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result(s) for
"Preoccupation"
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Nationalism in Settled Times
2016
Due to a preoccupation with periods of large-scale social change, nationalism research had long neglected everyday nationhood in contemporary democracies. Recent scholarship, however, has begun to shift the focus of this scholarly field toward the study of nationalism not only as a political project but also as a cognitive, affective, and discursive category deployed in daily practice. Integrating insights from work on banal and everyday nationalism, collective rituals, national identity, and commemorative struggles with survey-based findings from political psychology, I demonstrate that meanings attached to the nation vary within and across populations as well as over time, with important implications for microinteraction and for political beliefs and behavior, including support for exclusionary policies and authoritarian politics. I conclude by suggesting how new developments in methods of data collection and analysis can inform future research on this topic.
Journal Article
The politics of scaling
by
Stilgoe, Jack
,
Papageorgiou, Kyriaki
,
Pfotenhauer, Sebastian
in
Big Data
,
Development economics
,
Discourses
2022
A fixation on ‘scaling up’ has captured current innovation discourses and, with it, political and economic life at large. Perhaps most visible in the rise of platform technologies, big data and concerns about a new era of monopolies, scalability thinking has also permeated public policy in the search for solutions to ‘grand societal challenges’, ‘mission-oriented innovation’ or transformations through experimental ‘living labs’. In this paper, we explore this scalability zeitgeist as a key ordering logic of current initiatives in innovation and public policy. We are interested in how the explicit preoccupation with scalability reconfigures political and economic power by invading problem diagnoses and normative understandings of how society and social change function. The paper explores three empirical sites – platform technologies, living labs and experimental development economics – to analyze how scalability thinking is rationalized and operationalized. We suggest that social analysis of science and technology needs to come to terms with the ‘politics of scaling’ as a powerful corollary of the ‘politics of technology’, lest we accept the permanent absence from key sites where decisions about the future are made. We focus in on three constitutive elements of the politics of scaling: solutionism, experimentalism and future-oriented valuation. Our analysis seeks to expand our vocabulary for understanding and questioning current modes of innovation that increasingly value scaling as an end in itself, and to open up new spaces for alternative trajectories of social transformation.
Journal Article
Offence-Supportive Cognitions, Atypical Sexuality, Problematic Self-Regulation, and Perceived Anonymity Among Online and Contact Sexual Offenders Against Children
2021
Cognitions that support sexual offending, atypical sexuality, and problems with self-regulation are important indicators of offending among men who engage in contact sexual offences against children (e.g., Hanson & Morton-Bourgon,
2005
). While sexual interest in children—a major indicator of atypical sexuality—has been identified as a risk factor for online sexual offending against children (Seto & Eke,
2015
), several other indicators, such as offence-supportive cognitions, sexual preoccupation, sexual coping, and perceived anonymity—a presumed risk factor for online sexual offending—have not yet been investigated among men who use the internet to solicit children or to consume child sexual exploitation material. This study investigated the associations between offence-supportive cognitions, atypical sexuality, self-regulation using sex, and perceived anonymity with sexual offending behaviors against children in a sample of 241 men convicted of various sexual and non-sexual offences. Results from logistic regressions show that offence-supportive cognitions, sexual interests in children, and sexual coping, but not sexual preoccupation and perceived anonymity, are associated with either or both online and contact sexual offending behaviors against children. Our results support the prior finding showing that men with online sexual offences are more paraphilic or sexually preoccupied then men with only contact offences against children. They also suggest that offence-supportive cognitions, atypical sexual interests, and sexual coping may be motivating factors, and therefore relevant risk factors, for online sexual offending against children.
Journal Article
A Resource-Control Account of Sustained Attention: Evidence From Mind-Wandering and Vigilance Paradigms
2015
Staying attentive is challenging enough when carrying out everyday tasks, such as reading or sitting through a lecture, and failures to do so can be frustrating and inconvenient. However, such lapses may even be life threatening, for example, if a pilot fails to monitor an oil-pressure gauge or if a long-haul truck driver fails to notice a car in his or her blind spot. Here, we explore two explanations of sustained-attention lapses. By one account, task monotony leads to an increasing preoccupation with internal thought (i.e., mind wandering). By another, task demands result in the depletion of information-processing resources that are needed to perform the task. A review of the sustained-attention literature suggests that neither theory, on its own, adequately explains the full range of findings. We propose a novel framework to explain why attention lapses as a function of time-on-task by combining aspects of two different theories of mind wandering: attentional resource (Smallwood & Schooler, 2006) and control failure (McVay & Kane, 2010). We then use our \"resource-control\" theory to explain performance decrements in sustained-attention tasks. We end by making some explicit predictions regarding mind wandering in general and sustained-attention performance in particular.
Journal Article
The natural history of insomnia: predisposing, precipitating, coping, and perpetuating factors over the early developmental course of insomnia
by
Ellis, Jason G
,
Altena, Ellemarije
,
Bastien, Célyne H
in
Adaptation, Psychological
,
Anxiety
,
Arousal
2021
Abstract
While there is an extensive literature on predisposing, precipitating, coping, and perpetuating factors in those with chronic insomnia, very little work has been undertaken to evaluate these factors over the early developmental course of insomnia. The present aim was to determine whether several hypothesized factors in each domain (predisposing, precipitating, coping, and perpetuating), assessed during an episode of acute insomnia (AI), are related to its persistence or remission to normal sleep. Participants comprised n = 140 people with AI and n = 737 normal sleepers (NS) recruited from the general public. Participants completed measures assessing predisposing characteristics (personality traits, arousal predisposition, and insomnia vulnerability), precipitating events and outcomes (life events, perceived stress, anxiety, and depression), coping styles (thought control strategies and coping styles), and perpetuating factors (sleep preoccupation, pre-sleep arousal, dysfunctional beliefs, and fatigue). Additionally, insomnia status (from AI at baseline to its persistence or natural remission [NR]) was assessed 1 month later (n = 129). Baseline differences between NS and individuals with AI were observed in each domain with increasing age, lower openness to experience and conscientiousness, higher insomnia severity, levels of anxiety, and affective sleep preoccupation significantly predicting AI status. Further, a previous episode of insomnia, higher depression scores, and affective sleep preoccupation scores significantly predicted its persistence, as opposed to its NR. Results are discussed with reference to the conceptualization of insomnia and how the findings may influence the design of preventative interventions to circumvent the transition from acute to chronic insomnia.
Journal Article
From normal response to clinical problem: definition and clinical features of fear of cancer recurrence
by
Dinkel, Andreas
,
Thewes, Belinda
,
Mutsaers, Brittany
in
Behavior problems
,
Cancer
,
Cancer recurrence
2016
Purpose
Research to date on fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) shows that moderate to high FCR affects 22–87 % of cancer survivors and is associated with higher psychological morbidity (Simard et al J Cancer Surviv 7:300–322,
2013
). Despite growing research interest in FCR, the lack of consensus on its definition and characteristics when it reaches a clinical level has impeded knowledge transfer into patient services.
Methods
In order to address these gaps, expert researchers, policy makers, trainees, and patient advocates attended a 2-day colloquium at the University of Ottawa in August 2015. A Delphi method was used to identify the most relevant definition of FCR, and the attendees generated possible diagnostic characteristics of clinical FCR.
Results
After three rounds of discussion and voting, the attendees reached consensus on a new definition of FCR: “Fear, worry, or concern relating to the possibility that cancer will come back or progress.” Regarding clinical FCR, five possible characteristics were proposed: (1) high levels of preoccupation, worry, rumination, or intrusive thoughts; (2) maladaptive coping; (3) functional impairments; (4) excessive distress; and (5) difficulties making plans for the future.
Conclusions
The new proposed definition of FCR reflects the broad spectrum in which patients experience FCR. A consensual definition of FCR and the identification of the essential characteristics of clinical FCR are necessary to accurately and consistently measure FCR severity and to develop effective interventions to treat FCR. We hope this broad definition can encourage further research and the development of inclusive policies for all cancer patients and survivors who are struggling with this issue.
Journal Article
Reminders of Social Connection Can Attenuate Anthropomorphism: A Replication and Extension of Epley, Akalis, Waytz, and Cacioppo (2008)
2016
It is a fundamental human need to secure and sustain a sense of social belonging. Previous research has shown that individuals who are lonely are more likely than people who are not lonely to attribute humanlike traits (e.g., free will) to nonhuman agents (e.g., an alarm clock that makes people get up by moving away from the sleeper), presumably in an attempt to fulfill unmet needs for belongingness. We directly replicated the association between loneliness and anthropomorphism in a larger sample (N = 178); furthermore, we showed that reminding people of a close, supportive relationship reduces their tendency to anthropomorphize. This finding provides support for the idea that the need for belonging has causal effects on anthropomorphism. Last, we showed that attachment anxiety—characterized by intense desire for and preoccupation with closeness, fear of abandonment, and hypervigilance to social cues—was a stronger predictor of anthropomorphism than loneliness was. This finding helps clarify the mechanisms underlying anthropomorphism and supports the idea that anthropomorphism is a motivated process reflecting the active search for potential sources of connection.
Journal Article
Sexual Orientation, Controversy, and Science
2016
Ongoing political controversies around the world exemplify a long-standing and widespread preoccupation with the acceptability of homosexuality. Nonheterosexual people have seen dramatic surges both in their rights and in positive public opinion in many Western countries. In contrast, in much of Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean, Oceania, and parts of Asia, homosexual behavior remains illegal and severely punishable, with some countries retaining the death penalty for it. Political controversies about sexual orientation have often overlapped with scientific controversies. That is, participants on both sides of the sociopolitical debates have tended to believe that scientific findings—and scientific truths—about sexual orientation matter a great deal in making political decisions. The most contentious scientific issues have concerned the causes of sexual orientation—that is, why are some people heterosexual, others bisexual, and others homosexual? The actual relevance of these issues to social, political, and ethical decisions is often poorly justified, however.
Journal Article
Prevalence of muscle dysmorphia in adolescents: findings from the EveryBODY study
by
Griffiths, Scott
,
Lonergan, Alexandra
,
Hay, Phillipa
in
Adolescence
,
Adolescent
,
Adolescent girls
2022
We sought to provide the first point prevalence estimates of muscle dysmorphia (MD), a form of body dysmorphic disorder characterized by a preoccupation with perceived insufficient muscularity, in adolescents.
Data were taken from a survey of 3618 Australian adolescents (11.172-19.76 years; 49.3% girls). Measures captured demographic characteristics, symptoms of MD and eating disorders, psychological distress and functional impairment. Diagnostic criteria for MD developed by Pope et al. (1997,
, 38(6), 548-557) were applied, entailing preoccupation with insufficient muscularity causing significant levels of distress or disability that cannot be better accounted for by an eating disorder.
The point prevalence of MD was 2.2% [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.6-3.0%] among boys and 1.4% (95% CI 0.9-2.0%) among girls. Prevalence was not associated with gender (
= 0.031) or socioeconomic status (SES) (partial
0.001), but was marginally associated with older age (partial
= 0.001). Boys with MD were more likely than girls with MD to report severe preoccupation with muscularity (
= 0.259) and a weight-lifting regime that interfered with their life (
= 0.286), whereas girls with MD were more likely to report discomfort with body exposure (
= 0.380).
While future epidemiological research using diagnostic interviews is needed to verify these estimates, the findings suggest that MD is relatively common from early to late adolescence. Gender differences in MD prevalence may be minimal; however, the symptom profile appears to diverge between boys and girls. These findings provide a platform for future, analytical research designed to inform clinical and public health interventions.
Journal Article
Do Stakeholder Orientation and Environmental Proactivity Impact Firm Profitability?
by
Gherra, Sandrine
,
Quelin, Bertrand V.
,
Brulhart, Franck
in
Beverage industry
,
Business administration
,
Business and Management
2019
The impact of socially responsible corporate behavior on economic performance is a major preoccupation of managers today. This article explores the links between narrowly defined constructs: stakeholder orientation, environmental proactivity and profitability, from the perspectives of stakeholder theory and resource-based theory. We collected data on the food and beverage, and household and personal products industries. Using structural equation modeling, this paper makes two contributions. We found a negative link between companies simply having a higher stakeholder orientation and profitability. Importantly, however, environmental proactivity not only had a positive impact on profitability, but also appeared to mediate the relationship between stakeholder orientation and profitability. In other words, if a company is more environmentally proactive, it will be more attentive to a broad array of stakeholders, and this will in turn contribute positively to profitability.
Journal Article