Can the positive effects of inspiration be extended to different domains?

It is presently unknown whether inspiration extends across different domains: can a salesperson, for example, be inspired by a successful athlete? The present study investigated whether inspirational content must be relevant to a subsequent task to improve performance. Participants (N = 70) wrote about a time they felt inspired in a sporting context (domain‐relevant), creative context (domain‐irrelevant); or amused (positive control). Participants then held a handgrip, with the option of giving up or continuing to exhaustion. Regardless of the relevance of the inspirational content to the performance task, inspired participants were less likely to give up than controls. This is the first research to show that the benefits of inspiration reach beyond the domain defined by the inspiring event.     

'Assaults upon the Self': Control and Surveillance in a Theological College

Training in a residential setting is a compulsory aspect of the professional preparation of those offering themselves for ordained ministry within the various denominations of Anglican Communion in the UK. This mode of preparation is seen as essential to an inculcation of the 'attitudes and habits' required of future occupational roles and status. The mode as well as the content of training can, therefore, be viewed as powerful facilitators of occupational socialisation and identity. The paper explores how residential training in one setting, through the timetable and 'gaze' of staff and other students, acts to regulate the body in preparation for the transition to an ordained status. The paper further outlines some of the means by which students conform to and contest this 'curriculum of the body'.     

Judgments of moving and intending to move in a timed-response task

Summary Subjects performed a timed-response task in which they attempted to synchronize a rapid flexion of the index finger of their preferred hand with the last of a train of four regularly spaced acoustic clicks. The task was used to stabilize the execution time of a simple voluntary response in order to facilitate psychophysical judgments about the subjects' perception of having responded and of having intended to respond. In the first experiment, male subjects (N = 6) adjusted the appearance time of a reference stimulus (a brief percutaneous pulse to the responding finger) until it appeared to be simultaneous with their perception of having made the response. All subjects adjusted the reference stimulus to appear after response onset during the latter half of the force impulse. This finding suggests that the perception of having responded is based on peripheral feedback from the response. In the second experiment, male subjects (N = 6) performed the same motor task, but adjusted the time of the reference stimulus so that it appeared to be simultaneous with their intention to respond. Two subjects were not able to do the task successfully; the remaining four subjects adjusted the reference stimulus to appear from 101 to 145 ms before response onset. This finding suggests that the intention to respond is perceptually separable from the response itself and occurs at a measurable time before response onset.     

Supporting the spiritual needs of people with dementia in residential aged care

ABSTRACT

Objective: To describe how an Australian age care provider, BaptistCare NSW & ACT, has embraced the National Guidelines for Spiritual Care in Aged Care for people with dementia.

Method: A 12-month study was conducted in 19 Baptistcare residential homes, including 14 dementia units. Data were obtained from selected items of the Person-Centred Environment and Care Assessment Tool using interviews, observation, and document review.

Results: The person-centred approach was instituted in adhering to the Guidelines for people with dementia. Conclusion: The person-centred approach assists in actioning the Guidelines for people with dementia.