No abstract

Interest in animal assisted interventions (AAI) has grown over the years, but acceptance of AAI by the clinical and research community has been hampered by safety, hygiene, and logistical concerns. Advances in the field of social robotics have provided a promising route to deliver AAI while avoiding these aforementioned obstacles. Although there has been promising initial research on social robotics in older adults, to date there has been no such research conducted with a veteran population. The present pilot study followed 23 veteran residents of a Veterans Affairs (VA) geropsychiatric long-term care facility over the span of approximately a year and a half. It was found that use of Paro, a social robot, resulted in increased observed positive affective and behavioral indicators, with concomitant decreases observed in negative affective and behavioral indicators. The authors concluded that Paro is likely an effective nonpharmacological approach for managing dementia-related mood and behavior problems with veterans in VA long term care facilities. They additionally observed that Paro is best presented to residents who are relatively calm and approachable, as opposed to actively exhibiting behavior or mood problems. Future research directions are discussed in light of both the positive results noted and the inherent limitations of our pilot study. (PsycINFO Database Record

“Values” play an oversized role in strategic foresight: they help define scanning frameworks, direct scanning efforts, inform change driver and scenario development, and underpin change within various systems and domains (e.g., politics, society, etc.). And yet, values are largely understudied within foresight. They are rarely defined consistently or explored with reference to a theoretical model of how values emerge or evolve. Rather, values are researched using dissimilar methods depending on the foresight research at hand, which can lead to gaps in analysis and inconsistency between foresight projects. Moral Foundations Theory (MFT), a social psychological theory that identifies common human moral values, offers a solution. MFT describes six moral values or “foundations”—care, fairness, loyalty, authority, sanctity, and liberty—each explained through the evolutionary development of humanity and detectable across cultures. Within foresight, MFT can be applied to understand and identify shifts in the influence of different values, which can result in more novel and unexpected conclusions. With these potential benefits available, we propose adopting and adapting MFT for use within the foresight to improve the way it approaches, identifies, and utilizes values. Our article unpacks MFT into its core tenets and illustrates how it can be used to inform scanning, change driver development, and scenario construction.

Results indicate a main effect of user group, as neuropsychologists ascribed higher ratings to cannabis users on the Marijuana Use Likelihood Index, suggesting they perceive them as more likely to be users, relative to nonusers. Results also demonstrated a main effect of gender, as males received higher user ratings than females, and a significant main effect of rater gender, as female raters were more likely to rate individuals as cannabis users relative to male raters. Conclusions/Importance: The results demonstrate the importance of assessing researchers' expectations when studying the effects of chronic cannabis use, as even those designs that keep examiners blind to participant user status may be vulnerable to expectancy effects if examiners are able to guess user status based upon appearance alone.

Widely used policy development processes rarely systematically consider differing moral values, which can lead to overlooked risks, ineffective communications and suboptimal policy design. This article introduces morality analysis, a policy tool that draws on moral foundations theory to optimize policy and program design, build public support for policies and present key advice to decisionmakers. Morality analysis is used to examine the case of a controversial vaccination incentive program introduced by the Government of Alberta in late 2021 and identify policy options that would likely have prompted less public backlash. This article suggests that morality analysis should supplement the policy analysis toolkit. SommaireLes processus d'élaboration de politiques très souvent utilisés tiennent rarement compte des valeurs morales divergentes, ce qui entraîne la négligence des risques, des communications inefficaces et une conception des politiques sous-optimale. Cet article présente l'analyse de la moralitéun outil politique qui repose sur la théorie des fondements morauxdans le but d'optimiser la conception des politiques et des programmes, de renforcer le soutien du public aux politiques et d'offrir d'importants conseils aux décideurs. L'analyse de la moralité est utilisée