Age and Gender Differences in the Use of Various Poisoning Methods for Deliberate Parasuicide Cases Admitted to Loghman Hospital in Tehran (2000–2004)

Different methods of poisoning used by individuals with the diagnosis of parasuicide admitted to the Loghman Hospital, Tehran, from 2000 to 2004 were investigated, with particular focus on gender and age differences. Drugs, pesticides, and other agricultural chemicals (women: 12.7%, men: 9%) were the most commonly used methods. In males, the percentage of use of drugs increased with age, but the frequency of pesticides use decreased with age. In females, drugs were most often used in the youngest age group, whereas the use of pesticides was lowest in the youngest age category. Females outnumbered males, especially in the youngest age group of 10 to 19 years olds. Drugs and pesticides were the substances used most often for parasuicide in each age group regardless of gender.     

Candidates' Ability to Identify Criteria in Nontransparent Selection Procedures: Evidence from an assessment center and a structured interview

In selection procedures like assessment centers (ACs) and structured interviews, candidates are often not informed about the targeted criteria. Previous studies have shown that candidates' ability to identify these criteria (ATIC) is related to their performance in the respective selection procedure. However, past research has studied ATIC in only one selection procedure at a time, even though it has been assumed that ATIC is consistent across situations, which is a prerequisite for ATIC to contribute to selection procedures' criterion‐related validity. In this study, 95 candidates participated in an AC and a structured interview. ATIC scores showed cross‐situational consistency across the two procedures and accounted for part of the relationship between performance in the selection procedures. Furthermore, ATIC scores in one procedure predicted performance in the other procedure even after controlling for cognitive ability. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Persuasive Effects of Fictional Narratives Increase Over Time

Fact-related information contained in fictional narratives may induce substantial changes in readers' real-world beliefs. Current models of persuasion through fiction assume that these effects occur because readers are psychologically transported into the fictional world of the narrative. Contrary to general dual-process models of persuasion, models of persuasion through fiction also imply that persuasive effects of fictional narratives are persistent and even increase over time (absolute sleeper effect). In an experiment designed to test this prediction, 81 participants read either a fictional story that contained true as well as false assertions about real-world topics or a control story. There were large short-term persuasive effects of false information, and these effects were even larger for a group with a 2-week assessment delay. Belief certainty was weakened immediately after reading but returned to baseline level after 2 weeks, indicating that beliefs acquired by reading fictional narratives are integrated into real-world knowledge.     

Transportation and Need for Affect in Narrative Persuasion: A Mediated Moderation Model

Two experiments investigated the idea that individual differences in need for affect are critical for narrative persuasion. Need for affect, that is, the disposition to approach emotions, was assumed to facilitate the experience of being transported into the mental world of the narrative. An intense experience of transportation, in turn, should enhance the persuasive impact of narrative information on readers' beliefs. A mediated moderation analysis was used to test these assumptions. In both experiments (N = 314), need for affect (approach) and transportation moderated the persuasive effects of a fictional narrative compared to a belief-irrelevant control story (Experiment 1) and the persuasive effects of a story with high emotional content compared to a story with low emotional content (Experiment 2). The moderator effects of need for affect were shown to be mediated by the moderator effects of transportation. In sum, the magnitude of a person's need for affect determines whether and to what extent the person experiences transportation into the story world and is persuaded by the information presented in the narrative.     

Twelve steps to heaven: Successfully managing change through developing innovative teams

In this article we propose that work teams implement many of the innovative changes required to enable organizations to respond appropriately to the external environment. We describe how, using an input?–?process?–?output model, we can identify the key elements necessary for developing team innovation. We propose that it is the implementation of ideas rather than their development that is crucial for enabling organizational change. Drawing on theory and relevant research, 12 steps to developing innovative teams are described covering key aspects of the team task, team composition, organizational context, and team processes.     

Health-related Quality of Life, Marital Satisfaction, and Social Support in Medical Staff in Iran

Quality of life is a subjective and multidimensional concept that includes all aspects of an individual’s life. Many investigations indicate that marital satisfaction is an important determinant of quality of life and social support affects both marital satisfaction and quality of life. Since medical staff face job stressors in their everyday life, in the present cross-sectional study, the relationships between quality of life, marital satisfaction, and social support in medical staff in Tehran were analyzed. Data collection was performed in 653 medical staff using socio-demographic questions, the SF-36 questionnaire, the ENRICH Marital Satisfaction Inventory, and the Social Support Questionnaire. The results revealed that men reported significantly higher quality of life and marital satisfaction than women, but there was no gender difference in social support. The quality of life and marital satisfaction domains were found to be differentially correlated among male and female participants. All domains of marital satisfaction were found to be significantly associated with the “vitality” and “mental health” domains among females and “physical functioning” domain in the male. Also, social support was associated with almost all quality of life domains in both sexes. The multiple regression analyses indicated that all the study variables combined with socio-demographic factors can explain between 12 % and 28 % of the variance in quality of life domains. Therefore, focusing on these factors could be an effective approach to improve quality of life in medical staff as a group with a stressful job.     

Can readers ignore implausibility? Evidence for nonstrategic monitoring of event-based plausibility in language comprehension

We present evidence for a nonstrategic monitoring of event-based plausibility during language comprehension by showing that readers cannot ignore the implausibility of information even if it is detrimental to the task at hand. In two experiments using a Stroop-like paradigm, participants were required to provide positive and negative responses independent of plausibility in an orthographical task (Experiment 1) or a nonlinguistic color judgment task (Experiment 2) to target words that were either plausible or implausible in their context. We expected a nonstrategic assessment of plausibility to interfere with positive responses to implausible words. ANOVAs and linear mixed models analyses of the response latencies revealed a significant interaction of plausibility and required response that supported this prediction in both experiments, despite the use of two very different tasks. Moreover, it could be shown that the effect was not driven by the differential predictability of plausible and implausible words. These results suggest that plausibility monitoring is an inherent component of information processing.     

Locomotor Analysis of the Taiep Rat

Locomotor activity (tremor, ataxia, immobility, epilepsy, and paralysis) in the taiep rat, which suffers from a myelin deficient disorder, has not been previously documented. This study used walking track analysis of footprints to analyze locomotor activity in the taiep rat in comparison to normal, age-matched controls. The results confirmed differences between normal and taiep rats in terms of stride length, step length, and stride width. In addition, we found significant interactions between age and condition for stride and step length. The results suggest that locomotor analysis is a sensitive indicant of myelin deficiency. The results are discussed in terms of the underlying myelin deficiency and possible treatment regimens.     

Christlicher und Philosophischer Glaube

This article consists of two parts: first, a methodological part and secondly, a historical example. The aim is to discuss the understanding of the theological study of church history in comparison to historical study in general. This is done through the example of two influential Danish scholars on Luther from the 20^th Century. Secondly the article gives an introduction to the Danish reformer Hans Tausen in order to point to two things: an example of the method presented in the first part and an area of research in progress. Strangely enough, Hans Tausen has not been subject to profound scholarly investigation for many years, even though he is one of the most important persons in Danish Reformation history.