Reflexive Abilities Research Articles

Maturity of the Axiological Component Inside the Individual Environmental Outlook

The article discusses axiological component of the individual environmental outlook, which includes the values, principles, norms, canons, and ideals that govern the interaction between an individual and nature and form his or her focus and motivation, as well as relations within the personality structure. The research work was conducted to identify the maturity of this component among students of pedagogical university according to such issues as philosophical understanding of the problem of interaction between an individual and nature, the negative impact of society on nature, the relationship of ecology and aesthetics, moral environmental regulation, legal regulation of relations between an individual and nature, educational value of nature, nature, as a source of spiritual inspiration, and the reflexive ability to evaluate an individual's actions and those of others. It was revealed that first-year students have low level maturity of the axiological component inside their ecological outlook. The reasons depend on the previous levels in the education and environmental education in the family, lack of knowledge about moral norms and rules of behavior while interacting with nature, as well as the importance of environmental phenomena for human life.

In search of salience: phenomenological analysis of moral distress

The nurse's moral competences in the management of situations which present ethical implications are less investigated in literature than other ethical problems related to clinical nursing. Phenomenology affirms that emotional warmth is the first fundamental attitude as well as the premise of any ethical reasoning. Nevertheless, it is not clear how and when this could be confirmed in situations where the effect of emotions on the nurse's decisional process is undiscovered. To explore the processes through which situations of moral distress are determined for the nurses involved in nursing situations, a phenomenological-hermeneutic analysis of a nurse's report of an experience lived by her as a moral distress situation has been conducted. Nursing emerges as a relational doctrine that requires the nurse to have different degrees of personal involvement, the integration between logical-formal thinking and narrative thinking, the perception of the salience of the given situation also through the interpretation and management of one's own emotions, and the capacity to undergo a process of co-construction of shared meanings that the others might consider adequate for the resolution of her problem. Moral action requires the nurse to think constantly about the important things that are happening in a nursing situation. Commitment towards practical situations is directed to training in order to promote the nurse's reflective ability towards finding salience in nursing situations, but it is also directed to the management of nursing assistance and human resources for the initial impact that this reflexive ability has on patients' and their families' lives and on their need to be heard and assisted. The only case analysed does not allow generalizations. Further research is needed to investigate how feelings generated by emotional acceptance influence ethical decision making and moral distress in nursing situations.

Journeying Back Home Together

In this clinical presentation, I narrate three moments, occurring at 3 months, 3 years, and 5 years, in my work with Beatrice, a woman my age, who shared many aspects of my history. Our strong emotional connection was the theater of many rupture and repair processes. I follow one thread around what I experienced as her pressuring demands on me that I tell her she was right and my insistence on giving her back what she called an “ambiguous gift,” her subjectivity. My recognition of some aspects of my misattuned responses in the first two narratives helped Beatrice recover her remarkable reflexive abilities and led to a gradual deepening of the work. In the last narrative, 5 years into the therapy, I recount how I suddenly became aware of my own parallel struggles with pain of invalidation from my own history, and told her that I could see now how I was not available to her. This intense moment of meeting had deep reverberations in the following sessions and in our relationship. We were both journeying “back home”—that is, confronting together the so often “intolerable embeddedness of our being.”

Reflexive ability as a factor of social reality

The role of reflection in the development of thinking, personality structures, behavior and ways of activity is considered in the article. There is presented a historical review of a reflection research. The necessity of the development of reflective abilities that contribute to effective operation of professionals, executives in management practices is shown.

What are we making? The Reflexive Self-Awareness Consultation Tool (RS-ACT)

Support staff are required to make, often complex, moment to moment judgements in their support practices. Guidelines and general principles may not always be enough to support good decision making in particular contexts. This paper presents the Reflexive Self-Awareness Consultation Tool (RS-ACT) designed for clinicians supporting staff to explore the situated actions they take; the stories they use to make sense of these actions; the evidence for these stories; the possibility of other stories and of conceptualising their work as consisting of the co-creation of new episodes, identities, relationships, organisations and cultures with those they support. Having an awareness of such communicative processes of social construction has been termed self reflexive awareness. The RS-ACT may be used in a variety of consultative, therapeutic and supervisory contexts where developing self reflexive abilities is important. The paper gives a detailed illustration of the tools use.

Developing Student Value Attitude to Reasoning in Mathematics and its Integration into Teaching

Reasoning or argumentation abilities are the most valuable contribution of Math as a science to human culture. That is why the issue of developing reasoning abilities is becoming very important at school. There are different approaches to the analysis of the interconnection of the deductive component of mathematical education and pupils` “motivational mechanisms”. Many scientists are sure Math syllabus must be discussed from the motivational point of view. So it is essential for teachers to encourage pupils to master deductive reasoning abilities. There are two main conditions that influence the development of value attitude to reasoning in mathematical activity. To meet the conditions it is necessary to diagnose pupils` reasoning and reflexive abilities and consider them at every level of teaching reasoning.

Approaching Reflexivity Through Reflection

This conceptual article seeks to develop insights for teaching reflexivity in undergraduate management classes through developing processes of critical reflection. Theoretical inferences to support this aim are developed and organized in relation to four principles. They are as follows: first, preparing and making space for reflection in the particular class context; second, stimulating and enabling critical thinking through dialogue, in particular in relation to diversity and power issues; third, unsettling comfortable viewpoints through the critical reappraisal of established concepts and texts; and fourth, supporting the development of different, critical perspectives through ideological explorations and engagement with sociological imagination. The article provides an elaboration of these principles and the issues associated with them as resources for critical management educators seeking to help their students develop their reflexive abilities. In addition, the article develops theoretically informed lines of inquiry for empirical research to investigate the proposed approach, which could help to further develop and refine theory and educational practice.

“Her Energy Kind of Went Into a Different Place”: A Qualitative Study Examining Supervisors’ Experience of Promoting Reflexive Learning in Students

For family therapists in training, a key learning outcome is the development of reflexive abilities. This study explores the experience of three experienced training supervisors as they address this learning outcome with students. Transcripts of semi-structured interviews were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The Supervisory Relationship emerged as a single overarching theme that contained and contextualized three further themes: Promoting Learning, Dimensions of Power, and The Self of the Supervisor. One theme is reported here, Promoting Learning, with an illustrative example of experiential learning in a student that demonstrates the overriding significance of The Supervisory Relationship. The findings are discussed in the context of current literature and research regarding supervision and training. This study adds richness and detail to material published on supervisory experience, and documents supervisory "micro-skills" relevant to the development of reflexive abilities in students.

The effect of lipid emulsion on depth of anaesthesia following thiopental administration to rabbits

Intravenous lipid emulsion has proven benefit in lipophilic drug-induced cardiotoxicity. Its effect in reversal of central nervous system depression secondary to overdose with lipophilic psychotropic agents remains uncertain. Twenty adult New Zealand White rabbits were anaesthetised with 20 mg.kg(-1) thiopental and randomised to receive either 4 ml.kg(-1) saline 0.9% or 4 ml.kg(-1) lipid emulsion 20% immediately afterwards. Depth of anaesthesia was monitored using bispectral index (BIS) at 1-min intervals. Duration of anaesthesia was measured as time to regain the righting reflex (ability of the animal to right spontaneously from dorsal recumbency to sternal recumbency). The BIS was greater in the control group (p = 0.011). The greatest BIS differential was observed immediately following treatment (mean (SD) BIS 75.0 (9.5) for saline vs 58.6 (10.4) for lipid, 95% CI 5.75-27.1; p < 0.001). No difference was observed in duration of anaesthesia (mean (SD) 15.5 (0.8) min for saline vs 15.6 (0.7) min for lipid, p = 0.86). Lipid emulsion administration may serve to increase central nervous system depression in the early phase of lipophilic toxin distribution.

…] intelligit se intelligere rem intellectam. Henry of Ghent on Thought and Reflexivity

In this essay I examine Henry of Ghent’s views on our mind’s ability to think and to understand something, and to reflect on its own acts and their contents. Henry explains our acquisition of mental content as a sequence of receptive and productive stages. He identifies a general principle of cognitive presence: for an object to be actually intelligible it must be actually separated from matter and cognitively present to a thinker or cognizer. Sensible, material objects that cannot be immediately present in this way must be represented via functional intermediaries in our cognitive capacities. The two main capacities of the mind are intellect and will, and in Henry’s view each of these mental powers has a reflexive ability. Henry discusses our intellect’s ability to reflect on its acts and their contents in his analysis of mental words. A complete mental word is the product of our inquiry into a thing’s essence. The inquiry is driven by our rational desire for complete cognition and based on intellect’s reflection on a first-order act and its conceptual content. This higher-order awareness of ourselves as cognitive agents enables us to assess the progression of our intellectual inquiry. Henry stresses that our natural cognitive powers are strengthened through divine exemplary standards, which continually correct the concepts we form and complete their structural resemblance with the objects of cognition in extramental reality.

Reflexivity and the Regulation of GM Food and Feed in the EU

This paper attempts to apply Archer’s theory on reflexivity to governance arrangements, and more specifically, to risk regulation. We argue that the realisation of citizens’ inherent reflexive ability provides an additional independent justification to the widespread literature that calls for deliberative modes of governance. Subsequently, this contribution singles out a specific policy domain in the European Union (EU), namely the one concerning the regulation of genetically modified (GM) food and feed. It stresses that the substantial scientific uncertainty that surrounds agricultural biotechnology in addition to the strong objections of European citizens towards the technology renders this sensitive regulatory area an ideal candidate for the implementation of governance arrangements that make use of deliberation. What is more, a distinction is made between politics based on ‘routine action’ (or shallow politics) and politics based on reflexivity (or reflexive politics). In making this distinction, the paper examines the EU GM food and feed regulatory regime to ascertain the extent to which it utilises and encourages citizens’ deliberative input.

Developing leaders for sustainable business

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore how organisations can develop leaders who have the competences necessary to ensure the sustainability of the company. It considers how the understanding and practice of responsible leadership can be enhanced by defining the competencies for integrating social and environmental considerations into business decision‐making processes.Design/methodology/approachThe research comprised two phases. An initial questionnaire surveyed a sample of managers operating in the public and private sectors in Europe (n=108). A second stage of the research used in‐depth interviews with 11 leading European‐based multinational companies.FindingsResults indicate that, whilst the qualities and skills of responsible leadership can be identified, a further mediating concept deemed to be “reflexive abilitites” is posited as required to explain their translation into individual managerial behaviours. The paper describes the nature of these reflexive abilities.Research limitations/implicationsA key limitation of the research is the small sample size, both for the survey and for the interviews. Further research is needed to develop a clearer understanding of the nature and functioning of the “reflexive abilities” and to establish the robustness of these concepts.Practical implicationsThe results of the research support the current awareness amongst management educators that the development of successful business leadership requires more than training in “hard” business functions. Although the importance of experientially learned “soft skills” has been acknowledged, the paper suggests that the development of responsible leadership needs a third dimension to be incorporated into management education.Originality/valueThe paper suggests that “reflexive abilities” should be developed as core competencies in management development. For the development of responsible leadership it is necessary to foster the intellectual capacities to reflect upon, synthesise and integrate local and global business information in a way that leads to a new interpretation of both factual and emotional data. These abilities may enable leaders to develop new ways of thinking and new business models which will ensure the sustainability of their businesses. The paper explores the implications for those responsible for designing and delivering management development programmes.

Children do ask, but do not know how to do asking: Epi-pragmatic vs. meta-pragmatic skill

Old findings on children's comprehension of ask and tell were subject to different interpretations reflecting progress in the field of language acquisition. We want to show that acquiring a particular skill does not necessarily include competence of its intentional control and use. Development of linguistic skills takes place at different levels starting from early spontaneous, implicit abilities to the level of meta-pragmatic reflexive knowledge that enables deliberate monitoring, planning, and practice. The present study was aimed at exploring two extreme points in development: early epi-pragmatic and late reflexive metapragmatic competence. The first part aims at finding the earliest instances of children spontaneous ability to pass ask-instructions, and the evidence is provided for the ages as early as 22 to 40 months (much earlier than recorded in the previous studies). The second part is experimental and focuses on children's ability to respond to ask- and tell-instructions in the context of a cancelled conversational rule (Gricean Maxim of Quantity) which requires deliberate monitoring and use. The results show that this meta-pragmatic reflexive ability becomes stable only at the age of 6 years.

Metacognition and executive processes in Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Metacognition and executive processes in Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Constructing Citizens

This essay arbitrates a dispute over the senses in which citizens are “constructed.” The liberal-democratic view theorizes citizenship as a legal status guaranteeing political equality. It thereby ignores the extent to which conceptions of citizenship are variable social constructs. The governmental view insightfully characterizes the social origins of various conceptions of citizenship, but fails to account for citizens’ unique capacities for collective self-government. Using the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 as an example, I try to overcome these symmetrical shortcomings by showing how citizens can have reflexive abilities to construct the very bases of their own agency as citizens.

User participation in mental health nurse decision‐making: a co‐operative enquiry

This paper is a report of a study to encourage participants to work together to identify strategies for increasing user participation in clinical decisions and to evaluate the value of co-operative inquiry as a vehicle for supporting learning in practice. Service user participation in the clinical practice decisions of mental health nurses is considered essential for good practice. Methods need to be found which enable opportunities for shared learning, facilitate practice development and empower service users. A co-operative inquiry design engaged all participants (n = 17) as co-researchers and involved repeated cycles of action and reflection, using multiple data collection methods. The research was conducted over a two year period in 2004-2005, with mental health nursing students collaborating with service users. Factors inhibiting participation included stigmatizing and paternalistic approaches, where clinical judgments were made solely on the basis of diagnosis. Enhancing factors were a respectful culture which recognized users ''expertise' and communicated belief in individual potential. Inquiry benefits included insight into service users' perspectives, enhanced confidence in decision-making, appreciation of power issues in helping relationships and deconstruction of decision-making within a safe learning environment. Learning from novel approaches which enable nursing students to develop their reflective and reflexive ability is essential to avoid practice which disempowers and potentially harms service users' recovery. Co-operative inquiry is a valuable vehicle for developing professional practice in higher education and practice environments.

Use of portfolios as a learning and assessment tool in a surgical practical session of urology during undergraduate medical training

We chose to introduce a portfolio as a learning and assessment tool in a practical training session of urological surgery for undergraduate medical students. Our primary objectives were to develop the students’ self reflexive ability in front of complex medical cases and to teach them how to identify their learning needs in a short period of time, on a specific topic. Students completed, during their training session, a portfolio on a urological topic under the constant supervision of a tutor. The students were evaluated on their portfolio's presentation with a 20-point grade grid known in advance. Even in a surgical training session, a portfolio can be a useful learning and assessment tool. It clearly encourages self-reflection and pre-professional practice.

Effect of Volatile Anesthetics on Baroreflex Control of Mesenteric Venous Capacitance

Publisher Summary This chapter demonstrates that inhaled anesthetics impede the reflex ability of mesenteric veins to actively constrict and dilate in reaction to baroreflex stimulation. Inhaled anesthetics depress mean arterial pressure, heart rate, and sympathetic efferent outflow. Both low and high doses of inhaled anesthetics attenuate the reflex constriction of mesenteric veins caused by lowered carotid sinus pressure, whereas reflex dilation in response to aortic depressor nerve stimulation has been reduced by the higher dose of inhaled anesthetics. Furthermore, volatile anesthetics dramatically reduce the reflex increase in sympathetic efferent nerve activity as a result of baroreceptor stimulation. On the other hand, direct celiac sympathetic postganglionic activation of the mesenteric veins has been unaffected by even the highest dose of inhaled anesthetics. These findings support the hypothesis that volatile anesthetics may influence mesenteric vascular capacitance through inhibition of the active sympathetic control of veins. An active change in venous capacitance is to be distinguished from a passive reduction of arterial inflow or a redistribution of blood among vascular beds. In situ studies of the differential effects of α1– and α2–adrenoceptor activation on the constriction of mesenteric arteries demonstrate the predominance of α1–receptors in response to endogenous electric stimulation of the celiac ganglion and exogenous application of phenylephrine. The present studies have contributed new evidence from direct observation of the mesenteric veins, indicating that anesthetics inhibit baroreflex regulation of vein diameter and subsequent changes in intravenous pressure, and that the capacitance of the mesenteric bed is, thereby increased.

Geriatric Pharmacology for the Dentist: An Overview

The information presented in this article suggests that the drug responses of the elderly may be greater than those in the young or essentially the same. We have presented evidence that the pharmacokinetics in the elderly would probably tend toward prolonging the half-life and delaying the clearance of many drugs. Pharmacodynamic changes are more ambiguous, increasing sensitivity to some drugs and decreasing sensitivity to others. Compliance errors, from whatever cause, lead to unpredictable intake of drugs. Psychosocioeconomic factors contribute to compliance errors and no doubt also lead to increased intake of combination of drugs. Multiple diseases are common among the elderly, but it is not clear how disease states, per se, affect drug responses unless the specifically diseased organ is focally important in the handling of drugs. Alterations in perception of pain and in reflex and immune competence will produce changes in all directions. Use of multiple drugs almost certainly will create an environment favorable to drug interactions and adverse reactions. What is the dentist to do with these conflicting effects of aging in drug therapy? There are a few, and only a few, rules that can be said to have a solid basis in fact. 1. Elderly patients seem to be more sensitive to the depressant effects of drugs. It is wise, therefore, to reduce the dosage of such drugs as the benzodiazepines, general anesthetics, analgesics, and sedative-hypnotics in the elderly. 2. Old people are apparently more sensitive to certain drugs, for example, the neuromuscular blocking drugs. It would be wise to reduce the dosage of these for the older patient. 3. The geriatric person appears to be less sensitive to pain; it would be wise to prescribe analgesics for such patients in lower doses. 4. Elderly patients are known to have lost some of their reflex ability to maintain homeostasis. This should be taken into consideration when drugs that affect blood pressure, heart rate, and smooth muscle tone are used. 5. Elderly patients are almost certain to be taking multiple medications. Drug interactions, as well as adverse drug reactions (which are exaggerated in the elderly), are likely to occur in this polypharmaceutical setting. It is critical that the dentist be continually informed of the pharmacologic status of each patient and be aware of the likelihood of interactions between drugs prescribed by the dentist, drugs prescribed by the physician, and drugs that are self-administered.