The concept of reflection: a systematic review and thematic synthesis across professional contexts

Reflection is widely endorsed by professional bodies and practitioners are required to document professional learning to evidence standards of professionalism. Due to the lack of a consensual definition for reflection, there is confusion regarding ‘what reflection is’. Prior to the development of an empirical evidence base that explores reflection, it is important to develop a consensually agreed concept and definition to guide experimental research. The aim of this systematic review is to understand the concept of reflection by performing a synthesis of existing conceptually oriented qualitative studies. Fourteen sources were included in a thematic synthesis that resulted in the construction of four analytical themes: cognitive, integrative, iterative and active. These themes were explored in relation to existing research and a novel definition of reflection was proposed. It is hoped that this review will encourage further enquiry into the concept and process of reflection.     

Unconscious color priming occurs at stimulus- not percept-dependent levels of processing

Although past studies have shown that visual information can be processed without awareness, the types and levels of this processing have yet to be determined. We used metacontrast masking to explore unconscious priming effects of white, blue, and green stimuli generated on a color video display. We found that a white prime tends to act more like a green than a blue one. Color confusions among unmasked and masked primes and calibrations of the display phosphors show that physical rather than perceptual properties of the stimuli best explain the white prime's effects. We conclude that unconscious color priming in normal observers occurs at early wavelength-dependent levels of processing prior to later color-percept-dependent levels.     

A semi-persistent adult ocular dominance plasticity in visual cortex is stabilized by activated CREB

The adult cerebral cortex can adapt to environmental change. Using monocular deprivation as a paradigm, we find that rapid experience-dependent plasticity exists even in the mature primary visual cortex. However, adult cortical plasticity differs from developmental plasticity in two important ways. First, the effect of adult, but not juvenile monocular deprivation is strongly suppressed by administration of barbiturate just prior to recording visual evoked potentials, suggesting that the effect of adult experience can be inactivated acutely. Second, the effect of deprivation is less persistent over time in adults than in juveniles. This correlates with the known decline in CREB function during maturation of the visual cortex. To compensate for this decline in CREB function, we expressed persistently active VP16-CREB and find that it causes adult plasticity to become persistent. These results suggest that in development and adulthood, the regulation of a trans-synaptic signaling pathway controls the adaptive potential of cortical circuits.     

Mapping Variables Related to Social Identity,Distress and Perceived Health in an Undergraduate Student Population

The relationship between students levels of self-categorisation or identification with their university, their problem-solving style, perceived social support, psychological distress and self-reported illness was investigated in a sample of 269 students (181 females and 88 males). Structural equation modelling shows that problem-solving style, perceived social support, and strength of identity, are the best predictors of both distress and illness, while sex, sex-type, age and year of study also account for small, but significant percentages of the variance.     

Child sexual abuse: offenders,disclosure, and school-based initiatives

Children are being sexually abused at an alarming rate. Prevalence estimates suggest that one out of four girls and one out of ten boys experience sexual abuse. This paper examines the devastating impact of child sexual abuse and explores the contributions of school-based interventions to remedy the problem.     

Attitudes toward illegal immigration: a cross-national methodological comparison

This research is an examination of the generalizability of a Likert-type scale originally devised to measure attitudes toward illegal immigrants (IA) in the United States. The current authors administered this scale across 4 national samples using several methodological procedures. Undergraduate students (631) responded to the IA scale (R. Ommundsen & K. S. Larsen, 1997) at the University of Oslo, Oregon State University, the University of Copenhagen, and Vrije University of Amsterdam. The authors' main purpose was to evaluate the adequacy of the 20-item IA scale by examining possible problems with method and translation. A translation study carried out with the Danish, Norwegian, and Dutch samples (N = 299) showed that the various national versions were fairly accurate and contained largely the same meanings. The use of procrustes analysis of the IA scale yielded 3 factors in all 4 national samples. The coefficient of congruence of these 3 orthogonally rotated factor matrices, with the U.S. factor matrix as target, varied from .80 to .95, supporting the cross-national robustness of the scale. In the search for a more economical cumulative scale, a Mokken analysis yielded a 5-item scale that represented the aforementioned 3 factors and was stable across national samples.     

Connectionist simulation of attitude learning: asymmetries in the acquisition of positive and negative evaluations

Connectionist computer simulation was employed to explore the notion that, if attitudes guide approach and avoidance behaviors, false negative beliefs are likely to remain uncorrected for longer than false positive beliefs. In Study 1, the authors trained a three-layer neural network to discriminate "good" and "bad" inputs distributed across a two-dimensional space. "Full feedback" training, whereby connection weights were modified to reduce error after every trial, resulted in perfect discrimination. "Contingent feedback," whereby connection weights were only updated following outputs representing approach behavior, led to several false negative errors (good inputs misclassified as bad). In Study 2, the network was redesigned to distinguish a system for learning evaluations from a mechanism for selecting actions. Biasing action selection toward approach eliminated the asymmetry between learning of good and bad inputs under contingent feedback. Implications for various attitudinal phenomena and biases in social cognition are discussed.     

The core elements of neurosis: mixed anxiety-depression (cothymia) and personality disorder

Although there has been great diagnostic activity within the conditions formally included under the general rubric of neurosis in the last 20 years, there is little evidence that the many new diagnoses (i.e., generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, and dysthymic disorder) have helped clinicians and improved the health of those diagnosed. This is largely because of the extensive comorbidity between these disorders negates much of their attempted separation and it is argued that the core of neurosis is a mixed anxiety-depressive disorder, or cothymia, combined with significant personality disorder of any type. The specific association of the anxious-fearful personality cluster (cluster C) and neurosis, called the general neurotic syndrome, is also relevant but appears to have lesser significance as the personality elements are not stable. Data are presented that justify these conclusions from a long-term follow-up study of anxiety and depressive disorders.