Tracking Anthropomorphizing Behavior in Human-Robot Interaction

Existing methodologies to describe anthropomorphism in human-robot interaction often rely either on specific one-time responses to robot behavior, such as keeping the robot's secret, or on post hoc measures, such as questionnaires. Currently, there is no method to describe the dynamics of people's behavior over the course of an interaction and in response to robot behavior. In this paper, I propose a method that allows the researcher to trace anthropomorphizing and non-anthropomorphizing responses to robots dynamically moment-by-moment over the course of human-robot interactions. I illustrate this methodology in a case study and find considerable variation between participants, but also considerable intrapersonal variation in the ways the robot is anthropomorphized. That is, people may respond to the robot as if it was another human in one moment and to its machine-like properties in the next. These findings may influence explanatory models of anthropomorphism.

A New Framework to Interpret Individual Inter-Hemispheric Compensatory Communication after Stroke

Stroke constitutes the main cause of adult disability worldwide. Even after application of standard rehabilitation protocols, the majority of patients still show relevant motor impairment. Outcomes of standard rehabilitation protocols have led to mixed results, suggesting that relevant factors for brain re-organization after stroke have not been considered in explanatory models. Therefore, finding a comprehensive model to optimally define patient-dependent rehabilitation protocols represents a crucial topic in clinical neuroscience. In this context, we first report on the rehabilitation models conceived thus far in the attempt of predicting stroke rehabilitation outcomes. Then, we propose a new framework to interpret results in stroke literature in the light of the latest evidence regarding: (1) the role of the callosum in inter-hemispheric communication, (2) the role of prefrontal cortices in exerting a control function, and (3) diaschisis mechanisms. These new pieces of evidence on the role of callosum can help to understand which compensatory mechanism may take place following a stroke. Moreover, depending on the individual impairment, the prefrontal control network will play different roles according to the need of high-level motor control. We believe that our new model, which includes crucial overlooked factors, will enable clinicians to better define individualized motor rehabilitation protocols.

Explanatory models of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression among Afghan refugees in Norway

Background The current situation in Afghanistan makes it likely that we are facing a new wave of Afghan refugees, warranting more knowledge about how to deal with mental health problems among them. This study aims to gain more knowledge on Explanatory Models (EM) of depression and post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) among Afghan refugees resettled in Norway. Methods We conducted six gender-separated, semi-structured focusgroup interviews based on vignettes with Afghan refugees (total N = 27). The vignettes described a fictional character with symptoms of either depression or PTSD symptoms in line with DSM-5 and ICD-10 criteria. Results The findings showed that EM varied with gender, age, generation, and migration stories. Participants suggested different potential causes, risk factors, and ways of managing symptoms of depression and PTSD depending on the context (e.g., in Norway vs. Afghanistan). In describing the causes of the depression/PTSD in the vignettes, females tended to emphasize domestic problems and gender issues while males focused more on acculturation challenges. The younger males discussed mostly traumatic experiences before and during flight as possible causes. Conclusion The practice of condensing a single set of EMs within a group may not only be analytically challenging in a time-pressed clinical setting but also misleading. Rather, we advocate asking empathic questions and roughly mapping individual refugee patients’ perceptions on causes and treatment as a better starting point for building trusting relationships and inviting patients to share and put into practice their expertise about their own lives.

WELL-BEING AT WORK IN PROCESSES OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE: THE ROLE OF INFORMAL SOCIAL NETWORKS

ABSTRACT Purpose: This study evaluates the role of social networks of support, information, and trust in well-being at work, regarding the positive and negative affects and professional fulfillment of workers immersed in processes of organizational change. Originality/value: Organizational change is characterized as a dynamic process, constituted through relationships, immersed in a context of uncertainties. The mapping of relationships can help in understanding the information flows and the assessment of resource availability. Design/methodology/approach: 151 professionals from a holding participated. This company undergoes changes in the scope of services offered and the organizational design. Links of support, information, and trust established according to the change processes were mapped. Associated with the network, the Well-Being at Work Scale was used. For data analysis, multiple regressions were used to construct explanatory models for well-being factors: fulfillment, positive and negative affects. Findings: Variables in support and information social network analysis (SNA) composed the predictive model of well-being in the three models. Among the researched ties, the support and information ties were part of the predictive model of well-being. The metrics that reveal how many times the employee is indicated and indicates others, proximity to highly cited neighbors, degree of participation in cohesive subgroups, the degree to which they assume a central position in the subgroups are indicators of actors’ positions capable of predicting well-being. The influence of the pattern of interaction between managers and employees should be considered in promoting well-being in organizations in the process of change.

Digital school: Searching for Explanatory Models. Part 2

Introduction. The purpose of the article is to consider the consequences of the virtual shift or virtual inversion, which has led to blurring the structure of the act of development proposed within the framework of cultural-historical psychology. In this regard, the problem is the need to develop an alternative to this phenomenon of inversion, and returning a person (both a school student and an adult mediator) their basic roles as subjects of development. Materials and Methods. The conceptual ideas of cultural-historical psychology including the idea of mediation, objective action, the semantic field, the role of an adult as a mediator in an act of development, were used as a methodological background of the research. Results. The article is the second part of the author’s previous publication. The paper considers the concept derived from L. S. Vygotsky’s cultural-historical psychology, which is proposed to be adopted as a basic one in order to build an explanatory model used by the author to describe and comprehend the phenomenon of transformation of the human development process in the new reality of the digital environment. The article introduces the basic principles and provisions, the explanatory model is built on, concerning the role of symbolic-instrumental mediation in human development, the role of an adult as a mediator, the structure of the act of thinking and the act of development, the basic mechanism of mastering a person's behavior, which permeates the formation of higher mental functions. The author compares this explanatory model and the behavioral model used in most modern research investigations that examine the impact of digital technologies on schoolchildren and students. The language of the model of cultural-historical psychology is used to clarify the reality of the current virtual shift (virtual inversion), according to which the main provisions that play the role of supports in the cultural-historical model are subjected to radical revision and transformation, due to which the process of human cultural development is called into question. In this regard, the author proposes to use the resource and project potential of cultural-historical psychology in order to develop new models on its basis, build a new research and project agenda that returns the main ideas of cultural-historical psychology within the framework of a new mixed hybrid reality, where digital technologies are becoming the tools of personal development. Conclusions. In conclusion, the work offers a cultural task for the further development of cultural-historical psychology. It is proposed to restore the adult-student relationship, restore the idea and the role of the semantic field for teaching a subject action, restore children's communities within the new social-digital hybrid reality, where digital technologies do not act as means enslaving students, but as smart mediators-assistants.

Digital school: Searching for Explanatory Models. Part 1

Introduction. The purpose of this study was to analyze L. S. Vygotsky’s cultural-historical psychology from the perspective of distinguishing the structure of the act of development within its framework and understanding its explanatory potential as a whole. This analysis enables to clarify and understand the essence of the digital and virtual shift. Moreover, it is required in order to overcome the limitations associated with the currently dominant behavioral models, which are used by researchers in their attempts to explain and describe the phenomenon of the influence of digital technologies on people, in particular, on schoolchildren and students. Materials and Methods. The paper considers the concept derived from L. S. Vygotsky’s cultural-historical psychology, which is proposed to be adopted as a basic one in order to build an explanatory model used by the author to describe and comprehend the phenomenon of transformation of the human development process in the new reality of the digital environment. Results. The article introduces the basic principles and provisions, the explanatory model is built on, concerning the role of symbolic-instrumental mediation in human development, the role of an adult as a mediator, the structure of the act of thinking and the act of development, the basic mechanism of mastering a person's behavior, which permeates the formation of higher mental functions. The author compares this explanatory model and the behavioral model used in most modern research investigations that examine the impact of digital technologies on schoolchildren and students. Conclusions. The findings show that the student is presented in the behavioral model as a passive reactive being that reacts to external stimuli. In this sense, a human being is not treated as a personality with highest abilities, but is considered as a function. The proposed model cannot be used to explain and comprehend modern development processes.

“Everything was stuck in my inside and I just wanted to get it out”: Psychological distress, coping, and help-seeking for young adult Australian Hazaras from refugee backgrounds

Hazaras form an Afghan ethnic minority group in Australia who arrived as refugees and through humanitarian resettlement schemes over the past three decades. This qualitative study explored psychological distress in a community sample of young adult Hazaras with a refugee background. The aim was to contribute to a more detailed understanding of their mental health, coping, and help-seeking in Australia. Eighteen Hazaras, nine males and nine females aged 18–30 years ( M = 22.39, SD = 3.35), in Perth, Melbourne, or Sydney, who had been living in Australia on average 7.17 years (range 1 to 16 years), participated in a semi-structured interview based on Kleinman's explanatory model framework. Participants described mental and physical health as interconnected and their explanatory models for psychological distress focused on their current difficult life experiences as refugees. Findings indicated noteworthy gender differences, with young women reporting less distress associated with adaptation than did young men. Some young people used positive coping strategies in the community, while others engaged with a variety of mental health services. Level of satisfaction with these services varied considerably, with satisfaction highest for services provided by multicultural centers. Generally, respondents were not focused on their past traumas, but more interested in planning for their futures in Australia. Key implications for culturally appropriate training and specialized interventions for use with young adult Hazaras from refugee backgrounds are discussed.

Explanatory models, illness, and treatment experiences of patients with psychosis using the services of traditional and faith healers in three African countries: Similarities and discontinuities

As part of formative studies to design a program of collaborative care for persons with psychosis, we explored personal experience and lay attributions of illness as well as treatment among persons who had recently received care at traditional and faith healers’ (TFHs) facilities in three cultural groups in Sub-Saharan Africa. A purposive sample of 85 individuals in Ibadan (Nigeria), Kumasi (Ghana), and Nairobi (Kenya) were interviewed. Data was inductively explored for themes and analysis was informed by the Framework Method. Across the three sites, illness experiences featured suffering and disability in different life domains. Predominant causal attribution was supernatural, even when biological causation was also acknowledged. Prayer and rituals, steeped in traditional spiritual beliefs, were prominent both in traditional faith healing settings as well as those of Christianity and Islam. Concurrent or consecutive use of TFHs and conventional medical services was common. TFHs provided services that appear to meet the therapeutic goals of their patients even when harmful treatment practices were employed. Cultural and linguistic differences did not obscure the commonality of a core set of beliefs and practices across these three groups. This similarity of core worldviews across diverse cultural settings means that a collaborative approach designed in one cultural group would, with adaptations to reflect differences in context, be applicable in another cultural group. Studies of patients’ experience of illness and care are useful in designing and implementing collaborations between biomedical and TFH services as a way of scaling up services and improving the outcome of psychosis.

Civic Identity: Diversity of Meanings and Achievement of Solidarity

The concept of identity reflects the ongoing shifts in political theories when external parameters that did not previously fall into the optics of political research become a part of political reflection and political analysis. Emphasizing sociocultural issues captures not only the departure from the linear normativity of political theory and pragmatics but also the search for modern explanatory models that cannot be reduced merely to institutional determinism. The controversy and ambiguity of the civic identity concept are imposed on the need for interpreting the formation of civic communities in the newly emerged independent countries after the collapse of the Soviet Union (on the example of Russia and Armenia), including the possibilities of protest and project identity. Methodologically the article is based on the perception that the construction of civic identity cannot be reduced to the normative understanding only. The authors bring out the causal complexes that predetermine the construction of civic identity, while also highlighting the differences in how civic communities and their value focuses are perceived and constructed in Russia and Armenia. The authors also define the general features of civic identity, which can be described as a common basis of solidarity, the removal of particularity and a shared vision of the future.

Explanatory Models of Depression in a Rural Community of Coastal Karnataka, India: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Background: Depression is a major public health problem but there is a huge treatment gap in India. Cultural beliefs influence conception of illness, personal meaning, help-seeking behaviors, and adherence to treatment. Research on explanatory models of depression attempt to explore these unique characteristics in an individual and the community. We set out to examine explanatory models of depression in a rural community of coastal Karnataka and explore the association between sociodemographic variables and explanatory models of depression. Methods: A cross-sectional household survey in the rural community of Harekala village, Mangaluru taluk, Dakshina Kannada district, Karnataka, was done using Kish tables. A total of 200 individuals were interviewed with an adaptation of the Short Explanatory Model Interview in a local language using a case vignette of depression. Results: Around 40% of the individuals perceived the problem as tension/stress/excessive worrying and did not perceive it as mental illness. A scant 10% of the participants recognized some mental illness. Around one-fifth of the individuals attributed the problem to evil spirits and black magic; female participants were more likely to endorse consulting a doctor (P = 0.003**) or a psychiatrist (P = 0.012*). In addition, participants belonging to Islam were less likely to consult a doctor (P = 0.028*) and psychiatrist (P = 0.021*). Also, participants belonging to lower social class were less likely to endorse psychiatric consultation (P = 0.018*) Conclusions: A vast majority of the study subjects failed to identify depression as an illness or acknowledge biomedical causation. Gender, religion, and socioeconomic class may influence help-seeking behavior.