Poison control

About: Poison control is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 394709 publications have been published within this topic receiving 15781638 citations.

Power, optimism, and risk‐taking

Abstract: Five studies investigated the hypotheses that the sense of power increases optimism in perceiving risks and leads to more risky behavior. In Studies 1 and 2, individuals with a higher generalized sense of power and those primed with a high-power mind-set were more optimistic in their perceptions of risk. Study 3 primed the concept of power nonconsciously and found that both power and gain/loss frame had independent effects on risk preferences. In Study 4, those primed with a high-power mind-set were more likely to act in a risk-seeking fashion (i.e., engage in unprotected sex). In Study 5, individuals with a higher sense of power in a face-to-face negotiation took more risks by divulging their interests. The effects of power on risk-taking were mediated by optimistic risk perceptions and not by selfefficacy beliefs. Further, these effects were attenuated when the high-power individual felt a sense of responsibility. Copyright # 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Power fascinates. People spend an inordinate amount of time attending to, thinking about, and discussing the thoughts and behaviors of powerful and prestigious individuals—be they heads of state, CEOs, or prominent members of their local church, club, or community (Chance, 1967; Fiske, 1993; Hall, 1984; Keltner & Robinson, 1997). Though typically viewed as frivolous and the province of gossip and gawking, this interest in powerholders is often important and useful. On a practical level, understanding the minds of those with power helps people appreciate how their leaders make decisions—decisions that impact people’s own lives. The behaviors of the powerful have inordinate pull, in that their actions have greater impact and matter more compared to those without power. On a theoretical level, understanding powerholders’ behavior can also provide a window into human nature more broadly; for only when people possess power do some of their deepest desires and motivations reveal themselves in the light of day. Research on the possession of power has shown that power affects diverse psychological processes, from stereotyping (Fiske, 1993) to styles of dress (Pfeffer, 1992). To help integrate these disparate findings, a recent theory proposed that power influences the relative activation of two broad and fundamental behavioral systems: the behavioral approach and inhibition systems (Keltner, Gruenfeld, & Anderson, 2003). As we discuss below, these two behavioral systems help individuals pursue

The effects of early relational trauma on right brain development, affect regulation, and infant mental health.

Abstract: A primary interest of the field of infant mental health is in the early conditions that place infants at riskfor less than optimal development. The fundamental problem of what constitutes normal and abnormal development is now a focus of developmental psychology, infant psychiatry, and devel- opmental neuroscience. In the second part of this sequential work, I present interdisciplinary data to more deeply forge the theoretical links between severe attachment failures, impairments of the early develop- ment of the right brain's stress coping systems, and maladaptive infant mental health. In the following, I offer thoughts on the negative impact of traumatic attachments on brain development and infant mental health, the neurobiology of infant trauma, the neuropsychology of a disorganized/disoriented attachment pattern associated with abuse and neglect, trauma-induced impairments of a regulatory system in the orbitofrontal cortex, the links between orbitofrontal dysfunction and a predisposition to posttraumatic stress disorders, the neurobiology of the dissociative defense, the etiology of dissociation and body- mind psychopathology, the effects of early relational trauma on enduring right hemispheric function, and some implications for models of early intervention. These findings suggest direct connections between traumatic attachment, inefficient right brain regulatory functions, and both maladaptive infant and adult mental health.

Suicidal Desire and the Capability for Suicide: Tests of the Interpersonal-Psychological Theory of Suicidal Behavior among Adults.

Abstract: The interpersonal-psychological theory of suicidal behavior (T. E. Joiner, 2005) proposes that an individual will not die by suicide unless he or she has both the desire to die by suicide and the ability to do so. Three studies test the theory's hypotheses. In Study 1, the interaction of thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness predicted current suicidal ideation. In Study 2, greater levels of acquired capability were found among individuals with greater numbers of past attempts. Results also indicated that painful and provocative experiences significantly predicted acquired capability scores. In Study 3, the interaction of acquired capability and perceived burdensomeness predicted clinician-rated risk for suicidal behavior. Implications for the etiology, assessment, and treatment of suicidal behavior are discussed.

Twitter adoption and use in mass convergence and emergency events

Abstract: This paper offers a descriptive account of Twitter (a microblogging service) across four high-profile, mass convergence events - two emergency and two national security. We statistically examine how Twitter is being used surrounding these events, and compare and contrast how that behaviour is different from more general Twitter use. Our findings suggest that Twitter messages sent during these types of events contain more displays of information broadcasting and brokerage, and we observe that general Twitter use seems to have evolved over time to offer more of an information-sharing purpose. We also provide preliminary evidence that Twitter users who join during and in apparent relation to a mass convergence or emergency event are more likely to become long-term adopters of the technology.

How simple rules determine pedestrian behavior and crowd disasters

Abstract: With the increasing size and frequency of mass events, the study of crowd disasters and the simulation of pedestrian flows have become important research areas. However, even successful modeling approaches such as those inspired by Newtonian force models are still not fully consistent with empirical observations and are sometimes hard to calibrate. Here, a cognitive science approach is proposed, which is based on behavioral heuristics. We suggest that, guided by visual information, namely the distance of obstructions in candidate lines of sight, pedestrians apply two simple cognitive procedures to adapt their walking speeds and directions. Although simpler than previous approaches, this model predicts individual trajectories and collective patterns of motion in good quantitative agreement with a large variety of empirical and experimental data. This model predicts the emergence of self-organization phenomena, such as the spontaneous formation of unidirectional lanes or stop-and-go waves. Moreover, the combination of pedestrian heuristics with body collisions generates crowd turbulence at extreme densities—a phenomenon that has been observed during recent crowd disasters. By proposing an integrated treatment of simultaneous interactions between multiple individuals, our approach overcomes limitations of current physics-inspired pair interaction models. Understanding crowd dynamics through cognitive heuristics is therefore not only crucial for a better preparation of safe mass events. It also clears the way for a more realistic modeling of collective social behaviors, in particular of human crowds and biological swarms. Furthermore, our behavioral heuristics may serve to improve the navigation of autonomous robots.