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Biomedical subjects

D S Weiss

Publications and source records attributed to D S Weiss.

121 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
PubMed1981

Patterns of individual change scales.

Measurement of complex modifications in personal functioning is a necessary step to the relevant translation of psychotherapy research into clinical practice. Using an assessment strategy aimed toward decreasing subjective bias, we pursued an inductive clinical approach in constructing the Patterns of Individual Change Scales (PICS) battery. Designed for use with a bereaved population, each of the 13 scales has a unitary focus and hierarchy of functional levels across the domains of symptoms, social relations, and self-concept. Nine experienced clinical judges rated the scales after viewing videotaped evaluation interviews of 18 patients and 18 field subject. In general, the PICS had a suitable range for our borderline through normal population, reached acceptable levels of reliability, and could discriminate among subjects in clinically meaningful ways. Future analyses will consider issues of bias, validity, and generalization.

Adult↗
PubMed1977

The evaluation of sexual health services in a medical setting.

An interdisciplinary Sexual Health Services unit has been established at the University of Minnesota Medical School that offers counseling and treatment programs for a wide variety of sex-related concerns and problems. The programs are based on the principles of responsibility for self, permission to be sexual, the use of reeducation, the facilitation of increased awareness in clients, and structured behavior change. The programs have been evaluated according to client satisfaction with the extent to which they have met pretreatment goals and according to results of pre/posttesting with objective instruments. One year follow-up results from 131 clients and immediate posttreatment results from 411 clients show positive change in a large majority of cases.

Behavior Therapy↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Social and cultural issues during Shuttle/Mir space missions.

A number of interpersonal issues relevant to manned space missions have been identified from the literature. These include crew tension, cohesion, leadership, language and cultural factors, and displacement. Ground-based studies by others and us have clarified some of the parameters of these issues and have indicated ways in which they could be studied during actual space missions. In this paper, we summarize some of our findings related to social and cultural issues from a NASA-funded study conducted during several Shuttle/Mir space missions. We used standardized mood and group climate measures that were completed on a weekly basis by American and Russian crew and mission control subjects who participated in these missions. Our results indicated that American subjects reported more dissatisfaction with their interpersonal environment than their Russian counterparts, especially American astronauts. Mission control personnel were more dysphoric than crewmembers, but both groups were significantly less dysphoric than other work groups on Earth. Countermeasures based on our findings are discussed which can be applied to future multicultural space missions.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Human interactions during Shuttle/Mir space missions.

To improve the interpersonal climate of crewmembers involved with long-duration space missions, it is important to understand the factors affecting their interactions with each other and with members of mission control. This paper will present findings from a recently completed NASA-funded study during the Shuttle/Mir program which evaluated in-group/out-group displacement of negative emotions; changes in tension, cohesion, and leader support over time; and cultural differences. In-flight data were collected from 5 astronauts, 8 cosmonauts, and 42 American and 16 Russian mission control personnel who signed informed consent. Subjects completed a weekly questionnaire that assessed their mood and perception of their work group's interpersonal climate using questions from well-known, standardized measures (Profile of Mood States, Group and Work Environment Scales) and a critical incident log. There was strong evidence for the displacement of tension and dysphoric emotions from crewmembers to mission control personnel and from mission control personnel to management. There was a perceived decrease in commander support during the 2nd half of the missions, and for American crewmembers a novelty effect was found on several subscales during the first few months on-orbit. There were a number of differences between American and Russian responses which suggested that the former were less happy with their interpersonal environment than the latter. Mission control personnel reported more tension and dysphoria than crewmembers, although both groups scored better than other work groups on Earth. Nearly all reported critical incidents came from ground subjects, with Americans and Russians showing important differences in response frequencies.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Human interactions in space: results from Shuttle/Mir.

BACKGROUND: Anecdotal reports from space and results from simulation studies on Earth have suggested that space crewmembers may experience decrements in their interpersonal environment over time and may displace tension and dysphoria to mission control personnel. METHODS: To evaluate these issues, we studied 5 American astronauts, 8 Russian cosmonauts, and 42 American and 16 Russian mission control personnel who participated in the Shuttle/Mir space program. Subjects completed questions from subscales of the Profile of Mood States, the Group Environment Scale, and the Work Environment Scale on a weekly basis before, during, and after the missions. RESULTS: Among the crewmembers, there was little evidence for significant time effects based on triphasic (U-shaped) or linear models for the 21 subscales tested, although the presence of an initial novelty effect that declined over time was found in three subscales for the astronauts. Compared with work groups on Earth, the crewmembers reported less dysphoria and perceived their crew environment as more constraining, cohesive, and guided by leadership. There was no change in ratings of mood and interpersonal environment before, during, and after the missions. CONCLUSIONS: There was little support for the presence of a moderate to strong time effect that influenced the space crews. Crewmembers perceived their work environment differently from people on Earth, and they demonstrated equanimity in mood and group perceptions, both in space and on the ground. Grant numbers: NAS9-19411.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Specific patterns of intrinsic connections between representation zones in the rat motor cortex.

The organization of intrinsic connections in rat motor cortex was studied by combining microstimulation and tract-tracing techniques. Maps of forelimb and vibrissal movements were constructed from the distribution of cortical sites from which movements were evoked in response to intracortical microstimulation. Then, a single injection of a fluorescent dextran was placed into either a vibrissal or a wrist representation zone, or into a region bordering these zones, resulting in anterograde labeling of long intrinsic, horizontal axons. Following injection into the vibrissal area, axons were largely restricted to the whisker representation zone and to the border region with the forelimb representation. Injections into a wrist zone labeled projections largely restricted to the forelimb area and to the border with the vibrissal area. Injections into a border region labeled dense projections throughout most of the forelimb and vibrissal areas. These findings indicate that intrinsic axon collaterals in the motor cortex form specific and extensive connections among representation zones related to movements of the same body part. These connections may be involved in the coordination of activity in different representation zones for the execution of complex movement patterns. The projection of axon collaterals into border regions may be the anatomical substrate for the rapid reorganization of motor cortical maps that occurs following various experimental manipulations.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Asthenia--does it exist in space?

OBJECTIVE: First popularized as neurasthenia in the late 1800s by American George Beard, asthenia has been viewed by Russian psychologists and flight surgeons as a major problem that affects cosmonauts participating in long-duration space missions. However, there is some controversy about whether this syndrome exists in space; this controversy is attributable in part to the fact that it is not recognized in the current American psychiatric diagnostic system. METHODS: To address this issue empirically, we retrospectively examined the data from our 4 1/2-year, NASA-funded study of crew member and mission control interactions during the Shuttle/Mir space program. Three of the authors identified eight items of stage 1 asthenia from one of our measures, the Profile of Mood States (POMS). Scores on these items from 13 Russian and American crew members were compared with scores derived from the opinions of six Russian space experts. RESULTS: Crew members' scores in space were significantly lower than the experts' scores on seven of the eight items, and they generally were in the "not at all" to "a little" range of the item scales. There were no differences in mean scores before and after launch or across the four quarters of the missions. There were no differences in response between Russian and American crew members. CONCLUSIONS: We could not demonstrate the presence of asthenia in space as operationally defined using the POMS. However, the POMS addresses only emotional and not physiological aspects of the syndrome, and the subject responses in our study generally were skewed toward the positive end of the scales. Further research on this syndrome needs to be done and should include physiological measures and measures that are specific to asthenia.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Case study discussions contribute to total patient care.

When staff attitudes toward patients in a busy radiology department were becoming somewhat depersonalized, the director of education and training and the department's supervisors put together an educational program to reorient staff members to total patient care. The case study approach taken allowed staff to pinpoint problems and then recommend ways to improve the quality of the department.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗