Violent women, blame attribution, crime, and personality.

BACKGROUND: The attribution of blame for criminal act has an impact, both on the way the offender must come to terms with the offence and on the risk of recidivism. Blame attribution has been found to be related to the type of crime and personality. AIMS: This study examined the relationship of blame attribution and feelings of guilt in violent female offenders, according to factors related to crime, background and personality. METHODS: The Gudjonsson Blame Attribution Inventory (BAI) and the Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ) were administered to 58 violent female offenders. The Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), Structured Clinical Interview II for DSM-IV (SCID II) and clinical interviews were used for assessment. RESULTS: Lower scores of guilt feelings were found in women than has been reported for men. The feelings of guilt were higher in homicide than in other violent crimes, but lower in the cases where women had committed prior violent crimes. No differences were found between psychiatric patients and prisoners. The duration of hospitalisation and incarceration did not result in differences in blame attribution and guilt, but when the victims survived, guilt feelings seemed to increase with the passing of the time. External attribution was related to motives of crime, but traumatic experiences did not have a crucial impact upon blame attribution. The attribution of blame and the amount of guilt feelings were found to be related to personality. Women scoring high on psychopathy reported less guilt than women with low scores. The corresponding result was not obtained in the group of women with antisocial personality disorder, who, however, showed an unexpectedly low use of external attribution. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that it might be difficult for women to cope with the violent offence and that the characteristics of psychopathy seems to have a crucial impact on the guilt feelings and consequently on coping with the crime in female offenders.

Relative electroencephalographic desynchronization and synchronization in humans to emotional film content: an analysis of the 4-6, 6-8, 8-10 and 10-12 Hz frequency bands.

The reactivity of different narrow electroencephalographic (EEG) frequencies (4-6, 6-8, 8-10 and 10-12 Hz) to three types of emotionally laden film clips (aggressive, sad, neutral) were examined. We observed that different EEG frequency bands responded differently to the three types of film content. In the 4-6 Hz frequency band, the viewing of aggressive film content elicited greater relative synchronization as compared the responses elicited by the viewing of sad and neutral film content. The 6-8 Hz and 8-10 Hz frequency bands exhibited reactivity to the chronological succession of film viewing whereas the responses of the 10-12 Hz frequency band evolved within minutes during film viewing. Our results propose dissociations between the responses of different frequencies within the EEG to different emotion-related stimuli. Narrow frequency band EEG analysis offers an adequate tool for studying cortical activation patterns during emotion-related information processing.

Quality of life in individuals with physical disabilities.

BACKGROUND: The quality of life among individuals with severe physical disabilities has greatly improved during the last two decades, partly as a result of well-planned intervention programmes. However, some individuals with physical disabilities do not cope well in their everyday life, no matter how long they have had the disability. It has been suggested that those individuals who adjust well do so regardless of the degree of their physical impairment. METHODS: The subjects were 45 adults with physical disabilities from both Finland and Sweden. The participants filled in a questionnaire and were also interviewed individually. RESULTS: The quantitative analyses revealed that satisfaction with one's life situation is a function of the handicapped person's occupation or meaningful occupational activities, social integration and his/her sense of the meaning of life. Further, the length of time since the onset of the disability was a risk factor for the person's feeling of satisfaction. The qualitative analyses of the interviews verified the results of the quantitative analyses. CONCLUSIONS: The disability per se did not decrease the disabled individual's quality of life. The individual's capacity to cope with everyday life was of great importance. Occupation or meaningful occupational activities as well as social integration at different stages of life should be taken into account when planning intervention programmes in the future.

The effects of somatic disability or progressive illness on psychological and social well-being.

Two different studies are discussed. In the first, 67 subjects with neuromuscular diseases were interviewed to study their mental state and features of their personality as functions of disability. Female subjects had a higher aggression level than male subjects. Aggression in different forms seemed to function as a coping mechanism for the female disabled subjects whereas denial and withdrawal were more typical for the males. Due to unsolved crises, unstated fear of the future and/or death or forlornness and the poor ability to form positive social relationships, the subjects had limited psychological resources to cope with the extremely stressful situation caused by disability and progressive diseases. In the other study, two test groups were formed. One included subjects with a hitherto nonvisible disability (n = 29), the other consisted of persons whose disability had already become visible but who had used wheelchairs for only 2 years or less (n = 40). The aim was to study different ways in which subjects in these two groups experienced crisis and what kind of differences occurred in it. Subjects with visible disability went through the crisis significantly better than the subjects in the other group. Most of the subjects had known about their diseases for a long time and the disorder itself did not cause their crisis symptoms. These were created by limitations in mobility, and even more so by fear of other people's attitudes toward disability.

[Breastfeeding in relation to knowledge and social support]. / Upplevelsen av amningen i relation till kunskap och socialt stod.

PIP: It has been suggested that every country undergoes 3 stages of development in its attitude toward breast feeding. The 1st or traditional stage is characterized by mothers breast feeding their children for a long time. The 2nd stage is a strong downswing in the popularity of breast feeding. The 3rd stage is a period during which breast feeding undergoes a renaissance. By 1979 about half of the mothers in Finland nursed their children for at least 6 months. In a study of 100 primiparae the 17-36 year olds (mean 24.7/) completed 4 questionnaires in the period from delivery up to the termination of breast feeding. In no case did this period exceed 5 months, at which time 60% of the women were still lactating. Age correlated significantly with the desire to nurse longer as did support received from the child's father, although support from health services sources was more significant. Mothers with higher work status had significantly more knowledge of breast feeding before nursing began and nursed significantly longer than women with lower work status. Women who nursed at least 5 months had significantly better expulsion reflex during delivery, did not need additives to mother's milk, and had a more positive experience with nursing after 3 weeks than women who nursed for a shorter time. Women who nursed for a longer period also had significant difference in the experience of nursing as an expression of contact and as an expression of sexuality.^ieng