The Sexual Self as a Function of Relationship Status in an Emerging Adult Sample.

A sample of emerging adult university students completed a survey with the goal of investigating components of "the sexual self" and how these constructs were influenced by romantic relationship status. Three general aspects of the sexual self were considered: sexual self-concept, comfort with sexuality, and past sexual behavior. Sexual self-concept was defined as composed of constructs such as sexual self-schema, self-efficacy, consciousness, optimism, problem self-blame, power/other control, and motivation to avoid risky sex. Sexual comfort, conceptualized as a personality disposition of erotophobia-erotophilia, was assessed using three instruments. This included the Sexual Opinion Survey, the original individual difference measure of erotophobia-erotophilia. Past sexual behavior was assessed with the Derogatis Sexual Functioning Inventory. Findings suggested that individuals in a relationship had more positive sexual self-concepts and were more erotophilic and comfortable with sexuality generally. These differences were modest, based on effect size statistics. Past sexual experience also differed, contingent on relationship status. Some sexual self-concept scales were predictive of sexual satisfaction, while comfort with sexuality was predictive of relational satisfaction. Romantic relationships may have important implications for sexual selfhood, but this is a tentative suggestion, as this was a correlational study and the relationships are likely bidirectional.

Impact of Children's Presence on Police Responses to Domestic Violence Call Situations.

The link between children exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) and child maltreatment is well established; however, less is known about the impact children's presence may have on domestic violence disputes. This study investigated the role of children's presence in IPV police calls using data (N = 2709) from supplementary reports provided by an Ontario, Canada police force, one-third of which led to criminal charges (n = 909). When children were present: charges were less likely to be laid; the accused's emotional state was more likely to be rated by police as calm and the accused was less likely to be identified as using alcohol and/or drugs at the time of the call; and victim support interventions were more likely to be offered and accepted. Findings were considered in the context of when charges were laid versus not laid. Implications for police and support service interventions were discussed.

Asking women survivors about thoughts or actions involving sex with children: an issue requiring therapist sensitivity.

This article reports findings from the qualitative phase of a mixed-methods study exploring whether current counseling practices with women survivors of child sexual abuse include inquiry about thoughts and behavior involving sex with children. Following an online survey of therapists across Canada, telephone interviews were conducted with a subgroup of 22 therapists. Two main themes emerged: (a) the dilemma for the therapist and (b) strategies to explore the issue. The "dilemma" refers to the therapeutic reasons and ethical responsibility to have this discussion versus the possible negative effects on the client and/or the therapeutic relationship, the discomfort of the therapist, and inadequate training. Strategies to explore the issue are presented including normalizing, ensuring client understanding, and using different types of inquiry.

Do therapists' beliefs about sexual offending affect counseling practices with women?

This study explored whether counseling practices with women survivors of child sexual abuse reflect the belief that women do not sexually abuse children. Canadian therapists (n = 164) who work with women survivors of child sexual abuse were surveyed about their beliefs about what constitutes child sexual abuse, who commits child sexual abuse, and their practices regarding inquiries about abusive behavior. A majority self-reported that they ask women and think it is important to ask but most believe that clients will not spontaneously self-disclose inappropriate sexual thoughts or behaviors. How broadly or narrowly therapists defined child sexual abuse was not related to self-reported therapeutic discussion. Therapists demonstrated differential gender beliefs about child sexual abuse perpetration, but this did not relate to self-reported counseling practices. Implications for therapist education are discussed.

Gendered egos: attitude functions and gender as predictors of homonegativity.

This study used a correlational design with a sample of university students to clarify the relationships between attitude functions and homonegativity with respect to gender. Classic work on attitude functions posits that attitudes serve psychological needs for the attitude holder. Herek (1986b) adapted this theory to explain attitudes toward homosexuality. Herek (1987) identified four functions: ego-defensive (defense of threats to the self), value-expressive (expression of key values), social-expressive (expression of important social norms), and experiential (based on past experiences). Results suggested that men were more likely to attribute their attitudes to the ego-defensive function. Men and women were equally likely to attribute their attitudes to the experiential function. The ego-defensive function was the best predictor of homonegativity for men and women, whether they held generally positive or generally negative attitudes toward homosexuality. The experiential function did not predict homonegativity. Participants tended to be neither very homonegative nor very ego-defensive.

Impact of a homonegativity awareness workshop on attitudes toward homosexuality.

The current study evaluated the effects of a homonegativity awareness workshop on attitudes toward homosexuality and examined individual difference variables associated with attitude change. Participants included 71 female and 43 male students (approximate mean age = 23). Compared to a control group of introductory psychology students, participants were less homonegative and erotophobic (F(1, 359) = 62.47 and 15.92, ps < .001) after the workshop. Implications for contact with gay and lesbian persons through structured intervention programs on attitudes toward homosexuality are discussed in terms of both the practice and theory of reducing prejudice and discrimination.

Feedback from participants and leaders in an intervention program: the 1997-1998 opening doors process evaluation.

Parents, students, and program leaders involved in an in-school drug prevention program called Opening Doors were assessed for their perceptions of the efficacy of the program. In general, the feedback indicated a very high program satisfaction level from respondents with parents indicating the highest level satisfaction (92%). Areas for improvement ranged from: parent attendance, invitation process, increased support from schools, and increasing awareness of scheduling and time involvement by leaders and school administration based on program leader feedback as well as invitation process and program duration from the parents (e.g., 37% thought the program was too short). Student satisfaction may be predicted from the perceived impact of the program on significant relationships (e.g., with peers and family) as well as affective reactions to the program (e.g., enjoyment of the program). Finally, a school-level analysis indicated that the application of the Opening Doors Program in different schools was provided uniformly.

Heterodyne lidar returns in the turbulent atmosphere: performance evaluation of simulated systems.

Simulations of beam propagation in three-dimensional random media were used to study the effects of atmospheric refractive turbulence on coherent lidar performance. By use of the two-beam model, the lidar return is expressed in terms of the overlap integral of the transmitter and the virtual (backpropagated) local oscillator beams at the target, reducing the problem to one of computing irradiance along the two propagation paths. This approach provides the tools for analyzing laser radar with general refractive turbulence conditions, beam truncation at the antenna aperture, beam-angle misalignment, and arbitrary transmitter and receiver configurations. Simplifying assumptions used in analytical studies, were tested and treated as benchmarks for determining the accuracy of the simulations. The simulation permitted characterization of the effect on lidar performance of the analytically intractable return variance that results from turbulent fluctuations as well as of the heterodyne optical power and system-antenna efficiency.

Estimate optimization parameters for incoherent backscatter heterodyne lidar including unknown return signal bandwidth.

The conditions for optimizing the precision of heterodyne atmospheric lidar measurements using extended (deep) targets are investigated. The minimum standard deviation of each unknown (return power, Doppler shift, and signal bandwidth) is approximately twice the optical limit at best and is only weakly dependent on knowledge of the other parameters at optimal power levels. Somewhat stronger signal power levels are needed for bandwidth estimation. Results are displayed as a function of a time-bandwidth product to clarify the trade-off between estimate precision and range weighting. Realization under ideal conditions is confirmed by use of simulations.

Molecular backscatter heterodyne lidar: a computational evaluation.

The application of heterodyne lidar to observe molecular scattering is considered. Despite the reduced Rayleigh cross section, infrared systems are predicted to require mean power levels comparable with those of current and proposed direct detection lidars that operate with the thermally broadened spectra in the visible or ultraviolet. Rayleigh-Brillouin scattering in the kinetic and hydrodynamic (collisional) regimes encountered in the infrared is of particular interest because the observed spectrum approaches a triplet of relatively narrow lines that are more suitable for wind, temperature, and pressure measurements.

Detection techniques for validating Doppler estimates in heterodyne lidar.

We investigate the ability of detection techniques based on the likelihood ratio to discriminate between heterodyne lidar Doppler estimates at low signal levels using examples generated by simulation. The distinction between estimates that are regarded as acceptable and as spurious is based on the Cramer-Rao lower bound. The conditional false alarm probability, which ordinarily describes recording detection of a signal when none is present, is then found to be an approximate upper bound on the probability of selection of a spurious estimate. The method is superior theoretically to similar techniques based on detection functions other than the likelihood ratio. The likelihood ratio also provides a basis for reprocessing rejected data in the light of contextual information provided by those estimates that are accepted.

Estimate optimization parameters for incoherent backscatter heterodyne lidar.

Heterodyne lidar estimates are a function of a number of experimental parameters, some of which can be adjusted or tuned to optimize statistical precision. Here we refer the precision to the theoretical limit for optical measurements of return power and Doppler shift and investigate the conditions for optimization using established theoretical expressions for the standard deviation of various estimates. Tuning is characterized by a degeneracy parameter (the photocount per fade). For estimators that filter or resolve the return, it is shown that optimal tuning is achieved at wideband signal-to-noise ratios less than 0 dB and detected signal levels corresponding to more than a single effective photocount. Estimators that do not filter are predictably at a disadvantage when the signal bandwidth range gate product is low. The minimum standard deviation available from an optimally tuned heterodyne system is found to be greater than twice the limit.

Understanding and promoting AIDS-preventive behavior: insights from the theory of reasoned action.

Psychological determinants of AIDS-preventive behaviors were examined from the perspective of the theory of reasoned action in prospective studies of gay men, heterosexual university students, and heterosexual high school students. Across samples, preventive behaviors, and prospective intervals of 1 and 2 months' duration. AIDS-preventive behaviors were predicted by behavioral intentions; behavioral intentions were a function of attitudes and norms; and attitudes and norms were a function of their theorized basic underpinnings. Discussion focuses on the development of AIDS-prevention interventions that modify intentions, attitudes, and norms concerning performance of AIDS-preventive behaviors by targeting the empirically identified underpinnings of attitudes and norms related to specific preventive behaviors in specific populations of interest.

Comparative precision of distributed-backscatter Doppler lidars.

Simple formulas for the standard deviation that is available from Doppler velocity estimators through the use of direct-detection frequency discriminators for targets spread in range are derived and contrasted with the fundamental limits provided by the Cramer-Rao bounds for both direct-detection and heterodyne systems. The structures of these formulas is sufficiently similar to facilitate a meaningful comparison among the different systems and to provide a basis for the evaluation of experimental performance.

Frequency fidelity of a compact CO(2) Dopplerlidar transmitter.

The cw, interpulse, and intrapulse frequency stabilities of a compact, sealed-off CO(2) Doppler lidar transmitter are characterized. A cw stability of 1 part in 5 x 10(11) for 1-s averaging times, maximum pulse-to-pulse frequency deviations of +/-49 kHz for periods of seconds at a pulse repetition frequency of 1 kHz, and pulses with low-frequency chirp are demonstrated in a instrument suitable for the field.

Optimal truncation and optical efficiency of an apertured coherent lidar focused on an incoherent backscatter target.

Two earlier computations of the optimal truncation of Gaussian beams for a simple, focused, coherent lidar that used an incoherent backscatter target with identical circular transmitter and receiver apertures differ because they refer to different receiver geometries. The definitions of heterodyne and systemantenna efficiencies are reviewed in light of the discrepancy and are used to compare the optical performance of systems with apertures illuminated by beam profiles that are not Gaussian. The heterodyne efficiency is less than 0.5 for all cases considered here.

Power ratio estimation in incoherent backscatter lidar: direct detection with Gaussian noise.

Properties of small sample estimators for the return signal power ratio or log ratio in direct detection incoherent backscatter lidar systems are analyzed. As for heterodyne receivers it is usually preferable to form an estimator from the logarithmic difference of the sample averages rather than their ratio. Calculated values of bias and noise figures are confirmed using simulated data based on constant signal models and compared with the estimates obtained from nonlinear Kalman filters. The latter generally provide the least bias at high noise levels at the cost of greater computational complexity.

Nonlinear Kalman filtering techniques for incoherent backscatter lidar: return power and log power estimation.

Recursive estimation of nonlinear functions of the return power in a lidar system entails use of a nonlinear filter. This also permits processing of returns in the presence of multiplicative noise (speckle). The use of the extended Kalman filter is assessed here for estimation of return power, log power, and speckle noise (which is regarded as a system rather than a measurement component), using coherent lidar returns and tested with simulated data. Reiterative processing of data samples using system models comprising a random walk signal together with an uncorrelated speckle term leads to self-consistent estimation of the parameters.

Spatial weighting in laboratory incoherent light scattering experiments.

Diffraction-based calculations of the relative spatial weighting of the observed volume in incoherent scattering experiments, applicable to both direct detection and heterodyne systems and arbitrary transmitter and receiver profiles, have been largely confirmed in laboratory measurements using a CO(2) laser. The results indicate that heterodyne systems have superior spatial resolution at small scattering angles for a given detector geometry and permit quantitative assessment of this and the greater sensitivity of coherent systems to misalignment.