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Biomedical subjects

R A Powell

Publications and source records attributed to R A Powell.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1998

Attitudes of men towards family planning in Mbeya region, Tanzania: a rural-urban comparison of qualitative data.

Family planning programmes in Tanzania date back to the 1950s. By the early 1990s, however, only 5-10% of women of childbearing age used contraceptives in the country. Low contraceptive prevalence in Tanzania is reportedly attributable to men's opposition to family planning. This paper employs focus groups to explore the role of Tanzanian men in family planning. More specifically, it presents a rural-urban comparison of the attitudes of men in Mbeya region, Tanzania, to family size preference, sex composition, partners' communication on family planning matters and contraceptive behavior. Findings indicate that men express positive attitudes towards fertility-regulating methods. There is, moreover, little rural-urban variation in male attitudes towards family planning in the study area. Possible reasons for this normative convergence (including structural similarities and rural-urban migration between the two communities) are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Was Anna O.'s black snake hallucination a sleep paralysis nightmare? Dreams, memories, and trauma.

The final traumatic event recalled by Anna O. during her treatment with Josef Breuer was a terrifying hallucination she once had of a black snake attacking her ailing father. This event has been variously interpreted as indicating an underlying psychodynamic conflict, as a temporal lobe seizure, and as an hypnotic confabulation. We argue, however, that the hallucination--during which Anna O.'s arm was reportedly "asleep" due to nerve blockage--was probably a sleep paralysis nightmare. Sleep paralysis nightmares continue to be overlooked or misdiagnosed in clinical practice, and, in recent years, have been implicated in the controversy surrounding memories of trauma and sexual abuse.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Effectiveness of treatment for dissociative identity disorder.

In a recent study by Ellason and Ross, patients with Dissociative Identity Disorder reported a decrease in symptoms on the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II over a 2-yr. follow-up period. Patients judged to have achieved integration of their personalities rated themselves as more substantially improved on the Millon-II than did patients judged not to have achieved integration. Ellason and Ross suggested that this improvement reflected the influence of treatment; however, for several reasons, their findings are open to alternative interpretations. First, in the absence of proper control conditions, one cannot rule out the contribution of other factors to the over-all improvement of patients such as regression of symptoms toward the mean following the initial assessment. Second, patients self-reported improvement was less substantial when data were reanalyzed using more appropriate statistical criteria. Third, the greater improvement observed among integrated patients relative to nonintegrated patients may reflect influences other than differential responsiveness to treatment, such as less severe pathology prior to treatment. More systematic research is needed to clarify the effect of treatment on Dissociative Identity Disorder.

Defense Mechanisms↗
PubMed1996

Focus groups.

This paper introduces focus group methodology and discusses its relevance to those researching health care provision. As a qualitative data collection technique, the focus group has advantages over other qualitative methods, such as the in-depth interview and nominal group technique. This paper highlights these advantages after providing guidelines on group composition, the management of group discussion and the process of analysing results.

Data Interpretation, Statistical↗
PubMed1996

Focus groups in mental health research: enhancing the validity of user and provider questionnaires.

Most mental health researchers rely upon quantitative methods of data collection. Whilst such methods are commonly seen as reliable, qualitative methods are often seen as more valid. Despite the value of qualitative methods of data collection, however, many researchers denigrate their use. Qualitative research is often viewed as lacking in scientific rigour. This paper explores the use of the focus group as a qualitative instrument to enhance the validity of existing questionnaires for mental health service users and providers. Between July and August 1995 four focus groups were conducted in Exeter and Taunton among service users (with severe or long-term mental health problems) and providers (community psychiatric nurses, social workers and occupational therapists). It is demonstrated that focus groups enhance the validity of existing questionnaires by highlighting those concerns held by users and providers that would otherwise have been neglected.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1996

Speculations in "Temporal delays in incorporation of events into dreams": a reply to Roll.

Previously we pointed out similarities between patterns of delayed incorporations of daytime stimuli into dreams and delayed memory processes in rats. In commenting upon this article, Roll argued that this reductionistic leap is unwarranted. We contend that it would be remiss not to make note of this potential connection, especially in view of recent major contributions of animal research to the understanding of REM sleep and dreams. We also suggest that the disruption-avoidance-adaptation model constitutes a preferable psychological explanation for the dream-lag effect than Roll's psychoanalytic model of repression and repetition compulsion.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

Temporal delays in incorporation of events into dreams.

20 subjects viewed an emotionally arousing video and then recorded their dreams at home for seven nights. Dreams were subsequently rated for the likelihood that some aspect of the video had been incorporated. For subjects who showed strong evidence of incorporation, mean likelihood of incorporation ratings followed a U-shaped pattern, with significantly higher scores on Nights 1, 6, and 7 than on Night 4. The similarity of this temporal pattern with REM sleep patterns observed in rats exposed to various learning experiences is noted, and the role of the hippocampus as a possible neural mechanism for delayed incorporations is discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Did Freud misinterpret reported memories of sexual abuse as fantasies?

While serious questions have arisen concerning the validity of Freud's seduction theory of neurosis, a related issue concerns the extent to which Freud, following the abandonment of the seduction theory, may have misinterpreted real memories of sexual abuse as imaginary. Certain theoretical statements by Freud as well as his advice to Jung concerning a 6-yr.-old patient who had accused her foster-father of sexual abuse indicate that he may have been significantly biased toward interpreting certain types of incest allegations as fantasies. Increased awareness of Freud's biases, both in his early tendency to pressure patients into believing that they were victims of abuse and in his later tendency to regard certain types of incest allegations as unreal, may contribute to a more objective approach to the diagnosis and treatment of sexual abuse in the future.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Did Freud mislead patients to confabulate memories of abuse?

Freud's abandonment of the seduction theory within a year of first proposing it has been the subject of considerable recent debate and speculation. Closer examination of Freud's writings, however, shows that he had often used highly suggestive procedures to elicit the memories of childhood "seductions" from his patients. Moreover, he had not considered alternative explanations for the evidence he presented when first claiming that these recovered memories of sexual abuse were real. Nevertheless, some present-day authors have argued for the validity of recovered memories by presenting much the same type of evidence that Freud once did. Research is needed to assess the extent to which recovered memories can be clearly corroborated and to establish rules for distinguishing between real and false memories of abuse.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Determinants of choice for pigeons and humans on concurrent-chains schedules of reinforcement.

Concurrent-chains schedules of reinforcement were arranged for humans and pigeons. Responses of humans were reinforced with tokens exchangeable for money, and key pecks of 4 birds were reinforced with food. Variable-interval 30-s and 40-s schedules operated in the terminal links of the chains. Condition 1 exposed subjects to variable-interval 90-s and variable-interval 30-s initial links, respectively. Conditions 2 and 3 arranged equal initial-link schedules of 40 s or 120 s. Experimental conditions tested the descriptive adequacy of five equations: reinforcement density, delay reduction, modified delay reduction, matching and maximization. Results based on choice proportions and switch rates during the initial links showed that pigeons behaved in accord with delay-reduction models, whereas humans maximized overall rate of reinforcement. As discussed by Logue and associates in self-control research, different types of reinforcement may affect sensitivity to delay differentially. Pigeons' responses were reinforced with food, a reinforcer that is consumable upon presentation. Humans' responses were reinforced with money, a reinforcer exchanged for consumable reinforcers after it was earned. Reinforcers that are immediately consumed may generate high sensitivity to delay and behavior described as delay reduction. Reinforces with longer times to consumption may generate low sensitivity to delay and behavior that maximizes overall payoff.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

The 'dream-lag' effect: a 6-day temporal delay in dream content incorporation.

The temporal relationship between daily events and their incorporation into dreams was studied. In two experiments, a 6-day delay between event occurrence and dream incorporation was found. Moreover, variations in incorporation across a 7-day-period were found to follow a sinusoidal pattern. These results implicate dream incorporation in the learning consolidation functions of REM sleep.

Dreams↗