Nation,Narration, and Health in Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Guantánamo Diary</Emphasis>

Scholars have mostly analyzed information from mental health practitioners, attorneys, and institutions to critique mental health practices in the War on Terror. These sources offer limited insights into the suffering of detainees. Detainee accounts provide novel information based on their experiences at Guantánamo. Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s Guantánamo Diary is the only text from a current detainee that provides a first-person account of his interrogations and interactions with health professionals. Despite being advertised as a diary, however, it has undergone redaction from American government officials. This article examines Slahi’s account of his interrogations and representations of mental health at Guantánamo and considers its role within the narrative function of the nation. At stake is the right of detainees to narrate, scholars to critique medical practices in the War on Terror, and the nation’s attempts to control its narration.     

Do you see what I see? The effect of members’ cognitive styles on team processes and errors in task execution

This research investigates the effect of members’ cognitive styles on team processes that affect errors in execution tasks. In two laboratory studies, we investigated how a team’s composition (members’ cognitive styles related to object and spatial visualization) affects the team’s strategic focus and strategic consensus, and how those affect the team’s commission of errors. Study 1, conducted with 70 dyads performing a navigation and identification task, established that teams high in spatial visualization are more process-focused than teams high in object visualization. Process focus, which pertains to a team’s attention to the details of conducting a task, is associated with fewer errors. Study 2, conducted with 64 teams performing a building task, established that heterogeneity in cognitive style is negatively associated with the formation of a strategic consensus, which has a direct and mediating relationship with errors.     

Structural investigations on Nd-doped silica nanocomposites: effect of sintering temperature and dopant concentration

Neodymium-doped silica nanocomposites were prepared from an acid-catalysed sol–gel solution followed by heat treatment. The structural and microstructural properties of the prepared samples as a function of sintering temperature and Nd concentration are reported. Fourier transform infrared spectra show that phase separation occurs during heat treatment. The presence of Nd₂O₃ and α-Nd₂Si₂O₇ phases in the samples was established by X-ray diffraction (XRD), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) micrographs revealed the microstructure of the nanocomposites. From XRD patterns, the crystallite size was determined using the Debye–Scherrer formula, while the particle size was estimated from TEM micrographs. The results suggest that sintering at high temperature enhances the crystallinity and density of Nd₂O₃–SiO₂ nanocomposites, while the high concentration of neodymium prevents the crystallization of SiO₂.     

Predictors and Outcomes of Relational and Transactional Psychological Contract

This study identifies the impact of individual and organizational factors on employee’s relational and transactional psychological contract. The study also investigates the effects of psychological contract on innovative work behavior and psychological ownership. The sample consisted of 307 employees working in four organizations in India. The results show that while creditor ideology predicted relational psychological contract, perceived organizational support emerged as the predictor of both relational and transactional contract. In terms of the outcomes of psychological contract, while transactional psychological contract emerged as a significant predictor of psychological ownership as well as innovative work behavior, relational psychological contract emerged as a significant predicator of only psychological ownership. Managerial Implications of the study are discussed.     

Greasing the palm: can collectivism promote bribery?

Why are there national differences in the propensity to bribe? To investigate this question, we conducted a correlational study with cross-national data and a laboratory experiment. We found a significant effect of the degree of collectivism versus individualism present in a national culture on the propensity to offer bribes to international business partners. Furthermore, the effect was mediated by individuals' sense of responsibility for their actions. Together, these results suggest that collectivism promotes bribery through lower perceived responsibility for one's actions.     

Exploring Well-Being among Mental Health Professionals in India

An exploratory mixed methods study was designed to understand the construction and experience of happiness and well-being among Mental Health Professionals (MHPs) in India. Through non-probabilistic sampling techniques, 17 MHPs were selected from three government hospitals in a city in North India. Qualitative interview data were triangulated with scores from the Mental Health Continuum-Long Form (MHC-LF). Analysis showed that despite happiness being a desirable and pleasurable state, participants rarely devoted time thinking about it. Happiness was a multidimensional phenomenon which affected personal, interpersonal, social and environmental realms. Happiness was synonymous with contentment and satisfaction and was understood as the opposite of unhappiness. Although recognised as a universal phenomenon, happiness had a subjective and individual-specific understanding, experience and manifestation. Data from the MHC-LF provided scores on overall well-being, and emotional, psychological and social well-being, and indicated that 14 participants had flourishing mental health, and three were moderately mentally healthy. The personal and professional lives of the MHPs were closely intertwined and impacted well-being in multiple ways. Certain temperamental qualities, personal insight from the field, supportive interpersonal relations and management of time, work, thought, behaviour and affect were protective factors of well-being. Additional responsibilities at work, negativities in client narratives, stigma and myths associated with the profession, biases from other professionals, lack of opportunities for personal development and growth, insufficient infrastructural and human resources were threats to well-being. The findings of the study have implications for policy, education and training, and practice for mental health practitioners.     

Happiness at Work Scale: Construction and Psychometric Validation of a Measure Using Mixed Method Approach

Using a mixed method approach we conducted three studies to construct a multidimensional measure of happiness at work. In Study 1, a qualitative content analysis using Atlas.ti 7 offered support for the proposed, a priori deductive model which also discriminated between the construct of happiness at work and happiness in personal life. Further, a principal axis factoring of the responses consisting of 539 working people (Study 2) yielded four factors reflecting the equal role of organizational and human aspects of the workplace happiness, i.e. supportive work experiences, unsupportive work experiences, flow and intrinsic motivation and work repulsive feelings. In Study 3, a Confirmatory Factor Analysis testing the reflective versus formative structure of the proposed scale supported a four-factor reflective model over a series of 13 competing models. Moreover, the scale showed statistically significant convergent and discriminant validity. Possible applications of the scale in predicting happiness styles and enhancing the experience of happiness at work has been presented at the end.     

Tomeito or Tomahto: Exploring consumer's accent and their engagement with artificially intelligent interactive voice assistants

Artificially intelligent interactive voice assistants (AIIVAs) are developed to understand language, but there is limited insight into their ability to understand accents. While there have been substantial advancements in understanding multiple languages by AIIVAs, having an understanding of variety of accents is an emerging concern. To address these concerns, we contextualised our study in India, one of the world's most populated and diverse countries with varying accents and dialects. Study 1 collected qualitative data through semi structured interviews with participants, data was subsequently thematically analysed, and a typology was developed with respect to the context of use and consumers' emotional and rational reactions towards AIIVAs when interacting with accents. For Study 2, we implemented the quantitative research method. This was done to reiterate the conceptual model formulated from the qualitative research findings. Findings suggest that positive emotional action has emerged as the most significant factor, followed by rational action and negative emotional action. This study contributes significantly to the theoretical understanding of future consumer behaviour and human-computer interaction trends. It provides practical implications for managers, tech developers, and other companies working and using speech-to-text automatic speech recognition to know that while they train their algorithms with languages, they should be mindful of the diverse accents of their consumers.     

Evidence of rapid recovery from perceptual odor adaptation using a new stimulus paradigm

By attenuating neural and perceptual responses to sustained stimulation, adaptation enhances the detection of new, transient stimuli. Disadaptation serves a similarly important role as a temporal filter for chemoreceptor cells, producing rapid recovery of sensitivity upon termination of the adapting odorant. Previous research from our laboratory indicated that a rapid form of odor adaptation can be measured using a novel, simultaneous-odorant paradigm. In the present study, we extended the earlier method by measuring recovery from adaptation. Perceptual odor adaptation was measured by estimating psychophysical detection thresholds in a group of college-aged student volunteers (N = 20; 12 females, eight males) for a self-adapting odorant, vanilla extract. To induce adaptation, the time between the onset of the adapting odorant and the onset of the target odorant was systematically varied. By first quantifying adaptation, recovery of sensitivity could therefore be investigated by using different time points following the termination of the adapting odorant. Consistent with our previous work, thresholds estimated in the presence of the simultaneous adapting odorant were significantly increased, reflecting a decrease in sensitivity due to adaptation. Conversely, approximately 100 ms following termination of the adapting stimulus (the briefest delay tested), sensitivity began to rapidly recover. Nevertheless, some residual adaptation was evident at the longest offset delay of 500 ms. These findings suggest that the recovery from adaptation proceeds at least as rapidly as the onset of adaptation, a finding that is consistent with physiological evidence from olfactory receptors. These data also suggest the effectiveness of this new odorant paradigm in characterizing the temporal characteristics underlying these critical olfactory mechanisms.