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The Psychology of Politicians explores a topic which fuels public and media debate yet is under-researched and has potentially far-reaching consequences for the success of our political systems. Focusing on research with democratically elected representatives from the UK, Poland and Italy, and on the political behaviour of a former US President and voters' perceptions in the emerging democracy of Ukraine, this book is packed with psychological insights. Using quantitative and qualitative methodologies, the contributors chart the progress of the individual politician from selection as a candidate to becoming established in Parliament examining their qualities as communicators, thinkers and leaders. The impact of work and non-work pressures on their mental well-being and capacity to handle a crisis are probed and the roles of personality traits in politicians' values and in public perceptions of our elected representatives are highlighted.

Previous studies of stress in healthcare staff have indicated a probable high prevalence of distress. Whether this distress can be attributed to the stressful nature of the work situation is not clear. No previous study has used a detailed interview method to ascertain the link between stress in and outside of work and anxiety and depressive disorders. Doctors, nurses, and administrative and ancillary staff were screened using the general health questionnaire (GHQ). High scorers (GHQ>4) and matched individuals with low GHQ scores were interviewed by means of the clinical interview schedule to ascertain definite anxiety and depressive disorders (cases). Cases and controls, matched for age, sex, and occupational group were interviewed with the life events and difficulties schedule classification and an objective measure of work stress to find out the amount of stress at work and outside of work. Sociodemographic and stress variables were entered into a logistic-regression analysis to find out the variables associated with anxiety and depressive disorders. 64 cases and 64 controls were matched. Cases and controls did not differ on demographic variables but cases were less likely to have a confidant (odds ratio 0·09 [95% CI 0·01–0·79]) and more likely to have had a previous episode of psychiatric disorder (3·07 [1·10–8·57]). Cases and controls worked similar hours and had similar responsibility but cases had a greater number of objective stressful situations both in and out of work (severe event or substantial difficulty in and out of work—45 cases vs 18 controls 6·05 [2·81–13·00], p<0·001; severe chronic difficulty outside of work—27 vs 8, 5·12 [2·09–12·46], p<0·001). Cases had significantly more objective work problems than controls (median 6 vs 4, z=3·81, p<0·001). The logistic-regression analyses indicated that even after the effects of personal vulnerability to psychiatric disorder and ongoing social stress outside of work had been taken into account, stressful situations at work contributed to anxiety and depressive disorders. Both stress at work and outside of work contribute to the anxiety and depressive disorders experienced by healthcare staff. Our findings suggest that the best way to decrease the prevalence of these disorders is individual treatment, which may focus on personal difficulties outside of work, combined with organisational attempts to reduce work stress. The latter may involve more assistance for staff who have a conflict between their managerial role and clinical role.

This article considers why mental health is important in our workplaces, including elected political positions on which the effective functioning of our democracy depends. It looks at the job of the politician and its particular challenges, and argues there is a need to ensure that working conditions for all occupations are positive, and why we need to include our elected representatives. The potential consequences for the effective functioning of democracy are also explored and reflections given on where we should we go from here. A recent UK government mantra \"No health without mental health\" means that some politicians are starting to recognize the value of our psychological well-being as much as that of our physical health-although we might argue this still is nowhere near enough. There seems a long way to go before the reality-and the funding-matches our hopes. Sure enough we all take responsibility for our well-being, but the psychological impact of our working and social environments is well known and governments ignoring this important aspect of our health and functioning in their policies on health and work risk compromising their nation's competitiveness. Perhaps it does not help that as citizens we can be sceptical of the role of our politicians in making important decisions that shape the world in which we live, yet if we turn away from scrutinizing their behaviour we risk compounding the issue and compromising our own well-being too.

Many countries are reforming their pension systems so people stay in work for longer to improve the long-term sustainability of public finances to support an increasing older population. This research aimed to explore the factors that enable or inhibit people to extend working life (EWL) in a large United Kingdom-based retail organisation. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with a purposive sample (N = 30): 15 employees aged ⩾60 and 15 supervisors supporting these employees. Older workers were predominately female, reflecting the gender profile of the older workers in the organisation. Older workers and supervisors reported that key facilitators to EWL were good health, the perception that older workers are of value, flexibility and choice, the need for an ongoing conversation across the lifecourse, the social and community aspect of work as a facilitator to EWL and the financial necessity to EWL. Perceived barriers to EWL included poor health, negative impacts of work on health, and a lack of respect and support.

Most prejudicial comments people experience are from friends (Dickter & Newton, 2013), and 40% of Americans report having confronted a friend or family member for a discriminatory comment (Horowitz et al., 2019). Despite the relative prevalence of discrimination from friends, little is known about how people think about these kinds of experiences and, further, how their relationship might be impacted. The current research (N=1,587) examines how racial minority group members predict confronting, versus not confronting, a close White friend’s bias will impact their relationship with this friend. In four studies, consistent evidence emerged indicating that Asian participants who imagined confronting a White friend’s prejudicial comment anticipated fewer negative outcomes–reduced friendship quality (relationship quality: Study 3), reduced positive emotions, and reduced positive self-views–compared with those who imagined not confronting. In Study 2 (consisting of Study 2a and a replication, Study 2b), my work comparing the effects of confronting ingroup-relevant (race) compared to outgroup-relevant (weight) discrimination, revealed that the effects of imagining confronting versus not confronting did not differ depending on whether a friend expressed stereotypes about one’s own stigmatized identity compared to a stigmatized outgroup. Further, in Study 3, I found that the effects of confronting versus not confronting were consistent whether or not participants imagined interacting with a friend compared to a stranger. However, an interdata analysis in Study 3 determined that closeness to a perpetrating friend increased the effects of confronting on friendship quality. Mediation analyses (Studies 1-3) and experimental manipulation (Study 4) demonstrated that the effects of confronting are driven by greater perceived understanding. Findings suggest that Asian people expect confronting a friend’s discrimination will elicit greater understanding and buffer against negative interpersonal and intrapersonal effects of biased comments. Ultimately, this research helps explain why minority group members might choose to confront bias from a close friend—namely, that they expect it is less detrimental for their friendship to confront than to stay silent.

An evaluation was conducted of 15 voluntary sector family support workers (FSWs) working with families of schizophrenia sufferers. FSWs completed a diary schedule and interviews were conducted with 15 co-professionals from the FSWs' multi-disciplinary teams and 62 carers from FSWs' caseloads. Carers' problems were assessed using the burden component of the Social and Behavioural Assessment Schedule (Platt et al., 1983)and the Lancashire Quality of Life Profile (Oliver et al., 1996). Carers were asked about the type of support received and their satisfaction. The findings revealed the considerable pressures of caring and highlighted the value perceived by both carers and coprofessionals of the FSW as a counselling, listening, information and advocacy resource. The diary study revealed that FSWs spend 40% of their time providing emotional and/or practical support. The impact of this was suggested by the superior ratings of quality of life and lower burden scores among carers with whom the FSW had longer-term involvement.

Analysis of the mechanisms within intergroup friendships has found self-disclosure plays a powerful role in promoting positive outgroup attitudes. Trust, empathy, and anxiety reduction all mediate the relationship between self-disclosure and positive outgroup attitudes. We expanded on previous self-disclosure research to include all these mediators in an entire model, and an additional mediator: race-related self-disclosure. Additionally, we included both majority —White—and minority—Latino/a—perspectives. The study used a two-group quasi-experimental design, accessible as an online survey, completed by 252 Latino/a and White/Caucasian San Diego State University students with respective outgroup friends. They were recruited through the psychology department participant pool. We predicted that (H1) as self-disclosure within a friendship increases, positive outgroup attitudes also increase. We posited that the relationship between self-disclosure and outgroup attitudes would be mediated by (H2) race-related disclosure, (H3) trust (including vulnerability), (H4) empathy, and (H5) anxiety reduction. We also hypothesized that (H2) race-related self-disclosure and (H3) trust would be associated with a larger increase in positive outgroup attitudes for Latino/as, and that (H4) empathy and (H5) anxiety reduction would be associated with a larger increase in positive outgroup attitudes for Whites/Caucasians. Structural equation modeling confirmed that (H1) as self-disclosure within a friendship increases, positive outgroup attitudes also increase. Additionally it provided evidence that (H3) trust and (H4) empathy mediate this relationship, while (H2) all three factors of race-related self-disclosure and (H5) anxiety reduction do not. We ran structural equation models separately for Whites/Caucasians and Latino/as to analyze the effects of race on the given mediators. (H3) Trust remained as a mediator for both racial groups. However, (H4) empathy only mediated the relationship between self-disclosure and outgroup attitudes for Latino/as. Quality of race-related self-disclosure mediated this relationship for Latino/as, however quality of race-related self-disclosure was negatively associated with positive outgroup attitudes. The implications for these findings and future directions are discussed.

This paper explores the principal activities of local authority staff undertaking the role of care manager. It is based on a sample of staff in a social services department specializing in older people's services. Data were obtained by asking staff to complete a diary schedule in which thirty‐four job related activities were grouped into five broad categories on the basis of previous research. A 57 per cent response rate was achieved. Analysis of the data revealed several findings of note. First, excluding travel, care managers spent 64 per cent of their working week in direct and indirect user and carer related activities. Second, administrative tasks occupied 32 per cent of their time. Third, care managers spent 27 per cent of their time in assessment activities compared with 7 per cent in monitoring and reviewing activities and 5 per cent in counselling and support. Fourth, care managers spent 4 per cent of their time liaising with health staff. These findings are discussed in the light of previous research and a shift is noted in the nature of the direct contact with the service user. The methodological limitations of the study are explored and the implications of these findings for users and carers and the development of care management arrangements are discussed.