Goal orientation, task difficulty, and task interest: A multilevel analysis

We studied whether goal orientation affects the relationships that task difficulty and interest have with self-set goals. Using a sample of 499 undergraduate students who listed grade goals for their classes, we employed Hierarchical Linear Modeling to explain differences in the extent to which difficulty and interest related to goals. Higher goals were set for more interesting and easier classes, and for individuals higher in mastery goal orientation and for those lower in performance-avoidance orientation (at average levels of interest and difficulty). Furthermore, performance-approach and performance-avoidance orientations reduced and strengthened (respectively) the effects of task difficulty on self-set goals, and the buffering effect of mastery orientation was marginally significant. Portions of this paper were presented at the 19^th Annual Conference of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Chicago, IL, in April 2004.     

Interest—The Curious Emotion

ABSTRACT— Despite their interest in why people do what they do, psychologists typically overlook interest itself as a facet of human motivation and emotion. In recent years, however, researchers from diverse areas of psychology have turned their attention to the role of interest in learning, motivation, and development. This article reviews the emerging body of work on the psychology of interest, with an emphasis on what contemporary emotion research has learned about the subject. After considering four central questions—Is interest like other emotions? What functions does interest serve? What makes something interesting? Is interest merely another label for happiness?—the article considers unanswered questions and fruitful applications. Given interest's central role in cultivating knowledge and expertise, psychologists should apply research on interest to practical problems of learning, education, and motivation.     

Scientific Self-Regulation—So Good, How Can it Fail?

To be a functional alternative to government regulation, self-regulation of science must be credible to both scientists and the public, accountable, ethical, and effective. According to some, serious problems continue in research ethics in the United States despite a rich history of proposed self-regulatory standards and oversight devices. Successful efforts at self-regulation in stem cell research contrast with unsuccessful efforts in research ethics, particularly conflicts of interest. Part of the cause for a lack of success in self-regulation is fragmented, disconnected oversight, and failure to embody genuine scientific and public consensus. To be accountable, credible and effective, self-regulation must be inclusive and multidisciplinary, publicly engaged, sufficiently disinterested, operationally integrated with institutional goals, and must implement a genuine consensus among scientists and the public. The mechanisms of self-regulation must be sufficiently broad in their oversight, and interconnected with other institutional forces and actors, that they do not create fragmented solutions.

论道德评价中的几个基本理论问题

道德评价是人们依据一定社会的道德价值标准,通过社会舆论和内心信念对他人或自己的思想和行为进行善恶价值判断,以表明褒贬态度的道德活动。道德评价所形成的社会舆论直接作用于行为主体的思想和行为活动,对行为主体的道德行为选择将产生非常重要的影响。如何科学、客观地对人们的行为活动予以道德评判,必须澄清几个基本的理论问题:一是关于道德评价的标准问题;二是关于道德评价的依据问题;三是关于道德评价的权重问题;四是关于道德评价的方法问题。     

Treatment-resistant depression: A systematic review of systematic reviews

The objective of this research study was to assess pharmacological, somatic and/or psychological treatments in adults with a diagnosis of major depressive disorder who have not responded to at least one course of antidepressant medication. We conducted a systematic review to identify systematic scientific reviews and meta-analyses on treatment-resistant depression (TRD) published until February 2012. Of the sixty studies selected, sixteen met the inclusion criteria and were therefore included in the review. We considered eight main themes, including the definition of TRD, long-term results, and different treatment strategies, including so-called somatic therapies. Based on the review, the definition of TRD should be standardized in order to achieve a shared conceptualization of this disorder. This would allow a better understanding among clinicians and researchers in the field, promoting a homogeneous research methodology and thus leading to more reliable and comparable results. This essential conceptual clarification would also have a positive impact on patients with TRD, their families, and social and health systems.     

Use of Self-perspectives and their Sources to Predict the Mathematics Enrollment Intentions of Girls and Boys

An understanding of the differences in the ways in which self-efficacy and interest influence boys’ and girls’ intentions to continue enrollment in mathematics courses may provide insight into how to encourage continued mathematics enrollment for all students. Two competing theoretical models of mathematics self-efficacy and interest in predicting students’ enrollment intentions and achievement were evaluated separately across samples of middle level boys and girls. One model was empirically supported for both groups and indicated the independent influence of self-efficacy and interest in predicting enrollment intentions. Multi-group analyses revealed that self-efficacy’s influence in enrollment intentions and achievement was significantly stronger for boys than for girls, and interest was significantly more important in the prediction of enrollment intentions for girls than for boys.     

Consonances and controversies: Investigation and its discontents revisited

The author responds to the commentaries of 13 experts on his 1980 American Psychologist article, “Investigation and its discontents: On some constraints on progress in psychological research.” Among the themes addressed are the role of theory in psychological research, the meanings and implications of “productivity” by scholars and researchers, the role of grants, and of money in general, in directing research efforts, and the relation between psychological and neuropsychological research.     

Some thoughts on the diffusion of psychoanalysis: the group dimension, ethics and the sense of identity

In this paper the author questions some of the ways in which psychoanalysis is passed on to the wider public, one of which is sometimes evocative of the sales promotion of a consumer product in contemporary society. This methodology does not give sufficiently deep prior thought to the eventual consequences of side effects. The detailed exposition of clinical cases, for example, raises sensitive ethical issues, even when anonymity is preserved. Although it is true that making information about Freud's theories more widely available may indeed encourage people to think about training as psychoanalysts, it is noticeable that this process is sometimes considered to be a form of training in itself. Some participants feel that acquiring a psychoanalytical vocabulary and reading clinical reports form a sufficient basis for practising thereafter as psychotherapists, both in institutional contexts and in private practice. The absence of group work on the part of the organizers might explain why closer study is not made of the methodologies of transmission and the different levels that it involves. This is sometimes due to the absence of a common object, formed within and by the group, and to the emergence of manic defences in the group.     

守护受试者的权益——对“药物研究与应用的伦理监督”

如何保障和守护临床试验研究中受试者的权益?这既是医生、患者(受试者)、工业界与公众注目的问题,也是医院伦理委员会工作面临并要解决的基本而至关重要的问题。从华西医院伦理委员会工作角度出发,分析了临床试验研究中的权益冲突和对受试者权益的科学、伦理与政策守护的要素,论述了如何保障受试者权益问题。     

重大传染病疫情应对中个人的伦理责任影响——以新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情为例

重大传染病疫情应对可能出现公共利益挤压个人权利的问题,但这种非常态下的权宜之策对阻断病毒传播至关重要,经得起合法性考验。为有效控制重大传染病疫情蔓延,每个人都要承担协调好与他人、与社会的关系,适度让渡个人权利、参与疫情防控、平等对待患者和高风险地区同胞、合理约束自己需求等伦理责任。相关职能部门应当通过完善法律法规、引导树立共同体意识、制定伦理指南、加强沟通解释等方式确保个人的伦理责任落实到位。