An exploration of reasoning biases in delusions

Delusions are one of the most prominent and important symptoms of psychosis. Recent attempts to understand delusions from a psychological framework have gathered momentum, and there is evidence that people with delusions show a 'jump to conclusions' reasoning bias, making decisions on the basis of less evidence. Further work has proposed that this is due to a bias in data-gathering. The current study aimed to clarify whether the reasoning biases are related to a tendency towards early cognitive closure or an inability to integrate information. A between-subjects design study compared the reasoning styles of four groups: two groups of psychotic inpatients (one group with delusions, the other group with no cun'ent delusions), and two groups from the normal population (one high on a measure of delusion-proneness, the other low on this measure). Finding evidence for reasoning biases in those in the normal population who are prone to delusional ideation would provide support that these biases are involved in delusion formation, as well as delusion maintenance. A non-deluded psychiatric control group was also used to clarify whether the reasoning biases were related to delusions or the experience of psychosis itself. Five tasks were used to explore the differences in reasoning styles between the groups, and also to further explore the exact nature of the reasoning biases exhibited by delusional individuals.Results showed some evidence that those with delusions demonstrated a 'jump to conclusions' tendency. The evidence gave some support for the hypothesis that this was due to an inability to integrate information. There was no evidence of a general cognitive deficit in those with delusions. Evidence that the biases were due to the presence of delusions rather than psychosis was inconclusive. Also, the subtlety of differences between those high and low in delusion-proneness did not enable conclusions to be drawn on the role of reasoning biases on delusion formation. Implications of these findings for the formation and maintenance of delusional beliefs are discussed. Delusions are seen as being a person's interpretations of their experiences. It is suggested that having an inability to integrate information would lead to interpretations of events that relies only on immediate information, rather than an interpretation that is able to use past information to give context. In this way, the interpretation is more likely to be a false one. Clinical implications for the practice of cognitive behaviour therapy are also discussed

Employment Quotas, Levies And National Rehabilitation Funds For Persons With Disabilities: Pointers For Policy And Practice

EmploymentQuotasLevisNo84.pdf: 2303 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Running Head: Education in Kenya

Modern Kenya has been steadily evolving since 1963 when the country attained independence. It has made remarkable progress in all spheres of national growth and development. It is, however, in the area of literacy and education that the growth is most noticeable. Contemporary educational developments have built on the legacies of the past – refining traditional values and incorporating them in the goals and objectives of Kenya’s modern system of education

The Challenge of the Irish Catholic Community in Nineteenth-Century Montreal

As a receiving point for the Irish diaspora, Montreal offered the exceptional context of a Catholic majority, a bilingual labour market, and, in the 1840s, a polity undergoing reconstruction. The high quality of records in Montreal allows us to trace the destinies of Irish Catholics who settled in the city in the 1840s and to weigh some of the factors that contributed to their upward mobility. One such factor was the existence of an Irish Catholic population that, from as early as the 1820s, constituted a third community, distinctive in its demographic behaviour and institutional allegiances, alongside French Canadians and Anglo-Protestants. An examination of sample families shows that the “famine immigrants” of the 1840s advanced into new economic niches, their infants thrived, they achieved in the second and third generations substantial improvement in housing and residential integration, and they exercised, in each generation, an active and articulate political voice. These findings contradict earlier assumptions of persistent poverty and powerlessness among Irish Catholics in North American cities and raise new questions about urban opportunities and social pathways.Carrefour d’accueil de la diaspora irlandaise, Montréal offrait le contexte exceptionnel d’une majorité catholique, d’un marché du travail bilingue et, dans les années 1840, d’un régime en reconstruction. La grande qualité des archives à Montréal nous permet de retracer la destinée des catholiques irlandais qui s’y sont établis dans les années 1840 et de soupeser certains des facteurs qui ont favorisé leur mobilité ascendante. L’un de ces facteurs était l’existence d’une population catholique irlandaise qui, dès les années 1820, représentait une tierce communauté, distincte par son comportement démographique et ses allégeances institutionnelles, aux côtés des Canadiens français et des anglo-protestants. On se rend compte à l’examen d’un échantillon de familles que les « immigrants de la famine » des années 1840 se sont taillés de nouveaux créneaux économiques, que leurs enfants ont prospéré, qu’elles ont nettement amélioré leur intégration en matière d’habitation et de logement à la deuxième et à la troisième génération et qu’elles ont exercé à chaque génération une influence politique active et articulée. Ces constats contredisent les hypothèses antérieures d’une pauvreté et d’une impuissance persistantes chez les catholiques irlandais des villes nord-américaines et soulèvent de nouvelles questions sur les débouchés en milieu urbain et les parcours sociaux

International Research Project on Job Retention and Return to Work Strategies for Disabled Workers: Key Issues

[From Preface] The International Research Project on Job Retention and Return to Work Strategies for Disabled Workers breaks new ground by examining the inter-relationships of public and enterprise policies and practices as they affect the retention and return to work of disabled workers. The enquiry encompasses public policies to promote employment of disabled people; benefit and compensation programmes; employment support and rehabilitation services; provision to adapt work and workplace; and measures developed and implemented by the enterprise. The Project aims not only to identify successful policies and practices which are transferable from one country to another but also to inform the development of effective, efficient and equitable job retention and return to work strategies for disabled workers. The ultimate objective is to develop strategies which can be put into effect in the workplace