Embracing the Paradox: A Bodhisattva Path

This article addresses the significance of paradox as a steady presence in our lives. Contradictions and ambiguities often lead to aversive states of anxious uncertainty where straightforward answers are often unavailable yet sought after to alleviate existential insecurities. In conditions where narratives of ambivalence intensify, such as during the worldwide COVID-19 crises, our traditional socio-evolutionary inclinations to avoid them either through denial or active resistance become more noticeable. It also leads to distress in intersubjective spaces especially when uncertainty and perceptions of threat stand as correlates, and we start to fear what we do not understand. In this paper, I consider wisdom responses from a Buddhist perspective to help us acknowledge the value of paradox, highlighting how changes in the formulation of our self-concept can help with that. I draw upon select principles and insights from the Diamond Sutra and the Heart Sutra, two texts within the Mahaprajnaparamita sutras of Mahayana Buddhism. Through these, I examine some inherent paradoxes as vital components of a larger ontological unity, the recognition of which can act as an enabler to the Bodhisattva path. This path is worthy of exploration, allowing us to move past the need for closure and instead focus on reconciliation, disclosure, and epistemic humility.

Motivated team innovation: Impact of need for closure and epistemic authority

New members are important sources of innovative perspectives in groups. However, it can be very difficult for newcomers’ ideas to be heard. It is likely that group members with high (vs. low) levels of need for closure (NFC) are more resistant to newcomers’ innovative ideas. Moreover, when group epistemic authority (EA) is high, members should “freeze” on the group’s ideas, regardless of the newcomer’s EA. In contrast, when group EA is low, members would be expected to “seize” the ideas proposed by newcomers with high EA. Study 1 confirmed that high (vs. low) NFC group members are more resistant to newcomers’ innovative ideas. In Study 2, in high NFC groups, evidence was obtained for seizing but not freezing. In Study 3, for group members with heightened NFC, both freezing and seizing results were obtained. Findings suggest that both NFC and EA play important roles in receptivity to newcomers’ ideas.

Social Psychological Predictors of Belief in Fake News in the Run-Up to the 2019 Hungarian Elections: The Importance of Conspiracy Mentality Supports the Notion of Ideological Symmetry in Fake News Belief

Accessing information online is now easier than ever. However, also false information is circulated in increasing quantities. We sought to identify social psychological factors that could explain why some people are more susceptible to false information. Specifically, we investigated whether psychological predispositions (social dominance orientation, right-wing authoritarianism, system justification beliefs (SJB), openness, need for closure, conspiracy mentality), competencies (scientific and political knowledge, interest in politics) or motivated reasoning based on social identity (political orientation) could help explain who believes fake news. Hungarian participants (N = 295) judged political (anti- and pro-government) and non-political news. The Hungarian context—characterized by low trust in media, populist communication by the government and increasing polarization—should be fertile ground for the proliferation of fake news. The context in making this case particularly interesting is that the major political fault line in Hungary runs between pro- and anti-government supporter groups and not, for instance, between conservative and liberal ideology or partisanship. We found clear support for the motivational reasoning explanation as political orientation consistently predicted belief in both fake and real political news when their contents aligned with one’s political identity. The belief in pro-government news was also associated with higher SJB among pro-government supporters. Those interested in politics showed better capacity to distinguish real political news from the fake ones. Most importantly, the only psychological predisposition that consistently explained belief in all types of fake news was a conspiracy mentality. This supports the notion of ideological symmetry in fake news belief—where a conspiracy mentality can be found across the political spectrum, and it can make people susceptible to disinformation regardless of group-memberships and other individual differences.

Who Engages with Supernatural Entities? An Investigation of Personality and Cognitive Style Predictors

We tested preregistered hypotheses (a) examining the structure of supernatural beliefs and perceived experiences and (b) predicting supernatural engagement from the Big Five and cognitive styles. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of self-report data in the U.S. undergraduates (Study 1: n = 1,401; Study 2: n = 1,939) showed that beliefs and perceived experiences were characterized by two factors. Positive and Negative Agents factors related strongly to religious belief salience and were defined by God, the devil, angels, demons, and ghosts/spirits, whereas Forces and Spirits factors were unrelated to religious belief salience and were defined by fate/destiny, karma, and ghosts/spirits. Extraversion, conscientiousness, experiential processing, schizotypy, and dissociative tendencies related positively to supernatural engagement. With some nuances, agreeableness, neuroticism, and need for closure were positive predictors, whereas skepticism and analytical-rational processing were negative predictors. Openness and intellectual humility did not relate positively to supernatural engagement, contradicting expectations. Because the literature on individual differences predictors of supernatural engagement is not well integrated, these results may contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of this topic.

Need for Closure, Morality, and Prejudice

Several studies demonstrated that a high need for closure (NFC) is associated with higher prejudice toward the out-group. This study aims to investigate how this effect can be moderated by attributions of morality to the in-group and the out-group. A questionnaire was administered to 725 participants. The results showed a positive relationship between NFC and prejudice when the in-group was evaluated as more moral than the out-group. This relationship was weaker when the out-group was evaluated as more moral than the in-group. These findings implicated that it is possible to reduce prejudice in individuals with high NFC by manipulating perceptions of in-group and out-group morality.

Vaccine hesitancy for COVID-19 explored in a phenomic study of 259 socio-cognitive-behavioural measures in the UK-REACH study of 12,431 UK healthcare workers

Background Vaccination is key to successful prevention of COVID-19 particularly nosocomial acquired infection in health care workers (HCWs). 'Vaccine hesitancy' is common in the population and in HCWs, and like COVID-19 itself, hesitancy is more frequent in ethnic minority groups. UK-REACH (United Kingdom Research study into Ethnicity and COVID-19 outcomes) is a large-scale study of COVID-19 in UK HCWs from diverse ethnic backgrounds, which includes measures of vaccine hesitancy. The present study explores predictors of vaccine hesitancy using a 'phenomic approach', considering several hundred questionnaire-based measures. Methods UK-REACH includes a questionnaire study encompassing 12,431 HCWs who were recruited from December 2020 to March 2021 and completed a lengthy online questionnaire (785 raw items; 392 derived measures; 260 final measures). Ethnicity was classified using the Office for National Statistics' five (ONS5) and eighteen (ONS18) categories. Missing data were handled by multiple imputation. Variable selection used the islasso package in R, which provides standard errors so that results from imputations could be combined using Rubin's rules. The data were modelled using path analysis, so that predictors, and predictors of predictors could be assessed. Significance testing used the Bayesian approach of Kass and Raftery, a 'very strong' Bayes Factor of 150, N=12,431, and a Bonferroni correction giving a criterion of p<4.02 x 10-8 for the main regression, and p<3.11 x 10-10 for variables in the path analysis. Results At the first step of the phenomic analysis, six variables were direct predictors of greater vaccine hesitancy: Lower pro-vaccination attitudes; no flu vaccination in 2019-20; pregnancy; higher COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs; younger age; and lower optimism the roll-out of population vaccination. Overall 44 lower variables in total were direct or indirect predictors of hesitancy, with the remaining 215 variables in the phenomic analysis not independently predicting vaccine hesitancy. Key variables for predicting hesitancy were belief in conspiracy theories of COVID-19 infection, and a low belief in vaccines in general. Conspiracy beliefs had two main sets of influences: i) Higher Fatalism, which was influenced a) by high external and chance locus of control and higher need for closure, which in turn were associated with neuroticism, conscientiousness, extraversion and agreeableness; and b) by religion being important in everyday life, and being Muslim. ii) receiving information via social media, not having higher education, and perceiving greater risks to self, the latter being influenced by higher concerns about spreading COVID, greater exposure to COVID-19, and financial concerns. There were indirect effects of ethnicity, mediated by religion. Religion was more important for Pakistani and African HCWs, and less important for White and Chinese groups. Lower age had a direct effect on hesitancy, and age and female sex also had several indirect effects on hesitancy. Conclusions The phenomic approach, coupled with a path analysis revealed a complex network of social, cognitive, and behavioural influences on SARS-Cov-2 vaccine hesitancy from 44 measures, 6 direct and 38 indirect, with the remaining 215 measures not having direct or indirect effects on hesitancy. It is likely that issues of trust underpin many associations with hesitancy. Understanding such a network of influences may help in tailoring interventions to address vaccine concerns and facilitate uptake in more hesistant groups.

Nurses as Patients: the Stories of Two Woman Nurse Educators as Recipients of Nursing Care

<p><b>In this research two nurse-patients have engaged in a conversation about theirexperience of ‘being nursed’. The project sets out to address the following questions:How might our experiences as nurses who have been hospitalised be drawn upon toinfluence positive changes in nursing practice? What effect might our experiences ofhospitalisation have on us as nurses and on our nursing practice?</b></p> <p>The study utilises narrative as inquiry and the method of story telling andauto/biography to tell the stories of Maria (a pseudonym) and myself, the researcher.</p> <p>This interpretive research has been informed by the feminist process and sits within apostmodern framework. Maria’s stories were audio taped and transcribed beforebeing prepared for analysis using ‘core story creation’, and the process of'emplotment' (Emden, 1998b). My reflective topical autobiographical narrative wasconstructed through the processes described by Johnstone (1999).</p> <p>Three distinct qualities emerged from both of our experiences. The first,‘knowing as nurse-patient’ contains the three sub themes of ‘having knowledge’,‘expectations of being nursed’, and ‘knowledge gained’. The second distinct quality‘being nursed’ contains the two sub themes of ‘feeling safe and cared for’ and‘presencing’; and the third ‘not being nursed’ contains the four sub themes ‘feelingvulnerable’, ‘invisibility of nurses’, ‘getting out’ and ‘feeling let down’. The subtheme ‘getting out’ includes three additional sub themes of ‘wanting to get out andnot wanting to be there’, ‘leaving and the need for closure’ and ‘not wanting to goback’,This study on nurse-patients receiving nursing care will be useful for nurseeducators, students of nursing, and nurse clinicians. Nursing does make a differenceto patient care. For patients to receive therapeutic care new graduate nurses must bepreceptored/mentored by experienced nurses in supportive programmes. Suggestionsfor further research have been identified.</p>

Nurses as Patients: the Stories of Two Woman Nurse Educators as Recipients of Nursing Care

<p><b>In this research two nurse-patients have engaged in a conversation about theirexperience of ‘being nursed’. The project sets out to address the following questions:How might our experiences as nurses who have been hospitalised be drawn upon toinfluence positive changes in nursing practice? What effect might our experiences ofhospitalisation have on us as nurses and on our nursing practice?</b></p> <p>The study utilises narrative as inquiry and the method of story telling andauto/biography to tell the stories of Maria (a pseudonym) and myself, the researcher.</p> <p>This interpretive research has been informed by the feminist process and sits within apostmodern framework. Maria’s stories were audio taped and transcribed beforebeing prepared for analysis using ‘core story creation’, and the process of'emplotment' (Emden, 1998b). My reflective topical autobiographical narrative wasconstructed through the processes described by Johnstone (1999).</p> <p>Three distinct qualities emerged from both of our experiences. The first,‘knowing as nurse-patient’ contains the three sub themes of ‘having knowledge’,‘expectations of being nursed’, and ‘knowledge gained’. The second distinct quality‘being nursed’ contains the two sub themes of ‘feeling safe and cared for’ and‘presencing’; and the third ‘not being nursed’ contains the four sub themes ‘feelingvulnerable’, ‘invisibility of nurses’, ‘getting out’ and ‘feeling let down’. The subtheme ‘getting out’ includes three additional sub themes of ‘wanting to get out andnot wanting to be there’, ‘leaving and the need for closure’ and ‘not wanting to goback’,This study on nurse-patients receiving nursing care will be useful for nurseeducators, students of nursing, and nurse clinicians. Nursing does make a differenceto patient care. For patients to receive therapeutic care new graduate nurses must bepreceptored/mentored by experienced nurses in supportive programmes. Suggestionsfor further research have been identified.</p>