Accompanying two decades of change in the mental health system have been a diffusion of the roles and practices of mental health professionals as well as shifts in the public's perceptions of the various specialties. In the present study, samples of patients and nonpatients used a 4-point Likert scale to rate (a) the competence of psychologists, psychiatrists, nonpsychiatric physicians, and the clergy to treat 10 different patient types, and (b) the personal qualities of the four practitioner groups along nine different dimensions. Psychiatrists and psychologists received significantly higher ratings than both nonpsychiatric physicians and the clergy on competence to treat most menial health problems. Intergroup differences on the ratings of personal qualities suggest a less uniformly favorable perception of psychiatrists and psychologists in comparison with the other two groups. Implications for the marketing and public relations efforts of mental health practitioners are discussed.Since World War II, members of the various mental health professions have experienced dramatic shifts in their respective roles, responsibilities, and public image. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, "the decades of the 1960's and I970's exceed in intensity, magnitude, and swiftness anything seen in the prior history of mental health care in the United States" (Taube, Burns, & Kessler, 1984).
Attitudes toward suicide, as assessed by the Suicide Opinion Questionnaire (SOQ), were evaluated in samples of New Zealand ( N = 236) and United States ( N = 248) college students. Substantial differences were found, with New Zealand students attitudinally perceiving to a greater degree a relationship between suicide and mental illness, perceiving suicide as less serious, agreeing with the right to take one's life, and seeing suicide in a more religious context and as a less impulsive, less “normal,” and more moral action.
This study compares the effects of the cancer experience on various aspects of marital and sexual functioning (e.g., communication, emotional support, body image, sexual satisfaction and frequency) for two groups of long‐term cancer survivors (testicular cancer and Hodgkin's disease) and their spouses. Comparisons between the two patient groups showed significantly more survivors of Hodgkin's disease than testicular cancer reporting the emergence of special issues and changes in the marital relationship. No differences emerged between the spouse groups on sexual functioning variables; however, spouses of survivors of Hodgkin's disease were more likely than spouses of survivors of testicular cancer to report the development of special issues and communication difficulties. A substantial proportion of both survivor groups disclosed negative changes in body image and sexual frequency. Majorities of both survivors and spouses acknowledged that the illness had drawn them closer together. When representative marital/sexual functioning variables were used to predict Family Environment Scale (FES) scores for survivors and for spouses, changes in the spouse's importance, influence of the illness on the relationship, and changes in sexual frequency emerged as significant predictors. The clinical significance of long‐term changes in marital and sexual functioning for the couple and the need for therapeutic interventions are discussed.
This study examined the extent to which the resolution of the Eriksonian final stage-related crisis of ego integrity versus despair is predicted by the resolution of earlier stage-related crises and by non-Eriksonian personality constructs. Subjects were administered an Eriksonian life stage measure called the Inventory of Psychosocial Balance, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the Purpose-in-Life Scale, and the Self-Realization Scale. A series of alternative and hierarchically nested regression models was run to assess the direct effects of all preceding Eriksonian life stages and the non-Eriksonian personality measures on the final stage of ego integrity. The results were consistent with Eriksonian theory, which states that personality development is a continuous process in which psychosocial growth during earlier phases of life is a prerequisite for the resolution of later developmental conflicts.
A set of 701 stories generated by 80 Chinese and 80 American children was content analyzed, and submitted to a factor analysis that yielded four factors common to both groups, one unique factor for the Chinese sample and two for the American sample. A stepwise discriminant function analysis of the common factors indicated significant differences between Chinese and American children, and significant sex differences in the American sample only. The results support the hypotheses that Chinese stories evidence greater social orientation, greater concern with authority and with moral-ethical rectitude, and greater saliency of the role of natural forces and chance, and contain more affective elements, fewer instances of physical aggression, and less economic orientation. The results are taken to reflect cultural differences, which in turn are the result of myriad aspects, from differential child rearing to differing sociopolitical climates.
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