Prevalence of Cognitively Intact Individuals Residing in Extended Care Nursing Facilities

There appears to be a relative absence of studies that have examined the prevalence of cognitively intact individuals who reside in extended care facilities. Prevalence data were collected on 296 persons who resided in 3 extended care nursing facilities in Central Virginia. Cognitive intactness was evaluated via the Minimum Data Set Cognitive Performance Scale (CPS) and an author-generated survey (i.e., Cognitively Intact Survey [CI Survey]) of select nursing staff members at each facility. The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) was utilized to examine the accuracy of the two measures in identifying cognitive intactness. Findings indicated that prevalence rates of cognitively intact residents varied as a function of the measures utilized to assess intactness. Specifically, a significantly greater proportion of the total sample of residents was judged to be cognitively intact via the CI Survey (34.12%) as compared to the CPS (26.01%). The level of interjudge agreement between the two measures was found to be moderately high (K = 0.68). When the MMSE was employed to verify individuals' levels of intactness, the percentages of residents predicted to actually be cognitively intact were somewhat lower for each measure. Specifically, based on the data obtained via the CI Survey, 22.75% of the total sample were predicted to actually be cognitively intact, whereas 17.85% of the sample were predicted to be intact based on the CPS results. Findings are discussed in light of factors that may have contributed to the differential prevalence rates of cognitively intact individuals obtained across the measures utilized in this study. Concerns regarding the utilization of the MMSE as a criterion measure of cognitive intactness in persons residing in extended care nursing facilities are provided, along with data on the living environments/roommate statuses of those residents judged to be intact via the CI Survey. Implications for the design of future extended care nursing units, as well as future research, are also included.     

Global Human Identification and Citizenship: A Review of Psychological Studies

We review psychological research on global human identification and citizenship, Thomas Paine’s belief that “The world is my country, and all mankind are my brethren.” In turn, we review the theoretical foundations that guided our work, research with measures that preceded our own, and our own work with our correlated scales. We review its foundations, its effects upon attitudes and behaviors, and how it might be enlarged. Global human identification and citizenship is related negatively to ethnocentrism, authoritarianism, the social dominance orientation, and self‐centeredness, but positively to dispositional empathy and the values of universalism, care, and justice. It is expressed in attitudes and behaviors that support human rights and work to reduce global suffering and inequalities. It is associated with greater global knowledge and with efforts to acquire that knowledge. Childrearing that emphasizes cross‐cultural exposure and awareness of others’ suffering may promote global human identification and citizenship, as does education that encourages global mindedness. Environments that support global human identification also induce it, as does envisioning it as a moral ideal.     

Paradoxical Associations of Masculine Ideology and Casual Sex Among Heterosexual Male Geosocial Networking App Users in China

Momo, the most popular geosocial networking app in China, is used as a common platform to seek casual sex. The present study, which is based on the social constructionist view of gender, examines how the endorsement of masculinity among heterosexual male Momo users is associated with the number of casual sex partners they meet on the app. The study also explores the mediating role of the sex motive for using Momo. Analyses of survey data from 125 heterosexual male Momo users showed that the endorsement of masculinity had an indirect positive relationship with the number of sex partners mediated by the sex motive; at the same time, it had a direct but negative association with the number of sex partners. These paradoxical associations were explained by different patterns across the individual dimensions of masculinity ideology. Specifically, the dimension of the Importance of Sex was responsible for the positive indirect association whereas the dimension of Avoidance of Femininity was responsible for the negative direct association. These findings are discussed in relation to the wen-wu dyad of Chinese masculinity. Because unsafe sex has been found to be associated with the use of geosocial networking apps, my study also calls for integrating the concept of practicing safer sex with the cultural ideal of masculinity.

     

Who Cares About Human Rights?

Previous studies of human rights attitudes are reviewed, new measures are reported, and a three-factor model is identified (Human Rights Endorsement, Commitment, and Restriction). Individual differences that predict attitudes on each factor overlapped but differed. Dispositional empathy, education, and global knowledge contributed to an endorsement of human rights ideals, but none of these affected commitment or restriction. Globalism (vs. nationalism) and principled moral reasoning strengthened human rights commitment, while ethnocentrism and the social dominance orientation weakened it. Authoritarianism, ethnocentrism, and belief that the world cannot be changed increased a willingness to restrict the rights of unpopular groups, while principled moral reasoning and self-rated liberalism decreased it. In short, the individual differences that influence human rights attitudes depend substantially upon which dimension of these attitudes is considered.     

On the capacity of attention: its estimation and its role in working memory and cognitive aptitudes

Working memory (WM) is the set of mental processes holding limited information in a temporarily accessible state in service of cognition. We provide a theoretical framework to understand the relation between WM and aptitude measures. The WM measures that have yielded high correlations with aptitudes include separate storage-and-processing task components, on the assumption that WM involves both storage and processing. We argue that the critical aspect of successful WM measures is that rehearsal and grouping processes are prevented, allowing a clearer estimate of how many separate chunks of information the focus of attention circumscribes at once. Storage-and-processing tasks correlate with aptitudes, according to this view, largely because the processing task prevents rehearsal and grouping of items to be recalled. In a developmental study, we document that several scope-of-attention measures that do not include a separate processing component, but nevertheless prevent efficient rehearsal or grouping, also correlate well with aptitudes and with storage-and-processing measures. So does digit span in children too young to rehearse.     

The Big Five personality traits and perceptions of touch to intimate and nonintimate body regions

This investigation tested whether (1) the Big Five personality traits contribute to favorable perceptions of touch from a relational partner, (2) participants’ sex or personality better predicted positive perceptions of touch, and (3) perceptions of touch vary as a function of relationship satisfaction. A total of 305 participants aged 18–69 years completed self-report measures of reactions to touch, personality, and relationship satisfaction. Results showed that agreeableness was a significant predictor of positive perceptions of touch to both intimate and nonintimate body regions. Openness to experience was also a significant predictor in positive perceptions of touch to nonintimate body regions. Overall, personality was a stronger predictor of positive perceptions of touch than either biological sex or relationship satisfaction with the toucher.     

A Truthmaker Indispensability Argument

Recently, nominalists have made a case against the Quine–Putnam indispensability argument for mathematical Platonism by taking issue with Quine’s criterion of ontological commitment. In this paper I propose and defend an indispensability argument founded on an alternative criterion of ontological commitment: that advocated by David Armstrong. By defending such an argument I place the burden back onto the nominalist to defend her favourite criterion of ontological commitment and, furthermore, show that criterion cannot be used to formulate a plausible form of the indispensability argument.     

Authoritarianism,Social Dominance,and Other Roots of Generalized Prejudice

The search for the personological roots of generalized prejudice (or ethnocentrism) began with the authoritarian personality, but in recent years, the twin constructs of right‐wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation have been widely treated as the dual processes that lead to generalized prejudice. However, studies conducted for this article show that other constructs, notably empathy and principled moral reasoning, contribute important additional variance. Whereas authoritarianism and social dominance positively predict generalized prejudice, empathy and principled moral reasoning are related negatively to it. For the final study, a structural model of these relationships was tested. To fully understand individual differences in the propensity for generalized prejudice, it is necessary to move beyond the dual processes union of authoritarianism and social dominance.     

Beliefs about the cause,manifestation, and cure of schizophrenia: A cross-cultural comparison

This study set out to compare British and Sri Lankan young people's (students) beliefs concerning the causes, manifestations, and cures of schizophrenia. One hundred and seventy-five British and Sri Lankan participants completed the three-part questionnaire in their mother tongue. It was hypothesized that the Sri Lankans would have more negative and uninformed attitudes and beliefs about schizophrenia than the British. It was also hypothesized that the Sri Lankans would favour superstitious, family, and sociological causes to explain the development of schizophrenia, while the British would favour more biological explanations. These two hypotheses were confirmed after factor-analysing the internal structure of the three sections of the questionnaire. Even well-educated young people remain ignorant about one of the most challenging mental illnesses.     

Coherent probability from incoherent judgment

People often have knowledge about the chances of events but are unable to express their knowledge in the form of coherent probabilities. This study proposed to correct incoherent judgment via an optimization procedure that seeks the (coherent) probability distribution nearest to a judge's estimates of chance. This method was applied to the chances of simple and complex meteorological events, as estimated by college undergraduates. No judge responded coherently, but the optimization method found close (coherent) approximations to their estimates. Moreover, the approximations were reliably more accurate than the original estimates, as measured by the quadratic scoring rule. Methods for correcting incoherence facilitate the analysis of expected utility and allow human judgment to be more easily exploited in the construction of expert systems.