Gender and sexual experience as determinants in a sexual behavior hierarchy

The present study sought to assess the influence of gender and previous sexual experience regarding the structure of the basic sexual behavior hierarchy. Results indicated that both gender and previous experience have significant effects. Overall, gender appeared to have a less substantial effect than previous experience, being more noteworthy for the similarities manifest between males and females than the few differences observed. Previous experience displayed a substantial effect, particularly in the upper portion of the hierarchy, with like-experienced groups showing marked similarity in their hierarchy patterns. Several significant gender-experience interactions were found regarding oral-genital behaviors, and a general trend was observed for females indicating negative appreciation from pre to postexperience. Males revealed positive appreciation from pre to postexperience on all but the most basic sexual behaviors. Conclusions were to the effect that while both variables influenced the hierarchy, effects were complex, and often mediated by additional factors.     

Psychology in cancer medicine: A perspective and overview.

Reviews the interaction between the fields of psychology and cancer medicine from a historical perspective, highlighting the growth of psychosocial oncology since the 1960's. Areas considered include the correlation between cancer and psychopathology, psychological morbidity of cancer patients, the relation of cancer survival to psychological variables, and psychosocial and psychopharmacological interventions with cancer patients. (86 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dimensions of outpatient neurotic pathology: Comparison of a clinical versus an empirical assessment.

Assesses a set of 4 clinical clusters, defined by 31 items of the Symptom Distress Checklist (SCL), in terms of their comparability to 4 dimensions isolated in a principal axis factor analysis of the same set of 31 items. The clusters were labeled anxiety, depression, anger-hostility, and obsessive-compulsive-phobic, and were evolved through a clustering procedure involving 20 clinical judges. The factors were determined through a factor analysis of psychiatrists' ratings of 837 anxious neurotic outpatients involved in 3 clinical drug trials. Comparison between the 2 sets of syndromes was effected by casting the clinical clusters in the form of a hypothesis matrix and performing a Procrustes transformation on the original principal components factors. Results of the analysis indicate an extremely high coincidence between the clinical clusters and the transformed factors, implying that the dimensions isolated here possess substantial reliability. This finding, and the high degree of similarity observed between the present dimensions and those identified in previous research, suggest that these factors may represent "core" dimensions of neurotic psychopathology. (35 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social class, psychological disorder, and the nature of the psychopathologic indicator.

Evaluated the nature and degree of differences between 3 measures of clinical status often used as primary indicators of psychological disorder: (a) a general severity score, combining information on both numbers of symptoms and intensity of distress; (b) a symptom distress score, reflecting only intensity of distress; and (c) a pure enumerative indicator, reflecting only numbers of symptoms. The indicators were contrasted within the context of patient social class, since previous work has shown it to be an important influence in determining symptom patterns. A strong inverse relationship has been repeatedly demonstrated between social class and psychological disorder. Data from previous studies of 1,104 anxious neurotic outpatients were used, and measurement was done in terms of the 5 primary symptom dimensions and the total pathology score of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist. Results confirm the traditional inverse relationship between social class and psychological disorder but demonstrate that it was conditional in nature. Only when disorder was defined in terms of an indicator based to some degree on numbers of symptoms, and only on the symptom dimensions of somatization and anxiety, did the traditional pattern clearly emerge. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relation of low-severity violence to women's health

OBJECTIVE: To determine if women who experience low-severity violence differ in numbers of physical symptoms, psychological distress, or substance abuse from women who have never been abused and from women who experience high-severity violence. DESIGN: Cross-sectional, self-administered, anonymous survey. SETTING: Four community-based, primary care, internal medicine practices. PATIENTS: Survey respondents were 1,931 women aged 18 years or older. SURVEY DESIGN: Survey included questions on violence; a checklist of 22 physical symptoms; the Symptom Checklist-22 (SCL-22) to measure depression, anxiety, somatization, and self-esteem; CAGE questions for alcohol use; and questions about past medical history. Low-severity violence patients had been "pushed or grabbed" or had someone "threaten to hurt them or someone they love" in the year prior to presentation. High-severity violence patients had been hit, slapped, kicked, burned, choked, or threatened or hurt with a weapon. MAIN RESULTS: Of the 1,931 women, 47 met criteria for current low-severity violence without prior abuse, and 79 met criteria for current high-severity violence without prior abuse, and 1,257 had never experienced violence. The remaining patients reported either childhood violence or past adult abuse. When adjusted for socioeconomic characteristics, the number of physical symptoms increased with increasing severity of violence (4.3 for no violence, 5.3 for low-severity violence, 6.4 for high-severity violence, p < .0001). Psychological distress also increased with increasing severity of violence (mean total SCL22 scores 32.6 for no violence, 35.7 for low-severity violence, 39.5 for high-severity violence, p < .0001). Women with any current violence were more likely to have a history of substance abuse (prevalence ratio [PR] 1.8 for low-severity, 1.9 for high-severity violence) and to have a substance-abusing partner (PR 2.4 for both violence groups). CONCLUSIONS: In this study, even low-severity violence was associated with physical and psychological health problems in women. The data suggest a dose-response relation between the severity of violence and the degree of physical and psychological distress.