Mary Turner DePalma

Perceived Patient Responsibility and Belief in a Just World Affect Helping

This experiment integrated information from two areas of research-patient perception and belief in a just world (BJW)-that have heretofore offered relatively separate insights into when people will help others. We provided participants an actual opportunity to help a target medical patient and attempted to demonstrate that volunteering is affected by both characteristics of the patient (perceived responsibility for disease onset) and characteristics of the perceiver (BJW). Participants were significantly more likely to help an individual portrayed as not responsible for disease onset, and helping was most pronounced in participants who held a high BJW. Our findings suggest an interactive model of patient perception and helping behavior in which characteristics of the patient interact with characteristics of the perceiver.

Individual differences and cheating behavior: Guilt and cheating in competitive situations

To examine whether guilt would inhibit immoral behavior, subjects were differentiated on their feelings of anticipatory (AG) and posttransgressional (PTG) guilt and subsequently placed in an anagram task shown to induce a high level of cheating. Results indicated that neither pre- nor post-test AG was related to cheating behavior, and test-retest administration indicated that the AG scale was unreliable. The PTG scale, however, was found to be a temporally reliable measure of guilt. In order to assess the relative contributions of pre-test posttransgressional guilt, the ability to persist, and gender to cheating behavior, a saturated multiple regression model of centered predictor effects and interaction terms was constructed. Results revealed a significant gender × persistence interaction. The cheating behavior of males was not significantly influenced by the ability to persist. On the other hand, females who exhibited a strong ability to persist rarely cheated, while those who were unable to persist cheated a great deal. Finally, subjects who felt the most posttransgressional guilt cheated more frequently. These findings provide additional evidence that guilt may be positively related to cheating behavior.

Identifying college athletes at risk for pathogenic eating

Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of a discriminant function that predicts risk of pathogenic eating in comparison with a standard self report measure (EAT) and a clinical interview. In addition, to determine the effectiveness of this discriminant function using a variety of collegiate athletes. Methods: A total of 319 participants were asked to complete a series of self report measures that assessed dietary practices. In addition, anthropometric measures were obtained, and a random sample of 15% participated in a structured clinical interview. Results: Correlational analyses indicated that the discriminant function categorisation of risk was significantly related to both the clinical interview and EAT (p≤0.05). The discriminant function was accurate in predicting risk category in this diverse group of athletes, particularly with respect to those at low risk (83.1%) and those at high risk (72.7%). Conclusion: This information may be helpful in the development of a simple, accessible tool to identify athletes at risk of engaging in pathogenic eating behaviours.

Psychological influences on pain perception and non-pharmacologic approaches to the treatment of pain

Pain is a complex process, in part because it is mediated by so many different variables. However, because pain is the primary reason for seeking medical treatment and often a barrier to compliance, therapists treating painful disorders or injuries need to be familiar with those factors that influence pain perception and treatment approaches. How individuals perceive pain, and hence how clinicians treat it, depends upon a wide variety of psychosocial factors, including mood, age, gender, expectations, social support, and perceptions of control. Even the manner with which therapists interact with patients can minimize the pain experience and ultimately impact compliance and recovery rates. This paper overviews the multifaceted nature of pain by outlining how psychologic variables impact pain experiences. In addition, this article reviews a number of nonpharmacologic techniques and approaches (i.e., distraction, imagery, relaxation, biofeedback) that are available for assisting patients in dealing with pain.

Psychosocial predictors of diabetes management.

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether a perception of responsibility for disease onset and self-blame might influence disease management in people with diabetes. METHODS Our survey assessed perceived responsibility for disease onset, self-blame, anger, social support, and disease management in a sample of 46 individuals with diabetes. RESULTS As perceptions of responsibility for disease onset increased, so did trait anger. Increases in trait anger were associated with increases in self-blame and negative social support, which were associated with the self-report of poorer disease management. CONCLUSIONS Perceptions of responsibility and subsequent anger, self-blame, and negative social support may interfere with effective diabetes management.

Perceived responsibility for disease onset affects HIV/AIDS Education

Abstract Ninety-nine participants were assigned to one of three experimental conditions in which they viewed an AIDS education videotape that systematically manipulated whether or not the educator would be perceived as responsible for HIV infection. Participants were administered pre and post-video affect measures, and an HlV/AIDS knowledge test after watching the video. Participants who viewed the speaker who acquired HIV through a blood transfusion (perceived not responsible) and those who viewed the speaker who did not reveal mode of acquisition (control) performed significantly better on the knowledge test compared to those who viewed the speaker who acquired HIV through unprotected sexual inttrcourse (perceived responsible). In addition. male participants in the perceived responsible condition reported a significant increase in sensation-sceking after viewing the video. Finally, females experienced a significantly greater increase in anxiety as a result of seeing the video than did males. Implication...

Assessing Diabetes-Relevant Data Provided by Undergraduate and Crowdsourced Web-Based Survey Participants for Honesty and Accuracy

Background To eliminate health disparities, research will depend on our ability to reach select groups of people (eg, samples of a particular racial or ethnic group with a particular disease); unfortunately, researchers often experience difficulty obtaining high-quality data from samples of sufficient size. Objective Past studies utilizing MTurk applaud its diversity, so our initial objective was to capitalize on MTurk’s diversity to investigate psychosocial factors related to diabetes self-care. Methods In Study 1, a “Health Survey” was posted on MTurk to examine diabetes-relevant psychosocial factors. The survey was restricted to individuals who were 18 years of age or older with diabetes. Detection of irregularities in the data, however, prompted an evaluation of the quality of MTurk health-relevant data. This ultimately led to Study 2, which utilized an alert statement to improve conscientious behavior, or the likelihood that participants would be thorough and diligent in their responses. Trap questions were also embedded to assess conscientious behavior. Results In Study 1, of 4165 responses, 1246 were generated from 533 unique IP addresses completing the survey multiple times within close temporal proximity. Ultimately, only 252 responses were found to be acceptable. Further analyses indicated additional quality concerns with this subsample. In Study 2, as compared with the MTurk sample (N=316), the undergraduate sample (N=300) included more females, and fewer individuals who were married. The samples did not differ with respect to race. Although the presence of an alert resulted in fewer trap failures (mean=0.07) than when no alert was present (mean=0.11), this difference failed to reach significance: F1,604=2.5, P=.11, ƞ²=.004, power=.35. The modal trap failure response was zero, while the mean was 0.092 (SD=0.32). There were a total of 60 trap failures in a context where the potential could have exceeded 16,000. Conclusions Published studies that utilize MTurk participants are rapidly appearing in the health domain. While MTurk may have the potential to be more diverse than an undergraduate sample, our efforts did not meet the criteria for what would constitute a diverse sample in and of itself. Because some researchers have experienced successful data collection on MTurk, while others report disastrous results, Kees et al recently identified that one essential area of research is of the types and magnitude of cheating behavior occurring on Web-based platforms. The present studies can contribute to this dialogue, and alternately provide evidence of disaster and success. Moving forward, it is recommended that researchers employ best practices in survey design and deliberately embed trap questions to assess participant behavior. We would strongly suggest that standards be in place for publishing the results of Web-based surveys—standards that protect against publication unless there are suitable quality assurance tests built into the survey design, distribution, and analysis.