Evolution and human choices

The postmodern world seems to have conclusively lost faith in the heady promises of human emancipation through rational understanding that have pervaded the Western world since the time of the Enlightenment. As the end of the millennium approaches and the evidence of man‐made environmental degradation accumulates nihilism and malaise color the future. This article argues that a clear understanding of both evolutionary forces and human consciousness permits to formulate a guardedly optimistic alternative view. It is advanced that the very sense of despair current circumstances have created may trigger a move toward a new form of psycho‐functional adaptation, simultaneously constituting a first instance of “conscious evolution” and fulfilling the progressive promise intrinsic in the full use of our rational faculties.     

The choreography of everyday life—a missing brick in the general evolution theory

The “choreography of everyday life refers to the existence of rules of daily life, correspondingly to those of dances: the rules impose order upon individual behavior beyond the level of pure improvisation. The fact that acts of everyday life repeat themselves supports the idea that there exist some mechanisms generating order to daily practices. The replicative model of evolution is a candidate to explain this process of routinization. At the beginning of a replicative cycle behavioral patterns might change radically. In the course of time integrative and competitive selective forces start working. Finally some established rules, choreography, determining daily practices will emerge. In this mature phase identical replication takes place.     

Timescapes of Security: Clocks,Clouds, and the Complexity of Security Governance

This article pulls together the disjointed complexification of security studies. Such analytical overview suggests that the perspective of “timescapes” allows for exploring the complexity that shapes meanings and practices of security and its governance. In this respect, it is the imperative to change that suggests the significance of complexity thinking to security studies—that is, it is alone in taking the discontinuities of global life seriously. Security, in this regard, is not merely about the clockwork of survival, but is redefined through the cloudlike adaptive contingency of “security as resilience.” In this setting, the security governance of complexity is identified through its dancing to the timescaped rhythms of uncertainty, cognitive challenges, complex risks, and exaptation prompted by the heterogeneity of global life.     

Adaptive and Maladaptive Perfectionism as Mediators of Adult Attachment Styles and Depression,Hopelessness, and Life Satisfaction

This study examined the relationships between adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism, anxious and avoidant adult attachment styles, depression, hopelessness, and life satisfaction among a sample of 180 undergraduate students. Maladaptive perfectionism mediated the relationship between both forms of adult attachment and depression, hopelessness, and life satisfaction. Adaptive perfectionism mediated the relationship between avoidant adult attachment and hopelessness and life satisfaction. Implications for counselors and future research directions are discussed.     

Life Meaning Following Combat Among Air Force Security Forces Personnel

An active duty Air Force ground combat unit (n = 189) completed surveys about trauma and combat exposure, mood symptoms, and meaning in life. Two dimensions of deployment-related traumas were assessed: combat (e.g., firing weapons, being fired upon) and aftermath (e.g., seeing dead bodies, injury). Results of regression analyses indicated that Airmen who experienced more intense combat reported less presence of meaning in life, although the significant interaction with gender suggested declines in meaning in life were especially pronounced among males with higher combat intensity. In contrast, more intense aftermath exposure was associated with slightly stronger meaning in life, with no differences by gender. Intensity of combat exposure might differentially affect perceived meaning in life for male versus female combatants.     

Determination of problems in patients with post‐laryngectomy

The purpose of this study is the determination of the physical and psychosocial problems of total and partial laryngectomies. A total of 25 patients, who were operated with the diagnosis of larynx carcinoma in 2010 at Gazi University Faculty of Medicine Otolaryngology Department, were included in the study. They were evaluated with the help of the Personal Information Form (PIF) and the Determination Form of Post Laryngectomy Problem (DFPLP) for the problems they encountered after the operation. Total laryngectomy (TL) was performed on 76% of patients. It was determined that patients undergoing total laryngectomy experienced some physical and psycho‐social problems such as problems in sleep (31.6%), smell (52.6%), taste (36.8%), and difficulty in swallowing solid foods (36.8%). Furthermore in patients with TL surgery whilst 47.4% of them think that their sexual lives were affected rather negatively, this rate was determined as 33.3% in patients with partial laryngectomy surgery (PL). The psychosocial score averages of the patients who had smell and taste disorders were significantly lower (p < 0.05). The patients, who underwent a laryngectomy operation, experienced many physical, social, and psychological problems. Thus, medical personnel also need to pay attention to these concomitant problems that occur during the treatment of the primary disease and the application of necessary supplementary treatments such as voice prosthesis, pre‐op and post‐op counseling, and anti‐depressants seems significant in terms of increasing the life quality of the patients.     

Guilt as a Source of Narcissistic Gratification

This article takes as its starting point a paper by Hugo Bleichmar presented at the 2003 Joseph Sandler Research Conference on Depression. The author argues in favour of viewing depression in a broad perspective. The Freudian prototype of “guilty depression” represents only one of many pathways leading to depressive states. Psychoanalytic understanding of depression should represent a multidimensional approach, characterised by interacting determinants, both internal and external. In clinical practice, this would imply an attitude of greater freedom and flexibility in the analyst. The paper compares the psychoanalytic account of depression with that given by the cognitive approach. It is argued that within a diverse research field, where depression is studied from different angles—as a disorder of the brain and in terms of cognitive deficits—the contribution of psychoanalysis is that depression is most usefully studied at the level of psychological causation. The psychoanalytic understanding of depressive states in terms of unconscious interpretation and meaning of experience represents a distinct contribution. Implications of viewing depression as an “illness” are discussed.     

An Exploratory Assessment of Sales Culture Variables: Strategic Implications Within the Banking Industry

Growing, or even simply sustaining, profitability in today's rapidly changing environment is a daunting task. Today's firm must contend with increasing competition, changing customer requirements, and unprecedented technological change. Further, changing government regulations, such as the recent wave of deregulation, have dramatically changed the way business has traditionally been done in certain industries. In such a turbulent environment many firms have discovered that a total organizational sales effort is necessary. For many firms, this means a paradigm shift that involves strengthening their sales culture.

The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the sales culture (SC) concept and discuss its importance in contemporary business strategy. First, we will discuss market orientation from a corporate culture perspective. Second, the sales culture component of a market orientation will be defined and examined. Third, an exploratory investigation of constructs associated with sales culture will be investigated using an example taken from an industry that is experiencing rapid change, the banking industry. Finally, strategic implications, limitations and suggestions for future research will be shared.     

Marital role strain,illness intrusiveness,and their impact on marital and individual adjustment in end-stage renal disease

Abstract

A marital role theory approach was used to investigate individual psychosocial well-being and marital adjustment in 89 end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients and their spouses. Four different patient groups were selected according to a continuum of clinical milestones in the treatment of ESRD, including pre-dialysis (n=17), incenter dialysis (n=18), home dialysis (n=19), and posttransplant patients (n=17). A nephrology clinic control group (n=18) was also included. Standardized instruments were employed to investigate marital role strain (Marital Role Questionnaire, KDS-15), marital adjustment (Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Test), subjective well-being (Affect Balance Scale, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Inventory), and psychopathology (Symptom Checklist 90-R). Hierarchical multiple regression analyses provided strong and consistent support for the major hypotheses relating elevated marital role strain to compromised marital adjustment and individual well-being. Further analyses demonstrated that increased perceived intrusiveness of ESRD was significantly related to greater marital role strain, poorer marital adjustment, and decreased individual well-being. This is consistent with the idea that perceived intrusiveness may be an important mediator of marital role strain and of coping with chronic illness. “Objective” intrusiveness, defined in terms of patient group, was not significantly related to marital or individual well-being. These findings support a dyadic approach to the psychosocial study of chronic illness.     

Impact of social support on health status and life satisfaction in people with a spinal cord injury

Abstract

Purpose: Assessment of the impact of received social support on functional health status and life satisfaction in people with spinal cord injury (SCI). Design: Respondents were 176 people with SCI between 18 and 65 years of age and living in the community. Mean time after injury was 3.6 years. Problem-oriented and emotion-oriented support, received from family members, friends and relatives, and professionals were assessed with the Sources of Social Support Inventory. Health status was assessed with the Sickness Impact Profile 68 and life satisfaction with the Life Satisfaction Questionnaire. Structural equation modelling with LISREL V8 was used to study relationships of different types and sources of social support with health status and life satisfaction.Results: Emotion-oriented support led to better psychological functioning and to greater life satisfaction. In addition, emotion-oriented support from the family led to greater satisfaction with relationships and emotion-oriented support from friends and acquaintances led to less satisfaction with social life. Problem-oriented support was not clearly related to health status and life satisfaction; there was only a negative relation between problem-oriented support and satisfaction with social life. Support, problem-oriented or emotion-oriented, from health-care professionals showed no relationships with health status or life satisfaction.Conclusions: Emotion-oriented support from family members and friends was most important for people with SCI. Greater problem-oriented support appears to be related to poorer life satisfaction.