Epidemiological study on the infections of Mycoplasma and Chlamydia in immoral persons and healthy controls in seven areas of China

1,284 immoral persons and 1,161 healthy controls, from seven areas of China, were detected for the antibodies to Ureaplasma urealyticum (Uu), Mycoplasma hominis (Mh), and Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct) by indirect hemoagglutination (IHA). The results showed that: (1) in the immoral persons, the positive rates of antibody was the highest in Uu (25.47%), higher in Ct (18.22%), and lower in Mh (8.80%); (2) the levels of antibody to Mh, Uu, and Ct were significantly higher in the immoral persons than in the healthy controls; and (3) the immoral persons were commonly complicated with infections caused by Uu and Ct. It was indicated that the immoral persons were risk population of Mycoplasma and/or Chlamydial veneral diseases, and it must be noted for us controlling veneral diseases.     

The psychology of procedural justice: A test of the group-value model.

Research on the psychology of procedural justice has been dominated by Thibaut and Walker's (1975) theory about the psychology of procedural preference. That theory suggests that people are concerned with their direct and indirect control over decisions. Lind and Tyler (1988) proposed a group-value theory that suggests that several noncontrol issues—the neutrality of the decision-making procedure, trust in the 3rd party, and the information the experience communicates about social standing—influence both procedural preferences and judgments of procedural justice. This study examines 3 issues. The first is whether judgments about neutrality, trust, and social standing have an independent impact on judgments of procedural justice. The results suggest that they do. The second is how Thibaut and Walker's control theory developed. The results suggest that control issues are central to the setting studied by Thibaut and Walker—disputes—but are less important in other situations. Finally, the implications of these findings for a group-value theory of procedural justice are examined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distorting children's reports and interpretations of events through suggestion.

54 children (aged 4–6 yrs old) participated in an experiment examining the effects of leading interviews on their interpretations and factual recall of an interaction with a teaching assistant (TA). Children were either familiar or unfamiliar with the TA and were interviewed in either an incriminating or a neutral manner. In comparison with neutral-interview children, incriminating-interview children made more cued-recall errors and endorsed more biased interpretations of the TA's actions. Familiarity with the TA had limited effects on free recall and interpretations of the TA's actions and had no effect on cued recall. Results indicated that 4- to 6-yr-olds will produce misleading reports about their interactions with either familiar or unfamiliar adults when they are prompted to do so by an opinionated adult interviewer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Moral typecasting: Divergent perceptions of moral agents and moral patients.

Moral agency is the capacity to do right or wrong, whereas moral patiency is the capacity to be a target of right or wrong. Through 7 studies, the authors explored moral typecasting—an inverse relation between perceptions of moral agency and moral patiency. Across a range of targets and situations, good- and evil-doers (moral agents) were perceived to be less vulnerable to having good and evil done to them. The recipients of good and evil (moral patients), in turn, were perceived as less capable of performing good or evil actions. Moral typecasting stems from the dyadic nature of morality and explains curious effects such as people's willingness to inflict greater pain on those who do good than those who do nothing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Seeing meaning in action: A bidirectional link between visual perspective and action identification level.

Actions do not have inherent meaning but rather can be interpreted in many ways. The interpretation a person adopts has important effects on a range of higher order cognitive processes. One dimension on which interpretations can vary is the extent to which actions are identified abstractly—in relation to broader goals, personal characteristics, or consequences—versus concretely, in terms of component processes. The present research investigated how visual perspective (own 1st-person vs. observer’s 3rd-person) in action imagery is related to action identification level. A series of experiments measured and manipulated visual perspective in mental and photographic images to test the connection with action identification level. Results revealed a bidirectional causal relationship linking 3rd-person images and abstract action identifications. These findings highlight the functional role of visual imagery and have implications for understanding how perspective is involved in action perception at the social, cognitive, and neural levels. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Detecting threat-related intentional actions of others: Effects of image quality, response mode, and target cuing on vigilance.

Three experiments examined the vigilance performance of participants watching videos depicting intentional actions of an individual’s hand reaching for and grasping an object—involving transporting or using either a gun or a hairdryer—in order to detect infrequent threat-related actions. Participants indicated detection of target actions either manually or by withholding response. They also rated their subjective mental workload before and after each vigilance task. Irrespective of response mode, the detection rate of intentional threats declined over time on task and subjective workload increased, but only under visually degraded viewing conditions. This vigilance decrement was attenuated by temporal cues that were 75% valid in predicting a subsequent target action and eliminated with 100% valid cues. The findings indicate that detection of biological motion targets, and threat-related intentional actions in particular, although not attention sensitive under normal viewing conditions, is subject to vigilance decrement under degraded viewing conditions. The results are compatible with the view that the decrement in detecting threat-related intentional actions reflects increasing failure of attention allocation processes over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Moral rationalization and the integration of situational factors and psychological processes in immoral behavior.

Moral rationalization is an individual's ability to reinterpret his or her immoral actions as, in fact, moral. It arises out of a conflict of motivations and a need to see the self as moral. This article presents a model of evil behavior demonstrating how situational factors that obscure moral relevance can interact with moral rationalization and lead to a violation of moral principles. Concepts such as cognitive dissonance and self-affirmation are used to explain the processes underlying moral rationalization, and different possible methods of moral rationalization are described. Also, research on moral rationalization and its prevention is reviewed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Metacognition and cognitive monitoring: A new area of cognitive–developmental inquiry.

Studies suggest that young children are quite limited in their knowledge about cognitive phenomena—or in their metacognition—and do relatively little monitoring of their own memory, comprehension, and other cognitive enterprises. Metacognitive knowledge is one's stored knowledge or beliefs about oneself and others as cognitive agents, about tasks, about actions or strategies, and about how all these interact to affect the outcomes of any sort of intellectual enterprise. Metacognitive experiences are conscious cognitive or affective experiences that occur during the enterprise and concern any aspect of it—often, how well it is going. Research is needed to describe and explain spontaneous developmental acquisitions in this area and find effective ways of teaching metacognitive knowledge and cognitive monitoring skills. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preventive health behavior: A review of research and issues.

Examines the literature on prevention to establish what psychosocial factors are associated with various types of actions and the degree to which different types of preventive health behaviors are related. The relevance of health psychology to the study of prevention is discussed. Major explanations for the behaviors are outlined, including sociocultural or normative approaches, cognitively based models, and behavioral perspectives. Interventions to modify preventive behavior are reviewed in terms of both effects and theoretical basis. Some current issues and needs are also explored—the importance of various classes of factors as predictors and questions that should be addressed in order to make the study of prevention more systematic. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A self-agency bias in preschoolers' causal inferences.

Preschoolers' causal learning from intentional actions—causal interventions—is subject to a self-agency bias. The authors propose that this bias is evidence-based, in other words, that it is responsive to causal uncertainty. In the current studies, two causes (one child controlled, one experimenter controlled) were associated with one or two effects, first independently, then simultaneously. When initial independent effects were probabilistic, and thus subsequent simultaneous actions were causally ambiguous, children showed a self-agency bias. Children showed no bias when initial effects were deterministic. Further controls established that children's self-agency bias is not a wholesale preference but rather is influenced by uncertainty in causal evidence. These results demonstrate that children's own experience of action influences their causal learning, and the findings suggest possible benefits in uncertain and ambiguous everyday learning contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Confidentiality with minor clients: Issues and guidelines for therapists.

Confidentiality is fundamental to the therapeutic relationship; however, minors' rights regarding confidentiality are not clear. Legal issues in minors' voluntary consent to treatment are discussed, and a review of the clinical and developmental literature regarding minors' ability to provide informed consent to treatment is provided. Professional attitudes and actions regarding the best interests of and confidentiality with minor clients are also reviewed. Guidelines for deciding when it is appropriate to maintain a confidential therapeutic relationship with a minor and strategies for how to do so are suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An attributional analysis of the development of excuse giving in aggressive and nonaggressive African American boys.

This study examined the effects of age and aggressive status on children's understanding and use of excuses. Younger (3rd–5th grade) and older (6th–8th grade) aggressive and nonaggressive African American boys were first instructed to imagine that they failed to fulfill a social obligation. The cause of the transgression was presented as controllable (e.g., choosing to do something else), and children indicated whether they would reveal that cause or make up an excuse. Next, 4 causes of the same transgression were manipulated to be either controllable or uncontrollable. Children inferred that they would be held more responsible for controllable causes of social misconduct, that these causes would elicit more anger, and that they would be more likely to withhold these causes (i.e., make up an excuse). The linkages between perceived responsibility, anticipated anger, and excuse giving were stronger among older than younger boys and among nonaggressive than aggressive boys. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Victims' perceptions of social support: What is helpful from whom?

Although research has demonstrated that social interactions influence psychological well-being, little is known about what specific actions victims of stressful life events experience as helpful or unhelpful. Wortman and Dunkel-Schetter (1979) previously suggested that victims frequently experience rejection, withdrawal, and communication problems with those close to them. To address these issues, 55 cancer patients were interviewed concerning the specific actions they found to be helpful or unhelpful from several potential support providers: spouse, other family members, friends, acquaintances, others with cancer, physicians, and nurses. The data indicated that the Wortman and Dunkel-Schetter victimization model applied better to interactions with friends and acquaintances than to interactions with close family members. In addition, support was found to be partially dependent on the source: Particular actions were perceived to be helpful from some but not other network members. Implications for theory and research on social support are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Licensing.

Comments on the pragmatic critiques of licensing made by S. J. Danish and M. A. Smyer (see record 1981-33472-001). It is argued that Danish and Smyer failed to note the deeper issues involved. First, no government unit can set rational licensing standards, and 2nd, licensing is a violation of individual rights. It is suggested that rather than trying to make an irrational and immoral concept work, psychologists should focus on developing effective alternatives to licensing. (2 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interferons and the tumor cell

Optimal use of interferons (IFNs) for the treatment of tumor disease requires experimental work in order to precisely define IFN actions. We have pointed out three modes of such actions relevant for the antitumor efficacy exerted by IFNs: effects on apoptosis, effects on genes involved in malignant transformation and effects on angiogenesis. These are but three selected areas forming a basis for the development of optimal IFN therapy. Further experimental work, undertaken in these and additional IFN areas, is mandatory for the most effective clinical use of IFNs for the treatment of tumor disease.     

Cytokine-mediated or direct effects of thymulin on the nervous system as assessed by pain-related behavior

Thymulin is a thymic hormone with known immunomodulatory activities. Recent evidence has indicated a signaling role for this peptide in the interaction between the immune, endocrine and the nervous system. In this report, we review recent experimental findings on the analgesic actions of thymulin (high doses) in rats with endotoxin-induced localized inflammation and the hyperalgesic actions (low doses) of this peptide in intact animals. These actions involve both proinflammatory cytokines and PGE2. The possibility of a dual role played by thymulin as a hormone that might also involve a direct effect on the nervous system is discussed.     

Effects of stereotypes in decision making and information-processing strategies.

Investigated the effects of stereotyping on reactions to a behavioral transgression and the recall of information bearing on it in 2 experiments with 112 undergraduates. Ss read a case file describing a transgression (a job-related infraction in Exp I, a criminal act in Exp II) committed by a target. In some cases, the target's transgression was stereotypic of the target's ethnic group (conveyed through his name), and in other cases it was not. After reading the case file, Ss judged the likelihood that the transgression would recur and recommended punishment for the offense. These judgment data supported the hypothesis that stereotypes function as judgmental heuristics. Ss used a stereotype of the target to infer the reasons for the transgression and based their punishment decisions on the implications of these inferences, considering other relevant information only when a stereotype-based explanation of the behavior was not available. However, recall data suggest that, once a stereotype-based impression of the crime and its determinants was formed, Ss reviewed other available information to confirm the implications of this impression. This led to differential recall of presented information, depending on whether its implications were consistent with, inconsistent with, or irrelevant to those of the stereotype. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Deciding how to act is not achieved by watching mental movies.

In the early days of research on visual imagery, it was believed that visual images are like pictures in one’s head. Only as the field matured did it come to be appreciated that visual images do not bear a first-order isomorphic relation to visual percepts. Now that the early days of research on motor imagery are coming to an end, it is important to ask whether motor images bear a first-order isomorphic relation to movements. We asked whether they do by focusing on internal simulations for motor planning. Our participants indicated which of two possible actions they preferred either by performing the preferred action or by indicating which action they would prefer to perform. We reasoned that if internal simulations of physical actions bear a first-order isomorphic relation to actual physical actions, the choices would be the same in the two conditions. They were not. We discuss the reasons for this outcome, including the adaptive advantage of a representational system for action which, like the representational system for vision, does not bear a first-order isomorphic relation to its external analog. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction: The perils of science in the world of policy and practice.

Science often proceeds in its own little world, its ivory tower, each of us proud of our contributions, often admiring the contributions of others. However, when science moves into the realm of policy and practice— trying to speak truth to power, to use Wildavsky’s (1979) pithy phrase—the rules of the game change. Very little catches attention more than when science says the way some professionals do their work is insufficiently effective, or when policy and funding stakeholders use that science to change what professionals can do and be paid. Critiques of the quality and interpretation of the science become common because the stakes are high. Sixty years ago this happened in the field of psychological assessment as it moved from academia to practice, generating controversies about discrimination in testing, professional efforts to codify good testing theory and practice, and legal actions that took psychologists into the courtroom to defend their work or criticize that of others. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)