Biomedical subjects

J P Bjorck

Publications and source records attributed to J P Bjorck.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2001

Ethnicity, coping, and distress among Korean Americans, Filipino Americans, and Caucasian Americans.

The authors examined appraisal, coping, and distress among Korean American, Filipino American, and Caucasian American Protestants. No interaction effects emerged among ethnic groups, but there were significant ethnic main effects for appraisal and coping. Compared with the Caucasian Americans, both Asian American groups appraised stressors as more challenging, and the Korean Americans appraised them also as greater losses. Both Asian American groups reported using more strategies of accepting responsibility, religious coping, distancing, and escape-avoidance than the Caucasian Americans did; the Filipino Americans also reported more problem-solving strategies than the Caucasian Americans. For all participants, challenge appraisals predicted adaptive coping (problem solving and positive reappraisal) and less distress. Problem solving, seeking social support, and positive reappraisal predicted less distress; self-control, accepting responsibility, and escape-avoidance predicted greater distress. The authors stressed the value of assessing ethnicity in coping research.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1999

Patient Impairment Lexicon: a validation study.

Growth of managed behavioral health organizations (MBHOs) has increased the need for a standardized diagnostic language. The Patient Impairment Lexicon (PIL; Goodman, Brown, & Deitz, 1992, 1996) is intended to address this need. Augmenting previous psychometric assessment (Klewicki, Bjorck, Leucht, & Goodman, 1998), the current study evaluated the PIL's construct validity. Sixteen raters completed impairment inventories; diagnoses based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition, Revised (DSM-III-R; American Psychiatric Association, 1987); and independent measures of psychiatric functioning for patients in 20 vignettes. Overall rater accuracy was significantly higher for PIL impairments than for diagnoses. As predicted, there were positive correlations between PIL impairments and psychiatric functioning for all 20 vignettes, 11 of which were significant. Results remained significant after controlling variance due to: (a) raters' past experience with similar patients and (b) vignette imaginability. Findings are discussed in terms of MBHO applications and future PIL research.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1998

Patient Impairment Lexicon: a psychometric analysis.

Growth in managed care has magnified the needs for assessment of treatment efficacies and standardized communication regarding treatment needs. Addressing both needs requires a common terminology describing the scope of treatable mental health impairments. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV provides a common categorical language for describing clinical disorders, but its categories are not discrete and do little to facilitate communication regarding specific treatment needs. Goodman, Brown, and Deitz developed a Patient Impairment Lexicon intended to address these limitations. The current vignette study provided initial psychometric assessment of this nomenclature, specifically examining interrater reliability, temporal stability, and content validity. Findings are discussed with respect to both applications in managed care and psychometric research.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMed1997

Control beliefs and faith as stress moderators for Korean American versus Caucasian American protestants.

Examined relationships among negative life events, four locus of control attributions (Internality, Powerful Others, Chance and God Control), and psychological distress for Korean American versus Caucasian American Protestants. Negative events and Powerful Others beliefs were positively related to distress, whereas Internality was negatively related to distress. Ethnicity and God Control interacted: The relationship between God Control beliefs and anxiety was negative for Caucasians but positive for Koreans. Three-way interactions (Ethnicity x Locus of Control x Negative Events) also emerged. As Caucasians' Powerful Others beliefs increased, the positive relationship between negative events and depression became stronger; Koreans' Powerful Others beliefs had no such effect. As Caucasians' God Control beliefs increased, the negative event-depression relationship changed from positive to negative; the reverse was true for Koreans. Findings support the value of assessing ethnoculture and religiousness in stressful life events research.

Adult↗

PubMed1997

The effects of stressor type on projected coping.

Previous analog research (Bjorck & Cohen, 1993), in which Caucasian college students' projected coping responses to major stressors differed as a function of stressor type (threat, loss, or challenge), was replicated with an ethnoculturally diverse sample. Because Bjorck and Cohen's findings might have been confounded by participants' prior life experiences and/or differing perceptions of event controllability, these two dimensions were also assessed. Even after statistically controlling for these two potential confounds, however, projected coping again differed as a function of stressor type. Effects of both controllability and prior experience were also found. Results are discussed in terms of their application to coping processes in general and to coping with trauma in particular.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1988

Perceived family environment as a moderator of young adolescents' life stress adjustment.

A longitudinal design was employed to test the main and stress-moderating effects of young adolescents' perceived family environment (Family Environment Scales; FES; Moos & Moos, 1981) on their depression, anxiety, and self-esteem. This study was part of a larger longitudinal project (L. Cohen, Burt, & Bjorck, 1987) that demonstrated the significant cross-sectional effects of the young adolescents' controllable and uncontrollable negative events, and the significant longitudinal effects of the former. The present cross-sectional analyses demonstrated the hypothesized main effects of the FES scores; families perceived as cohesive, organized, and expressive were related to positive psychological functioning, whereas families perceived as conflict-ridden and controlling were related to negative functioning. However, in general these effects were nonsignificant in the longitudinal analyses. Although there were a number of significant Negative Events x FES interactions, in no instance did the pattern support the hypothesized stress-buffering role of positive family climate.

Adolescent↗