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Biomedical subjects

P S Nurius

Publications and source records attributed to P S Nurius.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

Interpreting and defensively responding to threat: examining appraisals and coping with acquaintance sexual aggression.

Resistance and prevention programming aimed at strengthening women's ability to protect themselves against acquaintance sexual aggression has lacked attention to the cognitive and emotional processes women engage in when encountering such threats. Building upon current theory related to cognitive appraisal and coping processes, this study applies a theoretical model of how women evaluate and respond to sexual aggression by male acquaintances. Two hundred and two college women who had been sexually victimized by male acquaintances responded to a questionnaire that assessed their cognitive appraisals of and emotional and behavioral responses to the incident, in addition to aggression characteristics. Path analytic regression analyses examined theorized relationships among primary and secondary appraisal and emotional response variables in addition to their collective prediction of behavioral responding. The hypothesized model accounted for significant variance in behavioral responding and indicated different patterns of appraisals, emotions, and aggression characteristics predicting women's assertive and diplomatic behavioral responses to their assaults. These findings are consistent with research and theory related to individuals' appraisal of and coping with threatening events. Theoretical and intervention implications for resistance and prevention efforts are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1992

Coping capacity among women with abusive partners.

Coping capacity, although increasingly implicated as a mediating force in how individuals respond to personal threat, is an underrecognized factor in work with women of abusive partners. To explore the utility of coping capacity as a multivariable set to guide intervention with women of abusive partners, findings are reported comparing four groups of women: those whose partners do not engage in abuse, are abusive toward them, are sex offenders of children for whom the woman is a parent, or are offenders of children for whom the woman is not a parent. Three variable sets were included: vulnerability factors that may negatively influence appraisals of threat and ability to cope with abuse; coping responses that include cognitive, emotional, and behavioral reactions to the abuse; and coping resources expected to mediate effects of vulnerability factors and to influence the mobilization (of lack thereof) of coping responses. There were significant differences in coping capacity profiles across the four groups. These appeared to be a continuum of coping capacity, with women who were most directly threatened showing the lowest and women who were least directly threatened showing the highest levels of coping capacity. In order from the lowest to the highest levels of coping capacity were (1) battered women, (2) women whose partners are offenders against their children, (3) women whose partners are offenders against children of whom they are not the parent, and (4) control group women. The paper ends with a conceptual interpretation of the mediating functions of coping resources and implications for intervention and further study.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1988

ASSIST: an alternative management information system for social services in health care.

This paper describes a flexible, relational database management system designed explicitly with the needs and realities of social work in health care settings in mind. A variety of broad-based applications as well as organizational factors influencing implementation of automated information system are also discussed.

Decision Support Systems, Management↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Emergency psychiatric services: a study of changing utilization patterns and issues.

Recent rapid and significant changes in the utilization patterns of emergency psychiatric services have culminated in markedly different patient profiles and intervention needs than those for which these services were originally intended. The resultant overextension and inappropriate utilization of the emergency unit have served to seriously jeopardize treatment efficacy and efficiency and to exacerbate the stress and difficulties associated with providing mental health intervention in an emergency room setting. Study findings of the patient profiles and patterns of use of emergency psychiatric services of a large metropolitan hospital are reported and examined in relation to these issues. Implications for a restructuring of treatment orientation and of the use of facility resources are discussed.

Emergency Service, Hospital↗