The role of cultural factors and attitudes for pedestrian behaviour in an urban Turkish sample

There is a limited number of studies that examine the role of cultural factors and attitudes related to pedestrian behaviour. The aim of this study was to explore the role of cultural variables (i.e. vertical and horizontal collectivism, and individualism, as well as uncertainty avoidance) and attitudes towards pedestrian safety for reported risk-taking pedestrian behaviour in a sample of urban Turkish road users. An additional aim was to test whether the cultural factors had mediated relations to pedestrian behaviour through attitudes towards pedestrian safety. The results are based on an urban Turkish sample (n = 289, response rate = 64%) established in Izmir and Istanbul. The sample consisted of 169 females and 120 males. Their age ranged from 15 to 78 years (M = 32.00, SD = 13.89). A regression analysis showed that the cultural factors added to the explained variance of risky pedestrian behaviour above demographic and exposure-relevant control variables as well as attitudes towards pedestrian safety. Structural Equation Modeling showed that a mediated model had good fit and explained about 60% of the variance in attitudes towards pedestrian safety and 24% in pedestrian behaviour. Within this model, vertical collectivism related to lower levels of pedestrian risk-taking behaviour, while horizontal collectivism was related to higher levels of risk-taking behaviour. As expected, safe attitudes were related to lower levels of risk-taking pedestrian behaviour. The results are discussed in relation to hierarchy and authority orientations facilitated by the specific cultural factors and how such tendencies may relate to pedestrian risk-taking behaviour.     

Physical activity does not provoke panic attacks in patients with panic disorder: A review of the evidence

Abstract

This paper summarizes the results of published studies in which physical activity has been performed by patients with panic disorder. Several case studies of apparent exercise-induced panic attacks were found. However, in field studies that involved ambulatory monitoring of panic disorder patients only 1 of 91 panic attacks that were monitored actually occurred while the test subject was engaged in moderately intense physical activity. Moreover, only five panic attacks occurred in association with 444 exercise bouts performed by 420 panic disorder patients in laboratory settings despite the fact that exercise induces somatic signs and symptoms of anxiety. Thus, the weight of the published evidence shows that acute physical activity does not provoke panic attacks in panic disorder patients.     

Is the Critical Point for Aperture Crossing Adapted to the Person-Plus-Object System?

When passing through apertures, individuals scale their actions to their shoulder width and rotate their shoulders or avoid apertures that are deemed too small for straight passage. Carrying objects wider than the body produces a person-plus-object system that individuals must account for in order to pass through apertures safely. The present study aimed to determine whether individuals scale their critical point to the widest horizontal dimension (shoulder or object width). Two responses emerged: Fast adapters adapted to the person-plus-object system by maintaining a consistent critical point regardless of whether the object was carried while slow adapters initially increased their critical point (overestimated) before adapting back to their original critical point. The results suggest that individuals can account for increases in body width by scaling actions to the size of the object width but people adapt at different rates.     

行人过街的认知心理过程和模型

随着交通系统的复杂化,行人安全受到的威胁日益增加。本文以行人穿过马路的心理步骤为切入点,对行人观察感知、判断决策方面的研究进行综述。在观察感知方面,主要分析了观察内容、策略及注意失误的原因,在判断决策方面,介绍了内部心理机制中相关的理论模型,包括效用理论、计划行为理论,以及具体行为机制中的可接受间隙理论,并重点分析了具体行为机制里闯红灯行为的影响因素。最后,本文提出了行人过街的认知心理模型,为以后的行人研究提供理论借鉴,为交通安全提供实践依据。     

Changes in children’s perception-action tuning over short time scales: Bicycling across traffic-filled intersections in a virtual environment

This investigation examined short-term changes in child and adult cyclists’ gap decisions and movement timing in response to general and specific road-crossing experiences. Children (10- and 12-year-olds) and adults rode a bicycle through a virtual environment with 12 intersections. Participants faced continuous cross traffic and waited for gaps they judged were adequate for crossing. In the control condition, participants encountered randomly ordered gaps ranging from 1.5 to 5.0 s at all intersections. In the high-density condition, participants encountered high-density intersections sandwiched between sets of control intersections. These high-density intersections were designed to push participants toward taking tighter gaps. Participants in both conditions were more likely to accept 3.5-, 4.0-, 4.5-, and 5.0-s gaps at the last set of intersections than at the first set of intersections, whereas participants in the high-density condition were also more likely to accept very tight 3.0-s gaps at the last intersections than at the first intersections. Moreover, individuals in the high-density condition who waited less and took shorter gaps at the middle intersections were also more likely to take very tight 3.0-s gaps at the last intersections. The 10-year-olds in both conditions had more time to spare when they cleared the path of the oncoming car at the last intersections, whereas the 12-year-olds and adults showed no change in time to spare across intersections. The discussion focuses on linking short-term change in perceptual-motor functioning to longer term perceptual-motor development.     

循证心理治疗解析

心理治疗服务的有效性得到研究证据支持,但在临床中采用循证实践很难。本文简介心理治疗循证实践的模式、研究成果和现状,分析工作中推行循证实践困难的原因,介绍一种新循证方式——循效施治。该方式能被整合到心理治疗中,以一种临床治疗师不感到胁迫的方式使其积极参与收集和反思证据的过程,并且允许其以创新方式将证据运用到实践中。     

Students' Ethical Decision‐Making When Considering Boundary Crossings With Counselor Educators

Counselor education students (N = 224) rated 16 boundary‐crossing scenarios involving counselor educators. They viewed boundary crossings as unethical and were aware of power differentials between the 2 groups. Next, they rated the scenarios again, after reviewing 1 of 4 ethical informational resources: relevant standards in the ACA Code of Ethics (American Counseling Association, 2014), 2 different boundary‐crossing decision‐making models, and a placebo. Although participants rated all resources except the placebo as moderately helpful, these resources had little to no influence on their ethical decision‐making. Only 47% of students in the 2 ethical decision‐making model groups reported they would use the model they were exposed to in the future when contemplating boundary crossings     

Pedestrian behaviors at and perceptions towards various pedestrian facilities: an examination based on observation and survey data

This paper presents findings from an observational study of pedestrian behaviors at various urban crosswalks and a pedestrian user survey which sought pedestrian perceptions toward various pedestrian facilities in a divided urban boulevard located next to a large university campus, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA. Such facilities included signalized and unsignalized intersection crosswalks, unsignalized marked and non-striped midblock crosswalks, physical barriers (vegetation and two-foot high concrete wall), midblock crosswalk shelters, colored paving (red brick pavement) at medians and curbs, and pedestrian warning signs at midblock crossing locations, messaging “cross only when traffic clears.” Pedestrian behavior data were obtained from the reduction of video images of pedestrian movements recorded throughout the study site. Pedestrian perceptions information was obtained through a user survey completed by pedestrians using the study site. It was found that unsignalized midblock crosswalks were the treatment of preference to pedestrians (83% reported a preference to cross) and also showed high crossing compliance rate of pedestrians (71.2%). It was also evident that the crosswalk location, relative to the origin and destination of the pedestrian, was the most influential decision factor for pedestrians deciding to cross at a designated location (90% said so). Proper traffic control can further encourage pedestrian crossings at designated locations since the effect of the availability of pedestrian signal to influence pedestrians’ decisions to cross at a specific location was quite high (74% said so). Moreover, vegetation and concrete barriers influenced the decision to cross of a significant number of pedestrians surveyed (65%). It is expected that the findings from this study will help traffic engineers, urban planners and policy makers understand pedestrian behaviors and attitudes at/towards pedestrian crosswalks.     

Öst's (2008) methodological comparison of clinical trials of acceptance and commitment therapy versus cognitive behavior therapy: Matching Apples with Oranges?

Öst (2008) recently compared the methodological rigor of studies of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and traditional cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). He concluded that the ACT studies had more methodological deficiencies, and thus the treatment did not qualify as an “empirically supported treatment.” Although Öst noted several important limitations that should be carefully considered when evaluating early ACT research, his attempt to devise an empirical matching strategy by creating a comparison sample of CBT studies to bolster his conclusions was itself problematic. The samples were clearly mismatched in terms of the populations being treated, leading to differences in study design and methodology. Furthermore, reanalysis showed clear differences in grant support favoring CBT compared with ACT studies that were not reported in the original article. Given the actual mismatch between the samples, Öst's methodological ratings are difficult to interpret and provide little useful information beyond what could already be gathered by a qualitative review of ACT study limitations. Such limitations are characteristic of the earlier randomized controlled trials of any emerging psychotherapeutic approach.     

FACILITATING TRANSITION TIMES WITH HANDICAPPED PRESCHOOL CHILDREN: A COMPARISON BETWEEN PEER-MEDIATED AND ANTECEDENT PROMPT PROCEDURES

We examined the effects of a peer-mediated versus an antecedent prompt condition on the rate of independent movement and appropriate behavior of handicapped preschool children during three classroom transition times. Using an alternating treatments design, results showed that each treatment condition yielded increases in target behaviors; however, the antecedent prompt condition was superior during all three transition settings. In addition, teacher prompts to these children were significantly reduced during the intervention conditions, indicating that the children were making these transitions more independently.