Biomedical subjects

N K de Vries

Publications and source records attributed to N K de Vries.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

The prevalence of self-reported health problems and haemoglobin status of Sudanese adolescents.

In this paper we describe self-reported health problems and haemoglobin status among 1200 Sudanese adolescents (53.2% females, 46.8% males). Many adolescents report their general health as excellent and good (84%). A large number, however, report separate physical and psychological complaints. Report of psychological complaints is equal for both gender, and more psychological problems are reported with increasing age. Females and age groups 13-15 more often report chronic diseases. Malaria consistently has a relatively high prevalence. The overall prevalence of anaemia in our study is 32% (46.9% males, 19.2% females). The findings in our study do not sustain the traditional assumption that adolescence is a healthy period in human life. Implications for Sudanese health policies are discussed.

Abdominal Pain↗

PubMed2005

Limitations of semantic priming procedures for automatic goal activation.

According to the auto-motive model, behavioral goals can be automatically activated by situational cues and may subsequently guide behavior without individual awarness. Semantic priming has become a popular paradigm for investigating effects of automatic goal activation. Nevertheless, a critical assumption of the model, i.e., that goals can be activated by semantic primes related to situational features associated with the goal, is often assumed rather than tested in experiments using semantic priming procedures. Results of four studies testing the potential of such a prime for goal activation by assessing emotional responses, subjective goal importance, behavioral intentions, and enhanced perception of goal-related stimuli do not support this assumption. The implications of these findings and a critical evaluation of results of other studies are discussed in terms of possible limitations of semantic priming procedures for testing hypotheses derived from the auto-motive model.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

[Risk and risk perception].

After having delineated the concept of risk and having described the type of risks that are relevant to dental practice, an overview of empirical and theoretical work on risk perception is given. The perception of risks is determined both by the actual magnitude and by perceptual bias, originating from either general perceptual phenomena such as (cognitive) availability or the ego-relevance of risks: persons in general underestimate risks for themselves as compared to the risks for others (unrealistic optimism).

Dentistry↗

PubMed2000

Attributions of responsibility and affective reactions to decision outcomes.

Immediate affective reactions to outcomes are more intense following decisions to act than following decisions not to act. This finding holds for both positive and negative outcomes. We relate this "actor-effect" to attribution theory and argue that decision makers are seen as more responsible for outcomes when these are the result of a decision to act as compared to a decision not to act. Experiment 1 (N = 80) tests the main assumption underlying our reasoning and shows that affective reactions to decision outcomes are indeed more intense when the decision maker is seen as more responsible. Experiment 2 (N = 40) tests whether the actor effect can be predicted on the basis of differential attributions following action and inaction. Participants read vignettes in which active and passive actors obtained a positive or negative outcome. Action resulted in more intense affect than inaction, and positive outcomes resulted in more intense affect than negative outcomes. Experiment 2 further shows that responsibility attributions and affective reactions to outcomes are highly correlated; that is, more extreme affective reactions are associated with more internal attributions. We discuss the implications for research on post-decisional reactions.

Adult↗

PubMed2000

The structure of attitudes: attribute importance, accessibility and judgment.

Two studies related attribute importance to accessibility and speed of judgment. Attitudes were assessed by a direct attitude measure and a modal set of 15 attributes. Attributes were rated in terms of their probability and desirability. Subsequently, participants were required to select the five attributes they considered to be most important. Results of Study 1 (dealing with attitudes towards condom use) show that individually selected, important attributes are more easily retrieved and judged faster than non-selected, less important attributes. Judging attributes took less time than evaluating one's overall attitude, suggesting a bottom-up process in which the various attributes are combined to form an overall attitude. Study 2 (dealing with attitudes towards smoking) extends these findings and also addresses the stability of attitude structure. Important attributes were again associated with reduced response times, and attribute-related judgments took less time than judging one's overall attitude. Accessibility of important attributes remained stable over time as indicated by the results of a lexical decision task one week later. Finally, important attributes were also recalled better than less important attributes. Implications for research on attitude structure are discussed.

Adult↗