Psychological kinship, love, and liking: preliminary validity data

Histone demethylase JMJD1C is phosphorylated by mTOR to activate de novo lipogenesis

Fatty acid and triglyceride synthesis increases greatly in response to feeding and insulin. This lipogenic induction involves coordinate transcriptional activation of various enzymes in lipogenic pathway, including fatty acid synthase and glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase. Here, we show that JMJD1C is a specific histone demethylase for lipogenic gene transcription in liver. In response to feeding/insulin, JMJD1C is phosphorylated at T505 by mTOR complex to allow direct interaction with USF-1 for recruitment to lipogenic promoter regions. Thus, by demethylating H3K9me2, JMJD1C alters chromatin accessibility to allow transcription. Consequently, JMJD1C promotes lipogenesis in vivo to increase hepatic and plasma triglyceride levels, showing its role in metabolic adaption for activation of the lipogenic program in response to feeding/insulin, and its contribution to development of hepatosteatosis resulting in insulin resistance.

In response to insulin, liver cells increase de novo lipogenesis via the transcription factors USF-1 and SREBP. Here the authors show that USF-1 recruits JMJD1C, after its phosphorylation by mTOR, to lipogenic promoters where JMJD1C demethylates histone H3, contributing to lipogenesis by an epigenetic mechanism.

Measuring Psychological Kinship: Scale Refinement and Validation

The Kinship Scale was designed to measure the construct of psychological kinship. A revised version of the scale was validated against several measures of intimacy and relatedness. Subjects were undergraduate psychology students (56 men, 144 women) who were administered test packets including the Revised Kinship Scale, the Rubin Love and Liking Scales, the Adolescent Parent Relations Scale (Attachment), and the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale. The scales (except for Loneliness) were taken relative to two different cognitive sets, Closest Parent and Boyfriend or Girlfriend. As predicted, psychological kinship was positively correlated with attachment, love, and liking; however, sex differences complicated the picture. The prediction of a negative correlation between Kinship and Loneliness was not supported. Factor analysis yielded four factors, accounting for 51% of the total variance. The strongest factor (“family love”) contained 10 of the 20 items on the Revised Kinship Scale and accounted for 37 7% of the variance. It correlated as highly with the external affiliative measures as did the revised scale, and so may be a good short form of the test.

Can pets function as family members?

This exploratory study investigated how clients of a large urban veterinary center viewed the role of their pet in the famil and how they compared this role to that of humans. In Phase 1, randomly selected clients (N = 201) completed a questionnaire containing scales delineating family relationships and pet attachment. Being either a man or a college graduate was associated with lesser feelings of psychological kinship and intimacy, both with pets and people. Neither living with a partner norhaving a child affected the strength of pet relationships. In Phase 2, 16 participants from Phase I completed a social network instrument and answered questions about family roles and boundaries. Thirteen of the 16 respondents said that there were circumstances in which they would give a scarce drug to their pet in preference to a person outside the family.

Recognizing, Assessing, and Classifying Others: Cognitive Bases of Evolutionary Kinship Therapy

The practice of psychotherapy revolves around human relationships, especially between client and therapist. At base, psychotherapy is “a species of human interaction that establishes the therapist as a protective figure or secure base in a way that facilitates client growth and change” (Bailey, 1997). This secure interpersonal base enables the client to confront inner conflict, interpersonal conflict/deficiencies, and negative thoughts about the self and others (see Gilbert this volume). Evolutionary kinship therapy views the client-therapist relationship, and client relations with others, through an evolutionary lens that focuses on the role that ancestral human relationships played in shaping current social behavior (Bailey, 2000; Bailey & Wood, 1998). This article outlines psychological kinship theory and then applies the logic of the model to selected aspects of the client-therapist relationship.

The conceptualization and measurement of perceived wellness: integrating balance across and within dimensions

PURPOSE

The impact of individual perceptions on health is well-established. However, no valid and reliable measure of individual wellness perceptions exists. Therefore, the purpose was to introduce a measure called the Perceived Wellness Survey (PWS).

DESIGN

Convenience sampling facilitated recruitment of a sample large enough to perform factor analysis with adequate power (.85). The appropriateness of factor analysis is supported by Bartlett's test (chi 2 = 7110, p < or = .01) and the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy (.91).

SETTING

The sample (n = 558) was composed of 3M Inc. employees from multiple sites in Austin, Texas (n = 393); employees from MuRata Electronics, Inc., College Station, Pennsylvania (n = 53); and students enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin (n = 112).

SUBJECTS

Racial, gender, and age distribution was, respectively, 6.3% African-American (n = 35), 8.2% Asian (n = 46), 73.3% Caucasian (n = 409), 9.5% Hispanic (n = 53), and 2.7% other (n = 15); 47.8% male (n = 267), and 52.2% female (n = 291); and 36.8 years.

MEASURES

Measures included the Perceived Wellness Survey, and two additional versions of the Perceived Wellness Survey designed to measure both discriminant and face validity. Perceived Wellness Survey subscales include physical, spiritual, intellectual, psychological, social, and emotional dimensions.

RESULTS

All subscales were correlated (p < or = .05) with the Perceived Wellness Survey composite and with each other. Evidence of internal consistency (alpha = .88 to .93), and discriminant, face, and factorial validity was provided. Finally, the Perceived Wellness Survey appears to be a unidimensional scale.

CONCLUSION

The unidimensional nature of the Perceived Wellness Survey suggests that perceptions of wellness in various dimensions are intertwined by their affective nature. The Perceived Wellness Survey appears to be reasonably valid and reliable; however, further research is needed.