Do adolescents want death to be included in their education?

Social Psychology of Education - This study sets out to ascertain adolescents’ attitudes and opinions towards death education. To this end two instruments were designed and validated: the...     

How are health care chaplains helpful to bereaved family members? Telephone survey results

After conducting telephone interviews with 130 next-of-kin whose loved one died, the authors report whether and how chaplains were helpful to these family members. Analysis of their responses indicated that chaplains were helpful in five ways. They provided comfort and support; they helped family members with details before, during, and after death; they acted as surrogate family members until other loved ones arrived; their availability provided a safety net even if contact was limited; and they functioned as a spiritual figure who provided the transition of the patient from earth to heaven. Family members rated the helpfulness of chaplains as midway between very good and excellent.     

Do counselling supervisors want or need to have their supervision supervised? An exploratory study

In response to a survey of counselling supervisors, 70 practitioners provided information about their practice as supervisors of counsellors and supervisors of supervisors. Questions were asked about the practice of supervision for supervision and attitudes towards the BAC Code of Ethics and Practice for Supervisors requirement that supervisors have access to supervision for their supervisory work. All but six of the respondents claimed to have supervision for supervision. In response to questions about the helpfulness, general importance, ethical importance and desirability of supervision for supervision, for which a bipolar visual analogue scale was provided, mean scores were all above 70%, indicating that there was considerable satisfaction with supervision for supervision requirements. Factor analysis revealed only one factor including all four questions. Questions were asked about contracts with supervision supervisors. A total of 55.7% used the same supervisor for their clinical work and supervision. In response to a question about issues raised in supervision, four categories accounted for the majority of comments: boundaries, competence of supervisees, training and ethics.     

What is the moral basis of the authority of family members to act as surrogates for incompetent patients?

...The authority of family members should be understood as presumptive; that is, there is a moral presumption that a close family member should serve as surrogate for an incompetent patient. That presumption can be overcome or rebutted in a particular case, either when there is sufficient evidence that the usual reasons supporting this presumption do not hold or when the surrogate's decision exceeds appropriate limits of surrogates' decision-making discretion. In order to clarify these hard cases and appropriate public policy, we need a much deeper and more complex analysis than either the conventional view, or the alternative account that Pearlman and colleagues provide. I have sought here only to point toward some of the other grounds that a full account of family members' authority as surrogates would have to develop and explore in much more detail....     

Do people use category-learning judgments to regulate their learning of natural categories?

Although research has established that people can accurately judge how well they have learned categories, no research has examined whether people use their category-learning judgments (CLJs) to regulate their restudy of natural categories. Thus, in five experiments we investigated the relationship between people’s CLJs and selections of categories for restudy. Participants first attempted to learn natural categories (bird families; e.g., finches, grosbeaks, and warblers) so that they could categorize new exemplars on a final test. After this initial study phase, participants made a CLJ for each category and then selected a subset of the categories for restudy. Across experiments, we also manipulated several variables (e.g., selecting either three or nine categories, or obtaining 30% vs. 80% performance on the final test) that were expected to influence restudy selections. However, the manipulations typically had minimal impact. More important, in all experiments we found an unexpected outcome: Some participants tended to select the categories they judged to be most well learned for restudy, and others tended to select those judged to be least well learned. We discovered these qualitative differences in the use of CLJs to make restudy selections by using post-hoc analyses in Experiments 1a and 1b, and hence we sought to (a) replicate them in Experiments 2, 3, and 4 and (b) provide preliminary evidence regarding factors that can (vs. cannot) account for them. Most important, evidence across all of the experiments supported the conclusion that people do use their CLJs to select categories for restudy.     

Do chimpanzees tailor their gestural signals to fit the attentional states of others?

The use of vocalizations and tactile gestures by seven juvenile chimpanzees was experimentally investigated. The subjects interacted with an experimenter who typically handed them food rewards. In some trials, however, the experimenter waited 20 s before doing so. In these trials the experimenter’s eyes were either open or closed, or the experimenter was either looking away from the subject or looking directly at him/her inquisitively with head movements. Although the chimpanzees produced at least one of the non-visual gestures mentioned (touching/tapping the experimenter or vocalizing) in 72% of all experimental trials, these actions and vocalizations were deployed without regard to the attentional state of their potential recipient, despite evidence that the subjects noticed the postures that defined the experimenter’s attentional state. The results are discussed in the context of the distinction between the evolution of an understanding of seeing/attention as an internal mental state versus an understanding of behavioral postures alone. Recieved: 12 February 1999 / Accepted after revision: 18 August 1999     

Why do superiors attend to negative stereotypic information about their subordinates? Effects of power legitimacy on social perception

Power can be defined as control over other people's outcomes. Using this definition, we explored the impact of power on attentional processes involved in impression formation. Because powerful individuals may want to maintain and justify their position, powerful participants should pay particular attention to negative stereotype‐consistent information about their subordinates. In contrast, powerless participants should devote their attention to stereotype‐inconsistent information in an attempt to increase their control over the social context. Study 1 directly manipulated control by assigning participants to the role of leader or subordinate in a task group. Results showed that, compared to subordinates, leaders devoted more attention to negative stereotypic attributes. Study 2 manipulated the legitimacy of power and replicated the pattern found in Study 1 but only when power was illegitimate. Our findings suggest that the experience of power can be associated with feelings of threat, especially when power is illegitimate, thereby orienting impression‐formation processes toward information likely to maintain the existing social structure. We discuss our results in the context of current work on motivated social cognition, social identity, and legitimisation. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Do children have to remember to reason? A fuzzy-trace theory of transitivity development

An idea that has become commonplace in the literature on cognitive development is that the solution of thinking and reasoning problems requires that children retain accurate representations of certain background facts in short-term memory. This reasoning/remembering hypothesis is reexamined with reference to the one childhood cognitive task for which the validity of the hypothesis seems to be firmly established, transitive inference. Although the hypothesis says that children's transitive inferences are critically dependent on memory for the initial premise information, it is shown in six experiments that transitivity and premise memory are independent abilities in children. A fuzzy-trace theory is developed to explain this surprising independence effect. The theory assumes that children retain only degraded, schematic representations (fuzzy traces) of the overall pattern of an ordered series and that performance on subsequent test trials is mediated by processing operations that flesh out vague pattern information. Some further experiments that were designed to test various predictions of the fuzzy-trace theory are reported. Last, it is shown that reasoning and remembering are independent abilities in some other childhood cognitive tasks for which the initial background facts are not logically inescapable components of the eventual solution. These reasoning/remembering independence effects argue for an increased emphasis on encoding selectivity in theories of cognitive development.     

Do people keep believing because they want to? Preexisting attitudes and the continued influence of misinformation

Misinformation—defined as information that is initially assumed to be valid but is later corrected or retracted—often has an ongoing effect on people’s memory and reasoning. We tested the hypotheses that (a) reliance on misinformation is affected by people’s preexisting attitudes and (b) attitudes determine the effectiveness of retractions. In two experiments, participants scoring higher and lower on a racial prejudice scale read a news report regarding a robbery. In one scenario, the suspects were initially presented as being Australian Aboriginals, whereas in a second scenario, a hero preventing the robbery was introduced as an Aboriginal person. Later, these critical, race-related pieces of information were or were not retracted. We measured participants’ reliance on misinformation in response to inferential reasoning questions. The results showed that preexisting attitudes influence people’s use of attitude-related information but not the way in which a retraction of that information is processed.     

Do Rawls's theories of justice fit together? A reply to Pogge

In my reply to Pogge's critique of Rawls's international relations theory, I will try to show two things: (1) that Pogge's account of the public criterion of domestic social justice endorsed by Rawls is a partial one and (2) that this leads him to wrongly postulate a significant asymmetry between Rawls's domestic and international theories of justice. In the end, I hope to show that the domestic and international accounts are characterized by a significant degree of symmetry – that both accounts are motivated by Rawls's fundamental concern with self-respect. In other words, a more expansive, complete account of the domestic public criterion of social justice necessarily leads us (contra Pogge) to affirm a significant degree of continuity between the domestic and international accounts.     

Which topics are important to address in premarital counseling? A survey of clergy

Pastoral counselors who provide premarital counseling must address the topics that are most relevant to couples as they prepare for marriage. This article presents the results of a survey of clergy who provide premarital counseling, demonstrating the relative importance that clergy ascribe to premarital counseling topics, as well as the relationship between religious affiliation and ratings of topic importance.     

Why Do Parents Want to Know their Child’s Carrier Status? A Qualitative Study

When a child is identified with a genetic condition, some parents want to know the carrier status of their other children. There has been little exploration of why parents want this information. To address this question, semi-structured interviews were conducted with parents of 32 children with cystic fibrosis, haemophilia, and Duchenne muscular dystrophy who wanted to know the carrier status of their other children. Data was analyzed using inductive content analysis. Parents expressed a range of reasons for desiring their child’s carrier status, which fell into two broad categories: 1) benefit for the parents and 2) perceived benefit to the child. Parents discussed the desire for certainty and peace of mind derived from having knowledge of their child’s status. The most commonly expressed reason for wanting to know their child’s carrier status was in order to communicate the information to their child to provide them with the ability to make informed reproductive decisions. These reasons suggest parents are seeking their children’s carrier information both as a coping strategy and to communicate carrier information as part of their role as a parent. This has important implications for genetic counseling practice, especially as international guidelines generally recommend against carrier testing in children.     

Can psychiatry residents be attracted to analytic training? A survey of five residency programs

In the face of fewer psychiatrist applicants for psychoanalytic training, determining the interest of current psychiatric residents in psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychiatry is a pressing concern. To gauge this interest, an anonymous online survey was sent to residents from five psychiatry residency programs in the Midwest and South. Seventy-five residents responded, for a return rate of 42%. The data suggest that residents value psychoanalytic concepts and most plan to incorporate the practice of psychodynamic psychotherapy into their careers after graduation; however, residents have little confidence in their level of skill and the adequacy of their training. While 46% express interest in further psychodynamic psychotherapy training, only 22% express interest in psychoanalytic training. Most cite the cost and time involved as reasons they would not pursue further training. This study demonstrates that psychiatric residents have strong interest in and respect for psychodynamic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. The data suggest that psychiatric residents are a viable pool of applicants for psychoanalytic training, especially if barriers to training can be reduced and creative ways for psychoanalysts to engage residents can be fostered.