The Psychology of Respite Care for People with Dementia in Australia

Australian health professional bodies promote the use of respite to ease carer burden, following well‐established findings that carers often face physical, mental, social, and financial strain while providing informal care. This narrative review examined the use and impacts of respite for older clients, with a particular focus on Australian research and on dementia respite. It was found that despite reports of high satisfaction from caregivers with respite use, barriers, such as caregiver concerns for the well‐being and safety of the care recipient during respite, limited flexibility for short‐notice respite booking, and low provision of support and education post respite, impacted on the accessibility and efficacy of respite care. It was concluded that respite care needs to move away from a custodial model to a more psychological model of care, and that more natural and flexible models (e.g., host family respite), integrated with increased post‐respite support and psychosocial education, are likely to be beneficial and need further evaluation.     

Crossover of Weekly Work Engagement Among Dual-Working Couples

Purpose

Based on crossover theory and the actor-partner interdependence model, the purpose of this study was to investigate the crossover process of work engagement among Chinese dual-working couples.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Fifty-one dual-working couples first completed a general questionnaire to collect basic demographic information and then completed a weekly diary over five consecutive work weeks.

Findings

The results of multilevel analyses showed that (1) actor’s work engagement had a significant impact on his or her own work performance, (2) communication quality between the dual-working couples moderated the crossover of work engagement, but this effect was only found from husbands to wives and when women scored high on communication quality, (3) when men were treated as actors, the actor’s work engagement interacted with communication quality to relate to the partner’s work performance, through the mediating mechanism of the partner’s work engagement.

Implications

Dual-working couples should communicate with each other frequently through sharing positive experiences, and each member of the couple should support the partner through concrete actions. Organizations should adequately facilitate employees’ engagement, as engaged employees can not only positively influence their colleagues but also their partners at home.

Originality/Value

Previous research on work engagement has focused mainly on static and cross-sectional studies, and most studies on crossover have been conducted primarily in the context of western cultures, whereas systematic and empirical study of oriental cultures, especially Chinese cultures, is relatively scarce. The current study explored the crossover process of work engagement among Chinese dual-working couples using a diary study methodology.

     

教育水平对老年人认知能力的影响模式

来自北京三个社区的217位60~85岁的老年人接受了五项基本心理能力测验、感觉功能测查、加工速度和工作记忆容量的测试。运用相关分析、方差分析以及结构方程模型考察了教育水平对老年人基本心理能力的影响。研究得到：（1）从整体上看,教育水平对老年人基本心理能力的积极作用是普遍存在的,不依赖于具体的领域;分水平看,教育水平对认知功能的积极作用随教育水平的高低表现出领域间的差异。（2）教育水平与年龄各自独立地对老年人的认知能力产生影响,教育水平的作用是积极的,年龄的影响是极性的。（3）教育水平对老年人基本心理能力的影响不是直接的,而是以加工速度和工作记忆为中介的。     

"明正以治国":管子行政理念初探

管子“明正以治国”的行政理念中渗透着强烈的民本意识。他相齐四十年一直坚守着“操民之命,朝不可以无政”的信条,并且将政府组织结构的同一性定位在“操民之命”所反映的民众对政府的正当要求上。倘若说管子对“顺民心”的强调是在思虑政府应当如何正当地运用权威的话,那么,管子关于“操民之命,朝不可以无政”的告诫,就是在申明政府权威的必要性。然而,需要引起注意的是,管子对于政府权威结构的设计始终无法消除其高度中央集权、强化政府管制主张的统治色彩。     

论心理咨询中的价值观

在心理咨询中,咨询者的价值观是一个核心问题。就目前来看,价值观的处理方式有：价值中立、价值澄清、价值评判、价值归因和价值引导。在此基础上提出,价值参与应因来访者情况的不同而不同。     

效应量：估计、报告和解释

鉴于心理学界对效应量（effect size,ES）的日渐重视,本文集中探讨了标准差异型和关联强度型ES指标的计算公式及使用条件,并说明关联强度型指标在SPSS软件中的操作。其次,强调ES估计结果的两个报告原则,即明确指出所计算的是何种ES指标,尽可能地呈现ES的置信区间。在ES的解释方面,建议研究者结合具体情况综合权衡结果的实际重要性,而非机械援引各种所谓＂小＂、＂中＂、＂大＂的ES判定准则。     

进化心理学视角下的智力研究

进化心理学和差异心理学是心理学的两个分支。进化心理学认为智力是一种进化的适应。差异心理学中智力是个体差异变量。本文试图整合二者的观点。认为智力既是进化的适应,也是个体差异变量。这将启示进化心理学家去研究更广范围的心理特质,允许智力研究和差异心理学运用进化心理学的理论和概念。本文还介绍了与智力进化相关的热带草原法则和Kanazawa的Savanna—IQ互动假说。     

Random number generation deficit in early schizophrenia

Random number generation with a written response mode provides a potentially appealing marker for executive processes. Impaired performance on written random number generation tasks has been reported in chronic schizophrenic patients. However, no study has investigated whether such a deficit occurs in early schizophrenia and whether its profile and severity are similar to those in patients with chronic illness. This study investigated the ability to generate random numbers in patients with early schizophrenia (n = 44) and a healthy control group (n = 48). Patients were less able to maintain several production strategies and generated more stereotyped response sequences, whereas their abilities to identify randomness with an even-handed treatment of digits and to monitor the equality of occurrence of single digits appeared to remain intact. These results provide evidence that some aspects of the deficits in random number generation among chronic schizophrenic patients are also present at early psychotic episode, while some other aspects are relatively less affected in the early years.     

Review of first trial responses in balance control: influence of vestibular loss and Parkinson's disease

The reaction to an unexpected balance disturbance is unpractised, often startling and frequently associated with falls. This everyday situation can be reproduced in an experimental setting by exposing standing humans to sudden, unexpected and controlled movements of a support surface. In this review, we focus on the responses to the very first balance perturbation, the so-called first trial reactions (FTRs). Detailed analysis of FTRs may have important implications, both for clinical practice (providing new insights into the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying accidental falls in real life) and for understanding human physiology (what triggers and mediates these FTRs, and what is the relation to startle responses?). Several aspects of the FTRs have become clear. FTRs are characterized by an exaggerated postural reaction, with large EMG responses and co-contracting muscles in multiple body segments. This balance reaction is associated with marked postural instability (greater body sway to the perturbation). When the same perturbation is repeated, the size of the postural response habituates and the instability disappears. Other issues about FTRs remain largely unresolved, and these are addressed here. First, the functional role of FTRs is discussed. It appears that FTRs produce primarily increased trunk flexion during the multi-segmental response to postural perturbations, thus producing instability. Second, we consider which sensory signals trigger and modulate FTRs, placing specific emphasis on the role of vestibular signals. Surprisingly, vestibular signals appear to have no triggering role, but vestibular loss leads to excessive upper body FTRs due to loss of the normal modulatory influence. Third, we address the question whether startle-like responses are contributing to FTRs triggered by proprioceptive signals. We explain why this issue is still unresolved, mainly because of methodological difficulties involved in separating FTRs from ‘pure’ startle responses. Fourth, we review new work about the influence of perturbation direction on FTRs. Recent work from our group shows that the largest FTRs are obtained for toe-up support surface rotations which perturb the COM in the posterior direction. This direction corresponds to the directional preponderance for falls seen both in the balance laboratory and in daily life. Finally, we briefly touch upon clinical diagnostic issues, addressing whether FTRs (as opposed to habituated responses) could provide a more ecologically valid perspective of postural instability in patients compared to healthy subjects. We conclude that FTRs are an important source of information about human balance performance, both in health and disease. Future studies should no longer discard FTRs, but routinely include these in their analyses. Particular emphasis should be placed on the link between FTRs and everyday balance performance (including falls), and on the possible role played by startle reactions in triggering or modulating FTRs.     

“迷信占卜风”何时休

愈刮愈烈的“占卜风”最近在中国的许多大中城市,很多青少年都喜欢用星座、纸牌和“笔仙”来“追问”自己的运程。并争相传阅、购买一些占卜类书籍。浙江省科学技术协会与浙江省城市经济调查局不久前开展的一次相关联合调查结果显示,16．23%的人表示相信“星座预测”,其中绝大多数是以高中生、大学生为主体的青少年。杭州市科协在10所中学进行了一项调查则显示,85%的学生算过命。