The Imperatives of Narrative: Health Interest Groups and Morality in Network News

This article examines some of the story conventions of network television news to explain the ways in which healthcare interest groups develop and maintain their presence in this medium—a process that has significant implications for public understanding of healthcare issues, and therefore to bioethics. The article is divided into three sections. The first section focuses on three major normative conventions of television news: adherence to a simple narrative structure, the balance ethic, and avoidance of the “think-piece” and outlines the basic strategies available to interest groups for exploiting these normative conventions. Section two introduces three case studies of organizations and individuals who have run high-profile media campaigns. Section three explores the implications for bioethics of the observations made in this article.     

How effortful decisions get enacted: the motivating role of decision processes,desires, and anticipated emotions

Building on recent research examining the influence of decision making on subsequent goal striving and decision enactment, we consider and elaborate on the mechanisms through which effortful decisions are made, maintained, and enacted. Our proposed framework builds on the Dholakia and Bagozzi ( 2002 ) model, distinguishes between two important types of intentions and desires, and shows that the motivation‐mustering function of the decision process is mediated by goal and implementation desires. In addition to decision processes, the roles of goal feasibility, anticipated emotions, attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control are also elaborated on. Through a two‐wave field study tracking real decisions and their pursuit by participants, we find empirical support for our model of effortful decision making and enactment. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Voluntary aspects of attentional control setting for detecting a feature‐defined target1

Abstract: Singleton targets that differ from distractors in a single salient attribute can be discerned regardless of the number of items in the display. Recent studies have indicated that the perception of singleton targets is facilitated by an attentional control setting. We focused on the voluntary aspect of the attentional control setting. Psychophysical and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments examined the temporal characteristics of the attentional control setting by using an auditory cue. In both experiments, an auditorily cued feature‐search task was used. The cue validity (valid vs. neutral) and the cue lead time (CLT) were varied. In the psychophysical experiment, we established the effect of a symbolic cue on detection of a singleton. When the CLT was short or the cue was neutral, there was no facilitation, as re?ected by the slow activation of the attentional control setting. In our fMRI experiment, the brain activity indicates that this detection task activated the prefrontal cortex. These results demonstrate that the attentional control setting for facilitation of the singleton‐target perception modulates activity in regions of the prefrontal cortex.     

Social evaluation research: the evaluation of two police patrolling strategies

In most social evaluation research it is difficult to achieve the degree of experimental rigor possible in an applied behavioral study. This study illustrates how the evaluation researcher can increase experimental rigor in the analysis of social interventions. In the first evaluation, a variation of the time-series design that offered maximum experimental control given the limitations of the situation, was employed to evaluate the effects of a specialized home-burglary police patrol. This design revealed that no effects could be attributed to the patrol. In the second evaluation, a multiple baseline-like design was possible in determining the effects of a police walking patrol. This design revealed that the patrol produced an increase in crime reporting but not in arrests. Social interventions often occur in a manner that allows varying degrees of experimental analysis. The evaluation researcher must attain optimal experimental analysis given the limitations of each social intervention.     

Anxiety and motor performance: More evidence for the effectiveness of holistic process goals as a solution to the process goal paradox

ObjectivesRecent research has reported the benefits of using holistic rather than part process goals to avoid the negative effects associated with the conscious processing of task relevant information by skilled but anxious athletes. This experiment compared the efficacy of these two goal focus strategies in a neutral condition and a competitive condition in which cognitive state anxiety was elevated.DesignLaboratory-based experimental design using a mixed model with between (process goal groups) and within-subjects (neutral and competitive) conditions.MethodThirty male and female undergraduate students aged between 19 and 44 years of age completed 896 practice repetitions of a race car driving simulation using discovery learning. Participants were then placed in either a holistic or part process goal group using stratified random assignment. The practice phase was followed by neutral and competitive conditions, during which driving performance and psychophysiological measures were collected.ResultsAnalysis of variance of lap times and driving errors revealed that the holistic process goal group outperformed the part process goal group in the competition condition. Analysis of psychophysiological measures suggested that the performance of both process goal groups in the competitive condition was associated with the investment of compensatory effort.ConclusionsCompared to part process goals, holistic process goals confer performance benefits for skilled athletes who perform under competitive pressure.     

Discussing the therapeutic setting in child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapy

The aim of this paper is to contribute to a debate on the particular characteristics of the therapeutic setting in child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapy and its differences from the setting in adult therapy. In our opinion, there is a fundamental difference between these two, as in child and adolescent psychotherapy two distinct aspects co-exist and in some areas, overlap. In this paper, we attempt to delineate these two aspects, following Green’s division of the analytical setting into the active matrix and the casing. We propose that in child and adolescent psychotherapy the therapeutic contract, the active matrix, concerning the necessary conditions for making a therapy psychoanalytic – namely, the therapist’s free-floating attention and the patient’s free associations – is agreed between the therapist and the child/adolescent. We argue that in contrast, the contract regarding the casing – the timings of sessions, the fees and so on – is agreed primarily with the parents or carers of the child/adolescent. Ruptures and possible modifications in both the matrix and the casing of the setting are discussed through the presentation of clinical material.     

Personality patterns of physicians in person-oriented and technique-oriented specialties

This study investigated differences in personality patterns between person-oriented and technique-oriented physicians. It tested an integrative framework by converting the scores on the Personality Research Form (PRF) to the Big-Five factors and built a predictive model of group membership in clinical specialty area. PRF scores from 238 physicians (153 person-oriented and 85 technique-oriented) were used for this retrospective study. Significant personality differences between group means existed for seven of the traits on the PRF and two Big-Five factors. Results of a stepwise discriminant analysis indicated that two PRF traits and one Big-Five factor had the greatest ability to discriminate between person-oriented and technique-oriented physicians. Findings of this study provide support for establishing personality profiles of physicians interested in person-oriented versus technique-oriented specialties. Examining personality differences among male and female physicians is discussed as an area for future research.     

反馈干预的内部机制研究

基于龙君伟的反馈干预作用的内部机制模型,本实验研究发现反馈效价、反馈提供方式及其交互作用对自我效能感、应对策略、内部目标三种内部调节变量具有主效应;三种内部调节变量之问存在显著的正相关,并对绩效具有显著积极效应。在实际的应用中,反馈干预如能使个体采取趋向型的应对策略、增强自我效能感、提高内部目标设置水平,就能有效地提高个体的绩效水平。     

国外目标承诺研究进展

本文在了解国外文献的基础上．综合概述了目标承诺的涵义、结构、测量、作用及其影响因素,并对这一领域的未来研究提出了展望。     

目标设置对工作记忆成绩影响的实验研究

为了回应Locke提出的“目标设置理论仍然需要发展”的观点,本文从认知心理学的角度对目标设置理论进行了检验。结果表明：设置明确且有一定难度的目标比设置模糊或一般性目标会使被试产生更高水平的努力,从而提高成绩;设置明确但难度偏低的目标与设置模糊目标的成绩间并无显著性差异;被试对目标的可接受性程度越高,成绩越好;任务难度变量对目标难度与成绩之间的调节效应要通过被试对策略的发掘和使用以及在时间方面给予一定的压力才能得到体现。