Understanding the Perception of Islamic Medicine Among the Malaysian Muslim Community

This study was conducted to identify and describe the patients’ perceptions of Islamic medicine based on gender, age, marital, educational level and working status among the Malaysian Muslim population. A nationwide interviewer-administered questionnaire survey was conducted in 2013. An open-ended questionnaire pertaining to Islamic medicine was used to increase the probability of capturing maximum data. This survey implemented a multistage design, stratified by state, proportionate to the size of the state population and was representative of the Malaysian population. Post-survey classification of results was performed accordingly. Complex data analysis was carried out using SPSS 16.0. The discussion was identified and categorised into various sections. The paper concludes that Islamic medicine has a major influence in the Malaysian Muslim community compared to other alternatives. Further, its potential for growth and importance especially for treating spiritual ailments cannot be denied. The respondents indicated that two factors motivate Islamic medicine in Malaysia: (1) the Muslim community opts for alternative healing because of their dissatisfaction with conventional methods; (2) Islamic medicine focuses only on healing spiritual-related problems. The average perception of respondents is that the function of Islamic medicine in healing physical diseases is undervalued and that it is not suitable to replace the functions of modern health institutions.     

Understanding youth antisocial behavior using neuroscience through a developmental psychopathology lens: Review,integration, and directions for research

Youth antisocial behavior (AB) is an important public health concern impacting perpetrators, victims, and society. Functional neuroimaging is becoming a more common and useful modality for understanding neural correlates of youth AB. Although there has been a recent increase in neuroimaging studies of youth AB and corresponding theoretical articles on the neurobiology of AB, there has been little work critically examining the strengths and weaknesses of individual studies and using this knowledge to inform the design of future studies. Additionally, research on neuroimaging and youth AB has not been integrated within the broader framework of developmental psychopathology. Thus, this paper provides an in-depth review of the youth AB functional neuroimaging literature with the following goals: (1) to evaluate how this literature has informed our understanding of youth AB, (2) to evaluate current neuroimaging studies of youth AB from a developmental psychopathology perspective with a focus on integrating research from neuroscience and developmental psychopathology, as well as placing this research in the context of other related areas (e.g., psychopathy, molecular genetics), and (3) to examine strengths and weaknesses of neuroimaging and behavioral studies of youth AB to suggest how future studies can develop a more informed and integrated understanding of youth AB.     

Attachment Quality And Depression In Iranian Adolescents

This study investigated the relationship of quality of adolescent’s attachment to mother, father, and peers with depression. 785 high school students (49.7 % male and 50.3 % female) aged between 15 and 17 years completed the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA) as well as the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II). In case of boys the results showed that their attachment to mother, father, and peers were meaningful predictors of depression during adolescence. Similar trend was noted for girls. Attachment to mother across both genders accounted for greater variance in depression in comparison to attachment to father and/or attachment to peers. Cultural implications are addressed.     

Patients as Teaching Tools: Merely Informed or True Consent

Using patients as teaching tools raise many ethical issues like informed consent, privacy, confidentiality and beneficence. The current study highlights issues on respecting patient’s choice and acquiring informed consent with its spirit rather than as mere formality. The study was conducted in out-patient department of The Kidney Center Postgraduate Training Institute Karachi Pakistan in May 2008 to July 2008. All patients who had come for the first time to see the author were included in the study. The said study explored the willingness of patients to allow medical students to be present during history taking and physical examination by the consultant. There were 18 male and 03 female patients. Age ranging from 22 to 73 years with mean age of 53.5 ± 13.7 years. There were total of 21 patient–students encounters out of which two encounters were with male students only and two with female students only. So in 17 Patient–students encounters, students of both genders were present. All patients permitted history taking in the presence of medical students except one who had a history of extramarital sexual contact and signs and symptoms suggestive of sexually transmitted disease. Of the male patients 50% (9/18) did not allow intimate examination before medical students. Out of these nine patients who refused, four consented earlier but when enquired again about their true willingness, they expressed their preference not to have medical students in the room while undergoing digital rectal and external genital examinations. Physicians need to develop sensitivity to acquire informed consent in its true essence rather than just as a formality by exploring actual willingness of the patient. One should refrain from being judgmental on the basis of gender, looks, religion or norms.     

Motivation in a MOOC: a probabilistic analysis of online learners’ basic psychological needs

Self-determination theory (SDT) is one of the most well-known approaches to achievement motivation. However, the three basic psychological needs of SDT have not received equivalent attention in the literature: priority has been given to autonomy, followed by the need for competence, with research into relatedness lacking (Bachman and Stewart in Teach Psychol 38: 180–187, 2011. doi: 10.1177/0098628311411798). One new educational setting where relatedness may be particularly important is massive open online courses (MOOCs), which provide unprecedented opportunities for either relatedness or isolation. The purpose of the research was to use Bayesian networks (BN) to establish probabilistic relationships between learners’ basic psychological needs in the context of one MOOC. The majority (59 %) of participants (N = 1037; 50 % female and 50 % male) were under 45 (age range was 18–74 years). This sample represented approximately 88 regions and countries. Participants completed a revised Basic Student Needs Scale (Betoret and Artiga in Electron J Res Educ Psychol 9(2): 463–496, 2011). In order to reveal the best structural understanding of SDT within a MOOC learning environment, analysis of the data involved the development of a BN probabilistic model. The best fitting BN model included autonomy, competence, and relatedness—resulting in a probabilistic accuracy of 77.41 %. Analyses revealed participants with high autonomy had an 80.01 % probability of having a moderate level of competence. Relatedness was distinct from the autonomy and competence relationship. The strong inter-connections between autonomy and competence support existing research. The notion that relatedness may be a distinct need, at least in this context, was supported and warrants future research.