ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: People with intellectual disability (ID) who live in regular neighbourhoods have experiences with their neighbours, which are important to understand when studying social integration. METHOD: This study describes and analyses the opinions on, and experiences with, neighbour relationships of 39 people with ID living in neighbourhood housing facilities. RESULTS: We found that, while the views of people with ID on 'good neighbouring' were consistent with 'neighbouring' described in sociological literature, their experiences may be influenced by an organisational context, the tendency to formalise relationships and apprehension towards meeting unfamiliar people. CONCLUSION: Understanding influential factors to neighbouring for people with ID may shed light on the processes involved in social integration of people with ID at a neighbourhood level. This paper contributes to understanding the opinions of people with ID on satisfactory neighbourhood relationships, and explores opportunities to improve them.
Subject(s)
Intellectual Disability , Residence Characteristics , Social Environment , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Community Mental Health Services/organization & administration , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Social Behavior , Transportation , Urbanization , Young AdultABSTRACT
According to the auto-motive model, behavioral goals can be automatically activated by situational cues and may subsequently guide behavior without individual awarness. Semantic priming has become a popular paradigm for investigating effects of automatic goal activation. Nevertheless, a critical assumption of the model, i.e., that goals can be activated by semantic primes related to situational features associated with the goal, is often assumed rather than tested in experiments using semantic priming procedures. Results of four studies testing the potential of such a prime for goal activation by assessing emotional responses, subjective goal importance, behavioral intentions, and enhanced perception of goal-related stimuli do not support this assumption. The implications of these findings and a critical evaluation of results of other studies are discussed in terms of possible limitations of semantic priming procedures for testing hypotheses derived from the auto-motive model.
Subject(s)
Affect , Goals , Semantics , Adolescent , Adult , Cues , Female , Humans , Intention , Male , Reaction Time , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
BACKGROUND/AIMS: Not much is known about the relative importance of different determinants of anxiety in cataract patients. This study analysed the predictive value of factors related to surgery induced anxiety. METHODS: In 128 cataract patients, recruited from two hospitals (Medical Centre Maastricht Annadal (MCMA) and Rotterdam Eye Hospital (REH)), state anxiety was assessed at four different time points using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). The following predictive factors of anxiety were measured: trait anxiety, outcome expectancies, doctor-patient relationship, coping strategy, social support, information supply, sociodemographic variables, and previous cataract surgery. Repeated measures ANOVA, t tests, multiple regression analysis, and correlations were used to analyse data. RESULTS: In general patients reported little anxiety. The level of anxiety (scale 1-4) was the highest before surgery, decreased immediately after surgery, and increased again after the postoperative visit. Patients with higher trait anxiety levels (r = 0.41; p<0.01), and women (r = 0.30; p<0.01) reported more anxiety. The REH patients showed lower anxiety scores than the MCMA patients. CONCLUSION: Women and patients with higher trait anxiety were more likely to experience higher levels of state anxiety. Positive outcome expectancies and social support may decrease anxiety.
Subject(s)
Anxiety/etiology , Cataract Extraction/psychology , Adaptation, Psychological , Aged , Anxiety/prevention & control , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Psychiatric Status Rating Scales , Risk Factors , Sex Factors , Social SupportABSTRACT
A national telephone survey was conducted to (a) assess present-day public reactions to people with HIV/AIDS in the Netherlands, (b) measure how knowledge about highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) is related to public reactions to people with HIV/AIDS, and (c) investigate determinants of willingness to have personal contact with people with HIV/AIDS. Dutch adults (N = 751) participated in a telephone interview conducted to measure cognitive, emotional, and behavioral reactions to people with HIV/AIDS. This study has shown that public reactions to people with HIV/AIDS seem to be moderately positive in the Netherlands. Knowledge about HAART is related to lower risk perceptions, a positive attitude toward homosexuals, less fear, and more willingness to have personal contact with people with HIV/AIDS. In particular, cognitive and emotional factors are meaningfully related to willingness to have personal contact with people with HIV/AIDS. Implications for Dutch AIDS educational campaigns aimed at stigma reduction are discussed.
Subject(s)
Attitude to Health , HIV Infections , Public Opinion , Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome/drug therapy , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Anti-HIV Agents/therapeutic use , Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active , Data Collection , Emotions , Female , HIV Infections/drug therapy , Homosexuality , Humans , Interpersonal Relations , Interviews as Topic , Male , Middle Aged , NetherlandsABSTRACT
The influence of facial appearance on social attitudes was examined by exposing participants to the faces of three target persons with or without deviant facial features, posing happy, angry or sad facial expressions, or a mixture of these expressions. When they displayed negative emotional expressions, facially deviant targets were judged more negatively than non-deviant targets. Irrespective of emotional expression and level of personal experience, participants expressed more negative attitudes toward mentally handicapped persons in general after exposure to deviant faces than after exposure to non-deviant faces, or in the absence of exposure. However, correlational analyses suggested that only at low levels of personal experience were attitudes influenced by previously formed impressions of deviant exemplars. Results are discussed in terms of the motivational relevance of physical features in stigmatization, and context and exemplar effects in stereotyping and attitude measurement. Practical implications are also discussed.
Subject(s)
Attitude , Craniofacial Abnormalities , Facial Expression , Persons with Mental Disabilities , Stereotyping , Adolescent , Adult , Affect , Female , Generalization, Psychological , Humans , Male , Persons with Mental Disabilities/psychologyABSTRACT
It is argued that the aspects of intergroup relations that potentially can arouse emotions in the perceiver are likely to become central and motivationally relevant elements of group stereotypes. Asking participants to report on the perceived antecedents of their emotional reactions to in-group and out-group members should therefore be an especially useful method to reveal the content of stereotypes. Native Dutch participants reported both the frequencies with which different emotions were felt in different intergroup relations and the perceived causes of these emotions. Analysis of self-reported antecedents of emotional reactions revealed that (a) despite a general in-group favourability bias, both the in-group and the two out-groups employed arouse different kinds of negative and positive emotions; and (b) differences in emotional reactions to the two out-groups are related to salient differences in perceived antecedents between these groups. Theoretical and practical implications of the present emphasis on the cognitive foundation of emotion in intergroup relations are discussed.
