Designing for Trust: A Case of Value-Sensitive Design

In this paper, we consider the meaning, roles, and uses of trust in the economic and public domain, focusing on the task of designing systems for trust in information technology. We analyze this task by means of a survey of what trust means in the economic and public domain, using the model proposed by Lewicki and Bunker, and using the emerging paradigm of value-sensitive design. We explore the difficulties developers face when designing information technology for trust and show how our analysis in conjunction with existing engineering design methods provides means to address these difficulties. Our main case concerns a concrete problem in the economic domain, namely the transfer of control from customs agencies to companies. Control of individual items is increasingly untenable and is replaced by control on the level of companies aimed at determining whether companies can be trusted to be in control of their business and to be in compliance with applicable regulations. This transfer sets the task for companies to establish this trust by means of information technology systems. We argue that this trust can be achieved by taking into account philosophical analyses of trust and by including both parties in the trust relationship as clients for whom the information technology systems are to be designed.     

Skinner and a solution to the problem of inner events

Skinner's treatment of inner states has been criticized not only by cognitivists but also by people who are close to behaviorist views. In particular, critics have argued that because of the limited conceptual resources of his scientific framework, Skinner cannot account for "mental" phenomena such as the qualitative character of feelings, conscious contents, or states of awareness. The present paper claims that these criticisms are mistaken. By paying careful attention to Skinner's strict physicalist position and by employing a consistent physicalist terminology, it can be shown that Skinner is able to account for the phenomena in question.     

What does the child analyst bring to Jungian thought?

The author wants to show the influence that the historical acknowledgement of child therapy at the Jerusalem IAAP Congress in 1983 has had today on the Jungian world, especially on the clinical approach to their patients by analysts working only with adult patients. If her conclusions do not allow her to dissociate the strong influence on psychoanalysis of contemporary research on attachment theory and mother-child relationship from a specific Jungian child therapists' perspective, she points out, through three examples from Jungian literature, how the need for a metapsychology of development and the study of primary and personal aspects of the patient's life are explicit in the work and research of analysts working with adults.     

Comparison of the effects of four suicide prevention programs for family and friends of high-risk suicidal men who do not seek help themselves

Callers to a suicide prevention center concerned about high risk men were randomly invited to participate in one of four programs: Information Session, Information Session with Telephone Follow-up, Rapid Referral to mental health and abuse programs, or Telephone Support. Comparison of pre-test, 2 month post-test and 6 months follow-up with 131 participants found that after third party participation, the third party participant reported that the suicidal men had significantly less suicidal ideation, fewer suicide attempts, and less depressive symptoms. Family and friends had less psychological distress, used more positive coping mechanisms, and reported their communication with the suicidal man was more helpful. The Telephone Support was considered the most useful program.     

Things to Do Today . . . : A Daily Diary Study on Task Completion at Work

Relatively little is known about how goals in complex jobs are translated into action and how they are completed in real life settings. This study addressed the question to what extent planned work may actually be completed on a daily basis. The completion of daily work goals was studied in a sample of 878 tasks identified by 29 R&D engineers with the help of a daily diary. Multilevel analysis was used to analyse the joint effect of task attributes, perceived job characteristics, and personality attributes on the completion of planned work goals. At the level of task attributes, we found that priority, urgency, and lower importance were related to task completion, and at the individual level, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and time management training. Task completion was not related to task attractiveness, workload, job autonomy, planning, or perceived control of time. On connaît relativement peu de choses sur la manière dont les objectifs dans des tâches complexes sont traduites en action et sur la manière dont elles sont accomplies dans le cadre de la vie quotidienne. Cette étude a abordé la question de savoir dans quelle mesure les travaux prévus peuvent être effectivement achevés dans la vie quotidienne. Pour ce faire, un échantillon de 878 tâches a été identifié par 29 ingénieurs R&D à l’aide d’un journal quotidien. Une analyse multi niveau a été réalisée pour étudier l’effet conjoint des caractéristiques de la tâche et des caractéristiques de la personnalité sur l’accomplissement des objectifs d’un travail planifié. Au niveau des caractéristiques de la tâche, nous trouvons que l’accomplissement de la tâche est liéà la priorité, l’urgence et une importance basse et au niveau individuel à la conscience, la stabilitéémotionnelle et à la gestion du temps. L’accomplissement de la tâche n’est pas liéà son attrait, à la charge de travail, à l’autonomie au travail ou au contrôle du temps perçu.     

Incidental sequence learning across the lifespan

The purpose of the present study was to investigate incidental sequence learning across the lifespan. We tested 50 children (aged 7-16), 50 young adults (aged 20-30), and 50 older adults (aged >65) with a sequence learning paradigm that involved both a task and a response sequence. After several blocks of practice, all age groups slowed down when the training sequences were removed, providing indirect evidence for sequence learning. This performance slowing was comparable between groups, indicating no age-related differences. However, when explicit sequence knowledge was considered, age effects were found. For both children and older adults with no or only little explicit knowledge, incidental sequence learning was largely reduced and statistically not significant. In contrast, young adults showed sequence learning irrespective of the amount of explicit knowledge. These results indicate that different learning processes are involved in incidental sequence learning depending on age.