Studies of Body Image III: Body Feelings as Measured by the Semantic Differential

1973 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 375-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Plutchik ◽  
Hope Conte ◽  
Marcella Bakur-Weiner
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Body Image ◽  
University Students ◽  
Geriatric Patients ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Semantic Differential ◽  
The Other ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Per Se

A semantic differential questionnaire was designed to assess the connotative meanings of the word “head” as an important aspect of body image. The questionnaire was completed by 203 individuals representing varied groups ranging from geriatric patients to university students. The “head” was described in terms of various words representing the evaluative, potency, and activity dimensions. Non-psychiatric patients in a Home and Hospital for the Aged, the oldest group, and university students described the “head” as good, happy, pleasurable, and active more frequently than did the other groups. Geriatric psychiatric patients and middle-aged schizophrenics scored consistently low an all three dimensions, suggesting that they perceived the “head” as bad, passive, and inactive. These results imply that increasing age per se is less disruptive to body image than is mental illness.

The Effect of Judgment Context on Assessments of Age Groups

1989 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 244-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. J. Knox ◽  
W.L. Gekoski
Keyword(s):  
Age Groups ◽  
Semantic Differential ◽  
Age Effect ◽  
Comparative Judgment ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Evaluative Dimension ◽  
Judgment Condition

ABSTRACTIt has been suggested that an exaggeration of the target age effect is obtained when the same respondents judge multiple age groups rather than only one age group. In the present study each of 1200 undergraduates rated a young, middle-aged, or old target on the 32 bipolar adjective pairs of the Aging Semantic Differential (ASD; Rosencranz & McNevin, 1969). An additional 200 undergraduates rated all three target age groups on the ASD. The ASD was scored in terms of the three dimensions reported by its authors. In the isolated judgment condition young targets were rated highest on the Instrumental-Ineffective and Personal Acceptability-Unacceptability dimensions followed, in both cases, by middle-aged and then by old targets; on the Autonomous-Dependent dimension, middle-aged targets were rated higher than both young and old targets. The hypothesized exaggeration of the target age effect in the comparative judgment condition was obtained for the descriptive dimensions (Instrumental-Ineffective and Autonomous-Dependent) but not for the evaluative dimension (Personal Acceptability-Unacceptability) of the ASD. Possible explanations for why judgment context might affect descriptive but not evaluative assessments of target age groups are discussed.

scholarly journals Staying Connected: Reaching Out to Psychiatric Patients During the Covid-19 Lockdown Using an Online Blog

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Astrid Lehner ◽  
Klaus Nuißl ◽  
Winfried Schlee ◽  
Berthold Langguth
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Patient Involvement ◽  
District Hospital ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
The Other ◽  
Daily Routine ◽  
Medical Specialties ◽  
Per Se ◽  
The One ◽  
Future Work

Health systems worldwide are challenged by the coronavirus pandemic and all medical specialties have struggle to meet the conflicting requirements for virus containment on the one hand and treatment of other medical conditions on the other. This holds true also for psychiatry. Per se, psychiatric patients are highly vulnerable to suffer from social isolation and loneliness. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown measures, unfortunately, this vulnerability is even further increased. As a part of its pandemic risk management, the outpatient clinic of the Psychiatric District Hospital Regensburg launched an online blog as a means of assisting patients who were required to stay home. Aim of the blog was to stay by patients' side in those uncertain times by offering an online connection to their therapists, by providing important information about the pandemic situation, by offering some ideas on how to build a daily routine and how to meaningfully spend their time at home during the lockdown. We also aimed at involving patients as experts in their own affairs by inviting them to contribute to the blog's shape and content. As a result of coordinated team effort, it was possible to launch a blog within few days, and this was perceived helpful by many patients. Overall, however, patient involvement turned out to be a challenge requiring more attention in future work.

Objective Measurement of Social Role Concepts via the Semantic Differential

1964 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 239-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Jack Friedman ◽  
John W. Gladden
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Social Roles ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Semantic Differential ◽  
Objective Measurement ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Methodological Study ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Instructional Procedures ◽  
Attitudinal Dimension

A methodological study for quantifying the construct of role on three dimensions of a Semantic Differential: Evaluative, Potency, Activity. Male and female university students rated 8 social roles on a standard 25-item Semantic Differential under two instructional procedures. Support was obtained for a central assumption embraced by role theorists, that there is consensual agreement as to characteristics associated with certain roles. Ratings of the roles for the two instructional conditions, actual and ideal, closely paralleled the concepts “role” and “position,” respectively. Each of the three semantic dimensions significantly differentiated the 8 roles, indicating that three semantic dimensions provided greater precision in measurement than only an attitudinal dimension.

Perceived Parental Bonding Patterns in a Canadian Student Group

1983 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 743-746 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Baker ◽  
Edward Helmes
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Parental Bonding ◽  
The Other ◽  
Essential Difference ◽  
Student Group ◽  
Parental Representations ◽  
Parental Bonding Instrument ◽  
Canadian Student ◽  
Bonding Patterns

Parental representations of 116 Canadian University students were examined using Parker's Parental Bonding Instrument, which has two scales, one of care versus indifference/rejection and the other of overprotection versus encouragement of independence. On the care dimension there was no essential difference between the Canadian students and Parker's non-psychiatric subjects. On the overprotection dimension though, the students scored significantly lower than did Australian students and non-psychiatric patients. Other results are discussed.

Mental Health and Empathy: Do Nursing Students Have Better Attitudes to Psychiatric Patients?

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. S520-S520
Author(s):  
M. Pascucci ◽  
F. Capobianco ◽  
M. La Montagna ◽  
E. Stella ◽  
A. Ventriglio ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Nursing Students ◽  
General Population ◽  
University Students ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Stigmatizing Attitudes ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Students Attitudes

BackgroundStigma towards mental illness has a major impact on the quality of life and the health care of psychiatric patients. Several studies have reported that health professionals have more negative attitudes than general population.AimsTo explore empathy and attitudes towards mental illness in nursing students (NS) and non-health university students. Our purpose is to see how NS have more empathic and less stigmatizing attitudes towards psychiatric patients, compared to other university students.MethodsWe tested 96 university students (50 NS and 46 non-health university students), with the following questionnaires anonymously filled out:– Community attitudes towards mental ill (CAMI), to evaluate the different students’ attitudes towards mental illness;– Empathy quotient (EQ), to assess empathy.ResultsNS differs from the other group in 5 items of CAMI (P < 0.05 in 3 items and P < 0.01 in 2 items), and Authoritarianism subscale (P = 0.023). This shows that NS have a greater general awareness and less stigmatizing attitudes about the need to hospitalize the mentally ill, the difference between psychiatric patients and general population, the wrong need of segregation and the real causes of mental illness. There is also a significant difference in EQ (items 6, 21, 25, 44, 59): future nurses seem to have a slightly higher empathy, even though the EQ total score does not differ in the two groups.ConclusionsThese results suggest that there is a difference with respect to the attitudes towards psychiatric patients in NS and students who do not follow health-care courses: NS have more empathetic and less stigmatizing attitudes.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

What Mental Illness Labels Mean to Schizophrenics

1966 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 927-933
Author(s):  
Evelyn Crumpton ◽  
Henriette Groot
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Relative Frequency ◽  
Semantic Differential ◽  
Mental Patient ◽  
The Other ◽  
Symptom Checklist ◽  
Adjective Checklist ◽  
Control Concept

The aim of the study was to determine what the schizophrenic thinks about some of the labels applied to him: “crazy,” “insane,” “mental patient,” “person with something wrong with his nerves,” “schizophrenic,” “sick.” 68 schizophrenics rated a 15-scale semantic differential for each of these concepts and for the control concept, “person.” Ratings for each of the labels differed markedly from ratings for “person” on many of the 15 scales, especially those scales representing the evaluation factor. While there were minor differences in order from scale to scale, in general “mental patient” and “schizophrenic” were rated about the same and closer to “person” than were the other scales: “crazy” and “insane” were most dissimilar to “person;” and “sick” was unexpectedly in the middle. Ratings for the various labels were not significantly affected by severity of schizophrenia (as indicated by symptom checklist scores) or by the relative frequency of negatively-toned self-descriptions on an adjective checklist.

scholarly journals Comparison between Adolescents and Adults Respecting Suicidal Behavior: A Native Local Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 01-05
Author(s):  
Saeed Shafti
Keyword(s):  
Substance Abuse ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Suicidal Behavior ◽  
Suicide Attempts ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Psychiatric Inpatients ◽  
The Other ◽  
Bipolar I Disorder ◽  
Self Mutilation

Introduction: while some of scholars believe that combining adult and adolescent suicidal behavior findings can result in misleading conclusions, some of researchers have stated that suicidal behavior may be a different phenomenon in adolescents than in adults. Hence, in the present study, the clinical profile of suicidal behavior among adult and child & adolescent psychiatric inpatients, has been compared with each other, to assess their resemblances or variances, in a non-western, local patient population. Methods: five acute academic wards, which have been specified for admission of first episode adult psychiatric patients, and five acute non-academic wards, which have been specified for admission of recurrent episode adult psychiatric patients, had been selected for current study. In addition, child & adolescent section of Razi psychiatric hospital was the field of appraisal concerning its specific age-group. All inpatients with suicidal behavior (successful suicide and attempted suicide, in total), during the last five years (2013-2018), had been included in the present investigation. Besides, clinical diagnosis was based on Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition. Intra-group and between-group analyses had been performed by ‘comparison of proportions’. Statistical significance as well, had been defined as p value ≤0.05. Results: As said by results, during a sixty months period, sixty-three suicidal behaviors among adult patients, including one successful suicide and sixty-two suicide attempts, and fourteen suicide attempts among child & adolescent patients, without any successful one, had been recorded by the security board of the hospital. While among adults and child & adolescent patients no significant gender-based difference was evident, with respect to suicidal conduct, among adults, the most frequent mental illness was bipolar I disorder, which was significantly more prevalent in comparison with other mental disorders. The other disorders included schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, personality disorders (borderline & antisocial), substance abuse disorders, and adjustment disorder. Among child & adolescent subjects, the most frequent mental illness was, once more, bipolar I disorder, followed by conduct disorder, and substance abuse disorder. Moreover, no significant difference was evident between the first admission and recurrent admission cases in adults or child & adolescents. While self-mutilation, self poisoning and hanging were the preferred methods of suicide among both groups, self-mutilation was significantly more prevalent than the other ways. Conclusion: While the annual incidence of suicidal behavior in inpatient adults and child & adolescents was comparable, bipolar disorder was the most frequent serious mental illness among suicidal subjects of both groups. Moreover, self-mutilation was the preferred method of suicide in adult and child & adolescent psychiatric inpatients.

Comparing Two Approaches to Job Perception

1981 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 691-701
Author(s):  
Bo Ekehammar ◽  
Fredrik Hjortzberg-Nordlund
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Differential ◽  
The Other ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Job Titles ◽  
Similarity Ratings ◽  
Differential Type

Two different approaches to the study of job perception were compared. One was based on an instrument of semantic differential type adapted to the study of jobs (job differential), the other was based on similarity ratings among job pairs. Data for the two approaches from the same 42 subjects were used for multidimensional analyses of nine job titles which were chosen so as to cover different status levels and job areas. The approaches seemed to yield congruent results. The number of dimensions was the same, and the psychological content of these dimensions seemed to correspond. The three dimensions were interpretable as “Preference,” “Status,” and “Nursing and Contact.”

Disorientation in Chronic Psychiatric Patients

1997 ◽  
Vol 42 (8) ◽  
pp. 864-868 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adel Gabriel
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Mmse Score ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Chronically Ill ◽  
The Other ◽  
Chronological Age ◽  
Schizophrenic Patients ◽  
Schizophrenic Group ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Chronic Psychiatric Patients

Objective: To explore the effect of chronic institutionalization on cognitive performance in chronic psychiatric patients with emphasis on age disorientation, a phenomenon that was found in previous research to occur in up to 25% of chronic schizophrenic patients. Method: One hundred and ten chronic psychiatric patients, forming 4 main groups—schizophrenic patients, nonschizophrenic patients, institutionalized, and noninstitutionalized—were examined for age disorientation (inability to give one's chronological age correctly on request), and their Minimental State scores (MMSE) were compared across the 4 groups. Results: Twelve out of 43 patients (26%) who were institutionalized according to our definition were age-disoriented and had significantly lower MMSE scores than the other 3 groups. The chronic, noninstitutionalized schizophrenic group and the other chronic psychiatric patients, whether they were institutionalized or not, were negative for this phenomenon. One of the 12 age-disoriented patients was age delusional, and 5 of the 12 had a total MMSE score consistent with dementia (21 or lower). Conclusion: Age disorientation is a specific phenomenon that characterizes a subgroup of chronically ill and institutionalized schizophrenic patients. It is unlikely that chronicity per se or prolonged hospitalization alone will lead to cognitive impairment.

scholarly journals Performance Motivation of Bratislava University Students

2018 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-21
Author(s):  
Pavel Šmela ◽  
Petra Pačesová ◽  
Stanislav Kraček ◽  
Nina Halačová
Keyword(s):  
Physical Education ◽  
University Students ◽  
The Other ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Whitney Test ◽  
Mann Whitney Test ◽  
Sporting Activity ◽  
Kolmogorov Smirnov ◽  
Smirnov Test

Summary The aim of the Study was to broaden the findings regarding the performance motivation of the students of the universities in Bratislava segmented according to university type. The research sample comprised 248 undergraduates (males: n = 141; 22.40 years of age ± 1.62 and females: n = 107; 21.78 years of age ± 1.49). A standardised performance motivation questionnaire (PMQ) was used to measure performance motivation (Pardel, Maršálová & Hrabovská 1992). The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to evaluate data normality, while the Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann-Whitney test were used to test the significance of the differences between individual independent selections. The results revealed significant differences in performance motivation (H(5) = 76.730, p = .000, η2 = .307), anxiety inhibiting performance (H(5) = 128.270, p = .000, η2 = .591) and anxiety supporting performance (H(5) = 95.754, p = .000, η2 = .331) among undergraduates of various types of schools. The students of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport of Comenius University in Bratislava show significant differences (p < .001) in all of three dimensions of performance motivation in comparison with all of the other undergraduates segmented in accordance with various school types. Our findings can be explained by the more intensive sporting activity of the students of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, Comenius University.

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