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Results for “Utility Theory”

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PubMed1991

Intra-family bargaining and time allocation.

"This paper investigates a new empirical implication of the cooperative bargaining model of family decision-making: the effect of threat point variations on time allocation decisions of the husband and wife....The bargaining model examined in this paper utilizes the cooperative game theory approach which assumes, among other things, that both players (spouses) know each other's utility function. With many family decisions such as marital dissolution, timing and spacing of children, labor market entry or reentry for the wife, it is not necessarily true that the preferences of each spouse are accurately known by the other.... In the context of the two-period model sketched out in this paper, bargaining between husband and wife over the extent of human capital investment for the wife, and the time allocation tradeoffs necessary to attain such an investment might be fruitfully modelled in a noncooperative framework." Data are from a variety of sources, including a University of Michigan study of couples' time-allocation patterns in 37 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

Americas↗
PubMed2004

Utilization behavior in boys with ADHD: a test of Barkley's theory.

Barkley's (1997) comprehensive theory of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) predicts that affected children express frontal lobe related impairments, including expression of utilization behavior-the appropriate use of an object in an inappropriate context. Nineteen boys with and 20 without ADHD were exposed to a series of utilitarian (potentially utilization-inducing) and neutral objects. Boys in the ADHD group exhibited more utilization behavior and did so more quickly than boys in the control group; engagement with utilitarian objects and tendencies to do so quickly best predicted ADHD and control group membership. Beyond utilization behavior distinctions, general impulsivity differences were seen between boys with ADHD and control group counterparts, but these were less pronounced than the utilization behavior differences. Results offer support for utilization behavior's place in Barkley's theory.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1987

Determinants of disulfiram acceptance among alcohol patients: a test of the theory of reasoned action.

The utility of disulfiram in the treatment of alcohol abuse has been limited by the high frequency with which clients refuse the regimen. The present study identified variables influencing disulfiram acceptance/rejection within the framework of the theory of reasoned action. Eighty male inpatients on an alcohol treatment unit completed a questionnaire operationalizing the components of the model. The theoretical components were then used to predict requests for the drug. Multiple regression analyses revealed significant correlations among components of the model consistent with the assumptions of the theory. In addition, significant differences were found between disulfiram requestors and rejectors in terms of behavioral and normative beliefs about the consequences of being placed on the drug. Implications of these results for the design of effective interventions are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Utilizing the language of Jean Watson's caring theory within a computerized clinical documentation system.

The healthcare facility described in the following article is part of an eight-hospital organization that adopted Watson's Theory of Caring as part of their nursing philosophy. According to Watson, this theory is an attempt to find and deepen the language specific to nurse caring relations and its many meanings. Yet during the implementation of the theory within the setting described, it was noted that there was no mechanism in the current documentation system for clinical nursing staff to document the patient experience using any language specific to the theory. Nursing members recognized an opportunity to develop a new context in charting during an extensive clinical documentation system upgrade. A discussion of the steps taken and the results within the clinical documentation system supporting the newly adopted caring philosophy are summarized here.

Altruism↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Utilizing the home setting to teach Watson's theory of human caring.

Watson's theory of human caring serves as a framework in assisting RN/BSN completion students caring for dying patients at home. Through personal journals and case conferences, students incorporated Watson's 10 carative factors of human caring as the basis of their nursing interventions with clients and families. In this required course students visited patients, saw them through the dying process, and helped families with grieving. Students learned principles of home care, hospice, and what the differences and similarities can mean in the home and hospital setting.

Community Health Nursing↗
PubMed2006

Testicular self-examination: a test of the health belief model and the theory of planned behaviour.

The aim of this study was to test the utility and efficiency of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and the health belief model (HBM) in predicting testicular self-examination (TSE) behaviour. A questionnaire was administered to an opportunistic sample of 195 undergraduates aged 18-39 years. Structural equation modelling indicated that, on the basis of all the fit indices, the TPB model was the better model, however, the quality of the models was very similar. The TPB explained 50% of the variance in intention and 22% in behaviour while the HBM (with self-efficacy) accounted for 56 and 21%, respectively. Self-efficacy was the most important predictor of TSE behavioural intention across both models. These findings contribute to the growing literature on the testing of multiple models in the health psychology domain.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Social criteria for evaluating population change: an alternative to the Blackorby-Donaldson criterion.

"An ethical objection is raised against the Blackorby-Donaldson criterion of optimum population maximizing the sum total of utilities in excess of some critical level, since it may disprefer a social state with more people and with more worthwhile lives. However, the criterion may serve as a practicably reasonable compromise between maximizing total and average utility. Nevertheless, an alternative compromise (the maximization of number-dampened total utility) is proposed that is free from the above objection."

Behavior↗
PubMed1990

Health promotion self-care within Orem's general theory of nursing.

The growing emphasis on health promotion by society and the increasing utilization of Orem's general theory of nursing to guide practice, education and research create a need to clarify health promotion activity within the model. The concept of health promotion self-care is developed after an analysis of statements by Pender and Orem for their logical congruence. Further in-depth analysis of Orem's model facilitates the placement of the new concept within its current structure. The potential strength of the model for guiding health promotion practice is discussed, as well as areas for needed development.

Health↗
PubMed1992

Conditional health threats: health beliefs, decisions, and behaviors among adults.

We combined the health belief model with the theory of subjective expected utility to derive hypotheses about the relations among health beliefs and preventive decisions. The central implication of this combination of theories is the importance of conceptualizing, measuring, and communicating about health threats in ways that are clearly conditional on action. It is important to distinguish, for example, between how susceptible to a disease a person thinks he or she would be if that person were and were not to take a preventive action. An experimental study of judgments about a hypothetical preventive action was conducted to test many of the theoretically derived hypotheses. A correlation study of dental flossing behavior was conducted to test the hypotheses as they apply to overt behavior rather than to judgment. Results of both studies supported most of the tested hypotheses, especially those related to the conditional conceptualization of health threats. Implications for theory, research methods, and practical applications are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Examining the therapeutic utility of restraints and seclusion with children and youth: the role of theory and research in practice.

Restraining and secluding children living in residential facilities, though controversial, are commonly practiced by staff to manage disruptive behavior. In an effort to address some of the ongoing issues about the practice, this article examined the reasons for their use, their theoretical underpinnings, and extant empirical evidence in support of the theories. It is suggested that the current array of theories be updated and comprehensive research programs be encouraged to assess their clinical utility with various populations in a variety of settings.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Enzymatic markers of gallstone-induced pancreatitis identified by ROC curve analysis, discriminant analysis, logistic regression, likelihood ratios, and information theory.

We investigated the diagnostic utility of frequent serial determinations of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), lipase, amylase, and the lipase/amylase (L/A) ratio for distinguishing patients with acute pancreatitis due to biliary obstruction from those with acute pancreatitis due to other pathogenesis. Analyzed were enzyme activities obtained at admission and peak enzyme activities identified retrospectively from serial measurements in 53 patients with acute pancreatitis due to various causes. We evaluated the data with multiple statistical tools. Discriminant analysis and logistic regression revealed the diagnostic significance of ALT at initial and peak values, and the maximum information provided by peak ALT was confirmed by both logistic regression and stratum-specific likelihood ratios. Stratum-specific likelihood ratios showed peak ALT > 150 U/L was highly diagnostic of biliary pancreatitis. The L/A ratio, either at admission or at peak, was the only other significant variable for identifying patients with acute pancreatitis due to biliary obstruction. A multivariate logistic discriminant function including ALT and the L/A ratio significantly discriminated biliary acute pancreatitis from pancreatitis due to other causes. Evaluation of initial and peak enzyme data by information theory revealed that the optimal test depended on disease prevalence. Initial ALT activities were the test of choice for identifying biliary pancreatitis, up to a disease prevalence of approximately 0.75. At disease prevalence > 0.75, the initial L/A ratio provided the greatest amount of diagnostic information.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1994

Planned change theory: survey of nursing periodical literature.

In response to pilot study suggestions, researchers surveyed 176 items of nursing periodical literature which used 58 planned change theories and six nursing research utilization models between 1982 and 1992. The study identified planned change theories and described the frequency and type of use.

Models, Nursing↗
PubMed2000

Life stress, anger and anxiety, and delinquency: an empirical test of general strain theory.

General strain theory (Agnew 1992) departs from traditional strain theories by emphasizing the role of the individual's affective responses to negative life experiences in fostering deviant behavior. In this analysis, we examine the central hypotheses of general strain theory using data from a three-wave panel study of high school youths in the Boston metropolitan area (N = 939). Covariance structure models reveal that anger and hostility in response to negative life events do play a causal role in fostering more aggressive forms of delinquency, but are not significantly related to either nonaggressive delinquency or marijuana use. Furthermore, the conditional effects predicted by general strain theory, in which the impact of strain on delinquency varies by youths' personal and social resources, are inconsistent. Discussion centers on the prospect of increasing the utility of general strain theory by further imbuing it with concepts and perspectives from the sociology of mental illness.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Environment, ecosystems, and ecological behavior: a dialogue toward developing nursing ecological theory.

Current epistemological foundations of nursing theory incorporate minimal ecology theory. The purpose of this article is to present a nursing ecological theory with a goal to broaden current nursing perspectives by incorporating expanded concepts of global ecosystems, communities, and interrelationships derived from ecological sciences. A theory derivation process is utilized, and a nursing ecological model is proposed. Nurses face a challenge to translate global environment concern and ecological beliefs into professional activities. Elucidating a nursing ecological theory may guide our profession toward new directions in holistic care and will be good for the care of our patients, profession, and the Earth.

Concept Formation↗
PubMed1995

Clinical and analytical considerations in the utilization of cholinesterase measurements.

Many theories have been advanced but the true physiological function for serum cholinesterase has still not been identified. Evidence has been presented for the abnormal expression of cholinesterase genes in many types of human tumors. Cholinesterase measurements are still used to monitor exposure to organophosphate insecticides and their clinical application requires a good understanding of the inter and intra-individual variation, as well as some knowledge of the time sequence between exposure and measurement of the cholinesterase activity. The use of serum cholinesterase measurement in liver disease varies in different countries. A case has not been made for the cost-effectiveness of adding serum cholinesterase as part of a screening procedure for the diagnosis of liver disease. During the last 10 years much information has been obtained on the molecular biology and genetics of acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase, distinct enzymes encoded by two different, but related genes. It has been established that BChE is included by a single gene which corresponds to the E1 locus. The complete amino acid sequence of human serum cholinesterase and the location of disulfide bonds within the sequence have been described. The molecular basis of many variants of human serum cholinesterase has been described in detail. It is not rare for multiple mutations to occur within a single butyrylcholinesterase gene or there may be combination of mutations. At least 11 silent variants of human butyrylcholinesterase have been identified. There still exists a wide variety of substrates and analytical conditions for butyrylcholinesterase measurement in a number of clinical situations. No real evidence has been provided for clinical value for their use in the diagnosis of Alzheimer disease or monitoring the use of cholinesterase inhibitors in the treatment of pre-senile dementia of Alzheimer type. However, the insights from molecular biology technology may well open up more challenges in a variety of clinical situations.

Cholinesterases↗
PubMed1998

Quasi-linear pH gradients for chromatofocusing using simple buffer mixtures: local equilibrium theory and experimental verification.

Chromatofocusing utilizes internally generate, retained pH gradients to focus proteins into narrow chromatographic bands. One of the characteristics of current chromatofocusing methods is that they use expensive polyampholyte buffers containing large numbers of ill-defined components in order to generate linear or quasi-linear pH gradients. In addition to being costly to use, polyampholyte buffers also tend to associate with proteins and often yield irreproducible gradient shapes. In order to avoid the various difficulties associated with the use of polyampholyte buffers, this study investigates the use of mixtures of simple buffering species to generate quasi-linear pH gradients on a weak-base ion-exchange column packing. The ability of these gradients to separate protein mixtures was also investigated. To optimize the conditions used, a computer simulation method using a local equilibrium model developed that predicts the shape of the pH gradient. Several experiments were performed that demonstrate the usefulness of the method and the accuracy of the model.

Acid-Base Equilibrium↗
PubMed1995

A clinical-empirical model of personality: life after the Mischelian ice age and the NEO-lithic era.

A theory of personality should lead to both accurate prediction and interpretive understanding. Aside from its empirical uses, a personality theory should provide a grammar that allows personality psychologists to infer meaning from overt behavior with more sophistication than a layperson, and the best laboratory for testing the interpretive utility of a personality theory remains the clinic. With respect to the appropriate data for constructing and evaluating theories of personality, an overreliance on questionnaire data is problematic for several reasons: It assumes that understanding people requires no training, it mistakes research on the conscious self-concept for research on personality, it conflates implicit and explicit knowledge, it fails to address defensive biases, and it lacks interrater reliability. Consideration of both empirical and clinical data points to three questions that define the elements of personality necessary for a comprehensive assessment of an individual: (a) What psychological resources--cognitive, affective, and behavioral dispositions--does the individual have at his or her disposal? (b) What does the person wish for, fear, and value, and how do these motives combine and conflict? (c) How does the person experience the self and others, and to what extent can the individual enter into intimate relationships?

Affect↗