INTEGRAL MEDICINE AND HEALTH

Integral Science provides the empirical rigor needed to shift medicine's worldview. The shift in science will give rise to Integral Medicine, which will emerge from the integration and transformational change of biomedicine, psychosocial approaches, Complementary and Alternative Medicine, and other reform movements. The root metaphor of Integral Medicine is a healthy and sustainable ecosystem. At its heart are mind–body holism and collaborative learning. Healing and the creation of health will emphasize educational, self-care, and community support models. Implications are discussed for practice, research, and education.     

Individual differences in executive functioning and theory of mind: An investigation of inhibitory control and planning ability

This research examined the relative contributions of two aspects of executive function-inhibitory control and planning ability-to theory of mind in 49 3- and 4-year-olds. Children were given two standard theory of mind measures (Appearance-Reality and False Belief), three inhibitory control tasks (Bear/Dragon, Whisper, and Gift Delay), three planning tasks (Tower of Hanoi, Truck Loading, and Kitten Delivery), and a receptive vocabulary test (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test [PPVT-3]). Multiple regression analyses indicated that two inhibition tasks (Bear/Dragon and Whisper) were significantly related to theory of mind after accounting for age, receptive vocabulary, and planning. In contrast, the planning tasks did not share unique variance with theory of mind. These results increase our understanding of the specific nature of executive function-theory of mind relations during early childhood.     

The role of input and output modality pairings in dual-task performance: evidence for content-dependent central interference

Recent debate regarding dual-task performance has focused on whether costs result from limitations in central capacity, and whether central operations can be performed in parallel. While these questions are controversial, the dominant models of dual-task performance share the assumption that central operations are generic--that is, their interactions are independent of stimulus and response modalities. To examine these issues, we conducted a series of dual-task experiments with different input and output modality pairings. One condition combined a visual-manual task with an auditory-vocal task, and the other condition reversed the input-output pairings, combining a visual-vocal task with an auditory-manual task. Input/output modality pairings proved to be a key factor; throughout practice, dual-task costs were generally more than twice as large with visual-vocal/auditory-manual tasks than with the opposite arrangement of modalities (Experiments 1 and 2). These differences could be explained neither by competition for peripheral resources nor by differences in single-task response times (Experiment 3). Moreover, the persistent dual-task costs did not appear to stem from a central bottleneck. Contrary to the dominant models of dual-task performance, we propose that central interference between tasks depends not just on the duration of central operations, nor just strategic adaptation, but also on the content of those operations. Implications for structural and strategic accounts of dual-task interference are discussed.     

The functional role of central and peripheral vision in the control of posture

Three experiments were conducted to investigate the role of central and peripheral vision (CV and PV) in postural control. In Experiment 1, either the central or peripheral visual field were selectively stimulated using a circular random dot pattern that was either static or alternated at 5 Hz. Center of foot pressure (CoP) was used to examine postural sway during quiet standing under both CV and PV conditions. The results showed that, when the visual stimulus was presented in the periphery, the CoP area decreased and more so in the anterior-posterior (AP) than in the medio-lateral (ML) direction, indicating a characteristic directional specificity. There was no significant difference between the static and dynamic (alternating) conditions. Experiment 2 investigated the directional specificity of body sway found in Experiment 1 by having the trunk either be faced toward the stimulus display or perpendicularly to it, with the head always facing the display. The results showed that the stabilizing effect of peripheral vision was present in the direction of stimulus observation (i.e., the head/gaze direction), irrespective of trunk orientation. This suggested that head/gaze direction toward the stimulus presentation, rather than a biomechanical factor like greater mobility of the ankle joint in AP direction than in ML direction, was essential to postural stability. Experiment 3 further examined whether the stabilizing effect of peripheral vision found in Experiments 1 and 2 was caused because more dots (500) were presented as visual cues to the peripheral visual field than to the central visual field (20 dots) by presenting the same number of dots (20) in both conditions. It was found that, in spite of the equal number of dots, the postural sway amplitudes were larger for the central vision conditions than for the peripheral vision conditions. In conclusion, the present study showed that peripheral rather than central vision contributes to maintaining a stable standing posture, with postural sway being influenced more in the direction of stimulus observation, or head/gaze direction, than in the direction of trunk orientation, which suggests that peripheral vision operates primarily in a viewer-centered frame of reference characterized by the head/gaze direction rather than in a body-centered frame of reference characterized by the anatomical planes of the body.     

The effectiveness of a computerized guidance system in promoting career decision making

The effectiveness of CHOICES in improving the career decision making of university students through the utilization of the two instruments, (a) the Career Decision Scale and (b) the Occupational Scale of the Assessment of Career Decision Making, is examined. This experimental research involved 136 university students who were assigned to either an experimental or control group. Results indicated that CHOICES improved career decision making as measured by both instruments. No differences were found between its effectiveness with males and females.     

Physiological arousal,exposure to a relatively lengthy aggressive film,and aggressive behavior

Male college students viewed either a 15-minute aggressive television program excerpt or a neutral one. Half of the students in each group were then angered or treated in a neutral fashion by a confederate. Each subject was allowed to retaliate by delivering electric shocks to the confederate as an evaluation of a problem solution he supposedly had completed. Heart rate was measured (a) before exposure to the television program, (b) after exposure to the program, (c) immediately before delivering the shock, and (d) immediately after shock delivery. Angered men who had seen the aggressive film were most aggressive toward the confederate and exhibited the lowest average pulse rates both before and after shock delivery. The findings are discussed in terms of their implication for arousal vs disinhibition conceptualizations of aggressive behaviors following exposure to television violence.     

A validation of the Worker Trait Groups in the DOT

An empirical validation of the 114 Worker Trait Groups (WTG) of the Third Edition of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) was performed by comparing the factor structure of the worker trait components of the 114 WTG's with the factor structure of a random sample of 800 of the 4000 jobs used as the basis for the DOT, Third Edition. Six factors were compared and cosines between .8997 and .9657 obtained on the matched factors, thus providing a measure of empirical validity for the 114 WTG's based on the worker trait components.     

Seeking consistency between planning orientation and situational purchase mindset

The research applies consistency theory to investigate how planning orientation, planner, or reactor combines with situational purchase mindsets. The results of three studies reveal that (i) consistency between planning orientation and situational mindset fosters more action responses in terms of number of stores one intends to visit or actually visited; (ii) when inconsistency is experienced, action responses are fewer because the consumer seeks to resolve inconsistencies by consulting others to help build consensus toward one emerging purchase decision alternative; (iii) the findings depend upon whether the purchase context is hedonic or utilitarian for the planner but not for the reactor; and (iv) the impulsive scenario reverses the predictions of consistency theory. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.