Behavioral methods of assessing forgiveness

One problem in forgiveness research is the reliance on one method (i.e. having people recall an offense and complete self-report measures). Thus, we present two strategies for studying forgiveness-related behavior. First, we adapted the Cyberball paradigm, which is a game of toss where two computer players (ostensibly virtual players) exclude the participant from play. We adapted Cyberball to include a second round that gave participants the opportunity to retaliate or forgive the player who excluded them. Self-reported forgiveness predicted the first toss and total number of tosses to the offender in the subsequent round. Second, we had participants describe an offense (as is typical with the recall method), but then also complete an activity in which they listed as many positive qualities as they could about the offender. Self-reported forgiveness predicted the number of positive qualities listed. We discuss the contribution of these studies to the multimodal study of forgiveness.     

Personality correlates of risky health outcomes: Findings from a large Internet study

Numerous studies have documented the effects of personality on health outcomes. However, which traits are most relevant to health, and the precise magnitude of their effects, is inconsistent across studies. The present study used a large sample (N = 460,172) to replicate and extend the relations between the Big Five and three health-related outcomes: self-reported health, body mass index, and substance use. Low Conscientiousness predicted all outcomes, indicating that individuals who are less responsible and less self-controlled tend to report poorer health, be more overweight, and engage in more substance use. Individuals who were more emotionally unstable (high Neuroticism) reported poorer health, and individuals prone to seek out social experiences and rewards (high Extraversion) engaged in more frequent substance use.     

Seven things to consider when measuring religious identity

Measuring religious identity is complex. The author offers seven suggestions for those who wish to describe and understand religious identity using survey data:

• (1)?Definitions and measures of religious identity shape knowledge about religious groups;

• (2)?Variation in question wording leads to variation in responses;

• (3)?Comparing results across surveys provides valuable perspective;

• (4)?Incentives shape how respondents report their religious identity;

• (5)?Religious identity may be liminal;

• (6)?Salient identity categories are often unmeasured; and

• (7)?Religious identity and religious practice may not seem congruent.

This essay includes many examples to illustrate these measurement suggestions.     

Measuring Stereotypes of Female Politicians

One explanation for the dearth of women in elected office is that voters stereotype candidates based on their gender. Research in this vein often assumes that female candidates will be stereotyped similarly to women (e.g., as compassionate) and measures stereotypes as such. We question this assumption, proposing instead that female politicians constitute a subtype—a new stereotypical category with its own qualities—of the broader group of women. We compare the content of female politician stereotypes to other relevant comparison groups including politicians, male politicians, and female professionals. Using a classic methodology to determine stereotype content (Katz & Braly, 1933), we find that female politicians do not share the qualities that are ascribed to women (e.g., warm, empathetic). Our results show that female politicians seem to be “losing” on male stereotypical qualities while also not having any advantage on qualities typical of women. The content of female politician stereotypes is nebulous and lacks clarity in comparison to all other groups examined. We discuss implications for the future measurement of politician stereotypes.     

Stiffness properties of the trunk in people with low back pain

The purpose of this study was to examine the dynamic properties of the trunk during unstable sitting and to determine differences between healthy and low back pain (LBP) participants.Participants sat on a custom-made chair that was able to swing freely in the sagittal plane. The chair was mounted on a force platform to measure loads acting at the trunk. Each participant was asked to find a balanced position after the chair was tilted backward and released. Movements of the trunk and chair were recorded. Effective moment of inertia, stiffness and damping coefficients were derived using a second order linear model. 10 participants were re-tested to assess reliability.Trunk stiffness was found increased for LBP subjects (p < .05) while no difference was found for damping coefficient. Gender and initial tilt angle did not affect viscoelastic properties of the spine.A second order linear model adequately described the biomechanical response of the trunk. It was shown that the trunk response was mainly elastic for all participants. The increase in trunk stiffness in LBP subjects could be a compensatory strategy to decrease pain and the risk of further injuries, but further investigations are needed to understand the nature of the viscoelastic alterations.     

Catching nonconscious goals in the act of decision making

Research has consistently found that goals triggered by environmental cues can influence decision making processes outside of conscious awareness. This lack of awareness led naturally to the presumption that decision makers could not report the activation level of nonconsciously primed goals. This paper shows that goal activation levels can be reported, so long as the report is made during the decision process on a continuous goal activation scale. These results indicate that default lack of awareness is less a limitation of the cognitive system and more a function of the method used to recover goals during a decision process.     

医师职业素养评测体系构建的研究进展

随着我国社会经济的发展,医疗体制的改革,医师职业素养的培养成为当今医疗体制下医学在校教育、住院医生培养、医疗卫生管理中必须关注的内容。目前国外对医师职业素养的培养做了大量的工作,也取得了较好的效果,但是对于职业素养的培养不仅需要理论教学的改革,更需要相应评估机制的建立。本文对国外医师执业素养评估的最新进展进行介绍,分析各种方法的优劣,以期为国内医学教育建立统一的、具有广泛公认度的测评体系提供参考。     

SCI论文与科研评价——兼谈论文编辑公司

《科学引文索引》(Science Citation Index,SCI)作为杂志质量的客观评价工具被引入我国后,逐渐成为我国科研评价重要的,乃至唯一的指标,对科研人员产生了强烈的导向作用,并催生了SCI论文热.比较了我国与其他国家大学及科研院所的科研评价体系和评价指标组成,分析了SCI论文在其中发挥的作用.结果表明,SCI论文在世界范围已经、正在并将继续在科研评价中发挥重要的作用,但将其唯一化、绝对化,不利于科研的发展.我国的SCI论文热也催生了国内论文服务公司的繁荣及乱象.     

没有SCI论文和科研成果不能成为好医生吗?

通过分析《科学引文索引》(science citation index,SCI)论文和科研成果与医生的衡量标准、临床工作、技术水平、考核和晋升的关系以及探讨SCI论文被引用的价值和科研成果的实践检验、临床应用,厘清做一个好医生与发表SCI论文及取得科研成果的关系,明确SCI论文和科研成果是综合评价、全面考核医生的指标之一;医生要以医为本,以研为辅,这是做一个好医生的坦途;没有SCI论文和科研成果可以做一个好医生,有了与临床相结合的SCI论文和科研成果,能够做一个更好的医生.