The aims of this study were to develop a sexual orientation attitude scale and use it to investigate the attitudes of psychiatrists, other physicians and first year medical students toward homosexuals and homosexuality in Ankara, Turkey. A cross-sectional study was performed with three groups including psychiatrists (n = 147), non-psychiatric physicians (n = 224) and first year medical students (n = 280). A scale with 43 items consisting of four subscales (heterosexism, homophobia, homonegativity, neutrality) was developed which showed high internal consistency, validity and reliability in this sample of Turkish individuals. The internal consistency coefficients (Cronbach's alpha) for the subscales were 0.85-0.86, 0.95-0.95, 0.95-0.95, and 0.85-0.86, respectively. Being male, single, a graduate of a religious (Imam Hatip) or vocational high school, of rural origin, a student, more religious, heterosexual and studying at university hospitals were found to be related to higher scores (indicating more negative attitudes) on all subscales and the total scale and these differences were significant. Students had the highest scores and psychiatrists had the lowest scores in all subscales and the total scale. The results of this study indicate that physicians and medical students have negative attitudes toward homosexuals and that medical training on sexual health issues should be improved in Turkey.
ObjectiveProspective data of risky online gamers in Turkey is missing. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the change in gaming behaviors and addiction rates of Travian players within two years to search diagnostic stability of internet gaming disorder and some psychosocial risk factors.
Methods110 responders completed the whole questionnaire package including 21-item Game Addiction Scale (GAS), Satisfaction with Life Scale (SLS), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), and Multi-dimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS). A hierarchical linear modeling approach was followed to test the linear change in game addiction scores of the participants from 2013 to 2015.
ResultsGAS scores of gamers significantly decreased within two years (p=0.026). MSPSS scores significantly and negatively associated with GAS scores (p<0.001) and the negative association of time remained significant (p=0.035). Decrement in the MSPSS scores in two years was associated with increment in GAS scores. 9 (90%) of 10 participants with internet gaming disorder according to monothetic format and 26 (52%) of 50 participants with internet gaming disorder according to polythetic format were found to not to meet the diagnosis in the follow-up. 33 out of all participants reported that they were not playing any online games for at least last 6 months.
ConclusionSocial support seems to be a protective factor for game addiction and diagnosis of internet gaming disorder has low temporal stability among Travian players in Turkey.
This paper is an effort to describe, in neuroscientific terms, one of the most ambiguous concepts of the universe-the soul. Previous efforts to understand what the soul is and where it may exist have accepted the soul as a subjective and individual entity. We will make two additions to this view: (1) The soul is a result of uninhibited mental activity and lacks spatial and temporal information; (2) The soul is an undivided whole and, to become divided, the soul has to be reduced into unconscious and conscious mental events. This reduction process parallels the maturation of the frontal cortex and GABA becoming the main inhibitory neurotransmitter. As examples of uninhibited mental activity, we will discuss the perceptual differences of a newborn, individuals undergoing dissociation, and individuals induced by psychedelic drugs. Then, we will explain the similarities between the structure of the universe and the structure of the brain, and we propose that consideration of the rules of quantum physics is necessary to understand how the soul is reduced into consciousness.
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