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Rachel A. Smith

Bio: Rachel A. Smith is an academic researcher from Pennsylvania State University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Medicine & Psychology. The author has an hindex of 21, co-authored 89 publications receiving 2046 citations. Previous affiliations of Rachel A. Smith include University of Texas at Austin & Michigan State University.


Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: An analysis of the relationships among perceived stigma, reported disclosure and perceived social support for those living with HIV showed a positive, heterogeneous correlation between disclosure and social support and a negative, homogenous correlation between stigma and disclosure.
Abstract: This study provides an analysis of the relationships among perceived stigma, reported disclosure and perceived social support for those living with HIV. The meta-analytic summary of 21 studies (4,104 participants) showed, as predicted, a positive, heterogeneous correlation between disclosure and social support (ŕ = .159), a negative, heterogeneous correlation between stigma and social support (ŕ = -.344) and a negative, homogenous correlation between stigma and disclosure (ŕ = -.189). The heterogeneity of the first two relationships indicates the presence of moderators, which may include participants' age and publications' year.

454 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that stigma communication includes specific content: marks, labels, responsibility, and peril, in order to induce affective and cognitive responses to create stigma attitudes, to generate protective action tendencies, and to encourage the sharing of these messages with others.
Abstract: Although stigmas appear throughout history, even in present-day virtual communities, an explanation of stigma communication has yet to be offered; this essay attempts to do just that. This essay argues that stigma communication includes specific content: marks, labels, responsibility, and peril, in order to induce affective and cognitive responses to create stigma attitudes, to generate protective action tendencies, and to encourage the sharing of these messages with others. Stigma messages bear the following attributes: they provide cues (a) to distinguish people, (b) to categorize distinguished people as a separate social entity, (c) to imply a responsibility for receiving placement within this distinguished group and their associated peril, and (d) to link this distinguished group to physical and social peril. Different qualities of stigma messages, moreover, evoke different emotions (disgust, fear, and anger) that motivate people to access relevant social attitudes, form or bolster stigma attitudes, and to remove the stigmatized threat. Stigma attitudes encourage the sharing of stigma messages with others in a network, which may, subsequently, bond in-group members.

299 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: An overview of antibiotic resistance and its growing burden on public health, the biological and behavioral mechanisms that increase antibiotic resistance, and examples of where health communication scholars can contribute to efforts to make the authors' current antibiotic drugs last as long as possible are provided.
Abstract: During the past century, discoveries of microorganisms as causes of infections and antibiotics as effective therapeutic agents have contributed to significant gains in public health in many parts of the world. Health agencies worldwide are galvanizing attention toward antibiotic resistance, which is a major threat to public health (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013; World Health Organization, 2014). Some life scientists believe that we are approaching the post-antibiotic age (Davies & Davies, 2010). The growing threat of antimicrobial resistance is fueled by complex factors with biological, behavioral, and societal aspects. This primer provides an overview of antibiotic resistance and its growing burden on public health, the biological and behavioral mechanisms that increase antibiotic resistance, and examples of where health communication scholars can contribute to efforts to make our current antibiotic drugs last as long as possible. In addition, we identify compelling challenges for current communication theories and practices.

119 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The results suggest that media depictions of health topics appear in either challenge or stigma formats, and the implications of stigma and challenge formats are discussed.
Abstract: This article explored the notion that media depictions of health concerns come in one of two formats: challenge and stigma. After explicating the five features that should appear in challenge format and the seven features of stigma formats, we analyzed the content of health messages in magazines, brochures, and posters (n = 75) in a metropolitan area. The results of a two-factor confirmatory factor model showed that the five suggested features for challenge formats did, indeed, appear together (alpha = .76), and the seven features for stigma formats, also, appeared together (alpha = .90), and showed no residual relationship. In other words, the results suggest that media depictions of health topics appear in either challenge or stigma formats (r = − .87). Health issues appearing in magazine advertisements and articles presented messages in challenge formats, while brochures and posters from largely nonprofit and government groups depicted health issues in stigma formats. Some health topics appeared most o...

100 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The extended parallel process model is extended to include 2 social perceptions: (a) stigma and (b) collective efficacy, and it is found that Namibian respondents who did not feel threatened by HIV personally showed a relationship between these social perceptions and their willingness to support those living with HIV and their willing to adopt AIDS orphans.
Abstract: Health threats may not occur in a vacuum; one may need others' support to address a given health condition. For example, in Namibia, parents dying from AIDS-related illnesses leave their orphaned children in need of adoption. If people do not feel threatened by HIV personally, social threats might motivate them to action. We extend the extended parallel process model (Witte, 1992) to include 2 social perceptions: (a) stigma and (b) collective efficacy. We found that Namibian respondents (n = 400) who did not feel threatened by HIV personally showed a relationship between these social perceptions and their willingness to support those living with HIV and their willingness to adopt AIDS orphans. These effects appeared for those who did not assess HIV as a health threat, suggesting that social threats, combined with efficacy, may motivate intentions to adopt recommended actions. Practical applications and intervention designs are discussed.

79 citations


Cited by
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Reading a book as this basics of qualitative research grounded theory procedures and techniques and other references can enrich your life quality.

13,415 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on communication processes and understand how messages have an effect on some outcome of focus in a focus-based focus-oriented focus-set problem, which is the goal of most communication researchers.
Abstract: Understanding communication processes is the goal of most communication researchers. Rarely are we satisfied merely ascertaining whether messages have an effect on some outcome of focus in a specif...

7,914 citations

01 Jan 1964
TL;DR: In this paper, the notion of a collective unconscious was introduced as a theory of remembering in social psychology, and a study of remembering as a study in Social Psychology was carried out.
Abstract: Part I. Experimental Studies: 2. Experiment in psychology 3. Experiments on perceiving III Experiments on imaging 4-8. Experiments on remembering: (a) The method of description (b) The method of repeated reproduction (c) The method of picture writing (d) The method of serial reproduction (e) The method of serial reproduction picture material 9. Perceiving, recognizing, remembering 10. A theory of remembering 11. Images and their functions 12. Meaning Part II. Remembering as a Study in Social Psychology: 13. Social psychology 14. Social psychology and the matter of recall 15. Social psychology and the manner of recall 16. Conventionalism 17. The notion of a collective unconscious 18. The basis of social recall 19. A summary and some conclusions.

5,690 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is shown that the average statistical power of studies in the neurosciences is very low, and the consequences include overestimates of effect size and low reproducibility of results.
Abstract: A study with low statistical power has a reduced chance of detecting a true effect, but it is less well appreciated that low power also reduces the likelihood that a statistically significant result reflects a true effect. Here, we show that the average statistical power of studies in the neurosciences is very low. The consequences of this include overestimates of effect size and low reproducibility of results. There are also ethical dimensions to this problem, as unreliable research is inefficient and wasteful. Improving reproducibility in neuroscience is a key priority and requires attention to well-established but often ignored methodological principles.

5,683 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: As an example of how the current "war on terrorism" could generate a durable civic renewal, Putnam points to the burst in civic practices that occurred during and after World War II, which he says "permanently marked" the generation that lived through it and had a "terrific effect on American public life over the last half-century."
Abstract: The present historical moment may seem a particularly inopportune time to review Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam's latest exploration of civic decline in America. After all, the outpouring of volunteerism, solidarity, patriotism, and self-sacrifice displayed by Americans in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks appears to fly in the face of Putnam's central argument: that \"social capital\" -defined as \"social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them\" (p. 19)'has declined to dangerously low levels in America over the last three decades. However, Putnam is not fazed in the least by the recent effusion of solidarity. Quite the contrary, he sees in it the potential to \"reverse what has been a 30to 40-year steady decline in most measures of connectedness or community.\"' As an example of how the current \"war on terrorism\" could generate a durable civic renewal, Putnam points to the burst in civic practices that occurred during and after World War II, which he says \"permanently marked\" the generation that lived through it and had a \"terrific effect on American public life over the last half-century.\" 3 If Americans can follow this example and channel their current civic

5,309 citations