Complexity of health care needs and interactions in multidisciplinary medical teams

By using an information processing and social identity approach, this study examines the relationships between the complexity of the health care needs of a patient and (1) the interactions among physicians during team meetings and (2) how the meeting participants evaluate the discussion. Three dimensions of the complexity of the health care needs are related to the interactive behaviour of medical specialists during meetings of multidisciplinary medical teams. Three medical teams from a Dutch university hospital, each discussing a total of 40 patients, were observed. The results show that component complexity was positively related to the amount of information team members exchanged, to positive reactions, and to the positive evaluation of the discussion. Two other dimensions (interrelatedness of needs and ambiguity) have to be considered in concert: interrelatedness was positively related to negative reactions but only if ambiguity was low; and, further, ambiguity was positively related to evaluative behaviour and to positive reactions, and negatively to the evaluation of the discussion, but only if interrelatedness was low.     

Domestic violence and mental health in a Dutch community sample: The adverse role of loneliness

The present study explored whether the adverse mental health consequences of domestic violence victimization vary by type of loneliness (i.e., emotional and social loneliness). Participants were drawn from the Dutch city of Rotterdam (N = 7072). Domestic violence victimization, emotional loneliness and social loneliness were associated with self‐reported mental health. In addition, interaction effects were observed between domestic violence victimization and each type of loneliness. Implications for policy practice as well as strengths and limitations of the study were discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

New perspectives on career and identity in the contemporary world

For much of the 20th century, career and identity have been intimately interwoven: to know about work has been to know about the self. But meanings for both are differently constructed at different times in different discourses.This article re-examines the meaning of the concept of 'identity' under late modern conditions. It draws on discourses ranging from neuro-physiology to autobiography. The primary purpose of the piece is to set up some signposts for alignment of the careers-work field to the demands of our time. In particular, the article concludes that much of policy-directed development in this field takes too little account of emerging and significant relationships between career and identity.     

Responsivity to stress in chronic posttraumatic stress disorder due to childhood sexual abuse

The purpose of this study was to investigate psychological, cardiovascular, and neuroendocrine reactivity to standardized stress tests (orthostatic challenge, Stroop Color Word Test) in drug-free adult women with chronic PTSD due to repetitive childhood sexual abuse. At baseline, the 11 patients showed significantly higher mean scores on the Symptom Check List-90 and the Profile of Mood States than 13 healthy female controls, whereas baseline cardiovascular or hormonal parameters showed no differences between the groups. Also, no significant differences were found between the two groups in cardiovascular and hormonal responsivity to the stress tests. Thus, in the presence of robust psychological differences, the patients with chronic PTSD due to childhood sexual abuse did not show alterations in baseline values of neurobiological parameters, nor did they react differently to a physical and mental stress test when compared to healthy controls.     

Attention speeds binocular rivalry

During binocular rivalry, incompatible images presented dichoptically compete for perceptual dominance. It has long been debated whether binocular rivalry can be controlled by attention. Most studies have shown that voluntary control over binocular rivalry is limited. We sought to remove attention from binocular rivalry by presenting a concurrent task. Diverting attention slowed the rivalry alternation rate, and did so in proportion to the difficulty of the concurrent task. Even a very demanding distractor task, however, did not arrest rivalry alternations completely. Given that diverting attention was equivalent to lowering the contrast of the rival stimuli, the ability of attention to speed binocular rivalry is most likely due to an increase in the effective contrast of the stimuli through boosting the gain of the cortical response. This increase in effective contrast will ultimately lead to a perceptual switch, thereby limiting voluntary control. Thus, attention speeds rivalry alternations, but has no inherent control over the rivalry process.     

The mother-offspring relationship as a template in social development: reconciliation in captive brown capuchins (Cebus apella)

Mother-offspring (MO) relationship quality was investigated to determine its influence on the development of reconciliation--affiliation between opponents shortly after a fight--because it influenceswhat distressed youngsters learn about calming down. Data were longitudinal and cross-sectional observational samples of 38 MO pairs of monkeys across 24 months. An MO relationship quality index (RQI) classified each pair as secure or insecure. Reconciliation emerged in infancy.Secure youngsters had an appeasing conciliatory style, and insecure youngsters had an agitated conciliatory style. Conclusions are that reconciliation develops from the attachment behavior system and MO RQI is related to the particular conciliatory style youngsters develop by affecting how aroused they are by conflict and the subsequent socializing they seek to calm down.     

Collective memory,martyrdom monument,and Christian-Muslim reconciliation in Seko,North Luwu,Indonesia

This study explores the collective memory of the DI/TII (Darul Islam/The Indonesian Islamic Army) case between 1951 and 1965, the martyrdom monument, and Christian-Muslim reconciliation in Seko, Nort Luwu, and South Sulawesi. The monument portrays the interaction between Christians and Muslims during times of conflict and pushes society to construct a better developed civilization. Data collection is conducted using a qualitative approach. We adopt a bottom-up approach, conducting interviews with perpetrators, their descendants, and the monument's creator. The aims of this study were (a) to analyze the collective memory of the Seko people about the DI/TII incident, (b) to find out why Christians in Seko erected a monument to the martyrs, and (c) to seek reconciliation between Christians and Muslims in Seko. We argue that the Seko community's use of sallombengang--a philosophy promoting harmony and peace despite diversity--can deter Seko parties from pursuing confrontation between Christians and Muslims.     

The Making of Argumentation Theory: A Pragma-dialectical View

In ‘The making of argumentation theory’ van Eemeren and van Haaften describe the contributions made to the five components of a full-fledged research program of argumentation theory by four prominent approaches to the discipline: formal dialectics, rhetoric/pragmalinguistics, informal logic, and pragma-dialectics. Most of these approaches do not contribute to all components, but to some in particular. Starting from the pragma-dialectical view of the relationship between dialectical reasonableness and rhetorical effectiveness – the crucial issue in argumentation theory – van Eemeren and van Haaften explain the positions taken by representatives from the approaches discussed and indicate where they differ from the pragma-dialectical approach. It transpires that approaches focusing on dialectical reasonableness are, next to pragma-dialectics, formal dialectics and informal logic; approaches focusing on rhetorical effectiveness are, next to pragma-dialectics, rhetoric and pragmalinguistics, and the informal logician Tindale. When it comes to the relationship between dialectical reasonableness and rhetorical effectiveness, some interest in it is shown in rhetoric and pragmalinguistics, but only in pragma-dialectics and in Tindale’s work is it a real focus. The main difference between Tindale’s view and the pragma-dialectical view is that in pragma-dialectics the decisive role in deciding about reasonableness is assigned to a code of conduct for reasonable argumentative discourse and in Tindale’s approach this role is assigned to Tindale’s interpretation of the Perelmanian universal audience.

     

Speech act conditions as tools for reconstructing argumentative discourse

According to the pragma-dialectical approach to argumentation, for analysing argumentative discourse, a normative reconstruction is required which encompasses four kinds of transformations. It is explained in this paper how speech act conditions can play a part in carrying out such a reconstruction. It is argued that integrating Searlean insights concerning speech acts with Gricean insights concerning conversational maxims can provide us with the necessary tools. For this, the standard theory of speech acts has to be amended in several respects and the conversational maxims have to be translated into speech act conditions. Making use of the rules for communication thus arrived at, and starting from the distribution of speech acts in a critical discussion as specified in the pragma-dialectical model, it is then demonstrated how indirect speech acts are to be transformed when reconstructing argumentative discourse.