Identity construction and career development interventions with emerging adults

Today's wealthy societies are more fluid, varied and complex than they were just a few decades ago. As a consequence, what were “vocational choices” at the beginning of the 20th century now appear as “life designing issues”. In this context, contemporary research stresses the plurality and relative malleability of human subjects as well as their ability to take reflexive stances on their current and past experiences. Fitting in such an epistemology, a self-constructing model is proposed as a basis for a life designing counseling interview. This model describes self-identity as a dynamic system of (past, present and expected) subjective identity forms (SIF), the synthesis and dynamism of which originate in a tension between two kinds of reflexivity. Counseling interviews with emerging adults show that the elicitation of some expected SIF allows them to re-read their current and past experiences from such a perspective and constitutes a compelling incentive to act.     

The Influence of Prior Handling on the Effective CS-US Interval in Long-Trace Taste-Aversion Conditioning in Rats

The Psychological Record - In conditioned taste aversion (CTA), a taste, the conditioned stimulus (CS), is paired with an illness-inducing stimulus, the unconditioned stimulus (US), to produce...     

Non‐standard work schedules and retention in the entry‐level hourly workforce

Non‐standard work schedules involve work outside the Monday–Friday daytime hours. Although research has heavily studied the health and family effects of such schedules, few studies have investigated their relationship to retention. We draw from Maertz and Campion's discussion of motivational forces that influence turnover to propose that employees on non‐standard schedules are more likely to quit their employer because of general job dissatisfaction and because of normative pressures from family and/or friends. Specifically, we hypothesized that employees on day shifts or weekday only schedules would remain with their employer longer than those who work on nonday shifts or on the weekends. We also hypothesized that perceived employment mobility would moderate the effects of non‐standard schedules on retention length. Hypotheses were tested among 3,178 retail employees who worked five different distinct shift arrangements and different weekday/weekend schedules. Cox regression analyses indicated that, as hypothesized, employees working nonday shifts or schedules including weekends remained with their employer for a shorter duration of time than employees not on such schedules. Perceived mobility moderated the schedule–turnover relationship, though not in the hypothesized manner. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings for work schedule assignment and retention strategies.     

Verifying simple arithmetic sums and products: Are the phonological loop and the central executive involved?

In two experiments, we investigated the role of the phonological loop and the central executive in the verification of the complete set of one-digit addition (Experiment 1) and multiplication (Experiment 2) problems. The focus of the present study was on the contradictory results concerning the contribution of the phonological loop in the verification of true problems (e.g., 8 + 4 = 12 or 4 x 6 = 24) reported until now. The results revealed that this slave system is not involved in verifying simple arithmetic problems, in contrast to the central executive. Furthermore, our results indicated that the split effect is due to the use of two different arithmetic strategies.     

Impaired categorical perception of facial expressions in high-functioning adolescents with autism.

Categorical perception of facial expressions is studied in high-functioning adolescents with autism, using three continua of facial expressions obtained by morphing. In contrast to the results of normal adults, the performance on the identification task in autistic subjects did not predict performance on the discrimination task, an indication that autistic individuals do not perceive facial expressions categorically. Performance of autistic subjects with low social intelligence was more impaired than that of subjects with higher social IQ scores on the expression recognition of unmanipulated photographs. It is suggested that autistic subjects with higher social intelligence may use compensatory strategies that they have acquired in social training programs This may camouflage the deficits of this subgroup in the perception of facial expressions.     

Quality of life before and after lung transplantation in patients with emphysema versus other indications

Whether lung transplantation improves Health-related Quality of Life in patients with emphysema and other end-stage lung diseases before and after lung transplantation was examined. Between 1992 and 1999, 23 patients with emphysema and 19 patients with other indications completed self-administered questionnaires before lung transplantation, and at 4, 7, 13, and 25 mo. after transplantation. The questionnaire included the Nottingham Health Profile, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Self-rating Depression Scale, the Index of Well-being, the self-report Karnofsky Index, and four respiratory-specific questions. Neither before nor after transplantation were significant differences found on most dimensions of Health-related Quality of Life between patients with emphysema and other indications. Before transplantation, both groups report major restrictions on the dimensions Energy and Mobility of the Nottingham Health Profile, low experienced well-being, depressive symptoms, and high dyspnea. About 4 mo. after transplantation, most Health-related Quality of Life measures improved significantly in both groups. These improvements were maintained in the following 21 mo.     

Evidence of Impaired Glucose Tolerance and Insulin Resistance in Patients With Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and diabetes rarely occur together, a finding that provides a possible clue as to the development of AD. Abnormal glucose metabolism is not limited to diabetes, but also can include impaired glucose tolerance, insulin resistance, and hyperinsulinemia. AD patients have significantly varying insulin levels after drinking sugared sodas and thus may be classified as insulin resistant. After reviewing the literature on impaired glucose tolerance and insulin production in AD, we present several hypotheses as possible explanations for the relationship between insulin resistance and AD. Finally, we suggest future studies, including studies on use of thiazolidinediones (currently used in the treatment of diabetes) in AD.