Recruiter Evaluation of Candidates for Employment: Does Study Abroad Make a Difference?

This analog study investigated recruiters’ evaluation of candidates for employment in regard to whether study abroad experience advantaged some in being selected for certain positions. Results found that candidates who completed study abroad and a relevant internship were ranked highest, with preference given by recruiters to long‐term Western experiences. However, the data also suggested that recruiter assessments varied somewhat depending on recruiters’ study abroad experience and their own characteristics. Overall, the effect of study abroad on the evaluation of candidates was simply one part of a complex of considerations.     

Rational Suicide: An Empirical Investigation of Counselor Attitudes

This study investigated attitudes of mental health counselors toward rational suicide. Over 80% of respondents were moderately supportive of the idea that people can make well‐reasoned decisions that death is their best option, and further, they identified a consistent set of criteria to evaluate such decisions. Additionally, analyses revealed that as the scenario moved from client, to friend, to self, rational suicide seemed to gain in acceptability for these professionals. Implications for training and practice in light of the apparent responsibilities with suicidal clients defined in the 1995 American Counseling Association's Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice are discussed.     

A scale of educational-vocational undecidedness: A typological approach

A scale designed to measure and identify antecedents of educational-vocational indecision was administered to a variety of college student groups expected to differ in career-decidedness. Results indicate that the scale is reliable, appears to discriminate career-decided from career-undecided students, and is responsive to interventions designed to alleviate educational-vocational indecision. A factor analysis of the scale yielded four factors: need for structure, perceived external barriers, positive choice conflict, and personal conflict. The instrument has potential for diagnostic, criterion, and conceptual purposes related to career indecision.     

The relationship of academic major and career choice status to anxiety among college freshmen

This study examines the relationship of career and academic major choice status to levels of state anxiety among undergraduate students. A total of 179 resident freshmen responded to a questionnaire concerning their career development status. On the basis of that information, subjects were arranged within a 2 × 2 factorial design of two dichotomous variables: career choice status (decided/undecided) and major choice status (declared/undeclared). Participants were administered the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. An analysis of variance of state anxiety scores yielded a significant main effect for career choice status, with subjects reporting they had already decided on a career direction exhibiting lower levels of state anxiety than those who had not.     

Social support and prognosis in patients at increased psychosocial risk recovering from myocardial infarction.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the impact of network support and different types of perceived functional support on all-cause mortality or nonfatal reinfarction for patients with a recent acute myocardial infarction (AMI). DESIGN: Participants were recruited from the Enhancing Recovery in Coronary Heart Disease (ENRICHD) trial; 2,481 AMI patients with depression or low social support were randomized to a cognitive-behavioral intervention or to a usual care control group. Data collection for certain measures of social support was limited: 2,466 participants completed the ENRICHD Social Support Inventory; 2,457 completed the Perceived Social Support Scale; 1,296 completed the Social Network Questionnaire; and 707 completed the Interpersonal Support and Evaluation List, Tangible Support subscale. Patients also completed the Beck Depression Inventory and were followed for up to 4.5 years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Time to death or nonfatal reinfarction. RESULTS: Over the follow-up period, 599 patients (24%) died or had a nonfatal AMI. Survival models controlling age, sex, race, socioeconomic status, smoking, antidepressant use, and a composite measure of increased risk revealed that higher levels of perceived social support were associated with improved outcome for patients without elevated depression but not for patients with high levels of depression. Neither perceived tangible support nor network support were associated with more frequent adverse events. CONCLUSION: AMI patients should be assessed for multiple dimensions of perceived functional support and depression to identify those at increased psychosocial risk who may benefit from treatment.     

CS-dependent response probability in an auditory masked-detection task: considerations based on models of Pavlovian conditioning.

Experimental studies were performed using a Pavlovian-conditioned eyeblink response to measure detection of a variable-sound-level tone (T) in a fixed-sound-level masking noise (N) in rabbits. Results showed an increase in the asymptotic probability of conditioned responses (CRs) to the reinforced TN trials and a decrease in the asymptotic rate of eyeblink responses to the non-reinforced N presentations as a function of the sound level of the T. These observations are consistent with expected behaviour in an auditory masked detection task, but they are not consistent with predictions from a traditional application of the Rescorla-Wagner or Pearce models of associative learning. To implement these models, one typically considers only the actual stimuli and reinforcement on each trial. We found that by considering perceptual interactions and concepts from signal detection theory, these models could predict the CS dependence on the sound level of the T. In these alternative implementations, the animals response probabilities were used as a guide in making assumptions about the "effective stimuli".     

Rasmussen's syndrome: intractable epilepsy and progressive neurological deterioration from a unilateral central nervous system

Rasmussen's syndrome (chronic encephalitis with epilepsy) is a rare neurological disorder of unknown cause characterized by severe epilepsy, hemiplegia, dementia, and inflammation of the brain, and progressive functional and structural destruction of a single cerebral hemisphere. While one mechanism underlying the pathogenesis of Rasmussen's encephalitis has been hypothesized to be mediated by production of excitotoxic GluR3 autoantibodies to the a-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionic acid (AMPA) receptor, other neuropathological etiologies have also been indicated. Proposed therapies have included antiepileptics, steroids, antiviral agents, alpha-interferon, and immunoglobulin. The mainstay of therapy is surgical hemispherectomy. To date, no medical therapies have permanently halted neurologic deterioration.     

Learning More About and With the Face–Name Mnemonic Strategy

With the face–name mnemonic strategy, choosing and using ‘prominent’ facial features in interactive images can be difficult. The temptation is to stray from less‐than‐distinctive facial features and instead to associate an individual's name clue with an additional concrete detail (e.g., a headband). To examine this issue, undergraduates viewed face photographs with or without additional details under one of three conditions: own best method, fully imposed mnemonic, and partially imposed mnemonic. Experiment 2 examined a somewhat parallel situation that occurs when applying the strategy to abstract artwork (paintings with less familiar, less concrete elements) versus applying it to representational artwork (paintings with more familiar concrete elements). Our findings suggest that some pictorial stimuli (e.g., facial photos with details; representational paintings) are easier to work with mnemonically than are others (e.g., facial photos by themselves; abstract art). Moreover, in both experiments, mnemonic students displayed performance advantages on both immediate and delayed tests. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.