HIV‐related stigma in social interactions: Approach and avoidance behaviour in a virtual environment

People living with HIV are a stigmatized group in our society, especially homosexual people living with HIV. One of the behavioural manifestations of stigmatization is an increased interpersonal distance kept during social interactions. Immersive virtual environment technology enables the experimental study of social interactions in an accurate and relatively unobtrusive manner. Using a virtual hospital room, we measured to what extent diagnosis (HIV, cancer or broken leg) and sexual orientation (homosexual or heterosexual) were related to approach behaviour (based on the interpersonal distance and the speed of approach), and the degree patients were looked at (as was obtained from an additional exploration of our head orientation data). Moreover, implicit and explicit attitudes were predicted to moderate this relationship. Participants (N = 50) were healthy, heterosexual students. A main effect of diagnosis revealed larger interpersonal distances from patients with HIV than from patients with cancer. Also, an interaction effect demonstrated that distances were largest when the HIV patient was homosexual. Furthermore, a main effect of diagnosis showed that HIV and cancer patients were approached more slowly than broken leg patients, an effect that was larger for HIV than for cancer patients. In addition, head orientation analyses revealed that patients with HIV were relatively ‘looked at’ more often as well as relatively ‘looked away from’ less often than patients with cancer and patients with a broken leg. None of these effects however were found to be moderated by implicit and explicit attitudes. These findings provide behavioural evidence for the stigmatization of people living with HIV and homosexuals with HIV in particular. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finding order and direction from chaos: a comparison of chaos career counseling and trait matching counseling

Chaos career counseling, based on the Chaos Theory of Careers (R. G. L. Pryor & J. E. H. Bright, 2003a, 2003b), was compared with trait matching career counseling and a wait list control. Sixty university students who attended the Careers Research and Assessment Service seeking career advice were randomly assigned to the chaos intervention, the trait matching intervention, or a wait list control group. Both chaos and trait matching counseling had a positive impact; however, chaos counseling had a more lasting effect. Overall, results support using the chaos counseling approach as a valid alternative to trait matching approaches. Implications for counseling practice as well as future research are discussed.     

The role of chance events in career decision making

Two studies are reported that investigate the role of chance events as influences in career decision making. In study one, the results of a large-scale survey of high-school and university students (N = 772) investigating influences on their career decision making are presented. Chance events were reported as influencing the career decisions of 69.1% of the sample. In the second study, the role of locus of control was found to be moderately associated with reporting chance events. More External control individuals tend to report more chance events than their Internal control counterparts. Implications for career choice theory and research are discussed.     

A preliminary study of the effect of imaginary sexual stimulation on the perceived covariation between freedom and responsibility

The authors evaluated subjective estimates of the relationship between freedom and responsibility under predictions made in accordance with cognitive-experiential self-theory (CEST; V. Denes-Raj & S. Epstein, 1994; S. Epstein, A. Lipson, C. Holstein, & E. Huh, 1992; S. Epstein, R. Pacini, V. Denes-Raj, & H. Meier, 1996; L. A. Kirkpatrick & S. Epstein, 1992). Half of the participants viewed sexually stimulating primes before making judgments. The other participants viewed neutral stimuli before making judgments. Two dependent measures were used: A set of alternate-forms propositions measured perceived relationships between the variables, and response latencies were used to evaluate the hypothesis that persons operating experientially would make judgments faster than persons operating rationally. Results indicated a significant effect for the priming condition with respect to the within-subject dependent variable. In accordance with predictions, further analysis indicated that positive contingency items were endorsed less often by primed participants, and negative contingency items were endorsed more often by primed participants. Results are in line with predictions afforded by the CEST model. Implications are discussed.     

Stigma by Association Among Family Members of People with a Mental Illness: A Qualitative Analysis

People with mental illness are not the sole recipients of stigmatisation; their immediate family members may be subjected to stigma by association. Through semi‐structured interviews, we investigated experiences of stigma by association among 23 immediate family members of people with mental illness. Participants reported experiencing stigma by association from community members, mental health professionals, and civil servants. Familial relationship, co‐residence, and the gender of participants appeared to play a role in their stigma experiences; parents and spouses reported different manifestations of stigma by association than siblings and children, participants who lived together with their family member with mental illness reported increased experiences of stigma by association, and in contrast to male participants, female participants reported others thinking they are overprotective and as such perpetuated, maintained, or sustained their family members' mental illness. The relevance of these factors points to the need for tailored education and emotional support provision to family members of people with mental illness. Moreover, in‐service training for mental health professionals should include the development of relevant social skills that enable the recognition of familial relationships and roles, and family members' fears, concerns, and problems. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How Theory Matters: Formative Assessment Theory and Practices and Their Different Relations to Education

The positioning of theory in relation to educational practice has provoked much recent debate, with some arguing that educational theory constrains thinking in education, while others dismiss ??theory?? out of hand as belonging to the world of the ??academic??, abstracted from the ??realities?? of the classroom. This paper views theory as necessarily implicated in all practices, but argues that depending on the theories embraced, and the understanding of theory itself, education can be understood in very different ways. Resisting the separation of theory from practice, the paper takes up the call to consider the entanglement of theory with practice, or how theory matters. It takes formative assessment as a particularly fertile case for this discussion. Formative assessment has been considerably developed in schooling across different national education systems. Its aspiration is for assessment to support learning, rather than only to credentialise learning. Having first emerged as a concept when behaviourism held sway, it has been considered through different theoretical lenses. Drawing upon empirical studies of classroom assessment practices, the paper draws out the different ??mattering?? implicated in the different languages of assessment used by practitioners, raising questions about the practices this produced. The paper concludes by asking if formative assessment could become ??educational?? in a more radical sense, if opportunities to focus on the contingencies and politics of our meaning-making were sometimes taken up more openly and dialogically with students, as opposed to formative assessment sitting in a instrumental relationship to a given curriculum.     

Peer Bystanders to Bullying: Who Wants to Play with the Victim?

Given widespread concern associated with school-based bullying, researchers have looked beyond a dyadic perspective (i.e., bullies and victims only), and now consider the broader social ecology of the peer group. In this research, we examined how the behaviors of peer bystanders influence subsequent reactions to bullies and their victims. Two hundred and six 10- to 15-year-old boys (Mage?=?12.46) were invited to play a computer game with three other boys allegedly located at another school. Before the start of the game, participants “met the other players” apparently sitting in a waiting room. These child actors depicted an escalating bullying episode in which the behavior of the bystander was manipulated: aide to the bully, defender of the victim, or passive outsider. Immediately after exposure to the bullying, each participant played a ball toss game (Cyberball) with the three other boys in the video. Individual differences among participants were examined as moderators of the effect of bystander behavior on participants’ willingness to include the “victim” in the game. Results indicated that, when exposed to a passive bystander, boys’ normative beliefs about aggression, as well as their tendency to morally disengage from observed egregious acts, decreased their willingness to include the victim in the game.     

Jeanine Thweatt-Bates. Cyborg Selves: A Theological Anthropology of the Posthuman

Abstract

Of all the research programs investigating radical life extension, cybernetic immortality is, by definition, the most ambitious. Several models fall within this category. While some include the possibility of “re-corporealizing” either as machine, biological entity, or hybrid, all models have several essentials in common. They require the ability to construct a non-biological (e.g., electronic) substrate that can model the functioning human brain, including the ability for consciousness (self-awareness) and a means for uploading into this artificial mind the contents of one's mortal life experiences. The individuals who have speculated most comprehensively on this include Ted Chu, Raymond Kurzweil, and Martine Rothblatt.¹1 Relevant books include: Ted Chu, Human Purpose and Transhuman Potential: A Cosmic Vision for Our Future Evolution (San Rafael, CA: Origin Press, 2014); Michio Kaku, The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind (New York: Doubleday, 2014); Ray Kurzweil, How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed (London: Penguin, 2013); Martine Rothblatt, Virtually Human: The Promise and the Peril of Digital Immortality (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2014).