Role of Psychosocial Factors In Vicarious Traumatization: A Comparative Study

OBJECTIVES: The present study aimed at investigating the role of psychosocial factors such as, gender, marital status, profession, and personal history of trauma in vicarious traumatization (VT). METHODOLOGY: Cross sectional study was conducted at various hospitals in Rawalpindi and Islamabad over the period of 6 months from January 2018 to June 2018. A sample of 170 healthcare professionals (doctors=39, psychiatrists=27, psychologists=36, nurses=30 and others=38) (men=67, women=103) was taken from various hospitals in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Data were collected by using the Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale. RESULTS: Results revealed significant differences have been found among various groups of healthcare professionals (doctors, psychiatrist, psychologists, nurses and others) in whom psychiatrists are the most vulnerable group for vicarious traumatization and psychologists are the least vulnerable group. Moreover, healthcare professionals who are married and have personal history of trauma are more vulnerable for vicarious traumatization as compared to those who are unmarried and without personal history of trauma. No significant gender differences have been found among health care professionals on vicarious traumatization. CONCLUSION: The findings of present research have emphasized that vicarious traumatization must be addressed and identified in a health setting.

Do Patients with a Family or Personal History of Venous Thromboembolism have an Increased Risk of Recurrence?

Background A family (FH) and personal history (PH) of venous thromboembolism (VTE) are commonly evaluated risk factors for recurrence. We examined the association between FH/PH of VTE and the risk of recurrence and whether a stronger history status (i.e., both FH/PH vs. no FH/PH) carries an increased recurrence risk. Methods We prospectively followed 813 patients aged ≥ 65 years with acute VTE from 9 Swiss hospitals. We classified patients into four groups: no FH/PH, FH only, PH only, and both FH/PH. The primary outcome was recurrent VTE during the full observation period. We examined the association between FH/PH status and the time to VTE recurrence using competing risk regression, adjusting for confounders and periods of anticoagulation. Results Of 813 patients with VTE, 59% had no FH/PH, 11% a FH only, 24% a PH only, and 7% had both a FH and PH of VTE. Overall, 105 patients had recurrent VTE during the full observation period. After adjustment, patients with a FH only (subhazard ratio [SHR] 0.8, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.4–1.7), PH only (SHR 1.5, 95% CI 0.9–2.5), and both FH/PH (SHR 1.4, 95% CI 0.6–3.1) did not have an increased risk of recurrent VTE compared with those without FH/PH. When we considered the period after the completion of initial anticoagulation only, the results were similar. Conclusion Our findings indicate that in patients with acute VTE, a FH and/or PH of VTE does not convey an increased risk of recurrent VTE. In particular, we did not find a “dose–effect” relationship between FH/PH status and VTE recurrence.

Diplomatic Wives, Cultures of Dress and Brita Kekkonen

In this article, I discuss the private dress collection of Brita Kekkonen (1927–2013), a diplomatic wife, who was a very well-known figure in Finland during the period of the Cold War. Brita Kekkonen was also a very talented dressmaker and a very fashionable figure in diplomatic circles. Some eighty outfits made by Brita Kekkonen have survived to this day, in addition to her voluminous pattern collection, containing more than 1,000 patterns from several decades. The aim of my new postdoctoral research project is to identify Brita Kekkonen’s dresses and examine their use, politico-cultural meanings and design in the context of the Cold War, diplomatic etiquette and Kekkonen’s own personal history.

Memory and History: A Comparison of the Past in Slovak Prose of the Post-2000 Period

This study focuses on how two kinds of memory: historical and personal are reflected in a section of Slovak literature of the past two decades. A variety of autobiographical genres and biographically-stylised fictional prose draw on personal memory, and history, is the domain of historical genres, particularly the novel. After the 1990s, the present was deemed important and historical presentations of the past were parodiedin the prose of Peter Pišťanek and Igor Otčenáš. At the beginning of the new millennium, however, prose portraying and reflecting on the past reappeared. Memory- based writing which is concerned with an individual situated within history, or outside of it, is more persuasive. Memory-based writing is used in different forms of autobiographical writing: within fiction it takes a form of biographical stylisation (e. g. Vilikovský, Kopcsay and Rozner). In the past ten to fifteen years, there has been a renewed interest in history in Slovak literature, mainly in pre-1989 history (e. g. Rankov, Krištúfek and Lavrík), which had been mistreated in pre-1989 Slovak literature, and later there was no interest in it or it was even rejected in the 1990s.During that time, historical memory was exploited to meet societal requirement. Silvester Lavrík was an exception—he was able to marry the two basic approaches to the past (personal history and historical) in a form of a dispute between them.

TROPISMS – A PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE GENESIS OF A COMPOSITION, STRING QUARTET NO. 5, DANCERS ON A PLANE

This article considers the nature of the relationship between composers and musicologists and explores the aesthetic roots and ideas of my 5th String Quartet, Dancers on a Plane, which has recently been the subject of a musicological study.

Review of Career Assessment Tools

This paper provides an overview of career assessment tools. Background on key career concepts is first introduced. A number of career assessment tools are then examined. These assessment tools included reviewing personal history, interest inventories, values assessments, personality assessments, and aptitude tests. The importance and limitations of these career assessment tools are then discussed.

An Affair to Remember: A Mixed-Methods Survey Examining Therapists’ Experiences Treating Infidelity

In this mixed-methods study, we analyzed data from 351 couple therapists who completed our Therapists' Experiences Treating Infidelity (TETI) survey. The present survey is a follow-up of previous iterations that examined therapists' attitudes toward infidelity and affair recovery treatment. Our TETI survey provided additional questions pertaining to therapists' personal history with affairs and perceptions on current research and training standards. Results showed that various therapist and couple factors serve to impede affair recovery treatment. Additionally, this survey revealed several similarities in therapists' attitudes from prior surveys, despite decades having passed between when the present survey and previous versions. In this article, we (a) outline findings from this mixed-methods survey, (b) discuss implications for the field, and (c) offer directions for future research.

Ralph Ellison in Context

Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is the second-most assigned American novel since 1945 and is one of the most enduring. It is studied by many thousands of high school and college students every year and has been since the 1950s. His landmark essays, with their blend of personal history and cultural theory, have been extraordinarily influential. Ralph Ellison in Context includes authoritative chapters summing up longstanding conversations, while offering groundbreaking essays on a variety of topics not yet covered in the copious critical and biographical literature. It provides fresh perspectives on some of the most important people and places in Ellison's life, and explores where his work and biography cross paths with some of the pressing topics of his time. It includes chapters on Ellison's literary influences and offers a definitive overview of his early writings. It also provides an overview of Ellison's reception and reputation from his death in 1994 through 2020.