Neuroticism,Negative Thinking,and Coping With Respect to Career Decision State

Using structural equation modeling, the present study investigated relationships between neuroticism, coping strategies, and negative career thoughts within the context of attaining a positive career decision state. Results from the initial model, based on a sample of college students (119 women, 113 men; M = 20.3 years) enrolled in a career development course, revealed that coping strategies were not a significant contribution to the model. The final model, without coping strategies, showed that neuroticism had a significant indirect effect on career decision state through negative thinking and that the relationship between neuroticism and career decision state was also significant. Findings also indicate that in the presence of negative career thoughts, neuroticism becomes associated with a more positive career decision state. Practical implications include suggestions that counselors intervene on clients' negative career thoughts to potentially render their neurotic tendencies more productive in reaching a desired career decision state.     

Using Fear Appeals in Warning Labels to Promote Responsible Gambling Among VLT Players: The Key Role of Depth of Information Processing

Video lottery terminals (VLT) are a highly lucrative gambling format, but at the same time they are among the most hazardous. Previous research has shown that threatening warnings may be an appropriate approach for promoting protective behavior. The present study explores the potential benefits of threatening warnings in the fight against compulsive gambling. A 4 × 2 factorial design experiment was used to test our model based on both Elaboration Likelihood Model and Protection Motivation Theory. 258 VLT adult players (58% males, 42% females) with various degrees of problem gambling were exposed to three threat levels (plus a control condition) from two different sources (i.e., either a medical source or a source related to the provider of VLT’s). Our results show that both higher threat warnings and the medical source of warnings enhance Depth of Information Processing. It was also found that Depth of Information Processing affects positively attitude change and compliance intentions. The theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Marijuana use development over the course of adolescence among North American Indigenous youth

This study investigated the links between marijuana use trajectories and marijuana abuse/dependence (DSM-IV) using five waves of data from 718 North American Indigenous adolescents between 10 and 17 years from eight reservations sharing a common language and culture. Growth mixture models indicated that 15% of youth began using by 11-12 years of age and that another 20% began shortly thereafter. These early users had odds of abuse/dependence 6.5 times larger than abstainers. Girls were also unexpectedly found to be particularly at risk of early use, and this did not reflect other background and psychosocial factors, including friend use. While the timing, patterns, and consequences of use were similar to those reported for alcohol use previously, the social influences on use differed in important ways.     

Minority Stress in the Lives of Men Who Have Sex With Men in Cape Town,South Africa

The mental health outcomes of men who have sex with men (MSM) living in sub-Saharan Africa are understudied, despite evidence that discrimination and stigma are widespread. This article examines the occurrence and mental health effects of minority stress in a sample of diverse South African MSM. Twenty-two MSM living in Cape Town took part in exploratory qualitative in-depth interviews and completed mental health questionnaires. Results indicate that the majority of participants experienced minority stress, which affected their sexual relationships and coping strategies. Concealment behaviors and perceived discrimination levels were high and were associated with race, religion, SES, and geographical location.     

Mindfulness and Subjective Well-being in the Sustainability Movement: A Further Elaboration of Multiple Discrepancies Theory

In a previous interpretation of multiple discrepancies theory (MDT), the authors operationalized mutiple discrepancies as gaps between respondents' values and their performance. Using a sample of back-to-the-landers from the larger sustainability movement, the first-stage of the data analysis (Jacob and Brinkerhoff, 1997) confirmed that multiple discrepancies between values and do have a significant impact on subjective well-being (SWB), but this initial analysis also demonstrated that there are intervening variables that can act as compensating factors to attenuate the influence of multiple discrepancies on SWB. In this, the second-stage of data analysis, the authors identify and further explore the interaction of phenomena that might serve as compensation variables in respondents' calculus of their SWB. The present study identifies two salient compensating factors: mindfulness (a calm, yet focused, engagement with the present, similar to a meditative experience), and a sense of an absence of time constraints. Operationalized as Mindfulness and Time for Self scales, these two interrelated variables explain, in multiple regression equations, the major share of variation in multiple measures of SWB. Nevertheless, the multiple discrepancies between values and performance are still significant, if secondary, factors in explaining variance in SWB for the sample of back-to-the- landers.     

Evolution of human mate choice

This article provides a review of evolutionary theory and empirical research on mate choices in nonhuman species and uses it as a frame for understanding the how and why of human mate choices. The basic principle is that the preferred mate choices and attendant social cognitions and behaviors of both women and men, and those of other species, have evolved to focus on and exploit the reproductive potential and reproductive investment of members of the opposite sex. Reproductive potential is defined as the genetic, material, and/or social resources an individual can invest in offspring, and reproductive investment is the actual use of these resources to enhance the physical and social well- being of offspring. Similarities and differences in the mate preferences and choices of women and men are reviewed and can be understood in terms of similarities and differences in the form of reproductive potential that women and men have to offer and their tendency to use this potential for the well-being of children.     

Women's sexual experience during the menstrual cycle: identification of the sexual phase by noninvasive measurement of luteinizing hormone

Imprecise measures of ovulation obscure the relationship between women's sexuality and the menstrual cycle, as does studying women with different contraceptive goals in different social contexts. Here we present a novel noninvasive method to precisely pinpoint the preovulatory surge of Luteinizing Hormone (LH), demarcating hormonally distinct cycle phases with greater than 95% reliability. Women were more sexually active on days prior to and including the preovulatory (LH) surge. This pattern was evident only when women initiated sexual activity and not when their partners did, indicating an increase in women's sexual motivation rather than attractiveness. A second study replicated the 6-day increase in sexual activity beginning 3 days before the LH surge, accompanied by stronger sexual desire and more sexual fantasies. We propose the term 'sexual phase' of the cycle, since follicular phase is over inclusive and ovulatory phase is not sufficient. These findings are striking because the women were avoiding pregnancy and were kept blind to the hypotheses, preventing expectation bias. The sexual phase was more robust in women with regular sexual partners, although the increase in sexual desire was just as great in nonpartnered women, who also reported feeling less lonely at this time. We use these results to evaluate potential neuroendocrine mechanisms underlying women's sexual motivation and activity.     

Androgens, apoE, and Alzheimer's disease

Increasing evidence indicates that there are reductions in estrogen and androgen levels in aged men and women. These hormonal reductions might be risk factors for cognitive impairments and the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Aged people show improved cognition after treatments with sex steroids. Therefore, ongoing clinical AD trials have been designed to evaluate the potential benefits of estrogen therapy in women and testosterone therapy in men. Apolipoprotein E (apoE) plays an important role in the metabolism and redistribution of lipoproteins and cholesterol. The three major human apoE isoforms, apoE2, apoE3, and apoE4, differ in their effects on AD risk and pathology. Here I review various mechanisms proposed to mediate the differential effects of apoE isoforms on brain function and highlight the potential contribution of detrimental isoform-dependent effects of apoE on androgen- and androgen receptor (AR)-mediated pathways. I also discuss potential interactions of androgens with other AD-related factors.     

Distributed sensemaking in network risk analysis

This article responds to the call advancing risk science as an independent research field, by introducing a conceptual model for risk analysis based on distributed sensemaking. Significant advances in recent decades have expanded the use of risk analysis to almost every organization globally. Continued improvements have been made to our understanding of risk, placing a wide range of contexts under organizational control. This article argues that four dimensions are central in how organizations make sense of uncertainty in their context and hence do risk analysis: the activities the organization engages in, their sensory systems, the role and competence of individuals, and the ability to coordinate information through organizational structures. The structure enables insight into the decision-making process and the dimensions contributing to how organizations perceive risks and uncertainty in a given context. Three examples from the Arctic context illustrate the network risk analysis model's practical application and how it will expose weaknesses in these organizations’ risk analysis and decision-making processes. Finally, the article discusses sensemaking in network risk analysis and how such an approach supports organizations’ ability to perceive, collect, process, and decide on changes in context.