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Psychological change in neurotic depression: a repertory grid and personal construct theory approach.

Personal construct theory and repertory grid methodology were applied to a study of psychological change experienced by a sample of ten neurotic depressives and their matched controls during short-term hospitalization. All subjects completed a repertory grid and the Zung depression scale on admission to hospital. Depressives were characterized by lower self-esteem, more negative social perception and higher scores on the Zung scale. Both measures were repeated at the time of discharge from hospital. Depressives showed a significant reduction in depressive mood, more positive social perception, and a change in th construing of the self; controls showed no changes. It is argued that the use of a quantitative assessment technique reinforced by a theoretical framework results in a more refined understanding of psychological change.

Adult↗

The abused child as parent: the structure and content of physically abused mothers' perceptions of their babies.

OBJECTIVE: The major aim of the study was to provide an empirical answer to the following question: Does a mother's history of being physically abused as a child have a discernible impact on the structure and content of her perceptions and beliefs concerning her own child? METHOD: Free-response memories and current descriptions of babies, self, and significant others such as parents were compared longitudinally in two groups of mothers when their babies were 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years old. One group of mothers consisted of individuals who reported being physically abused as children; the control group consisted of mothers who were not physically abused. The two groups were comparable with respect to age of baby, race, and socioeconomic status. RESULTS: Abused mothers were found to differ significantly from control mothers in the structure and content of their free-response perceptions of their own babies. More specifically, abused mothers lagged behind controls in how well-differentiated were their negative perceptions of their babies. Differentiation in this study is operationally defined as the number of unique clusters that underlie a mother's perceptions of her baby, when social perception data is analyzed using cluster analysis (HICLAS). The greater the number of clusters observed, the greater is the differentiation. On the other hand, abused mothers were comparable to controls with respect to differentiation of positive perceptions of babies. CONCLUSIONS: The findings constitute a discovery about the structural organization of social cognition in mothers at-risk for child abuse. Implications of the findings for theory and future research are briefly discussed, as are limitations of the current study.

Adult↗

Social workers' perceptions of older parents caring at home for sons and daughters with developmental disabilities.

Members of the American Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR) Social Work Division (N = 395) were surveyed to determine their perceptions of their role in assisting older parents in permanency planning. Practitioners, administrators, and educators similarly perceived ease in counseling aging families, but also noted their need for additional resources and specialized training. Written comments revealed (a) that the system must do more; (b) older parents are seen as different from other parents, with practitioners concerned about dependency in these parents' relationships with their sons and daughters and administrators attributing differences to past adverse system interactions; (c) parents old and young are alike in many ways; and (d) siblings should be involved in family caregiving. Recommendations were made with regard to meeting the special needs of older families, reducing "blaming" attitudes among social workers, and expanding best practice knowledge.

Activities of Daily Living↗

Specificity in social support: perceptions of helpful and unhelpful provider behaviors among irritable bowel syndrome, headache, and cancer patients.

Perceived social support was assessed among 53 patients suffering from non-life-threatening chronic illnesses (i.e., irritable bowel syndrome or recurrent headache). Subjects recalled predominantly helpful support interactions and reported the three major types of social support as equally helpful. In addition, irritable bowel syndrome patients, who experience embarrassing physical symptoms, reported fewer instances of tangible assistance than chronic headache patients. Comparisons to cancer patients studied by Dakof and Taylor (1990) revealed differences in perceived social support as a function of diagnosis. These results offer insight into the needs of patients with noncatastrophic illnesses and suggest that the challenges and tasks confronting these individuals are unique from those encountered by patients with catastrophic diseases.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Language structure in social interaction: perceptions of direct and indirect speech acts and interactants who use them.

Speech acts (Searle, 1975) can be performed either directly or in various indirect ways. It is argued that the appropriateness of this choice is affected by the process of face management and the relative status of the speaker, and the choice of how to perform speech acts will encode social information. A written scenario format was used, and in Experiment 1, subjects rated direct and indirect questions and replies as a function of the status of the target interactants, and the extent to which the requested information was face threatening. Perceptions of the appropriateness of replies, but not the questions, varied as a function of face threat. The effects of status were in the predicted direction for both questions and replies, but significant only for the perceived politeness of questions. Subjects in Experiment 2 rated the scenario interactants and their relationships as a function of the use of direct and indirect replies and rated possible rejoinders to these replies. Inferences of status, liking, and closeness varied as a function of the reply type used, and indirect replies were more likely to be accepted than to be questioned when there was an obvious reason for their use (i.e., to manage face).

Female↗

Social image of students who shop and don't shop online.

A descriptive survey of a stratified random sample of 326 undergraduates from a large, diverse university in Los Angeles was conducted to assess whether resistance to online shopping might be, in part, related to negative social perceptions of those who shop online. Indirect questioning showed that students perceived online student shoppers as more lazy and less likely to fear for the safety and security of others but also as more trustworthy, attractive, successful, and smart. Differences in social perceptions were not related to these students' own online spending.

Adolescent↗

Self-esteem in depression: a controlled repertory grid investigation.

Repertory grids were used to investigate self-esteem and social perception in three groups: depressed in-patients, non-depressed psychiatric in-patients and a general hospital control group. Depression was measured by the Beck Depression Inventory. Depressives had significantly lower self-esteem and more negative social perception and negative feelings associated with 'actual self', as predicted by Beck's cognitive theory. Repertory grids are potentially useful tools for the development of cognitive theories of depression, and may also have a role in clinical practice using cognitive techniques.

Adult↗

Social skills and relapse history in outpatient schizophrenics.

Persons with schizophrenia commonly have impaired social functioning (Wallace 1984). Those with greater impairments, particularly as measured by premorbid social attainment, have a poorer clinical prognosis (Strauss and Carpenter 1972). Interventions designed to improve social competence, such as social skills training, have yielded generalizable and durable effects and may have reduced relapse rates (Wallace and Liberman 1985; Liberman et al. 1986; Hogarty et al. 1986). Thus, a valid measure of social skills should be a useful clinical and research tool. This research explores the validity of a new instrument for measuring such skills, the Assessment of Interpersonal Problem Solving Skills (AIPSS) (Donahoe et al., this issue). The AIPSS differs from more conventional social functioning measures because it 1) utilizes observations of role-playing, rather than self-report or third-party report; 2) provides a rating of the patient's current rather than past functioning; 3) involves videotaped simulated "real life" situations that pose challenges to the patient's ability to solve socially relevant problems; 4) permits assessment of patient's social perception, processing of social information for action planning, and verbal and nonverbal social responses. In this study, we examined the relationship between these parameters of schizophrenic patients' social functioning and their recent relapse history.

Adult↗

Adolescent perceptions of relevant social problems.

PROBLEM: Social problems can be a significant stressor for adolescents. Disturbed youth often experience negative outcomes to social problems, solve problems poorly, and display distortions in reasoning about social problems. METHODS: A series of focus groups was conducted with adolescents (N = 36), and the data was analyzed inductively. Activities to increase the rigor of the study data (establishing credibility, trustworthiness, and transparency) were incorporated into the phenomenological research design. FINDINGS: Five social problem themes with critical attributes were perceived to be relevant to teenagers in today's society. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents' social problems shift in response to a changing society. Findings from this study can be used to help target assessments and treatment plans when working with disturbed youth.

Adolescent↗

Role of sex identification in perception of a social blunder.

4 groups of subjects observed an interaction between a male and a female on videotape: in one interaction the male blundered, in another the female blundered, and there were two control conditions in which the interaction was not followed by a blunder. Results indicated an effect of sex identification; the male blunderer was derogated most by male subjects (n = 34) and the female most by female subjects (n = 34).

Adult↗

Action imitation in birds.

Action imitation, once thought to be a behavior almost exclusively limited to humans and the great apes, surprisingly also has been found in a number of bird species. Because imitation has been viewed by some psychologists as a form of intelligent behavior, there has been interest in how it is distributed among animal species. Although the mechanisms responsible for action imitation are not clear, we are now at least beginning to understand the conditions under which it occurs. In this article, I try to identify and differentiate the various forms of socially influenced behavior (species-typical social reactions, social effects on motivation, social effects on perception, socially influenced learning, and action imitation) and explain why it is important to differentiate imitation from other forms of social influence. I also examine some of the variables that appear to be involved in the occurrence of imitation. Finally, I speculate about why a number of bird species, but few mammal species, appear to imitate.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Person X situation interactionism in self-encoding (I am...when...): implications for affect regulation and social information processing.

Although Person X Situation (P X S) interactionism is central in current social-cognitive conceptions of personality organization, its implications for the encoding of the self remain unexplored. Two studies examined the causal role of P X S interactionism in self-encoding on affect regulation and discriminative social perception. Following failure (Studies 1 and 2) and success (Study 2) ideation, participants were prompted to encode the self either in P X S interactionist terms (I am...when...) or in traitlike unconditional terms (I am...). Interactionist (compared with unconditional) self-encoding led to less affective extremity, suggesting that such encoding may prevent individuals from generalizing specific success and failure experiences to the self as a whole. Study 2 also found that interactionist self-encoding attenuated the endorsement of global stereotypes, suggesting that such encoding may enhance fine-grained social perception as well.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Locus of control as a stress moderator: the role of control perceptions and social support.

The study investigated the effects of locus of control beliefs as an individual difference variable on (a) the relationship between negative life events and psychological disorder, (b) perceptions of control over negative life events, and (c) the receipt and impact of social support. Ninety-three college undergraduates (52 internals, 41 externals) reported the negative events which occurred to them in the past year, their perceived control over these events, the amount of socially supportive transactions they received, and their psychological symptomatology (anxiety and depression). The correlation between negative events and anxiety was greater for externals than for internals. However, locus of control did not effect ratings of control over negative events or the correlations between high and low control negative events and psychological disorder. Locus of control did effect the receipt and impact of social support. Externality was positively related to the quantity of support received (r(90) = .21, p less than .05) but the stress-buffering effect of support was obtained for internals and not externals. Implications of the results from understanding the process by which locus of control moderates the effects of stress are discussed.

Anxiety↗

[Perception of social support given by health professionals according to the participants in a prenatal prevention program who live in extreme poverty].

One of the essential elements of the "Programme intégré de prévention en périnatalité--Naître-égaux-Grandir-en-san t" (Born Equal--Brought up Healthy) is to have a health professional offering general support to pregnant women living in poverty. This research is based on a secondary analysis of the transcriptions of interviews done in order to implement the program. The thematic content analysis was employed to analyze the women's perception of the support provided by the health professional, the relationship between client-professional, and the perceptions of these women about the impact that the social support had on their pregnancy experience. The categories of support that emerged from the analysis are: information support, emotional support, instrumental support, changing life style support, recreational support, and availability of support. The categories of impact perceived by the participants are: learning, changes in life style, to be in a good mood, and the use of community resources. A key element in the perception of support by the participants is the establishment of a relationship of trust between professional and client. This relationship of trust is important to the development of intimacy and to foster the perception of a more intense kind of support. Hence social support and the relationship of trust work in synergy and reinforce each other.

Attitude to Health↗

Perceptions of social support of African Americans with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.

Using the grounded theory methodology with symbolic interactionism as the theoretical framework, this study explores the perceptions of support systems that exist for African Americans with AIDS. A convenience sample of five African Americans with AIDS was interviewed and the data analyzed using constant comparative analysis. Seven themes emerged: (a) independence and control over one's environment, (b) support from significant others, (c) keeping a positive attitude, (d) spirituality, (e) lack of family support, (f) appreciation for case management, and (g) avoidance of support groups. The analyses and conclusion derived from these themes have many implications for nursing, the most important being the need for education preparation of professional nurses as case managers.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

The alliance theory of homosexual behavior and the perception of social status and reproductive opportunities.

OBJECTIVES: The alliance theory holds that homosexual behavior in humans may have evolved because it reinforced same-sex alliances which contributed to survival and reproduction. The present study was designed to test this evolutionary hypothesis in view of the strongly negative perception of homosexual behavior. It was predicted that targets who engaged in homosexual behavior would be perceived as likely to achieve greater social status and reproductive opportunities when the behavior reinforced an alliance that led to increased social opportunities. METHODS: Three hundred sixteen men and women read scenarios in which a target engaged in homosexual behavior and then answered questions about the target's future social status and reproductive opportunities as measured by number of sexual partners. The data were analyzed in two 3 (social outcome: positive vs. neutral vs. negative) x 2 (gender of target) x 2 (gender of participant) analyses of variance. RESULTS: The results supported the predictions and demonstrated that targets were perceived as likely to have the greatest social status and reproductive opportunities in the positive outcome condition. CONCLUSION: The alliance theory of homosexual behavior may have heuristic value for the evolutionary study of homosexual behavior and its perception.

Adaptation, Psychological↗