Internal Beliefs Research Articles

The effect of preconception counselling on health locus of control and stress in Iranian women: a randomized control trial

ABSTRACTPreconception counseling can improve women’s health and pregnancy outcomes. Internal health locus of control and belief in the benefits of health-promoting behaviors improve people’s engagement in health-promoting behaviors. This study examined whether preconception counseling was related to stress and health locus of control. This randomized controlled trial was conducted from March to November 2016 on 152 healthy 18–35-year-old women intending to become pregnant within the next year in Iran. The intervention group received six sessions of group counseling, and the control group received only usual care. The Perceived Stress Scale, Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scales and checklist for preconception control were completed before and after the intervention. Repeated measures ANOVA showed a significant post-intervention increase in the mean internal health locus of control (P < .001) and preconception control scores (P = .034) in the intervention group and the mean perceived stress score (P = .001), and chance health locus of control (P = .013) decreased significantly. Preconception counseling was associated with increased internal locus of control and reduced perceived stress. Preconception counselors should consider reinforcing women’s internal beliefs with an emphasis on the effect of the couple’s own behaviors and exposures on pregnancy and fetal outcomes.

Deceptive Dynamics in Drug Addiction and Their Role in Control Beliefs and Health Status Reporting: A Study on People With Substance Use Disorder in Treatment

This study aims at exploring deceptive dynamics (i.e., impression management [IM], self-deception, and emotional manipulation [EM]) and their role in control beliefs and health status reporting in a sample of people treated for substance use disorder. Seventy-eight participants following drug rehabilitation treatment were recruited, who provided background information and completed measures of social desirability responding, EM, locus of control, and health-related status. Moderated-regression analyses and t tests were performed. The results highlight that self-deception is associated with not reporting the use of secondary substances and being in treatment for a shorter time period. IM appears as the main deceptive tendency able to account for internal control beliefs and better mental health. Some interaction effects emerge among the examined deceptive tendencies, which suggest to deepen the role of EM as a risk factor for drug relapse and treatment success.

The Potential Utilization of Aromatic Plants in Kembang Kuning Resort, Gunung Rinjani National Park, West Nusa Tenggara

Gunung Rinjani National Park (TNGR) is nature conservation area located in West Nusa Tenggara. Kembang Kuning Resort is one of the TNGR‘s resorts under Territory Management Section (SPW) II East Lombok which has high potential for biological diversity which one of them is aromatic plants. Aromatic plants are plants that produce essential oils. dentify the diversity of aromatic plant species, and ethnobotany aromatic plants in communities around the area. The methods used are the vegetation analysis, terpenoid phytochemicals test and interviews. The results of the vegetation analysis found 47 species from 28 families of aromatic plants including six widely known species and 41 potential species. The widely known species which are the species that used by the community, have economic value, and there have been many studies related to these species, while potential aromatic plants are plants that have been tested phytochemical and positively have terpenoids but have not had the market value and not widely known by the community. Aromatic plants are used as medicine for both external diseases and internal diseases, religious rituals and beliefs, pesticides, cooking spices, and fragrances. Keywords: aromatic, diversity, ethnobotany, plants, species

Computational approaches and machine learning for individual-level treatment predictions.

The impact of neuroscience-based approaches for psychiatry on pragmatic clinical decision-making has been limited. Although neuroscience has provided insights into basic mechanisms of neural function, these insights have not improved the ability to generate better assessments, prognoses, diagnoses, or treatment of psychiatric conditions. To integrate the emerging findings in machine learning and computational psychiatry to address the question: what measures that are not derived from the patient's self-assessment or the assessment by a trained professional can be used to make more precise predictions about the individual's current state, the individual's future disease trajectory, or the probability to respond to a particular intervention? Currently, the ability to use individual differences to predict differential outcomes is very modest possibly related to the fact that the effect sizes of interventions are small. There is emerging evidence of genetic and neuroimaging-based heterogeneity of psychiatric disorders, which contributes to imprecise predictions. Although the use of machine learning tools to generate clinically actionable predictions is still in its infancy, these approaches may identify subgroups enabling more precise predictions. In addition, computational psychiatry might provide explanatory disease models based on faulty updating of internal values or beliefs. There is a need for larger studies, clinical trials using machine learning, or computational psychiatry model parameters predictions as actionable outcomes, comparing alternative explanatory computational models, and using translational approaches that apply similar paradigms and models in humans and animals.

Learning Environmental Field Exploration with Computationally Constrained Underwater Robots: Gaussian Processes Meet Stochastic Optimal Control.

Autonomous exploration of environmental fields is one of the most promising tasks to be performed by fleets of mobile underwater robots. The goal is to maximize the information gain during the exploration process by integrating an information-metric into the path-planning and control step. Therefore, the system maintains an internal belief representation of the environmental field which incorporates previously collected measurements from the real field. In contrast to surface robots, mobile underwater systems are forced to run all computations on-board due to the limited communication bandwidth in underwater domains. Thus, reducing the computational cost of field exploration algorithms constitutes a key challenge for in-field implementations on micro underwater robot teams. In this work, we present a computationally efficient exploration algorithm which utilizes field belief models based on Gaussian Processes, such as Gaussian Markov random fields or Kalman regression, to enable field estimation with constant computational cost over time. We extend the belief models by the use of weighted shape functions to directly incorporate spatially continuous field observations. The developed belief models function as information-theoretic value functions to enable path planning through stochastic optimal control with path integrals. We demonstrate the efficiency of our exploration algorithm in a series of simulations including the case of a stationary spatio-temporal field.

Causal evidence of right temporal parietal junction involvement in implicit Theory of Mind processing

The ability to represent the internal thoughts, beliefs and desires of others, and recognise that these might be distinct from one's own, is crucial for adaptive social interaction. Such operations are thought to tap Theory of Mind (ToM), with its importance underscored by the link between ToM impairment and a range of neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g., Autism and Schizophrenia). Extensive investigations into the neural substrates of ToM, when individuals have to make overt/explicit judgments concerning others, have highlighted a link with a network of regions including the temporal parietal junction (TPJ), particularly in the right hemisphere. Recently, evidence has emerged that ToM can also operate implicitly and that this may be particularly impaired in Autism. However, very few studies have examined the neural basis of implicit ToM and none have employed methods allowing casual inferences to be made. Here, using brain stimulation, a Sally-Anne false-belief task, and eye-tracking we show that right TPJ is causally involved in ToM judgments that are made implicitly. These findings have implications for characterising the neural substrates of a key executive function, determining the extent to which implicit and explicit ToM draw on overlapping neural architecture and, potentially, better understanding of disorders tied to ToM impairment.

Who can improve the environment—Me or the powerful others? An integrative approach to locus of control and pro-environmental behavior in China

Many people think that only powerful institutions are effective to combat environmental problems, especially in government-guided countries such as China. This study contrasts people’s beliefs in their own abilities to improve the environment to their perceptions of other powers (e.g. government, corporations, higher powers, and earth-cycles). Previous research explored the impact of internal and external control beliefs on individuals’ pro-environmental behavior mostly separately in developed Western countries. Since China’s cultural and sociopolitical environment significantly differs from that of Western countries, we develop and test an integrated model of environmental locus of control (ELOC) to enlighten possible interactions and simultaneous effects in China. As expected, results indicate that internal ELOC generates positive effects on Chinese people’s behaviors. But contrary to our predictions, external ELOC is positively correlated with internal factors and also positively influences behaviors. The belief in one’s own abilities outperforms the belief in others to translate the confidence into reported behaviors. Nevertheless, Chinese perceive a higher level of governmental and corporate responsibility relative to their own environmental impacts which is driven by Confucian values (i.e. group orientation, belief in hierarchy). Compared to relatively consistent internal ELOC, the perceptions of most external ELOC factors significantly differ among provinces by levels of GDP per capita. Promotional programs should stress the individual’s significance through daily behaviors in specific ways such as green purchase, activism, advocate (e.g. persuasion of friends), and recycling. Communicating the impact of powerful institutions might not necessarily trigger responsibility diffusion, but seems to promote the sense of shared responsibility.

Cross-Sectional Evaluation of the Psychometric Properties of the Headache-Specific Locus of Control Scale in People With Migraine.

This study aims to investigate the psychometric properties (component structure, reliability, and construct validity) of the Headache-Specific Locus of Control scale in several clinical migraine populations. Headache-specific locus of control beliefs may impact a person's behavioral decisions that affect the likelihood of migraine attack onset, emotional responses to migraine attacks, coping strategies used, and treatment adherence. The 33-item Headache-Specific Locus of Control scale is the most widely used measure of locus of control specific to headache yet psychometric evaluations remain limited. Six hundred and ninety-five adults with a diagnosis of migraine from 5 different research studies completed cross-sectional self-report measures including the Headache-Specific Locus of Control scale and measures of quality of life and disability (Migraine-Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire and Migraine Disability Assessment). Five Headache-Specific Locus of Control components emerged from Horn's Parallel Analysis, Minimum Average Partial test, and Principal Component Analysis (eigenvalues: Presence of Internal=5.7, Lack of Internal=4.0, Luck=2.9, Doctor=2.0, and Treatment=1.5). The 33 Headache-Specific Locus of Control items demonstrated adequate internal consistency for total (α=0.79) and subscale scores (α's=0.69 to 0.88). This study found preliminary evidence of convergent validity. For example, Lack of Internal (r=-0.12, P=0.004), Doctor (r=-0.20, P < .001), and Treatment (r=-0.12, P=.004) beliefs were associated with higher overall migraine-specific quality of life impairments. The Headache-Specific Locus of Control scale is a reliable and valid measure of headache-specific locus of control. Findings suggest that headache-specific locus of control is more multidimensional than previous conceptualizations and contribute to our understanding of control beliefs as a potential mechanism for migraine treatment.

Identifying priority antecedents of educational data mining acceptance using importance-performance matrix analysis

Previous studies on educational data mining (EDM) acceptance were focused on antecedents that were adopted from various models and theories. However, the ways in which such antecedents became the most important tools for educational improvement have not been researched in detail. This study aims to identify the priority antecedents of EDM acceptance, particularly among undergraduate students since they are the most affected by this technology. Therefore, six antecedents with 11 variables have been formulated based on positive and negative readiness acquired from the technology readiness index (TRI). Meanwhile, cognition, emotion, internal control belief, and external control belief were obtained from the technology acceptance model 3 (TAM3). The Importance-Performance Matrix Analysis (IPMA) was used to identify priority antecedents of EDM acceptance, which was run using the SmartPLS 3.0 software. The findings revealed that perceived usefulness (PU) is the most important antecedent, followed by perceived ease of use (PEOU), and optimism (OPT). This study contributes to the literature by offering new insights on the field of EDM and extending existing knowledge on how cognition, positive readiness, negative readiness, emotion, internal control belief, and external control belief were combined for identifying priority antecedents of EDM acceptance.

Absolute Freedom of Mind and Regulating Actions: Tendency of Case Law in the Supreme Court of Japan

We have absolute protection for our internal beliefs, but this never means the same protection for our external actions. So we have to decide which external actions are permitted, bearing in mind internal protection. Therefore, I introduce some cases of the Supreme Court of Japan (coercing apology, playing the piano accompaniment to Kimigayo, membership fee, Incantation to a mental patient based on religious belief, dissolving the religious corporation, absent from class on fathers’ visiting day and the Kendo lesson) that analyzed the relationship between thoughts and actions.

Supplemental Material for Cohort Differences in Adult-Life Trajectories of Internal and External Control Beliefs: A Tale of More and Better Maintained Internal Control and Fewer External Constraints

Supplemental Material for Cohort Differences in Adult-Life Trajectories of Internal and External Control Beliefs: A Tale of More and Better Maintained Internal Control and Fewer External Constraints

Violencia obstétrica: aproximación al concepto y Debate en relación a la terminología empleada

Introduction There is concern related to the mistreatment, lack of respect or violence that health institutions exert on women in childbirth care. There is no unanimity on the proper terminology to name it. This work aims to explore the meaning of the different terms used to define this situation. Methodology Review of the scientific literature. The keywords were: «disrespect», «abuse»; «dehumanized care or obstetric violence», «childbirth» and «birth»; and in Spanish: «abuso», «maltrato», «violencia obstrétrica», «violencia institucional», and «parto humanizado» or «parto respetado». Results and Discussion Bohren et al state that «mistreatment» is a more inclusive term than «obstetric violence», «dehumanized care» and «disrespect and abuse», since it encompasses the experiences of women and health professionals. However, Jewkes and Penn-Kekana claim that the definitions of these concepts may be too broad to be operational. Lukasse et al. use the term «abuse» and understand that the concept encompasses «negligence, verbal, physical and sexual abuse». Sadler establishes a clear link between obstetric violence and gender violence and looks for its origins in the birth of obstetrics as a discipline. Conclusions The concept of «obstetric violence» is closely related to politics and power relations that seek obedience and submission of the female body while it also reveals that the experience of motherhood is part of the domain of biopolitics. For health professionals to accept the term, it is important to recognize that health practices are developed in a social environment in which a historical framework has been built with a set of internal beliefs, rules and practices that reproduce gender ideologies in health workers.

Greening of education in modern society

The necessity of transition to ecologically oriented civilization, conditionality of formation of system of knowledge in education education and culture is shown. The system of values of ecocentric orientation is offered. In the conditions of transitive modern society the complex of ecologically significant skills is formed at receiving education and is transformed into internal beliefs of the individual. It is argued that the modern reality requires immediate initiation and development of ecological education of youth at all stages and levels of education: the state of the environment can not wait for full formation of generations, which is subject-oriented environmental education in early childhood, and does not allow time for long-term experiments.

Implicit attitudes toward dieting and thinness distinguish fat-phobic and non-fat-phobic anorexia nervosa from avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder in adolescents.

The majority of individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN) have a fat-phobic (FP-AN) presentation in which they explicitly endorse fear of weight gain, but a minority present as non-fat-phobic (NFP-AN). Diagnostic criteria for avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) specifically exclude fear of weight gain. Differential diagnosis between NFP-AN and ARFID can be challenging and explicit endorsements do not necessarily match internal beliefs. Ninety-four adolescent females (39 FP-AN, 13 NFP-AN, 10 low-weight ARFID, 32 healthy controls [HC]) completed implicit association tests (IATs) categorizing statements as pro-dieting or non-dieting and true or false (questionnaire-based IAT), and images of female models as underweight or normal-weight and words as positive or negative (picture-based IAT). We used the Eating Disorder Examination to categorize FP- versus NFP-AN presentations. Individuals with FP-AN and NFP-AN demonstrated a stronger association between pro-dieting and true statements, whereas those with ARFID and HCs demonstrated a stronger association between pro-dieting and false statements. Furthermore, while all groups demonstrated a negative implicit association with underweight models, HC participants had a significantly stronger negative association than individuals with FP-AN and NFP-AN. Individuals with NFP-AN exhibited a mixed pattern in which some of their implicit associations were consistent with their explicit endorsements, whereas others were not, possibly reflecting a minimizing response style on explicit measures. In contrast, individuals with ARFID demonstrated implicit associations consistent with explicit endorsements. Replication studies are needed to confirm whether the questionnaire-based IAT is a promising method of differentiating between restrictive eating disorders that share similar clinical characteristics.

Restaurant employees and food safety compliance: motivation comes from within

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of restaurant employee internal belief systems on their motivation to comply with food safety guidelines in restaurants. Food safety training programs and those offered by third-party vendors are commonplace in the industry, yet despite the expectations of employees to engage in safe food handling, not all are motivated to do so. To date, research has yet to be conducted on the impact of employees’ individual belief systems and their motivations to comply with safe food-handling practices expected by both their employer and local health agencies. This study posits that individuals either possess an internal values system committed to food safety compliance or they do not; and, that individually oriented beliefs and norms have a significant influence on organizational efforts to implement an effective food safety culture. Practical and academic implications are discussed in detail.

A Critique of Victoria S. Harrison’s Internal Realist Approach to Pluralism

Victoria S. Harrison’s theory of internal pluralism approaches religious beliefs in terms of conceptual schemes. To her, this approach has the advantage of preserving core pluralist intuitions without being challenged by the usual difficulties (such as the incompatibility problem). My claim is that this is not the case. After providing a succinct presentation of internal pluralism, I show that the critique of traditional pluralist views such as Hick’s may also be addressed to Harrison. There are two main reasons in support of my claim. Firstly, a believer’s common understanding of religious experiences (both mystical and ritual) conflicts with the way in which internal pluralism understands religious belief. Such conflict implies that if internal pluralism were a sound theory, most religious beliefs would turn out to be false, and, contrary to Harrison’s intention, they would be rendered cognitively irrelevant. Secondly, internal pluralism excludes the possibility of religious disagreements. By applying to religions an epistemological approach based on conceptual schemes, doxastic dissent is actually dismantled at the cost of developing an entirely solipsistic reading of religious beliefs. In the final section of my paper, I will show that such unattractive features are consequences of the notion of conceptual scheme.

Task-evoked pupil responses reflect internal belief states

Perceptual decisions about the state of the environment are often made in the face of uncertain evidence. Internal uncertainty signals are considered important regulators of learning and decision-making. A growing body of work has implicated the brain’s arousal systems in uncertainty signaling. Here, we found that two specific computational variables, postulated by recent theoretical work, evoke boosts of arousal at different times during a perceptual decision: decision confidence (the observer’s internally estimated probability that a choice was correct given the evidence) before feedback, and prediction errors (deviations from expected reward) after feedback. We monitored pupil diameter, a peripheral marker of central arousal state, while subjects performed a challenging perceptual choice task with a delayed monetary reward. We quantified evoked pupil responses during decision formation and after reward-linked feedback. During both intervals, decision difficulty and accuracy had interacting effects on pupil responses. Pupil responses negatively scaled with decision confidence prior to feedback and scaled with uncertainty-dependent prediction errors after feedback. This pattern of pupil responses during both intervals was in line with a model using the observer’s graded belief about choice accuracy to anticipate rewards and compute prediction errors. We conclude that pupil-linked arousal systems are modulated by internal belief states.

Informal institutions and path dependence in urban planning: The case of Curitiba, Brazil

ABSTRACT A process is recognized as collaborative when it demonstrates the involvement of multiple stakeholders who are mobilized to interact and negotiate horizontally in order to achieve common objectives. Although efforts can be made to make a process collaborative, a governance process is situated in particular histories and geographies, and collectively shared cultures, norms, and behaviors can help or hinder the emergence of inclusive democratic practices. As a result of broader urban reforms that have been occurring in Brazil over the last 20 years, and particularly a shift in the institutional arrangement of planning in Curitiba, the 2014 Curitiba Master Plan was developed within a more democratic framework, with the engagement of several governmental and nongovernmental stakeholders. Despite adopting a more collaborative approach to planning, this plan is as generic as the 2004 Curitiba Master Plan it replaced, which was proposed within a technocratic framework. If the 2004 and 2014 institutional arrangements and processes were so different, why did they achieve similar results? To answer this question, this study investigates which elements influence the endurance of established practices in urban planning processes. The basic assumption is that the final product of a planning process is heavily influenced by existing and long-lasting institutions, which carry internal beliefs and procedures into new planning approaches. The evidence presented in this study shows that path dependence on ideas, behaviors, and actions has been perpetuating planning practices that have been established in Curitiba for decades.

Unemployment and Reemployment Effects on Locus of Control and Health

While unemployment compromises wellbeing and health, reemployment can mitigate some of its negative effects. Yet, we lack understanding of the underlying mechanism through which these unemployment and reemployment effects occur. In the present study, we integrate models of unemployment, stress, and trait variability to argue that changes in locus of control play a crucial role in explaining health following unemployment and reemployment. Applying propensity score matching to a longitudinal sample of 7,908 individuals from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) reveals that unemployment predicts lower internal locus of control which in turn relates to poorer subjective health. Subgroup analyses show that the decline in internal control beliefs only occurs for involuntary (as compared with voluntary) unemployment. Reemployment reverses this negative effect on health through restoring internal control beliefs. Concluding, our study adds to the extant literature as it uncovers why health changes occur after job loss and job gain.

LEARNING PROFESSIONALISM: MEDICAL STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVE ON IDENTIFYING CLINICAL STAFFS’ BEHAVIOUR

Background: Role modeling is known as one of the most effective methods in learning professionalism, especially in the workplace. Each role model shows a different substantial values of professionalism, therefore the 'positive' or 'negative' role model criterion are difficult to set. This study aims to understand how students identify 'professional behavior’ (positive role model) and ‘unprofessional behavior’ (negative role model).Method: The design was a qualitative with case study approach. The sample was 20 students of undergraduate medical school at one university in Indonesia, selected by purposive sampling using maximum variation strategy. Gender, GPA, origin, and clinical rotation are used as key dimensions. Data collection used two methods, written narrative and focus group discussion. While the steps of qualitative analysis refers to Miles and Huberman.Results: This study found four themes as ‘behavioral identification’, namely: 'self-principle', 'self-standard of professionalism', 'normative standard of professionalism' and 'subjectivity'.Conclusion: Differences in identification are a reflection of students’ cognitive maturity. The outcome of learning professionalism can be improved from ‘valuing’ to ‘organizing’ and ‘internalizing’ through role model exposure and facilitation that provides the opportunity to explore and to reflect on professional values, before the student chooses them independently. This is part of the development of internal belief systems that are closely related on how students build their professional identity.