Grounding and the luck objection to agent-causal libertarianism

Philosophical Studies - Many philosophers think there is a luck problem confronting libertarian models of free will. If free actions are undetermined, then it seems to be a matter of chance or luck...     

Using robots at work during the COVID-19 crisis evokes passion decay: Evidence from field and experimental studies

The growing trend of introducing robots into employees' work lives has become increasingly salient during the global COVID-19 pandemic. In light of this pandemic, it is likely that organisational decision-makers are seeing value in coupling employees with robots for both efficiency- and health-related reasons. An unintended consequence of this coupling, however, may be an increased level of work routinisation and standardisation. We draw primarily from the model of passion decay from the relationship and clinical psychology literature to develop theory and test a model arguing that passion decays as employees increasingly interact with robots for their work activities. We demonstrate that this passion decay leads to an increase of withdrawal behaviour from both the domains of work and family. Drawing further from the model of passion decay, we reveal that employees higher in openness to experience are less likely to suffer from passion decay upon more frequent interactions with robots in the course of work. Across a multi-source, multi-wave field study conducted in Hong Kong (Study 1) and a simulation-based experiment conducted in the United States (Study 2), our hypotheses received support. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Developing physical activity interventions for youth with cystic fibrosis and congenital heart disease: Learning from their parents

Despite the benefits of physical activity for youth with cystic fibrosis (CF) and congenital heart disease (CHD), most are insufficiently active. More information is required on how to facilitate physical activity in these populations. Although there are no studies that provide information about participation in CF and CHD youth from the perspective of parents, the involvement of caregivers may be an important facilitator to physical activity in youth with chronic diseases.

Objective

This qualitative study explored how the parents of youth with CF and CHD experience physical activity, and parents commented on both their own and their child’s physical activity.

Methods

Twenty-nine parents from a CHD and CF clinic participated in a semi-structured interview, and a thematic analysis of the transcribed data was undertaken.

Results

Parents discussed the numerous benefits and barriers associated with physical activity for both child and self. Role modeling was a critical social process to overcoming barriers. Parents experiences were situated within the broader family context characterized by a prevailing sense of stress and complexity.

Conclusion

By illustrating how the parents of youth with CF and CHD understand the role of physical activity in their and their child’s life, this study provides valuable information regarding the development of interventions to increase physical activity among children with CF and CHD.     

Extended cognition and the space of social interaction

The extended mind thesis (EM) asserts that some cognitive processes are (partially) composed of actions consisting of the manipulation and exploitation of environmental structures. Might some processes at the root of social cognition have a similarly extended structure? In this paper, I argue that social cognition is fundamentally an interactive form of space management—the negotiation and management of “we-space”—and that some of the expressive actions involved in the negotiation and management of we-space (gesture, touch, facial and whole-body expressions) drive basic processes of interpersonal understanding and thus do genuine social-cognitive work. Social interaction is a kind of extended social cognition, driven and at least partially constituted by environmental (non-neural) scaffolding. Challenging the Theory of Mind paradigm, I draw upon research from gesture studies, developmental psychology, and work on Moebius Syndrome to support this thesis.     

Use of Ifá as a Means of Addressing Mental Health Concerns Among African American Clients

African Americans underuse counseling services because of factors such as cultural mistrust, stigma, and culturally incongruent treatment interventions. As a result, this population relies on informal healing networks. The foundations of these networks have been outlined within the professional literature. However, limited attention has been given to the indigenous healing methods used by African Americans in lieu of counseling. This article explores the conceptual, diagnostic, and treatment strategies of the indigenous healing system, Yorùbá‐based Ifá.     

Investigating merger: subliminal psychodynamic activation and oneness motivation research

Two programs of empirical research have endeavored to explicate some of the unconscious processes involved in adult phenomena of merger, symbiosis, or oneness. Starting in the 1960s under the leadership of Lloyd Silverman (see, e.g., Silverman, Lachmann, and Milich 1982), subliminal psychodynamic activation (SPA) has used subliminal methods to prime and manipulate these processes. Later research into what was termed oneness motivation (OM) posited the existence of a chronic personality variable and explored it independently of priming (see, e.g., Siegel and Weinberger 1998). These lines of research have established links between unconscious processes of oneness and a range of clinical and nonclinical outcomes.     

Short-Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy for personality disorders: a critical review of randomized controlled trials

The research evidence for Short-Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (STPP) in the treatment of personality disorders (PD) was examined through consideration of studies utilizing randomized controlled designs. An extensive literature search revealed eight published Randomized Controlled Trials (RCT) of moderate study quality. A critical review of this literature is offered to provide an evidence-based guidance for clinicians and implications for treatments are discussed. Preliminary conclusions suggest STPP may be considered an efficacious empirically-supported treatment option for a range of PDs, producing significant and medium to long-term improvements for a large percentage of patients. Further research is recommended to allow comparisons with alternative evidence-based approaches.     

Extensions of a versatile randomization test for assessing single-case intervention effects

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the statistical properties of two extensions of the Levin-Wampold (1999) single-case simultaneous start-point model's comparative effectiveness randomization test. The two extensions were (a) adapting the test to situations where there are more than two different intervention conditions and (b) examining the test's performance in classroom-based intervention situations, where the number of time periods (and associated outcome observations) is much smaller than in the contexts for which the test was originally developed. Various Monte Carlo sampling situations were investigated, including from one to five participant blocks per condition and differing numbers of time periods, potential intervention start points, degrees of within-phase autocorrelation, and effect sizes. For all situations, it was found that the Type I error probability of the randomization test was maintained at an acceptable level. With a few notable exceptions, respectable power was observed only in situations where the numbers of observations and potential intervention start points were relatively large, effect sizes were large, and the degree of within-phase autocorrelation was relatively low. It was concluded that the comparative effectiveness randomization test, with its desirable internal validity and statistical-conclusion validity features, is a versatile analytic tool that can be incorporated into a variety of single-case school psychology intervention research situations.     

Spirituality and Religiosity in Urban Adolescents with Asthma

Predictors of multiple dimensions of spirituality/religiosity (S/R) and adolescents’ preferences for having S/R (e.g., prayer) addressed in hypothetical medical settings were assessed in a sample of urban adolescents with asthma. Of the 151 adolescents (mean age = 15.8, 60% female, 85% African-American), 81% said that they were religious and spiritual, 58% attended religious services in the past month, and 49% prayed daily. In multivariable models, African-American race/ethnicity and having a religious preference were associated with higher levels of S/R (R ² = 0.07–0.25, P < .05). Adolescents’ preferences for including S/R in the medical setting increased with the severity of the clinical situation (P < .05).