Explaining the social patterns of depression: control and problem solving--or support and talking?

Research on the social patterns of depression in the community finds consistently that high levels of education and income, being male, and being married are associated with lower levels of depression. We attempt to explain these patterns as the result of two essential social perceptions: the sense of controlling one's own life rather than being at the mercy of powerful others and outside forces, and the sense of having a supportive and understanding person to talk to in times of trouble. In theory, the sense of control reduces depression because it encourages active problem solving, and the sense of support reduces depression because it provides others to talk to. We find evidence for the first proposition: persons who feel in control of their lives are more likely to attempt to solve problems. Perceived control and problem solving decrease depression and largely explain the effects of income and education on depression. We find, however, that support has mixed effects. Support decreases depression, but talking to others when faced with a problem, which increases with the level of support, increases depression. Support explains a small part of the effect of marriage on depression. Control and support have an interactive effect on depression, suggesting that control and support can substitute for one another to decrease depression: a high level of one reduces the need for the other, and a low level of one is remedied by a high level of the other.     

Wilson's theorem for economic environments and continuous social preferences

Wilson's generalization of Arrow's impossibility theorem has been proved for the realm of private goods and economic preferences by Border and by Bordes and Le Breton. However, their proofs require the exclusion of the zero vector from the commodity space. This paper assumes continuity of social preference to obtain the impossibility theorem for the entire allocation space, even if the society is infinite. A simple corollary reveals that there is some individual who is assigned the zero consumption vector at every social optimum whenever the social welfare function is nonnull and nonimposed, and satisfies Arrow's independence axiom and continuity and transitivity of social preference.Financial support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council is gratefully acknowledged, as are the suggestions of Charles Plott and an anonymous referee. The author assumes responsibility for any errors.     

What sounds beautiful is good: The vocal attractiveness stereotype

Two studies examined the effects of attractiveness of voice and physical appearance on impressions of personality. Subject-senders were videotaped as they read a standard-content text (Study 1) or randomly selected texts (Study 2). Judges rated the senders' vocal attractiveness from the auditory portion of the tape and their physical attractiveness from the visual portion of the tape. Other judges rated the senders' personality on the basis of their voice, face, or face plus voice. Senders with more attractive voices were rated more favorably in both the voice and face plus voice conditions; senders with more attractive faces were rated more favorably in both the face and face plus voice conditions. The effects of both vocal and physical attractiveness were more pronounced in the single channels (voice condition and face condition, respectively) than in the multiple channel (face plus voice condition). Possible antecedents and consequences of the vocal attractiveness stereotype are discussed. p]Her voice was ever soft, gentle, and low, an excellent thing in woman.Shakespeare (King Lear, Act V, Sc. 3)This research was supported in part by National Institute Mental Health Grant RO1 MH40498-01A2. The authors would like to thank Thomas J. Hernandez, James R. Laguzza, Andrea Lurier, and Mary Elizabeth Sementilli for running the videotaping sessions in Study 1, and Craig B. Partyka, Kimberly A. Radoane, and Kelly B. Sanborn for running the videotaping sessions in Study 2. Grateful acknowledgment is extended to Kate Johnson and Michael Zygmuntowicz for running rating sessions in Study 2, to BiancaMaria Penati for running rating sessions and coding data in Study 2, and to Bradley C. Olson for his assistance with data analysis.     

Management of the abnormal Papanicolaou smear

Since 1943, Papanicolaou (Pap) smears have been widely used to screen for cervical cancer. Over the past 25 years, new understanding of the natural history of cervical epithelial neoplasia has defined the existence and importance of dysplasia, also termed cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), and more recently, its probable link to human papilloma virus (HPV). Inflammatory atypia (IA) is a common cytological diagnosis whose significance is less understood. Current gynecological opinion strongly supports a practice of colposcopic evaluation for all women with cytology showing any degree of CIN. Data from studies in our health service and elsewhere establish that 15% to 30% of patients with IA will have CIN if evaluated by colposcopy. Although clinicians may choose to follow such patients with repeated Pap smears, there are strong arguments for offering colposcopic evaluation to patients with IA. Potential problems with false-positive cervical biopsy reports, however, may limit the utility of colposcopy in patients with IA cytology.     

Tests for a difference in timing of physiological response between two brain regions measured by using functional magnetic resonance imaging

Summary.  Functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) measures the physiological response of the human brain to experimentally controlled stimulation. In a periodically designed experiment it is of interest to test for a difference in the timing (phase shift) of the response between two anatomically distinct brain regions. We suggest two tests for an interregional difference in phase shift: one based on asymptotic theory and one based on bootstrapping. Whilst the two procedures differ in some of their assumptions, both tests rely on employing the large number of voxels (three-dimensional pixels) in non-activated brain regions to take account of spatial autocorrelation between voxelwise phase shift observations within the activated regions of interest. As an example we apply both tests, and their counterparts assuming spatial independence, to FMRI phase shift data that were acquired from a normal young woman during performance of a periodically designed covert verbal fluency task. We conclude that it is necessary to take account of spatial autocovariance between voxelwise FMRI time series parameter estimates such as the phase shift, and that the most promising way of achieving this is by modelling the spatial autocorrelation structure from a suitably defined base region of the image slice.     

Illuminating gendered organization assumptions

One key to why organizations have been less successful at integrating a work–family agenda into their organizational cultures is that workplaces have failed to consider how gender assumptions influence workplace practices, policies and cultures. This paper presents a theoretical framework for considering how gender role assumptions have prevented organizational attempts to become family friendly. Further, this paper uses an organizational case study to illustrate this point. Specifically, a theory of gendered organizations is used to frame an analysis of 30 employee interviews. Data suggest that gendered organizational assumptions inherent to several workplace policies and practices contribute to employee strain associated with negotiating the demands of life on and off the job. Further, the findings show that these gendered organizational assumptions prevent organizations from developing workplace cultures responsive to employees' work, family and personal needs. A brief review of the interdisciplinary work–family field is presented, followed by a discussion of gendered organizations. Then, using interview data collected from management and ‘front‐line’ female and male workers employed at a municipal government, this paper examines how workplace practices, presumably gender neutral, affect employees and the organizational culture in which they work.