The Relationship between Just World Beliefs and Life Satisfaction.

An important and often unexplored factor shaping life satisfaction is one's perception of the world as a "just" place. The "just world hypothesis" is predicated on the idea that the world works as a place where people get what they merit, an idea that often serves as a means for people to rationalize injustices. The research addressing just world beliefs has expanded into a four-factor model that categorizes just world beliefs for self and others into subcategories of distributive and procedural justice. Distributive justice involves evaluations of the fairness of outcomes, allocations, or distribution of resources, while procedural concerns evaluations of the fairness of decision processes, rules, or interpersonal treatment. This study explored the relationship between the four just world beliefs subscales and overall satisfaction with life and examined their associations with demographic variables including ethnicity, age, gender, religion, and social class. The relationships of demographic factors with justice beliefs and life satisfaction generally yielded very small effect sizes. However, respondents who identified themselves as middle and upper class reported higher levels of life satisfaction than those who identified themselves as lower class, with a medium effect size. Consistent with the results of earlier research, regressing life satisfaction on the four justice beliefs subscales indicated that the two self-subscales (distributive and procedural) were significantly predictive of life satisfaction, but the two other subscales (distributive and procedural) were not.

Managing anterior shoulder instability with bracing: an expanded update.

This article provides an updated report on functional bracing for anterior shoulder instability. A classification of shoulder braces is reintroduced into three separate types. Type A braces limit shoulder motion to a "safe zone," whereas types B and C apply indirect and direct stabilizing forces to the joint, respectively. Thirteen of the most widely available braces were surveyed and the parameters of comfort, convenience, construction, cost, potential sport use, and special features were analyzed. Problem areas included poor fit and range of motion restriction. The system of classifying sports based on shoulder demands is reintroduced.

A safe, easy, and inexpensive technique for patient positioning in shoulder surgery.

We describe a technique that uses the Vac Pac (Olympic Medical, Seattle, WA) for patient positioning in shoulder surgery. This technique is well-liked by anesthesiologists, nurses, and operating room staff because of its ease and simplicity. If careful attention is given to detail during positioning, problems with encroachment on the operative field can be avoided. We believe this technique allows for safe and effective patient positioning for shoulder surgery using the readily available and inexpensive Vac Pac.

Use and Misuse of the Tennis Elbow Strap.

In brief The tennis elbow strap, also known as a counterforce brace, offers one method of decreasing stress on a painful elbow. However, the strap is effective only in patients diagnosed with tennis elbow. Use of the brace for other causes of elbow pain, such as growth plate problems in children and adolescents or medial elbow instability in adults, can actually exacerbate those conditions.