“Decoding MH”—A de-stigmatization campaign in the Hong Kong Police Force

Police officers are under high level of stress given the intense and emergent work nature. If left untreated, their mental wellbeing would be at risk and work performance compromised. However, mental health stigma is common among police officers and is perpetuated by factors like police cultures emphasizing toughness and self-reliance. In view of this, since 2016, the Hong Kong Police Force had launched a holistic campaign for Force members which was the first among law enforcement organizations in Hong Kong, aiming to reduce stigma, by enhancing mental health knowledge and decreasing negative attitudes and behaviors towards mental health issues. The programme incorporated standardised trainings of the Mental Health First Aid course with examples modified to the local police context, and psychoeducation via the use of digital medium and sharing by public figures. Positive feedback was received. It was foreseen that the campaign effects would increase Force members' awareness of their mental health, encourage help-seeking and facilitate officers' decision making when encountering crises in the community.     

Doing the best you can: a study of values in a group of nun educators

A group of experienced and well‐qualified nun educators were interviewed regarding their experiences and values. A recurrent phrase occurring in the interviews was ‘Doing the best you can’. This phrase served to both justify and anticipate statements. A questionnaire was constructed to encourage elaboration of the phrase and to detect differentiated responses regarding self and pupil. The questionnaire was administered to a larger group including the original participants. Their responses to the questionnaire yielded eight underlying values. The values were employed somewhat differently with regard to self and pupils. The values were consistent with the core values of the order. The values did not relate particularly to putative female organizational values. The mixed method employed facilitates an in‐depth analysis of discourse to elicit values and other underlying constructs.     

Visual feature binding in younger and older adults: encoding and suffix interference effects

Three experiments investigated younger (18–25 yrs) and older (70–88 yrs) adults’ temporary memory for colour–shape combinations (binding). We focused upon estimating the magnitude of the binding cost for each age group across encoding time (Experiment 1; 900/1500?ms), presentation format (Experiment 2; simultaneous/sequential), and interference (Experiment 3; control/suffix) conditions. In Experiment 1, encoding time did not differentially influence binding in the two age groups. In Experiment 2, younger adults exhibited poorer binding performance with sequential relative to simultaneous presentation, and serial position analyses highlighted a particular age-related difficulty remembering the middle item of a series (for all memory conditions). Experiments 1–3 demonstrated small to medium binding effect sizes in older adults across all encoding conditions, with binding less accurate than shape memory. However, younger adults also displayed negative effects of binding (small to large) in two of the experiments. Even when older adults exhibited a greater suffix interference effect in Experiment 3, this was for all memory types, not just binding. We therefore conclude that there is no consistent evidence for a visual binding deficit in healthy older adults. This relative preservation contrasts with the specific and substantial deficits in visual feature binding found in several recent studies of Alzheimer's disease.     

Psychometric Evaluation of the Japanese Version of the Elder Life Adjustment Interview Schedule for Depression

The Elder Life Adjustment Interview Schedule (ELAIS) was developed as an age- and culture-sensitive assessment device for depression and 9 environmental, behavioral, and health correlates (Schlatter et al., 1993, J. MARC Res. 1: 27–42). The psychometric adequacy of the ELAIS has been demonstrated with samples of elder Americans of Asian, Caucasian, and Native Hawaiian ancestry (Dubanoski et al., 1996, J. Clin. Gerospsychol. 2: 247–262). This study reports on the reliability and construct validity of a translated Japanese version. Participants were 55 community-dwelling elders living in the areas surrounding Maebashi, Japan. The ELAIS contains 14 scales of which 9 represent theoretical predictors of depression. The 2 Environmental Condition scales measure life events and social support. The 4 Behavioral Competency scales measure recreational activity, assertiveness, self-reinforcement, and perceived control. The 3 Health Factor scales measure perceived health, functional ability, and objective health. The 5 Other scales measure demographics, depression, life satisfaction, cognitive functioning, and response style. Results yielded acceptable internal consistency and stability reliability coefficients for all but 1 of the subscales on the ELAIS (informational social support). Construct validity support was found for the Depression scale and 6 theoretical predictors, including life events, recreational activity, assertiveness, self-reinforcement, functional ability, and objective health. Treatment and prevention implications for the cross-ethnic multivariate assessment of depression among elders are discussed.     

Counselling Australian baby boomers: examining the loss and grief issues facing aging distance-separated sibling dyads

It has long been recognised that mature-aged sibling dyads provide each other with emotional support. What has yet to be determined is whether this support function is maintained within the baby boomer generational cohort of sibling dyads who through economic relocation/migration have become separated by distance. As such, this paper highlights the need for research to be conducted into the experiences of baby boomers dealing with sibling loss and grief-related issues without the support of their nuclear and extended family members.     

Collaboration reduces the frequency of false memories in older and younger adults

Older (mean age = 74.23) and younger (mean age = 33.50) participants recalled items from 6 briefly exposed household scenes either alone or with their spouses. Collaborative recall was compared with the pooled, nonredundant recall of spouses remembering alone (nominal groups). The authors examined hits, self-generated false memories, and false memories produced by another person's (actually a computer program's) misleading recollections. Older adults reported fewer hits and more self-generated false memories than younger adults. Relative to nominal groups, older and younger collaborating groups reported fewer hits and fewer self-generated false memories. Collaboration also reduced older people's computer-initiated false memories. The memory conversations in the collaborative groups were analyzed for evidence that collaboration inhibits the production of errors and/or promotes quality control processes that detect and eliminate errors. Only older adults inhibited the production of wrong answers, but both age groups eliminated errors during their discussions. The partners played an important role in helping rememberers discard false memories in older and younger couples. The results support the use of collaboration to reduce false recall in both younger and older adults.     

A Qualitative Approach to Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Training Development: Identification of Metacognitive Strategies

Although Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training is common in the sciences, the effectiveness of RCR training is open to question. Three key factors appear to be particularly important in ensuring the effectiveness of ethics education programs: (1) educational efforts should be tied to day-to-day practices in the field, (2) educational efforts should provide strategies for working through the ethical problems people are likely to encounter in day-to-day practice, and (3) educational efforts should be embedded in a broader program of on-going career development efforts. This article discusses a complex qualitative approach to RCR training development, based on a sensemaking model, which strives to address the afore-mentioned training concerns. Ethnographic observations and prior RCR training served the purpose of collecting information specific to a multi-disciplinary and multi-university research center with the goal of identifying metacognitive reasoning strategies that would facilitate ethical decision-making. The extensive qualitative analyses resulted in the identification of nine metacognitive reasoning strategies on which future RCR training will be developed. The implications of the findings for RCR training in the sciences are discussed.