Educators' Perceptions of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: An Exploratory Study

The study investigated the perceptions of educators about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, specifically their views on its incidence, causes and appropriate interventions in school settings. Five purposively selected educators from a private school participated in the study. Ethnographic interview was used to collect and analyze the data. The results revealed that the educators considered ADHD mainly a physiological disorder with primarily genetic and environmental causes. Regardless the educators preferred medication as the intervention method despite being aware of additional intervention methods.     

Historical Perspectives on Global Ecology

A historical perspective can shed light on the dilemmas and dimensions of current ecological predicaments. Consideration of long-term trends in economic, demographic, and energy history show just how peculiar, disruptive, liberating, and unsustainable modern times have been. The current era of ecological tumult derives its impetus from many sources, not least the near-stasis in ideas and politics. It is the big ideas, like nationalism, communism, or the premium placed on economic growth, rather than explicitly environmental ideas, that most affected environmental policy and outcomes in the 20th century, and will likely continue to do so in the 21st.     

Illness perceptions and coping explain well-being in patients with Huntington's disease

This study sought to investigate the contribution of illness perceptions and coping mechanisms to the explanation of well-being of patients with Huntington's disease (HD). We investigated the Leventhal et al. assumption of the Self-regulation Model that coping mediates the relationship between illness perceptions and patients’ well-being. Illness perceptions, coping, and well-being in 77 HD patients were assessed with validated questionnaires; motor performance and cognitive performance were assessed with Huntington's disease-specific measures. The assumption that illness perceptions influence HD patients’ well-being via coping was not supported. The results indicate that both coping and illness perceptions made a major contribution to the explanation of variance in HD patients’ psychosocial well-being. Variance in their physical well-being was explained by illness perceptions mainly. The need to conduct further research on the interrelationships between illness perceptions, coping, and well-being in this patient category is discussed.     

Ethnic differences in illness perceptions,self-efficacy and diabetes self-care

This study assessed differences between Europeans, South Asians and Pacific Islanders in illness perceptions, self-efficacy, self-care, metabolic control and retinopathy in diabetes. We also evaluated the role of illness perceptions and self-efficacy in diabetes self-care and metabolic control within each group. A total of 86 Europeans, 86 South Asians, and 87 Pacific Islanders with type-2 diabetes completed self-report measures of illness perceptions, self-efficacy and self-care. Metabolic control and retinopathy data were collected from patient records. Results showed that Pacific Islanders and South Asians held shorter illness timeline perceptions compared to Europeans. Relative to both the other groups, Pacific Islanders also had elevated scores on three illness perceptions subscales: consequences, identity and emotional representations. They had lower medication-specific self-efficacy as well as poorer medication self-care, metabolic control and retinopathy. In all three groups, self-efficacy was fairly consistently related to self-care, but not to metabolic control. Illness perceptions were less consistently related to self-care, but were associated with metabolic control.     

A randomised controlled trial of the effects of implementation intentions on women's walking behaviour

The combination of low physical activity rates and increased cardiovascular deaths indicate the overwhelming need for behaviour change interventions that can effectively promote physical activity among sedentary women. This 11-week randomised controlled trial examined the effects of an implementation intentions intervention on sedentary women's walking behaviour. Seventy-five women (M age = 48.17) were randomly assigned to either a control group where they were required to self-monitor their daily pedometer-determined step count or to an experimental group where they were asked to form specific walking plans (i.e. implementation intentions) every 6 weeks and to self-monitor their daily pedometer-determined step count. Measures of exercise intentions, perceived behavioural control, scheduling and barrier self-efficacy were administered at baseline, week 6 and week 11. Analyses indicated higher step counts over the first 6 weeks for women in the experimental condition (p < 0.02). Furthermore, higher self-efficacy to schedule (p < 0.01) and overcome walking barriers (p < 0.03), as well as higher perceptions of behavioural control (p < 0.02) were found at week 11 for women in the experimental versus control condition. However, none of the control beliefs were found to mediate the effects of the intervention on the women's walking behaviour. Furthermore, the intervention did not have any effect on the strength of the goal intention–behaviour relationship. The findings suggest implementation intentions are an effective strategy for initiating leisure-time walking within sedentary women.     

Enhancing the effects of a narrative message through experiential information processing: An experimental study

First-person narratives are becoming a popular means to communicate health risk information. Although studies show they can increase risk perception and motivate health behaviours compared to statistical messages, more research on the conditions in which they are particularly likely to have effects is needed. In this study, we tested a moderator related to how information is processed. Specifically, we hypothesised that thinking in terms of emotions and personal experiences – known as experiential information processing – would increase people’s responsiveness to a narrative. Female college students (N = 138) who reported indoor tanning were randomly assigned to read a first-person narrative message or a statistical message about the risks of skin cancer. Prior to reading the message, the women received instructions that would activate either experiential or rational information processing. Participants then reported their risk perceptions of skin cancer, worry about skin cancer and behaviour intentions related to skin cancer. Analyses showed that message type and information processing interacted to influence risk perceptions and worry. Consistent with hypotheses, participants reported the highest risk perception and worry when they used an experiential information system prior to reading the narrative message. There were no effects on behaviour intentions. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

The Impact of Phantom Decoys on Choices and Perceptions

Phantoms are dominating, attractive alternatives that are unavailable at the time of choice. They occupy different positions in the attribute space, and their unavailability can be either known or unknown to individuals. Although different theories have offered explanations for the influence that phantoms exert on individual choices, they have largely overlooked phantom knowledge. Contradictory predictions can be drawn from these theories, and none provides a good account of the pattern of effects that emerges from our data. We suggest that these contradictions appear because the different theories do not address phantom location and knowledge jointly. When considering phantom knowledge together with location, we observe a consistent overall pattern of effects that encompasses all predictions that could be made on the basis of each theory. We find that known phantoms are stronger when close, and favor the target product, whereas unknown phantoms are stronger when far, and favor the competitor. Finally, we look beyond shifts in choice shares and find that phantom decoys can also affect individuals' post‐choice evaluations and reactions in terms of perceived justice, decision satisfaction, and repatronage intention. Our results show that post‐choice evaluations are driven by phantom knowledge, not phantom location. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Effects of Personal Agency on Regret

In this paper, we examine the role of personal agency as a key antecedent of regret that individuals experience when the outcome of their decision is unfavorable. In contrast to previous research that documents its exacerbating role, we find that personal agency mitigates regret under certain circumstances. A series of experimental studies show that personal responsibility for the decision may attenuate subjective perceptions of the extent of failure and mitigate regret. However, when the superior outcome of the foregone option is known and the failure of the chosen option is irreversible, personal agency may amplify regret. We also find that subjective failure perceptions mediate the relationship between personal agency and regret levels. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exercise interventions and their effects on physical self-perceptions of male university students

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of 12-week exercise interventions on physical self-perceptions of male university students. The study also aimed to investigate the relationships between the changes in physical self-perceptions and the changes in some physiological measures after 12-week exercise programs. Forty-eight male university students aged from 19 to 25 years were enrolled in this study. Participants were randomly and equally assigned to swimming, running, cycling and control conditions. The Physical Self-Perception Profile was administered to all participants before and after 12-week exercise programs. Additionally, strength, maximal oxygen uptake (VO(2max)) and body compositions were assessed before and after interventions. Participants in the exercise groups attended swimming, running or cycling sessions for 40 min per day, 3 days per week with 60-70% of their heart rate reserves, while those in the control group did not attend any regular physical activity. The results of 4 × 2 × 5 MANOVA with the dimensions of physical self-perceptions as within-subject factor revealed that all groups including the control group revealed better physical-self-perceptions from pre- to post-test. Results of 4 × 2 × 3 MANOVA with physiological measures as within-subject factor revealed that VO(2max) values of participants in the swimming group improved more than the other groups. On the other hand, no significant differences were observed in strength scores and body fat levels among groups. Furthermore, no significant associations were obtained between the changes in physical self-perception dimensions and the physiological measures.