Ethical decision-making models: a review of the literature

A comprehensive review of the literature on ethical decision-making models in counseling is presented, beginning in the fall of 1984 through the summer of 1998. (Materials "in press" were considered.) A general overview of the literature is provided. Theoretically or philosophically based, practice-based, and specialty-relevant approaches are surveyed. The literature is rich with publications describing decision-making models, although few models have been assessed empirically, and few models seem well grounded philosophically or theoretically.     

Conspiracy Formation Is in the Detail: On the Interaction of Conspiratorial Predispositions and Semantic Cues

Significant events are frequently followed by discussions about the event's ‘true nature’. Yet, there is only little evidence whether the conspiratorial reasoning of conspiracy believers and sceptics is a priori determined, or if certain characteristics of information are responsible for provoking a polarization. We investigated how depicted causation (direct vs. indirect; Study 1) and intention (strong vs. weak purposeful; Study 2) might invoke a bias in believers and sceptics regarding conspiratorial reasoning about an ongoing event, namely, whether US investigations against FIFA were more or less likely to be seen as a conspiracy against Russia to sabotage the football World Cup in 2018. We revealed that judgments of conspiracy believers and sceptics about the event's ‘true nature’ are not a priori divided—in fact, conspiracy formation is only affected when direct causation or strong purposeful intentions were obvious. Results point to the relevance of conspiratorial predispositions and semantic cues in conspiracy formation. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Independent priming of location and color in identification of briefly presented letters

Attention shifts are facilitated if the items to be attended remain the same across trials. Some researchers argue that this priming effect is perceptual, whereas others propose that priming is postperceptual, involving facilitated response selection. The experimental findings have not been consistent regarding the roles of variables such as task difficulty, response repetition, expectancies, and decision-making. Position priming, when repetition of a target position facilitates responses on a subsequent trial, is another source of disagreement among researchers. Experimental results have likewise been inconsistent as to whether position priming is dependent on the repetition of target features or has an independent effect on attention shifts. We attempted to isolate the perceptual components of priming by presenting brief (10–180 ms) search arrays to eight healthy observers. The task was to identify a color-singleton letter among distractors. All stimulus presentation contingencies were randomized, and responses were unspeeded, to avoid effects of observer expectation and postperceptual effects. Repeating target color and/or position strongly improved performance. The effects of color and position repetition were independent of one another and were stable across participants. The results argue for a strong perceptual component in priming, which biases selection toward recent target features and positions, showing that perceptual mechanisms are sufficient to produce priming in visual search and that such effects can be elicited with limited sensory evidence. The results are the first to demonstrate independent priming of color and position in the identification of briefly presented, postmasked stimuli.     

Internal control beliefs and reference frame concurrently impact early performance monitoring ERPs

This study investigated the impact of criterion-based vs. social reference frames on behavioural and neural correlates of performance monitoring while taking individual differences in control beliefs into account. We conducted two experiments administering a time estimation task in which feedback was either delivered pertaining to participants’ own performance (nonsocial/criterion-based reference) or to the performance of a reference group of previous participants (social reference). In Experiment 1, 34 male volunteers participated. To test generalizability of the observed results to both sexes/genders, we recruited 36 female volunteers for Experiment 2. P2 and P300 amplitudes were generally larger in social than in nonsocial reference trials in the male participants of Experiment 1. ΔFRN amplitudes were larger for social compared to non-social reference trials in Experiment 1. No effects of reference frame were found in the female sample of Experiment 2. Rather, P2 and ΔFRN effects showed opposing patterns for nonsocial versus social reference frames. However, stronger internal control beliefs were accompanied by larger FRN amplitudes of negative social reference trials in both samples, suggesting generalizable effects independent of sex/gender. Enhanced P2 and ΔFRN amplitudes for social versus nonsocial reference trials suggest enhanced attentional capture and higher saliency of socially framed feedback in male participants only. In both sexes/genders, however, the social reference frame possibly challenges internal control beliefs and by this enhances performance monitoring. Our results demonstrate the complex interplay of trait variables and reference frames during performance monitoring influencing our daily lives-reference frames are omnipresent in education and one’s working environment.     

Attentional weights in vision as products of spatial and nonspatial components

The relationship between visual attentional selection of items in particular spatial locations and selection by nonspatial criteria was investigated in a partial report experiment with report of letters (as many as possible) from brief postmasked exposures of circular arrays of letters and digits. The data were fitted by mathematical models based on Bundesen’s (Psychological Review, 97, 523-547, 1990) theory of visual attention (TVA). Both attentional weights of targets (letters) and attentional weights of distractors (digits) showed strong variations across the eight possible target locations, but for each of the ten participants, the ratio of the weight of a distractor at a given location to the weight of a target at the same location was approximately constant. The results were accommodated by revising the weight equation of TVA such that the attentional weight of an object equals a product of a spatial weight component (weight due to being at a particular location) and a nonspatial weight component (weight due to having particular features other than locations), the two components scaling the effects of each other multiplicatively.     

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Psychische Störungen bei HIV-Infektion und Aids

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the pathogen responsible for acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Worldwide there are currently about 40 million people infected with HIV and an estimated 44,000 in Germany. If left untreated after a few years the infection leads to the manifestation of AIDS and eventually to death through opportunistic infections and malignant tumors. Infection with HIV is not curable. Nevertheless, antiretroviral treatment can slow the progress of the disease and prolong life expectancy significantly. Once antiretroviral treatment has started the medication must be taken regularly and lifelong. Serious side effects of the medication pose a significant stress on physical and psychological well-being and impair adherence. Infection with HIV means a total change in life perspectives and requires extensive adaptations in lifestyle. Problems with adaptation and mental disorders (e.g. depression, anxiety disorders, adjustment disorder) are, therefore, frequent. With disease progression neurocognitive impairments are increasingly likely. Mental disorders and neurocognitive impairments adversely affect treatment adherence, increase health risk behavior and reduce immune function. Psychological interventions contribute significantly to the reduction in health risk behavior, improve treatment adherence and are successful in the treatment of depression and anxiety.     

“What Would You Do if You Were Me?” Effects of Counselor Self-Disclosure Versus Non-disclosure in a Hypothetical Genetic Counseling Session

Two prior studies suggest genetic counselors self-disclose primarily because patients ask them to do so (Peters et al., 2004; Thomas et al., 2006). However, scant research has investigated effects of counselor disclosure on genetic counseling processes and outcomes. In this study, 151 students (98 undergraduates, 53 graduates) completed one of three surveys describing a hypothetical genetic counseling session in which a patient at risk for FAP was considering whether to pursue testing or surveillance procedures. Dialogue was identical in all surveys, except for a final response to the question: “What would you do if you were me?” The counselor either revealed what she would do (Personal Disclosure), what other patients have done (Professional Disclosure), or deflected the question (No Disclosure). Imagining themselves as the patient, participants wrote a response to the counselor and indicated their perceptions of her. Participants rated the non-disclosing counselor significantly lower in social attractiveness than either disclosing counselor, and less satisfying than the professional disclosing counselor. Analysis of written responses yielded four themes: Made Decision, Sought Information, Expressed Thoughts/Feelings, and No Decision. Practice implications and research recommendations are provided.     

Der Effekt der Gruppenentscheidungsstrategie auf die Optimalität von Gruppenentscheidungen

Ohne ZusammenfassungDie experimentellen Daten für diese Untersuchung wurden im Rahmen der Zulassungsarbeit des Autors für die Diplomprüfung am Psychologischen Institut der Universität Hamburg erhoben.     

Political Liberalism,Group Rights,and the Politics of Fear and Trust

Studies in East European Thought -