The Association Between Psychological Well-Being and Problematic Use of Internet Communicative Services Among Young People

Previous studies on problematic Internet use have focused almost exclusively on the fact that presence of negative functioning, such as social anxiety, depressive symptoms, or loneliness, represents a risk factor for unhealthy use of the web. For this reason the aim of the present study was to investigate the association between psychological well-being dimensions and problematic use of Internet communicative services. In the current study 495 undergraduate students were recruited. The Italian adaptations of the Psychological Well-being Scales and the Generalized Problematic Internet Use Scale 2 (GPIUS2) were used to assess psychological well-being dimensions and generalized problematic Internet use, respectively. Psychological well-being dimensions explained a significant portion of variance for the GPIUS2 total score levels, after controlling for sex, age, and occupational status. The levels of Autonomy, Environmental Mastery, and Positive Relations with Others acted as significant negative predictors of the tendency to use the web for regulating negative feelings, compulsive use of the web, and the negative outcomes that can arise as a result. The overall findings of the present study provide preliminary evidence that low psychological well-being is associated with problematic use of Internet communicative services.     

An evaluation of computer-based programmed instruction for promoting teachers' greetings of parents by name

Although greeting parents by name facilitates subsequent parent-teacher communication, baseline measures revealed that 4 preschool teachers never or rarely greeted parents by name during morning check-in. To promote frequent and accurate use of parents' names by teachers, the effects of a fully automated computerized assessment and programmed instruction (CAPI) intervention were evaluated in a multiple baseline design. The CAPI intervention involved assessment and training of relations among parents' and children's pictures and names, and produced rapid learning of parent names. The CAPI intervention also resulted in substantial improvements in the classroom use of parents' names for 3 of the 4 teachers; however, a supervisor-mediated feedback package (consisting of instructions, differential reinforcement, and error correction) was necessary to maintain name use for 2 of those teachers. The practical strengths and limitations of computer-based teacher training are discussed.     

A goal model of catharsis

Although research in social psychology has repeatedly refuted the idea that aggression reduces subsequent aggression (e.g., Bushman, 2002), we suggest a more fine-grained analysis of catharsis. We will present and discuss a social-cognitive goal model of cathartic effects in aggression that predicts under which conditions aggression increases or reduces subsequent aggression. The model assumes that the accessibility of aggression-related constructs is a function of goal fulfilment: Prior to goal fulfilment constructs related to the goal are highly accessible in order to facilitate goal fulfilment. However, after goal fulfilment this heightened accessibility loses its functionality and aggressive constructs are consequently inhibited. In the present article we will review empirical work testing this model. Moreover, we will extend this model to the effects of violent computer games. Finally we will discuss theoretical challenges and applied relevance of our model for intervention strategies aimed at reducing aggression.     

Improving Children's Mental Rotation Accuracy With Computer Game Playing

The authors investigated the relation between mental rotation (MR) and computer game-playing experience. Third grade boys (n = 24) and girls (n = 23) completed a 2-dimensional MR test before and after playing computer games (during 11 separate 30-min sessions), which either involved the use of MR skills (the experimental group) or did not involve the use of MR skills (the control group). The experimental group outperformed the control group on the MR posttest but not on the pretest. Boys outperformed girls on the pretest but not on the posttest. Children whose initial MR performance was low improved after playing computer games that entailed MR skills. The findings imply that computer-based instructional activities can be used in schools to enhance children's spatial abilities.     

Evolution of communication in perfect and imperfect worlds

We extend previous work on cooperation to some related questions regarding the evolution of simple forms of communication. The evolution of cooperation within the iterated Prisoner's Dilemma has been shown to follow different patterns, with significantly different outcomes, depending on whether the features of the model are classically perfect or stochastically imperfect (Axelrod, 1980a,b, 1984, 1985; Axelrod and Hamilton, 1981; Nowak and Sigmund, 1990, 1992; Sigmund, 1993). Our results here show that the same holds for communication. Within a simple model, the evolution of communication seems to require a stochastically imperfect world.     

A comparison of computer and questionnaire methods of history-taking in a genito-urinary clinic

Abstract

Information on the medical history and symptomatology of 69 patients presenting at a genito-urinary (GU) clinic was obtained either by a computerized interview or a paper questionnaire and the results compared. A comparison was also made between these methods and notes taken during a standard physician interview. Significantly more symptoms were elicited by the computer than the paper questionnaire. Both methods also elicited significantly more symptoms than were recorded by the physician. The patients reported having previously attended a GU clinic more often to the computer than to the physician whereas the questionnaire was no different from the physician. The results indicate that computers can be used satisfactorily to facilitate medical history- taking in GU clinics and may result in a more complete profile of symptoms than either written questionnaire or physician interview.     

Genetic,Maternal, School,Intelligence, and Media Use Predictors of Adult Criminality: A Longitudinal Test of the Catalyst Model in Adolescence through Early Adulthood

The catalyst model suggests that adult criminality arises from the interaction of genetic and proximal social influences such as family influences, but that distal social influences such as media exposure have only negligible influence. This article uses data from a 13-year longitudinal study of adolescent health to examine the catalyst model. As expected by the catalyst model, adult criminality was best explained by a confluence of genetic and proximal social risk factors. The influence of media exposure on adult criminality was negligible. Implications of these findings for both theory and policy are discussed.     

Heuristic Methods for Computer Ethics

The domain of "procedural ethics" is the set of reflective and deliberative methods that maximize the reliability of moral judgment. While no general algorithmic method exists that will guarantee the validity of ethical deliberation, non-algorithmic "heuristic" methods can guide and inform the process, making it significantly more robust and dependable. This essay examines various representative heuristic procedures commonly recommended for use in applied ethics, maps them into a uniform set of twelve stages, identifies common faults, then shows how the resulting stage-by-stage decision-making model could be adapted for general use and for use in computer ethics.     

Lilliputian Computer Ethics

This essay considers some ethical issues of nanotechnology and quantum computing, particularly the issue of privacy, and questions related to artificial intelligence, implants, and virtual reality. It then examines the claim that research in this field should be halted.