Marital distress,co-occurring depression,and marital therapy: a review

This article reviews several factors that contribute to marital distress and co-occurring depression and also reviews empirically supported therapies. Gender contributes to marital distress and depression but does not appear to be the cause of either. Marital distress and depression appear to have bidirectional influence on each other. The depressed spouse's depression has a marked impact on the marital adjustment of the nondepressed spouse. Both marital distress and depression appear to be chronic. It is recommended that treatment be designed to help couples be supportive of each another, to adapt, and to cope with the depressive symptoms within the framework of their ongoing marital relations.     

Effects of a participatory ergonomics intervention computer workshop for university students: a pilot intervention to prevent disability in tomorrow's workers

A participatory approach was used to create a computer ergonomics workshop for college students, incorporating an instructional systems design process and adult learning inquiry perspectives. The primary objective of this participatory ergonomic pilot intervention was to involve students throughout the training design process in solving computer workstation ergonomic problems and adopting healthy computing behaviors. Students' level of participation included becoming part of the training design team, a co-facilitator, or a student trainee. A second objective was to examine the translation of an industrial office ergonomics training program into a college computer ergonomics training program. The long term goal was to reduce upper extremity symptoms and disability. The program was piloted at one private university. The three student trainees significantly increased their knowledge of computer ergonomics from 69% of test items answered correctly pre-training to 82% post-training. Trainees were also successful in conducting computer ergonomic evaluations of students' computing work areas. They achieved 100% accuracy in identifying ergonomic problems and proposing solutions in five ergonomic workstation assessments in the field. This approach was successful in creating a sense of ownership among the student developers and facilitators as reflected in their self-reports during a post-intervention debriefing. The results of this pilot study justify formal controlled trials of this intervention in university students, who will become tomorrow's workers.     

Repeal of the Estate Tax and Its Impact on Philanthropy

The estate tax has many advocates and opponents. We present a review of the primary arguments and empirical evidence promulgated in support of continuation and for repeal. Overall, we find that there are plausible theories and strong, but not definitive, empirical evidence on both sides of the issue. Further research is needed that more clearly isolates differences between the income‐tax and estate‐tax (that is, the after‐tax cost or “price” of a donation or bequest) effects, the independent‐income and wealth effects (how having higher income or wealth has an effect on giving during life and at death), and married and single estate tax filers. These differences can be best isolated using longitudinal data. Data and analyses for both the short run and long run are necessary before society can reasonably predict the impact the repeal of the estate tax will have on both giving during life and charitable bequests.     

Qualitative psychological autopsy interviews on suicide in post-conflict Northern Uganda: the participants' perceptions

Participants' perceptions of psychological autopsy interviews were investigated in post-conflict Northern Uganda. Data were derived out of their responses in the debriefing session after the formal interviews. These responses were subjected to Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The majority of the participants were positive about the interview as reflected in the two broad themes: positivation of the situation through the possibility of helping others and opportunity for personal development through sharing. To some few participants the interview aroused guilt, self-reproach, and anger and reactivated painful memories. As regards suicide postvention, the findings implied that not much has been done to help the bereaved by suicide in this region, and few resources for such efforts are currently available. However, the bereaved are ready to contribute toward the fight against suicide in their communities. Hence, it is argued that a community-based mental health and Primary Health Care approaches should be encouraged in this context.     

Perceptions of Nuclear and Other Risks in Japan and the United States

As part of a study of nuclear power development in Japan and the United States, surveys of perceptions of risk toward 30 activities, substances, and technologies have been carried out in the Pacific Northwest and Tokyo, Japan. The results show that people in both countries have the highest level of dread toward nuclear waste disposal, nuclear accidents, and nuclear war, greater even than their dread of crime and AIDS. In addition to comparisons of dread, the paper also discusses similarities and differences between Japanese and American responses for other dimensions of risk perception.     

The Living Gesture and the Signifying Moment

Drawing from Peircean semiotics, from the Greek conception of phronesis, and from considerations of bodily awareness as a basis of reasonableness, I attempt to show how the living gesture touches our deepest signifying nature, the self, and public life. Gestural bodily awareness, more than knowledge, connects us with the very conditions out of which the human body evolved into its present condition and remains a vital resource in the face of a devitalizing, rationalistic consumption culture. It may be precisely these deep‐rooted abilities for what I term “self‐originated experience” that can ultimately offset automatism.     

Re-examining informative prior elicitation through the lens of Markov chain Monte Carlo methods

Summary.  In recent years, advances in Markov chain Monte Carlo techniques have had a major influence on the practice of Bayesian statistics. An interesting but hitherto largely underexplored corollary of this fact is that Markov chain Monte Carlo techniques make it practical to consider broader classes of informative priors than have been used previously. Conjugate priors, long the workhorse of classic methods for eliciting informative priors, have their roots in a time when modern computational methods were unavailable. In the current environment more attractive alternatives are practicable. A reappraisal of these classic approaches is undertaken, and principles for generating modern elicitation methods are described. A new prior elicitation methodology in accord with these principles is then presented.     

Desired Risk: Broadening the Social Amplification of Risk Framework1

Recently Kasperson et al.⁽⁶⁾ have proposed a conceptual framework, “The Social Amplification of Risk,” as a beginning step in developing a comprehensive theory of public experience of risk. A central goal of their effort is to systematically link technical assessments of risk with the growing findings from social scientific research. A key and growing domain of public risk experience is “desired” risk, but this is virtually neglected in the framework. This paper evaluates the scope of the “Social Amplification of Risk Framework,” asking whether it is applicable to desired risks, such as risk recreation (hang gliding, mountain climbing, and so forth). The analysis is supportive of the framework's applicability to the domain of desired risk.