Linkages between spouses' psychological distress and marital conflict in the home.

To elucidate the processes that underlie the established association between psychopathology and marital functioning, researchers have given attention to how symptomatic individuals manage their interpersonal contexts, particularly during the handling of disagreements. In the current study, the authors evaluate the role of marital conflict strategies in relation to wives' and husbands' psychological distress levels. A sample of 100 community-based couples completed assessments of psychological distress and diaries describing marital conflict that occurred at home during a 15-day reporting period. Findings from multilevel modeling of dyadic data revealed associations between both spouses' psychological distress and multiple behavioral and emotional conflict expressions in the home. Psychological symptoms uniquely predicted the occurrence of certain conflict expressions, even when accounting for global negative marital sentiments. The findings encourage subsequent consideration of marital conflict expressions and resolution strategies when studying processes involved in the marriage-psychological adjustment link. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An empirical examination of self-reported work stress among U.S. managers.

This study proposes that self-reported work stress among U.S. managers is differentially related (positively and negatively) to work outcomes depending on the stressors that are being evaluated. Specific hypotheses were derived from this general proposition and tested using a sample of 1,886 U.S. managers and longitudinal data. Regression results indicate that challenge-related self-reported stress is positively related to job satisfaction and negatively related to job search. In contrast, hindrance-related self-reported stress is negatively related to job satisfaction and positively related to job search and turnover. Future research directions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hydraulic System Component Storage with Military Hydraulic Fluids

In the military aerospace community, most hydraulic fluid pumps and components are currently being stored in rust inhibited fluids containing barium dinonylnaphthalene sulfonate (BSN). Fluids containing barium are hazardous waste after use, with expensive disposal, and have caused operational problems in aircraft hydraulic systems including helicopters and fighter aircraft. In this program, bearings and pistons were stored in jars containing both operational hydraulic fluids (MIL-PRF-83282, MIL-PRF-87257, and MIL-PRF-5606) and rust-inhibited hydraulic fluids containing BSN (MIL-PRF-46170 and MIL-PRF-6083). In addition, hydraulic pumps were filled with MIL-PRF-83282, MIL-PRF-87257, and MIL-PRF-46170. Hydraulic pumps were not filled with MIL-PRF-5606 or MIL-PRF-6083 because these hydraulic fluids are being phased out of military aerospace applications as operational and storage fluids, respectively. Jars, containing bearings and pistons, as well as hydraulic pumps, were stored for up to three years in a laboratory environment to determine if operational fluids would protect them from rusting during storage. After each year, the bearings, pistons, and pumps were inspected for corrosion. At the end of three years of storage, pumps were endurance tested using fresh operational fluid, MIL-PRF-83282. The bearings, pistons, and pumps showed no rusting for the duration of storage with either operational or storage fluids. The pumps stored with the operational fluids, MIL-PRF-83282 and MIL-PRF-87257, were in better condition than the pump stored with the rust-inhibited fluid. The operational hydraulic fluids, MIL-PRF-83282 and MIL-PRF-87257, provided excellent protection against rusting during storage.

     

A woman's view of DSM-III.

Argues that one reason women's treatment rates for mental illness are higher than men's is that masculine-biased assumptions about what behaviors are healthy and what behaviors are "crazy" are codified in diagnostic criteria and thus influence diagnosis and treatment patterns. Several theories accounting for women's higher treatment rates are reviewed. P. Chesler's (1972) theory of women's overconforming and underconforming to sex-role stereotypes is evaluated in the light of the I. D. Broverman et al (see record 1970-06951-001) findings that therapists' criteria for healthiness in men and healthiness in adults were the same, but their criteria for healthiness in women were different. The implications of DSM-III's definition of mental disorder, the diagnoses of Histrionic Personality Disorder and Dependent Personality Disorder, and 2 fictitious diagnostic categories (Independent Personality Disorder and Restricted Personality Disorder) are discussed to illustrate assumptions implicit in DSM-III diagnoses. It is shown that behaving in a feminine stereotyped manner alone will earn a DSM-III diagnosis but behaving in a masculine stereotyped manner alone will not. A past diagnosis regarding women's sexuality is reviewed to specifically illustrate past assumptions resulting in the labeling of healthy women as sick. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Categories and continua of destructive and constructive marital conflict tactics from the perspective of U.S. and Welsh children.

Categories and continue of parents' marital conflict tactics based on multiple, conceptually grounded criteria were tested. Participants were 175 U.S. children, ages 8-16 years (88 boys, 87 girls) and 327 Welsh children, ages 11-12 years (159 boys, 168 girls). Children's responses (affective, cognitive, behavioral) to analog presentations of 10 everyday marital conflict tactics enacted by fathers or mothers showed substantial variation as a function of tactic used. Orderings of conflict tactics on the various response criteria varied as a function of moderators, particularly the gender of the parent expressing the conflict tactic. Conflict tactics were classified as either constructive or destructive according to criteria derived from the emotional security hypothesis. Except for calm discussion, classifications did not change regardless of cultural group, parent gender, or child age or gender. Recommendations for negotiating everyday marital conflict for the children's sake are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marital conflict and support seeking by parents in adolescence: Empirical support for the parentification construct.

Parentification, a parent-child dynamic wherein children come to provide ongoing emotional support for their parents, has been documented extensively in the clinical literature; however, it rarely has been studied systematically. Using a community sample of 83 couples and their adolescent children (mean age = 15.26 years; 52% male, 48% female), the authors linked adolescent self-report of parentification to specific youth and adult behaviors using multiple methods and examined its associations with youth adjustment problems. The parentification measure demonstrated strong internal consistency and 1-year stability. Parentification was associated with marital conflict, youth perceptions of threat, low warmth in the parent-child relationship, and the tendency for youths to intervene in marital conflict. Links were also found with youth reports of internalizing and externalizing behavior and poorer competency in close friendships. These findings thus support the parentification construct and provide evidence that parentification may contribute to poor youth outcomes by burdening children with developmentally inappropriate responsibilities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Integrating peer support initiatives in a large healthcare organization.

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) adopted a strategic plan for mental health that emphasizes implementation of recovery-oriented services, including peer support. To provide a baseline for assessing change, a national survey was conducted of peer service delivery for veterans with mental illness, including those with comorbid substance abuse or homelessness. The number of participating programs was small. However, responses indicate that existing VHA peer services can be categorized as partnership services. Program and position structures, such as goals and training requirements are each described. Role and administrative or systems processes, such as acquiring staff buy-in and liability are also described. Future areas of consideration include dissemination of peer support in VHA and other healthcare systems, with specific efforts to increase training protocols, evaluation, and payment options for peers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychometrically matched tasks evaluating differential fMRI activation during form and motion processing.

Objective: Deficits in visual perception and working memory are commonly observed in neuropsychiatric disorders and have been investigated using functional MRI (fMRI). However, interpretation of differences in brain activation may be confounded with differences in task performance between groups. Differences in task difficulty across conditions may also pose interpretative issues in studies of visual processing in healthy subjects. Method: To address these concerns, the present study characterized brain activation in tasks that were psychometrically matched for difficulty; fMRI was used to assess brain activation in 10 healthy subjects during discrimination and working memory judgments for static and moving stimuli. For all task conditions, performance accuracy was matched at 70.7%. Results: Areas associated with V2 and V5 in the dorsal stream were activated during motion processing tasks and V4 in the ventral stream were activated during form processing tasks. Frontoparietal areas associated with working memory were also statistically significant during the working memory tasks. Conclusions: Application of psychophysical methods to equate task demands provides a practical method to equate performance levels across conditions in fMRI studies and to compare healthy and cognitively impaired groups at comparable levels of effort. These psychometrically matched tasks can be applied to patients with a variety of cognitive disorders to investigate dysfunction of multiple a priori defined brain regions. Measuring the changes in typical activation patterns in patients with these diseases can be useful for monitoring disease progression, evaluating new drug treatments, and possibly for developing methods for early diagnosis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

What’s wrong with research literatures? And how to make them right.

Meta-analysis is now the accepted procedure for summarizing research literatures in areas of applied psychology. Because of the bias for publishing statistically significant findings, while usually rejecting nonsignificant results, our research literatures yield misleading answers to important quantitative questions (e.g., How much better is the average psychotherapy patient relative to a comparable group of untreated controls? How much more aggressive are children who watch a great deal of violent TV than children who watch little or no violence on TV?). While all such research literatures provide overly optimistic meta-analytic estimates, exactly how practically important are these overestimates? Three studies testing the literature on implementation intentions finds only slightly elevated effectiveness estimates. Conversely, in three studies another growing research literature (the efficacy of remote intercessory prayer) is found to be misleading and is in all likelihood not a real effect (i.e., our three studies suggest the literature likely consists of Type I errors). Rules of thumb to predict which research literatures are likely invalid are offered. Finally, revised publication and data analysis procedures to generate unbiased research literatures in the future are examined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)