Skill‐based versus effort‐based task difficulty: A task‐analysis approach to the role of specific emotions in motivating difficult actions

We make a distinction between primarily effort-based and skilled-based tasks and examine the correspondence between emotion and task. We reverse attribution theory results wherein failure to expend effort engenders regret and accomplishing tasks with skill engenders pride, and propose these emotions as antecedents to effort-based and skill-based behaviors. Specifically, pride (regret) produces higher self-efficacy, behavioral intentions and sign-ups when the task (CPR training) is portrayed as skill-intensive (effort-intensive) compared to effort-intensive (skill-intensive) or easy. Our research highlights the value of integrating an attributional analysis of tasks into an appraisal theory of emotions and suggests mechanisms that might underlie this relationship.     

Age at menarche and digit ratio (2D:4D): relationships with body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, and bulimia symptoms in women

This study examined the hypothesis that lower prenatal androgen exposure and earlier puberty are associated with more dysfunctional eating attitudes and behaviors. Relationships between both age at menarche (AAM) and 2D:4D (a marker of prenatal androgen exposure), and EDI-2-Body Dissatisfaction, EDI-2-Drive for Thinness, and EDI-2-Bulimia scores, were examined in women using correlations and regressions. Earlier menarche was associated with higher drive for thinness after controlling for BMI and negative affect, but only in women who were not exclusively heterosexual. Higher 2D:4D was associated with higher Bulimia and Body Dissatisfaction scores, but only in exclusively heterosexual women, and relationships disappeared when covariates were controlled. Later AAM and higher 2D:4D were unique predictors of higher Bulimia scores for exclusive heterosexuals when BMI was controlled. These findings suggest future research should examine sexual orientation as a mediator or moderator of prenatal and postnatal organizational hormonal effects on women's disordered eating attitudes and behaviors.     

Inanspruchnahme psychosozialer Versorgungsstrukturen

In spite of the high proportion of persons with a migration background in Germany, professional mental health care utilization by this population group still seems to be insufficient. This could be due to social as well as structural and individual barriers which impede the professional mental health care-seeking process. The heuristic Mental Health Action Process Approach (M-HAPA) model was developed in order to be able to empirically investigate the specific mechanism of action as well as the specific time of influence of these factors. An empirically supported model should possibly be able to justify targeted interventions. The M-HAPA model describes mental health care utilization behavior, combines the basic ideas of already existing models describing health behavior and health care utilization behavior as well as factors which are specifically relevant for the health care utilization behavior of persons with a migration background. This combination may serve as a basis for future research in the field of mental health care utilization behavior of persons with a migration background.     

Artificial Intelligence and Medical Humanities

The use of artificial intelligence in healthcare has led to debates about the role of human clinicians in the increasingly technological contexts of medicine. Some researchers have argued that AI will augment the capacities of physicians and increase their availability to provide empathy and other uniquely human forms of care to their patients. The human vulnerabilities experienced in the healthcare context raise the stakes of new technologies such as AI, and the human dimensions of AI in healthcare have particular significance for research in the humanities. This article explains four key areas of concern relating to AI and the role that medical/health humanities research can play in addressing them: definition and regulation of “medical” versus “health” data and apps; social determinants of health; narrative medicine; and technological mediation of care. Issues include data privacy and trust, flawed datasets and algorithmic bias, racial discrimination, and the rhetoric of humanism and disability. Through a discussion of potential humanities contributions to these emerging intersections with AI, this article will suggest future scholarly directions for the field.

     

Dissociations between vision for perception and vision for action depend on the relative availability of egocentric and allocentric information

In three experiments, we scrutinized the dissociation between perception and action, as reflected by the contributions of egocentric and allocentric information. In Experiment 1, participants stood at the base of a large-scale one-tailed version of a Müller-Lyer illusion (with a hoop) and either threw a beanbag to the endpoint of the shaft or verbally estimated the egocentric distance to that location. The results confirmed an effect of the illusion on verbal estimates, but not on throwing, providing evidence for a dissociation between perception and action. In Experiment 2, participants observed a two-tailed version of the Müller-Lyer illusion from a distance of 1.5 m and performed the same tasks as in Experiment 1, yet neither the typical illusion effects nor a dissociation became apparent. Experiment 3 was a replication of Experiment 1, with the difference that participants stood at a distance of 1.5 m from the base of the one-tailed illusion. The results indicated an illusion effect on both the verbal estimate task and the throwing task; hence, there was no dissociation between perception and action. The presence (Exp. 1) and absence (Exp. 3) of a dissociation between perception and action may indicate that dissociations are a function of the relative availability of egocentric and allocentric information. When distance estimates are purely egocentric, dissociations between perception and action occur. However, when egocentric distance estimates have a (complementary) exocentric component, the use of allocentric information is promoted, and dissociations between perception and action are reduced or absent.     

Effects of Interpretation Training on Hostile Attribution Bias and Reactivity to Interpersonal Insult

Research suggests that individuals high in anger have a bias for attributing hostile intentions to ambiguous situations. The current study tested whether this interpretation bias can be altered to influence anger reactivity to an interpersonal insult using a single-session cognitive bias modification program. One hundred thirty-five undergraduate students were randomized to receive positive training, negative training, or a control condition. Anger reactivity to insult was then assessed. Positive training led to significantly greater increases in positive interpretation bias relative to the negative group, though these increases were only marginally greater than the control group. Negative training led to increased negative interpretation bias relative to other groups. During the insult, participants in the positive condition reported less anger than those in the control condition. Observers rated participants in the positive condition as less irritated than those in the negative condition and more amused than the other two conditions. Though mediation of effects via bias modification was not demonstrated, among the positive condition posttraining interpretation bias was correlated with self-reported anger, suggesting that positive training reduced anger reactivity by influencing interpretation biases. Findings suggest that positive interpretation training may be a promising treatment for reducing anger. However, the current study was conducted with a non-treatment-seeking student sample; further research with a treatment-seeking sample with problematic anger is necessary.