Yasmin Alkalay

Positive and Negative Psychological Impact After Secondary Exposure to Politically Motivated Violence Among Body Handlers and Rehabilitation Workers

The positive and negative psychological impact of secondary exposure to politically motivated violence was examined among body handlers and hospital rehabilitation workers, 2 groups that differed in their proximity and immediacy to violent events. Survivors of politically motivated violence served as a comparison group. Body handlers experienced high levels of positive psychological impact and traumatic stress symptoms. Levels of positive psychological impact among on-scene body handlers were higher than those experienced by rehabilitation workers. Traumatic stress symptoms predicted positive psychological impact among body handlers. These findings indicate that proximity to stressors is associated with higher levels of positive and negative psychological impact. Physical proximity is a major contributory factor to both positive and negative psychological effects of secondary exposure to trauma.

Positive psychological impact of treating victims of politically motivated violence among hospital-based health care providers.

Background: Health care personnel treating victims of politically motivated violence are at risk for traumatic stress symptoms. Few studies have assessed the positive psychological impact of politically motivated violence on health care workers. In this study, the level of positive psychological impact among health care workers with recurrent exposure to victims of politically motivated violence was examined. Methods: A validated questionnaire survey of health care personnel treating victims of politically motivated violence during 2000–2005 in two hospital settings was conducted. Positive psychological impact was assessed by the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory and traumatic stress symptoms were assessed using the Revised Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Inventory. Subjects included physicians (surgeons and anesthesiologists), nurses, and psychotherapists. Results: The rate of response to the mail-in questionnaires was 68.3% (n = 138). The sample consisted of 70 physicians, 37 nurses, and 31 hospital-based psychotherapists. Positive psychological impact was noted for the entire sample and among all professions. Traumatic stress symptoms predicted positive psychological impact for the entire sample and for each profession, and there was a curvilinear relationship between traumatic stress symptoms and positive psychological impact. Women experienced greater levels of positive psychological impact. Conclusions: Hospital-based health care providers treating victims of politically motivated violence experience both positive and negative psychological impact. Individuals who are more traumatized by their experience are more likely to also have a positive psychological impact.

Political Attitudes in the Muslim World

A new look at the World Values Survey data reveals how the Muslim world’s religious context affects individual Muslims’ attitudes toward democracy.

Where to die? That is the question: A study of cancer patients in Israel

OBJECTIVE Most patients prefer to die at home, but barely 30% do so. This study examines the variables contributing to dying at home. METHODS The participants were 326 cancer patients, of both genders, with a mean age of 63.25 years, who died from 2000 to 2008 and were treated by the palliative care unit of the Barzilai Hospital. Some 65.7% died at home and 33.4% in a hospital. The data were extracted from patient files. The examined variables were demographic (e.g., age, gender, marital status, ethnic background, number of years in Israel until death), medical (e.g., age at diagnosis, diagnosis, nature of last treatment, patient received nursing care, patient given the care of a social worker, patient had care of a psychologist, family received care of a social worker, patient had a special caregiver), and sociological (e.g., having insurance, having worked in Israel, living alone or with family, living with ones children, living in self-owned or rented house, family members working). RESULTS The findings indicate that the chances of dying at home are higher if the patient is non-Ashkenazi, the family got social worker care, the patient lived in a self-owned house, the patient lived with his family, the family members worked, and the patients stay in Israel since immigration was longer. Logistic regression showed that all the predictors together yielded a significant model accounting for 10.9-12.3% of the variance. SIGNIFICANCE OF RESULTS The findings suggest that dying at home requires maintaining continued care for the patient and family in a community context.

Perceived control over the medical procedure and its association with adjustment to a low-control situation: the case of infertility

Abstract Illness perceptions were shown to be related to emotional and physical outcomes, as proposed by Leventhal’s self-regulation model. These perceptions include the illness identity, its timeline, consequences, causes, and controllability, which later research found to include self-control and treatment control. The current study aimed to examine the role of a third type of perceived control: Control over the treatment procedures. We hypothesized that this type of control would be important for women undergoing infertility treatments, which are characterized by high uncertainty and low personal control. The sample included 194 Israeli women who were undergoing infertility treatments, 70% recruited in hospitals and the remainder in a fertility counseling center and website. All participants were married religious Jewish women, which added to the stress inherent in infertility. Study measures included the Illness Perception Questionnaire-Revised (IPQ-R), adapted to infertility, with an additional subscale assessing control over the procedure, and infertility-specific distress and well-being scales. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported the factor structure, including the distinct new subscale. A structural equations model showed that perceived consequences were most strongly related to distress and well-being. The three types of control were positively intercorrelated but differed in their associations with distress and well-being: Self-control over the problem and treatment control were unrelated to either measure while self-control over the procedure was related to greater well-being. These findings suggest that when control over the condition or the treatment outcomes is impossible, individuals may still benefit from control over external factors such as their health care. Healthcare providers can support them by seeking ways to increase their control over their treatment procedures, which may contribute to better psychological adjustment. Future studies should examine the role of perceived control over the procedures in other low-control situations (e.g., newly diagnosed cancer; aging-related declines).

Mental Pain in Israeli Adult Childhood Cancer Survivors and Its Effects on their Quality of Life

The objectives were to study the mental pain of adult pediatric cancer survivors. In view of the findings that despite the fact that pediatric cancer survivors were found to be fairly well adapted there are contrary indications and even evidence for suicide ideation in these survivors. The hypotheses were that pediatric cancer survivors would manifest enhanced mental pain at present, report high levels of mental pain in the past and that the mental pain scores would be related negatively with their’ quality of life. The participants were 91 pediatric cancer survivors of both genders, whose mean age at diagnosis was 12 years and mean current age was 26 years, 13 years on the average since the end of treatment. They were administered the mental pain questionnaire concerning the present and the past, the questionnaire of mental pain tolerance, and the multidimensional inventory of quality of life. Regression analyses showed that the scales of mental pain predicted significantly quality of life and most of its domains. The major predictos were mental pain at present. The main implication is that interventions designed to reduce mental pain are likely to contribute a lot to improving the quality of life of pediatric cancer survivors.

The Role of Trust in the Resolution of the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict

This research examines the evolution of the degree of personal trust given to the Palestinians by the Israeli-Jewish public following the signing of the Oslo Accords. Based on continuous monthly surveys of the adult Jewish population, the findings reveal that already at the early stages of the “Oslo process,” slightly over a half of adult Israeli Jews did not believe that it would lead to a lasting peace agreement with the Palestinians. With the passage of time the trust in Oslo further deteriorated to the extent that in recent years less than one-fifth of Israeli Jews believed in the chances for peace. Furthermore, about the same percentage do not have personal trust in the Palestinians or believe that Palestinians can be trusted as a whole. Likewise, the vast majority assume that the Palestinians do not trust the Israelis. These findings are explained in terms of the evolution of the Israeli--Palestinian conflict which began at the end of the nineteenth century and its continuation ever since. While the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993 could have potentially paved the way to resolve the conflict, it appears that neither side was ready to perceive it as a nonzero-sum game according to which both sides recognize the necessity of mutual concessions in order to achieve a lasting peace agreement. Notwithstanding the responsibility of the Palestinian side, the non-compromising attitude on the Israeli side derived from basic changes in its socio-demographic and power structure during recent decades that has led to the political hegemony of the religious and secular Right. This trend has intensified various sociopsychological barriers, such as fear and prejudice that contributed to the distrust in the Palestinians. Furthermore, for the radical Right, this widespread distrust is highly functional since it facilitates the legitimization of its ultimate vision of sovereignty over “Greater Israel” within the Israeli-Jewish public. However, given Israel’s critical dependence for its survival on the mobilization of political, military, and economic resources from the outside world, and given the latter’s consistent objection to the idea of “Greater Israel,” Israel’s fate might ultimately be decided by the international community—for better or worse.