Explanatory Perspectives Research Articles

A Comparative Study on Mental Disorder Conceptualization: A Cross-Disciplinary Analysis.

The conceptualization of mental disorders varies among professionals, impacting diagnosis, treatment, and research. This cross-disciplinary study aimed to understand how various professionals, including psychiatrists, psychologists, medical students, philosophers, and social sciences experts, perceive mental disorders, their attitudes towards the disease status of certain mental states, and their emphasis on biological versus social explanatory attributions. A survey of 371 participants assessed their agreement on a variety of conceptual statements and the relative influence of biological or social explanatory attribution for different mental states. Our findings revealed a consensus on the need for multiple explanatory perspectives in understanding psychiatric conditions and the influence of social, cultural, moral, and political values on diagnosis and classification. Psychiatrists demonstrated balanced bio-social explanatory attributions for various mental conditions, indicating a potential shift from the biological attribution predominantly observed among medical students and residents in psychiatry. Further research into factors influencing these differing perspectives is necessary.

Serial Murder: Power, Control and Social Domains

This paper presents new explanatory perspectives on the behaviour of serial murders via the theory of social domains platform.

Reality or utopia? The happiness of university academics in their professional performance: evidence from an emerging country (Mexico)

PurposeThe main objective of this work is to design a statistical multiple regression model that helps to empirically explain the impact of economic incentives, management style, emotional health and research activities on university professors in northern Mexico and their perception of happiness.Design/methodology/approachIn this research, the authors analysed the correlation between happiness perception and four independent variables divided into two dimensions: 1. individual dimensions: emotional health and research activities and 2. organisational dimensions: economic incentives and management styles. A questionnaire was developed, tested and analysed for this matter. The authors applied this instrument to 384 university professors of both genders among 1301 in the region.FindingsUsing correlational analysis, the authors confirm a strong and statically significant relationship between all variables. It is also no evidence of multicollinearity. Finally, by applying multiple regression analysis, it was accepted that all independent variables have significance in explaining the emergence of personal happiness (R2 = 42%). Finally, the predictive equation presents possible results with values that confirm the effectiveness of the theoretical model. Results indicate that happiness perception is related to independent variables, with economic incentives being the most vital relationship.Research limitations/implicationsThis study's limitations are that the novel perspective of the explanatory variables of economic incentives, emotional health, management style and research activities needs additional confirmatory studies. Therefore, the authors need to perform studies with new explanatory perspectives. Another limitation of the study may be considering a cross-sectional and not a longitudinal model. This study considered it more appropriate to analyse the explanatory variables that influence and are the outcome of happiness perception for the data collected. Finally, it is essential to highlight that this research has been conducted in an underdeveloped country. Thus, it should consider conducting subsequent confirmatory studies in similar settings and other types of economies, such as in a developed country.Practical implicationsThis paper explains the relevance of two-dimensional activities in the happiness perception of professors. As other studies mention, productivity is correlated to happiness, and production outcomes could be improved if the schools implement policies to promote this perception. Happiness could be a solid strategy to improve academic outcomes, and the results propose several actions to achieve this goal.Social implicationsThis paper addresses an important activity of professors from a perspective of happiness perception. Thus, putting the professor as the leading relevant agent in schools, the authors propose a multivariate analysis of the outcomes of professors' jobs. Both the schools and the professors have their own goals at their own levels. If policies are created based on persons, in this case, professors, to improve organizational goals, then it might profoundly impact social actions inside the schools.Originality/valueThis paper increases the literature on happiness perception studies and proposes the examination of the relationship between perceived personal happiness and dimensions that influence this perception; these are from two kinds: 1. individual dimensions: emotional health and research activities and 2. organisational dimensions: economic incentives and management styles, which is an original approach and open discussion to further new approaches to this study.

Dissecting the mixed effects of human-customer service chatbot interaction on customer satisfaction: An explanation from temporal and conversational cues

Human-customer service chatbot interaction has had mixed effects on customer satisfaction in sales-related services. To dissect these conflicting results, three 2 (temporal cues: instant versus anthropomorphic delayed response) × 2 (conversational cues: task- versus social-oriented) between-group experiments were conducted. The results revealed the complex effects of temporal cues, conversational cues, and their interactions on perceived warmth, perceived competence, and satisfaction. And, perceived warmth and competence mediated the effects of temporal and conversational cues on satisfaction. Furthermore, the product attribute type (functional versus experiential) affected the relationships between these variables. These findings provide two explanatory perspectives (temporal and conversational cues) for dissecting the mixed effects of human-customer service chatbot interaction on customer satisfaction, and provide practical insights for improving customer service chatbots and enhancing customer satisfaction.

The Influence of Media Coverage on UK Refugee Policy from the Perspective of Multiple Sources Theory

At this time in history, there have never been as many people displaced. How the problem has developed and expanded, as well as how media portrays refugees, are actively shaped by journalists, giving nations a unique cognitive platform to handle refugee issues and introduce policies in line with those needs.An important tool for dissecting the policy process and its policy implications, the multi-source theory analytical framework can provide new explanatory perspectives to explain the relationship between media coverage and the development of refugee policy in the UK. The paper assesses the driving role of media feedback mechanisms in the development of UK refugee policy using the issue, policy, and political source streams of the multi-source stream theory framework, using UK media coverage of the refugee Olympic delegation since 2016 as a vehicle. The issue stream, which uses media feedback as a cognitive mechanism, is not the main driver of the UK refugee policy agenda; the political and policy streams are more critical drivers in the government's policy development.

Impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on the student’s academic performance. Case at the School of Engineering - Universidad Nacional de Colombia Bogotá Campus

This paper analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the student’s academic performance in the School of Engineering at Universidad Nacional de Colombia – Bogota Campus. The impact is assessed from a quantitative approach based on (i) student’s grades, (ii) student’s progress in their curriculum and (iii) dropped courses. In addition, results from a faculty survey (qualitative approach) are presented to expand some explanatory perspectives on the main academic changes during the pandemic. Results show a significant increase in the average numerical grade as well as in the probability of a course being dropped during the pandemic conditions. Furthermore, the student’s average curriculum progress per semester grew approximately 18%. A differentiated academic impact, depending on sex and family income was observed which may be included in future post-pandemic programs. The survey reflects a new faculty’s perspective on evaluation tools and methodologies.

When do disasters spark transformative policy change and why?

Floods, earthquakes, droughts, and other recurrent disasters around the globe have sparked renewed interest in whether and how disasters can be leveraged as turning points for transformation toward more sustainable and resilient societies. As the transformative potential of disasters increasingly gains prominence in different research fields, it is important to describe how different scientific approaches view the relationship. This article synthesises key insights from the policy sciences and public administration scholarship regarding the link between disruptive disaster events and policy activity aiming towards societal transformation. Key explanatory perspectives are discussed, including dynamics associated with institutional crisis, policy subsystems, agenda-setting and issue salience, governance capacity, policy-oriented learning and concentration of power, and situated in relation to four scenarios of potential disaster impacts on policymaking aiming at transformation. The results of this synthesis seek to enhance our understanding of when disasters may spark transformative change. Based on these findings, the article identifies priorities for future research into policymaking in the wake of disaster.

The Trump Administration and the COVID-19 crisis: Exploring the warning-response problems and missed opportunities of a public health emergency.

This article examines the Trump Administration's inability to mount a timely and effective response to the COVID‐19 outbreak, despite ample warning. Through an empirical exploration guided by three explanatory perspectives—psychological, bureau‐organizational, and agenda‐political—developed from the strategic surprise, public administration, and crisis management literature, the authors seek to shed light on the mechanisms that contributed to the underestimation of the coronavirus threat by the Trump Administration and the slow and mismanaged federal response. The analysis highlights the extent to which the factors identified by previous studies of policy surprise and failure in other security domains are relevant for health security. The paper concludes by addressing the crucial role of executive leadership as an underlying factor in all three perspectives and discussing why the US president is ultimately responsible for ensuring a healthy policy process to guard against the pathologies implicated in the federal government's sub‐optimal response to the COVID‐19 crisis.

Thucydides's Tragic Science of Democratic Defeat

AbstractThis article reinterprets Thucydides's analysis of the post-Periclean turn in Athenian politics by reading it within the context of contemporary “tragic” and “scientific” explanatory traditions. It finds in this analysis an ambitious attempt to reinvent the traditional, tragic pattern of hubris-driven reversal by reinterpreting its underlying causal logic according to a scientific perspective in which the overdetermining effects of deities are replaced by the variable power dynamics of democratic deliberation. The resultant analysis identifies a change in the relative standing of leaders as the determining cause of democratic reversal, not the absolute decline in leadership, thus tracing the Athenian turn towards hubris, great error, and civil discord to the egalitarian ordering of the post-Periclean assembly. In so doing, it shows how Thucydides's analysis posed a powerful challenge to previous attempts, both tragic and scientific, to prognosticate the fate of imperial democracy, as well as offering an exemplary moment of Thucydides's synthetic approach towards tragic and scientific explanatory perspectives.

Risk factors for childhood illness and death in rural Uttar Pradesh, India: perspectives from the community, community health workers and facility staff

BackgroundUttar Pradesh (UP), India continues to have a high burden of mortality among young children despite recent improvement. Therefore, it is vital to understand the risk factors associated with under-five (U5) deaths and episodes of severe illness in order to deliver programs targeted at decreasing mortality among U5 children in UP. However, in rural UP, almost every child has one or more commonly described risk factors, such as low socioeconomic status or undernutrition. Determining how risk factors for childhood illness and death are understood by community members, community health workers and facility staff in rural UP is important so that programs can identify the most vulnerable children.MethodsThis qualitative study was completed in three districts of UP that were part of a larger child health program. Twelve semi-structured interviews and 21 focus group discussions with 182 participants were conducted with community members (mothers and heads of households with U5 children), community health workers (CHWs; Accredited Social Health Activists and Auxiliary Nurse Midwives) and facility staff (medical officers and staff nurses). All interactions were recorded, transcribed and translated into English, coded and clustered by theme for analysis. The data presented are thematic areas that emerged around perceived risk factors for childhood illness and death.ResultsThere were key differences among the three groups regarding the explanatory perspectives for identified risk factors. Some perspectives were completely divergent, such as why the location of the housing was a risk factor, whereas others were convergent, including the impact of seasonality and certain occupational factors. The classic explanatory risk factors for childhood illness and death identified in household surveys were often perceived as key risk factors by facility staff but not community members. However, overlapping views were frequently expressed by two of the groups with the CHWs bridging the perspectives of the community members and facility staff.ConclusionThe bridging views of the CHWs can be leveraged to identify and focus their activities on the most vulnerable children in the communities they serve, link them to facilities when they become ill and drive innovations in program delivery throughout the community-facility continuum.

Making Cognitive Niches Explicit: On the Importance of External Cognitive Representations in Accounting for Cumulative Culture

Cumulative transmission and innovation are the hallmark properties of the cultural achievements of human beings. Cognitive scientists have traditionally explained these properties in terms of social learning and creativity. The non-social cognitive dimension of cumulative culture, the so-called technical reasoning, has also been accounted for recently. These explanatory perspectives are methodologically individualistic since they frame cumulative and innovative culture in terms of the processing of inner cognitive representations. Here we show that going beyond methodological individualism could facilitate an understanding of why some inventions are disseminated in a stable form and constitute the basis for further modifications. Drawing on three cases of cognitive history of prominent achievements of Antiquity, i.e., Homerian epics, Euclidean geometry, and Roman law, we investigate which properties of cognitive artifacts shaped cognitive niches for modifying original cognitive tasks or developing new ones. These niches both constrained and enabled the cognitive skills of humans to promote cumulative culture and further innovations. At the same time, we claim that “wide cognition,” incorporating both intracranial resources and external cognitive representations, constitutes a platform for building explanations of cognitive phenomena developing over a historical time scale.

Postulation of India-Japan Vedic-Buddhist cross-cultural management cluster: conceptualizing a spiritual philosophy-based explanation for emerging theory

PurposeThough there is emerging research that induces a postulation for a Vedic–Buddhist (V–B) cultural cluster, good theory development requires not only generalizability but also strong explanation. This paper aims to address the explanation gap to strengthen emerging theory development.Design/methodology/approachReligion-derived spiritual philosophy travel is traced from historical origins in India to contemporary Japanese management practice and its underpinning values.FindingsThe enhanced explanation developed in this paper finds a clear trace of spiritual values with roots in India surfacing in contemporary Japanese management as identified in extant cross-cultural management (CCM) literature.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper offers important explanation to strengthen emerging theory on the novel idea of a V–B CCM cluster.Practical implicationsThe strengthening of explanation for emerging theory adds to the case for modification of the traditional CCM meta-narrative that has positioned India and Japan in separate cultural clusters.Social implicationsStrengthening the postulation of a V–B cultural cluster potentially lubricates foreign investment from Japan to India contributing to achievement of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal no. 17 that pertains to international partnerships. Additionally, the findings raise questions for public policymakers who in modern times occlude religion from the public sphere.Originality/valueThis paper offers novel explanatory perspectives for emerging CCM theory, potentially expanding the spiritual philosophy avenue of management research.

The Interpretation and Screening of Learning Difficulties in Mathematics: Regard at the Contribution of the Anthropo-Didactic Approach

The aim of this study is to increase knowledge about learning difficulties in mathematics by exploring how different explanatory perspectives on learning difficulties influence the discourse of educational specialists when they take a position on the foundations of learning difficulties in the field of mathematics. A literature review of the learning difficulties in mathematics researches of the last thirty years shows the emergence of two major interpretative perspectives. In the first one, the difficulties are interpreted in terms of the learners’ cognitive characteristics, while the second perspective study learning difficulties as the result of interactions between the student and the school system. Many debates during the last few decades between the proponents of the first perspective and those of the second perspective brought out a third perspective: the anthropo-didactic approach. This research aims to test the relevance of this third perspective by analyzing the discourse of different education professionals. Since this third interpretive perspective of learning disabilities has recently appeared in the scientific literature, to our knowledge, no research to validate this perspective has been done in Canada. Through semi-structured interviews, 14 educational specialists shared their experience and their vision regarding the interpretation of learning difficulties in mathematics. Moreover, they discussed the different methods for screening those difficulties. The results obtained through analysis of their discourse highlight different themes connected to three explanatory perspectives (cognitivist, didactic and social science). In addition, the results reveal the complementary contribution of the anthropo-didactic approach (related to the social science perspective) which, owing to its recent emergence in the Quebec scholarly research, is rarely considered by researchers and professionals working in the field of education.

Against Computational Perspectivalism

Computational perspectivalism has been recently proposed as an alternative to mainstream accounts of physical computation, and especially to the teleologically-based mechanistic view. It takes physical computation to be partly dependent on explanatory perspectives, and eschews appeal to teleology in helping individuate computational systems. I assess several varieties of computational perspectivalism, showing that they either collapse into existing non-perspectival views; or end up with unsatisfactory or implausible accounts of physical computation. Computational perspectivalism fails therefore to be a compelling alternative to perspective-independent theories of computation in physical systems. I conclude that a teleologically-based, non-perspectival mechanistic account of physical computation is to be preferred.

Real-world experiences with generating real-world evidence: Case Studies from PCORI's pragmatic clinical Studies program

BackgroundOver the last decade, randomized studies evaluating outcomes of health care interventions conducted in real-world settings—often termed “pragmatic trials”—have come to be seen as an important means of obtaining relevant, actionable evidence to guide health care decisions. Despite extensive writing on methodological considerations in pragmatic trial design, limited information exists regarding the practical and logistical challenges encountered in carrying out rigorous randomized evaluations in highly representative, real-world contexts. MethodsThe Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) convened an expert panel in 2017 to examine common tradeoffs in study design and implementation through 3 “case studies” of in-progress, PCORI-funded pragmatic trials. This paper summarizes the findings of this panel, using the 3 examples to illustrate common implementation challenges encountered in pragmatic trials. ResultsInvestigators aimed to generate highly generalizable findings that could address real-world clinical decisions; however, practical considerations required that each study incorporate traditionally “explanatory” elements to achieve a “fit-for-purpose” approach to design and implementation. Within individual studies, efforts to balance pragmatic versus explanatory perspectives often involved multiple, diverse aspects of trial design and implementation, and the aspects of design and implementation where investigators reported encountering such tradeoffs varied across the three cases we examined. ConclusionsEfforts to generate rigorous evidence that is generalizable to “real-world” practice require continuous and iterative efforts to balance “pragmatic” and “explanatory” perspectives. In each study examined, these tradeoffs were guided both by an overriding effort to maintain pragmatism and practical considerations that varied depending on the research question and study context.

Helping behavior by bystanders: Contrasting individual vs social contextual factors

The behavior of bystanders in emergencies and disasters have been examined for over 50 years. Such behaviors have been cited as contributing to saving lives in terms of providing first responder help until official emergency units can arrive. A number of reasons have been suggested for this type of behavior but most have focused on a broad segment of individual psychological decision making processes. Recent evidence suggest that a number of external factors for such bystander decisions, particularly disaster community based social context factors, are also important. We aim to test these competing arguments. Specifically, we examine alternative explanatory perspectives by focusing on self-efficacy as a proxy for the accepted individual psychological arguments and contrast it with potential bystander characteristics of the individual as well as potential contributing factors embedded in the social context of the disaster community. To do so, we utilize a random sampling of population from a field study of an urban community in Israel that experienced five years of continuous terror attacks. The results strongly suggest that self-efficacy, but more importantly external factors such as preparedness and having skills for intervention during emergencies along with gender best predict potential bystander helping behaviors. These results broaden our view of bystander behavior and open a window for enhancing this phenomenon as another element in disaster management.

Moving On Our Feet: For a Nomadic Psychology.

Zagaria, Andò and Zennaro have provided a useful analysis of the theoretical precariousness of psychology by looking at a number of its core concepts. They propose that evolutionary psychology could be a unifying approach for the otherwise fragmented discipline. In this response, I argue that although evolutionary psychology provides many interesting perspectives on the mental life of human beings, it is much too soon to jump to a unifying conclusion for psychology on its basis. Before beginning the work of explaining the functioning of the mind in evolutionary terms, we need illuminating descriptions of mental life as such. Phenomenological description should precede evolutionary explanation, and the former will reveal that mental life is intentional and normative - something that evolutionary and other explanatory perspectives have difficulties accommodating. When the subject matter is human mental life, it might be better to live with conceptual confusion than obtaining consensus on a misguided foundation. I agree with the authors that psychology stands on feet of clay, but instead of lamenting the "unsteady building" of the discipline, I suggest we embrace a more nomadic life for psychology - moving about on our feet - given the fact that humans perpetually and historically seem to reflect on their own lives, which is a process that should be kept open rather than terminated.

DSM-5: the definitive inclusion of psychiatry in medicine?

DSM-5 is a significant factor in promoting the "remedicalization" of psychiatry as the focus of psychiatric knowledge, developed by the evidence-based medicine movement, shifted from the clinically-based biopsychosocial model to a research-based medical model. DSM-5 purposes are 1]clinical: diagnosis, prevention, early identification, management, outcome, assessment of improvement; 2] clinical research: etiology, course, effective treatments, cost-effective treatments, reliability and validity and utility of diagnosis; 3] a worldwide common language of diagnostic criteria used by mental health professionals; and 4] to improve communication with users of services, caregivers, and society in general. In the absence of a "gold standard" there are two basic questions still without answers 1] what kind of entities are psychiatric disorders?; and 2] How to integrate the multiple explanatory perspectives of psychiatric illness?.

The Classification and Explanation of Depression

AbstractIn the field of psychopathology there is still a lack of consensus on how mental disorders, such as depression, should be classified and explained. Many of our current classifications suffer from disorder heterogeneity and are conceptually vague. While some researchers have argued that mental disorders are better explained from a biological perspective, others have made the case for pluralistic and integrative explanations. Using depression as an extended example, we explore the challenges in classifying and explaining psychopathology. We begin by evaluating the current approaches to classification, including frameworks for what we consider a mental disorder. This is followed by a detailed summary of current explanatory perspectives in psychiatry. The relationship between classification and explanation presents unique theoretical challenges in understanding mental disorders. We suggest that by adjusting our focus from understanding syndromes to clinical phenomena we can advance our understanding of mental disorders.

Ethnicity, disadvantage and other variables in the analysis of Birmingham longitudinal school attainment datasets

Explaining and responding to inequalities in attainment are significant educational policy challenges in England as elsewhere. Data on four cohorts of Birmingham Local Education Authority (LEA) pupils, each approximately 13,000, were analysed by ethnicity, deprivation, gender and other relevant individual pupil variables. For the four successive cohorts of children, aged five in 1997–2001, analysis shows the attainment trajectory of each ethnic group from Baseline/Foundation Stage Profile (age 5) to GCSE (age 16). The relative constancy over time, the changes from one key stage to the next and the differences within broad ethnic categories argue against simplistic explanations. The ethnicity variable accounts for a relatively small amount of variance in pupil achievement, with the same ethnic subgroups recurrently low attainers. Considering explanatory perspectives on educational inequalities and ethnicity in the light of these data, we conclude that a structuralist perspective offers the best explanation recognising economic exploitation, dominance and oppression at the national and local levels. Notions of institutional racism and Critical Race Theory (CRT) are considered to be inadequate and counter-productive, in part shown by their inability to accommodate the range of attainment levels and educational experience of different ethnic groups. More tellingly, they lack causal explanations relevant to the United Kingdom and deflect attention from the need for sustained effort to reduce poverty and disadvantage as it affects children.