Józef Tischner’s epistemology of “political reason” and the “ethics of truth”

Studies in East European Thought - That which connects ethics and epistemology is the concept of truth. The threads concerned with the ethical and epistemological understanding of truth are...     

A Typology of Burnout in Professional Counselors

The authors used a cluster analysis procedure and the Counselor Burnout Inventory (S. M. Lee et al., 2007) to identify professional counselors' burnout types. Three clusters were identified: well‐adjusted, persevering, and disconnected counselors. The results also indicated that counselors' job satisfaction and self‐esteem were good discriminators between the 3 clusters. Implications for counselors are discussed.     

The Predictors of Suicidality in Previous Suicide Attempters following Case Management Services

Suicide attempts constitute a serious clinical problem. People who have attempted suicide are at an elevated risk for additional suicide attempts, but there is limited evidence regarding the predictors of suicidality of suicide attempters following case management services. In the present study the indicators of suicidality after case management were examined. A total of 1,056 subjects who had recently attempted suicide were recruited from January 1, 2011, to June 30, 2011. The suicide prevention center of Kaohsiung City in Taiwan provided case management services and followed up on suicide attempt cases for 6 months. The salient factors for repeat suicide attempts were estimated using a logistic regression analysis. The results showed that multiple factors, including a “willingness to receive mental health services during a crisis,” “social support,” “a history of mental disorders,” and “a history of suicide,” could predict repeat suicide attempts with hazard ratios (0.58, 0.54, 3.84, 1.51) and 95% confidence interval (0.39–0.86, 0.36–0.83, 2.41–6.10, 1.03–2.21). The four factors mentioned above were the most accurate predictors of subsequent suicidality when case management services were utilized after 6 months of follow‐up. The findings of our study could help clarify future strategies for suicide prevention.     

Optimism and Positivity Biases in Performance Appraisal Ratings: Empirical Evidence from Professional Soccer

Using unique assessment data for players from a German Bundesliga club’s youth academy, we tested four core hypotheses on how player ratings and rater or ratee-related characteristics reflect the (prospective) optimism bias and (retrospective) positivity bias. The results indicate not only that the ratings of predicted and remembered performance are indeed higher than the talents’ actual performance throughout a season, but that these differences depend positively on the rater’s organizational experience and negatively on the amount of ratee data available. They also suggest that (prospective) anticipation is even more positively biased than (retrospective) recollection of player performances, underscoring the asymmetry between looking forward and looking backward.     

Biological and psychological factors associated with memory function in fibromyalgia syndrome.

Fibromyalgia is a stress-related disorder characterized by chronic pain, memory impairment, and neuroendocrine aberrations. With the hypothesis that biological and psychological symptoms may underlie the cognitive problems, the relative influences of neuroendocrine function and psychological factors on declarative memory were examined among 50 women with fibromyalgia. This within-group analysis controlled for age, education, pain, and relevant medications. Neuroendocrine function and depression had significant independent associations with memory function. Higher log-transformed mean salivary cortisol levels were associated with better performance on both immediate and delayed visual recall and with delayed verbal recall. Depressive symptoms were negatively associated with verbal recall. These findings suggest that a basic disorder of endocrine stress responses may contribute to the cognitive symptoms experienced by fibromyalgia patients.