Moral Stress in International Humanitarian Aid and Rescue Operations: A Grounded Theory Study

Humanitarian aid professionals frequently encounter situations in which one is conscious of the morally appropriate action but cannot take it because of institutional obstacles. Dilemmas like this are likely to result in a specific kind of stress reaction at the individual level, labeled as moral stress. In our study, 16 individuals working with international humanitarian aid and rescue operations participated in semistructured interviews, analyzed in accordance with a grounded theory approach. A theoretical model of ethical decision making from a moral stress perspective was developed. The practical implications of the study are discussed.     

“Money Helps”: People who inject drugs and their perceptions of financial compensation and its ethical implications

This study documents how people who inject drugs (PWID) in rural Puerto Rico perceive payments for participating in HIV epidemiological studies. In-depth interviews were conducted among a subset (n = 40) of active PWID older than 18 years of age who had been previously enrolled in a much larger study (N = 360). Findings suggest that financial compensation was the main motivation for initially enrolling in the parent study. Then, as trust in the researchers developed, participants came to perceive compensation as part of a reciprocal exchange in which they assisted researchers by providing a trustful account of their experiences and researchers reciprocated with financial support.     

Constrained Candecomp/Parafac via the Lasso

The Candecomp/Parafac (CP) model is a well-known tool for summarizing a three-way array by extracting a limited number of components. Unfortunately, in some cases, the model suffers from the so-called degeneracy, that is a solution with diverging and uninterpretable components. To avoid degeneracy, orthogonality constraints are usually applied to one of the component matrices. This solves the problem only from a technical point of view because the existence of orthogonal components underlying the data is not guaranteed. For this purpose, we consider some variants of the CP model where the orthogonality constraints are relaxed either by constraining only a pair, or a subset, of components or by stimulating the CP solution to be possibly orthogonal. We theoretically clarify that only the latter approach, based on the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator and named the CP-Lasso, is helpful in solving the degeneracy problem. The results of the application of CP-Lasso on simulated and real life data show its effectiveness.     

Restricting the scope of justice to justify discrimination: The role played by justice perceptions in discrimination against immigrants

In this research, we have analysed the role played by the scope of justice and belief in a just world (BJW) in discrimination against immigrants. In Study 1 (n = 185), we found that the relationship between prejudice and discrimination is mediated by a restricted view of the scope of justice. In addition, the results also showed that this mediation is moderated by BJW insofar as the mediation occurred in participants with a high level of BJW but not in participants with a low level of BJW. Studies 2 and 3 experimentally tested our prediction that the legitimising role played by the scope of justice is guided by a justice motive such as BJW. In both studies, the results showed a greater degree of discrimination against immigrants when a restricted scope of justice was considered but only when the BJW was made salient. In sum, these results introduced an innovation into the literature on the legitimation of social inequalities by demonstrating the relevant role played by the justice perceptions in discrimination against immigrants. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hippocampal structure and human cognition: Key role of spatial processing and evidence supporting the efficiency hypothesis in females

Here we apply a method for automated segmentation of the hippocampus in 3D high-resolution structural brain MRI scans. One hundred and four healthy young adults completed twenty one tasks measuring abstract, verbal, and spatial intelligence, along with working memory, executive control, attention, and processing speed. After permutation tests corrected for multiple comparisons across vertices (p < .05), significant relationships were found for spatial intelligence, spatial working memory, and spatial executive control. Interactions with sex revealed significant relationships with the general factor of intelligence (g), along with abstract and spatial intelligence. These correlations were mainly positive for males but negative for females, which might support the efficiency hypothesis in women. Verbal intelligence, attention, and processing speed were not related to hippocampal structural differences.     

Positive explorers: modeling dynamic control in normal aging

Situations in which there are multiple changes occurring all at once and which demand complex decisions to be made are common throughout life, but little is known about how normal aging influences performance on these types of scenarios. To determine performance differences associated with normal aging, we test older and younger adults in a dynamic control task. The task involves the control of a single output variable over time via multiple and uncertain input controls. The Single Limited Input, Dynamic Exploratory Responses (SLIDER) computational model, is implemented to determine the behavioral characteristics associated with normal aging in a dynamic control task. Model-based analysis demonstrates a unique performance signature profile associated with normal aging. Specifically, older adults exhibit a positivity effect in which they are more influenced by positively valenced feedback, congruent with previous research, as well as enhanced exploratory behavior.     

Persuasion in school-aged children: How does it change if the persuadee is the mother or the peer?

The present study was designed to verify how school-aged children’s persuasive tactics changed if the persuadee was the mother or the peer. One hundred and forty-nine children at two grade levels (4th and 5th) were enrolled in the study. Persuasive strategies were investigated using pictures representing two common situations in which each child had to convince his/her playmate and his/her mother to obtain a toy. As predicted, with mothers children engaged more frequently in strategies aimed at encouraging cognitive reappraisal of the situation and offering guarantees. Conversely, with the peers, children adopted a greater variety of persuasive strategies, engaging in lower-order tactics. Implications and limitations of the study were discussed.     

Reauthoring One's Own Life in the Face of Being HIV+: Promoting Healthier Narratives with Metacognitive Interpersonal Therapy

We describe here a narrative-based psychotherapy for a woman in her 40s who had been HIV+ since the age of 21 and who suffered from posttraumatic symptoms related to having received the diagnosis. She had also suffered from self-stigma and had lost the capacity to envision a future filled with hope. Treating individuals with HIV who face posttraumatic symptoms and stigma can be challenging for the clinician. A narrative approach to therapy can be helpful for these persons, in order to overcome symptoms, build a more benevolent self-image, feel accepted by society, and promote posttraumatic growth. Current evidence indicates that such an approach is mostly lacking. We describe how we applied metacognitive interpersonal therapy—an approach rooted in narrative constructivism. By using this treatment, the patient could overcome posttraumatic symptoms, participate in social activities after years of avoidance and isolation, and recover her sense of being a person able to make plans for the future with strength and dignity. Discussion includes ideas of how to generalize some of the mechanisms that have likely been effective in this therapy to other individuals with HIV.