Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder among inmates in Bergen Prison

The aim of this study was to investigate whether clinical findings are consistent with research indicating a high prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) among prison inmates. Forty‐three male inmates who were referred for ADHD assessment at the health service in Bergen prison participated. Although most of them reported symptoms in accordance with ADHD both in childhood and adulthood, only 35% of the referred inmates fulfilled the criteria for ADHD when a comprehensive assessment was conducted. The results emphasize the importance of a comprehensive assessment when diagnosing ADHD among prison inmates.     

Social Welfare and the Psychology of Food Sharing: Short‐Term Hunger Increases Support for Social Welfare

Do politically irrelevant events influence important policy opinions? Previous research on social welfare attitudes has emphasized the role of political factors such as economic self‐interest and ideology. Here, we demonstrate that attitudes to social welfare are also influenced by short‐term fluctuations in hunger. Using theories in evolutionary psychology, we predict that hungry individuals will be greedier and take more resources from others while also attempting to induce others to share by signaling cooperative intentions and expressing support for sharing, including evolutionarily novel forms of sharing such as social welfare. We test these predictions using self‐reported hunger data as well as comparisons of subjects who participated in relevant online studies before and after eating lunch. Across four studies collected in two different welfare regimes—the United Kingdom and Denmark—we consistently find that hungry individuals act in a greedier manner but describe themselves as more cooperative and express greater support for social welfare.     

Innovative moments and poor outcome in narrative therapy

Aims: To analyse a poor outcome case of narrative therapy with a woman victim of intimate violence. Method: The Innovative Moments Coding System: version 1 was applied to all sessions to track the innovative moments (i‐moments) in the therapeutic process. I–moments are the narrative details that occur in psychotherapeutic conversations that are outside the influence of the problematic narrative. This research aims to describe the processes involved in the stability of meanings in psychotherapy through a dialogical approach to meaning making. Findings: Contrarily to what usually occurs in good outcome cases, re‐conceptualization i‐moments are absent. Moreover, two specific types of i‐moments emerged with higher duration: reflection and protest. Qualitative analysis showed that the potential meanings of these i‐moments were surpassed by a return to the problematic narrative. Conclusion: The therapeutic stability seems to be maintained by a systematic return to the problematic narrative after the emergence of novelties. This process was referred from a dialogical perspective as a mutual in‐feeding of voices, one that emerges in the i‐moment and another one that supports the problematic narrative, which is maintained by an oscillation between these two types of voices during therapy.     

On the Similarities of Some Multi‐Criteria Decision Analysis Methods

Since multiple criteria characterise many practical decision problems, the research field of multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) is flourishing. This paper compares the multi‐attribute decision making (MADM) methods, simple additive rating (SAR), simple additive weighting (SAW) as well as the outranking approach PROMETHEE and explains their similarities. We present a case study on industrial paint application and provide theoretical evidence that PROMETHEE can mimic other MADM algorithms. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Broad versus narrow traits: Conscientiousness and honesty–humility as predictors of academic criteria

Recent research has suggested that the six‐dimensional personality model, and especially the dimension Honesty–Humility/Integrity, adds incremental validity to the prediction of important criteria. We expected both this dimension and the dimension Conscientiousness to explain incremental variance in two academic criteria, namely grade point average (GPA) and counterproductive academic behaviour (CAB). In addition, we expected the more specific, so‐called narrow traits of Conscientiousness and Honesty–Humility/Integrity to be stronger predictors of academic criteria than the broad traits. To test these expectations, two studies were conducted using the HEXACO Personality Inventory Revised (HEXACO‐PI‐R) and the Multicultural Personality Test—Big Six (MPT‐BS). The results confirmed our expectations and suggest that academic criteria may be predicted with greater accuracy by focusing on the narrow traits of Conscientiousness and Honesty–Humility/Integrity. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Leaning to the left makes the Eiffel Tower seem smaller: posture-modulated estimation

In two experiments, we investigated whether body posture influences people's estimation of quantities. According to the mental-number-line theory, people mentally represent numbers along a line with smaller numbers on the left and larger numbers on the right. We hypothesized that surreptitiously making people lean to the right or to the left would affect their quantitative estimates. Participants answered estimation questions while standing on a Wii Balance Board. Posture was manipulated within subjects so that participants answered some questions while they leaned slightly to the left, some questions while they leaned slightly to the right, and some questions while they stood upright. Crucially, participants were not aware of this manipulation. Estimates were significantly smaller when participants leaned to the left than when they leaned to the right.     

Vitamin D and executive function: a preliminary report

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between vitamin D levels and cognition, both executive and nonexecutive functions, in men incarcerated in a Norwegian prison. Participants were divided into high vitamin D and low vitamin D groups based on established criteria (high level > or = 50 nmol/L; low level < 50 nmol/L). The mean vitamin D concentration was 69 (SD = 12) and 38 (SD = 9) nmol/L in the high-level group (n = 14) and the low level group (n = 11), respectively. Results revealed that the high vitamin D group had significantly more correct responses than the low vitamin D group on the executive function task. There was no difference between the groups on the nonexecutive function task. The reaction time data indicated that the high levels of correct responses in the high vitamin D group on the executive function tasks were not due to a speed-accuracy trade-off.     

Bolzanian knowing: infallibility,virtue and foundational truth

The paper discusses Bernard Bolzano’s epistemological approach to believing and knowing with regard to the epistemic requirements of an axiomatic model of science. It relates Bolzano’s notions of believing, knowing and evaluation to notions of infallibility, immediacy and foundational truth. If axiomatic systems require their foundational truths to be infallibly known, this knowledge involves both evaluation of the infallibility of the asserted truth and evaluation of its being foundational. The twofold attempt to examine one’s assertions and to do so by searching for the objective grounds of the truths asserted lies at the heart of Bolzano’s notion of knowledge. However, the explanatory task of searching for grounds requires methods that cannot warrant infallibility. Hence, its constitutive role in a conception of knowledge seems to imply the fallibility of such knowledge. I argue that the explanatory task contained in Bolzanian knowing involves a high degree of epistemic virtues, and that it is only through some salient virtue that the credit of infallibility can distinguish Bolzanian knowing from a high degree of Bolzanian believing.