Specific Personal Characteristics Research Articles

Performing the ideal adoptive parent in Swedish adoption assessment interviews

ABSTRACT Assessment and evaluation of parenting ability are central tasks in social work. However, parenthood is a normative and morally bound practice, subject to cultural expectations about what constitutes ‘good’ parenthood. In adoption assessment interviews, prospective adoptive parents’ potential as parents is thoroughly examined, requiring adoption applicants to articulate their ideas about future parenthood. This study is based on authentic assessment interviews conducted in Sweden between social workers and prospective adoptive parent, in the context of an international adoption process. The article explores how ideals of adoptive parenthood are expressed and performed by prospective adoptive parents in their interactions with social workers. The findings show that adoption applicants present their suitability as parents based on references to children’s needs, specific personal characteristics, and envisioned future actions. The study supports previous research on idealized parental models in adoption assessments and provides insights into how these portrayals are shaped through interaction. Furthermore, the study raises questions about the governance of specific parenthood ideals and the limited opportunities adoption applicants have to express or explore alternative perspectives on parenthood.

Уголовно значимые правовые состояния специального субъекта преступления: нормативная проекция опасного состояния личности или ее общественной опасности?

Some of the attributes of a special subject of a crime in the Special Part of the Criminal Code are rendered as continuing states, mandatory for the qualification of a crime. The legal nature of such attributes can be studied by referring to the concept of legal states developed within the general theory of law. Today, its proponents recognize legal states as independent types of legal facts acting as a normative projection of people’s socially significant states. The Special Part of the current Criminal Code uses some of the corresponding attributes to criminalize acts, for example, the somatic state or intoxication of the liable person, while other attributes are used to differentiate liability, for example, affective states, conviction for a previously committed specific crime, administrative punishment. Each of these states reflects the specific personal characteristics of the liable party at the time of the crime. These characteristics either act as a condition for the crime commission or indicate an increased social danger of the liable person. This kind of understanding risks being criticized from the standpoint of the theory of a dangerous condition of a person, which is unambiguously associated in science with the possibility of bringing to criminal responsibility in connection with the characteristics of the actor, not in relation to a committed act. At the same time, the original sources show two directions within the theory – radical and moderate, with the latter underlying a modern theory of a person’s social danger. The identified genetic relationship between a dangerous state and social danger of a person is taken into account to explain the criminogenic nature of criminally significant features-states of a special subject of a crime.

Discomfort With Suffering and Dying, a Cross-Sectional Survey of the General Public.

Death and the process of dying have become increasingly medicalized and professionalized. The associated cultural estrangement from death may affect how comfortable we feel about death and dying. This study examines the general public's discomfort with another person's suffering and dying, and whether these feelings are associated with specific personal characteristics or experiences. Cross-sectional survey in a random sample of people aged 16 or older in four municipalities in Flanders, Belgium (N=4400). We used the self-developed construct Discomfort with someone's suffering and dying. A directed acyclic graph guided the development of a multivariable regression model which explored the effect of different variables on the main outcome measure. A total of 2008 completed questionnaires were returned (response rate: 45.6%). Average discomfort with someone's suffering and dying was 3.74 (SD=0.89). Being female or currently mourning a loss were associated with more discomfort. Not being religious, having better knowledge about palliative care, having worked in healthcare, having been with someone else at the time of their death and having been culturally exposed to death and dying were associated with less discomfort. A considerable level of discomfort is present within the general public about the suffering and dying of others and this may increase social stigma and a tendency to avoid seriously ill people and their social surroundings. Our findings suggest that interventions may help shift this societal discomfort if they incorporate a focus on cultural and experiential exposure and increasing knowledge about palliative care.

Privacy-Preserving Solution for European Union Digital Vaccine Certificates

The recent COVID-19 pandemic situation highlights the importance of digital vaccine certificates. In response, the European Union (EU) developed EU Digital Vaccine Certificates to enable proof of non-infectivity and completed vaccinations. However, these solutions suffer from several shortcomings, such as ineffective certificate holder identification and a high violation of user privacy with the disclosure of sensitive information. In this work, we present a novel solution for privacy-preserving EU Digital Vaccine Certificates. Our solution solves the aforementioned privacy and security shortcomings and is in line with current EU legislation, i.e., the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the upcoming revision of the electronic IDentification, Authentication, and trust Services (eIDAS), called regulation eIDAS 2.0, and the new tools that it envisages to be led by European digital identity. This identity is intended to allow citizens to prove their identity to access online services, share digital documents, or simply prove specific personal characteristics such as age without revealing their identity or other personal information. The core of our proposal is built on our novel attribute-based credential scheme, which can be easily implemented on various handheld devices, especially on Android smartphones and smartwatches. However, due to the lightweight nature of our scheme, it can also be implemented on constrained devices such as smart cards. In order to demonstrate the security, privacy, and practicality inherent in our proposal, we provide the security analysis of the cryptographic core along with a set of experimental results conducted on smartphones and smart cards.

Managing effective labor market entry: proactive coping and self-employment intention among Polish small business owners

PurposeSelf-employment is considered one of the responses to precarious employment, particularly among those who lost jobs during an economic crisis. Although starting a new business is widely available, operating new ventures remains challenging. This article aims to explore the premises of self-employment success, namely self-employment intention and proactive coping as crucial predictors of further performance.Design/methodology/approachThe authors recruited participants among initially unemployed individuals who participated in the entrepreneurial program aimed at creating self-employment. Since entrepreneurs are expected to have specific personal characteristics important for performance, the authors assessed proactive coping as the key factor for self-employment intention.FindingsThe results depicted proactive coping as crucial in performing own ventures in the long run, which suggests that self-employment intention may change over time.Practical implicationsProactive coping is particularly appropriate for self-employed at any stage of the entrepreneurial process because it maintains the intention to perform own business. Thus, the findings underline the need for proactive coping training for entrepreneurs, particularly those previously unemployed.Originality/valueAs the self-employment intention may differ in time, the importance of being proactive in operating small businesses increases.

Predictors of Cyberbystander Intervention Among Adolescents.

The purpose of the current study was to examine the association between personal characteristics and the steps of the bystander intervention model (i.e., notice, interpret as emergency, accept responsibility, know how to intervene, and act) applied to cyberbullying. Examining bystander intervention as discrete steps instead of the single act has advantages for training individuals to intervene when they observe these acts of interpersonal violence. The five-step bystander intervention model has been applied to examine bystander intervention in traditional bullying, sexual assault, and drinking behavior, but not cyberbullying. In this study, we examine how specific personal characteristics (social support, social-emotional wellness, cognitive empathy, and affective empathy) are related to each step of the model. Data on students' perceptions of these characteristics and their engagement in the five-step model were collected from 872 sixth-grade through twelfth-grade students ages 11 to 18 in the southeastern area of the United States. Using multi-group path analysis, associations between the characteristics and steps were examined for boys and girls separately. Results indicated that social support was significantly associated with step 2 (interpreting as an emergency), step 4 (know how to intervene), and step 5 (acting). Affective empathy was significantly associated with the first four steps of the model. Social-emotional wellness was only significantly associated with step 1 and cognitive empathy was not significantly associated with any of the steps. These results suggest that it may be important to emphasize positive relationships, affective empathy, and social support for interventions primarily directed at reducing cyberbullying. Training adolescents to intervene in cyberbullying and also to increase these characteristics is important to consider.

Tinnitus and risk of attempted suicide: A one year follow-up study

BackgroundTinnitus causes emotional stress that can be extreme, bringing on anxiety, depression, or sleep disorders. We used a nationwide, population-based database to study the risk of attempted suicide among adults with tinnitus. MethodsData for this retrospective cohort study were extracted from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database, on 386,055 patients with tinnitus and propensity score-matched controls. We performed Cox proportional hazards regression analysis to calculate the one-year hazard of a suicide attempt and 95 % confidence intervals (CI) following a first-time diagnosis of tinnitus. ResultsThe results shows that the incidence of attempted suicide was 0.253 (95 % CI = 0.237–0.269) and 0.123 (95 % CI = 0.113–0.135) for the study cohort and comparison cohort, respectively. The log-rank test suggested that the study cohort had significantly lower suicide attempt-free survival at one year than the comparison cohort (p < 0.001). Cox proportional analysis shows that the hazard ratio of attempted suicide within the one-year follow-up period was 2.04 (95 % CI = 1.83–2.28) for patients with tinnitus than those in the comparison cohort after adjusting for the patients' age, sex, monthly income, geographic region, urbanization level of the patient's residence, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, coronary heart disease, and hypertension. LimitationsThe database lacks information on socioeconomic problems, specific personal characteristics or traits, marital status, or other factors associated with attempts to commit suicide. Notably, our study addressed suicide attempts as detected from claims-based ICD codes which do not cover suicidal ideation or suicidal death. ConclusionsWe found increased likelihood of attempted suicide among patients with tinnitus.

Classification and Quantification of Danmaku Interactions in Online Video Lectures: An Exploratory Study

Danmaku is an important means of interaction in online education, providing a learning atmosphere of collaboration with peers. Nowadays, there have been more studies on Danmaku interaction. However, there are still some shortcomings in the existing literature for classifying and quantifying the content of Danmaku interactions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 35 informants to identify learner-content interaction that met learners’ functional needs and learner-learner interactions that met social, hedonic, and emotional needs. Using content analysis of two video lectures, we found that learner-learner interaction accounted for one-third in both. More learner-content interaction occurred in the lecture with declarative knowledge (in which instructors encouraged learners to practice) than in the lecture with procedural knowledge (in which the learners followed fixed steps). Learner-instructor interaction was also identified—especially when instructors had specific personal characteristics. Learner-interface interaction was also evident—especially in lectures that had quality issues. Since the learner-instructor communication was only one-way (no response from instructors), it was not perceived by learners, indicating that learners’ desire was not satisfied by Danmaku. The results of the study can provide teachers and content creators with advice related to course production and help teaching faculty recognize the importance of one-to-many interactive language and Danmaku interactions for learners.

The chain-mediating role of perceived stress and problematic smartphone use in the link between critical thinking and academic engagement among Spanish adolescents

Because problematic smartphone use (PSU) is rising among adolescents, it is vital to analyze the potential causes and psychosocial consequences affecting this target population. Current theoretical frameworks suggest that specific personal core characteristics might predispose individuals to experience increases in this problematic behavior over time. Additionally, PSU has been conceptualized as a maladaptive coping mechanism to manage negative emotions. The present study aimed at analyzing a personal resource, critical thinking disposition, and a potential negative consequence, reduced academic engagement, and the underlying role of perceived stress and PSU in this association among Spanish adolescents. The sample consisted of 688 adolescents (54% females, 46% males) aged 12 to 18 years from Southern Spain. Participants completed self-report questionnaires to assess critical thinking disposition (VIA-Youth), perceived stress (Perceived Stress Scale), PSU (Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version), and academic engagement (Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-Students). We analyzed a serial mediation model using PROCESS (SPSS), in which critical thinking disposition was the independent variable, perceived stress and PSU were the first and second mediators, respectively, and academic engagement was the outcome variable. Our results indicated that lower critical thinking disposition was linked to increased perceived stress, which was associated with higher PSU, resulting in decreased academic engagement. These findings provide empirical support for the pathways model of PSU, the maladaptive coping theories, and the I-PACE model of behavioral addictions. Furthermore, we discuss our results highlighting the important implication of training adolescents to think critically regarding their smartphone usage to reduce their stress levels, to avoid using smartphones as a coping strategy, and hence, to improve their student's attitudes toward school.

Effect of CEO reputation on company financial distress: Evidence from Pakistan

The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of CEO Reputation on the Company Financial Distress. The population of the study is all non-financial companies that are listed on the Pakistan stock exchange (PSX). In this research, the final sample size is 285 companies that cover the period of the study from 2006 to 2017. CEO reputation plays important role in predicting financial distress. Based on the upper echelon theory, CEOs can influence in a company decisions making, value creation and financial reporting decisions based on their specific skills, reputation and personal characteristics. Previous studies in the context of Pakistan are lacking to check the association between CEO reputation and company financial distress. This study contributes to the literature and fills this gap. This study also suggest that to explore the link between CEO reputation and financial distress in the emerging market.

PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO THE ORGANIZATION OF FACILITATIVE INTERACTION AT THE LESSONS OF ENGLISH

In the article we showed, that facilitative interaction is based on the following psychological approaches: finding specific features or individual personal characteristics that contain essential qualities of a humanistic ideal; they are the person’s specific incarnations; in a life itself can be identified and on this basis be studied, explored the conditions that contribute to the formation of harmonious personalities and their inherent personal qualities (feelings, actions, forms of communication and reflection); only within this paradigm “from the life to the ideal person”, which allows you to analyze ideal ideas in a real space. You can formulate real-life theoretical ideas about a particular ideal, and simulate non-directive psychological and pedagogical practice of reproducing this ideal through human development reality. We believe that Behavioral Psychology has the aim primarily at controlling human behavior, consciousness and personality. In such a way the individual becomes the object of the research and manipulation, and his/her free personal choice is not taken into account. Hence the traditional system of teaching based on a hierarchical structure: teacher guidance – pupil subordination. In the paradigm of Humanistic Psychology, we consider the work of a teacher in comparison with the work of a psychotherapist who does not shape the personality, trying to create its form, but helps the pupil to find something positive that already has a certain level of the development. The teacher should be sensitive and receptive to the individual qualities and characteristics of a pupil. Also, the teacher should fully accept the pupil’s personality and try to understand what kind of person he/she is, what his/her inclinations are, what he/she is capable of, how he/she will develop. If the teacher without any preconditions is quite positive about the pupil, rejoices in his/her success, it minimizes the anxiety and fears of a pupil, his/her protective reactions and ensures the development and self-actualization of his/her personality. Thus, every teacher should not only unconditionally accept the student, but be congruent, empathically understand him/her as a person and be able to explain himself/herself and his/her attitude to the student, so that he understands exactly how he/she should behave to strive for self-development. Certainly accepting the pupil, the teacher creates in the classroom a special psychological climate of the acceptance of each other. The facilitator shares the group’s thoughts and feelings without imposing their own beliefs on pupils; he/she does not cover himself/herself with a mask, he/she openly expresses, demonstrates his/her feelings and thoughts, that is he/she is himself/herself. These attitudes of the teacher-facilitator are also related to the change of his/her thinking, values and a life in general. Facilitation guidelines also actualize the teacher’s thinking, which can not be conditioned either by the improvement of skills or the introduction of modern technical teaching aids. Thus, the facilitative attitude, based on the restructuring of personal attitudes and values of the teacher is realized in interpersonal communication with pupils and in new methods and technologies of teaching. We think, that the reform of education should be based on the restructuring of certain personal attitudes of the teacher, which become explicit in the process of his/her interpersonal interactions with students. Thus, K. Rogers identifies three main guidelines of the teacher-facilitator. The first of them is described by the terms “truth” and “openness”, and involves the teacher’s openness to their own thoughts and experiences, the ability to sincerely express and broadcast them in the process of interpersonal communication with pupils. This attitude is seen as an alternative to the typical, traditional attitude of the teacher to the implementation of a facilitator of a role behavior. The next, the second attitude of the teacher-facilitator is characterized by the terms “acceptance”, “trust”, the inner, personal confidence of the teacher in the capabilities and abilities of each pupil. In many aspects, this attitude coincides with what in the psychological and pedagogical science is called “pedagogical optimism”, taking into account the positive qualities of pupils. The third attitude is described by the term “empathic understanding”. It is a kind of teacher’s vision of the inner world and the behavior of each individual from his/her own position, as if through his/her eyes. K. Rogers notes that the teacher-facilitator, communicating with his/her pupils, is able to speak, “to walk in other people’s shoes”, to look through the eyes of children at everything around, including himself/herself. This attitude is a purely alternative to the traditional teacher’s “evaluative understanding”, such a type of understanding through evaluation in terms of “attribution” to pupils of fixed evaluation clichés (fool, clever, coward, quiet, etc.).

Human Factors and Technological Characteristics Influencing the Interaction of Medical Professionals With Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Clinical Decision Support Systems: Literature Review.

BackgroundThe digitization and automation of diagnostics and treatments promise to alter the quality of health care and improve patient outcomes, whereas the undersupply of medical personnel, high workload on medical professionals, and medical case complexity increase. Clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) have been proven to help medical professionals in their everyday work through their ability to process vast amounts of patient information. However, comprehensive adoption is partially disrupted by specific technological and personal characteristics. With the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), CDSSs have become an adaptive technology with human-like capabilities and are able to learn and change their characteristics over time. However, research has not reflected on the characteristics and factors essential for effective collaboration between human actors and AI-enabled CDSSs.ObjectiveOur study aims to summarize the factors influencing effective collaboration between medical professionals and AI-enabled CDSSs. These factors are essential for medical professionals, management, and technology designers to reflect on the adoption, implementation, and development of an AI-enabled CDSS.MethodsWe conducted a literature review including 3 different meta-databases, screening over 1000 articles and including 101 articles for full-text assessment. Of the 101 articles, 7 (6.9%) met our inclusion criteria and were analyzed for our synthesis.ResultsWe identified the technological characteristics and human factors that appear to have an essential effect on the collaboration of medical professionals and AI-enabled CDSSs in accordance with our research objective, namely, training data quality, performance, explainability, adaptability, medical expertise, technological expertise, personality, cognitive biases, and trust. Comparing our results with those from research on non-AI CDSSs, some characteristics and factors retain their importance, whereas others gain or lose relevance owing to the uniqueness of human-AI interactions. However, only a few (1/7, 14%) studies have mentioned the theoretical foundations and patient outcomes related to AI-enabled CDSSs.ConclusionsOur study provides a comprehensive overview of the relevant characteristics and factors that influence the interaction and collaboration between medical professionals and AI-enabled CDSSs. Rather limited theoretical foundations currently hinder the possibility of creating adequate concepts and models to explain and predict the interrelations between these characteristics and factors. For an appropriate evaluation of the human-AI collaboration, patient outcomes and the role of patients in the decision-making process should be considered.

Lighting-and Personal Characteristic-Aware Markov Random Field Model for Facial Image Relighting System

A learning-based image relighting framework is proposed for automatically changing the lighting conditions of facial images from one lighting source to another. Given only a 2D unseen facial testing image, the framework automatically infers the highlight or shadow areas in the relighted image in accordance with the specific facial characteristics of the input image using a learned non-parametric Markov random field model of the facial appearance correlation between the source and target lighting conditions. The proposed framework first decomposes the input image into its global and local components, where these components relate mainly to the lighting and detailed facial appearance characteristics of the image, respectively. The two components are then processed independently to ease the problem of insufficient training samples and to properly analyze the local contrast, overall lighting direction effects, and personal feature characteristics of the unseen subject. Specifically, the global and local components are processed by a lighting–aware classifier and a personal characteristic–aware classifier, respectively, in order to determine the semantic factors of the facial region. The semantic factors of the facial region are then used to update the Markov random field model of the facial appearance correlation between the source and target lighting conditions and to produce lighting enhancement matrices for the lighting components and facial characteristic components, respectively. Finally, the lighting enhancement matrices are applied to the original decomposition images, which are then integrated to obtain the final relighted result. The experimental results show that the proposed image relighting framework generates vivid and recognizable results despite the scarcity of training samples. Furthermore, the relighted results successfully simulate the individual lighting effects produced by the specific personal characteristics of the input image, such as the nose and cheek shadows. The effectiveness of the proposed framework is demonstrated by means of face verification tests, in which input images taken under side-lighting conditions are transformed to normal lighting conditions and are then matched with a dataset of ground truth images also taken under normal lighting conditions.

Psychological Strategies for Overcoming the Life Crisis of the Individual in Postmodern Practical Psychology

The article talks about the personality-oriented approach of postmodern practical psychology to counseling a crisis client. Coping strategies for overcoming a life crisis by a person at the cognitive, emotional and behavioral levels are analyzed. Based on the consideration of practical work with crisis clients, algorithms for overcoming a crisis situation in the form of stages and phases of its experience are highlighted. The important role of neuropsychological correction at the first stage of work with the client is emphasized. Theoretical and methodological provisions of postmodern psychotherapy and practical psychology on the features of psychological support of a crisis client, taking into account his personal resource. The variability of the personality as one of its fundamental properties and the psychological mechanism providing a flexible choice of coping strategies, process of adaptation to conditions of crisis situation are considered. It is revealed that in the conditions of overcoming the life crisis there are personal transformations as expression and development of specific personal characteristics and properties. The model of overcoming a life crisis situation by an individual in the context of postmodern practical psychology is presented. In the presented author’s model of overcoming the personal crisis the postmodernist, personality-oriented and phenomenological approaches are applied.

Effect of Personal Characteristics on Social Accounting Initiatives: Evidence from Pakistan

The research works with two separate but closely connected themes of individual employee behaviour and organisation-wide initiatives that are further broken down into two dimensions of Social Entrepreneurship Profile and Social Accounting (SA). This research study seeks to identify the social entrepreneurship profile that highlights the specific personal characteristics of employees working in an organisation; secondly, it attempts to understand how the broader initiatives that help today’s organisations become more socially responsible. Factors covered in Personal Characteristics included 1. Sociality, 2. Innovativeness, 3. Market-orientation, and 4. The ability of Identifying New Opportunities (INO). Social Accounting Initiatives included Internal Attitude (IA), and Subjective norms (SN), each is classified as1.Pragmatic, 2. Moral, and 3. Cognitive, as well as Perceived Behavioural Control (PBC). For this purpose, A survey was conducted of 75 firms, and their decision-makers 306. were surveyed about their characteristics as well as the social accounting initiatives in their firms, usinga close-ended questionnaire. Total of306 decision-makers was surveyedabout four employees per organisation. Dataset was analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structured equation modelling. The results suggested that innovativenessand INO seem to have a positive and significant impact on pragmatic and moralIA. As well as moral SN. Similarly, sociality and innovativeness positively affecting moral IA. Sociality also seems to be affecting moral IA, pragmatic SN, and PBC, however, it has a negative impact on cognitive SN. Market orientation also has a significant positive impact on cognitive IA and SN. Lastly, INO seems to affect Perceived Behavioural Control. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed.

Profiling the Interrogee: Applying the Person-Centered Approach in Investigative Interviewing Research.

In the past, deception detection research has explored whether there were specific personal characteristics that were related to lying and found that factors such as personality and morality are indeed related to lying. However, past research has usually focused on a variable-centered approach. Yet, a person-centered might be more suitable here as it allows for the study of people in an integrative manner. In this experiment, 673 students completed a questionnaire which included measures of the five factors of personality, the level of moral disengagement, the perceived cognitive load when lying, lying strategies, frequency of lying and the LiES scale, a tool measuring the tendency to tell self-serving, altruistic and vindicative lies. We performed a Latent Profile Analysis to integrate personality, moral disengagement, and perceived cognitive load scores into specific profiles. Then, we related profile membership to lying behavior. We obtained four profiles, and found that extraversion, moral disengagement, and the perceived cognitive load contributed most to profile differences. We also found that lying frequency did not differ across profiles, whereas lying tendency did. In conclusion, our results suggest that several facets of the individual play a joint role in lying behavior, and that adopting a person-centered approach might be a good strategy to explore the role of interpersonal differences in lie detection research.

ANALISIS KESESUAIAN ANTARA STRATEGI SDM DENGAN STRATEGI BISNIS PADA UNIKA SANTO THOMAS MEDAN

Human resource strategy is part of the business strategy implementation process. Certain business strategies require specific competencies and personal characteristics. Human resource strategy is a derivation of changes in business strategy or company strategy.This research is intended to know:1) What is the stated business strategy of the Catholic University of Saint Thomas Medan? ; 2) What is the human resource strategy implemented by the Catholic University of Saint Thomas Medan? ; 3) .Is the human resource strategy implemented in accordance with the business strategy of the Catholic University of Saint Thomas Medan? Based on the results of the analysis, it is known that the human resource strategy is in accordance with the business strategy of the Catholic University of Saint Thomas Medan. This can be proven by the following data: a) In 1984-2000, the Corporate strategy was a Growth strategy by conducting Market Development and Product Development. The Business strategy is Defender while the Human resource strategy is Club; b) In 2001-2015, the Corporate strategy is Growth (Product development) and Retrenchment (Turnaround). Its Business strategy is Defender and Reactor, while its Human resource strategy is Club and Fortress; c) In 2016-present, the Corporate strategy is Stability and Growth (Market development &amp; Product development). The Business strategy is Analyzer and the Human resource strategy is Academy.

COGNITIVE ACTIVITY MODEL OF MUSICIANS-STUDENTS IN CONTEXTUAL LEARNING

One of the urgent problems in professional music education is the lack of a system and mechanisms for the formation of a holistic world picture and systemic personality development of students. The reasons are: inconsistency in the teaching of musical and humanitarian disciplines; training without taking into account the specific personal characteristics of the musicians. This article presents a model of music students’ cognitive activity, built from the standpoint of systemic, personal, activity and contextual approaches. The proposed model of the students-musicians cognitive activity is based on the specific features of the musicians’ cognitive sphere revealed by the method of theoretical analysis. The students-musicians cognitive activity model is presented as a combination of intuitive, logical and transitional modes, in each of which implicit information processing and decision-making are manifested with varying degrees of activity; explicit reproduction of knowledge and decision making, explicit modeling of musical activity. The experience of applying the model in practice has led to the transformation of psychological and pedagogical knowledge in musical activity and the world picture of students.

Prevalence and Determinants of Vaccine Hesitancy and Vaccines Recommendation Discrepancies among General Practitioners in French-Speaking Parts of Belgium.

General practitioners (GPs) play a critical role in patient acceptance of vaccination. Vaccine hesitancy (VH) is a growing phenomenon in the general population but also affects GPs. Few data exist on VH among GPs. The objectives of this analysis of a population of GPs in the Belgian Wallonia-Brussels Federation (WBF) were to: (1) determine the prevalence and the features of VH, (2) identify the correlates, and (3) estimate the discrepancy in vaccination’s behaviors between the GPs’ children and the recommendations made to their patients. An online survey was carried out among the population of general practitioners practicing in the WBF between 7 January and 18 March 2020. A hierarchical cluster analysis was carried out based on various dimensions of vaccine hesitancy: perception of the risks and the usefulness of vaccines as well as vaccine recommendations for their patients. A total of 251 GPs answered the survey. The average percentage of moderate to high vaccine hesitancy was 50.6%. Three factors were independently associated with increased risk of vaccine hesitancy: an age <50 years old, having no children, and having no contact with selected vaccine-preventable disease (measles, complicated influenza, chronic hepatitis B (HBV), bacterial meningitis, or cervical cancer) in the past 5 years. VH was associated with controversies on vaccines’ safety. GPs who had vaccinated their children against six diseases (MMR, meningococcus C (MenC), HBV, and HPV) tended not to recommend the same vaccines to their patients. Among GPs with all children vaccinated against HBV, only 37.5% recommended catch-up HBV immunization to their patients. In this small cohort of GP, moderate to high VH was associated with controversies on vaccines’ safety and with specific personal characteristics (age <50, no children, and no recent experience with a serious VPD). As previously reported, GPs have different vaccine prescription attitude toward their patients and children. These findings should be confirmed in larger cohorts.

Nursing Students’ Success: Selection Characteristics

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are challenged by increased costs, low student success rates, and a changed educational environment. A continuous exploration of possible solutions to these challenges is therefore required. The HEI concerned encountered similar challenges in ensuring nursing students’ success. The purpose of this study was to explore the views of lecturers and senior nursing students regarding selection characteristics and to make recommendations regarding student characteristics. A qualitative, explorative, and descriptive design was used to collect data purposefully from lecturers and students. Five semi-structured interviews were conducted with lecturers and two World Café discussions were held with 19 senior students. Trustworthiness measures and ethical principles were applied. This article aims to share the views of lecturers and senior students on selection characteristics that may enhance the success of students in a nursing programme to inform further research. The findings suggest that personal characteristics such as a caring attitude, resiliency, commitment, and conflict management skills are important. An acceptable performance at secondary school level and in specific secondary school subjects is suggested. A fair selection process should include an interview and a psychometric test. It is recommended that all candidates be tested for specific personal characteristics for the purpose of risk identification and support, but not as selection criteria. Further research is required to determine the predictive value that these characteristics and the selection process have for academic success.