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To conduct a cross-cultural test of a theory specifying the appraisals that elicit particular emotions, undergraduates from India and the United States were asked how they appraised events that caused them to feel sadness, fear, or anger. In both cultures there was evidence that an appraisal of powerlessness characterized incidents leading to sadness and fear, rather than anger; and an appraisal that other persons caused negative events characterized incidents leading to anger, rather than sadness or fear. Also, Indians appraised events as less discrepant from what they had wanted than Americans did; this accounted for lower sadness and anger among Indians. Overall, cultural differences in appraisal explained cultural differences in emotion, due to underlying cross-cultural similarities in appraisal-emotion relationships.

This study compared the self-concepts of college students in India to those in the United States by administering the Twenty Statements Test. Self-statements were analyzed in terms of five categories (social identity, ideological beliefs, interests, ambitions, and self-evaluations) and a numberof subcategories (e.g., self-identity, group identity, gender role identity). Results indicated differential use of the categories and subcategories in the two cultures. For example, Americans made more self-evaluation statements, whereas Indians responded more in terms of social identity. Women in both cultures made more frequent use of stereotypical gender characteristics in describing themselves; men had a larger proportion of responses in the self-identity category. However, cross-cultural differences were much greater than gender differences. These findings shed light on major components of the self-concept and underline its culture-specific determinants.

In the rehabilitation of chronically mentally ill patients, social impairments and multiple disabilities necessitate the use of comprehensive and complex services encompassing many areas of life. It is suggested that quality of life (QoL) can be used as an organizing framework for long-term care. Subjects in the present study included staff and patients from a rehabilitation unit that offers individualized long-term care, day services, inpatient and outreach facilities. Using subjective indices, staff and patient perceptions of QoL were compared across several life domains. Significant differences between the 2 groups were found in several areas, including leisure activities, law and safety, and health. The implications of these findings for long-term care are discussed.

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Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a serious personality disorder. People with BPD show a pattern of behavior characteristics marked by impulsivity and instability in interpersonal relationships, self-image, and moods. BPD is a debilitating disorder that occurs in approximately 1-4 % of the general population and about 75% are females [1][2][3]. Recent studies have found that BPD is actually more prevalent affecting almost 5.9% of the population; and there was no difference found among the rates of BPD among women vs. men [4]. Within a sample of personality-disordered patients, Zanarini et al. [5] found gender differences in the "type of disorder of impulse in which they specialized", with male borderline patients significantly more likely to meet criteria for lifetime substance use and females significantly more likely to meet criteria for life-time eating disorders. Common clinical features of BPD are frequent intense mood swings, the inability to be alone nor to tolerate intimacy, fears of abandonment, extreme dependency on others alternating with sudden hostility, perceiving others as all good or all bad ("splitting"), chronic self-mutilation (often described as relieving emotional pain), and chronic suicidality. Suicide attempts serve to punish others, escape suffering, and to communicate distress [6,7]. These patients are argumentative, irritable, sarcastic, quick to take offence and very hard to live with. Self-mutilation is one of the most discriminating signs of BPD [8]. Self-injurious behavior is associated with relief from anxiety or dysphoria and with analgesia (absence of the experience of pain in the presence of a theoretically painful stimulus) [8]. Other researchers have emphasized interpersonal problems and conflict as important precipitating events to the parasuicide [9][10][11][12]. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) [13,14], these conditions are defined by maladaptive personality characteristics beginning early in life (early adulthood) that have consistent and serious effects on functioning. BPD is frequently seen in clinical practice, characterized by emotional turmoil and chronic suicidality (suicide ideation and attempts). Several studies stress the role of impulsiveness as a core construct of BPD [15][16][17]. Emotion dysregulation is supposed to be a central mechanism of the disorder [6]. Patients with BPD are supposed to show high sensitivity and intense reactions to emotional stimuli as well as longer latencies to return to their baseline emotional state [18]. BPD commonly co-occurs with a variety of Axis I disorder ranging from mood & anxiety disorders (esp. panic & Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), to substance use & eating disorders [19]. Several studies have shown high comorbidity between BPD and substance use disorders (SUD) [20-22]. It has been suggested that the comorbidity occurs because both conditions share the Volume 8 Issue 2 -2017