Teaching and learning the esoteric: an insight into how reflection may be internalised with reference to the occupational therapy profession

This paper is concerned with the ways in which reflective practice is learnt, taught and assessed within the profession of occupational therapy. It utilises individual experiences of reflection of both students and staff members in university and practice placement settings. The discussion places reflection within learning a profession’s way of being and individual learner’s relation to this ‘sense of being’. It concludes that the ‘rote’ way in which reflection is currently used to demonstrate evidence of reflective practice is detrimental to the development of a reflective professional, in this instance, an occupational therapist.     

Conspiracist beliefs,intuitive thinking,and schizotypal facets: A further evaluation

This study examined whether thinking style mediated relationships between belief in conspiracy and schizotypy facets. A UK-based sample of 421 respondents completed the Generic Conspiracist Beliefs Scale (GCBS), Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences Short (O-Life), and measures indexing preferential thinking style (proneness to reality testing deficits and Need for Cognition). Path analysis revealed direct and indirect relationships between Conspiracy Beliefs and schizotypy facets. Unusual Experiences had a direct effect on Conspiracy Beliefs and predicted Reality Testing and Need for Cognition. Preferential thinking style mediated the schizotypy-belief in conspiracy relationship. This pattern of results (higher experiential-based processing and lower Need for Cognition) was consistent with intuitive thinking. Introverted Anhedonia and Impulsive Nonconformity predicted Reality Testing and had indirect effects on Conspiracy Beliefs. Finally, Reality Testing predicted Conspiracy Beliefs, whereas Need for Cognition did not. These results confirm that cognitive processes related to thinking style mediate the schizotypy-conspiracist beliefs relationship.     

On the nature of neutral primes in a lexical decision task

Summary Research concerned with semantic priming has used a neutral prime as a benchmark for measuring the amount of facilitation for related targets and the amount of inhibition for unrelated targets. Recently, de Groot, Thomassen, and Hudson (1982) have reported that lexical decisions to targets are faster when preceded by the neutral prime BLANK as compared to a neutral prime consisting of a string of X's. Additionally, Antos (1979) has reported that an X neutral prime induces an inhibitory effect when the stimulus-onset-asynchrony (SOA) is short. The present experiment manipulated class of neutral prime, SOA, and practice. The results failed to support the observation by Antos. However, the results did support the finding by de Groot et al. at shorter SOA's (200 and 550 ms). At a longer (1000 ms) SOA the effect of the two neutral primes as well as the effect of the unrelated primes were equivalent. Practice had no differential effect on either of the neutral primes as compared to the unrelated priming conditions. These results were interpreted to mean that the difference between the two neutral primes at a brief SOA were perceptual in origin and that an unrelated word prime is neutral with respect to the target in the absence of strategic priming effects.     

Same-sex patterns and sex differences in the trust-value basis of children's friendship

Thirty-six children in fourth grade were required (a) to report the secret-sharing, secret-keeping, promise-making, and promise-keeping behaviors of classroom peers; and (b) to judge those classmates on trust and friendship. Teachers provided observations of the children's friendship interaction. Same-sex patterns were found in observed friendship, friendship ratings, trust, secrets shared, proportion of secrets kept, and promises made. These were less frequent/lower for opposite-sex peers than for same-sex peers. As expected, males tended to share fewer secrets with same-sex peers than did females. The expected associations were found among proportion of secrets kept, proportion of promises kept, trust, and rated or observed friendship in females but with one exception in males. The findings supported the conclusion that same-sex friendship patterns are maintained by same-sex trust patterns through (a) infrequent secret sharing with opposite-sex peers and (b) the perception that opposite-sex peers break secrets more frequently than same-sex peers. The findings also supported the conclusion that there are some sex differences in the intimacy/trust basis of friendship.     

Guidance for Submission: Social Control and Guidance in Schools for Black Pupils in South Africa

The use of a school guidance service to transmit the economic and cultural interests of the ruling group(s) in a country is explored through the case-study of guidance in the Republic of South Africa, and in particular the introduction of guidance as a subject in Black schools in 1981. An analysis of the syllabus for guidance in Black schools reveals a social-control strategy on the part of the power group, which is different to that used within the White guidance service. Whereas the White service emphasises cultural interests, the Black-school syllabus stresses the economic interests of the ruling group. Each service, however, reflects the tension between economic and cultural interests, and the guidance situation in South Africa demonstrates the complex relationship between these interests, as well as that between group power relations and the nature of guidance services. The case-study also comments upon the relationship between the power of the ruling group in South Africa and the degree to which its economic and cultural interests are made explicit in the syllabus of its guidance services.