The United States Cover-up of Japanese Wartime Medical Atrocities: Complicity Committed in the National Interest and Two Proposals for Contemporary Action

To monopolize the scientific data gained by Japanese physicians and researchers from vivisections and other barbarous experiments performed on living humans in biological warfare programs such as Unit 731, immediately after the war the United States (US) government secretly granted those involved immunity from war crimes prosecution, withdrew vital information from the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, and publicly denounced otherwise irrefutable evidence from other sources such as the Russian Khabarovsk trial. Acting in “the national interest” and for the security of the US, authorities in the US tramped justice and morality, and engaged in what the English common law tradition clearly defines as “complicity after the fact.” To repair this historical injustice, the US government should issue an official apology and offer appropriate compensation for having covered up Japanese medical war crimes for six decades. To help prevent similar acts of aiding principal offender(s) in the future, international declarations or codes of human rights and medical ethics should include a clause banning any kind of complicity in any unethical medicine—whether before or after the fact—by any state or group for whatever reasons.     

Life satisfaction goes with pleasure and personal growth goes with interest: Further arguments for separating hedonic and eudaimonic well-being

Some theories suggest that pleasure and interest are separable emotions, with distinct functions and phenomenology. This study proposes a functional model of well-being that draws on these insights. It argues that both pleasure and satisfaction are elements of hedonic well-being and that their main function is to reward goal achievement and to mentally signalize that the body is in homeostatic stability. In contrast, the main function of interest is to promote mental and physical growth, and to suppress hedonic tendencies of premature returns to a homeostatic balance during difficult strivings. The feeling of interest facilitates personal growth, and is thus an indicator of eudaimonic well-being. A follow-up study (N?=?145 Norwegian students) gave empirical support to these assumptions. Life satisfaction predicted feelings of pleasantness while personal growth predicted feelings of interest. With a projective technique, it was further demonstrated that satisfaction produces pleasant stories, but not interesting stories.     

Development of a Post-Modern Career Interest Questionnaire for South-African School Settings

The study explored the potential value and viability of an interest narrative (questionnaire) in terms of its psychometric properties and by comparing it with a commonly administered (positivist) career interest questionnaire. Participants were 159 boys and 183 girls, mean ages were 17.87 (males) and 17.41 (girls), SD (males) = 1.63, SD (females) = 1.70. In the first phase, four provinces were selected purposively: one urban and three rural or semirural. Secondly, a stratified random sample of schools was selected, divided according to medium of instruction (Afrikaans/English) and area (urban/rural area). Data were collected and analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative approaches: trustworthiness, assessment-reassessment consistency and intercorrelations with the Rothwell Miller Interest Blank (Hall, Halstead & Taylor, 1986). The CIP yielded satisfactory results with regard to, inter alia, trustworthiness, assessment-reassessment reliability and intercorrelations with the RMIB, and provides psychologists with a useful instrument for the identification of interest profiles of Grade 11 learners in South Africa.     

Initial Review of the Psychometric Properties of a Computerised Career Preference Test for Career Guidance Assessment

Psychometric proprties of the Career Preference Computerised Adaptive Test (CPCAT) (De Beer & Marais, 2010; De Beer, Marais, Maree, & Skrzypczak, 2008) are reported. Participants were high school students (n=343; males=279, females=164)at Grade 9 and Grade 11 level from a South African school district. Reliability and construct validity indices suggest the CPCAT could be of utility in the career counseling of high school students.     

How do psychosocial challenges associated with living with congenital heart disease translate into treatment interests and preferences? A qualitative approach

Objectives: There is an increasing amount of research being conducted regarding the psychosocial challenges associated with living with congenital heart disease (CHD), however little is known about how these challenges influence the type of psychosocial services patients want. This study investigated (1) the type of services patients want; (2) how they want to access these services; and (3) why they want these services.

Methods: Three focus groups with adults with CHD (total of 14 participants aged 19–67) were conducted and thematic analysis was used to identify emerging themes.

Results: Participants described wanting to access specific psychosocial services in three broad categories (counselling, connecting with other adults with CHD and psycho-education) and in three main formats (individual/group therapy, mentorship programmes and patient conferences). Reasons for wanting these services were grouped under two overarching themes, namely intrapersonal factors and interpersonal challenges.

Conclusions: Psychosocial challenges are part of the everyday lives of adults with CHD, yet they are rarely addressed as part of routine medical care. Patients themselves have clear opinions regarding the psychological services most appropriate to target their experiences of living with CHD.     

Gender,Racial, and Ethnic Differences in Job Context and Work-Activity Preferences

This study explores the effect of social norms in a military situation at the Royal Norwegian Air Force Academy. During the wintertime, standing on a wharf, officers were given the offer of jumping into the ocean or not. In the experiment (n?=?75), having an antijump norm induced by a confederate, the jump rate decreased from 76% to 51%. One implication of these findings is that the salience of one norm is a deciding factor when individuals have several conflicting norms.     

Gaze behavior when approaching an intersection: Dwell time distribution and comparison with a quantitative prediction

The allocation of overt visual attention is investigated in a multi-task and dynamical situation: driving. The Expectancy–Value model of attention allocation stipulates that visual exploration depends on the expectancy and the value of the task-related information available in each Area Of Interest (AOI). We consider the approach to an intersection as a multi-task situation where two subtasks are involved: vehicle control and interactions with other drivers. Each of these subtasks is associated with some specific visual information present in the associated AOIs: the driver’s lane and the intersecting road at the intersection. An experiment was conducted in a driving simulator, coupled with a head-mounted eye-tracker. The intersecting road’s AOI’s Expectancy was manipulated with the traffic density, and its Value was manipulated with the priority rule before the intersection (stop, yield, and priority). The distribution of visual attention and the dynamics of visual exploration were analyzed on 20 participants, taking into account the dwell time in the AOIs associated to the driving subtasks, and the gaze transitions between the AOIs. The results suggest that visual attention to intersecting roads varied with the priority rule, and impacted the visual attention associated with the vehicle control subtask. In addition, a quantitative model was used to improve the understanding of the Expectancy and Value factors. The comparison of the data with the model’s predictions enables quantifying the observed differences between the experimental factors. Finally, the results associated with the traffic density are discussed in relation to the nature of the relevant information while approaching the intersection.     

小学低年级儿童的计算流畅性与数学焦虑:基于变量为中心与个体为中心的分析

为考察计算流畅性对小学低年级儿童数学焦虑的影响及作用机制,对592名小学二年级儿童的计算流畅性、数学学习兴趣、教师支持和数学焦虑进行测查。结果发现:(1)计算流畅性不仅通过数学学习兴趣间接影响数学焦虑,也可通过数学学习兴趣进而通过教师支持间接影响数学焦虑;(2)对计算流畅性和数学学习兴趣得分进行潜剖面分析,可将儿童区分为三种类型:低能力-低兴趣型、高能力-高兴趣型和低能力-高兴趣型;(3)低能力-低兴趣型儿童的数学焦虑得分显著高于其他两类,而低能力-高兴趣型和高能力-高兴趣型儿童的数学焦虑得分则无显著差异。上述结果表明计算流畅性、数学学习兴趣和教师支持在预防和干预小学低年级儿童的数学焦虑中具有重要作用。     

Neural correlates of feigned memory impairment are distinguishable from answering randomly and answering incorrectly: an fMRI and behavioral study

Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have identified activation in the prefrontal-parietal-sub-cortical circuit during feigned memory impairment when comparing with truthful telling. Here, we used fMRI to determine whether neural activity can differentiate between answering correctly, answering randomly, answering incorrectly, and feigned memory impairment. In this study, 12 healthy subjects underwent block-design fMRI while they performed digit task of forced-choice format under four conditions: answering correctly, answering randomly, answering incorrectly, and simulated feigned memory impairment. There were three main results. First, six areas, including the left prefrontal cortex, the left superior temporal lobe, the right postcentral gyrus, the right superior parietal cortex, the right superior occipital cortex, and the right putamen, were significantly modulated by condition type. Second, for some areas, including the right superior parietal cortex, the right postcentral gyrus, the right superior occipital cortex, and the right putamen, brain activity was significantly greater in feigned memory impairment than answering randomly. Third, for the areas including the left prefrontal cortex and the right putamen, brain activity was significantly greater in feigned memory impairment than answering incorrectly. In contrast, for the left superior temporal lobe, brain activity was significantly greater in answering incorrectly than feigned memory impairment. The results suggest that neural correlates of feigned memory impairment are distinguishable from answering randomly and answering incorrectly in healthy subjects.     

The Political Reputation of Students in Upper Secondary School: Consequences for Their Collective Political Activities Four Years Later

This longitudinal study examines the role that students' political reputation in class plays in their future political activities offline together with other people. When aged 16, students were asked to nominate the classmates they considered politically knowledgeable and verbal in class, that is, as having a political reputation. This measure of political reputation was used to predict the participants' political activities offline four years later at age 20 and their attempts to take a stand in public in the national election the same year. The study controlled for individual differences in political interest, self-perceived political impact in class, the students' political activities at age 16, and also gender and immigrant status. About 300 Swedish students were followed up four years later. Political reputation in class positively predicted future political activities offline, membership of political organizations, and attempts to take a stand in public for a party in the forthcoming national election. At the same time, the role played by political reputation depended upon students' other characteristics, especially their levels of anger and popularity, as observed by classmates. Evidently, the group dynamics in class that give some students a political reputation have long-term consequences for their future political activities.