Competence In Everyday Life Research Articles

Pragmatic competence of Indonesian EFL learners

Pragmatic competence is the skill to communicate in foreign language intended meaning. The objective of the study is to describe pragmatic competence of Indonesian EFL learners. This study was using descriptive qualitative approach. The participants were EFL learners, especially students in the first semester which take English course in Balikpapan University majoring mathematics and Health and Safety Environment. Furthermore, pragmatic test in the form of multiple choice DCT was used to assess learners’ pragmatic competence. It was applying and/or adapting some of the items devised by Rover (2005: 122-129 and Hudson, Detmer and Brown (1995: 107-130) in Viljamaa (2012). Based on the analysis of the test, most learners have quite low pragmatic competence in implicature and speech act part. Although cultural background is usually a quite problem for us, it can be handled by a good cooperation and good awareness of pragmatic aspects between the speaker and the hearer. Therefore, we should increase our pragmatic competence in everyday life with many kinds of English activities because English is still a foreign language in Indonesia.

Moral Competence, Personality, and Demographic Characteristics: A Comparative Study

The development of moral competence is affected by both internal and external factors and has been researched by many scientists. The present study investigated a) whether the five factors of personality, gender and geographical area would affect ones’ moral competence, b) whether the personality factors Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness and Agreeableness would be correlated positively with moral competence in everyday life, whereas Extraversion and Neuroticism would be correlated negatively with morality, c) if there will be differences in students’ moral competence exhibited in everyday life and that expressed in PE/sports framework and d) whether type of school, factors of personality, as well as moral competence exhibited in sports-framework would all be significant factors for the interpretation of a student’s moral competence. The sample consisted of 331 junior high students (7th and 8th graders) (Mage = 12.47, SD = 0.740), who were given the Moral Competence Test Greek Version (Mouratidou et al. 2003), the Moral Judgment Test in Physical Education(Mouratidou et al. 2008), and the Inventory of Child Individual Differences (Besevegkis & Pavlopoulos 1998). The results indicated that of the five-factor personality model only Conscientiousness can affect moral reasoning ability in everyday life and that the type of school can account for less than 5% of variance when predicting moral competence in high school students.

Decision-making competence in everyday life: The roles of general cognitive styles, decision-making styles and personality

Research indicates that decision-making competence in everyday life is associated with certain decision-making styles. The aims of this article are to extend this research by examining (a) the extent to which general cognitive styles explain variance in decision-making competence over and above decision-making styles, and (b) the extent to which personality explains variance in decision-making competence over and above both types of style variable. Participants (N=355) completed measures of everyday decision-making competence (Decision Outcomes Inventory), decision styles (Decision Style Questionnaire; Maximization Inventory), cognitive styles (the Cognitive Styles Inventory; Rational-Experience Inventory), and the Big Five personality variables (IPIP Big-Five factor scales). The results indicate that cognitive styles offer no incremental validity over decision-making styles in predicting decision-making competence, but that personality does offer substantial incremental validity over general cognitive styles and decision-making styles. Jointly decision-making styles and personality account for a substantial amount of variance in everyday decision-making competence.

Everyday Memory for Everyday Tasks: Prospective Memory as an Outcome Measure Following TBI in Older Adults

AbstractTraumatic brain injury in older adults is an increasing problem in our aging community. Traditional functional outcome measures, such as return to work or academic achievement, as used with younger samples following traumatic brain injury are of limited use for older people. Although challenging to assess reliably, evaluation of prospective memory is gradually being included in outcome assessments following traumatic brain injury in younger samples and may be a useful index of cognitive competence in everyday life when assessing older adults following traumatic brain injury.

The Impact of Assistive Device Use on Disability and Depression Among Older Adults With Age-Related Vision Impairments

One can conceptualize adaptive technology as a resource used by disabled older adults in order to maintain competence in everyday life. This study examined the independent relationships between optical and adaptive device utilization and change in functional disability and depression among older adults with age-related vision impairments. We interviewed older adults (n = 438) with a recent vision impairment applying for vision rehabilitation services both pre-service and at the 6-month follow-up. We conducted hierarchical regression analyses with functional disability and depressive symptoms as criteria. In order to identify their independent direct effects, we entered optical and adaptive device use into the final step, preceded by Time 1 criterion scores, demographics, baseline disability or depression (depending on criterion), and total rehabilitation service hours. Optical, but not adaptive, device use was significantly associated with declines in functional disability and depressive symptoms over time. We propose that these differential effects result from the fact that optical devices optimize residual vision and thus allow for greater continuity in the way tasks are accomplished (i.e., reading still performed visually), whereas use of adaptive aids (e.g., talking books) involves learning new methods in order to compensate for lost functions and thus is not as desirable either functionally or psychologically.

Patientenrelevante Endpunkte bei Alzheimer-Krankheit

The cognitive deficits typical of Alzheimer's disease and the resulting deficits in (instrumental) activities of daily living can be taken as patient- and clinically relevant end points. They are important features in the patient's global impairment and not merely surrogate parameters or points on a scale. Furthermore there are other functional end points, such as admission to a nursing home, caregiver burden or time spent for caregiving and quality of life, although this is difficult to assess at present. These latter end points are as yet less well defined than the former, in part because they are subject to the influence of numerous confounding factors. Concerning drug effects on cognition and competence in everyday life, there is a consistent and reliable efficacy of antidementive drug, which is of moderate magnitude.

Neurological and neuropsychological outcome after SAH.

The fact that neurological status and physical integrity alone do not sufficiently assess the overall state of patients after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) gives rise to the necessity for complementary neuropsychological investigation. Neuropsychological work-up should also cover an emotional state, psychosocial adjustment and competence in everyday life of the patients. In our prospective study we investigated 82 patients three months and one year after SAH and early clipping of the aneurysm. For the evaluation of postoperative neurological functions the Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) was used. For the neuropsychological assessment we used standardized measures of verbal and figural learning and memory, verbal and figural fluency, speed of information processing, visuospacial abilities and affective function. One year after SAH 95.6% of patients with Hunt&Hess Grade 1 and 2 on admission showed good neurological results (GOS 4 and 5). However, only 30.1% (18 of 63 patients with a favourable neurological outcome--GOS 4 and 5) did not show any neuropsychological deficit. Localization of the ruptured aneurysm significantly correlated with cognitive measures. The best cognitive outcome was shown in patients with aneurysms on the anterior communicating artery (ACoA) followed by posterior communicating artery (PCoA) and those located on the internal carotid artery (ICA) on the right side.

Decreased capacity for mental effort after single supratentorial lacunar infarct may affect performance in everyday life

OBJECTIVESThe long term outcome after a single symptomatic lacunar infarct may be less favourable than is generally assumed. Patients often present with complaints such as fatigue or “being different from...