Coping with international atrocities through criminal law : a study into the typical features of international criminality and the reflection of these traits in international criminal law

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Paul and death : a study in psychological coping

The present investigation looks into the attitudes toward death in Paul’s authentic letters, and puts them in relation to modern theories of psychological coping. Drawing on psychologically-oriented hermeneutic theory, and theories about psychological coping in particular, I argue that each case of psychological coping must be understood in its historical situation as strategies emanating from a specific person’s subjective appraisal (cf. Pargament, Lazarus and Folkman). Paul’s letters frequently refer to persecution and violent death. To aid in psychological coping is often integral to the purpose of the letters, which makes the perspective of psychological coping akin to their genre. In the course of a tentatively assumed chronological order of 1 Thessalonians, Galatians, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Romans, Philippians, and Philemon, Paul moves from the perception of Jesus dying for the faithful to the understanding of dying with Jesus. His coping strategies concerning death are gradually transformed from conservative and deferring coping styles, to a more self-directing coping style, to collaborative and transformative coping styles, and finally to a new sense of deferring coping style in prison. The last case of deferring coping carries the traits of generosity and flexibility even in the face of death, which is in contrast to his previous letters. Through his correspondence, we see Paul’s attitude toward death transformed from denial to reaction, to processing, to acceptance (cf. Lindemann, Kübler-Ross, Bowlby, Parkes, among others). His strategies also shift in accordance with these understandings. Denial is accompanied by diversion, threat by aggression, processing by rumination, and acceptance by joy. The study shows the hermeneutic benefits of reading Paul’s letters as the rhetorically framed expressions of a person in a particular historical situation. The letters open small windows through which we can glimpse the coping process of a person of antiquity. In adopting the method of psychological exegesis, the study shows that the variety of attitudes toward death in Paul’s letters makes sense from the perspective of psychological coping. The psychological aspect of these letters is an underexamined richness that can extend into areas of contemporary individual and group identity, and from there to public policy and ethics.

Coping with genetic diversity: the contribution of pathogen and human genomics to modern vaccinology

Vaccine development faces major difficulties partly because of genetic variation in both infectious organisms and humans. This causes antigenic variation in infectious agents and a high interindividual variability in the human response to the vaccine. The exponential growth of genome sequence information has induced a shift from conventional culture-based to genome-based vaccinology, and allows the tackling of challenges in vaccine development due to pathogen genetic variability. Additionally, recent advances in immunogenetics and genomics should help in the understanding of the influence of genetic factors on the interindividual and interpopulation variations in immune responses to vaccines, and could be useful for developing new vaccine strategies. Accumulating results provide evidence for the existence of a number of genes involved in protective immune responses that are induced either by natural infections or vaccines. Variation in immune responses could be viewed as the result of a perturbation of gene networks; this should help in understanding how a particular polymorphism or a combination thereof could affect protective immune responses. Here we will present: i) the first genome-based vaccines that served as proof of concept, and that provided new critical insights into vaccine development strategies; ii) an overview of genetic predisposition in infectious diseases and genetic control in responses to vaccines; iii) population genetic differences that are a rationale behind group-targeted vaccines; iv) an outlook for genetic control in infectious diseases, with special emphasis on the concept of molecular networks that will provide a structure to the huge amount of genomic data.

Coping with globalization: Asian versus Latin American strategies of development, 1980-2010

When compared to Latin America, Asian economies since 1980 have grown faster and have done so with relatively modest inequalities. Why? A comparison of Asia and Latin America underlines the superiority of the nationalist capitalist model of development, which has often been pursued more explicitly in Asia, over that of a dependent capitalist model, which has often been pursued in Latin America. In comparison to Latin America, the Asian model has facilitated higher and less volatile rates of economic growth and a greater political room to pursue social democratic policies. The "tap root" of these alternate pathways is relative autonomy from global constraints: states and economies in Asia have been more nationalist and autonomous than in Latin America.

Underemployment and depressive affect : the moderating influence of coping styles /

This study tested a model which predicted the relationship between underemployment and depressive affect as moderated by coping styles. A randomly selected community sample of 574 young adults completed a self-report employment status measure, the Underemployment Scale, the Center for Epidemiological Study Depression Scale, and the Coping^Stralegy Indicator. The interaction model was supported for men only. Results indicated that significant interactions between Perceived Job Requirements Underemployment by avoidance copings and Subjective Underemployment by avoidance coping predicted depressive affect for men. Further, the same results were found even after controlling for prior depressive affect. UsingJhe^ selfreport employment status measure revealed significant group differences between unemployed and underemployed men. Underemployed men who utilized more support seeking coping strategies reported higher depressive affect than unemployed men. The interaction model was not supported for women even though women have consistently reported higher depressive affect rates. These results have implications for underemployment and depressive affect research and practical implications for assisting men who feel subjectively underemployed and need to find an appropriate strategy to cope with the situation.

An exploration of gifted and highly able adolescents' experiences with stress and coping /

This narrative case study explored gifted and highly able adolescents' experiences with stress and coping. Nine students, ages 13-18, at 2 independent schools in southern Ontario, participated. They completed the Adolescent Coping Scale (Frydenberg & Lewis, 1993), and I generated individualized graphs of coping strategies. Participants talked about experiences they perceived as stressful in their academic, personal, social, and familial settings during a 60-90 minute one-on-one audiotaped interview. During the interview, each participant made observations about their own coping strategies profile. The interview was analyzed to identify stressor and coping themes. Participants completed a writing or art task to record perceptions of stress and coping. The 3 data sources were used to craft 9 individual story portraits, from which 5 main stressor themes emerged: issues of time; relationships, emotions, and communication; ethical, moral, and spiritual issues; global issues; and silences, or stressors not talked about in depth. Coping themes were: seeking relaxing activities; having positive attitudes and making wise choices; maintaining relationships with peers and family; understanding the role of faith and moral beliefs; having a supportive environment; knowing your own personality type; being aware of negative coping strategies; and keeping busy and avoiding stressfiil issues. The narratives are important because they present teenagers talking about their socioemotional worlds. The present findings provide empirical groundwork for curriculum development in affective education and highlight the importance of socioemotional development for future research in the area of giftedness and adolescence.

A model of personality and health : coping styles as a moderator in the perfectionism-health connection

The purpose of this study was to examine a model of personality and health. Specifically, this thesis examined perfectionism as a predictor of health status and health behaviours, as moderated by coping styles. A community sample of 813 young adults completed the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, the Coping Strategy Indicator, and measures of health symptoms, health care utilization, and various health behaviours. Multiple regression analyses revealed a number of significant findings. First, perfectionism and coping styles contributed significant main effects in predicting health status and health behaviours, although coping styles were not shown to moderate the perfectionism-health relationship. The data showed that perfectionism did constitute a health risk, both in terms of health status and health behaviours. Finally, an unexpected finding was that perfectionism also included adaptive features related to health. Specifically, some dimensions of perfectionism were also associated with reports of better health status and involvement in some positive health behaviours.

The elderly : reminiscing, coping with loss, accepting death

This study investigated loss, death and dying, reminiscing, coping and the process of adaptation from the sUbjective perspective. A number of theories and models of death and dying were reviewed in the background literature search with the focus on reminiscing as a coping phenomenon. The format of the study was audio-taped interviews with ten sUbjects and the recording of their memories and reminiscing of life stories. The sUbjects were required to complete an initial questionnaire in a demographic data collection process. Two separate interviews consisted of a primary data collecting interview and a verification interview four to eight weeks later. An independent chart review completed the data collecting process. Data analysis was by the examination of the emerging themes in the subjects' personal narratives which revealed the sUb-categories of reminiscing, loss (including death and dying), acceptance, hope, love, despair and belief. Belief was shown to be the foundation and the base for living and reminiscing. Reminiscing was found to be a coping phenomenon, within the foundation of a belief system. Both living and reminiscing revealed the existence of a central belief or value with a great deal of importance attached to it. Whether the belief was of a spiritual nature, a value of marriage, tradition, a work ethic or belief in an abstract value such as fate,it gave support and control to the individuals' living and reminiscing process. That which caused despair or allowed acceptance indicated the sUbjects' basic belief and was identified in the story narrations. The findings were significant to health care in terms of education, increased dignity for the elderly and better understanding by society. The profiles represented an average age of 86.3 years with age showing no bearing on the life experiences associated with the emerging themes. Overwhelmingly, belief was shown to be the foundation in reminiscing. A Judeo-Christian cultural value base supported the belief in 90% of the sUbjects; however, different beliefs were clearly shown indicating that belief is central to all thinking beings, in everyday life and in reminiscing. Belief was not necessarily spiritual or a practised or verbalized religion. It was shown to be a way of understanding, a fundamental and single thread tying the individual's life and stories together. The benefits were the outcomes, in that knowledge of an individual's belief can optimize care planning for any age group, and/or setting. The strength of the study was the open question format and the feedback process of data verification. The unrestricted outcomes and non-specificity were significant in a world where dying is everybody's business.

A constructivist grounded theory of firefighter perceptions of stress, coping and the relationship to health

This qualitative research was a constructivist grounded theory designed to develop an understanding of how firefighters perceive and cope with stressful situations and the impact this has on their perceptions of health. This study was framed in a social ecological perspective with the community of firefighting providing the environment within which to explore stress and coping. Of particular concern here are the stressors associated with firefighting. Prior research with firefighters has often been epidemiological and statistical in nature, focusing on measures of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and depression (Baker & Williams, 2001 ; Brown et al., 2002; Murphy et al.,1999; Regehr et al., 2002; Regehr et al., 2003). Qualitative research examining the perception of stress among firefighters that includes personal stories allows firefighters the opportunity to describe what it is like to be met with physically and mentally challenging situations on a daily basis. Twelve in-depth, semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with a brief questionnaire were conducted with firefighters from a Southern Ontario Fire Department. Four main themes emerged describing the persona of the firefighter, the stressors of firefighters, coping strategies of firefighters, and firefighters' perceptions of health. Stressors include requirements of the job, traumatic calls, tensions with co-workers, the struggle between the family at home and the family at work, political stressors with the City, and the inner struggle. Avoidance coping, approach coping, and gaining perspective emerged as the three coping styles of firefighters. Health was defined as including physical, mental, social and spiritual aspects. A model of the findings is provided that depicts the cyclical nature of the stress-coping-health relationship among firefighters.

Predictors of shy children's coping with a social conflict : mediators and moderators

Shy children are at risk for later maladjustment due to ineffective coping with social conflicts through reliance on avoidance, rather than approach-focused, coping. The purpose of the present study was to explore whether the relation between shyness and children's coping was mediated by attributions and moderated by personality selftheories and gender. Participants included a classroom-based sample of 175 children (93 boys), aged 9-13 years (M = 10.11 years, SD = 0.92). Children completed self-report measures assessing shyness, attributions, personality self-theories and coping strategies. Results showed that negative attribution biases partially mediated the negative relations between shyness and social support seeking, as well as problem-solving, and the positive association between shyness and externalizing. Moreover, self-theories moderated the relation between shyness and internalizing coping at the trend level, such that the positive relation was exacerbated among entity-oriented children to a greater degree than incrementally-oriented children. In terms of gender differences, shyness was related to lower use of social support and problem-solving among incrementally-oriented boys and entity-oriented girls. Thus, shy children's perceptions of social conflicts as the outcome of an enduring trait (e.g., social incompetence) may partially explain why they do not act assertively and aggress as a means of social coping. Furthermore, entity-oriented beliefs may exacerbate shy children's reliance on internalizing actions, such as crying. Although an incrementally-oriented stance may enhance shy girls' reliance on approach strategies, it does not appear to serve the same protective role for shy boys. Therefore, copingoriented interventions may need to focus on restructuring shy children's social cognitions and implementing gender-specific programming for their personality biases.

Coping with a Learning Disability: A Case Study

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand a child’s experience with a learning disability (LD) through the way that they cope with it, and how self-esteem, self-efficacy, attribution style, and social support contribute to this process. Qualitative interviews were conducted with one child, his parents, and his teacher, accompanied by a content analysis of the child’s psychosocial assessment report. It was found that the child copes well with having a learning disability, employing a problem-focused/approach coping style by seeking help and practicing for skills he struggles with, an emotion-focused coping style by implementing strategies to alleviate frustration, and compartmentalizing his disability. Further, self-esteem, self-efficacy, attribution style, social support and sports and leisure engagement were found to contribute positively to the coping process. These findings offer useful implications for parents, teachers, and practitioners to support other students with LD.

Perceived stress, coping strategies and optimism in hearing mothers of deaf children.

Tesis (Maestría en Ciencias con Orientación en Psicología de la Salud) UANL, 2012.

L'efficacité de l'imagerie guidée sur la douleur, l'anxiété, le coping et le retour aux activités d'adolescents ayant subi une chirurgie correctrice de scoliose

De nombreuses études ont démontré que les adolescents qui subissent une chirurgie correctrice de scoliose éprouvent des douleurs postopératoires intenses et cela pendant plusieurs jours après leur chirurgie. L’originalité de cette étude de type quasi-expérimental, consistait à réaliser un DVD sur une technique d’imagerie guidée et de relaxation combinée à une intervention éducative (gestion de la douleur) sur la douleur, l’anxiété, le coping et le retour aux activités d’adolescents ayant subi une chirurgie correctrice de scoliose. Prenant appui sur la théorie du portillon (Melzack & Casey, 1968) et sur la théorie transactionnelle du stress et coping (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), quatre hypothèses ont été retenues en vue de vérifier l’effet de cette intervention. Trente et un adolescents, âgés entre 13 et 19 ans ont été répartis en deux groupes de façon aléatoire. Les participantes du groupe expérimental devaient visionner un DVD sur une technique d’imagerie guidée et de relaxation combinée à de l’information sur la gestion de la douleur en période préopératoire, au moment du congé de l’hôpital et ce, au moins trois fois par semaine sur une période d’un mois post congé. De plus, ce groupe continuait à recevoir les soins usuels. Les participants du groupe contrôle ne recevaient que les soins usuels. Les instruments de mesure utilisés furent le questionnaire concis de la douleur (QCD) (Larue F, Colleau, Brasseur, & Cleeland, 1995), l’inventaire d’anxiété situationnelle et de trait d’anxiété (IASTA-Y) (Gauthier & Bouchard, 1993) et l’inventaire du coping face à la douleur pédiatrique (Spicher, 2003). Quatre temps de mesure ont été planifiés, soit la journée avant la chirurgie, au congé de l’hôpital, au 14ième jour post congé et lors de la visite à la clinique d’orthopédie à un mois post congé. Les résultats montraient que les deux groupes étaient équivalents en ce qui concernait les caractéristiques sociodémographiques et les variables dépendantes. Les participants du groupe expérimental présentaient une douleur générale ressentie dans le dernier 24 heures plus basse au 14ième jour (p = 0,012) et un mois après leur congé de l’hôpital (p = 0,049). Certaines activités quotidiennes ont démontré une différence significative au 14ième jour soit : les activités scolaires ou de travail (p = 0,046), et les activités de soutien vital (manger, dormir) (p = 0,024), Par contre, nous n’avons pas observé de différence significative au niveau de l’anxiété situationnelle et des stratégies adaptatives de coping entre les deux groupes. L’auteur conclut que le niveau de douleur postopératoire des adolescents qui ont subi une chirurgie correctrice de scoliose peut être réduit par un visionnement d’un DVD sur une technique d’imagerie guidée et de relaxation combinée à une intervention éducative (information sur la douleur). De plus, ceci semble avoir un effet positif sur le retour plus rapide de certaines activités quotidiennes.