On the gender differential use of listener responsiveness

It is argued that claims of gender differences in back channel behavior should not be uncritically accepted; there are limitations in previous research that make such acceptance questionable. The frequency of back channel behavior was examined over a portion of the early life span (Grades 4 and 9, and college). Twenty-minute structured conversations of 90 dyads (30 male, 30 female, and 30 mixed gender) were scored for eight types of back channels. There was a nonsignificant dyad gender effect for all measures, indicating that back channel frequency did not vary across dyads of different gender composition. The Age × Dyad Gender interaction was significant for only one of the eight back channel types, indicating that age had little effect on the gender-related use of back channel behavior. Although females produced more of some types of back channels than males, there was no difference in back channel frequency between males and females in opposite-gender interaction for any of the eight measures. We conclude that wholesale acceptance of gender differences in back channel behavior is not warranted.     

Attitudes and attitude change of indigenous teacher trainees in Papua New Guinea

The study reported used the semantic differential as an instrument to collect data for an examination of attitudes and attitude change of indigenous teacher trainees at Port Moresby Teachers College. The sample consisted of three Intakes of students, differing widely in exposure to Western education and experience of the teaching role. Teaching in College was almost entirely the responsibility of Australian academics. Analysis of the results showed a strong similarity between Intakes on pre-test factor patterns. The major factor in each case was clearly identifiable as Osgood's evaluative factor. Two other factors gave evidence of splintering of the evaluative dimension. The basic three factor pattern of Osgood was not established. Ten evaluative scales were identified and used in calculation of pre and posttest attitude scores on the sixty concepts rated. Tests of significance of differences between means and variances were carried out by Intakes and, in the case of one Intake which was made up of males and females, by sex. Results were described and tentative explanations offered taking account of Intake differences, cultural setting and the possible effect of teacher/student cross-cultural differences.     

Passage organization and imposed learning strategies in comprehension and recall of connected discourse

Ninety-nine Ss were assigned randomly to learn a passage comprised of six paragraphs in which the statements were organized by concept name, or concept attribute, or in which the statements were scrambled. Each complete passage contained the same 36 statements. These treatments were orthogonally crossed with instructions to employ a name clustering strategy, an attribute clustering strategy, or a subjectively determined organizing strategy. Three learning trials were administered, each of which was followed by free recall. Passages organized by concept name were found to result in greater recall than passages organized by attributes. The name clustering strategy was more dominant than the attribute clustering strategy, lncongruence between passage organization and advocated clustering strategy resulted in greater recall than did congruency. Implications of these results for cognitive processing of information are discussed     

Engagement and suffering in responsible caregiving: On overcoming maleficience in health care

The thesis of this article is that engagement and suffering are essential aspects of responsible caregiving. The sense of medical responsibility engendered by engaged caregiving is referred to herein as ‘clinical phronesis,’ i.e. practical wisdom in health care, or, simply, practical health care wisdom. The idea of clinical phronesis calls to mind a relational or communicative sense of medical responsibility which can best be understood as a kind of ‘virtue ethics,’ yet one that is informed by the exigencies of moral discourse and dialogue, as well as by the technical rigors of formal reasoning. The ideal of clinical phronesis is not (necessarily) contrary to the more common understandings of medical responsibility as either beneficence or patient autonomy — except, of course, when these notions are taken in their “disengaged” form (reflecting the malaise of “modern medicine”). Clinical phronesis, which gives rise to a deeper, broader, and richer, yet also to a more complex, sense than these other notions connote, holds the promise both of expanding, correcting, and perhaps completing what it currently means to be a fully responsible health care provider. In engaged caregiving, providers appropriately suffer with the patient, that is, they suffer the exigencies of the patient's affliction (though not his or her actual loss) by consenting to its inescapability. In disengaged caregiving — that ruse Katz has described as the ‘silent world of doctor and patient’ — provides may deny or refuse any ‘given’ connection with the patient, especially the inevitability of the patient's affliction and suffering (and, by parody of reasoning, the inevitability of their own. When, however, responsibility is construed qualitatively as an evaluative feature of medical rationality, rather than quantitatively as a form of ‘calculative reasoning’ only, responsibility can be viewed more broadly as not only a matter of science and will, but of language and communication as well — in particular, as the task of responsibly narrating and interpreting the patient's story of illness. In summary, the question is not whether phronesis can ‘save the life of medical ethics’ — only responsible humans can do that! Instead, the question should be whether phronesis, as an ethical requirement of health care delivery, can ‘prevent the death of medical ethics.’     

An investigation of relationships between teachers' ratings of behavior and children's personality traits

This study examined the relationships between teachers' ratings of children's behavior on the Behavior Problem Checklist and children's selfreported personality source traits on ageappropriate Personality Questionnaires. The sample consisted of 254 children from first through eighth grades and 13 teachers in a rural Maine elementary school. Analysis of the data revealed that teachers' ratings and children's self-reports in grades four through six agreed more frequently about problematic behavior than did children's self-reports and teachers self-ratings in grades one through three and seven and eight. In general, the study (1) supported the validity of teacher judgments made with the Behavior Problem Checklist, (2) demonstrated the ckitical need for more than one perspective when identifying and defining maladaptive behaviors potentially indicative of emotional disturbance, and (3) suggested the need to increase the accuracy of teachers' perceptions and evaluations of children's behavior.     

Boundary Management and Work-Nonwork Balance While Working from Home

Within the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, we investigate work-nonwork boundary management among workers who transitioned to remote work. Based on five waves of data and a sample of 155 remote workers, we find that the preference for segmentation was associated with greater work-nonwork balance. We also found that having a dedicated office space within the home and fewer household members was associated with greater work-nonwork balance. However, these variables did not moderate the relationship between segmentation preferences and work-nonwork balance as expected. We discuss implications for future research on boundary management processes and practices.     

A pilot study of a Scripture-based trauma healing model for adults in Nicaragua

With the rising attention to global trauma, there is increased interest in utilising effective trauma healing (TH) models, especially those that integrate a spiritual component. This paper examines the effectiveness of a Scripture-based TH model developed by the Trauma Healing Institute utilised in a pilot study with Nicaraguan adults who experienced non-sexualised-related crime, disaster-related trauma, and/or interpersonal violence. An additional focus of this study was on whether increased spiritual well-being would result from this healing model. In this first empirical study on the TH model, initial results indicated that participants (N?=?23) experienced both a reduction in trauma-related symptoms as well as an upward trend in spiritual well-being from pre-test to six-month follow-up. Spearman results also showed an inverse relationship between trauma symptoms and spiritual well-being. Factors that may have impacted results, limitations to this pilot study, and considerations for future studies are discussed.     

Lesions of the Rat Nucleus Basalis Magnocellularis Disrupt Appetitive-to-Aversive Transfer Learning

Rats with selective lesions of the nucleus basalis magnocellularis (NBM) and sham-lesion control animals were tested in an operant appetitive-to-aversive transfer task. We hypothesized that NBM lesions would not affect performance in the appetitive phase, but that performance would be impaired during subsequent transfer to the aversive phase of the task. Additional groups of NBM lesion and control rats were tested in the avoidance condition only, where we hypothesized that NBM lesions would not disrupt performance. These hypotheses were based on the argument that the NBM is not necessary for simple association learning that does not tax attention. Both the appetitive phase of the transfer task and the avoidance only task depend only on simple associative learning and are argued not to tax attention. Consequently, performance in these tasks was predicted to be spared following NBM lesions. Complex, attention-demanding associative learning, however, is argued to depend on the NBM. Performance in the aversive phase of the transfer task is both attentionally demanding and associatively more complex than in either the appetitive or aversive tasks alone; thus, avoidance performance in the NBM lesion group was predicted to be impaired following transfer from prior appetitive conditioning. Results supported our hypotheses, with the NBM lesion group acquiring the appetitive response normally, but showing impaired performance following transfer to the aversive conditioning phase of the transfer task. Impairments were not attributable to disrupted avoidance learning per se, as avoidance behavior was normal in the NBM lesion group tested in the avoidance condition only.     

Mentoring others: A dispositional and motivational approach

Dispositional and motivational variables related to the propensity to mentor others and to the provision of career and psychosocial mentoring were examined. Results indicated that prosocial personality variables (other-oriented empathy, helpfulness) related to willingness to mentor others and also accounted for unique variance beyond variables associated with life and career stages. Other-oriented empathy related to actual experience as a mentor. Results also indicated that motives for mentoring others differentially related to psychosocial and career mentoring.     

The Development and Evaluation of a Statewide Training Center for Home Visitors and Supervisors

This paper informs practice in community‐based home visiting workforce development by describing the development and evaluation of a university‐based training certificate program for home visitors and supervisors. The Interactive Systems Framework for Dissemination and Implementation (ISF; Wandersman et al., 2008) guides our conceptualization and paper organization. The ISF describes the components involved in translating research findings into effective implementation of prevention programs. We describe implementation and lessons learned from seven development activities: (a) review of the literature, (b) survey of other training initiatives across the country, (c) focus groups with home visitors and supervisors, (d) consultation with individual home visitors, (e) creation of a state advisory board of home visiting providers and stakeholders, (f) evaluation of two pilot trainings, and (g) video development. We then present evaluation data from 49 home visitors and 23 supervisors who completed the training certificate program after the pilot trainings. Both home visitors and supervisors rated training satisfaction highly, reported significant increases in self‐efficacy related to the training topics, and reported extensive use of motivational communication techniques, which are the foundational skills of the training content. These and other favorable results reflect the benefits of building on advances in theory and science‐based practice and of involving providers and stakeholders repeatedly throughout the development process.