Mark Bahr

Smoking and psychological health in relation to country of origin

In English-speaking, Western-Anglo countries, where smoking has become stigmatized in recent decades as a result of widespread anti-smoking campaigns, smokers commonly report poorer psychological health on average than nonsmokers do. This may be indirectly related to the strong pressures to quit in such countries, as poorer psychological health is associated with a reduced likelihood of quitting, thus leading to a selection bias for smokers with relatively poorer psychological health. In the present study, 147 smoker and nonsmoker participants either came from Western-Anglo countries where smoking has become stigmatized (Australia, Canada, USA) or countries in regions where smoking remains relatively more accepted (Asia, Latin America, Europe). Smokers and nonsmokers were assessed on a widely used self-report measure of anxiety, depression, and stress. Multivariate analysis revealed a significant interaction between smoker status (smoker, nonsmoker) and country of origin (Western-Anglo, other) on psychological health ratings, with univariate analysis showing a significant interaction on anxiety scores. Among those from Western-Anglo countries, smokers reported significantly higher levels of anxiety than nonsmokers did, whereas there was no difference in anxiety between smokers and nonsmokers from other countries. There was no difference in the number of cigarettes smoked per day between the samples of smokers, indicating very similar levels of nicotine intake in the two groups. The findings support the notion that a selection bias for smokers with relatively poorer psychological health is occurring in Western-Anglo countries.

Psychological Status of Former Refugee Detainees from the Woomera Detention Centre Now Living in the Australian Community

The impact of detention on psychological status, and quality of life was examined in a sample of 150 former refugee detainees from the Woomera Detention Centre now living in the Australian community. Detainees completed a psychological status inventory including the Truncated Assessment of Self-Destructive Thoughts (TASDT), the Quality of Life Inventory, the Suicidal Ideation Scale, and the Profile of Mood States. Former detainees reported their current status and retrospectively reported their status while detained.

Emotion recognition and verbal and non-verbal memory changes among older adults: Is decline generalised or modular?

Declines in cognitive abilities among ageing adults are observed phenomena. But are these declines ‘across the board’ or are they modular? The answer affects theory and practice, including potential treatments that may reduce the declines. Deficits in emotion recognition may provide a window into what is occurring in the ageing brain. We investigated whether changes in recognition of emotion could be attributed to a decline in memory processes. Sixty-two participants recruited from South-Eastern Queensland divided into young (19-49), middle old (49-64) and old (65 and above) cohorts performed computer administered tasks assessing emotion recognition, verbal and non-verbal memory. Older adults evidenced decline in recognition of anger, surprised and fearful faces. In addition, age related decline was evident in verbal memory performance. However, there was no corresponding decline in non-verbal memory performance. The dissociation of non-verbal memory performance from emotion recognition performance provides support for a modular decline model of age-related decline. The detection of decline in both verbal memory performance and emotion recognition suggests a common underlying process may be associated with both. Performance on the emotion recognition task may be verbally mediated. This study provides valuable insight into the ageing process and suggests decline may occur asynchronously- that is, is modular.

Technological Barriers to Learning: Designing Hybrid Pedagogy To Minimise Cognitive Load and Maximise Understanding

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) provide great promise for the future of education. In the Asia-Pacific region, many nations have started working towards the comprehensive development of infrastructure to enable the development of strong networked educational systems. In Queensland there have been significant initiatives in the past decade to support the integration of technology in classrooms and to set the conditions for the enhancement of teaching and learning with technology. One of the great challenges is to develop our classrooms to make the most of these technologies for the benefit of student learning. Recent research and theory into cognitive load, suggests that complex information environments may well impose a barrier on student learning. Further, it suggests that teachers have the capacity to mitigate against cognitive load through the way they prepare and support students engaging with complex information environments. This chapter compares student learning at different levels of cognitive load to show that learning is enhanced when integrating pedagogies are employed to mitigate against high-load information environments. This suggests that a mature policy framework for ICTs in education needs to consider carefully the development of professional capacities to effectively design and integrate technologies for learning.

Faking Bad in Workers Compensation Psychological Assessments: Elevation Rates of Negative Distortion Scales on the Personality Assessment Inventory in an Australian Sample

The workers compensation system provides a clear external incentive for deliberate feigning of physical or mental illness to some individuals. Although it has been asserted that all pre-liability workers compensation psychological assessments should involve assessment of deliberate feigning, the lack of an agreed standard for assessing this response style creates a substantial challenge in practice. Over the last two decades, substantial attention has been given to measures of psychopathology that also include validated negative distortion indices. The Personality Assessment Inventory) has been validated in both the clinical and forensic population, and is reportedly used by many Australian psychologists. This study explores rates of elevation of negative distortion scales on the PAI as a potential indicator of deliberate feigning in a large Australian workers compensation sample.

Understanding the post-colonial India’s culture: A juxtaposition of modern and traditional values

This book analyses key theoretical influences on Indian culture in a business context. It shows the interactions between indigenous culture and workplace ethics which is increasingly being populated by multinational corporations. It discusses how the Indian workplace has evolved over time as well as retained some managerial practices dating back to the classical traditions of ancient India. It further demonstrates the changes brought about by globalisation, especially through information technology and business process outsourcing industries.

Detection of malingering: A survey of Australian psychologists' current practices

[Extract] In conditional discrimination choice tasks, one learns to make a choice conditionally based on the presenting discriminative/cue stimulus. Prior research has shown that when each type of correct choice is followed by a cue-unique trial outcome (differential outcomes procedure), learning is faster and more accurate than when a single, common outcome is delivered for all types of correct choice. This learning effect has been termed the differential outcomes effect (DOE). Results are discussed here for brain regions that are active in mediating the DOE, while healthy young adults performed delayed conditional discrimination under event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).Based on two different work motivation theories, the relationships between personality traits (Big Five, CSE: core self-evaluation) and the importance of various job aspects was investigated. In Study I (N=118), graduates with high scores on Openness to experience and Agreeableness placed emphasis on Herzbergs motivation factors, whereas no relations were found for hygiene factors. In Study II (N=117 employees), the Big Five accounted for 30% of the variance in importance of the motivating potential of a job (Job Characteristics Model) and CSE showed incremental validity. Results are discussed regarding person-job fit and the practical utility of the CSE construct.Individual differences in learning nondeterministic relationships were investigated in samples with high mathematical proficiency. Probability Learning tasks were included within selection tests for admission to the French Air Transport Pilot Training. In Study 1 (N=401), two cues had positive and negative relationships with a target criterion. Four classes, homogeneous in mathematical performance, differed in learning the nondeterministic relationships. _ Fast-learners swiftly learned the relationships. _ Medium- and Slow-learners were slower but eventually succeeded. _ Nonlearners (12%) failed to learn even the positive relationship. These patterns replicated in Study 2 (N=448), including a third-irrelevant-cue. The irrelevant cue made the task more complex and degraded more the learning of the negative than the positive cue. Response time analyses confirmed that differences in the learning profiles went along with differences in the decision-making processes.