Exploring a new paradigm for empathy research / Explorando un nuevo paradigma para el estudio de la empatía

Abstract

The present paper proposes an alternative experimental procedure for studies on empathy. It is intended as a simple and reliable alternative to the commonly used designs, which are certainly very elegant, but costly, as they require delicate real-life experimental manipulations. We advocate that studies using simple well-formulated text stimuli can be methodologically as reliable and valid as game task approaches. To underscore our claim, we report first behavioural evidence that supports this conclusion. The clear advantage of the method we present is that it is less susceptible to bias and, more importantly, more accessible to laboratories that do not have the financial means and the spatial infrastructure to manoeuvre complex and costly experimental setups and techniques. It is an easy to use, computer-based paradigm.     

Preventing The Oil “Resource Curse” In Ghana: Lessons From Nigeria

Ghana joined the list of oil-producing countries with the export of its first oil from the Jubilee oilfield in January 2011. President John Atta Mills's statement drawing attention to the potential paradigm shift as well as risks that the discovery of oil and gas imposes not only speaks to the complexity of extractive-industry-engendered development, but it also makes it imperative that the country learns from other countries’ successes and failures. In this article, we use the “resource curse” thesis to examine the emerging dynamics and complexities in Ghana's oil industry, with the attempt to draw both correlations with and lessons from the Nigerian case. The article highlights five key lessons in Nigeria's management of its oil–gas resources related to the legal-regulatory framework, development of the oil-producing areas, Corporate Social Responsibility, management of oil revenues, and oil–civil society nexus that Ghana should give serious thoughts to in order to leverage its new found oil wealth and avert the “resource curse.”     

Contradictions of emotion in schizophrenia

This paper considers contradictory features of emotional or affective experience and expression in schizophrenia in light of the “Kretschmerian paradox”—the fact that schizophrenia-spectrum patients can simultaneously experience both exaggerated and diminished levels of affective response. An attempt is made to explain the paradox and explore its implications. Recent research on emotion in schizophrenia is reviewed, including subjective reports, psychophysiological measures of arousal or activation, and behavioural measures, focusing on flat-affect and negative-symptom patients. After discussing relevant concepts and vocabulary of emotion (“affect”, “emotion”, “mood”, “feelings”, the “passions”), the need for a phenomenological approach focusing on subjective experience is proposed. Four modes of nonparanoid experience in schizophrenia are discussed: Bodily Alienation, Disengagement, Unworlding, and Subjectivisation. Each mode involves withdrawal from functional contexts—temporal, practical, and interpersonal—normally associated with emotional reactivity and expression; each may be accompanied by forms of non-emotional affectivity no less intense than the emotions they replace. Possible relationships between psychophysiological measures, expressive behaviour, and subjective emotional or affective response are considered.     

公共资源困境中领导对群体成员合作行为的影响

过去社会困境的领导研究大多都以被试作为领导, 发现贴上领导标签后, 被试倾向于拿取更多的公共资源, 从而有碍公共利益的实现。本研究指出, 如果领导的背叛行为能够使群体成员表现出自我节制行为的话, 那么设置领导则有可能促进公共利益的实现。研究通过三个实验, 考察领导与普通群体成员不同的行为方式以及领导的产生方式对群体成员行为的影响, 并检验公平理论和社会认同理论的解释力。研究结果表明, 领导表现出背叛行为时, 被试表现出更多的自我节制行为; 指派领导及外群体选举领导背叛时, 被试表现出更多的自我节制行为, 验证了社会认同理论的正确性。     

2001年～2010年新疆13个地州市卫生资源配置公平性分析

基于洛伦兹曲线和基尼系数视角,对2001年～2010年新疆13个地州市卫生资源配置公平性进行分析,发现新疆13个地州市卫生技术人员和医生的配置大多数年份处于不公平状态,而病床的配置大多数年份处于比较公平状态,建议从卫生投入、政策倾斜及卫生人员培训等角度协调新疆卫生资源的配置.     

河南省医疗改革的公平性分析

河南省医疗改革突出的难题在于如何实现保健资源的公平公正.影响河南医疗改革公平的因素是产权改制的方向偏差,道德异乡人的利益博弈,资本和技术对医学的剥蚀,医学、医疗自身发展的失衡.实现医疗改革公平的对策建议是显化政府责任伦理,重建医患利益共同体,整合优化卫生资源的配置,推行医学整体化的发展模式.     

Integrating Contextual Issues in Ethical Decision Making

Many issues in ethics arise in relation to the contexts in which psychologists work. However, most ethical decision-making models reproduce the way in which psychologists tend to approach ethics by focusing on ethical dilemmas and proposing a step-by-step response to deal with them. Although these models might be useful, their emphasis on reactive approaches and their lack of contextualization constitute significant limitations on their applicability. In this article, an approach to ethical decision making that highlights the importance of the context in developing proactive strategies to solve ethical issues is proposed. This approach is further explained through its application to medical and rural settings. The implications of these suggestions to the training in ethics are finally discussed.     

Unique Ethical Concerns in Clinical Trials Comparing Psychosocial and Psychopharmalogical Interventions

In recent years, there has been a particular emphasis placed on conducting randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that compare the relative efficacy of psychosocial and pharmacological interventions. This article addresses relevant ethical considerations in the conduct of these treatment trials, with a focus on RCTs with children. Ethical concerns, including therapeutic misconception, treatment preference, therapeutic equipoise, structure of treatments, and balancing risks versus benefits, are introduced through a clinical scenario and discussed as they relate to psychotherapy versus medication RCTs. In each case, suggestions are made for researchers seeking to minimize the impact of these ethical concerns on research participants.     

Strategies School Practitioners Report They Would Use to Resist Pressures to Practice Unethically

Abstract

This study focused on strategies school psychologists and special education teachers report they would use to resist administrative pressures to practice unethically. Data came from a national sample of 141 school psychologists and 130 special education teachers who responded to a survey by predicting how they and others would respond to four ethical dilemmas. Qualitative analysis of data revealed four strategies that were generalized across all dilemmas. These general strategies were: preventing dilemmas from occurring; educating and/or threatening others; involving others in solutions; and combining strategies into more comprehensive responses. Qualitative analysis also revealed three strategies that were suggested for only some of the dilemmas (dilemma-specific strategies). Both the general and dilemma-specific strategies appear potentially useful to practitioners seeking ways of resisting pressures to practice unethically.     

关系受益人绩效对关系行使人资源分配的影响

关系型决策往往涉及关系行使人和关系受益人两大主体。先前研究很少考察关系受益人的非关系因素对关系行使人决策结果的影响。为了弥补这一缺陷,通过一系列的实验室实验来检验关系受益人的绩效水平对关系行使人资源分配结果的影响。四个组内实验设计重复验证了如下结果:当关系受益人绩效明显低于同伴时,关系行使人会照顾关系受益人,并做出对关系受益人更有利的不公平资源分配;然而,当关系受益人绩效明显高于同伴的时候,关系行使人不会照顾关系受益人,并做出更为公平的资源分配。这说明只有当人们处于明显劣势的时候,关系才会在资源分配过程中起到一定的补偿作用。研究结果有助于理论界和实践界更好地理解关系型决策过程。