The right question, wrong answers.

Comments on L. R. O'Leary's (see record 1973-25947-001) article on predicting job success via testing. The problem with using biographical data (e.g., age, sex, race) as a legitimate basis for employment selection is not a question of psychometrics but of social values and public policy. While the use of job samples is more socially defensible, it can create a set of special problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The artful dodger: Answering the wrong question the right way.

What happens when speakers try to “dodge” a question they would rather not answer by answering a different question? In 4 studies, we show that listeners can fail to detect dodges when speakers answer similar—but objectively incorrect—questions (the “artful dodge”), a detection failure that goes hand-in-hand with a failure to rate dodgers more negatively. We propose that dodges go undetected because listeners' attention is not usually directed toward a goal of dodge detection (i.e., Is this person answering the question?) but rather toward a goal of social evaluation (i.e., Do I like this person?). Listeners were not blind to all dodge attempts, however. Dodge detection increased when listeners' attention was diverted from social goals toward determining the relevance of the speaker's answers (Study 1), when speakers answered a question egregiously dissimilar to the one asked (Study 2), and when listeners' attention was directed to the question asked by keeping it visible during speakers' answers (Study 4). We also examined the interpersonal consequences of dodge attempts: When listeners were guided to detect dodges, they rated speakers more negatively (Study 2), and listeners rated speakers who answered a similar question in a fluent manner more positively than speakers who answered the actual question but disfluently (Study 3). These results add to the literatures on both Gricean conversational norms and goal-directed attention. We discuss the practical implications of our findings in the contexts of interpersonal communication and public debates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Moral value transfer from regulatory fit: What feels right is right and what feels wrong is wrong.

People experience regulatory fit (E. T. Higgins, 2000) when the strategic manner of their goal pursuit suits their regulatory orientation, and this regulatory fit feels right. Fit violation feels wrong. Four studies tested the proposal that experiences of fit can transfer to moral evaluations. The authors examined transfer of feeling wrong from fit violation by having participants in a promotion or prevention focus recall transgressions of commission or omission (Studies 1 and 2). Both studies found that when the type of transgression was a fit violation, participants expressed more guilt. Studies 3 and 4 examined transfer of feeling right from regulatory fit. Participants evaluated conflict resolutions (Study 3) and public policies (Study 4) as more right when the means pursued had fit. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Encountering misspellings and spelling performance: Why wrong isn't right.

Experience with misspellings can be detrimental to subsequent spelling performance. Generating or being exposed to incorrect spellings between two successive spelling tests interfered with subsequent spelling accuracy of these same words in Experiments 1 and 2 (but not Experiment 3), as indicated by changes from correct to incorrect spellings (CI changes). Furthermore, significantly more CI changes occurred when a recognition test (with incorrect versions as distractors) followed a dictation test than when a second dictation test followed it. Repeatedly presented misspellings were rated as looking progressively more similar to the correct spelling across presentations (Experiment 3). These outcomes suggest that spelling tests that involve the discrimination of correct from incorrect versions may be ill advised. In addition, the instructional technique encouraging students to intentionally produce misspellings of words, for purposes of visual comparison, may be detrimental rather than helpful. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Home care of the elderly. Oral cancer patient

Elderly patients with oral cancer present many challenges in the home healthcare setting. Timely detection of disease, appropriate and timely referrals, and the adverse effects of therapies, nutrition, and depression are discussed in this article. Using a case study, the author offers suggestions on the coordination of services of dental, medical, and nursing professionals and management of adverse dental effects.     

Home care after surgery for scoliosis

Parents are normally highly motivated to learn how to give care to their children. Adolescents convalescing after Harrington instrumentation and spinal fusion need to actively participate in decisions concerning their care. As much effort as possible should be made to allow them to follow a normal routine, within the limits of the surgeon's instructions. Both parents and patients need teaching, support and reinforcement from the nurse. They need to know how they are coping. The parents need to be supported and reinforced in their performance of home care and in their acceptance of the patient within the family life-style. Adolescents need to be supported in their independence and adjustment to their new and temporary immobility. Assessment of the home and an informative teaching program on home care needs to be initiated as soon as possible after surgery.     

Home care for venous leg ulcers

More than a quarter of the adult population in the United States is afflicted with lower extremity venous insufficiency, and 1 in 100 have had, or now have, stasis ulcers. Most of these patients will be treated on an outpatient basis, with many of them requiring home health care. The cost to treat venous ulcers alone has been estimated at $750 million to $1 billion a year. Understanding the pathogenesis and treatment of the problem is imperative as home health care nurses move into an era of cost containment and demographic shift toward an increasingly larger elderly population.     

Right, but for the wrong reasons.

Comments on M. Domjan and J. E. Purdy's (see record 1995-45383-001) study of the representation of animal experimentation in 8 leading introductory psychology textbooks. While the author objects to the reasoning pursued by Domjan and Purdy, he agrees that there are strong grounds to suggest that animal research should enjoy a far higher profile in introductory psychology textbooks. There should be more discussion of animals in textbooks, but only when relevant to the pedagogical goals of such texts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Home health care

Home health care is the fastest-growing expense in the Medicare program because of the aging population, the increasing prevalence of chronic disease and increasing hospital costs. Patients and families are choosing the option of home care more frequently. Medicare's regulations are often considered the standard of care for all home health agency interactions, even when a patient does not have Medicare insurance. These regulations require patients who receive home health care services to be under the care of a physician and to be homebound. The patient must have a documented need for skilled nursing care or physical, occupational or speech therapy. The care must be part time (28 hours or less per week, eight hours or less per day) and occur at least every 60 days except in special cases. A detailed referral and specific care plan maximize the care to the patient and the reimbursement received by the physician.     

What’s wrong with research literatures? And how to make them right.

Meta-analysis is now the accepted procedure for summarizing research literatures in areas of applied psychology. Because of the bias for publishing statistically significant findings, while usually rejecting nonsignificant results, our research literatures yield misleading answers to important quantitative questions (e.g., How much better is the average psychotherapy patient relative to a comparable group of untreated controls? How much more aggressive are children who watch a great deal of violent TV than children who watch little or no violence on TV?). While all such research literatures provide overly optimistic meta-analytic estimates, exactly how practically important are these overestimates? Three studies testing the literature on implementation intentions finds only slightly elevated effectiveness estimates. Conversely, in three studies another growing research literature (the efficacy of remote intercessory prayer) is found to be misleading and is in all likelihood not a real effect (i.e., our three studies suggest the literature likely consists of Type I errors). Rules of thumb to predict which research literatures are likely invalid are offered. Finally, revised publication and data analysis procedures to generate unbiased research literatures in the future are examined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Home care triage nurse

OBJECTIVE: To determine the contribution of mechanical factors to the function of different types of fundoplication. DESIGN AND SETTING: An experimental bench-top study using abattoir-sourced pig esophagus and stomach placed on a tray. Preliminary esophageal myotomy ensured free reflux of 'intragastric fluid'. INTERVENTIONS: Anterior, posterior, and total fundoplications were performed on each of ten sets of viscera. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Lower esophageal sphincter pressure was measured using a conventional esophageal manometry catheter. Intragastric pressure was measured with a single channel intragastric manometry catheter, whilst the stomach was inflated with coloured water. The maximum intragastric pressure or the pressure measured when the fundoplication yielded to gastric distension was recorded. RESULTS: All three types of fundoplication restored adequate competence to the gastroesophageal junction, although high-volume gastric infusions resulted in fundoplication yield in 4/10 anterior and 4/10 posterior fundoplications. Gastric distension resulted in fundal dilatation and consequent compression of the adjacent esophagus. Fundoplication generated a median rise of 11-13.5 mmHg in lower esophageal sphincter pressure, comparable to pressures reported in the postoperative clinical setting. Significantly greater intragastric volumes and pressures were tolerated following total fundoplication. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that mechanical factors could be major contributors to the ability of a fundoplication to restore gastroesophageal competence. Anterior, posterior and total fundoplications are all effective procedures.     

Home care and prevention

This article focuses on the practices and conceptions of prevention in home care that were prevalent among Quebec families during the first half of the 20th century. The analysis is based on an examination of 585 recipes in which prevention was an objective. The analysis finds that there are three prevention purposes in home care: strengthening, which includes caregiving acts that maintain good health and fortify the whole or particular parts of the body; cleansing and purifying, which include any care aimed at eliminating accumulated substances from the body; and finally, warding off illness. The discussion insists on the holistic nature of these practices and on their relationship to women's work.     

Home care in Canada

OBJECTIVES: This article describes the social, socioeconomic and other health-related characteristics of people receiving formal, publicly funded home care services. DATA SOURCE: The data are from the household component of the 1994/95 National Population Health Survey. The analysis covers 16,291 respondents aged 18 or older. ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES: Recipients of publicly funded home care services were profiled using weighted univariate frequencies and multivariate logistic regression. MAIN RESULTS: Recipients of publicly funded home care services in 1994/95 numbered over half a million. People who were elderly, female, had two or more chronic conditions or were living with others accounted for large proportions of these recipients. Characteristics significantly associated with receiving home care included old age, poor or fair general health, abstinence from alcohol (compared with regular use), low income, living alone, needing help with some activity of daily living, and having cancer or the effects of a stroke.