Hopelessness in community-residing aged persons: a viable construct?

Previous work with the Geriatric Hopelessness Scale (GHS; Fry, 1984, 1986) suggests that it may be a useful measure of pessimism for a variety of domains among elderly persons. One hundred seven community-residing aged persons were individually administered the GHS and a variety of personality and cognitive functioning measures in an effort to further refine and validate the GHS. Results suggest very modest internal consistency and a poorly defined factor structure for the GHS, in contrast to earlier findings. Although the GHS failed to differentiate elderly persons by age, it was nonetheless related to self-esteem, depression, self-rated health, internality, morale, and life satisfaction. Taken together, these data indicate that the research and clinical utility of the GHS with community-residing aged persons may be more limited than previously believed.     

“What Goes Around Comes Around”: Attitudes and Practices Regarding Ageing and Care for the Elderly Among Moroccan Muslim Women Living in Antwerp (Belgium)

The aim of this article is threefold. First, we seek to elicit the attitudes and practices of middle-aged and elderly Moroccan Muslim women towards ageing and care for the elderly. Second, we aim to identify possible differences between middle-aged and elderly women’s attitudes and practices. Third, we seek to explore which role religion plays in their attitudes and practices. Qualitative empirical research was conducted with a sample of middle-aged and elderly Moroccan Muslim women living in Antwerp (Belgium) (n = 30) and with experts in the field (n = 15). Our study unveils that ageing and care for the elderly are clearly understood from a religious framework. More specifically, theological and eschatological considerations take up a central position. Access to and utilization of professional elderly care is hampered by several barriers (e.g. religious, cultural and financial). We found a more open attitude towards professional elderly care among middle-aged women than among elderly women.

     

Beyond the Equivalence Thesis: how to think about the ethics of withdrawing and withholding life-saving medical treatment

Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - With few exceptions, the literature on withdrawing and withholding life-saving treatment considers the bare fact of withdrawing or withholding to lack...     

全球生命伦理学

探讨生命伦理学的起源,并阐述了不同理论支持者的观点,发现无论准确的生命伦理学历史起源是什么,目前生命伦理学已经变成了一种真正的全球现象。它在全世界具有重要的意义,因为人类不仅仅是欧洲人或亚洲人,也是世界公民和一个全球道德共同体的成员。生命伦理学对任何地方、任何人都是重要的,并不是因为它是"拿来"的,而是因为它提供了一个普遍的框架去解释和管理正在经历的变化,这个变化包括了目前所有的国家和文化。然而,这个框架的解释和应用必须依据本土环境。因此,现代生命伦理学具有全球性和本土特征的特点。     

Evidence for distinct magnitude systems for symbolic and non-symbolic number

Psychological Research - Cognitive models of magnitude representation are mostly based on the results of studies that use a magnitude comparison task. These studies show similar distance or ratio...