Understanding Engineers’ Responsibilities: A Prerequisite to Designing Engineering Education

Science and Engineering Ethics - The development of the curriculum for engineering education (course requirements as well as extra-curricular activities like study abroad and internships) should be...     

Introduction to the Symposium on Sabine Roeser’s Risk,Technology, and Moral Emotions

Science and Engineering Ethics -     

Patterns in Father Presence and Engagement in Mongolia: A Historical Cross-Sectional Study

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Many households in Mongolia are facing increased livelihood and financial insecurity due to rapid social, economic, political, and climate changes. There is...     

Relative deprivation versus system justification: Polemical social representations and identity positioning in a post‐Soviet society

Societal changes involving power reversal may pose challenges to system justification by a subordinate minority group that had previously held a more privileged position. Derived from originally exploratory qualitative investigation, this paper presents an account of endorsement of justifying the status quo versus the voicing relative deprivation in the context of post‐Soviet Estonia. Experiences of alternative societal arrangements in history were actively deployed by (minority ethnic) Estonian Russians to generate temporal comparisons with the past as a cognitive alternative to the present status quo and give voice to experiences of relative deprivation. A struggle for positive social identity was interpreted to motivate Estonian Russians to mobilize the past as a cognitive alternative to delegitimize the status quo. By contrast, Russians were portrayed as invaders, and the Soviet past was represented as unjust by (the majority ethnic) Estonians, whereas the present system was depicted as fair and equitable. Mutually, polemical representations of history and narratives of identity provide the lenses through which the legitimacy of new societal arrangements following the major social change is interpreted. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mediation analysis of decisional balance,sun avoidance and sunscreen use in the precontemplation and preparation stages for sun protection

Objective: Mediation analyses of sun protection were conducted testing structural equation models using longitudinal data with three waves. An effect was said to be mediated if the standardised path between processes of change, decisional balance and sun protection outcomes was significant.

Design: Longitudinal models of sun protection using data from individuals in the precontemplation (N = 964) and preparation (N = 463) stages who participated of an expert system intervention.

Main outcome measures: Nine processes of change for sun protection, decisional balance constructs of sun protection (pros and cons), sun avoidance behaviour and sunscreen use.

Results: With the exception of two processes in the preparation stage, processes of change predicted the pros (r = .126–.614), and the pros predicted the outcomes (r = .181–.272). Three models with the cons as mediator in the preparation stage, and none in the precontemplation stage, showed a mediated relationship between processes and outcomes.

Conclusion: In general, mediation analyses found both the process of change-to-pros and pros-to-behaviour paths significant for both precontemplation and preparation stages, and for both sun avoidance and sunscreen use outcomes. Findings provide support for the importance of assessing the role of underlying risk cognitions in improving sun protection adherence.     

Predictors of physical activity,healthy eating and being smoke-free in teens: A theory of planned behaviour approach

This paper elicited context specific underlying beliefs for physical activity, fruit and vegetable consumption and smoke-free behaviour from the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), and then determined whether the TPB explained significant variation in intentions and behaviour over a 1 month period in a sample of grade 7–9 (age 12–16 years) adolescents. Eighteen individual interviews and one focus group were used to elicit student beliefs. Analyses of this data produced behavioural, normative and control beliefs which were put into a TPB questionnaire completed by 183 students at time 1 and time 2. The Path analyses from the main study showed that the attitude/intention relationship was moderately large for fruit and vegetable consumption and small to moderate for being smoke free. Perceived behavioural control had a large effect on being smoke free and a moderately large effect for fruit and vegetable consumption and physical activity. Intention had a large direct effect on all three behaviours. Common (e.g. feel better, more energy) and behaviour-specific (e.g., prevent yellow fingers, control my weight) beliefs emerged across the three health behaviours. These novel findings, to the adolescent population, support the importance of specific attention being given to each of the behaviours in future multi-behavioural interventions.     

How Children Determine the Size of 3D Structures: Investigating Factors Influencing Strategy Choice

This study explores changes in students’ strategies as they solve different types of volume problems. Fifth graders were presented with pictures showing 3D objects and a unit cube; they determined how many cubes made up the object and explained their responses. We examined whether children transferred strategies across problem types, varying in terms of (a) availability of grids that divided objects into individual unit cubes, (b) order of items, (c) object shape, and (d) availability of the unit cube. Children's strategy choices varied systematically with object and task characteristics. They were more likely to use conceptually appropriate strategies when presented with grids. With non-gridded objects, they were more likely to treat a 3D object as a collection of 2D faces. Presenting gridded items first increased the use of conceptually appropriate strategies on the non-gridded items. We discuss findings in the context of Siegler's theory of strategy choice and address educational implications.     

A psychodynamic understanding of parental stress among parents of children with learning and developmental disability and behaviours that challenge

A significant minority of parents of children with learning and developmental disability experience elevated levels of parental stress, particularly when their children present with behaviours that challenge. A small but influential number of psychoanalytic authors have made significant contributions to the learning disability field of research, however, the psychological distress of parents whose children have behaviours that challenge has received scant attention. This paper posits that distressed parents of children with learning and developmental disability and behaviours that challenge often make use of primary defences, which are linked with their children’s behaviour, albeit in a reciprocal rather than causal manner.     

The Effect of Suspense on Enjoyment Following a Desirable Outcome: The Mediating Role of Relief

Although endemic to many forms of media entertainment, suspense represents a paradox for enjoyment because it is experienced as an aversive state. Three studies are presented across two media contexts demonstrating how outcomes to suspenseful episodes affect viewers' relief. Study 1 shows that relief is elicited only when a film's outcome is unambiguously favorable and under such conditions is positively related to enjoyment. No such relationship was found given an ambiguous outcome. Study 1 provides evidence that relief is distinct from other affective responses (i.e., positive and negative affect, surprise) that may be present following suspense. Studies 2 and 3 use competitive contests as a context and provide evidence that relief mediates the effect of suspense on enjoyment. Study 2 shows that the previously positive effects of suspense and expectation disconfirmation on enjoyment are obviated in the presence of relief. Study 3 varies suspense in real time across 14 simulated races. Also manipulated are affective dispositions toward the racers and race outcome. The results reveal that relief mediates the effect of suspense on enjoyment, but only when the outcome favors a preferred competitor. The research enhances our understanding of the intertwining of cognition and affect in the enjoyment of suspense.