WITHIN‐TRIAL CONTRAST: WHEN IS A FAILURE TO REPLICATE NOT A TYPE I ERROR?

Vasconcelos, Urcuioli, and Lionello-DeNolf (2007) report the results of five experiments that fail to replicate the results of our within-trial contrast study (Clement, Feltus, Kaiser, & Zentall, 2000) and suggest that our results may represent a Type I Error. We believe that this conclusion is not warranted because (a) there is considerable evidence in support of the effect and (b) the amount of training that they gave to their pigeons prior to test may not have been sufficient to observe the effect reliably. We suggest that when sufficient training is provided, reliable contrast can be found.     

Plasma interleukin-6 and soluble IL-6 receptors are associated with psychological well-being in aging women.

OBJECTIVE: This study tested the hypothesis that psychological well-being would predict lower plasma levels of inflammatory factors in aging women. DESIGN: One hundred thirty-five women ages 61-91 years (M = 74.5 years) participated in this study. After completing self-administered questionnaires in their homes, participants stayed overnight at the General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Blood samples for cytokine analyses were obtained in participants' homes after the GCRC visit. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Psychological well-being and ill-being, history of health problems, and health behaviors were assessed via self-administered questionnaires. Detailed medical history and concurrent health measures were obtained during the GCRC stay. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays were used to determine interleukin-6 (IL-6) and soluble IL-6 receptor (sIL-6R) concentrations in plasma. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Regression analyses showed that plasma IL-6 levels were lower in women scoring higher on positive relationships, whereas sIL-6R levels were lower in women scoring higher on purpose in life, even after a variety of sociodemographic and health factors were controlled. These outcomes, combined with the absence of significant links with other measures of well-being and ill-being, suggest selective patterns of association between later life inflammatory processes and psychological factors, particularly those focused on positive ties with others and purposeful engagement.     

Sleeping beauty should be imprecise

The traditional solutions to the Sleeping Beauty problem say that Beauty should have either a sharp 1/3 or sharp 1/2 credence that the coin flip was heads when she wakes. But Beauty’s evidence is incomplete so that it doesn’t warrant a precise credence, I claim. Instead, Beauty ought to have a properly imprecise credence when she wakes. In particular, her representor ought to assign \(R(H\!eads)=[0,1/2]\) . I show, perhaps surprisingly, that this solution can account for the many of the intuitions that motivate the traditional solutions. I also offer a new objection to Elga’s restricted version of the principle of indifference, which an opponent may try to use to collapse the imprecision.     

Nursing students’ reflections on an interprofessional placement in ambulatory care

Reflection has been identified as key to interprofessional education as it facilitates a focus on interprofessional communication, collaborative practice and professional roles, while contributing to debunking ingrained understandings of roles and behaviours. The aim of this study is to explore the written reflections of nursing students following an interprofessional placement in ambulatory care. A deductive analysis of nursing student reflective journal entries mapped against the university interprofessional framework was conducted. A purposeful sample of 19 graduate entry Master of Nursing Science students participating in a two-week interprofessional educational placement completed a reflective journal relating to an interprofessional placement in ambulatory care. The analysis of the journals found that all students were able to reflect on their interprofessional clinical experience, but the ability to reflect varied between students. Despite the challenges that some nursing students experienced in achieving deep levels of reflection, the study demonstrated the usefulness of incorporating reflective journals into nursing curriculums and as part of interprofessional practicums.     

Understanding Psychological Safety in Health Care and Education Organizations: A Comparative Perspective

Psychological safety plays a vital role in helping people overcome barriers to learning and change in interpersonally challenging work environments. This article focuses on two such contexts—health care and education. The authors theorize differences in psychological safety based on work type, hierarchical status, and leadership effectiveness. Consistent with prior research, the authors employ cross-industry comparison to highlight distinctive features of different professions. The goal is to illuminate similarities and differences with implications for future psychological safety research. To do this, the authors review relevant literature and present analyses of large data samples in each industry to stimulate further research on psychological safety in both sectors, separately and together.     

‘It's not supposed to be this way’: Psychological aspects of a premature menopause

Background: Premature menopause (menopause diagnosed at 40 years or under) is a challenging condition with no prevention or cure. Causes can be the result of surgical intervention or spontaneous and largely unknown. It affects 1–6% of women aged 14–40. Aim: This study investigated women's experience of diagnosis, perception of cause, treatment received, main concerns, perceived long‐term consequences and impact on psychological wellbeing. Method: A cross‐sectional single group design questionnaire study that included both quantitative and qualitative measures was used. It was distributed to women on the database of two specialist London clinics and an internet‐based patient support group. A thematic analysis was undertaken. Findings: The response rate was 62%. Women's experiences varied but showed common themes regardless of timing of diagnosis and services accessed. Improved understanding by health professionals could help this group accept and adjust to the condition more effectively as could psychological support. Fertility was a primary concern regardless of parity and there were several secondary impacts both physiological and psychological. Discussion: A clear need for the offer of emotional support was indicated for all, but particularly for teenage girls and single women who tended not to access support from their own social network. Conclusion: Young women with this diagnosis could benefit from the offer of counselling, though uptake may be influenced by individual factors and vary according to age and circumstances. A good understanding of the physical aspects of this condition is important in the counselling of this group.     

Social deviance activates the brain’s error-monitoring system

Social psychologists have long noted the tendency for human behavior to conform to social group norms. This study examined whether feedback indicating that participants had deviated from group norms would elicit a neural signal previously shown to be elicited by errors and monetary losses. While electroencephalograms were recorded, participants (N = 30) rated the attractiveness of 120 faces and received feedback giving the purported average rating made by a group of peers. The feedback was manipulated so that group ratings either were the same as a participant’s rating or deviated by 1, 2, or 3 points. Feedback indicating deviance from the group norm elicited a feedback-related negativity, a brainwave signal known to be elicited by objective performance errors and losses. The results imply that the brain treats deviance from social norms as an error.     

The implicit self and the specificity-matching principle: Implicit self-concept predicts domain-specific outcomes

According to the specificity-matching principle (Swann, Chang-Schneider, & McClarty, 2007), specific aspects of self-concept should predict domain specific outcomes, rather than broader outcomes. The purpose of the current study was to determine whether this principle, which has thus far been examined using explicit measures of the self, extends to the implicit self-concept. We tested this idea in the domain of math achievement. We observed that explicit math self-concept was correlated with specific outcomes (measures of math achievement), whereas explicit self-esteem was correlated with a broad outcome (satisfaction with life). Thus, we replicated the specificity-matching principle using explicit measures of self-esteem and self-concept. Moreover, we found that implicit self-concept was correlated with domain-specific outcomes, but not a global outcome, as the specificity-matching principle would predict. Furthermore, regression analyses indicated that implicit self-concept accounted for unique variance in the domain-specific outcomes, for which the other measures of the self could not account. Taken together, we conclude that the specificity-matching principle does indeed extend to the implicit self-concept.