Words and Wards: A Model of Reflective Writing and Its Uses in Medical Education

Personal, creative writing as a process for reflection on patient care and socialization into medicine ("reflective writing") has important potential uses in educating medical students and residents. Based on the authors' experiences with a range of writing activities in academic medical settings, this article sets forth a conceptual model for considering the processes and effects of such writing. The first phase (writing) is individual and solitary, consisting of personal reflection and creation. Here, introspection and imagination guide learners from loss of certainty to reclaiming a personal voice; identifying the patient's voice; acknowledging simultaneously valid yet often conflicting perspectives; and recognizing and responding to the range of emotions triggered in patient care. The next phase (small-group reading and discussion) is public and communal, where sharing one's writing results in acknowledging vulnerability, risk-taking, and self-disclosure. Listening to others' writing becomes an exercise in mindfulness and presence, including witnessing suffering and confusion experienced by others. Specific pedagogical goals in three arenas-professional development, patient care and practitioner well-being - are linked to the writing/reading/listening process. The intent of presenting this model is to help frame future intellectual inquiry and investigation into this innovative pedagogical modality.     

Trust in the face of conflict: the role of managerial trustworthy behavior and organizational context

The authors explored the role of attributions in shaping employees' trust in their managers in the context of negative events. The authors examined how 2 forms of managerial trustworthy behavior (open communication and demonstrating concern for employees) and organizational policies relate to attributions, trust in the manager, and organizational citizenship behavior. Participants were 115 credit union employees who responded to a critical incident regarding a disagreement with their managers. As hypothesized, trustworthy behavior was negatively related to attributions of personal responsibility for negative encounters, and this relationship was stronger when human resource policies were perceived as unfair. Managerial trustworthy behavior was also positively related to trust in the manager and organizational citizenship behavior. Personal attributions partially mediated the relationship between trustworthy behavior and trust.     

The interplay of attention and bimanual coordination dynamics

Despite their common origin, studies on motor coordination and on attentional load have developed into separate fields of investigation, bringing out findings, methods, and theories which are diverse if not mutually exclusive. Sitting at the intersection of these two fields, this article addresses the issue of behavioral flexibility by investigating how intention modifies the stability of existing patterns of coordination between moving limbs. It addresses the issue, largely ignored until now, of the attentional cost incurred by the central nervous system (CNS) in maintaining a coordination pattern at a given level of stability, in particular under different attentional priority requirements. The experimental paradigm adopted in these studies provides an original mix of a classical measure of attentional load, namely, reaction time, and of a dynamic approach to coordination, most suitable for characterizing the dynamic properties of coordinated behavior and behavioral change. Findings showed that central cost and pattern stability covary, suggesting that bimanual coordination and the attentional activity of the CNS involved in maintaining such a coordination bear on the same underlying dynamics. Such a conclusion provides a strong support to a unified approach to coordination encompassing a conceptualization in terms of information processing and another, more recent framework rooted in self-organization theories and dynamical systems models     

Should we design our descendants?

Rapid breakthroughs in genetic research spurred by the Human Genome Project, advances in molecular biology, and new reproductive technologies are raising the prospect that we may eventually have the technical capacity to modify genes that are transmitted to future generations not only to treat or eliminate diseases but also to "enhance" normal human characteristics beyond what is necessary to sustain or restore good health. This paper explores the ethical and justice implications of such genetic modifications. It argues against developing these technologies primarily because it will not be possible to counter the deleterious justice impacts. It recommends the need for public education and public discussion, preferably with the religious community taking an active role, to shape decisions about future genetic research and applications, and for better regulation of genetic technologies with the potential for inheritable genetic alterations.     

Videotaped Confessions: The Impact of Camera Point of View on Judgments of Coercion1

Twenty-four college students viewed one of three videotapes of a mock police interrogation that ended in a confession. In one videotape the camera was focused primarily on the “suspect”; in a second the camera was focused primarily on the “detective”; and in the third the camera was focused on the suspect and detective equally. Subjects in the suspect-focus condition subsequently judged that the confession was elicited by means of a small degree of coercion; subjects in the equal-focus condition judged that it was elicited by means of a moderate degree of coercion; and subjects in the detective-focus condition judged that it was elicited by means of a large degree of coercion. It is argued that the effect of camera point of view on judgments of coercion is mediated by causal attributions. Consistent with this interpretation, camera point of view also had a significant effect on subjects' attributions for the suspect's behavior, with subjects in the suspect-focus condition making the most dispositional attributions and subjects in the detective-focus condition making the least dispositional attributions. Alternative explanations are considered and limitations of the present research are discussed. It is concluded that to the extent that interrogations are videotaped with the camera focused on the suspect, judges and/ or jurors may be biased to perceive a confession as voluntary.     

Voting in Ignorance: The Politics of Smooth-Sounding Names

The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether the attractiveness of political candidates' names would influence voter preferences, both when only the names were known and when politically relevant information was provided. The names and platforms of candidates in an actual election in which victory was attributed to a name effect were used in a straw poll of undergraduate subjects. Results showed a clear name effect when only names were presented. However, abstention was also quite common in this condition. When candidates' issue positions were also described, the name effect faded to nonsignificance. The results highlight the efficacy of relevant information in overcoming spurious influences on decisions.     

Goal Characteristics and Satisfaction: Personal Goals as Mediators of Situational Effects on Task Satisfaction1

This study modeled the process underlying the experience of satisfaction by examining the interrelationships among the task situation, intention characteristics, and satisfaction. The central proposition of the model was that the effect of the situation on satisfaction is fully mediated by the nature and status of one's own intentions that result from that context. The proposed model, in which the task situation indirectly determines satisfaction only through intention characteristics, was compared to a model in which the situation both directly and indirectly determines satisfaction and to a model which contained no intention characteristics. The intention characteristics assessed in this study included their number, valence, value, commitment, probability, and perceived attainment. Two aspects of the task situation were examined: task enrichment and assigned performance goals. A total of 192 subjects were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 conditions according to goal (no goal vs. assigned goal) and task type (enriched vs. unenriched). Intentions and their characteristics were assessed before the task period, and satisfaction with the task was measured afterward. The results provided support for a model in which the task situation and intention characteristics have independent effects on satisfaction.     

Sources of Resistance to Mergers Between Groups1

Workers involved in a business merger often display strong ingroup/outgroup biases that can threaten the merger's success. Social identity theory helps to explain why and when such problems will occur. Using that theory, strong cohesion and successful performance were identified as two characteristics of a workgroup that should increase its resistance to a merger. An experiment involving mergers between small task groups was conducted to test this claim. Each group's cohesion and performance was used to predict its enthusiasm for a merger before it occurred, and any ingroup/outgroup biases that it displayed afterwards. Cohesion was unrelated to either of these measures, but as we predicted, more successful groups were less enthusiastic and displayed stronger biases. Relative rather than absolute success was an especially good predictor of merger resistance. The results were discussed within the context of social identity theory, which generated several suggestions for further research on business mergers.     

The influence of adaptation and stochastic fluctuations on spontaneous perceptual changes for bistable stimuli

Spontaneous perceptual change was studied by measuring the probabilities of the first two spontaneous pattern switches as a function of time following the onset of a bistable apparent quartet for which either horizontal or vertical motion is perceived. Contrary to the classical satiation hypothesis (Köhler & Wallach, 1944),differential time-dependent adaptation of the perceived compared with the unperceived motion directions was not necessary to account for the first spontaneous switch. In addition, adaptation of the perceived motion accompanied by recovery from adaptation of the unperceived motion was not necessary to account for the increased probability of the second spontaneous switch. It was concluded that regardless of possible adaptation effects, stochastic fluctuations are necessary for the actual reversal of activation levels that produces the spontaneous switch. When the difference in detector activation is reduced by differential adaptation of competing motion detectors (or by the occurrence of a prior spontaneous pattern change), smaller stochastic fluctuations are sufficient to reverse the relative activation of competing detectors. Thus, adaptation can increase the probability of spontaneous switches without directly causing them.