Childhood trauma and perceived control in adulthood

Introduction: Prejudices might negatively influence the well-being of people they concern and often lead to discrimination. Hence, it’s important to search for effective ways to improve intergroup attitudes and implement them during education. One of the most effective known methods is intergroup contact. However, as it’s not always possible to implement, it’s important to search for more accessible methods. The article proposes a new form of reducing prejudices, i.e. a letter of contact with fictitious outgroup members. In such interaction, people receive a letter and are asked for a reply. The method is based on two concepts of improving attitudes: imaginary contact and narrative about positive intergroup interaction. Its effectiveness in improving attitudes was experimentally tested and compared to a typical imaginary contact task. Method: Participants were 179 high school students. They were divided into three experimental conditions: replying to a letter from an outgroup member; replying to a similar letter from an ingroup member; imagining interaction with an ingroup member. After the manipulation, participants completed an intergroup attitudes questionnaire. Results: What had an impact on intergroup attitudes was the perceived pleasure of the task, while the type of manipulation had no effects. Conclusions: Results suggest that in manipulations based on imaginary contact or narration, responses are probably influenced not by imaging interaction with an outgroup member, but by the positive character of the task, which probably has an impact on attitudes by priming a good mood. This calls into question the effectiveness of methods of imaginary contact and narrative about the contact. They probably temporarily affect mood but have no influence on prejudice.

Letters from Russia: impact of imaginary contact, epistolary contact, and narrative on intergroup attitudes of adolescents

Introduction: Prejudices might negatively influence the well-being of people they concern and often lead to discrimination. Hence, it’s important to search for effective ways to improve intergroup attitudes and implement them during education. One of the most effective known methods is intergroup contact. However, as it’s not always possible to implement, it’s important to search for more accessible methods. The article proposes a new form of reducing prejudices, i.e. a letter of contact with fictitious outgroup members. In such interaction, people receive a letter and are asked for a reply. The method is based on two concepts of improving attitudes: imaginary contact and narrative about positive intergroup interaction. Its effectiveness in improving attitudes was experimentally tested and compared to a typical imaginary contact task. Method: Participants were 179 high school students. They were divided into three experimental conditions: replying to a letter from an outgroup member; replying to a similar letter from an ingroup member; imagining interaction with an ingroup member. After the manipulation, participants completed an intergroup attitudes questionnaire. Results: What had an impact on intergroup attitudes was the perceived pleasure of the task, while the type of manipulation had no effects. Conclusions: Results suggest that in manipulations based on imaginary contact or narration, responses are probably influenced not by imaging interaction with an outgroup member, but by the positive character of the task, which probably has an impact on attitudes by priming a good mood. This calls into question the effectiveness of methods of imaginary contact and narrative about the contact. They probably temporarily affect mood but have no influence on prejudice.

PERSEPSI SISWA TERHADAP CARD SORT SEBAGAI MEDIA PEMBELAJARAN HIRAGANA

AbstrackLatters or in Japanese are known as moji is one of the characteristics of Japanese. There are three types of letters in Japanese namely kanji, kana and romaji. One part of kana’s letter is hiragana. When learners learning about hiragana still often encounter problems as similar letter form and number of hiragana. In reference to the results of the questionnaire who had the researchers spread beforehand at the learner while carrying out field work practices at SMAN 3 Bukittinggi showed that learners needed media to facilitate learning to remember and understand hiragana. To overcomethe difficulty in understanding the hiragana, researchers have tried to use one of the types of visual media, namely card sort. The goal of this study is to expose the perceptions of student against card sort as a hiragana learning media. The research method of this study is descriptive quantitative. While the sampling technique uses in this study was purposive sampling. The respondents in this study is the students of class X BAHASA which amount of 35 peoples. This research instrument is a questionnaire. The type of questionnaire used is closed type questionnaire. Based on the results of the questionnaire analysis, it is kwon that the student’s perception of the card sort as a “good” hiragana learning media with a percentage of 83,32%. Refers to these results it can be seen that the media card sort can be used to facilitate the side to remember and understand hiragana. AbstrakHuruf (moji) merupakan salah satu karakteristik bahasa Jepang. terdapat tiga jenis huruf dalam bahasa Jepang yaitu, Kanji, Kana dan Romaji. Salah satu bagian dari huruf kana adalah hiragana. Dalam mempelajari hiragana ditemui beberapa masalah yang dialami oleh pembelajar yaitu, sering terkecohnya pembelajar dengan bentuk hiragana yang hampir mirip dan jumlah dari hiragana. Berdasarkan hasil angket yang telah peneliti sebarkan sebelumnya pada pembelajar saat melaksanakan praktek lapangan kependidikan (PLK) di SMAN 3 Bukittinggi menunjukkan bahwa pembelajar memerlukan media untuk mempermudah pembelajar mengingat dan memahami hiragana. Untuk mengatasi kesulitan dalam memahami hiragana tersebut, peneliti sudah mencoba menggunakan salah satu jenis media visual yaitu card sort. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui bagaimana persepsi atau tanggapan siswa terhadap media card sort apabila digunakan sebagai media pembelajaran hiragana. Adapun metode penelitian dari penelitian ini adalah deskriptif kuantitatif. Taknik pengambilan sampel yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah teknik purposive sampling. Sampel penelitian ini adalah siswa X BAHASA tahun ajaran 2019/2020 yang berjumlah 35 orang. Instrumen penelitian ini adalah angket jenis tertutup. Berdasarkan hasil dari analisis angket, diketahui bahwasannya persepsi atau tanggapan siswa terhadap card sort sebagai media pembelajaran hiragana mayoritas “baik” dengan persentase 83,32%. Dari hasil tersebut dapat diketahui bahwa media card sort dapat digunakan untuk memudahkan siswa untuk mengingat dan memahami hirgana.

Influencing Pain Inferences Using Random Numerical Anchoring: Randomized Controlled Trial

Background Numerical anchoring occurs when exposure to a numeric quantity influences a person’s subsequent judgment involving other quantities. This could be applicable to the evaluation of pain, where exposure to an unrelated number before the evaluation of pain could influence pain ratings. Objective This study aimed to determine whether exposure to a random numeric anchor influences subsequent pain intensity ratings of a hypothetical patient. Methods In this study, 385 participants read a vignette describing a patient with chronic pain before being randomly assigned to one of four groups. Groups 1 and 2 spun an 11-wedge number wheel (0-10), which was, unbeknown to the participants, programmed to stop on a high number (8) or a low number (2), respectively. Group 3 spun a similar letter wheel (A-K), which was programmed to stop on either the letter C or I (control 1). Group 4 did not spin a wheel (control 2). Participants were then asked to rate the patient’s pain intensity using a 0 to 10 numeric rating scale. Results The high-number group rated the patient’s pain (median 8, IQR 2) significantly higher than the letter wheel control (median 7, IQR 2; P=.02) and the low-number group (median 6, IQR 2; P<.001). The low-number group rated the pain significantly lower than controls 1 and 2 (median 7, IQR 2; both P=.045). Conclusions Pain ratings were influenced by prior exposure to a random number with no relevant information about the patient’s pain, indicating anchoring had occurred. However, contrary to the traditional definition of anchoring where anchoring occurs even when participants are unaware of the anchor’s influence, in this study, the anchoring effect was seen only in participants who believed that the anchor had influenced them. This suggests that anchoring effects could potentially occur among health care providers tasked with evaluating a patient’s pain and should be evaluated further.

Influencing Pain Inferences Using Random Numerical Anchoring: Randomized Controlled Trial (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Numerical anchoring occurs when exposure to a numeric quantity influences a person’s subsequent judgment involving other quantities. This could be applicable to the evaluation of pain, where exposure to an unrelated number before the evaluation of pain could influence pain ratings. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to determine whether exposure to a random numeric anchor influences subsequent pain intensity ratings of a hypothetical patient. METHODS In this study, 385 participants read a vignette describing a patient with chronic pain before being randomly assigned to one of four groups. Groups 1 and 2 spun an 11-wedge number wheel (0-10), which was, unbeknown to the participants, programmed to stop on a high number (8) or a low number (2), respectively. Group 3 spun a similar letter wheel (A-K), which was programmed to stop on either the letter C or I (control 1). Group 4 did not spin a wheel (control 2). Participants were then asked to rate the patient’s pain intensity using a 0 to 10 numeric rating scale. RESULTS The high-number group rated the patient’s pain (median 8, IQR 2) significantly higher than the letter wheel control (median 7, IQR 2; <i>P</i>=.02) and the low-number group (median 6, IQR 2; <i>P</i>&lt;.001). The low-number group rated the pain significantly lower than controls 1 and 2 (median 7, IQR 2; both <i>P</i>=.045). CONCLUSIONS Pain ratings were influenced by prior exposure to a random number with no relevant information about the patient’s pain, indicating anchoring had occurred. However, contrary to the traditional definition of anchoring where anchoring occurs even when participants are unaware of the anchor’s influence, in this study, the anchoring effect was seen only in participants who believed that the anchor had influenced them. This suggests that anchoring effects could potentially occur among health care providers tasked with evaluating a patient’s pain and should be evaluated further.

Characteristics of Arabic Alphabets: with Special Reference to the Role of the Letter [kha – [خ as Dustbin in the Arabic Language

This paper is shedding light on the significance and functions of some of the Arabic alphabets. An Arabic letter is found to play an effective role in expressing the speaker or the writer’s target meaning. Our concern here is with the letter [kha - خ], phonetically transcribed as /X/.The discussion in this essay will focus on one strange phenomenon; that this letter is playing a unique role in Arabic. It is found to be associated with almost all the ugly words and dirty jobs in the Arabic language. Its work is similar to the function of the dustbin, where all the house garbage is collected. From 285 root words begins with this letter, it is found that 85% of the words are carrying negative connotative or denotative meanings. To the best of the researchers’ knowledge – there is no similar letter found to play the same role, in any other language as this letter [ خ], does in Arabic. With this result the researchers can showhow rich and lively this language is. The Arabic language has great potentials to maintain survival, shoulder to shoulder, with other living languages of the world. It is also expected to play - with some efforts from its speakers and its linguists - an effective role in the recent human history.

Evaluation of Student Work Using a Letter Grading Scheme in Design and Calculus

This paper presents methods, pros and consof using a letter grading system versus a percentagegrading system, in engineering course componentevaluations. In making evaluation criteria acrossdeliverables qualitatively similar, letter grading showsperformance equivalency across courses and subjectareas, as well as departments, faculties and universities.What is worth an ‘A’ is not always a trivial discussion.But it is an easier discussion than what is worth 83%versus 85%. How to letter grade various types ofdeliverables in a valid and equivalent fashion can still bechallenging. But with thoughtful marking rubrics, manydeliverables can be evaluated using letter grades. Thesecan be combined to produce valid final letter grades.Overall, there are advantages to taking such an approachto evaluation, and these are discussed in the paper.

Abstract MP39: Peer Comparison Feedback and Financial Incentives to Promote Employees’ Healthy Food Choices: a Randomized Controlled Trial

Objective: New strategies are needed to promote healthy food choices. We conducted a 3-arm randomized controlled trial to compare the effectiveness of: 1) peer comparison feedback about food purchases (FB), 2) feedback plus financial incentives (FB+INC), or 3) no feedback (control) to promote healthy purchases by employees in a large hospital cafeteria. Methods: Subjects were 2672 employees who made ≥ 6 purchases in 2 months prior to study. All items were labeled green (healthy), yellow (less healthy), and red (unhealthy). The FB group received monthly letters from Oct-Dec 2012 reporting proportion of the individual’s purchases that were green/yellow/red in the prior month, comparing to purchases by “all” and by “healthiest” employees. The FB+INC group received a similar letter plus an incentive ($10) to increase their proportion of green in the next month. Control received no contact. We compared changes in green and red purchases from baseline (Sept) to intervention end (Dec) and to end of a 3 month wash-out (Mar 2013) using random effects models of employee-specific changes in purchases. Results: Subjects were: 73% female; 48% > 40 years; 75% white. At baseline, mean proportion of green purchases was 50% for all groups. The Figure shows monthly percentage change in proportion of green purchases compared to baseline. At end of intervention compared to baseline, control had no change, FB increased 1.8% (p=0.07 vs. control), and FB+INC increased 2.2% (p=0.03 vs. control). At end of wash-out compared to baseline, control increased 1.7%, FB increased 2.6% (p=0.4 vs. control), and FB+INC increased 3.0% (p=0.2 vs. control). Red purchases decreased in both intervention groups compared to control at end of intervention (p=0.07 for both) and wash-out (p≤0.04 for both). Conclusions: Providing peer comparison feedback with small financial incentives increased healthy purchases by employees. This population-based approach for promoting healthy eating could be effective in other worksite, institutional, and retail settings.

Rationality in Writing: Linear and Curvilinear

A long time ago I received a letter from Rex Stout inviting me to join the Authors' Guild, a letter no doubt sent to all who had books published. I didn't join because I didn't think of myself primarily as a writer, but as an aspiring scholar who merely set out the results of investigations that, so to speak, wrote themselves. Writing was incidental, not essential. Some years later a similar letter arrived. By then, having spent several hours a day writing most days, I joined. I had become a writer, if not by accomplishment, at least by occupation. Only recently, however, have I thought of myself as a writer by vocation, as a person who cares about the quality and craft of writing as inseparable from the content of whatever I am trying to communicate. Indeed, for me, writing has become an integral part of thinking.