of previous studies with QRS-SF scores show that the responsibility assumed by spouses and parents of persons with BI was as great as that experienced by families of people with severe chronic physical disabilities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Why psychologists don't think like philosophers.

H. H. Kendler (see record 1994-09190-001), in his article on psychology and the ethics of social policy, argues in part that ethical imperatives cannot be inferred from empirical data. This argument is cited in opposition to what is purported to be the position of the American Psychological Association on the abortion issue. It is suggested that PhD candidates in psychology be well versed in the philosophical issues and debates that are the foundation for the formation of ethical principles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interoceptive Sensitivity and Self-Reports of Emotional Experience.

People differ in the extent to which they emphasize feelings of activation or deactivation in their verbal reports of experienced emotion, termed arousal focus (AF). Two multimethod studies indicate that AF is linked to heightened interoceptive sensitivity (as measured by performance on a heartbeat detection task). People who were more sensitive to their heartbeats emphasized feelings of activation and deactivation when reporting their experiences of emotion over time more than did those who were less sensitive. This relationship was not accounted for by several other variables, including simple language effects. Implications for the role of interoception in experienced emotion and the validity of self-reported emotion are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The therapeutic relationship as the foundation for treatment with adult survivors of sexual abuse.

Survivors of sexual abuse enter psychotherapy with special needs that challenge some of the traditional therapeutic assumptions. The therapeutic relationship, which is the foundation for treatment with abuse survivors, often must shift in nature and quality to address these needs. The main goal of treatment is the integration of self and affective experience. To facilitate this process the authors discuss the establishment and maintenance of an "affective edge" that allows for direct attention to and intervention with the trauma memories and the accompanying affect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accuracy in perceptions of interpersonal interactions: Effects of dysphoria, friendship, and similarity.

Addressed conflicting views of depressives' interpersonal accuracy in an investigation of the accuracy of mild depressives (dysphorics) across differing social contexts. Women who were either friends or strangers and who were either similar or dissimilar in level of dysphoria conversed about 3 topics: a neutral topic, their own disclosure of a personal problem, and their partner's disclosure. Dysphorics were not more accurate in general than nondysphorics. After self-disclosure, all women more accurately detected sympathy from a similar stranger. After the partner's disclosure, women also better detected the mood of a similar partner. When interacting with nondysphoric strangers, however, dysphorics underestimated their partner's sympathy toward them. Implications for cognitive and interpersonal theories of depression and for depressives' relationships are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Negative affective consequences of thinking about disease detection behaviors.

It was proposed that thinking about disease-detection behavior would lead to more negative moods than thinking about health-promotion behavior. Detection behaviors produce more negative moods because they can threaten perceptions of good health. In a laboratory study, the initial mood states of 121 participants recruited from undergraduates and the general community were measured using a neutral-words rating procedure. Then participants were randomly assigned to think about performing a disease-detection behavior or a health-promotion behavior. Subsequently, they wrote down their responses to the behavior and evaluated these 35 either positive, negative, or neutral. Finally, the participant's mood was remeasured using both a neutral words-rating procedure and a more traditional bipolar rating measure. Results indicated that thought about disease-detection behavior produced more negative affective responses and more negative mood change than did thought about health-promotion behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction.

This article introduces the current issue of Health Psychology. The call for early intervention to prevent adulthood health problems and the need to consider each period of children's lives within its developmental perspective are the main emphases in this special issue of the journal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)