Attachment, Forgiveness, and Generativity in Midlife

Current literature suggests secure attachment and forgiveness are positively correlated. However, to date, the relationship of adult attachment, forgiveness, and generativity has not been explored. In this current study, middle-aged adults, ages 45-80 from the George Fox University Alumni were surveyed to explore attachment (anxious and avoidant), generativity, and forgiveness. Since generativity is a prosocial trait, synonymous with altruism, suggesting one’s selfless service and concern for the well-being for others, it is predicted that generativity will have a positive relationship with forgiveness, and secure attachment. Further, multiple regression statistics were used to explore which of the independent variables (anxious attachment, avoidant attachment, and generativity) has the greatest effect on the dependent variable of trait forgiveness. Results indicated that there was a medium positive relationship between forgiveness and secure attachment, between generativity and secure attachment, and between forgiveness and generativity. Multiple regression found that each of the independent variables (anxious attachment, avoidant attachment, and generativity) were significant predictors of forgiveness with anxious attachment being the strongest predictor of forgiveness

Generative Roles: Assessing Sustained Involvement in Generativity

Abstract Generative roles refer to observable, behavioral community positions that embody aspects of teaching and nurturing that are central to the concept of generativity. Two studies are presented that describe generative roles in a community sample and provide psychometric data for a short index of generative roles. The first study also provides reliability and validity data from a second informant. The second study examines generative roles at different stages of adolescence and adulthood. Participants were asked 8 yes/no questions about a variety of community roles. The validity of the GRI was supported by significant correlations with the Loyola Generativity Scale, a widely used measure of generative concern (r=.33), and measures of related constructs. The correlations were similar across age categories. The Generative Roles Index has good psychometric qualities and complements existing measures of generativity by providing behavioral, observable data on roles

The role of input size and generativity in simulating language acquisition.

This paper presents an analysis of the role of input size and generativity (ability to produce novel utterances) in simulating developmental data on a phenomenon in first language acquisition. An existing model that has already simulated the basic phenomenon is trained on input sets of varying sizes (13,000 to 40,000 utterances). The ability of the model to produce novel utterances is also manipulated. Both input size and generativity affect the fits for later stages of development. Higher generativity improves fits for later stages, but worsens them for early stages, suggesting generativity is best increased as a function of mean length of utterance (MLU). The effect of training set is variable. Results are discussed in terms of optimal training sets for simulations, and children’s developing ability to produce utterances beyond the input they have heard

A Portrait of the Internet as a Young Man

In brief, the core theory of Jonathan Zittrain’s1 2008 book The Future of the Internet - and How to Stop It is this: good laws, norms, and code are needed to regulate the Internet, to prevent bad laws, norms, and code from compromising its creative capabilities and fettering its fecund flexibility. A far snarkier if less alliterative summary would be “We have to regulate the Internet to preserve its open, unregulated nature.” Zittrain posits that either a substantive series of unfortunate Internet events or one catastrophic one will motivate governments to try to regulate cyberspace in a way that promotes maximum stability, which will inhibit or possibly even preclude future technological innovations that rely on open access to the tools and systems that comprise the Internet. To head this off, he calls for a “transition to a networking infrastructure that is more secure yet roughly as dynamic as the current one,” which will be achieved by collaborative efforts, “a 21st century international Manhattan Project which brings together people of good faith in government, academia, and the private sector for the purpose of shoring up the miraculous information technology grid that is too easy to take for granted and whose seeming self-maintenance has led us into an undue complacence.” Zittrain uses brief, informal accounts of past events to build two main theories that dominate the book. First, he claims that open access, which he calls generativity, is under threat by a trend toward closure, which he refers to as tetheredness, which is counterproductively favored by proprietary entities. Though consumers prefer openness and the autonomy it confers, few take advantage of the opportunities it provides, and therefore undervalue it and too readily cede it in favor of the promise of security that tetheredness brings. Second, he argues that if the Internet is to find salvation it will be by the grace of “true netizens,” volunteers acting collectively in good faith to cultivate positive social norms online. Zittrain is a creative thinker and entertaining speaker, and his book is engaging and informative in much the same ways that his talks are, loaded with pop culture references and allegorical tales about technology and the once and future Internet. Zittrain uses numerous anecdotes to support his dual hypotheses, exhaustively affirming that open innovative tools and systems are essential for online life to flourish, and his contention that the Internet is exceedingly vulnerable to bad actors (a proposition I have never seen another cyberlaw scholar seriously question). But he isn’t very clear about the specific attributes of laws or regulations that could effectively foster enhanced security without impairing dynamism. He also seems to have a discomfitingly elitist view about who should be making policy decisions about the Internet’s future: like-minded, self-appointed, and knowledgeable volunteers with the time, interest, and expertise to successfully maneuver sectors of the Internet into the form or direction he thinks best

Resolving ambiguities in the extraction of syntactic categories through chunking.

In recent years, several authors have investigated how co-occurrence statistics in natural language can act as a cue that children may use to extract syntactic categories for the language they are learning. While some authors have reported encouraging results, it is difficult to evaluate the quality of the syntactic categories derived. It is argued in this paper that traditional measures of accuracy are inherently flawed. A valid evaluation metric needs to consider the well-formedness of utterances generated through a production end. This paper attempts to evaluate the quality of the categories derived from cooccurrence statistics through the use of MOSAIC, a computational model of syntax acquisition that has already been used to simulate several phenomena in child language. It will be shown that derived syntactic categories which may appear to be of high quality will quickly give rise to errors which are not typical of child speech. A solution to this problem is suggested in the form of a chunking mechanism which serves to differentiate between alternative grammatical functions of identical word forms. Results are evaluated in terms of the error rates in utterances produced by the system as well as the quantitative fit to the phenomenon of subject omission

Perceptions about Authentic Leadership Development: South African Occupational Therapy Students\u27 Camp Experience

Background. Twenty-three years into democracy, concern is deepening regarding the slow progress of Occupational Therapy (OT) in South Africa, especially with regard to diversity and inclusion within OT. Methods. This study explores authentic leadership development primarily among Black OT students attending a pilot Occupational Therapy Association of South Africa (OTASA) National Student Leadership Camp. It seeks to ascertain their perceptions on leadership and leadership development. This descriptive pilot study employs in-depth interviews and subsequent content analysis, with 12 OT students from six university OT programs in South Africa. Findings. Four categories of participant perceptions on authentic leadership development emerged from the analysis: (1) perceptions about oneself as a leader based on personal narrative, self-awareness, self-control, and psychological capital; (2) perceptions about others, specifically current leaders, with regard to their moral crisis, including continuing inequality, insincerity, greed, and selfishness; (3) goals and aspirations for leadership development via student camps; and (4) effects of leadership on the system. Conclusions. Recommendations for future practice include promotion of storytelling as a means of personal reflection for authentic leadership development and focused investment in camps for developing student leadership skills and building authentic leadership knowledge. © 2018 Fatima Hendricks and Susan Toth-Cohen

Road Pricing and Older People: An In-depth Study of Attitudes, Pro-Social Values and Social Norms.

Understanding the socio-psychological mechanisms that determine the public acceptability of road pricing could be a key for its implementation in urban environments where this is a viable scenario. Studying the attitudes of older people is of particular importance due to the ageing of the populations in the industrialised democracies, the high political engagement of older people, and their vulnerability to transport-related social exclusion. Research by the present authors had previously identified that older people's beliefs about what is the normal, acceptable, or even expected choice in a particular social context (“social norms”) and their tendency to favour, more than any other age group, what is positively valued by society (“pro-social value orientation”) affect their attitudes to road pricing. The present paper aims to develop an in-depth understanding of these attitude-shaping determinants drawing on the findings of focus groups conducted in Bristol, UK. The findings suggest that there are three distinctive expressions of pro-sociality: pro-environmental values and generativity on the one hand, these two being drivers of support for road pricing, and pro-equity values on the other, which tend to drive opposition. Social norms have two particular expressions: subjective norms (i.e. norms reflecting people’s immediate social environment) and norms referring to others and society in general. Furthermore, a theory-driven thematic analysis indicates that trust in the integrity of the concept and older age as a life stage associated with ageing, retirement, lower income, mobility barriers and deteriorating health are important in how attitudes reflecting and affecting public acceptability to road pricing form

Intergenerational attitudes and experiences of older adults : a narrative analysis set within a retirement village participating in a intergenerational programme (IGP) : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Clinical Psychology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

iPlayed is an intergenerational programme (IGP) taking place between residents of a retirement village in Wellington, New Zealand and preschoolers at a childcare facility nearby. IGPs have been designed to address an increasingly age segregated society and have been shown to have multiple benefits for older people, including generativity (a need to nurture and guide younger people). As no research on the IGP experience of older adults exists in New Zealand, this research aimed to not only understand this, from the older adults’ perspective, but to also understand their views and experiences of IGPs in general, and about preschool aged children. In-depth interviews were conducted with eighteen retirement village dwelling older adults about their experiences and then analysed using narrative analysis. From the eight identified narratives the iPlayed experience was found to be a brief, life affirming experience and one in which they had to adopt certain roles in order to enhance enjoyment. Beyond this, no deeper meaning was assigned to it. The influence of ageing being a time of contribution back to society was evident, and, for some, iPlayed was positioned within this narrative as an option to accomplish this. iPlayed was also located within the context of a retirement village as a means to reclaim some of the social identity lost through moving to this environment. Deep meaning was ascribed to the role of great grandparent or grandparent and familial generative exchanges were identified as operating indirectly through the parents of the preschoolers and not via an exchange of cultural artefacts, wisdom or knowledge with the young child. With non-kin children, the traditional direction of generativity was challenged, with older adults implying that the younger person’s knowledge of modern technologies was of more benefit to them compared to what they had to offer. Participants identified that, in general, interacting with preschool aged children is stimulating and beneficial, but is not for all older people. In its current design iPlayed was queried, by those not participating in it, for how this might be impacting on its ability to provide an opportunity for older people to be generative or even as a means for people to contribute to the community they live within. These findings recognise a different social milieu in operation today, the experience of ageing in New Zealand and how intergenerational exchange fits within this. Set amongst the powerful social narrative to age ‘successfully’ active today, this research has identified that IGPs can carry out an important role within this structuring force. Building on from this study, researchers should aim to further understand the views and perceptions of older people on younger people which will, in turn, help policymakers and IGP developers harness the best of what both young and old have to offer each other. Finally, for those working in the IGP field, the concept of generativity between non-kin older people and preschoolers needs further exploration

Internet innovations:exploring new horizons

The aim of this paper is to provide a standpoint on an emerging trend in sharing digital video content over the Internet. The paper is based on participative evaluative analysis of business model employed by digital video content sharing providers. The authors have found that because of wide diffusion of broadband and cheap video recording equipment, enabling digital video content to be shared online, and emerging business internet video sharing practice its users increasingly find themselves infringing the intellectual property rights of others. This has implications for anyone using online video resources. The paper offers an insight into the increasing popularity of online video and the resulting dilemmas encountered by internet researchers; it also offers a functional way for researchers, businesses and online users to understand the mechanism of infringement of the intellectual property rights relating to online video content. The paper further contributes to expanding the understanding of internet users behaviour in relation to digital video content creation and distribution in the context of challenges faced by cyberlaw