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The relationship of homophobia to intimacy in heterosexual men.

Interpersonal intimacy is more difficult to achieve for American men than women. Research has shown that men disclose less, have fewer close friendships, and are viewed by their wives as low in intimacy. Among the barriers to intimacy among men, Tognoli (1980) suggested that homophobia is the most powerful. The present study tested this idea by asking men to disclose a personal secret to either a male confidant, a female confidante, or by writing the secret. It was expected that the presence of a male confidant would stimulate homophobic feelings and inhibit disclosure, while the other two conditions would result in more personal disclosure. A correlation between intimacy of disclosure and level of homophobia was also expected. Subjects were 75 heterosexual men, 31 to 50 years of age, randomly assigned to one of the three conditions. They also completed the Miller Social Intimacy Scale, the Jourard Self-Disclosure Questionnaire, the Index of Homophobia, and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. Results showed that homophobia was inversely related to level of social intimacy. There was some indication that homophobia does relate to less intimate disclosure to other males. Thus this study found some support for the idea that homophobia is an obstacle to intimacy for men.

Adult↗

Moderators of cardiovascular reactivity to speech: discourse production and group variations in blood pressure and pulse rate.

To explain why speech produces cardiovascular reactivity, an experiment utilized speech tasks varying in self-disclosure and cognitive preparation and measured the blood pressure and pulse rate of African-American and Caucasian, men and women subjects. One hundred and fifty-six college students with a median age of 21 volunteered to participate. The extemporaneous speech task produced lower systolic blood pressure than the prepared speech task. Self-disclosive speech resulted in lower diastolic blood pressure than non-disclosive speech. Females showed higher pulse rate and men exhibited greater diastolic blood pressure while speaking. Results supported previous research suggesting that women are myocardiacal hyperreactors, while men are vascular hypperreactors and suggest that production processes moderate cardiovascular reactivity to speech.

Adult↗

Impact of mental illness in families of mental health professionals.

Family burden and coping strategies were investigated in 84 experienced mental health professionals with family members suffering from chronic major mental illnesses. The sample was nationally recruited from ads in professional journals. Personal reactions of respondents involved cognitive and attitudinal changes in conceptions of psychotic disorders and guarded relations with colleagues with respect to self-disclosure and case involvement. Financial and emotional burdens were substantial, with ongoing stressful life events, aversive patient behaviors, and poor treatment histories. In rating family coping strategies, mental health professionals showed a high degree of concordance with nonprofessional family members in assigning priority to education on symptoms, medications, and patient management techniques. Involvement with self-help groups and physical separation from patients were rated higher than individual or family therapy as aids in coping for families of the mentally ill.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Communication patterns and problems of pregnancy.

Communication patterns of women who had never been pregnant were compared with those of women who had two or more unplanned pregnancies. Results of a questionnaire assessing communication skills, social orientation and involvement, self-disclosure, physical accessibility, and verbal defensiveness, completed by 56 women attending family planning clinics, suggest that communicative inadequacies may contribute to repeated contraceptive failure.

Communication↗

Dimensionality of the perceived self: the Tennessee Self Concept Scale.

The 12 indices of self-perception in the Tennessee Self Concept Scale, together with the Eysenck Personality Inventory, were factor analysed using data obtained from psychiatric day-care patients (n = 131). Separate item- and scale-level factor analyses revealed that: (1) the five external and three internal domains of self-concept, hypothesized as distinct, may be accurately viewed as lying in one-dimensional space; (2) the conflict, variability and distribution scores are unrelated to subtype of self-esteem; (3) extraversion and neuroticism form a bipolar factor that is orthogonal to self-concept; and (4) the emergence of 30 item-factors with a 30 per cent factorial overlap implies a good deal of spuriously shared variance, low inter-scale homogeneity and sizable redundancy in the TSCS scales. Owing to these results, the construct and factorial validity of the TSCS is seriously questioned. It is suggested that future researchers develop more sensitive, treatment-oriented (or idiographic) measures to compare man's less conspicuous and more private 'self-image feelings and cognitions' against his public self-disclosure in the interests of facilitating more rapid behavioural change.

Adolescent↗

Hello, stranger: building a healing narrative that includes everyone.

The authors use the concept of "samaritan medicine" to tie together papers by Klitzman, by Wear and colleagues, and by Branch appearing in this issue of Academic Medicine on the physician-patient relationship. Practicing physicians and trainees alike must confront the challenge of acknowledging and connecting to otherness or difference in patients and in themselves, and practice based in "samaritan medicine" can help to bridge the gaps between self and other. The authors present three vignettes that highlight physicians' and patients' differing perspectives on the stories in which they are mutually involved. The authors then suggest three approaches that operate at the organization as well as the individual level and that speak to establishing and sustaining health-supporting relationships between patients and doctors: video review and replay, Appreciative Inquiry, and self-disclosure. The aim of such approaches is that physicians and physician-trainees be able to ask-and answer-questions about the "narratives" they are enacting, such as "In this story, where am I? Where is the other? Where is the common good? What, then, should I do?" in order that they may develop a robust appreciation of patient interactions and understanding of self that fosters the practice of "samaritan medicine."

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

An exposure-based examination of the effects of written emotional disclosure.

OBJECTIVES: We undertook this study to clarify the operative mechanisms that account for the relationship between emotional disclosure and health. We hypothesized that emotional disclosure via writing was a form of exposure-based therapy and that exposure was the active therapeutic component. Design and method. A group of 129 male and female undergraduates were randomly assigned to three writing groups: (1) a trauma disclosure writing group; (2) a positive emotion writing group to control for affect arousal; and (3) a neutral writing group to control for any affect arousal - either positive or negative. Process measures were taken before and after each 3-day, 20-minute writing session. All participants completed questionnaires that assessed psychological and physical functioning at both the baseline and the end of the semester (approximately 9 weeks later). RESULTS: Groups reported differential affective arousal as well as disclosure themes in accord with our predictions. We did not replicate the findings of Pennebaker and his colleagues (e.g. Pennebaker & Beall, 1986). In our study, physical health outcome measures did not differ between groups by the end of the semester, nor did psychological measures change from baseline to follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: We found only limited support for the hypothesis that exposure best explains the effects of written self-disclosure. Implications for future research in this area are discussed.

Journal Article↗

Psychotherapy with physically disabled patients.

With the last decades, health care interventions have been more productively attuned to actualizing the potential for optimal recuperation of every patient. Unique and important contributions of psychotherapy to this effort include: 1) A formulation which synthesizes an understanding of clinical behaviors, reality-based physical limitations and risks with an appreciation of the patient's mechanisms of defense, ego strengths and weaknesses, and transference expectations which impact the treatment process; 2) The utilization of individual psychotherapy (focused on "insight") in combination with supportive individual and group experiences. For children and adolescents struggling with age-appropriate physical-developmental and social issues or learning disabilities, psychoeducational approach for disabled youngsters has proven very beneficial. 3) Occasional crises occur which involve the spouse or relatives more than the index patient. Working to provide supportive Couple or Family System intervention is sometimes as essential as caring for the disabled individual. 4) Numerous Group Therapy approaches have proven efficacious. Treatment in a group setting is attractive to those who are concerned about cost-containment. Unfortunately, groups for disabled are often "didactic" and utilize a format that provides factual information about disabilities, medical procedures, and sometimes an intellectual discussion of "emotional answers" for certain types of problems or conditions. Groups that facilitate self-disclosure and emotional interactions among the members accomplish more meaningful results. In conclusion, we wish to emphasize the importance of developing rigorous scientific research in the area of disabilities which will match the excellence of clinical work already being done in the field. Gaining an accurate and more thorough understanding of the psychological reality of a disabled person's internal world may be a key to facilitating his or her self-esteem and optimal adaptive functioning.

Countertransference↗

Domestic violence screening and referral can be effective.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: We provide a targeted intervention in the emergency department for intimate partner violence (IPV) victims and to facilitate follow-up care from a professional case manager. METHODS: This observational case study was conducted in an urban ED from July 1, 1997, through December 31, 1999. The targeted population consisted of all English-speaking women between the ages of 18 and 65 years presenting 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There were 3 components to the study. The first consisted of an effort to improve the screening for IPV of female patients seen in the ED. The primary outcome for this component was the correlation of increased screening rates with increased violence detection. Universal screening of all women for IPV regardless of their chief complaint was encouraged through an IPV script and a new reporting area on the nursing note. The second component was an on-site IPV advocacy intervention. Once IPV was identified by means of screening or self-disclosure, the nurse notified a volunteer advocate from a local human service agency, who came to the ED within 30 minutes, conducted a crisis intervention, and encouraged the patient to follow-up with the case manager. The outcomes were patient cooperation with the ED intervention and subsequent follow-up with the community-based agency. The third phase was telephone-based counseling by an IPV case manager to help the client reduce her exposure to additional violence. The outcome was the client's self-report of a life free of violence. RESULTS: Of the 528 women identified as IPV victims, 475 (84%) agreed to speak to the advocate, and 258 (54% of those seen by the advocate) accepted case management follow-up. After the case management process, lasting 3 to 6 weeks, 127 women reported that they no longer believed they were at risk for violence from their abuser. CONCLUSION: Through a coordinated effort by the medical staff and the volunteer advocates, 258 of 528 IPV victims seen in the ED received ongoing community-based services to address their experience of IPV.

Adolescent↗

Two social worlds: social correlates and stability of adolescent status groups.

Adolescents' peer group status in high school was examined using self-report, peer nominations, and archival data collected during 2 consecutive school years. Higher status students (popular and controversial) had more close friends, engaged more frequently in peer activities, and self-disclosed more than lower status students (rejected and neglected). They were also more involved in extracurricular school activities and received more social honors from their schoolmates. Although the higher status students were more alike than different, controversial adolescents did report more self-disclosure and dating behavior than popular students. Lower status students were also highly similar, although rejected students reported lower grades. Regarding the temporal stability of these status groups, the adolescent sample exhibited slightly higher overall stability than that found in previous investigations of younger children.

Adolescent↗

Prosocial coping and substance use during pregnancy.

In structured interviews of pregnant inner-city residents, 38 substance users reported more current liking of drugs and polysubstance use, disengagement coping, depressive symptoms, negative affect, and antisocial behavior than did 45 nonusers. During videotaped interviews, trained observers coded less warmth and less prosocial information exchange (e.g., self-disclosure, question asking) among users. Factor analysis of measures of coping and its concomitants yielded a three-factor (prosocial, antisocial, asocial) solution, with asocial and antisocial coping predominating among substance users. These results suggest that coping has emotional, social, and cognitive elements. This study is the first to demonstrate an association between a substance-using lifestyle and limited prosocial information exchange.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Fieldwork in nursing research: positionality, practicalities and predicaments.

AIMS: This paper draws on the literature to explore some of the issues of concern to nurses undertaking fieldwork in contemporary healthcare settings. BACKGROUND: The emergence of poststructuralist and postmodern perspectives has raised questions about ethnographic approaches, and problematized the role of researchers in the construction of plausible and credible ethnographic accounts. As a practice discipline, nursing needs to negotiate a thorny path between methodological purity and practical application, with nurse researchers required to take account of both philosophical and pragmatic concerns. DISCUSSION: There is general agreement that researching with an individual or group rather than researching on an individual or group is the more effective way to approach fieldwork. Feminist writers appear to have dealt with this issue best, advocating intimacy, self-disclosure, and reciprocity in encounters with research participants. The duality of the nurse researcher role; power and politics and the moral implications of fieldwork are acknowledged as factors influencing nurses in the planning and conduct of fieldwork. Nurses as researchers may be better equipped than other social researchers to deal with contingencies in the field. CONCLUSIONS: Laying the epistemological ground for the participant observer role during fieldwork and understanding its impact on the resultant ethnographic account is essential to methodological rigour in field research. Consideration of some of the practicalities and predicaments experienced by nurses as researchers when conducting fieldwork prior to going out into the field is an important research strategy and will facilitate methodological potency.

Anthropology, Cultural↗

The heart of darkness: the impact of perceived mistakes on physicians.

OBJECTIVES: To describe how physicians think and feel about their perceived mistakes, to examine how physicians' prior beliefs and manners of coping with mistakes may influence their emotional responses, and to promote further discussion in the medical community about this sensitive issue. DESIGN: Audiotaped, in-depth interviews with physicians in which each physician discussed a previous mistake and its impact on his or her life. Transcripts of the interviews were analyzed qualitatively and the data organized into five topic areas: the nature of the mistake, the physician's beliefs about the mistake, the emotions experienced in the aftermath of the mistake, the physician's way of coping with the mistake, and changes in the physician's practice as a result of the mistake. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Eleven general internists and medical subspecialists practicing at a community, university-affiliated hospital in Oregon. RESULTS: Themes emerging from analysis of the interviews were the ubiquity of mistakes in clinical practice; the infrequency of self-disclosure about mistakes to colleagues, family, and friends; the lack of support among colleagues; the degree of emotional impact on the physician, so that some mistakes were remembered in great detail even after several years; and the influence of the physician's professional locus of control on subsequent emotions. CONCLUSIONS: The perception of having made a mistake creates significant emotional distress for practicing physicians. The severity of this distress may be influenced by factors such as prior beliefs and perfectionism. The extent to which physicians share this distress with colleagues may be influenced by the degree of competitiveness engendered by medical training. Open discussion of mistakes should be more prominent in medical training and practice, and there should be continued research on this topic.

Clinical Competence↗

The emotional impact of mistakes on family physicians.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the emotional impact of the most memorable mistake on family physicians, the support they needed and received, and their response to a hypothetical scenario in which a colleague's decision was associated with a fatal outcome. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Randomly selected members of a county chapter of a midwestern state academy of family physicians. DESIGN: Qualitative cross-sectional survey using in-depth interviews subject to content analysis. METHODS: I audiotaped interviews with each of the physicians in their offices. Two medical sociologists and I first independently, and then consensually, categorized the data based on the frequency with which a word or idea appeared in the text. RESULTS: Thirty (75 %) of the 40 physicians originally contacted participated in the study. Twenty-three (77%) of the 30 physicians admitted to making a mistake. The physicians experienced emotional adversity. Of 27 physicians, 17 (63%) needed someone to talk to, 13 (48 %) needed to review their case management, 16 (59%) needed professional reaffirmation, and eight (30%) needed personal reassurance. Having someone to talk to was the support that 12 (44%) of the 27 physicians valued most. Eighteen (67%) of 27 received this support from someone other than their peers. Although all subjects recognized their colleague's pain and need for support in the hypothetical scenario, only nine (32%) of 28 physicians would have unconditionally offered support. CONCLUSION: Making mistakes unfavorably affects family physicians and creates a strong need for support. Family physicians may benefit from sharing experiences that diminish perfectionism and recognize mistakes as a natural part of practicing medicine. Further research needs to address how physicians can be encouraged toward therapeutic self-disclosure and peer support.

Adult↗

Marital communication in eating disorder patients: a controlled observational study.

In order to investigate the communication between 21 eating disorder (ED) patients and their husbands, an observational study was carried out using two matched control groups of 21 maritally distressed (MD) and 21 nondistressed (ND) couples. During some discussion tasks the interaction was videotaped and the (verbal and nonverbal) communication skills were rated afterwards according to the Kategoriensystem für Partnerschaftliche Interaktion (KPI) coding system. Unexpectedly, compared with the control groups ED couples do not show a greater disequilibrium (between patient and husband) in the emission rate of positive and negative messages. Also striking is the generally higher degree of self-disclosure in ED couples than in ND couples, but this may reflect their experience of distress. Overall and most importantly, ED couples appear to lack some of the ND couples' skills of constructive communication, but manage to avoid the destructive communication style of MD couples.

Adult↗

Psychological mindedness and cognitive style.

Psychological mindedness (PM) is theorized to be a cognitively toned personality variable, yet, there is a paucity of research addressing the cognitive components of PM. This study was intended to redress this issue by testing the empirical associations between PM and Ambiguity Tolerance, as measured by the Revised Scale for Ambiguity Tolerance (MacDonald, 1970); Locus of Control, as measured by the Locus of Control Scale (Rotter, 1966); and Magical Thinking, as measured by the Magical Ideation Scale (Eckblad & Chapman, 1983). The results indicated that PM is positively associated with ambiguity tolerance, whereas it is inversely related to external locus of control and magical thinking. These findings suggest a cognitive style profile for PM that includes flexibility, a sense of personal agency, and a propensity for realistic thinking. High-PM individuals are likely to bring these cognitive resources to bear in psychotherapy, a tendency that might explain why high PM patients make better use of treatment.

Adult↗

The effect of dyadic intervention on self-efficacy, social support, and depression for men with prostate cancer.

Urinary and sexual dysfunctions are side effects of radical prostatectomy (RP) for prostate cancer (PC) that contribute to depression. Despite the effectiveness of support groups at reducing depression in cancer patients, men typically do not participate in them. The purpose of this pilot study was to test the effects of a dyadic intervention (one-to-one support) on social support (Modified Inventory of Socially Supportive Behaviors), self-efficacy (Stanford Inventory of Cancer Patient Adjustment), and depression (Geriatric Depression Scale). Subjects were randomized to group. Controls (N=15; Mage=59.7) received usual care. Experimentals were paired with long-term survivors (LTS) who had RP and who had treatment side effects in common. Experimentals (N=15; Mage=57.5) met with a LTS 8 times in 8 weeks to discuss concerns associated with survivorship. No significant differences were detected on social support, but after 4 weeks, significant differences were present on depression between controls and experimentals, however these differences were not seen at 8 weeks. After 8 weeks, there were also significant differences on self-efficacy between controls and experimentals. Weekly anecdotal data supported the feasibility and acceptance of the intervention that was a low cost strategy effective at reducing depression and increasing self-efficacy in men treated by RP. Future research directions and clinical application is presented.

Adaptation, Psychological↗