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Biomedical subjects

M Reznikoff

Publications and source records attributed to M Reznikoff.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

The relationship between death anxiety and the subjective experience of time in the elderly.

The present study explored the relationship between participants' level of anxiety about death and both their sense of purposefulness in life and their personal experience of time controlling for the effects of participants' general anxiety and social desirability set. Participants were 145 women aged sixty to eighty-five, members of senior citizens clubs in suburban New Jersey, who agreed to complete a booklet of questionnaires at home and return them anonymously. As hypothesized, respondents high in measured death anxiety were found to be more likely to express less sense of purposefulness to their lives, a sense that time is moving forward, a feeling of being harassed and pressured by the passage of time, an experienced discontinuity and lack of direction in their lives, an inclination to procrastinate and be inefficient in their use of time, and a reported disposition towards being inconsistent. For the most part, the relationship between death anxiety and the other variables was found to hold even when the effects of general anxiety and social desirability were partialed out.

Aged↗

[Association of autoimmune thrombopenic purpura and leiomyoma. Recovery after excision of the tumor].

A case of auto-immune thrombocytopenic purpura in a woman with benign cystic leiomyoma in Retzius' space is reported. The platelet Coombs' test was positive on platelets; the indirect Coombs' test was negative on serum but strongly positive on cyst fluid. Following excision of the leiomyoma thrombocytopenia rapidly subsided and the serological findings became negative, which strongly suggests that the antibody was produced by the tumour.

Abdominal Neoplasms↗

Depression in multiple sclerosis as a function of length and severity of illness, age, remissions, and perceived social support.

Degree of depression found in 120 spinal multiple sclerosis (MS) outpatients was related significantly to selected illness, demographic, and social variables. The more depressed individuals tended to be more disabled, older, and, in particular, perceived their families and friends as providing less social support than those who were less depressed. Those who had experienced at least one remission were less depressed than those who never had had a remission. Contrary to hypothesized expectations, the results also suggested that the longer a patient has MS, the more depressed he will be. Such results raise implications for psychotherapeutic intervention in this population, as well as suggest the need for future investigations of the MS patient's body image, self-concept, and perception of disability.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Sex role orientation, personality structure, and adjustment in women.

In an effort to clarify and expand the theoretical foundation for behavioral researches on androgyny the present study, through an extensive literature review, attempted to establish personality structure as a function of masculine instrumentality (M) and feminine expressivity (F) in females. Results were strong and confirming, suggesting that considerable relationship may exist between certain sex role socialization practices and general personality development. In addition, the implications of instrumentality and expressivity for adjustment were investigated through a planned contrast of clinical and normal groups, with the expectation that feminine females would appear more frequently in the clinical group. However, results clarified that it is the lack of masculine instrumentality in the personality, not the feminine role per se, which is implicated in mental illness. These findings lend clarity to previous researches on androgyny and adjustment. Implications for feminine socialization and ego psychology are considered.

Adolescent↗

Personality variables in coping with the stress of a spouse's chronic illness.

Identified systematically those spouses of male VA hemodialysis patients who are at risk for experiencing difficulties in adapting to their husband's chronic kidney failure and hemodialysis treatment. To this end, an exploration was made of personality variables that might enhance a spouse's ability to cope with the unique stress of living with chronic illness. Fifty-six wives of VA dialysis patients were administered the Rotter Internal-External Locus of Control Scale (I-E), the Multidimensional Locus of Control Scale (MLC), the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale (MHLC), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Significant relationships were found between I-E scores and all measures of emotional adjustment (state anxiety, trait anxiety, and depression) for the entire sample of spouses in general, and also for a subgroup of home dialysis spouses who were analyzed separately. Results were discussed in terms of the role that locus of control orientation plays in mediating the stress of living with chronic illness, as well as the failure to find relationships between adjustment and the MLC or the area-specific MHLC.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Level of aspiration, life satisfaction, and locus of control in older adults.

The relationship of the level of aspiration disparity score to life satisfaction and locus of control in two groups of aged individuals, the young-old (ages 60 to 69) and the old-old (ages 70-79) was studied. Female volunteers (N = 100) between the ages of 60 and 79, who were living in the community and were relatively well functioning, were administered The Rotter Level of Aspiration Test, The Life Satisfaction Index A, The Philadelphia Geriatric Morale Scale, The Internal-External Scale, and The Health Locus of Control Scale. Partial support was found for the hypothesis that a positive disparity score is associated with increased life satisfaction and a more internal locus of control.

Achievement↗

Perceived peer and family relationships, hopelessness and locus of control as factors in adolescent suicide attempts.

Thirty hospitalized suicidal adolescents were compared with thirty-four hospitalized nonsuicidal teenagers and thirty-five nonhospitalized coping youngsters (controls) on the extent of their problems, their perceptions of peer and family relationships, degree of hopelessness, and locus of control. Suicidals were found to experience the greatest total number of problems, nonsuicidals the next most, and controls the fewest. Significantly more peer problems differentiated the suicidals from the other two groups, while serious family problems discriminated the three groups from each other. The controls viewed their families as the most well-adjusted, followed by the nonsuicidals, while the suicidals felt their families were the most maladjusted. Suicide attempters experienced a significantly greater degree of hopelessness than all the non-attempters, and significantly more external locus of control than the controls. Some sex differences emerged in the study.

Adolescent↗

Actual and intended health-related information seeking and health locus of control.

Individuals with an internal health locus of control orientation and high health value have been found to express an intent to obtain a greater mean number of health pamphlets than people with an external orientation and/or low health value. After measures of behavioral intent were obtained, college students were afforded the opportunity to actually receive health-related written information. The previously stated finding was replicated for intended but not for actual health-related information seeking. The weak relationship found between actual and intended information seeking calls into question studies using intent measures as if they were almost identical to actual behavior.

Adult↗

A comparison of the psychological effects of breast-saving procedures with the modified radical mastectomy.

Twenty women who underwent conservative surgical treatment of their breast cancer were compared with 20 women who underwent modified radical mastectomies on several indices of body image and psychological adjustment. The women were matched by pairs in terms of age and time postsurgery, and were group matched with respect to marital status. Women who underwent conservative surgical procedures showed significantly greater intactness of their external body boundaries, and significantly less change and weighted change in overall body satisfaction than women in the modified radical group. There were no significant differences between the groups with respect to body anxiety, general psychological adjustment, or marital satisfaction. The results with respect to body boundary and body satisfaction were interpreted to be the result of the less intrusive surgical procedures used to treat the breast cancer. Since body anxiety did not appear to be affected differentially by the two procedures, it may be that women in both groups were highly concerned about their bodies as a result of having had cancer. It was suggested that there was no difference in the psychological adjustment of the two groups because the women in the modified radical group were representative of that population which adjusts well to surgery. Finally, it was concluded that marital satisfaction is stable regardless of the surgical procedure undergone to treat the breast cancer.

Analysis of Variance↗

Some old and new directions in Rorschach testing.

The perennial dispute between clinicians and researchers as to the validity of the Rorschach is discussed. It is suggested both groups are correct in that the Rorschach provides both poor psychometric data as seen by the researcher and rich idiographic data as seen by the clinician. The freedom of the Rorschach response process is viewed as largely responsible for both these situations. Some possible new directions for Rorschach usage and research are discussed which may improve on the quality of the idiographic information provided by the Rorschach test.

Journal Article↗

A factor analysis of creativity in fraternal and identical twins.

The relationship between intelligence and creativity and their factorial structure have been extensively discussed, with little empirical evidence and less agreement as to the meaning. A study of 117 pairs of like sexed fraternal and identical twins was undertaken, with each twin participating in an extensive battery of creativity tests.A factor analysis indicated three factors for the fraternal twins and two for the identical twins, the results supporting both (a) the notion that the common variance of creativity measures may be accounted for by a general intelligence factor, and (b) the division of creativity into a verbal and a figural domain.

Adolescent↗

Creativity and body image boundaries.

Descriptions of the creative individual or the individual who can regress in the service of the ego seem to parallel Fisher and Cleveland's (1968) description of the high barrier individual: well-integrated; self-sufficient, but often outgoing and communicative; and able to experience a full range of sensation and emotions without neurotic anxiety. The relationships between Barrier and five measures associated with creativity were investigated, using 100 paid male college student volunteers. The results support the notion that creativity is not a functional unity. Barrier was found to be related to aristic, expressive creativity which seems to be related to interest in human interactions, but unrelated to creativity associated with scientific endeavors and unrelated to creative receptivity (i.e., purest adaptive regression).

Art↗