Societal psychology in Norway

This special issue is comprised of a diverse collection of theoretical and empirical papers from Norway. The choice of societal psychology as a means of organizing these contributions will be discussed in this introduction. Although the term is infrequently used internationally, it has been adopted as the closest translation for the Norwegian disciplinary boundary samfunnspsykologi, which has structured each main contributor’s experience of psychology as graduate or post-­‐graduate researchers. I also hope to illustrate that Himmelweit’s (1990) original conceptualization of societal psychology is also appropriate to unify these articles due to its openness toward multiple theoretical and methodological perspectives

Effects of Chromium Supplementation on Indicators of Type 2 Diabetes in Hyperglycemic Men

Department of Nutritional Science

New Approach to School Health Initiatives: Using Fitness Measures Instead of Body Mass Index to Evaluate Outcomes

Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service provided elementary school students with a program that included a noncompetitive physical activity component: circuit training that combined cardiovascular, strength, and flexibility activities without requiring high skill levels. The intent was to improve fitness without focusing on body mass index as an indicator of fitness. Youths (111) in grades 3–5 underwent President\u27s Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition testing at baseline and program completion. Significant improvements were observed in average fitness measures among youths who participated in the circuit training. Extension professionals looking for new tools to use with school-based physical activity programs may consider circuit training as a noncompetitive means of improving youth physical fitness and fitness measures as more appropriate outcome indicators

Diabetes care in Oklahoma - A formative assessment

Scope and Method of Study: Through a series of interviews guided by the tenets of grounded theory, this study explored the community's perspectives regarding the delivery process of diabetes care and education. For the sake of this project, community referred to a collective of individuals receiving and providing services. As each individual has a role in directing the impact of the delivery and reception of care, each interviewee was viewed as a stakeholder in the care process. Investigating this collective of perspectives on the delivery process of diabetes care and education provided an opportunity to gain an insider's point of view. Through content analysis, themes were developed and reported along with associative results in an effort to investigate existing alliances between parties engaged in the handling and management of diabetes, and to uncover potential for developing new alliances.Findings and Conclusions: This study illuminated an array of issues facing the process of delivering diabetes care and education. Reflected in the perceptions of individuals engaged in the process of diabetes care and education are opportunities for improving the delivery process. One opportunity in particular is to facilitate a move away from parallel care practices to a more integrated approach. A major objective in completing this project was to evaluate the potential for developing alliances between parties engaged in handling and management of diabetes. Based on the results of this project many avenues exist for potential implementation of alliances. In particular, Cooperative Extension has an enormous opportunity to lay the ground work for revolutionizing diabetes care for low-income older Oklahomans. Services currently available coupled with the introduction of additional services would facilitate a state-wide effort to reduce and/or control diabetes among disparate populations throughout Oklahoma. By exploring these alliances and investigating additional avenues of action, associative factors which lead to development of the themes Diet Dilemma , Don't Know What We Don't Know , Expendable Time , Reluctance , Support/Exchange Experience , Disrupted Care , and Fragmented Alliances may be illuminated and addressed

Experiential learning and simulation-based training in Norwegian police education: examining body-worn video as a tool to encourage reflection

This research article aims to add to current knowledge on reflection, body-worn video, and police education. It examines the potential effects of an intervention which employed subcams (a type of body-worn video) and replay interviews of video footage to enhance experiential learning during an operative training course for Norwegian police students in their final year of study. Our investigation examines evaluation surveys for differences between an intervention and comparison group on reflection and experiential learning outcomes. Findings indicate that students in the intervention group self-reported more general learning outcomes from the course concerning decision-making and communication and that they could identify their own mistakes to a greater degree. They also reported more learning outcomes as measured by the number of statements written about what they learned and would change to improve their performance on three different simulations. Moreover, the content of these statements reflected the intervention as they involved communication and decision-making to a greater degree than students in the comparison group. Implications for the further use of body-worn video to encourage reflection and enhance experiential learning in professional police training and development are discussed

Building the Foundation for a Health Education Program for Rural Older Adults

We explored rural older adults’ perceptions of health to inform health promotion program development, using social marketing as our framework. Participants in seven focus groups viewed independence and holistic health as indicators of health and identified healthful eating and physical activity as actions to promote health. Barriers to these actions included physical limitations, social factors, financial considerations, motivation issues, and information confusion. Participants desired education that improves knowledge and skills, provides socialization opportunities, and occurs in familiar, affordable locations. Our findings can be useful to others developing health programming for rural-residing older adults. Also, we show that applying social marketing principles during formative assessment can be helpful in tailoring programs to audience interests and concerns

Preparing Postbaccalaureates for Entry and Success in Biomedical PhD Programs

Certain racial and ethnic groups, individuals with disabilities, and those from low socioeconomic backgrounds remain underrepresented (UR) in the biomedical sciences. This underrepresentation becomes more extreme at each higher education stage. To support UR scholars during the critical transition from baccalaureate to PhD, we established an intensive, 1-yr postbaccalaureate training program. We hypothesized that this intervention would strengthen each participant’s competitiveness for leading PhD programs and build a foundation of skills and self-efficacy important for success during and after graduate school. Scholar critical analysis skills, lab technique knowledge, and Graduate Record Examination scores all improved significantly during the program. Scholars reported significant confidence growth in 21 of 24 categories related to success in research careers. In 5 yr, 91% (41/45) of scholars transitioned directly into PhD programs. Importantly, 40% (18/45) of participating postbaccalaureate scholars had previously been declined acceptance into graduate school; however, 17/18 of these scholars directly entered competitive PhD programs following our training program. Alumni reported they were “extremely well” prepared for graduate school, and 95% (39/41) are currently making progress to graduation with a PhD. In conclusion, we report a model for postbaccalaureate training that could be replicated to increase participation and success among UR scholars in the biomedical sciences

Distinct and Overlapping Brain Areas Engaged during Value-Based, Mathematical, and Emotional Decision Processing.

When comparing between the values of different choices, human beings can rely on either more cognitive processes, such as using mathematical computation, or more affective processes, such as using emotion. However, the neural correlates of how these two types of processes operate during value-based decision-making remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the extent to which neural regions engaged during value-based decision-making overlap with those engaged during mathematical and emotional processing in a within-subject manner. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment, participants viewed stimuli that always consisted of numbers and emotional faces that depicted two choices. Across tasks, participants decided between the two choices based on the expected value of the numbers, a mathematical result of the numbers, or the emotional face stimuli. We found that all three tasks commonly involved various cortical areas including frontal, parietal, motor, somatosensory, and visual regions. Critically, the mathematical task shared common areas with the value but not emotion task in bilateral striatum. Although the emotion task overlapped with the value task in parietal, motor, and sensory areas, the mathematical task also evoked responses in other areas within these same cortical structures. Minimal areas were uniquely engaged for the value task apart from the other two tasks. The emotion task elicited a more expansive area of neural activity whereas value and mathematical task responses were in more focal regions. Whole-brain spatial correlation analysis showed that valuative processing engaged functional brain responses more similarly to mathematical processing than emotional processing. While decisions on expected value entail both mathematical and emotional processing regions, mathematical processes have a more prominent contribution particularly in subcortical processes