Demonstrating the effect of context on order effects for an army air defense task using the patriot simulator

The results reported herein support the hypotheses that (1) situation-specific, contextual features of a task can cause people to use explanation-based reasoning (Pennington and Hastie, 1993); (2) such reasoning can cause experienced personnel, both individually and in two-person teams, to reinterpret the meaning of the same information when it is presented in two different ordered sequences; and (3) the result will be primacy or recency (or no) effects depending on whether the most recent conflicting information can be explained away or not, respectively. These results extend the belief-adjustment model proposed by Hogarth and Einhorn (1992), which does not address information reinterpretations, and always predicts recency effects for an evaluation task with a short series of conflicting information. More generally, the results demonstrate the importance of situation-specific, contextual features in understanding judgment processes. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Causes As Difference‐Makers For Processes

It is natural to think of causes as difference‐makers. What exact difference causes make, however, is an open question. In this paper, I argue that the right way of understanding difference‐making is in terms of causal processes: causes make a difference to a causal process that leads to the effect. I will show that this way of understanding difference‐making nicely captures the distinction between causing an outcome and helping determine how the outcome happens and, thus, explains why causation is not transitive. Moreover, the theory handles tricky cases that are problematic for competing accounts of difference‐making.     

Taking Our Selves Too Seriously: Commitment,Contestation, and the Dynamic Life of the Self

In this article, I distinguish two models of personal integrity. The first, wholeheartedness, regards harmonious unity of the self as psychologically healthy and volitional consistency as ethically ideal. I argue that it does so at the substantial cost of framing ambivalence and conflict as defects of character and action. To avoid these consequences, I propose an alternate ideal of humility that construes the self as multiple and precarious and celebrates experiences of loss and transformation through which learning, growth, innovation, and dynamic relationship become possible. This ideal not only sustains prospects for integrity but is more suitable than wholeheartedness for recognizing practices of contestation, such as those involving potentially destabilizing encounters with difference that is common within pluralistic societies, as vital for rich, well‐lived lives.     

Enhancing Capacity for Trauma‐informed Care in Child Welfare: Impact of a Statewide Systems Change Initiative

Youth involved in the child welfare system (CWS) are disproportionally impacted by the negative effects of exposure to trauma. While efforts to develop trauma‐informed CWSs are accelerating, little research is available about the effects of these efforts on system capacity to respond to the needs of youth exposed to trauma. No studies evaluate longer‐term effects of these efforts. In 2011, Connecticut implemented CONCEPT, a multi‐year initiative to enhance capacity of the state's CWS to provide trauma‐informed care. CONCEPT used a multi‐component approach including workforce development, deployment of trauma screening procedures, policy change, improved access to evidence‐based trauma‐focused treatments, and focused evaluation of program effects. Changes in system capacity to deliver trauma‐informed care were assessed using statewide stratified random samples of child welfare staff at three time points (Year 1: N = 223, Year 3: N = 231, Year 5: N = 188). Significant improvements across nearly all child welfare domains were observed during the first 3 years of implementation, demonstrating system‐wide improvements in capacity to provide trauma‐informed care. These gains were maintained through the final year of implementation, with continued improvements in ratings of collaboration between child welfare and behavioral health settings on trauma‐related issues observed. Responses documented familiarity with and involvement in many of the CONCEPT activities and initiatives. Staff reported greater familiarity with efforts to increase access to specific evidence‐based services (e.g., TF‐CBT) or to enhance trauma‐related policy and practice guidelines, but less familiarity with efforts to implement new practices (e.g., trauma screening) in various sectors. Staff also reflected on the contribution of these components to enhance system capacity for trauma‐informed care.     

Response–response binding across effector-set switches

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review - A single encounter of a response together with a stimulus results in short-lived binding between the stimulus and the response. A repetition of any part of such...     

Psychosocial safety climate (PSC) and enacted PSC for workplace bullying and psychological health problem reduction

Bullying at work has profound effects on both the individual and organization. We aimed to determine if organizational psychosocial safety climate (PSC; a climate specific to worker psychological health) could reduce workplace bullying and associated psychological health problems (i.e., distress, emotional exhaustion, depression) if specific procedures were implemented (PSC enactment). We theorized that the PSC enactment mechanism works via psychosocial processes such as bullying mistreatment climate (anti-bullying procedures), work design (procedures reduce stress through work redesign), and conflict resolution (procedures to resolve conflict). We used two-wave national longitudinal interview data from 1,062 Australian employees (Australian Workplace Barometer project) and structural equation modelling to explore relationships over 4 years. PSC Time 1 predicted enacted PSC and reduced bullying 4 years later. PSC Time 1 was indirectly negatively related to poor psychological health Time 2 through enacted PSC and bullying. Bullying Time 1 also gave rise to procedures which in turn reduced bullying Time 2. Our findings suggest a multi-component approach to prevent or reduce bullying. Procedures (to reduce psychosocial hazards) that emerge in a high PSC context are more comprehensive than those triggered by bullying (reactive procedures), and can therefore be more effective in reducing worker mistreatment. Building PSC and a strong climate for psychological health, and enacting PSC is fundamental to bullying prevention.     

Theology After the Scientific Revolution: The Significance of Nancey Murphy’s Contribution to Philosophy of Religion

This paper evaluates Nancey Murphy’s contribution to philosophy of religion paying special attention to epistemology and ethics. I argue that Murphy’s intellectual moves are motivated by a reflective and constructive engagement—around particular loci such as human knowledge, divine action, and the moral nature of the universe—with reductive materialism as a rival tradition of inquiry. At paper’s end, I suggest an amendment in Murphy’s contribution to ethics.