Preparing young veterans for civilian life: The effects of a workshop on career decision-making difficulties and self-efficacy

The current study mapped the career decision-making difficulties and career decision self-efficacy of 1315 young veterans who participated in a 5-day workshop aimed at facilitating their transition to civilian life. A pre- and post-test comparison showed that participation in the workshop reduced (d = 0.57) the participants' career decision-making difficulties (measured by the CDDQ; Gati, Krausz, & Osipow, 1996) and increased (d = 0.77) their career decision self-efficacy (measured by the CDSE; Taylor & Betz, 1983). A more advanced decision status, as reflected in the participants' Range of Considered Alternatives ( Saka & Gati, 2007), was negatively associated with participants' career decision-making difficulties, and positively associated with career decision self-efficacy. However, a more advanced decision status and the perceived effectiveness of the workshop were not associated with the decrease in difficulties and the increase in self-efficacy that resulted from participating in the workshop. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Psychobiography in psychology: Past,present, and future

The present article reviews the history and emerging trends in the field of psychobiography. Five historical periods are highlighted: hagiography and pre-19th century study of lives; Freud and applied psychoanalysis; psychodynamic extensions and personology; modern multi-theoretical models; and psychobiography as interdisciplinary science. The author advocates for a science of psychobiography manifested in expanded and empirically validated theoretical models anchoring research. Further, attention is drawn to the need for more rigorous historiographic research methods weighting first-person sources and incorporating mixed methods designs. Increased attention to ethical and legal issues in the conduct and reporting of psychobiographical studies is also highlighted. Finally, emerging trends in psychobiography related to research production, academic training, and organisational initiatives are presented.     

Physicians' Silent Decisions: Because Patient Autonomy Does Not Always Come First

Physicians make some medical decisions without disclosure to their patients. Nondisclosure is possible because these are silent decisions to refrain from screening, diagnostic or therapeutic interventions. Nondisclosure is ethically permissible when the usual presumption that the patient should be involved in decisions is defeated by considerations of clinical utility or patient emotional and physical well-being. Some silent decisions—not all—are ethically justified by this standard. Justified silent decisions are typically dependent on the physician's professional judgment, experience and knowledge, and are not likely to be changed by patient preferences. We condemn the inappropriate exclusion of the patient from the decision-making process. However, if a test or treatment is unlikely to yield a net benefit, disclosure and discussion are at times unnecessary. Appropriate silent decisions are ethically justified by such considerations as patient benefit or economy of time.     

贪婪:态度、动机与决策机制

贪婪是人性的重要特点之一,也是哲学、经济学等领域经常讨论的话题.本文首先梳理了贪婪的概念,并将问题聚焦在对于物质的贪婪上.然后总结了贪婪的特点,并提出贪婪的定义.接着阐述了情境因素如何影响个体对贪婪的态度,以及贪婪动机如何影响自利行为.贪婪决策是个体决定是否做出贪婪行为的心理过程,受到自我意识和情绪的影响.贪婪决策过程模型整合了控制性、自动化两类加工方式,阐释了自利倾向与道德自觉相互作用的机制.本文对以上内容逐次进行讨论,并提出了未来研究的方向.     

幸福的体验效用与非理性决策行为的偏差机制

基于体验效用的幸福包括预期幸福、即时幸福和回忆幸福,这三者有极其重要的本质差异,导致决策偏差和非理性。本研究运用行为科学和认知神经科学相结合的研究方法,首次从行为层次—信息加工层次—脑神经层次三个层面,立体地开展幸福感的体验效用与非理性决策行为研究。研究计划分为三个部分:(1)预期幸福、即时幸福和回忆幸福的本质特点和行为规律;(2)三种体验效用产生偏差的认知心理机制;(3)体验效用与非理性决策偏差的脑神经机制。通过系列研究,拟解决三个关键问题:(1)在人类判断与决策过程中,预期、即时和回忆三种效用是如何影响人们的判断与决策?(2)三种体验效用出现偏差的信息加工特点和脑神经机制究竟是什么?(3)三种效用的偏差规律及对政府公共政策的启示。对这些问题的深入探讨,不仅对决策理论研究的发展是一个贡献;对政府管理制定有效的公共政策,避免"牺牲体验追求指标",解决"幸福悖论",同样有很强的实践指导意义。     

Innovative Approaches to Child Custody and Domestic Violence in New Zealand

Summary

In 1995, as part of a major review of domestic violence law, the New Zealand Parliament amended the legislation under which disputes about custody of and access to children are determined by the Court. Specifically, the amendment introduced a rebuttable presumption that a parent who had used violence against a child or against the other parent would not have custody of, or unsupervised access to the child unless the Court could be satisfied that the child would be safe during visitation arrangements. Three years after the implementation of this legislation, it is timely to reflect on the impact of this major domestic violence law reform initiative. Our findings indicate that there are indeed advances. Psychological violence is now clearly being considered when Courts are assessing the issue of children's safety. As well, the delineation of mandatory risk assessment factors has led many judges to see a continuum of power and control tactics as relevant in domestic violence related visitation proceedings; the previous emphasis on physical violence has given way to an analysis which more closely reflects accords with women's and children's realities of the abuse they are exposed to. Some of the old problems continue to exist despite the law changes. There are still recent cases where perpetrators of serious violence are awarded unsupervised access and where their violence continues to be construed as “out of character,” arising because of the perpetrator's “despair” about the breakdown of his relationship. These and other issues are discussed.     

Requirements and Implementation of Maintaining Patient Records

Summary

This article will discuss the need for psychotherapists to document the statements of patients, the techniques they use, and other aspects of their work to avoid ethical and legal problems. Elements of session notes and written informed consent will be identified. No informed consent can legitimize some actions and they will be addressed.     

Adult age differences in subjective and objective measures of strategy use on a sequentially cued prediction task

Differences in strategy use are thought to underlie age-related performance deficits on many learning and decision-making tasks. Recently, age-related differences in learning to make predictions were reported on the Triplets Prediction Task (TPT). Notably, deficits appeared early in training and continued with experience. To assess if age differences were due to early strategy use, neural networks were used to objectively assess the strategies implemented by participants during Session 1. Then, the relationship between these strategies and performance was examined. Results revealed that older adults were more likely to implement a disadvantageous strategy early in learning, and this led to poorer task performance. Importantly, the relationship between age and task performance was partially mediated by early strategy use, suggesting that early strategy selection played a role in the lower quality of predictions in older adults.     

Why do people disagree with a statement they do not understand? Relations between comprehension and evaluation of a simple assertion

This article presents the results of a quasi-experimental study that examined the relation between the metacomprehension (i.e., understand/do not understand) and evaluative (i.e., agree/disagree) response to a simple one-sentence statement to compare the relative timing in which these two responses are generated in the course of sentence processing. In the study, participants were asked to provide metacomprehension and evaluative judgements to simple one-sentence assertions, and their response times were measured. Two of the main findings are: first, the response time for the evaluative judgement is faster than the response time for the metacomprehension judgement and, second, the faster response time of the evaluative judgement relative to the metacomprehension judgement is more pronounced either when they are not sure about whether they understand a statement or when they feel they do not understand a statement. The findings are analysed in relation to a multiple constraint satisfaction model of sentence comprehension to generate a possible processing model of a simple one-sentence assertion underlying the generation of metacomprehension and evaluative responses.