Trust,perceptions of corruption,and demand for regulation: Evidence from post-socialist countries

While the tradeoff between market failure and government failure has been explored both theoretically and in practical policy design, the question of whether this trade-off appears in the calculus of citizens’ demands for government regulation remains underexplored. We first clarify the channels through which concerns for market failure, as proxied by trust in market participants, and concerns for government failure, as proxied by perceptions of corruption, jointly affect individuals’ demand for government regulation. We then investigate these effects empirically, using data from post-socialist countries. Our analysis confirms the previously established result that trust has a negative effect on demand for regulation. Perceived corruption, however, affects demand for regulation primarily via a negative interaction effect with trust. Our findings suggest that, in post-socialist countries, both concerns for market failure and concerns for government failure are indeed in citizens’ minds and that concerns about the anticipated ‘grabbing-hand’ effect from government involvement are particularly salient.     

Using human factors engineering to improve patient safety in the cardiovascular operating room

Despite significant medical advances, cardiac surgery remains a high risk procedure. Sub-optimal work system design characteristics can contribute to the risks associated with cardiac surgery. However, hazards due to work system characteristics have not been identified in the cardiovascular operating room (CVOR) in sufficient detail to guide improvement efforts. The purpose of this study was to identify and categorize hazards (anything that has the potential to cause a preventable adverse patient safety event) in the CVOR. An interdisciplinary research team used prospective hazard identification methods including direct observations, contextual inquiry, and photographing to collect data in 5 hospitals for a total 22 cardiac surgeries. We performed thematic analysis of the qualitative data guided by a work system model. 60 categories of hazards such as practice variations, high workload, non-compliance with evidence-based guidelines, not including clinicians' in medical device purchasing decisions were found. Results indicated that hazards are common in cardiac surgery and should be eliminated or mitigated to improve patient safety. To improve patient safety in the CVOR, efforts should focus on creating a culture of safety, increasing compliance with evidence based infection control practices, improving communication and teamwork, and designing better tools and technologies through partnership among all stakeholders.     

Can digital signals from the keyboard capture force exposures during typing?

An exposure-response relationship has been shown between muscle fatigue and its effects on keystroke durations. Since keystroke durations can readily be measured by software programs, the method has the potential as a non-invasive exposure assessment tool. However, the software based keystroke durations may be affected by keyswitch force-displacement characteristics. Thus, this study used a force platform to measure the keystroke durations and compared them to software measured keystroke durations in order to determine whether the software based keystroke durations can be used as a surrogate force exposure measures. A total of 13 subjects (6 males and 7 females) typed for 15 minutes each on three keyboards with different force-displacement characteristics. The results showed that the software based keystroke durations were more sensitive to the keyboard force-displacement differences than the force based measures. Although the digital signal based keystroke durations depend on the force-displacement characteristics, the high correlation between the two measures indicated that the keystroke durations derived from the digital signal approximated the true force derived keystroke durations, regardless of the keyboard force-displacement characteristics. Therefore, the software based keystroke durations could be used as a non-invasive, surrogate force exposure measure in lieu of the more invasive actual force measurements.     

Evil Tidings: Are Reorganizations more Successful if Employees are Informed Early?

Organizations represent deliberately designed social contexts that are characterized by multi-level hierarchies. Interests and opportunity structures at each level usually do not overlap. We suggest that one of the reasons why intentional change efforts often fail to reach their objectives is because they are likely to trigger competing social mechanisms at different levels of the hierarchy. In order to illustrate this argument, we analyze the consequences of timely communication of planned organizational changes on perceived success of reorganizations. Two competing mechanisms are derived and tested with data from a telephone survey (carried out in 2003), among a sample of n = 412 Dutch business organizations that performed a reorganization. The commitment perspective predicts that early announcement of reorganization plans to middle management increases the likelihood of reorganization success, since it increases commitment and empowers middle management. The influence mechanism predicts that early information of non-managerial employees decreases the likelihood of reorganization success, because it enables employees to use the information to their own advantage, anticipate on the strategies of management, and organize opposition against the plans. We found that timely communication with middle management indeed increases chances for success, whereas timely communication with employees correlates with reorganization failure. However, not communicating with employees has an even stronger negative effect on reorganization success. No evidence could be found for our argument that the severity of the reorganization’s expected negative effects on the workforce moderates both mechanisms.     

Facial Mimicry of Spontaneous and Deliberate Duchenne and Non-Duchenne Smiles

Increasing evidence suggests that Duchenne (D) smiles may not only occur as a sign of spontaneous enjoyment, but can also be deliberately posed. The aim of this paper was to investigate whether people mimic spontaneous and deliberate D and non-D smiles to a similar extent. Facial EMG responses were recorded while participants viewed short video-clips of each smile category which they had to judge with respect to valence, arousal, and genuineness. In line with previous research, valence and arousal ratings varied significantly as a function of smile type and elicitation condition. However, differences in facial reactions occurred only for smile type (i.e., D and non-D smiles). The findings have important implications for questions relating to the role of facial mimicry in expression understanding and suggest that mimicry may be essential in discriminating among various meanings of smiles.     

Provider Preparedness for Treatment of Co-occurring Disorders: Comparison of Social Workers and Alcohol and Drug Counselors

Substance use and mental health disorders remain significant behavioral health concerns in the United States and other Western nations. Nearly half of the 20.3 million adults with substance use disorders in the US have a co-occurring mental illness . Despite growing research support, integrated treatment by providers with expertise in both mental health and substance use is critically lacking. As part of a co-occurring disorders (COD) training initiative in the USA, this study investigated providers' (n = 438) past training, current COD service provision, and future training needs. Specifically, we examined the extent to which social workers were prepared to treat individuals with COD compared to alcohol and drug counselors. Unsurprisingly, social workers reported receiving significantly more mental health related training, while alcohol and drug counselors reported more substance use related training. Alcohol and drug counselors reported significantly more COD-specific training including general COD, psychopharmacology, COD treatment, and relapse prevention. Social workers were significantly more likely than alcohol and drug counselors to report wanting more training in substance use disorders and culturally-specific intervention techniques. These findings suggest that tailored training and licensure changes are needed to enhance social workers' capacity for competent COD treatment.     

‘Widening cross-disciplinary research for mental health’: what is missing from the Research Councils UK mental health agenda?

This current issues article is a brief critical examination of the recent Research Councils UK agenda and call for cross-disciplinary research in mental health. Our argument is based on the fact that patient and public involvement (PPI) is the only involvement and influencing strategy for service users and survivors in the agenda. Service user and survivor research as a discipline in itself remains unacknowledged. We conclude that service user and survivor research is distinct and is different to PPI, and should be recognised in any mental health research agenda.     

Structural Validation and Multiple Group Assessment of the Short Internalized Homonegativity Scale in Homosexual and Bisexual Men in 38 European Countries: Results From the European MSM Internet Survey

Internalized homonegativity (IH) is the internalization of negative attitudes and assumptions about homosexual people by homosexual people themselves. To measure IH, Smolenski, Diamond, Ross, and Rosser (2010) and Ross, Rosser, and Smolenski (2010) revised the Reactions to Homosexuality Scale (RHS) to develop the Short Internalized Homonegativity Scale (SIHS) with eight items. Using the European Men Who Have Sex With Men Internet Survey (EMIS) data, with an analytic sample of 130,718 gay and bisexual men in 38 European countries, we confirmed the validity of the SIHS scale in both training and validation data, in strata of Ross, Berg, et al.’s (2013) three “homosexual discrimination” country clusters, of age, and of education level. However, the performance was less adequate in comparison of gay versus bisexually identified individuals. The latent SIHS structure contains only minor variations across these three strata. The seven-item scale performed as well as the eight-item scale. The SIHS is a promising candidate for standard IH measures, which is invariant across cultural, age, and educational strata.     

Automatic Sex-Liking and Sex-Failure Associations in Men With Sexual Dysfunction

Current models of sexual functioning imply an important role for both automatic and controlled appraisals. Accordingly, it can be hypothesized that erectile dysfunction may be due to the automatic activation of negative appraisals at the prospect of sexual intercourse. However, previous research showed that men with sexual dysfunction exhibited relatively strong automatic sex-positive instead of sex-negative associations. This study tested the robustness of this unexpected finding and, additionally, examined the hypothesis that perhaps more specific sex-failure versus sex-success associations are relevant in explaining sexual dysfunction and distress. Male urological patients (N = 70), varying in level of sexual functioning and distress, performed two Single-Target Implicit Association Tests (ST-IATs) to assess automatic associations of visual erotic stimuli with attributes representing affective valence (“liking”; positive versus negative) and sexual success versus sexual failure. Consistent with the earlier findings, the lower the scores on sexual functioning, the stronger the automatic sex-positive associations. This association was independent of explicit associations and most prominent in the younger age group. Automatic sex-positive and sex-failure associations showed independent relationships with sexual distress. The relationship between sexual distress and sex-failure associations is consistent with the view that automatic associations with failure may contribute to sexual distress.