This article presents an overview of research on health care use and provider behavior, on doctor-patient relationships, adherence to medical regimens, self-care, practices and avoidance health care behaviors, and attitudes of 4 ethnoracial groups: African Americans, American Indians, Asian Americans, and Latinos. Although issues within the groups varied, common themes between the groups emerged. It became apparent, after discussion, that whatever the issues and health problems, these can be resolved most effectively when addressed within the social contexts of each ethnoracial group.

Sleep paralysis is a sensation of an inability to speak or move other muscles when falling asleep or awakening. Sleep paralysis by itself has been reported as occurring infrequently and many clinicians are uncertain of its significance. In contrast, sleep paralysis in conjunction with sleep attacks has been reported as a concomitant of narcolepsy. To further examine the incidence of sleep paralysis, the responses of 80 first-year medical students, 16.25% had experienced predormital, postdormital, or both types of sleep paralysis. These episodes occurred infrequently--only once or twice for most of these students. Reports of sleep paralysis were not associated with sleep attacks or cataplexy. These results support two previous studies which found that sleep paralysis alone occurs frequently among normals.

This article reports the results of a retrospective study designed to examine the responses of couples to genetic amniocentesis and subsequent therapeutic abortions due to birth defects. Fourteen women and 12 men were interviewed by experienced interviewers using a structured format designed by the authors, and each interview was audiotaped for later rating. The 5 raters (all women) were instructed to independently rate each interview using forms designed by the authors to elicit information about many aspects of the participant's individual responses as well as perceptions of spouse's responses to the process of pregnancy, amniocentesis, therapeutic abortion, and sequelae. Ratings of all 5 raters were conjoined and an homogeneous narrative was constructed for each interview. Results indicate, in general, that the respondent couples coped well with this experience. In fact 70 per cent of the respondent couples described their marital relationships as becoming closer as a result of their experience. Only a few participants reported long-term deleterious effects. Most couples coped by relying on relatives, friends, and occasionally, professional counsellors. In addition, most participants in this study suggested ways to improve the medical and psychological aspects of this experience.

This study is a partial replication of the 1968 investigation by Rosenkrantz, Vogel, Bee, Broverman, and Broverman of gender stereotypes among college students. Like the students studied 30 years ago, male and female participants in this study showed very high agreement about the typical characteristics of men and women. However, current participants identified significantly fewer gender stereotypes than did those in the earlier study. In contrast to the participants in the original study, current participants judged the traits they associated with women to be significantly more socially desirable, in general, than the traits they associated with men.