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Different conditions of magical thinking have been analyzed. A formation of the proportion "realistic thinking - magical thinking" in paranoid schizophrenia has been discussed and the characteristic features of magical thinking in schizophrenia have been indicated.
The regulatory mechanism for the interaction of agonist and antagonist muscles is not still clear. In these studies we investigated reciprocal inhibition during voluntary contraction and thinking about movement by using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and the H reflex technique. Magnetic stimuli, with intensities 10% above threshold, were delivered at the scalp under 3 experimental conditions; at rest, during voluntary isometric weak contraction and during thinking about movement. Surface EMG responses were taken from extensor carpi radialis (ECR) and flexor carpi radialis (FCR) muscles in 14 normal subjects. Inhibitions of antagonist muscles induced by thinking about agonist movement occurred in 8 ECR and 10 FCR muscles, but most of them were not statistically significant. H reflexes were obtained from the FCR muscles in 10 normal subjects under the same conditions. Voluntary wrist extension and thinking about wrist extension produced inhibition of the H reflex in the FCR muscles. Reciprocal inhibition of antagonist muscles may occur at the cortical and spinal cord levels. The excitability of motoneurons has effects on the H reflex amplitude. Motor evoked potential (MEP) response to TMS might be affected by the combination of input from the motor cortex and the spinal cord. TMS may evoke simultaneous facilitatory and inhibitory volleys to antagonist muscles. This may explain why the inhibitions in the TMS study were weaker than those in the H reflex study.
Critical thinking involves analyzing data and making judgments about patient conditions, progress, and nursing interventions. Critical thinking forms the basis for quality documentation. As nurses' expertise in critical thinking grows, nurses can record how the unique considerations for each patient guided individual care and resulted in positive outcomes. Emphasizing individual nursing care and patient outcomes from that care helps meet Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) standards and gives nurses credit for their expertise. Techniques of critical thinking supported by advanced critical care nurses can lead to improved documentation for entire nursing units.
UNLABELLED: Critical thinking is cited as one of the essential skills for clinical practice. Educators need to be aware of barriers that may hinder the development of this skill in students and cultivate strategies to encourage it. This article describes one strategy to develop critical thinking. METHODS: Students participated in a critical thinking exercise by imaging the American College of Nuclear Physicians (ACNP) Renal Imaging Proficiency Test Phantom, critiquing their results, and comparing their results to results collected nationally in other nuclear medicine facilities and the true values reported by the ACNP. Students were instructed to review pertinent imaging principles before discussing the imaging results. They also were supplied with a list of questions pertinent to the review. RESULTS: Students experienced the complexity of designing a SPECT imaging protocol and how the final results are affected by the choices made by the technologist. They learned the importance of and method for proper matrix selection, determination of pixel size and the necessity for quality control. CONCLUSION: The imaging exercise was a successful means of helping students connect clinical practice with theory through the use of critical thinking.
Through the stories told by these students it is evident that beginning students do think critically and act ethically during their first clinical nursing course. Ethical dilemmas involving students and staff, patients, faculty, and peers depict beginning students' development of values as they evolve into professionals. The conscientiousness and caring displayed by beginning students is apparent from students' shared perspectives. It is particularly encouraging that they seemed to focus more on values and cognitive aspects of patient care than on primarily technical psychomotor skills such as taking blood pressures and giving injections. Teaching beginning students is a challenge because the educator's role is twofold: Help students build a foundation for developing ongoing critical thinking abilities and help students develop an ethical view of patient care. Further exploration of critical thinking and ethical decision making should emphasize the mutual student-educator roles in facilitating self-awareness, through conscious awareness of their beliefs, values, feelings, and multiple perspectives. Because nursing emphasizes the human element and student nurses deal with human lives, educators play a vital role in facilitating the development of beginning students as critical thinkers and as ethical nurses. The most knowledgeable and most psychologically mature faculty are needed to teach beginning nursing students. Through ongoing reflection and critical thinking, nurse educators can help beginning students to identify and develop multiple perspectives on the ethics of nursing practice.
"Homospatial thinking" consists of actively conceiving two or more discrete entities occupying the same space, a conception leading to the articulation of new identities. Homospatial thinking has a salient role in the creative process in the following wide variety of fields: literature, the visual arts, music, science, and mathematics. This cognitive factor, along with "Janusian thinking," clarifies the nature of creative thinking as a highly adaptive and primarily nonregressive form of functioning.
For each risk factor for Black Death he discovered, John Graunt in 1662 made a recommendation for action, such as fleeing the night air brought to the City of London docks on foreign ships. These stopped the plague for 200 years! In this honored guest lecture, I focus on thinking beyond the risk factors to their neutralization by effective action without waiting for perfect knowledge of mechanisms. For example, the decreasing risk of repairing atrioventricular septal defect resulted from risk factors that stimulated focused research to devise a better operation. General reduction in risk reduced mortality of aortic valve replacement in patients with chronic aortic regurgitation and severe left ventricular dysfunction. Optimal timing of surgery after stabilizing patients reduced risk of the Norwood procedure. Managing intractable cardiogenic shock reduced risk-adjusted mortality in post-infarct ventricular septal defect. However, we must think beyond traditional risk factors to neutralization of those brought by patient characteristics, imponderables, treatment delivery systems, institutions delivering care to groups of patients, and society caring for its population. There are limitations to thinking beyond risk factors. First, neutralizing strategies require improving processes or introducing new ones. Yet there may be process-outcome disconnect, or even counterintuitive or contradictory relations among outcomes and what are thought to be best processes. Nevertheless, thinking beyond risk factors to their neutralization by research, innovation, and application of knowledge can be as spectacularly successful as was fleeing foul air in halting Black Death.
Thinking about the future is an integral component of human cognition - one that has been claimed to distinguish us from other species. Building on the construct of episodic memory, we introduce the concept of 'episodic future thinking': a projection of the self into the future to pre-experience an event. We argue that episodic future thinking has explanatory value when considering recent work in many areas of psychology: cognitive, social and personality, developmental, clinical and neuropsychology. Episodic future thinking can serve as a unifying concept, connecting aspects of diverse research findings and identifying key questions requiring further reflection and study.
One may divide patient care problem-solving approaches into two categories: (1) "Ready, aim, fire" and (2) "Ready, fire, aim." The present paper invites the reader to think about these distinctions and to identify which of these categories might apply to the reader's daily work experience. Espousing the first of these categories, and anchored in the notions of systems thinking, this paper offers the reader a framework to better understand and implement the daily work of the newborn intensive care unit. This knowledge and competence may be achieved by "thinking upstream," connecting "downstream" outcomes with "upstream" work process steps. The central elements that govern and inform the process of "thinking upstream" are articulated here in actionable terms.
A problem-solving assessment has been devised and used for groups of first-year medical students at Southampton University. Five cohorts of approximately 160 students have taken the assessment since 1990. The assessment was part of a Locomotor system course that integrated biological and behavioural sciences and clinical specialties. The course also included lectures, practicals and tutorials and occupied the first 7 weeks of the last (10-week) term. Other assessments of the course involved essay writing and a spotter-type practical. For the problem-solving assessment, groups of about six students ('Think Tanks') received a problem which they had to investigate during the course. The students had some choice in the problem they were to study. The problems were designed, by staff, to cover aspects of movement in the context of health and disease. A staff advisor was assigned to each Think Tank group to provide general support. The results of the investigations of each Think Tank were displayed at the end of the course in the form of a poster aimed at informing their peers. Three members of staff gave each Think Tank group a communal oral examination and the performance of the group was given a grade. Each member of the group, normally, was allowed to add this grade to their marks for the whole year.
A review of the literature suggested that curiosity was positively related to divergent thinking, and negatively related to test-anxiety. Subjects were male and female 9th and 10th graders (N = 67), 11th and 12th graders (N = 67), and college undergraduates (N = 69). Curiosity was measured by an 80-item self-report scale and an adjective checklist, test-anxiety by a 37-item self-report scale, and divergent thinking by two verbal paper-and-pencil test. The results showed that both measures of curiosity were positively related to divergent thinking in all three groups studied, but that test-anxiety was not significantly related to either curiosity or divergent thinking. Differences in performance by the three groups of subjects were discussed.
OBJECTIVE: To explore whether coping strategy use predicted levels of adjustment in chronic low back pain after controlling for the influence of catastrophic thinking and self-efficacy for pain control. METHODS: Eighty-four patients with chronic low back pain completed the Coping Strategies Questionnaire, a pain VAS and the Roland Disability Questionnaire. To derive composite measures of coping, the Coping Strategies Questionnaire subscales, excluding the Catastrophizing subscale and 2 single-item scales, were entered into a principal components analysis. The extent to which scores on the coping measures predicted levels of adjustment after controlling for catastrophic thinking (Catastrophizing subscale) and self-efficacy for pain control (2 single-item scales) was explored using sequential multiple regression analysis. RESULTS: Two coping dimensions emerged from the principal components analysis, which were labelled Distraction and Praying or Hoping, and Denial of Pain and Persistence. Scores obtained on these coping measures explained an additional 5% and 13% of the variance in pain intensity and disability, respectively. Interestingly, however, the scores on the coping measures did not predict pain intensity or disability after controlling for the influence of catastrophic thinking and self-efficacy for pain control. CONCLUSION: Coping strategy use might only be related to levels of adjustment via the effect it has on catastrophic thinking and self-efficacy for pain control.
One discussion within the field of family-oriented care concerns the distinction between those who practise a family approach and those who think in family system terms. This paper presents a comprehensive model of systemic thinking that may be useful for both family systems teachers and researchers. The conceptual model includes: (i) clinicians' experiences with and attitudes towards family aspects of health problems, and the context of clinicians' judgements about these problems; (ii) the way clinicians organize their knowledge about family factors and health problems in order for that knowledge to be readily available for decision making; and (iii) the interview sequences and hypothesis-generating or testing strategies used by clinicians in encounters with patients. The extent to which clinicians exhibit systemic thinking can be determined through interviews, questionnaires and case materials such as encounter transcripts. A method that assesses systemic thinking allows rigorous evaluations of family-oriented teaching efforts and clinical interventions.
STUDY DESIGN: Postal survey. OBJECTIVES.: To determine whether Australian primary-care clinicians think that nonspecific low back pain (NSLBP) is one condition or a number of conditions (subgroups), and whether this belief influences their management of NSLBP. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Most low back pain (LBP) remains a diagnostic enigma and results in approximately 80% of primary care LBP presentations being most accurately labeled as "nonspecific LBP." Manual therapy clinicians (chiropractors, osteopaths, physiotherapists) are trained to think that subgroups exist within the NSLBP population. This research sought to identify the extent to which these beliefs are widely held in primary care. METHODS: A survey was conducted of 1,093 primary-contact clinicians from six professional disciplines (physiotherapists, manipulative physiotherapists, chiropractors, osteopaths, general medical practitioners, and musculoskeletal medicine practitioners). RESULTS: Completed questionnaires were returned by 651 (60%) clinicians. Of the primary-contact clinicians who responded, 93% do not think NSLBP is one condition. Seventy-four percent think that it is currently possible to recognize NSLBP subgroups. Ninety-three percent treat NSLBP differently based on patterns of signs and symptoms. The proportions of clinicians who hold these views were highest for physiotherapists and manipulative physiotherapists, and smallest for general medical practitioners and musculoskeletal medicine practitioners. CONCLUSIONS: Although assigning NSLBP patients to subgroups has not been validated, it is common in primary-care settings and influences case management. If subgroups exist within the NSLBP population, there are implications for research into the effects of treatment. Further research into the validity of subgroups is warranted.
This paper examines the claim of G.W.F. Hegel (1770-1831) that "chemical thinking"-the method of thinking employed in chemistry-marks a significant advance upon (and hence is superior to) "mechanistic thinking"-the method of thinking characteristic of physics. This is done in the context of Mancur Olson's theory of collective action and public goods. The analogy between the efficiency of a catalyst in bringing about chemical transformation and the function of leaders in free human society in developing latent groups to provide public goods is explored.
In this study, we examined the Draw-a-Person (DAP) technique as an indicator of concrete/literal and abstract thinking, Subjects (N = 50) included schizophrenic inpatients (n = 25) and college students (n = 25). Fourteen possible indicators of concrete/literal or abstract thinking on the DAP were generated based on theoretical considerations and prior research. Five indicators were eliminated because of their low interrater reliability. The Proverbs Test (Gotham, 1956) was used to establish evidence of concrete/literal and abstract thinking. Scores from the DAP and the Proverbs Test were correlated. Composite scores on the DAP were highly correlated (r = .52, p < .01) with the corresponding Proverbs Test score. In addition, abstract scores on the DAP were correlated (r = .54, p < .01) with a similar Proverbs Test score.. Concrete/literal DAP scores did not correlate significantly (r = .20, p > .05) with concrete/literal Proverb Test scores. Results indicate the potential for using the DAP technique to assess concrete/literal and abstract thinking when a nonverbal test is needed.
The purpose of this study is to determine whether there are any significant correlations between the subscores and total scores of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking and the Rorschach Inkblot Test, as scored by the Rorschach Index of Repressive Style. Twenty-six teachers of Grades 3, 4, and 5 and 51 fourth grade students were given, by group administration, the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking and the Rorschach Inkblot Test. Results show that although neither the Total Verbal, Total Non-verbal nor Over-all Torrance scores correlate significantly with either the Rorschach Human Movement score or with the Rorschach Total Movement score (HM + FM + m), there are significant relationships between the Total RIR, m score and the Over-all Torrance score. The main conclusion is that the Rorschach HM and Total M score measure artistic, associative, intuitive creativity, while the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking and RIR Total score measure divergent thinking.
This study investigated nurse educators' conceptions of critical thinking used in making judgment related to nursing. Twelve nurse educators from a large nursing school in an urban environment in New Zealand participated in this qualitative study. A semistructured questionnaire was used to explore the nurse educators' conceptions of critical thinking. The study found that the participants viewed rational, logical thinking as a central focus of critical thinking. However, in addition to these traditional perspectives, the nurse educators also included in their conceptions views more commonly held by feminist writers. These aspects focused on attention to intuition, subjective knowing, attention to context, emotions, and caring.