Cognitive Control in Suicide Ideators and Suicide Attempters

There is a need to understand more of the risk factors involved in the process from suicide ideation to suicide attempt. Cognitive control processes may be important factors in assessing vulnerability to suicide. A version of the Stroop procedure, Delis–Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) Color–Word Interference Test (CWIT) and Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF-A) were used in this study to test attention control and cognitive shift, as well as to assess everyday executive function of 98 acute suicidal psychiatric patients. The Columbia Suicide History Form (CSHF) was used to identify a group of suicide ideators and suicide attempters. Results showed that suicide attempters scored lower on attention control than suicide ideators who had no history of attempted suicide. The self-report in the BRIEF-A inventory did not reflect any cognitive differences between suicide ideators and suicide attempters. A logistic regression analysis showed that a poorer attention control score was associated with the suicide attempt group, whereas a poorer cognitive shift score was associated with the suicide ideation group. The results found in this study suggest that suicide attempters may struggle with control of attention or inhibiting competing responses but not with cognitive flexibility.

Multidimensionality, dynamicity, and complexity

With the cognitive shift since the 1990s, metaphorical terms have become a recurrent theme in terminological studies. However, how they actually function in science communication has not been fully explored. The issue becomes more pressing today since the exponential expansion of knowledge has heightened our awareness of the need for new designations. And the metaphorical approach is often an economic choice. To gain more insights into the mechanism of metaphorical terms, the authors of the present study will reexamine their functional peculiarities by looking at their linguistic, cognitive and communicative facets respectively. The multidimensional functions of metaphorical terms as exemplified by those in economics are described in detail. More importantly, their dynamic functional potentialities as well as the interplay among them are further discussed.

Cognitive Shift in Attitude towards Nature: In reference to COVID 19 Pandemic

Background: Mother Nature cares for every creature on this earth but in return we failed to show gratitude and care for our beloved Mother Nature.The Phenomenon: As a consequence our Mother Earth strikes back in the form of pandemic like COVID 19. Review of literature indicated that there is a significant change in the all over state of environment during this lockdown period.Origin of the Problem: This is a time for cognitive shift in our attitudes towards nature. We have to leave the former way of treating ourselves as the highest creature of God and the only eligible one to deserve the benefits of nature but we have to follow the rule of coexistences. We have to reconnect with our environment and protect the Mother Nature.Purpose: Present paper aims to critically evaluate the issues related to the shift in attitude towards nature during COVID 19 and suggesting psychological strategies for maintaining this changed attitude. Methodology: An online survey using Google form was done to record the change in attitude towards nature in COVID-19 pandemic.Results: Findings revealed that CORONA is challenging in many ways but it provides some positive lessons like Connect reconnect with nature, Own to our approach, Respect Mother Nature, Organized planning for nature concerns, New opportunity to revive nature, Assured healthy environment for future.

The Overview Effect and the Ultraview Effect: How Extreme Experiences in/of Outer Space Influence Religious Beliefs in Astronauts

This paper, based mainly on astronauts’ first-person writings, historical documents, and my own ethnographic interviews with nine astronauts conducted between 2004 and 2020, explores how encountering the earth and other celestial objects in ways never before experienced by human beings has influenced some astronauts’ cosmological understandings. Following the work of Timothy Morton, the earth and other heavenly bodies can be understood as “hyperobjects”, entities that are distributed across time and space in ways that make them difficult for human beings to accurately understand, but whose existence is becoming increasingly detectable to us. Astronauts in outer space are able to perceive celestial objects from vantages literally unavailable on earth, which has often (but not always) had a profound influence on their understandings of humanity, life, and the universe itself. Frank Wright’s term, the “overview effect”, describes a cognitive shift resulting from seeing the Earth from space that increases some astronauts’ sense of connection to humanity, God, or other powerful forces. Following NASA convention (NASA Style Guide, 2012), I will capitalize both Earth and Moon, but will leave all quotations in their original style. The “ultraview effect” is a term I introduce here to describe the parallel experience of viewing the Milky Way galaxy from the Moon’s orbit (a view described reverently by one respondent as a “something I was not ready for”) that can result in strong convictions about the prevalence of life in the universe or even unorthodox beliefs about the origins of humanity. I will compare Morton’s ideas about humanity’s increased awareness of hyperobjects with Joye and Verpooten’s work on awe in response to “bigness”, tying both to astronauts’ lived experiences in order to demonstrate the usefulness of ethnographic data in this context, discuss how human experiences in outer space might influence religious practices and beliefs, and suggest that encounters with hyperobjects hold the potential to be socially beneficial.

Beyond cold feet: Experiences of ending engagements and canceling weddings

The engagement period is a critical window to understand stay–leave decisions because it marks a stage when individuals are moving toward lifelong commitment, but do not have the obligations of legal marriage that make dissolution more difficult. According to Inertia Theory, felt momentum can propel couples through relationship transitions without sufficient consideration of their dedication, which could constrain partners in poor quality relationships. Drawing from this perspective, we examined how individuals reduce relationship momentum and end a marital engagement. We conducted interviews with individuals who made the decision to end their engagements and cancel their weddings ( N = 30). Experiences were analyzed using grounded theory techniques. The core concept we identified, visualizing, consisted of imagining a relational future (or alternative present) that became heightened during the engagement period. Rituals of wedding planning (e.g., trying on a dress and selecting a venue) appear to serve as a catalyst for this process. This cognitive shift prompted individuals to slow relational momentum (e.g., through trial separations and the returning of rings) and reconsider “red flags” and constraints to leaving the relationship. Once participants decided to leave, they described the process of breaking off the engagement and uncoupling from their partners. Family members and friends who assisted in managing the emotional fallout and logistics of ending the engagement (e.g., canceling with vendors and informing guests) were reported as particularly helpful supports. Visualizing married life beyond the wedding may be leveraged to help individuals navigate premarital doubts.

Zachowanie człowieka jako przedmiot badań psychologii społecznej – fakt czy mit?

Social psychologists only to very small degree investigate real human behavior. This article is an analysis of the reasons why this is so. The author points out that the otherwise valuable phenomenon of cognitive shift, which occurred precisely in the 1960s, naturally boosted the interest of social psychologists in such phenomena like stereotypes and values; at the same time, it unfortunately decreased interest in others, like aggression or altruism. Researchers today generally preferring to employ survey studies (even if they are a component of experiments being conducted) to analysis of behavioural variables. This gives rise to the question of whether social psychology remains a science of behavior.

An Issue of Scale: The Challenge of Time, Space and Multitude in Sustainability and Geography Education

The field of geography is important for any sustainability education. The aim of geography education is to enable students to understand the environment, its influence on human activity, and how humans influence the environment. In this article we present a study on how the interplay between the three pillars of sustainability thinking (environment, society and economy) play out on smaller and larger scales of time, space and multitude in geography education. In this paper, we argue that central issues in high quality sustainability education in geography relates to students’ deeper grasp of how to shift between magnitudes of time, space and multitude patterns. We show how an appreciation of many core issues in sustainability education require students to understand and traverse different magnitudes of the scalable concepts of time, space and multitude. Furthermore, we argue and exemplify how common sustainability misconceptions arise due to an inability to make the cognitive shift between relevant magnitudes on these scalable concepts. Finally, we briefly discuss useful educational approaches to mediating this problem, including the use of digital tools in order to allow geography teachers to facilitate the students’ better understanding of different magnitudes of slow, fast, small and large scale entities and processes.

Western Religion Today

This chapter argues that Western religion today, besides losing public importance, has also largely been transformed in accordance with this cognitive shift to the ‘this-worldly’. The chapter shows how arguments like ‘believing but not belonging’ and ‘vicarious religion’ do not discredit the secularization thesis; nor does the idea that Christianity gave rise to Western modernity and therefore the West must be religious. The decreasing salience of Christianity became undeniable in the Victorian age. The 1960s saw this trend intensified and diffused more widely; this cognitive shift is illustrated in both the workings of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) and in the World Council of Churches Uppsala Assembly (1968). The Christianity that the mainline Western churches exhibit today has become internally secularized, evidenced in characteristic works of modern academic theology.

The Plight of Western Religion

‘Religion’ can be used to mean all kinds of things, but a substantive definition––based on the premise of superhuman powers––can clarify much. It allows us to attempt to differentiate religion from culture, ethnicity, morality and politics.This definition of religion necessarily implies a perception of reality. Until recent centuries in the West, and in most cultures still, the ordinary, natural and immediate way of understanding and experiencing reality was in terms of otherworldly or spiritual forces. However, a cognitive shift has taken place through the rise of science and its subsequent technological application.This new consciousness has not disproved the existence of spiritual forces, but has led to the marginalization of the other-worldly, which even Western churches seem to accept. They persist, but increasingly as pressure groups promoting humanist values.Claims of ‘American exceptionalism’ in this regard are misleading. Obama’s religion, Evangelical support for Trump, and the mega-church message of success in the capitalist system can all be cultural and political phenomena. This eclipsing of the other-worldly constitutes a watershed in human history, with profound consequences not just for religious institutions but for our entire world order.

A-30 The Relationship Between Mood, Cognitive Shift, and Perseverative Responses in Cognitively Impaired Geriatric Patients

Objective The current study investigated the relationship between age, sex, vocabulary scores, the number of comorbid medical conditions, cognitive shift scores, perseveration scores, dementia severity, and self-reported anxiety. It was hypothesized a) cognitive shift scores, age, and vocabulary would be inversely related to anxiety b) perseveration scores and dementia severity would be positively correlated to mood. Data Selection Utilizing archival data from a private medical clinic, a sample (N = 114) of Euro-American older adults ages 65-89, presenting for neuropsychological evaluations was obtained. Data included scores from the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test -64 computerized version, the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the Geriatric Depression Scale- short form, and the WAIS-IV vocabulary subtest. Data Synthesis This study utilized a multiple regression analysis. The results suggested age, sex, cognitive shift scores, perseveration scores, and dementia severity had no relationship to anxiety. However, vocabulary was moderately positively correlated with anxiety. It is possible that those with greater vocabulary scores were less severely impacted by their dementia and consequently more aware of their symptoms. Conclusions Focus on neuropsychological data alone was insufficient to understand this complex and dynamic relationship. It is recommended that future research focus on the process itself to gain insight into this bidirectional relationship and various confounding factors, which might have influenced anxiety levels, such as sleep quality and dementia type. The results of this study highlight the importance of understanding the dynamic relationship between cognitive decline due to neurodegenerative diseases and anxiety and the impact the diseases may have on one’s emotional well-being.