Processing ordinality and quantity: ERP evidence of separate mechanisms

We report an event-related potential (ERP) experiment of ordinal processing exploring the relationship between ordinal and numerical information.     

A qualitative analysis of attitudes to face transplants: contrasting views of the general public and medical professionals

While there has been a considerable criticism and debate about face transplantation from ethicists, surgeons and psychologists, little is known about the attitudes of medical professionals and the general public whose support will be necessary if face transplants are to be accepted. This study therefore conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with medical professionals (8) and the general public (8) to explore their understanding of and attitudes to face transplants. A thematic analysis was used to analyse these data. Five overarching themes were identified including agreement in principal, caveats and conditions, medical and technical difficulties, function and appearance, and the significance of the human face. The analysis revealed overwhelming support in principle for face transplants, but with important caveats and conditions. Both groups shared clear representations of deserving and undeserving candidates, and concerns about psychological adjustment. The general public sample demonstrated little understanding of medical implications or the consequences of a failed graft, which did concern the medical professionals. Neither group showed a clear understanding of the psychological or social factors required to predict best outcomes and identify suitable candidates. Analyses revealed a stereotypical belief from both groups that the life of a severely disfigured recipient is intolerable without this operation.     

Birth order effects on the separation process in young adults: an evolutionary and dynamic approach

The present study analyzes the differential contribution of a familial or social focus in imaginative ideation (the personal fable and imagined audience mental constructs) to the separation-individuation process of firstborn, middleborn, and lastborn children. A total of 160 young adults were divided into 3 groups by birth order. Participants' separation-individuation process was evaluated by the Psychological Separation Inventory, and results were cross-validated by the Pathology of Separation-Individuation Inventory. The Imaginative Ideation Inventory tested the relative dominance of the familial and social environments in participants' mental constructs. The findings showed that middleborn children had attained more advanced separation and were lower in family-focused ideation and higher in nonfamilial social ideation. However, the familial and not the social ideation explained the variance in the separation process in all the groups. The findings offer new insights into the effects of birth order on separation and individuation in adolescents and young adults.     

Israeli Teachers’ Perceptions of Lateness: A Gender Comparison

The study examines the relationship between distributive justice and teachers’ lateness, focusing on the mediation effect of organizational commitment and taking into account gender differences. The sample consisted of 1,016 teachers from 35 high schools in Israel. Results, based on multi-level analysis, showed that, for women, organizational commitment partially mediated the relation between perceived distributive justice and lateness. No such effect was found for men. The findings are explained in terms of women using lateness behavior to establish a balance between their amount of effort and the measure of their perceived reward.     

Resistance to yielding and the expectation of cooperative future interaction in negotiation

The expectation of cooperative future interaction (ECFI) encouraged especially high joint benefit (the total of the two bargainers' individual outcomes) when resistance to yielding was high, but especially low joint benefit when resistance to yielding was low. Process data suggest that this finding can be explained as follows: When resistance to yielding is high, ECFI encourages problem solving and reduced contentious behavior; when resistance to yielding is low, ECFI encourages a collapse of aspirations. The results support Filley's (1975) dualconcern model and cast doubt on Deutsch's (1973) blanket assertion that a cooperative process leads to constructive conflict resolution.     

Comparative judgments of symbolic and non-symbolic stimuli yield different patterns of reaction times

Are different magnitudes, such as Arabic numerals, length and area, processed by the same system? Answering this question can shed light on the building blocks of our mathematical abilities. A shared representation theory suggested that discriminability of all magnitudes complies with Weber's law. The current work examined this suggestion. We employed comparative judgment tasks to investigate different types of comparisons — conceptual comparison of numbers, physical comparison of numbers and physical comparison of different shapes. We used 8 different size ratios and plotted reaction time as a function of these ratios. Our findings suggest that the relationship between discriminability and size ratio is not always linear, as previously suggested; rather, it is modulated by the type of comparison and the type of stimuli. Hence, we suggest that the representation of magnitude is not as rigid as previously suggested; it changes as a function of task demands and familiarity with the compared stimuli.     

What do Non-clergy Spiritual Care Providers Contribute to End of Life Care in Israel? A Qualitative Study

Spiritual care is an increasingly important component of end of life care. As it emerges in Israel, it is intentionally built on a nonclerical model. Based on interviews with spiritual care providers in Israel, we find that they help patients and families talk about death and say goodbyes. They encourage the wrapping up of unfinished business, offer diverse cultural resources that can provide meaning, and use presence and touch to produce connection. As spiritual care emerges in Israel, providers are working with patients at the end of life in ways they see as quite distinct from rabbis. They offer broad frames of meaning to which patients from a range of religious traditions can connect.