Fostering ethical willingness: integrating emotional and contextual awareness with rational analysis

Ethical dilemmas are inherently challenging. By definition, clinicians decide between conflicting principles of welfare and naturally confront competing pulls and inclinations. This investigation of students' responses to an ethical scenario highlights how emotions and concerns can interfere with willingness to implement ethical knowledge. Clear-cut rules are the exception in psychotherapy, and clinicians must judge ethical issues on the basis of the unique context of each case. As such, subjectivity and emotional involvement are essential tools for determining ethical action, but they must be integrated with rational analysis. Strategies for attending to influential emotions and contextual factors in order to mobilize ethical commitment are described.     

The Interaction of Attraction and Selection: Implications for College Recruitment and Schneider's ASA Model

Les jeunes qui viennent d’obtenir leur premier diplôme universitaire (?college?) constituent un potentiel important de candidats à l’embauche dans les grandes entreprises. Les responsables des organisations ont besoin de savoir en quoi les profils de ces futurs diplômés susceptibles d’être attirés et sélectionnés par l’organisation se différencient des profils de la population générale des candidats. Nous avons, dans cette recherche, étudié la relation existant entre les profils de 223 étudiants sur le point d’obtenir leur diplôme du ?college? et l’attirance pour une organisation, l’obtention d’un score satisfaisant à une procédure de sélection et l’interaction de ces deux variables. Les résultats montrent que ceux qui sont attirés par l’organisation diffèrent de ceux qui ne le sont pas. Ceux qui seraient retenus pour la poursuite du recrutement sont différents de ceux qui seraient éliminés. Mais l’interaction de l’attirance et de la sélection n’est en rapport avec aucune des differences individuelles. En outre, l’attirance et la sélection n’interagissent pour réduire la variance sur aucune des variables de différences individuelles. Ces résultats ouvrent une nouvelle perspective sur les conséquences modélisées dans le schéma Attirance‐Sélection‐Elimination de B. Schneider (1987). On discute enfin des implications de notre recherche pour ce modèle et pour le recrutement des étudiants de ?college?. New college graduates are an important source of hires in large firms. Of interest to organisational decision makers are how the individual‐difference profiles of soon‐to‐be college graduates that are likely to be attracted to, and selected by, the organisation compare with the profiles of the overall applicant population. In this research, we investigated how self‐reported attraction to an organisation, achievement of a passing score on an organisation's screening device, and the interaction of these two variables related to the individual‐difference profiles of 223 senior‐level college undergraduates. Results indicated that those who were attracted to the organisation differed from those who were not attracted. Those who would be screened in for further selection by the organisation differed from those who would be rejected. However, the interaction of attraction and screening was unrelated to any of the individual differences. Moreover, attraction and screening did not interact to restrict variance on any of the individual‐difference variables. These results provide a new perspective on the effects hypothesised in B. Schneider's (1987 ) Attraction‐Selection‐Attrition model. Implications for this model and for recruiting from the college student population are discussed.     

The yellow brick road and the emerald city: benefit finding, positive reappraisal coping and posttraumatic growth in women with early-stage breast cancer.

Predictors and outcomes of benefit finding, positive reappraisal coping, and posttraumatic growth were examined using interviews and questionnaires from a longitudinal study of women with early-stage breast cancer followed from primary medical treatment completion to 3 (n=92) and 12 months (n=60) later. Most women (83%) reported at least 1 benefit of their breast cancer experience. Benefit finding (i.e., identification of benefits, number of benefits), positive reappraisal coping, and posttraumatic growth had distinct significant predictors. Positive reappraisal coping at study entry predicted positive mood and perceived health at 3 and 12 months and posttraumatic growth at 12 months, whereas benefit finding did not predict any outcome. Findings suggest that benefit finding, positive reappraisal coping, and posttraumatic growth are related, but distinct, constructs.     

Social influences on cognitive processing in enacted social support: effects on receivers’ cognitive appraisals,emotion, and affiliation

Background and objectives. Social support is linked with psychological health, but its mechanisms are unclear. We examined supporters’ influence on recipients’ cognitive processing as a mechanism of effects of support on outcomes associated with depression.

Design/methods. 2?×?2 between-subjects experiment. 147 participants (1) experienced a negative event (false feedback); (2) received social support modeling one of two contrasting cognitive processing modes (abstract/evaluative or concrete/experiential); (3) generated explanations for the event, later coded for processing mode and internal/external causal attribution; and (4) reported on emotion, perceptions of self and future, and social affiliation. To examine relational effects, half of participants were led to perceive the supporter as similar to themselves via a shared birthday manipulation.

Results. Support condition influenced participants’ processing mode and causal attributions as predicted. Abstract/evaluative support led to more positive emotion and self-perceptions, and less pessimistic expectancies for the future than concrete/experiential support. Perceived similarity moderated effects on beliefs about an upcoming social interaction, magnifying positive affiliation outcomes of abstract/evaluative versus concrete/experiential support.

Conclusions. Processing modes that are generally maladaptive at the intrapersonal level may be adaptive (and vice versa) when they are interpersonally influenced, and perceived similarity may facilitate interpersonal effects of processing mode on affiliation.     

Acute neuropsychological changes in hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis patients.

This study examined the impact of different dialysis treatments on the neuropsychological (NP) functioning of 145 end-stage renal disease patients. Hemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients were administered an NP test battery and measures of mood on 2 consecutive days (pre- and 24 hr postdialysis). Biochemistry was assessed at each session. Results indicated significant improvements in NP functioning (attention, concentration, verbal and visual memory, and psychomotor speed) in HD patients 24 hr postdialysis. No such fluctuations were found in PD patients. Although biochemical changes were found in the HD patients at the same time points, these were not consistently related to the NP changes.