搜索结果：Communications psychology

Current debates concerning the use of digital technology often focus on privacy, yet privacy attitudes and behaviour are remarkably under-theorized, and relatively little empirical research has investigated privacy beyond the realm of digital communications. Building on evolutionary scholarship on information exchange, we outline a theoretical model in which cultural concepts of privacy reflect the workings of evolved psychological mechanisms that aim to regulate others' access to fitness-relevant information towards adaptive ends. Results of two initial U.S. vignette studies distributed via Prolific (n = 425, 120) support the core predictions of this model, suggesting that people may have implicit and unstated assumptions regarding how information spreads in social environments. Specifically, participants' privacy evaluations were predicted by whether information was intentionally acquired, the extent to which information was transmitted, and an individual's position in an information transfer event. Importantly, how information was acquired and the nature of its transmission constituted independent but interacting influences on privacy perceptions. Additionally, results suggest the location within shared social networks of the individual to whom information is transmitted is used as a proxy for the potential costs of dissemination.

Clinical neuropsychology historically emphasized the assessment of "cold" cognitive functions, whereas emotional and motivational processes remain rarely evaluated. This point-of-view article argues for the inclusion of affective-motivational assessment into neuropsychological practice and outlines the key domains that should be routinely considered. Drawing on neuroscience and clinical research, we review four core affective-motivational domains: emotional reactivity, emotion regulation, emotion recognition, and social cognition. For each domain, we summarize self-report instruments and performance-based tasks. Beyond these domains, we discuss emotional-cognitive interference as a cross-cutting modulatory mechanism that may influence overall neuropsychological performance. Evidence indicates that emotional and motivational processes shape cognitive functioning, predict functional outcomes, and contribute uniquely to diagnosis, rehabilitation adherence, and quality of life. Validated tools are available for assessing each domain, and many clinical conditions present affective and social disturbances that may be more disabling than cognitive deficits. Despite this, surveys consistently show that affective-motivational domains are rarely assessed in practice. Integrating emotional-motivational assessment is essential for achieving a comprehensive characterization of clinically relevant dimensions of everyday functioning. We propose a modular framework guided by referral questions and emphasize the need to develop a brief affective-motivational screener analogous to cognitive screeners such as the Mini-Mental State Examination or Montreal Cognitive Assessment. Systematic assessment of these domains can enhance diagnostic accuracy, strengthen rehabilitation planning, and more accurately reflect the complexity of everyday functioning.

Terminology plays an important role in shaping how students experience academic support within pharmacy education. Terms commonly used in progression policies, such as "remediation," "at-risk," or "slow down plans," may convey deficit-oriented messages that frame academic challenges as failure rather than opportunities for growth. Drawing on literature from educational psychology and health professions education, this commentary examines how terminology influences learner motivation, professional identity formation, and engagement with academic support systems. Many pharmacy programs have implemented structured processes to identify and support students experiencing academic difficulty; however, the terminology used within these systems can influence whether students perceive them as punitive or developmental. Examples of alternative language that emphasize growth, partnership, and skill development are presented. By intentionally reconsidering the terminology used in academic policies and communications, pharmacy programs can reinforce a culture of support while maintaining rigorous academic standards. As pharmacy education continues to prioritize student well-being, belonging, and professional identity formation, thoughtful attention to terminology represents a practical opportunity to align academic progression processes with these goals.

During early vocabulary growth, infants use single words to express complete ideas. Requests ("milk") and protests ("no!") are fundamental ways that infants communicate their needs. However, understanding what an infant wants from a single word can be challenging. Caregivers likely rely on infants' gestures and actions to interpret single-word utterances. How common are requests and protests during everyday activities? To what extent do infants accompany their requests and protests with gestures (e.g., points to request) and/or actions (e.g., flailing arms to protest)? Are caregivers more likely to respond to such "multimodal" requests and protests than to infants' words alone (i.e., unimodal speech)? We observed 31 toddlers (12-24 months) with their mothers during everyday interactions at home. In aggregate, infants expressed 2580 single-word utterances, with nearly half being requests (35%) or protests (8%). Most requests and protests (84%) were multimodal, occurring in the context of actions (mostly) or gestures. Unexpectedly, although infants' gestures/actions often "aligned" with their words in meaning or intent (e.g., saying "no" while pushing a toy away), infants also displayed "misaligned" gestures/actions (e.g., saying "no" to one toy while reaching for another). In particular, infants' aligned' multimodal requests and protests were more likely to elicit a response from mothers than were their words alone. Findings underscore the embodied and embedded nature of early communication in the natural home setting: Infants express their intentions by coupling words with gestures/actions, and certain types of multimodal communications are more effective than others in fulfilling their goals.

Despite scientific evidence on the environmental causes of obesity, policies that target these causes frequently face public opposition. This study investigates the mental model that the public hold about obesity, including perceptions of the causes, consequences and responsibility for obesity, alongside support for different preventive policies. N = 2400 members of the public undertook a cross-sectional online survey across 3 English-speaking countries with high obesity rates: Ireland, the UK and the US. We benchmarked public perceptions against N = 51 experts. We found differences between countries and larger differences between the public and expert samples. The public assigned considerable blame and responsibility to individuals, while the expert sample focused more on societal and environmental causes. Although the public and expert samples concurred on the seriousness of the problem, the latter endorsed more radical policies, such as taxes and restrictions. Public health communications often focus on highlighting obesity as a public health problem, but our findings suggest that this message has been received. Instead, more work may be needed to challenge public beliefs about the causes of, and responsibility for, the obesity epidemic.

This article argues that the question of whether we are alone in the universe is a symptom of Western apparatuses that produce an ontological rift between human beings and other species. This rift comprises instrumental, ruling epistemologies that depersonalize other species, thus legitimating our indifference to their manifold intelligences and communications. The Western apparatuses that produce the rift can be understood in terms of a normative and historical unconscious, as well as the defenses of weak dissociation and projection. These defenses operate to secure a conscious and preconscious sense of existential significance while rendering unconscious the terrifying reality of existential insignificance. This analysis also provides a partial explanation for the sources of the climate polycrisis and the strong resistance to effective climate action. That is, dissonant subjects have an antagonistic relation to "nature," deeming all that falls under this abstraction mute and dumb (unintelligent).

This review systematically evaluated existing literature to summarize populations, methodologies, and prevention targets regarding credible messengers and messages in firearm-harm prevention. Inclusion criteria encompassed peer-reviewed articles, dissertations, and technical reports published from the topic's inception to data extraction. Included studies investigated credible messengers or messages in firearm harm prevention. Searches were conducted for articles from database inception to August 2025 in ProQuest, Web of Science, and PubMed, yielding 1834 articles that underwent screening by independent reviewers. 27 studies met inclusion criteria summarized as six domains: messaging content and framing strategies; credibility of messengers; audience characteristics and moderators; intervention development and feasibility; parental knowledge and behaviors; and theoretical frameworks. Identity-congruent messengers, including veterans, firearm owners, and community-trusted figures, increased trust and engagement. Messages emphasizing child safety, collaboration, and value alignment improved intentions for secure storage. Brief, context-specific interventions were feasible across clinical and community settings; few studies assessed behavioral outcomes or long-term effects. This review informs strategic communications in firearm harm prevention by elucidating messaging frameworks and credible messengers, guiding policy decisions and promoting equitable outreach strategies across sectors. Recommendations will strengthen prevention efforts and address equity in communities impacted by firearm harms.

Formal risk assessment considers characteristics such as proximity, dose, and vulnerability. However, public risk perception may also be influenced by other-possibly less relevant-factors such as visibility and novelty. The introduction of 5G and its associated infrastructure and radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) may therefore change perceptions of RF-EMF from mobile communications in general. To explore this, we conducted an online survey in 10 European countries (n = 10,358) using a picture-based approach. Respondents perceived daily RF-EMF exposures as moderate but expected them to increase with 5G. A mobile phone at the ear was generally associated with higher perceived exposure than multiple base stations. Overall, distance to the RF-EMF source most strongly influenced perceived exposure, followed by the number of sources. 5G reception was linked to higher exposure perception than 4G or Wi-Fi reception. These patterns were consistent across most countries. We conclude that when assessing RF-EMF exposure, people rely on heuristics (e.g., more sources imply more exposure) that often guide them correctly. Understanding when and why people feel particularly exposed can help develop more effective communication about true levels of exposure and risk.

Despite the notable proliferation of smoking cessation mobile apps, to date, no validated, Spanish-language, culturally tailored mobile intervention exists for Spanish speakers in the United States. The aim of this study was to conduct formative research to inform the adaptation of an evidence-based smoking cessation intervention developed for Spanish-speaking Hispanic and Latino individuals from a printed format into a mobile app. Guided by a user-centered approach and in collaboration with product design industry experts, wireframes were developed to present the app's layout and functionality. Focus groups were conducted over Zoom (Zoom Communications) with Spanish-speaking individuals who currently smoke to assess their previous mobile app experience, attitudes toward mobile apps, and feedback on app architecture and design. Two independent reviewers (RB in collaboration with another member from the qualitative core) trained in qualitative methods coded the focus group data using a thematic analysis approach and identified emerging themes. The app wireframes included 4 navigation buttons on the home screen to organize and deliver evidence-based intervention content-Home (Inicio), Learn (Aprende), My Coach (Mi Couch), and Profile (Perfil). Different wireframe designs were generated in distinct color palettes. Data saturation was reached after three focus groups. Participants were 54% (7/13) women, had a mean age of 56 (SD 14.9) years, 39% (5/13) had an education ≤high school, and 31% (4/13) were married or cohabitating. All participants smoked daily, a mean of 14 (SD 7.8) cigarettes per day, for 32 (SD 16.9) years, and 54% (7/13) smoked ≤30 minutes of waking. Participants reported using social media, news, shopping, and gaming apps, but few used mobile health apps. Salient barriers for app use included worries regarding privacy breaches and fears about misinformation. Desired features included community-building elements, personalization, reward badges, knowledge checks, and audiovisual presentation of content within the app. Participants disliked having a countdown to quit date, preferring an "I quit" button to initiate monitoring progress. They also viewed sharing progress with support networks as a source of unwanted pressure, although a few saw it as motivational. Overall, participants liked the app design and indicated willingness to use it. This formative research provides critical insights into preferences related to the development of culturally tailored mobile smoking cessation interventions for Spanish-speaking individuals. Key findings highlighted enthusiasm for a smoking cessation app and the importance of including features that foster social connection and allow for personalization.

Family (informal) carers play a vital role in providing care and support to relatives living with a psychotic disorder. Carers, however, often face challenges in communicating effectively with care recipients, particularly in the presence of psychosis symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations. Immersive technologies such as virtual reality have a growing evidence base in mental health treatments in patient groups, but their application to support carers has yet to be established. This study sought to evaluate the feasibility of CareVR, a therapist-facilitated virtual reality (VR) communication skills training programme for informal carers in psychosis. CareVR comprised four individual sessions designed to enhance carers' confidence and effectiveness in their conversations with a care recipient experiencing psychosis symptoms. An uncontrolled study design was conducted to ascertain the feasibility and acceptability of CareVR. The VR programme comprised two conversation scenarios between an adult avatar carer and an adult avatar relative (care recipient) with psychosis. Scenarios were delivered from both a third-person (observer) and a first-person (carer) perspective. In each scenario, participants selected how the avatar carer responded to communications from the avatar relative with psychosis. Following each training scenario, participants, supported by a facilitator, reflected on their experiences within the VR environment and their own lived experiences. They were also given opportunities to revisit and revise their choices. The final session focused on integrating learning across the training programme. Feasibility was assessed through recruitment, retention, session attendance, and completion of outcome measures. Acceptability was evaluated using participant feedback, including session satisfaction scores, and achievement of individualised goals. The sample comprised twelve participants with diverse caregiving relationships and socio-demographic backgrounds. Recruitment targets were achieved, and all participants attended and completed the full training and assessment measures. Participants reported high levels of satisfaction for individual sessions, the intervention, overall, and goal achievement. Preliminary findings from our small and uncontrolled study suggest CareVR might be both feasible and acceptable to informal carers of individuals in psychosis. The study, however, was not designed to evaluate efficacy. Thus, any reports and conclusions of clinical benefits of CareVR require further investigation in a future adequately powered controlled trial. Not applicable.

Low-value care remains pervasive across healthcare systems and consumes scarce resources while exposing patients to avoidable harms. De-implementation, the purposeful process of reducing, restricting, replacing, or discontinuing low-value practices, has gained momentum, yet the field still lacks clear methodological guidance grounded in theory. De-implementation is often treated as "reverse implementation", despite accumulating evidence that stopping practices can activate distinct mechanisms and constraints. In this paper, we synthesize and contrast theories, process models, and frameworks relevant to de-implementation of low-value care to generate actionable methodological guidance. Drawing on a theory-informed narrative review and constant-comparative synthesis, we identify where de-implementation converges with implementation (e.g., staged processes; multilevel determinants; use of established determinant, strategy, and outcome frameworks) and where it diverges in ways that matter for design and evaluation. Across sources, three recurring lenses structure these divergences: (i) the psychology of stopping (habit disruption, loss aversion, cognitive biases, professional identity threats), (ii) multi-level constraints and politics (incentives, regulation, professional norms, stakeholder interests), and (iii) the nature of the low-value practice and endpoint (reduction vs. restriction vs. elimination; replacement vs. disenchantment discontinuance). We translate these contrasts into ten streamlined methodological recommendations that specify what investigators should state and report in practice, including configuration (stand-alone vs. embedded/paired), low-value classification, explicit determinant-to-strategy-to-mechanism logic, inclusion of patient experience and unintended consequences, and dual-trajectory evaluation when substitution is involved. De-implementation is not simply implementation in reverse. Methodological rigor in de-implementation research requires explicitly specifying configuration and endpoint, aligning strategies with stopping-specific mechanisms and multilevel constraints, and evaluating beyond utilization to include mechanisms, patient experience, equity-relevant impacts, and unintended consequences. This paper provides a practical, theory-grounded set of recommendations to strengthen the design, evaluation, and reporting of future de-implementation studies.

The perception of hostility in online contexts is closely associated with the occurrence of online aggression. Compared to traditional methods that rely on self-report or behavioral analysis, ERP allows for real-time, objective capture of neural responses to emotional stimuli, making it especially suited to reveal the immediate processing of hostility expectation violations. By creating distinct social contexts, we examined participants' brain responses to violations of hostility expectations in text-based communications, both with and without emojis. The results indicated that in the absence of emojis, violations of hostility expectations triggered a significant negative deflection in the N400 waveform, reflecting a heightened neural response to perceived hostility. In contrast, when emojis were present, this negative neural response was substantially reduced, suggesting that emojis play a key role in mitigating hostile attributions and fostering positive social interactions. These findings not only highlight the important function of emojis in online communication from a neuroscience perspective, demonstrating their ability to effectively reduce hostility attribution and potential conflicts in digital interactions, but also provide new empirical evidence for understanding the emotional regulation mechanisms of nonverbal cues in digital environments and improving the quality of online interactions.

Scalable, low-burden tools are needed to identify individuals at risk of depression before progressing to a clinically significant level of depressive disorder. We evaluated a smartphone framework for subclinical-depression risk using self-supervised speech representations and a field-ready data-collection protocol. Participants (N = 119) were stratified into high-risk (PHQ-9 ≥ 10; n = 64) and low-risk (n = 55) groups. A mobile app elicited two 1-minute narrative recordings using negative and positive mood-induction tasks, separated by a 10-minute neutral interval. We compared four models: extreme gradient boosting on handcrafted features; a convolutional neural network-recurrent neural network (CNN-RNN) on mel-spectrograms; head-only WavLM-MLP; and fully fine-tuned WavLM (WavLM-FT). Performance was estimated using 5-fold cross-validation (CV) and out-of-fold (OOF) aggregation. In a 5-fold CV, WavLM-FT achieved the highest area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC-AUC) of 0.90, area under the precision-recall curve of 0.90, F1 of 0.73, accuracy of 0.68, recall of 0.89, and precision of 0.65. In OOF subject-level predictions, WavLM-FT led (ROC-AUC 0.86; accuracy 0.79) and outperformed CNN-RNN and WavLM-MLP. Results suggest full-model adaptation captures informative paralinguistic cues within standardized smartphone recordings. A brief, ecologically valid protocol with self-supervised learning may enable scalable, non-invasive depression-risk screening.

Clinical communication in oncology has become a central component of supportive cancer care, with direct implications for symptom management, psychosocial distress, decision-making, caregiver support, survivorship, and palliative transitions. This bibliometric analysis examined 949 documents indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection between 1976 and 2025 in order to map the field's intellectual structure, publication profile, and thematic development. The study combined PRISMA-guided corpus construction with bibliometric techniques including co-citation analysis, thematic clustering, and strategic mapping. The results show sustained growth across five decades, but also a distributed publication profile, moderate international collaboration, and only partial integration across citation communities. A major transition occurred between 2005 and 2007, when communication began to be framed less as information transfer and more as a therapeutic and relational component of care. Within this structure, narrative medicine remains visible mainly as a conceptual orientation rather than as a consolidated methodological line. Thematic development is stronger in psychosocial, patient-centered, and palliative communication than in digitally mediated, developmentally specific, participatory, or structurally informed approaches. Overall, the findings position oncology communication as an established but still uneven component of supportive care, with practical implications for multidisciplinary teams in nursing, psycho-oncology, social work, and palliative care.

Understanding the heterogeneity among highly involved gamblers is critical for the development of effective harm reduction strategies. This study employs unsupervised machine learning to segment a population of high-intensity Electronic Gambling Machine (EGM) users based on behavioral indicators derived from transactional data. Using a combination of Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP) for nonlinear dimensionality reduction and Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN) for cluster identification, we performed a systematic grid search to optimize internal validity metrics (Silhouette = 0.5827, Davies-Bouldin Index = 0.4442, Calinski-Harabasz Index = 8907.46). The analysis yielded four well-separated behavioral clusters: one marked by impulsive withdrawals and night-time play; another showing consistent and high-frequency gambling; a third characterized by structured, high-stakes sessions; and a fourth exhibiting rapid, binge-like activity within short time windows. To facilitate interpretation, we trained cluster-wise random forest classifiers, identifying key discriminative features such as balance trajectory, inter-session timing, and variability in transaction intervals. Our findings demonstrate that high involvement is not a uniform construct, but rather encompasses diverse behavioral subtypes, each potentially associated with different levels of gambling-related harm. This segmentation framework offers practical implications for personalized responsible gambling initiatives and contributes to ongoing research advocating for data-driven player protection strategies.

Arecoline, a major alkaloid in betel nuts, modulates cognitive function, yet its effects on memory in young, healthy mice remain unclear. We administered arecoline or vehicle to mice and allowed them to perform a novel object recognition task to investigate whether and how acute arecoline administration affected object recognition. Arecoline-treated mice exhibited a significantly higher discrimination index than controls, indicating improved discrimination performance. This enhancement occurred without changes in locomotor activity, anxiety-like behavior, or general exploratory motivation. Time-series analysis further revealed that arecoline treatment led to sustained high discrimination ability during the test session, compared to vehicle treatment. These findings demonstrate that acute arecoline administration enhances object recognition even in a healthy physiological state, possibly by facilitating cholinergic-mediated attention and memory encoding.

The World Health Organization's Health Promoting School (HPS) framework takes a multi-component approach integrating health into education, environment, policy, and community partnership. Effective implementation depends not only on resources but also on school culture-the shared values and norms that sustain health promoting practice. The Health Promoting School Culture Scale (HPSCS) measures these cultural and normative foundations. This study validated a Japanese version (J-HPSCS) and examined its psychometric and multilevel properties. A web-based survey was administered to 1148 staff from 135 public high schools in one Japanese prefecture. After forward-backward translation and expert review, confirmatory factor analysis tested factorial validity; convergent and discriminant validity were examined using composite reliability, average variance extracted, and the Fornell-Larcker criterion. Multilevel models assessed between-school variation and concurrent validity using workplace social capital as an external correlate. Four items on community partnerships, school meals, and active transport showed weak performance and were removed. The refined 12-item, three-factor structure (Parent engagement in the school, School/Teachers' Commitment to Student Health, and School Physical Environment) demonstrated acceptable reliability and validity. J-HPSCS scores were positively associated with workplace social capital at both individual and school levels, with stronger effects at the school level. The J-HPSCS provides a concise, reliable measure of school organizational culture that supports health promoting practice and can be used to monitor implementation and inform policy within educational systems.

As digital access expands rapidly among children worldwide, technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA), including online grooming, sexual solicitation, non-consensual image sharing and sexual extortion, has emerged as urgent yet underexamined category of digital harms1. Despite growing policy attention to online safety, evidence remains limited, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, where most of the world's children live2. We analysed nationally representative survey data from 11,912 children aged 12-17 years across 12 countries in eastern and southern Africa and Southeast Asia, collected through the Disrupting Harm project in 2020-2021. We found that one in six internet-using children experienced at least one form of technology-facilitated CSEA, equivalent to over 10 million children. Despite this scale, many experiences went undisclosed, pointing to disclosure as a critical pathway for protection in the digital age. When children did disclose, they relied primarily on informal channels, especially friends, rather than formal reporting mechanisms such as police or helplines. Using Bayesian hierarchical models accounting for cross-country heterogeneity, we find that older children were less likely to disclose, whereas enabling parental mediation of online activities and children's knowledge of where to seek help after sexual harassment or assault were associated with higher rates of disclosure. These findings provide population-level evidence to inform prevention and response across low- and middle-income countries, where coordinated action by policymakers, law enforcement and technology companies is urgently needed to protect all children.

Palestinian refugee children under five face social, economic and political challenges that may affect their access to primary healthcare (PHC) services. This study aimed to explore barriers to and facilitators of access to PHC services for refugee children under five in the north of the West Bank. This qualitative study was conducted from May to September 2025. Semistructured interviews were conducted to explore the views of caregivers of children under the age of five in three refugee camps in the north of the Palestinian West Bank: Askar, Balata and Camp No. 1. The interview guide was formulated and the results were synthesised on the basis of the adapted Availability, Accessibility, Acceptability and Quality framework with incorporated elements from Levesque's framework. The methods, procedures and field work were pretested before data collection. Data were collected through in-person interviews at social community centres within the refugee camps and analysed via deductive thematic analysis. All of the 20 participants interviewed were female caregivers. Thematic analysis revealed 22 barriers and 13 facilitators across eight themes. The main barriers were service and medication shortages, safety concerns from military incursions and inadequate communication of information. The main facilitators were short distance to health clinics, autonomous decision-making and trust in provider competence and service quality. Other, less frequently mentioned barriers were crowdedness, long waiting times and preferential treatment favouring staff's personal acquaintances. Additionally, participants suggested a stronger social media presence to disseminate information about health and healthcare services. Access to PHC services for children under five is limited by interruptions of services and medications, lack of safety and inadequate information. Humanitarian response strategies should maintain stable supply chains for paediatric services. Digitalisation of communication should rely on a participatory, user-centred design involving caregivers and be supplemented by official social media presence.