Thinking Black, thinking internal, thinking feminist.

Examined the influence of racial identity, as measured by the Racial Identity Attitude Scale (RIAS; T. A. Parham and J. E. Helms, 1981), on attitudes toward feminism, locus of control, belief in the importance of the feminist and African-American movements, and racial designation among 177 African-American women. The RIAS pre-encounter stage was associated with the racial designation "Negro" or "Colored." The RIAS encounter stage was associated with the belief in chance locus of control. The RIAS immersion–emersion stage and participant age were associated with traditional attitudes toward women. The RIAS internalization stage was associated with internal locus of control. In all, 85% of the sample endorsed the feminist movement as important. Implications for counseling African-American women are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thinking about thinking in therapy: An examination of clients' understanding of their therapists' intentions.

Two therapists each provided 2 clients time-limited (10 sessions each) therapies. These were examined to discover relations between (a) clients' understanding of therapists' intentions and episode level outcome, (b) similarities and differences between the participants' valuing of different intentions, and (c) shifts in intentions valued from the beginning to the terminal phases of therapy. By using therapists' segmentation of sessions into episodes and a computerized Counselor Intention List, some positive relations between clients' understanding of counselor intention and episode impact were documented. Differences were found between therapists' and clients' valued intentions as were systematic shifts on valued intentions from beginning to end phases of therapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Advance thinking about advance directives

Stilboestrol tablets (20 x 1 mg) were given to 4 ostriches. Urine was collected over a period of 8 days and stored frozen at-20 degrees C pending analysis. Analyses were performed on a gas chromatograph-mass selective detector for the presence of parent compound and/or metabolites. Diethylstilbestrol and its metabolite, dienestrol, were detected in urine; dienestrol only for 1 day but diethylstilbestrol for 8 days after administration. Residue analysis for the use of diethylstilbestrol as growth promoter can be performed on the urine of ostriches by scanning for parent compound only since it can be detected longer than the metabolite.     

New thoughts about thinking.

Reviews the book, The Nature of Thought: Essays in Honor of D.O. Hebb edited by P.W. Jusczyk and R.M. Klein (1980). The phenomenon of thinking, the topic to which this important collection of essays is addressed, is one of the principal perennial concerns of psychology. It is as fundamental and as unsolved a problem today as at the time of experimental psychology's introspectionist beginnings and, through the ensuing decades, has never ceased to stimulate, fascinate, baffle, and bewilder the serious student of psychological phenomena. The present volume appropriately reflects a wide spectrum of specific concerns and approaches to this topic. Appropriate, as well, is its dedication in honour of D.O. Hebb, whose own approach to the study of thought is especially broad and encompassing. The book resulted from a recent series of lectures, in Hebb's honour, at Dalhousie University. This is not, however, a volume primarily addressed to Hebb's ideas. Rather, it is a collection of progress reports by a number of distinguished researchers in the fields of human and animal cognition on recent approaches to topics such as consciousness, mental imagery, problem solving, representation, attention, and skilled performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thinking critically about critical thinking approaches: Comment on Yancher, Slife, and Warne (2008).

Yanchar, Slife, and Warne (see record 2008-11592-004) recently contrasted core assumptions of the method-centered, scientific analytic reasoning approach to critical thinking that is dominant in psychology with their own alternative approach emphasizing integration of information from multiple perspectives. They contended that emphasis on the scientific analytic approach is associated with justification and neglects other strategies such as more open-minded and respectful dialogue that could promote innovation and theory development. This commentary on their article examines these claims in light of research on critical-thinking dispositions and scientific discovery. Their claims received mixed support, prompting recommendations for additional research and using the research evidence to revise the psychological claims of their alternative approach. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thinking about logic.

Reviews the book, A border dispute: The place of logic in psychology by J. Macnamara (1986). In this book, Macnamara argues that logical competence is part of the endowment of rational creatures just as linguistic competence is part of the endowment of verbal ones. And then he sets out to explicate that competence. In developing his own views, Macnamara does justice to a complex body of knowledge and at the same time engages the reader in a complex but important debate. Just as language and thought came to be seen in a new light when psychologists finally began to pay some attention to linguistic structure, so thinking and reasoning may come to be seen in a new light when psychologists begin to pay attention to the issues Macnamara sets out. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thinking about tax.

This article reports the findings of several experiments about perceptions of various aspects of tax-law design. The authors find that people are vulnerable to a wide range of heuristics and biases in evaluating public finance systems, leading to inconsistent judgments and evaluations. These errors in judgment are specific instances of a more general isolation effect, whereby people respond quickly to a decision or choice set, focusing on salient aspects while ignoring or underusing logically relevant information that is not immediately before them. In tax and public finance, this tendency to make decisions as if with blinders on is problematic. As a result of it, skillful politicians can manipulate public opinion, and tax system design can be volatile on account of the possibility of eliciting preference reversals through purely formal rhetorical means. More troubling, the findings suggest a likely and persistent wedge between observed and optimal public finance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recent thinking about the concept of alcohol dependence

This paper reviews past definitions of alcohol dependence as well as that presently adopted in the 4th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association. The role of alcohol consumption in diagnostic criteria and the measurement of various dimensions of drinking (frequency, usual quantity per occasion, overall volume) are also discussed. Reliable criteria for identifying both alcohol abuse and dependence are available. Methodology for assessment of different dimensions of drinking behavior also exists. Epidemiologists examining the role of alcohol in health problems should consider the diagnostic category and the dimensions of drinking behavior that are important to their study. Measurements should be adopted in accordance with this assessment.     

Dialectical responses to questions about dialectical thinking.

Responds to comments by S. F. Chan (see record 2000-05933-017), D. Y. F. Ho (see record 2000-05933-018), and Y.-T. Lee (see record 2000-05933-019) on the article by K. Peng and R. E. Nisbett (see record 1999-11125-001) that made a number of assertions that reveal problems in logic and argumentation. In their studies, Peng and Nisbett found that Chinese tended to like dialectical proverbs and social resolution better than did Americans, and Chinese tended to prefer dialectical arguments over classic Western logical arguments. In the current article, Peng and Nisbett defend their work against criticisms made by the aforementioned authors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

企业项目管理之我见

由于企业技改项目管理目前还没有形成一套相对独立的标准与体系，因此对于现代企业项目管理的程序，还处于探索完善阶段。作者依据现代项目管理理论和从事技改工作平时积累的一些项目管理经验，从四个方面阐述了在企业项目管理中所存在的某些缺陷和应遵循的科学程序。目的是为企业技改工程项目建设能尽快达产速效、实现效益的重大化和为项目建设的增值服务。     

Counterfactual thinking about actions and failures to act.

When people think counterfactually about how a situation could have turned out differently, they mentally undo events in regular ways (e.g., they focus on actions not failures to act). Four experiments examine the recent discovery that the focus on actions in the short term switches to inactions in the long term. The experiments show that this temporal switch occurs only for particular sorts of situations. Experiment I showed no temporal pattern to the agency effect when 112 participants judged emotional impact and frequency of "if-only" thoughts from both short- and long-term perspectives for an investment scenario. Experiment 2 showed no temporal pattern when 190 participants considered a college choice scenario with a good outcome. Experiment 3 showed no temporal pattern when 131 participants considered an investment scenario even when the situation for the actor and nonactor was bad from the outset. Experiment 4, with 113 participants, showed a focus on actions even when the investment loss was equal for both the actor and nonactor. The implications of the results are discussed in terms of what is explicitly available in the mental representation of actions and inactions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

企业走多元化发展道路的思考

在多元化经营中,企业不可盲目发展多元化,而应以主业为主,充分发挥利用企业竞争力,发展相关行业。针对上述情况,就株冶集团实施多元化发展的途径进行了详细分析,并提出了可供参考的建议。     

Development of recursive and nonrecursive thinking about persons.

Studied 2 levels of the spontaneous inference of thinking in others: (a) Level I, in which the child infers that another person has thoughts about the concrete world, such as objects and actions; and (b) Level II, in which the child infers that another person has thoughts about thinking. Approximately 20 children each at ages 10, 12, 14, and 16 were asked to talk about 3 different persons whom they knew well. A statistically significant increase in the use of Level I thinking occurred between the 10- and 12-yr-old groups, while such an increase in the use of Level II occurred between the 14- and 16-yr-olds. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Negative affective consequences of thinking about disease detection behaviors.

It was proposed that thinking about disease-detection behavior would lead to more negative moods than thinking about health-promotion behavior. Detection behaviors produce more negative moods because they can threaten perceptions of good health. In a laboratory study, the initial mood states of 121 participants recruited from undergraduates and the general community were measured using a neutral-words rating procedure. Then participants were randomly assigned to think about performing a disease-detection behavior or a health-promotion behavior. Subsequently, they wrote down their responses to the behavior and evaluated these 35 either positive, negative, or neutral. Finally, the participant's mood was remeasured using both a neutral words-rating procedure and a more traditional bipolar rating measure. Results indicated that thought about disease-detection behavior produced more negative affective responses and more negative mood change than did thought about health-promotion behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Facilitatory effect of thinking about movement on magnetic motor-evoked potentials

BACKGROUND: The plasma level of endothelin-1 is locally increased during cooling but the net vasoconstrictor effect will be dependent on temperature effects on the vascular smooth muscle reactivity in response to the polypeptide. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of cooling on the vascular smooth muscle response to endothelin-1 in human and rat veins. METHODS: Registration of vascular smooth muscle activity in vitro in vessel preparations from normal subjects. SETTING: Laboratory. PATIENTS AND ANIMALS: Superficial hand veins from 14 patients undergoing hand surgery and external jugular veins from 14 rats. INTERVENTIONS: Effects of endothelin-1, after denudation of the endothelium and during cooling, were compared with controls without these interventions. RESULTS: At 37 degrees C, endothelin-1 induced a concentration-dependent contraction in the human hand and rat jugular veins. The sensitivity to endothelin-1 was enhanced in segments without endothelium. At 37 degrees C, no relaxation in response to endothelin-1 was observed. Cooling to 10 degrees C did not alter precontraction achieved by endothelin-1 at 37 degrees C in the human hand veins, while it depressed the precontraction in the rat jugular vein. The effect of cold was reversible. Removal of the endothelium did not alter the response to cooling. CONCLUSIONS: The maintained reactivity in response to endothelin-1 during cooling of the human vessels suggests that the reported increase in endothelin-1 levels due to local cooling could contribute in the pathophysiology of peripheral vasospasm in humans.