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PubMed1981

Construct validity of an empathy instrument.

The purpose of the study was to determine the construct validity of the Empathy Construct Rating Scale (ECRS), developed as part of a larger investigation. Two procedures were used: (a) Campbell and Fiske's (1959) multitrait- multimethod approach and (b) factor analysis. The results suggest that the ECRS is a valid and a reliable instrument for measuring empathy. It was shown to have high internal consistency, content validity, and discriminant validity. Results of the factor analysis placed the rating scale in the primary factor, sharing that factor with no other measured trait. The results further suggest that empathy cannot be divided meaningfully into subscales; empathy exists as a whole and all elements must be present in the relationship for it to exist.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Empathy and burnout in male and female helping professionals.

Relationships between empathy and burnout and possible confounding influences of sex and profession were explored in a sample of 492 male and female nurses, social workers, and teachers. Respondents completed Mehrabian's Emotional Empathy Scale, Stotland's Fantasy-Empathy Scale, and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). There were no main effects of profession on empathy or burnout variables. There was, however, an interaction effect of sex and profession on depersonalization, which was accounted for by subjects in social work and teaching. Women had significantly higher empathy scores than men; however, men had higher scores than male normative groups. Age related negatively to depersonalization and emotional exhaustion for women, whereas percentage of work time spent in direct practice correlated with depersonalization for men. The possibility that empathy and burnout might represent opposite poles of the same underlying construct was examined but not found. Instead, emotional empathy was significantly positively correlated with both emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment, whereas emotional exhaustion was also positively related to depersonalization. It is hypothesized that high emotional empathy may predispose helping professionals to emotional exhaustion and that emotional exhaustion, if not mediated by personal accomplishment, may lead to the development of depersonalization. This more complex, interactive model of the empathy-burnout relationship needs longitudinal study.

Burnout, Professional↗
PubMed2007

Frequency and difficulty in caregiving among spouses of individuals with cancer: effects of adult attachment and gender.

How caregivers relate to care recipients can affect how well care is provided and how much burden is experienced in providing it. We conceptualized the relationship of spousal caregivers via adult attachment theory and examined how attachment qualities of caregivers related to level of caregiving involvement and difficulties in caregiving. Gender differences in the associations were also explored. From participants in the ACS Quality of Life Survey for Caregivers, 400 spousal caregivers provided valid data for the study variables. Findings indicated that frequency of various types of care was a joint function of attachment orientation and gender. In contrast, the difficulty that caregivers experienced in providing care related directly to attachment, without moderation by gender. Our findings suggest that ineffective caregivers of cancer patients, who can be identified by their attachment orientation and/or gender, may benefit from educational programs to improve their caregiving skills and to encourage them to utilize resources from other family members or community.

Attitude↗
PubMed1997

Redefining 'doing something': health professionals' views on their role in the care of stroke patients.

Stroke has traditionally been considered, both by lay people and by many people working within the health services, to be a tragic yet essentially uninteresting condition, possibly because of its associations with old age, chronicity and the widespread perception that very little can be done about it. This study explored health professionals' views about their role in caring for people with stroke, and about what they gained from and contributed to this work. Questionnaires were distributed to staff working on an elderly care unit, a general medical ward and a stroke unit. Nurses and physiotherapists were positive and reported that they had much to offer people with stroke, and many rewards to gain from their work. Occupational therapists reported that in theory they had much to contribute to people with stroke, but in practice lack of resources and staff shortages prevented them from fulfilling their potential. Speech therapists also complained of scarce resources, and of a lack of recognition of their specialty, but felt able to contribute to improving peoples' quality of life. Both psychologists reported that their work with people with stroke was satisfying and stimulating. However, with the exception of the consultant on the stroke unit, doctors reported feeling they had little to offer, and little to gain from working with people with stroke. Therapists on the elderly care unit, and speech therapists in all settings reported difficulties within the multidisciplinary team. Although each profession had different concerns and priorities, the majority seemed to have a positive approach to their work with people with stroke. Similarly, the majority reported that the best thing about their work was when people recovered, although professions defined recovery differently.

Aged↗
PubMed1997

Molecular biology of pheromone perception in mammals.

In mammals, olfactory sensory perception is mediated by two anatomically and functionally distinct sensory organs: the main olfactory epithelium (MOE) and the vomeronasal organ (VNO). Pheromones activate the VNO and elicit a characteristic array of innate reproductive and social behaviors, along with dramatic neuroendocrine responses. Recent approaches have provided new insights into the molecular biology of sensory transduction in the vomeronasal organ. Differential screening of cDNA libraries constructed from single sensory neurons from the rat VNO has led to the isolation of a family of genes which are likely to encode mammalian pheromone receptors. The isolation of these receptors from the vomeronasal organ might permit the analysis of the molecular events which translate the bindings of pheromones into innate stereotypic behaviors and help to elucidate the logic of pheromone perception in mammals.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2003

Research priorities for alcoholism treatment.

The goals of the current NIAAA review process were to assess the breath, coverage, and balance of the treatment research portfolio and to identify areas for increased attention. Both alcoholism treatment experts and non-alcohol-related treatment experts were called upon to help with this task. Our group was encouraged by the fact that results from previous reviews have effectively been incorporated into the institute portfolio, particularly in the areas of the pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy development programs. The present review identified the five priority areas: mechanisms of action of treatment, combination and sequencing of treatments, health-seeking patterns and processes, concurrent disorders, and understanding help agent behaviors. In addition, several methodological and/or conceptual issues emerged that it was felt, crosscut these areas. These issues included greater emphasis on intervention testing in special populations, patient-treatment matching, measurement techniques, and technology transfer. Finally, several mechanisms of funding were outlined, including across-institute initiatives that could facilitate larger scale translational work such as comorbidity studies and/or studies of combined treatments. All the above were deemed important by the advisory committee, but an overarching emphasis was placed on understanding the mechanisms of action of treatment. For example, it is important to know that a particular pharmacotherapy reduces craving and also how this comes about. Similarly, it is key to the continued refinement of psychosocial treatments that the active components and their mechanisms of change be clarified. Such mechanism studies are crucial for the development of more heuristic and more accurate theoretical formulations that must guide our understanding of alcohol dependence if treatment, relapse, and recovery are to become more scientifically grounded.

Alcoholism↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Co-morbid symptoms of depression and conduct disorder in First Nations children: some findings from the Flower of Two Soils Project.

The prominence of co-morbidity in children and adolescents has increased over the past decade as new empirical research data has accumulated. Yet little epidemiological data of any kind exists for First Nations Children. Following a brief literature review on co-morbidity in children and adolescents, the authors analyzed data from the Flower of Two Soils Project (M. Beiser, principal investigator) to examine more closely the relationship between self-reported depressive symptoms and parent/teacher reported conduct symptoms. Such a relationship has been consistently found in a number of studies. Children aged 7 to 10 were found to show more academic and social problems when rated as having high conduct symptoms. Children in the co-morbid group were found to have the highest rates of family stress and help-seeking behavior. Suicidal ideation was as high in the conduct and co-morbid groups as it was in the high depression group. More First Nations children were found in the high conduct-low depression group. The significance of these findings is discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Preferences in help-seeking among Chinese students.

Chinese university students were asked to indicate their inclination to seek help and the resources for consultation on the 22 problems listed on the Langner Scale. Results showed that the Chinese students were generally not inclined to seek help and when they did, would most often seek help from medical doctors. However, when items were grouped in terms of clinical content, it was found that friends were predominantly preferred for psychological problems while the doctor was preferred for psychophysiological, physiological, and ambiguous problems. More female than male students tended to rely on friends and family members while the reverse pattern was found in the preference for doctors. The mental health professional was rarely cited as a resource for any of the problems. The results provide some explanation for observations made in previous studies on symptom presentation and help-seeking behavior among Chinese psychiatric patients.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1990

Psychiatric case finding in Ethiopia: shortcomings of the Self Reporting Questionnaire.

Attenders of health care facilities usually present somatic complaints. It is important to identify the psychiatric patients among them, especially the neurotic complainers. They are at risk for being exposed to expensive somatic investigations and being prescribed useless and sometimes harmful drug treatment. The World Health Organization designed the Self Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ), to be a universally applicable psychiatric case finding instrument, for use in medical clinics. A feasibility study with this instrument was carried out with 110 respondents in Ethiopia. A moderate criterion validity was found, limitations being partly due to the sensitivity of the SRQ to help-seeking behavior, even in the absence of any mental illness. This study also revealed problems in transcultural communication because many of the diagnostic concepts used in this instrument were too western to be transposed unchanged to the Ethiopian culture. Items need fairly extensive modification to be applicable there.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

The use of nonprescribed treatments by hemodialysis patients.

In an attempt to examine the extent to which a specific chronically ill population might be engaged in self care through the use of nonprescribed treatments, 230 adult hemodialysis patients in Hawaii were interviewed. Information about the use of various treatment methods was correlated with sociodemographic characteristics, and the chi-square test of significance was applied to selective findings. Within this multiethnic patient population, 74% indicated they had tried one or more nonprescribed treatments for their kidney failure, and the majority of individuals judged their efforts to be effective. Ethnicity was not a significant determinant in the tendency to use nonprescribed treatments, although it influenced the selection of specific methods. Other sociodemographic characteristics were also found to be of minimal value as predictors of this type of help seeking behavior. The illness experience itself overrides many of the sociocultural factors in this study.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

The effects of self-selection on trainees' verbal helping skills performance.

Self-selected paraprofessional trainees enrolled in a helping skills training program participated in a 6-minute pretraining helping interview from which their frequency of continuing responses was obtained. Continuing responses allow helpees to present their concerns in a nonthreatening, supportive environment and are important in the relationship establishing stage of the helping process. For data analysis purposes only, trainees were divided into three groups, a high, medium, and low group, based on the frequency of continuing responses made. Following training, at posttest, no significant differences were found among the three groups on the amount of continuing responses made during a second identical 6-minute interview. Implications for various selection procedures and training are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

The helping process in couples.

This study examined couples' informal helping interactions, that is, how partners helped each other with their psychological problems. Fifty-three couples participated in a communication sampling task in which they took each of two roles, discloser and helper (analogous to client and therapist). Audiotapes of the interactions were subsequently categorized according to helper response modes and rated on global measures of problem solving, understanding, and supportiveness. The most frequent helper response modes were question, advisement, and interpretation; reflection was infrequently used. There were no differences in helping communication associated with gender or sex-role self-concept. The important characteristic of the helpers' communication was not the type of response used, but the evaluative quality of the response. Helpers who were more satisfied with their relationships tended to be more understanding and supportive. Also, interactions rated as more understanding and supportive tended to be experienced as more helpful by the disclosers.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

Social norms and helping in a community of limited liability.

The social norms constraining interpersonal helping (formal and informal) were studied by the analysis of interviews of 348 persons in the Chicago area. The findings showed that only half the respondents who received help from family and friends believed that they had a right to such help. Three-fourths of those persons receiving help from professional practitioners believed they had a right to such help. There was a definite relationship between the kinds of rights and the kinds of duties reported by those who believed they had such rights and duties. The relationship was significantly different in personal helping among families and friends from what it was in professional helping processes with practitioners.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1978

The relationship of life event interpretations to helping interactions: a case study.

When people seek help for a stressful event, they believe they lack the necessary resources to cope with the event; therefore, they seek those resources. Before deciding which resources are necessary, they must first assign meaning to the event. That meaning affects the helping interaction--the resources sought, helper selected, and relationship with the helper. One case was selected to illustrate the nature of the relationship between the interpretation of a stressful event and the subsequent helping interaction. The discussion of the case focuses on: (a) an illustration of substitution and modeling processes; (b) the desirability dimension as applicable to the prospect, process, and outcome of an event; (c) the function of intimacy in the resolution of a problem event, and (d) the reinterpretation of an event at critical points between the event's occurrence and its resolution.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1993

Computer-based patient education revisited.

Good patient education teaches ideas and skills that help patients cope with immediate medical problems, maintain health and avoid disease. Patient education is increasingly important as hospital stays are shortened, patients become more active health consumers, and there is more need to document informed consent for treatment. It is difficult to provide consistent high quality patient education and reimbursement is problematic. Computers have unique attributes for individualized, effective instruction, including variable lesson pacing controlled by the patient and the ability to accurately track the level of patient understanding to document informed consent and for third party reimbursement purposes. The ability of the computer to persuade as well as inform helps motivate behavior change. The unrealized potential of computer-based patient education makes clear the need for further research on how to effectively use this unique tool for patient education.

Health Behavior↗
PubMed1978

Small supportive treatment units and the problem of recidivism in indigent chronic schizophrenic patients.

This is a report of a three and a half-year follow up of uprooted chronic schizophrenics, who had become disposition problems at the time of discharge from a state psychiatric hospital. One group of 14 was discharged to themselves, another in small supporting units to share living quarters with fellow patients. The results are encouraging and may throw some light into the problem of recidivism. All patients were diagnosed chronic schizophrenic. They had multiple hospitalizations, came from the same catchment area, and were followed by the same therapist in the same hospital setting. Patients who shared living quarters with other patients did better in terms of post hospitalization adjustment, reduced readmission and subsequent time spent in hospital, employment and self-responsibility compared to patients living alone.

Adult↗