Perceptual biases and metacognition and their association with anomalous self experiences in first episode psychosis

Anomalous self-experiences have been described as a prerequisite for anomalous perceptual experiences. Later, these anomalous perceptual experiences may then be metacognitively appraised as distressing, maintaining these experiences and later leading to anomalous (delusional) beliefs. This model of anomalous events may potentially be driven by perceptual biases and metacognitive deficits. This cross-sectional study explored the association between perceptual biases, metacognition and anomalous self- and perceptual experiences and delusional beliefs in First Episode Psychosis (FEP) and a matched healthy control sample. Fifty-eight individuals with FEP and seventy-two healthy controls were included in the main analysis. Increased auditory perceptual biases were significantly associated with increased state and trait anomalous self-experiences, in particular alienation from surroundings and emotional numbing. No significant associations were found between metacognitive efficiency and anomalous experiences. These findings may be consistent with the minimal self-disturbance model of schizophrenia spectrum vulnerability, particularly with the hyperreflexivity concept.     

Antécédents et conséquences du comportement proactif au travail des cadres hospitaliers sur leur comportement d’innovation au travail : un modèle de médiation séquentielle-modérée

This article reports the results of the analysis of the antecedents and consequences of nurse managers’ proactive work behaviour. We tested a moderated sequential mediation model in which work engagement and proactivity mediate the relationship between work climate and innovation and analysed the moderating role of feedback in the relationship between proactivity and innovation. This study was conducted among 290 nurse managers and we found that work engagement and proactivity sequentially mediated the relationship between work climate and innovation. Moreover, feedback moderates the relationship between proactivity and innovation. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of these results.     

“A definite feel‐it moment”: Embodiment,externalisation and emotion during chair‐work in compassion‐focused therapy

Chair‐work is an experiential method used within compassion‐focused therapy (CFT) to apply compassion to various aspects of the self. This is the first study of CFT chair‐work and is focused on clients' lived experiences of a chair‐work intervention for self‐criticism. Twelve participants with depression were interviewed following the chair‐work intervention and the resulting data were examined using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Three superordinate themes were identified: “embodiment and enactment,” “externalising the self in physical form” and “emotional intensity.” The findings suggest the importance of accessing and expressing various emotions connected with self‐criticism, whilst highlighting the potential for client distress and avoidance during the intervention. The role of embodying, enacting and physically situating aspects of the self in different chairs is also suggested to be an important mechanism of change in CFT chair‐work. The findings are discussed in terms of clinical implications, emphasising how core CFT concepts and practices are facilitated by the chair‐work process.     

Dimensions of fatigue in different working populations

Perceived fatigue related to work has often been measured in one dimension. The main purpose of the present study was to validate a proposed five-factor model of perceived fatigue in a new sample. 597 persons, employed in five occupations with different types of work loads, rated their fatigue after work. The ratings were subjected to analyses of linear structural equation models. The results suggest a slightly revised model for perceived fatigue, still with the five dimensions: Lack of energy, Physical exertion, Physical discomfort, Lack of motivation and Sleepiness. As expected, the rating profiles describing fatigue states differed between the five occupations. On the basis of these results, a revised version of the Swedish Occupational Fatigue Inventory (SOFI) is presented.     

Studies of Work: Achieving Hybrid Disciplines in IT Design and Management Studies

We explore the relationship between ethnomethodology (EM), ethnography and the needs of managers and designers in industry, considering both ethnomethodological and industrial criteria of adequacy and explicating their relationship through the concept of “audience.” We examine a range of studies in this light, with a view to their possible candidacy as hybrid studies and identify three types of application of EM studies of work: market research, design, and business improvement. Application in the first of these fields we dub “anthropological,” in that it consists in studying and reporting back on the ways of exotic people (customers). This is the application most commonly found in studies of computer supported co-operative work (CSCW). A second CSCW application, “technomethodology,” involves the introduction of EM concepts into the design process. A further application, dubbed “holding-up-a-mirror,” involves reporting back to members of a setting upon their own activities. We argue that technomethodology and holding-up-a-mirror both offer the possibility of creating hybrid disciplines. We consider the objection that improvement and design involve the introduction of value judgements that threaten the practice of EM indifference, arguing that action research can serve as a guarantee of unique adequacy (UA) by testing the researcher’s understanding as analysis in action in the setting. Furthermore, the standard of reporting required by the UA criterion contributes to the effectiveness of proposed solutions.     

SK-克雷佩林心理测验--一种客观性人格测验的研究和编制

本研究遵循克雷佩林连续加算法的基本原则,充分吸收内田一克雷佩林心理测验的长处,参照其客观化的作业方式和操作方法,并加以改进,研究并编制出一套既科学又客观的连续加法运算作业测验,以编制者的名义命名为SK-克雷佩林心理测验。并根据作业曲线的变化特征提出了“作业商数”这一客观化指标,可以对受测者作业曲线的总体分布以及与标准作业曲线的符合或偏差程度有大致的了解,并由此推断个体心理机能各方面基本倾向是比较协调还是略有偏差等。     

Crews: A Distinct Type of Work Team

Distinctions among different types of work teams have been emerging in the theoretical literature as a key to understanding important work team processes. This has been precipitated by an increased appreciation of the importance of a work team's operating environment on such processes. Moreover, such distinctions are felt to be useful to practice in such areas as team staffing, training, and establishing leadership requirements. The present study investigates the concept of crews and contrasts it with other types of work teams by empirically assessing crewness, the extent to which a work team can be classified as a crew. A new scale of crewness was developed and administered to various collectives of workers including fire fighter crew members and project team members in order to establish the unique qualities of crews to show that they are a distinct type of work team. Construct and discriminant validity evidence is offered in support of the crewness scale. Approaches for further investigation of this distinction are also provided in order to guide both research and practice in this area.     

An outcome management program for extending advances in choice research into choice opportunities for supported workers with severe multiple disabilities

We evaluated an outcome management program for increasing choice opportunities provided by 2 job coaches for 5 supported workers with severe multiple disabilities in a community job. The program involved specifying and monitoring behavioral outcomes among workers and staff, training staff, and supportive and corrective feedback. Increased choice provision occurred for both job coaches across a 1-year period. Results indicate how outcome management can help translate advances in choice research into routine practice.     

Maturing into Boyhood: James E. Dittes on Men and Meaning

In this essay, I review the progression of James E. Dittes' books on men and men's issues, including The Male Predicament, When Work Goes Sour, Men at Work, and Driven By Hope. Dittes moves from a palpable ambivalence toward men and their attendant griefs in earlier books to an increasingly unconditional affirmation of men in more recent ones. His own professional pilgrimage models his desire that men might mature into boyhood by coming to savor their inherent sense of expectancy as sons.     

Ethics and engineering courses at Delft University of Technology: Contents, educational setup and experiences

This article reports on the development and teaching of compulsory courses on ethics and engineering at Delft University of Technology (DUT). Attention is paid to the teaching goals, the educational setup and methods, the contents of the courses, involvement of staff from engineering schools, experiences to date, and challenges for the future. The choices made with respect to the development and teaching of the courses are placed within the European and Dutch context and are compared and contrasted with the American situation and experiences. Previous versions of this article were presented at the meeting of the SEFI Working Group on Engineering Ethics in Rzeszow, Poland, April 29–May 1, 1999 and at the SEFI Annual Conference in Zurich, Switzerland, September 1–3, 1999.