Student perceptions of the effectiveness of education in the responsible conduct of research

Responsible conduct of research (RCR) courses are widely taught, but little is known about the purposes or effectiveness of such courses. As one way to assess the purposes of these courses, students were surveyed about their perspectives after recent completion of one of eleven different research ethics courses at ten different institutions. Participants (undergraduate and graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and faculty, staff and researchers) enrolled in RCR courses in spring and fall of 2003 received a voluntary, anonymous survey from their instructors at the completion of the course. Responses were received from 268 participants. Seventy-seven percent of open-ended responses listed specific kinds of information learned; only a few respondents talked about changes in skills or attitudes. The perception that courses did more to provide information than to foster skills or attitudes was verified in quantitative responses (P<0.0001). Over 75% of the respondents specifically noted that courses were useful in preparing them to recognize, avoid, and respond to research misconduct. The two principal findings of this multi-institutional study are that respondents reported: (1) a wide variety of positive outcomes for research ethics courses, but that (2) the impact on knowledge was greater than that for changes in skills or attitudes.     

Whorf versus Socrates, round 10

A recent paper by Dehaene, Izard, Pica and Spelke examined geometric concepts among the Munduruku, an Amazonian group without many linguistic terms for spatial relations, and without maps or formal schooling. Their profile of strengths and weaknesses provides new insights into the nature of the human mind and the importance of culture and language to the development of thought.     

Social anxiety in older adults: phenomenology, prevalence, and measurement

Although phobias represent the most common anxiety disorders among the elderly, little is known about their social nature. The present study provides information about the prevalence, measurement, and phenomenology of social anxiety in older adults (n = 283) and compares results to those of younger adults (n = 318). Analyses revealed that social anxiety is less prevalent in old age than it is within younger cohorts and is associated with different symptomatology. The psychopathological profile of those who reach clinical levels of social anxiety is however similar, irrespective of age. Results regarding the psychometric properties of the SPAI when used for the elderly were promising, but the questionnaire appears to be difficult for some older adults to complete. Results are discussed in terms of explanations for age differences in social anxiety, initial psychometrics of the SPAI in an older adult sample, and suggestions for future research.     

Attentional biases to internal and external sources of potential threat in social anxiety

D. M. Clark and A. Wells (1995) proposed that a shift of attention inward toward interoceptive information is a central feature of social phobia. However, few studies have examined attentional biases toward internal physiological cues in social phobia. The current experiment assessed whether socially anxious individuals exhibit an attentional bias (a) toward cues for an internal source of potential threat (heart-rate information), (b) toward cues for an external source of potential threat (threatening faces) or (c) both. Ninety-one participants who were selected to form extreme groups based on a social anxiety screening measure performed a dot-probe task to assess location of attention. Results showed that socially anxious participants exhibited an attentional bias toward cues of internal, but not external, sources of potential threat.     

Attitudes to Authority in Women Religious

This study was designed to investigate the relationship between three stances in attitudes to authority and levels of intrapsychic and interrelational of maturity in women religious in initial stages of membership. Subjects were drawn from congregations throughout the U.S. from those involved in programs of formation or temporary commitment. The total sample (N = 162) was divided into three equal-attitude groups (N = 54), using complementary but uncorrelated measures of attitudes to institutional authority and directiveness. Relationship between the behavioral rating of directiveness seemed associated with intrapsychic measures of individuation, with those scoring as most directive found most mature from this perspective. Maturation rated from an intergenerational system approach seemed to be associated with pro-authority attitudes, with those most supportive of authority scoring highest on this construct. Implications for further research as well as work with religious in formation are suggested.     

Impairment of auditory perception and language comprehension in dysphasia

Men with chronic focal brain wounds were examined for their ability to discriminate complex tones, synthesized steady-state vowels, and synthesized consonant—vowel syllables. Subjects with left hemisphere damage, but not right hemisphere damage, were impaired in their ability to respond correctly to rapidly changing acoustic stimuli, regardless of whether stimuli were verbal or nonverbal. The degree of impairment in auditory processing correlated highly with the degree of language comprehension impairment. The pattern of impairment of the group with left hemisphere damage on these perceptual tests was similar to that found in children with developmental language disorders.     

Enhancing attributional style and positive life events predict increased hopefulness among depressed psychiatric inpatients

A prospective study was conducted to investigate whether enhancing attributional style and positive life events are associated with recovery from depression through the mediation of increased hopefulness, as predicted by the Needles and Abramson (1990) model of recovery from depression. The Attributional Style Questionnaire, Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Hopelessness Scale, Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale, Uplifts Scale, and Revised Hassles Scale were administered to 32 depressed psychiatric inpatients shortly after admission and readministered a mean of 10 days later. The results indicated that the combined effects of enhancing attributional style and positive life events predicted decreases in hopelessness, which were in turn associated with decreases in depression symptom levels. By contrast, neither the combined effects of depressotypic attributional style and life events nor the combined effects of dysfunctional attitudes and life events was associated with decreases in hopelessness or depression symptom levels.     

Intergroup relations and nursing

The applicability of Tajfel's social identity theory of intergroup relations was tested within a field situation of nursing, where high and low status trainee nursing groups are undergoing social change in status relations through a merger. The status relations of the two groups were assessed by examining advantages, disadvantages and subjective characteristics attributed to the groups. Close contact between groups may account for the unexpected reduction in intergroup differentiation when explict comparisons were made. No greater illegitimacy in perceived status relations was reported by the low status group, although more dissatisfactions were evidenced in terms of attributed disadvantages, a less positive ingroup identification, and a high proportion of the low status group who want change either through movement into the superior group, or by dissolving status relations through the merging of the two groups. Attempts to merge are geared towards increasing similarity between groups by gaining recognition for those high status characteristics the group believes it has acquired. With a view to social change, the non-mobile low status subgroup are evolving a new and positive social identity for the group, perceiving little difference between groups. Strong intergroup differentiation by the high status group reflects the perceived threat of social change to the high status group.