To Use or Not to Use: Male Partners' Perspectives on Decision Making About Prenatal Diagnosis

We conducted an exploratory, qualitative pilot study investigating the use of genetic counseling and prenatal genetic technologies between women and their male partners for two referral groups: pregnant women 35 years of age and over (AMA) at the time of delivery and pregnant women with an abnormal maternal serum triple screen (MSAFP3). The convenience sample consisted of 25 semistructured interviews and 50 observations of genetic counseling sessions. Male partners' styles of decision making and the way they viewed prenatal diagnosis decision making were examined. We defined three decision-making styles based on our interpretation of the data: (1) domain, (2) joint-delegated, and (3) saliency. The male partners also seemed to view prenatal diagnosis as either an information decision or an action decision and appeared to take a more active role in decision making when the decision was viewed as an action decision.     

To Use or Not to Use: The Prenatal Genetic Technology/Worry Conundrum

We conducted an exploratory, qualitative study investigating the factors influencing the use of genetic counseling and prenatal genetic testing for two groups: pregnant women 35 years of age and over (AMA) at the time of delivery and pregnant women with an abnormal maternal serum triple screen (MSAFP3). The convenience sample consisted of 25 semistructured interviews of women/couples and 50 observations of genetic counseling sessions. Worry turned out to be the most important variable influencing decision making about prenatal genetic testing and was greater in the MSAFP3 group than in the AMA group. The women in the AMA group appeared to assign the risk of having a child with Down syndrome to their age category rather than to themselves individually, whereas, the risk perception for women with an abnormal MSAFP3 appeared to have shifted from a general population risk for pregnant women to an individual, personal risk. There was a general lack of understanding and also more misinformation about the MSAFP3 screen compared to amniocentesis. Women in both groups were torn between fear of an invasive test and worry about the health of their fetus for the rest of their pregnancy if they did not undergo amniocentesis.     

Environmental Influences on Ethical Decision Making: Climate and Environmental Predictors of Research Integrity

It is commonly held that early career experiences influence ethical behavior. One way early career experiences might operate is to influence the decisions people make when presented with problems that raise ethical concerns. To test this proposition, 102 first-year doctoral students were asked to complete a series of measures examining ethical decision making along with a series of measures examining environmental experiences and climate perceptions. Factoring of the environmental measure yielded five dimensions: professional leadership, poor coping, lack of rewards, limited competitive pressure, and poor career direction. Factoring of the climate inventory yielded four dimensions: equity, interpersonal conflict, occupational engagement, and work commitment. When these dimensions were used to predict performance on the ethical decision-making task, it was found that the environmental dimensions were better predictors than the climate dimensions. The implications of these findings for research on ethical conduct are discussed.     

To change or not to change: A matter of decision maker’s role

The status quo effect derived from loss aversion is common in decision making. However, we propose that advisors (vs. personal decision makers) are less susceptible to such an effect because they are less loss-averse. The difference in loss aversion between personal decision makers and advisors is reflected in both the query order and content. Compared to advisors, personal decision makers produce more queries favoring the status quo, at an earlier time, than those favoring the new option. As hypothesized, the status quo effect was observed among personal decision makers, but not among advisors (Studies 1 and 2). Query order and content were found to mediate the impact of decision maker’s role on the status quo effect (Study 2). When personal decision makers and advisors made queries in the same order (Study 3) or of the same content (Studies 4a and 4b), the difference between self–other decision making disappeared.     

Evaluating Pastoral Effectiveness: To Measure or Not to Measure

Interviews were conducted with 101 senior pastoral leaders from a variety of denominations in order to identify the ways in which pastors and those in authority positions over senior pastoral leaders measure their own effectiveness. The findings of these interviews revealed 23 measures of effectiveness in five categories, including leader outcomes, congregational outcomes, and objective outcomes. Based on the effectiveness taxonomy described in the current study, a process is suggested for a preliminary discussion among church leadership teams, congregational boards, and denominations to identify their primary mission, constituencies served, and related effectiveness priorities.     

Addressing Value‐Based Conflicts Within the Counseling Relationship: A Decision‐Making Model

A growing number of legal and ethical cases have involved value conflicts between counselors, or counselors‐in‐training, and their clients. The authors examine considerations that professional counselors are encouraged to take into account when value conflicts arise within the therapeutic relationship. The authors present a strategy known as ethical bracketing and the Counselor Values‐Based Conflict Model as tools to use when facing conflicts that arise between personal and professional values.     

Developing Moral Decision-Making Competence: A Quasi-Experimental Intervention Study in the Swiss Armed Forces

Moral development has become an integral part in military training and the importance of moral judgment and behavior in military operations can hardly be overestimated. Many armed forces have integrated military ethics and moral decision-making interventions in their training programs. However, little is known about the effectiveness of these interventions. This study examined the effectiveness of a 1-week training program in moral decision making in the Swiss Armed Forces. The program was based on a strategy-based interactional moral dilemma approach. Results of this quasi-experimental intervention study showed significant improvements in content-related (moral and instrumental awareness, quality of moral information processing, development of compensatory actions) as well as process-related (situational analysis, development and evaluation of alternative solutions, justification of decision) aspects in moral decision making. Results of a follow-up test indicated positive long-term effects with regard to moral and instrumental awareness and process-related aspects. Findings are discussed, and consequences for leadership development programs and further research are explored.     

The Effect of Relationships on Decision-Making Processes of Women in Harare,Zimbabwe

A preliminary study aimed at investigating the potential impact of relationships on decision-making process and autonomy of women was conducted in Harare, Zimbabwe. The majority of women surveyed (87.6%) were prepared to consult their husbands, whereas only 46.6% said they would consult their relatives prior to participation in health research. Only 6.2% and 11.3% were prepared to keep their participation secret from their husbands their relatives, respectively. Overall, 58.6% were rated as autonomous, 22.5% partially autonomous, and 18.9% were rated as not autonomous. Age, educational level, employment status, and marital status of respondents were significantly associated with autonomous decision-making process.     

To See or Not to See: Blinded by Guilt: Reply to Commentary

In response to Annabella Bushra's discussion and her focus on what is missing in the clinical material, the author speculates about the repetition of the historical trauma of purifying mixed race in the face of its complexity—trying to neatly package race despite it not so neatly fitting into any one category—and losing the individual by overly focusing on skin color. The author considers the silence, secrecy, and transgression in the treatment and, in this context, a few of Bushra's key points are addressed—sorting out the nature of hate in relation to Susan, passing as transgression, and White guilt. A distinction is made between a malevolent, destructive hate and a loving hate, and White guilt is considered as a defense against recognition of the other.     

To Tell or Not to Tell: Disclosure and the Narrative Self

ABSTRACT Drawing from a narrative identity framework, we present the results of three studies examining the nature of what people do and do not disclose about their life experiences. Across three studies, our findings indicate that (1) the major difference in what people do and do not disclose concerns the emotionality of the events and whether or not the events are transgressions; (2) for everyday memorable events, increased negative emotion is associated with greater likelihood of disclosure; but (3) for more important and/or longer retained events, increased negative and decreased positive emotion were associated with lower likelihoods of disclosure. We also found that socioemotional consequences are an important reason for nondisclosure of important past experiences and are predictably related to the extent to which events induce positive and negative emotions. Findings are considered in terms of their implications for narrative identity.     

Characterization of Children's Decision Making: Sensitivity to Punishment Frequency,Not Task Complexity

On a gambling task that models real-life decision making, children between ages 7 and 12 perform like patients with bilateral lesions of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC), opting for choices that yield high immediate gains in spite of higher future losses (Crone &; Van der Molen, 2004 Crone, E. A. and Van der Molen, M. W. 2004. Developmental changes in decision-making: Performance on a gambling task previously shown to rely on ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Developmental Neuropsychology, 25(3): 251–279. [PUBMED][INFOTRIEVE][CROSSREF][Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The current study set out to characterize developmental changes in decision making by varying task complexity and punishment frequency. Three age groups (7–9 years, 10–12 years, 13–15 years) performed two versions of a computerized variant of the original Iowa gambling task. Task complexity was manipulated by varying the number of choices participants could make. Punishment frequency was manipulated by varying the frequency of delayed punishment. Results showed a developmental increase in the sensitivity to future consequences, which was present only when the punishment was presented infrequently. These results could not be explained by differential sensitivity to task complexity, hypersensitivity to reward, or failure to switch response set after receiving punishment. There was a general pattern of boys outperforming girls by making more advantageous choices over the course of the task. In conclusion, 7–12-year-old children—like VMPFC patients—appear myopic about the future except when the potential for future punishment is high.     

Pragmatic Schemas and the Selection Task: To Reason or Not to Reason

Cheng and Holyoak (1985) have proposed that people possess classes of linguistically based schemas that have an internal structure that is determined by pragmatic considerations. They found that when permission schemas (“If you want to do P, then you must do Q”) are used in the selection task, the success rate is much superior to what is usually observed. According to Cheng and Holyoak, this is due to the fact that the permission schema is defined by a set of production rules that give the same answers to problems of conditional inference as those of formal logic. In order to test this hypothesis specifically, 160 university students were given one of two tests. The first contained two sets of inferential reasoning tasks, one using a permission schema, the second using a relation of multiple causality. The second test employed the same two conditional relations, but in an appropriate context. The results indicated that subjects did better on the reasoning task with the schema of multiple causality when presented in context, but, as predicted, their performance was much worse on the inferential reasoning task with the permission schema, which generated a higher proportion of logically incorrect responses. These results suggest that contrary to what has been affirmed, permission schemas might not have a logical structure that is equivalent to conditional logic. A second experiment examined selection task performance using the same two relations in context. Performance on the permission schema was superior to that found with the relation of multiple causality. This confirmed previous results indicating that permission schemas do improve selection task performance, but also suggests that this effect is not related to understanding of conditional reasoning.     

To Cross or Not to Cross: The Effect of Locomotion on Street-Crossing Behavior

Perception of some affordances requires action scaling rather than simply body (size) scaling. Crossing a road safely is such an affordance. Perceiving accurately whether crossing in front of oncoming traffic is possible entails perceiving the relation between environmental properties (the to-be-crossed distance and the available time) and one's walking abilities. Only while walking is perceptual information about walking abilities available; hence, a more accurate perception of whether crossing is possible is expected than when stationary. We observed crossing behavior (stopping, staying, and crossing) at a crosswalk and related this behavior to the time that was available before the next vehicle arrived. The critical time gap that separated not crossing (stopping or staying) and crossing was smaller, that is, closer to the actual crossing time, when walking than when standing still. Thus, crossing from standstill entailed a larger safety margin. This suggests that information about ongoing action can yield more accurate perception of the affordance in question.