The Role of Causal Knowledge in Reasoning About Mental Disorders

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Woo-kyoung Ahn ◽  
Nancy S. Kim ◽  
Matthew S. Lebowitz
Keyword(s):  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Effective Treatment ◽  
Causal Knowledge ◽  
Causal Relations ◽  
Scientific Consensus ◽  
Diagnostic Categories ◽  
Do So

Despite the lack of scientific consensus about the etiologies of mental disorders, practicing clinicians and laypeople alike hold beliefs about the causes of mental disorders, and about the causal relations among symptoms and associated characteristics of mental disorders. This chapter summarizes research on how such causal knowledge systematically affects judgments about the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of mental disorders. During diagnosis, causal knowledge affects weighting of symptoms, perception of normality of behaviors, ascriptions of blame, and adherence to the DSM-based diagnostic categories. Regarding prognosis, attributing mental disorders to genetic or neurobiological abnormalities in particular engenders prognostic pessimism. Finally, both clinicians and laypeople endorse medication more strongly as an effective treatment if they believe mental disorders are biologically caused rather than psychologically caused. They also do so when considering disorders in the abstract versus equivalent concrete cases. The chapter discusses the rationality, potential mechanisms, and universality of these phenomena.

Therapeutic and psychopreventive approaches in rehabilitation of women with breast cancer

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S2) ◽  
pp. 1668-1668
Author(s):  
I.E. Kupriyanova
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Subsequent Development ◽  
Diagnostic Categories ◽  
Neurotic Disorders ◽  
Icd 10 ◽  
Block Based ◽  
Psychopathological Disorders

Objective of investigationTo study structure of borderline neuro-mental disorders in women with breast cancer with subsequent development of therapeutic and psychopreventive activities.Material and methodsWe examined 102 women. At the first stage we have analyzed the role of constitutional-biological, social and psychogenic factors in formation and subsequent clinical dynamic of borderline neuro-mental disorders. Classification of psychiatric diagnosis was conducted according to ICD-10. During diagnosis we used the following diagnostic categories: for neurotic disorders (F41–48) and for personality disorders (F60). Results: Women with neurotic disorders reliably predominated, and namely - mixed anxiety and depressive reaction (F43.22). At stage I and II patients with pre-nosological disorder predominated (asthenic variant with predominance of mental fatigue) (22,73% and 24,14%, respectively), and at stage III - with dysthymic variant of pre-nosological disorder (18,18%). At stage II of breast cancer we have diagnosed mixed anxiety and depressive disorder (F41.2) (3,45%).ConclusionMedico-biological block included early diagnosis of revealed psychopathological disorders at pre-hospital stage; identification of profile of the personality and level of mental health during stay in hospital. Psychopharmacotherapeutic block consisted of individual therapeutic programs for women with various level of mental health. Social block based on organization of system of rehabilitation, including work with patients in the hospital, joint observation with cancer therapist for a half of the year, participation of patients in an open psychotherapeutic group.

Concepts as Causal Models

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bob Rehder
Keyword(s):  
Causal Model ◽  
Causal Models ◽  
Causal Knowledge ◽  
Causal Relations ◽  
Inductive Inferences ◽  
Category Discovery ◽  
Model Approach

This chapter evaluates the case for treating concepts as causal models, the view that people conceive of a categories as consisting of not only features but also the causal relations that link those features. In particular, it reviews the role of causal models in category-based induction. Category-based induction consists of drawing inferences about either objects or categories; in the latter case one generalizes a feature to a category (and thus its members). How causal knowledge influences how categories are formed in the first place—causal-based category discovery—is also examined. Whereas the causal model approach provides a generally compelling account of a large variety of inductive inferences, certain key discrepancies between the theory and empirical findings are highlighted. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the new sorts of representations, tasks, and tests that should be applied to the causal model approach to concepts.

Do partisanship and politicization undermine the impact of a scientific consensus message about climate change?

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toby Bolsen ◽  
James N. Druckman
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Representative Sample ◽  
Consensus Statement ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Scientific Consensus ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Do So

Scientists are in near-universal agreement that human activity is a primary cause of climate change. Yet, despite this scientific consensus, the American public remains divided when it comes to beliefs about human-induced climate change. We investigate the role of partisan group identity and the politicization of science in undermining the impact of a scientific consensus message about human-induced climate change. We do so with a survey experiment administered on a nationally representative sample, finding that partisan identity—and especially politicization—can stunt the effect of a scientific consensus statement about climate change. We conclude with a discussion about how scientists, as a group, might work with partisans to more effectively communicate scientific information.

A Re-Appraisal of the Role of Blood Coagulation and Platelets in the Generalized Shwartzman Phenomenon

1966 ◽  
Vol 15 (03/04) ◽  
pp. 519-538 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Levin ◽  
E Beck
Keyword(s):  
Blood Coagulation ◽  
The State ◽  
Coagulation System ◽  
Renal Lesions ◽  
Intravascular Coagulation ◽  
Renal Glomeruli ◽  
Coagulation Mechanism ◽  
Shwartzman Phenomenon ◽  
Do So

SummaryThe role of intravascular coagulation in the production of the generalized Shwartzman phenomenon has been evaluated. The administration of endotoxin to animals prepared with Thorotrast results in activation of the coagulation mechanism with the resultant deposition of fibrinoid material in the renal glomeruli. Anticoagulation prevents alterations in the state of the coagulation system and inhibits development of the renal lesions. Platelets are not primarily involved. Platelet antiserum produces similar lesions in animals prepared with Thorotrast, but appears to do so in a manner which does not significantly involve intravascular coagulation.The production of adrenal cortical hemorrhage, comparable to that seen in the Waterhouse-Friderichsen syndrome, following the administration of endotoxin to animals that had previously received ACTH does not require intravascular coagulation and may not be a manifestation of the generalized Shwartzman phenomenon.

‘Wheels have been set in motion’: Geocentrism and Relativity in Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liliane Campos
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Film Adaptation ◽  
Frames Of Reference ◽  
Quantum Uncertainty ◽  
Galilean Relativity ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
20Th Century Physics ◽  
Time Specific ◽  
Do So

By decentring our reading of Hamlet, Stoppard’s tragicomedy questions the legitimacy of centres and of stable frames of reference. So Liliane Campos examines how Stoppard plays with the physical and cosmological models he finds in Hamlet, particularly those of the wheel and the compass, and gives a new scientific depth to the fear that time is ‘out of joint’. In both his play and his own film adaptation, Stoppard’s rewriting gives a 20th-century twist to these metaphors, through references to relativity, indeterminacy, and the role of the observer. When they refer to the uncontrollable wheels of their fate, his characters no longer describe the destruction of order, but uncertainty about which order is at work, whether heliocentric or geocentric, random or tragic. When they express their loss of bearings, they do so through the thought experiments of modern physics, from Galilean relativity to quantum uncertainty, drawing our attention to shifting frames of reference. Much like Schrödinger’s cat, Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are both dead and alive. As we observe their predicament, Campos argues, we are placed in the paradoxical position of the observer in 20th-century physics, and constantly reminded that our time-specific relation to the canon inevitably determines our interpretation.

Helping when desire is low: The role of Expectancy in helping

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Kossowska
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Helping Behavior ◽  
Perceived Effectiveness ◽  
Do So

One might assume that the desire to help (here described as Want) is the essential driver of helping declarations and/or behaviors. However, even if desire to help is low, helping behavior may still occur if the expectancy regarding the perceived effectiveness of helping is high. We tested these predictions in a set of three experimental studies. In all three, we measured the desire to help (Want) and the Expectancy that the aid would be impactful for the victim; in addition, we manipulated Expectancy in Study 3. In Studies 1 and 3, we measured the participants’ declaration to help while in Study 2, their helping behavior was examined. In all three studies, we used variations of the same story about a victim. The results supported our hypothesis. Thus, the studies help to tease apart the determinants of helping behavior under conditions of lowered desire to do so, an issue of great importance in public policymaking.

History and Transport Policy

Transfers ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ueli Haefeli ◽  
Fritz Kobi ◽  
Ulrich Seewer
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Transfer ◽  
Transport Policy ◽  
Science And Policy ◽  
Direct Knowledge ◽  
Academic System ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Policy And Planning ◽  
Policy Solutions ◽  
Do So

Based on analysis of two case studies in the Canton of Bern, this article examines the question of knowledge transfer from history to transport policy and planning in the recent past in Switzerland. It shows that for several reasons, direct knowledge transfer did not occur. In particular, historians have seldom become actively involved in transport planning and policy discourses, probably partly because the academic system offers no incentive to do so. However, historical knowledge has certainly influenced decision-making processes indirectly, via personal reflection of the actors in the world of practice or through Switzerland's strongly developed modes of political participation. Because the potential for knowledge transfer to contribute to better policy solutions has not been fully utilized, we recommend strengthening the role of existing interfaces between science and policy.

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