EARLY MORAL CONSCIENCE: THE DEVELOPMENT OF A MORAL SHORT PLAYED STORIES PROCEDURE

The Impact of Clinical Ethics Consultations on Physicians in a Latin American Context

Clinical bioethics plays a significant role in hospital settings through bioethics consultations, which focus on providing ongoing assistance in complex situations within the doctor-patient dynamic. These consultations entail regular interaction between physicians and clinical bioethicists. This situation prompts an exploration into how bioethics consultations affect physicians. The current research aims to understand the influence of bioethics consultations on physicians' bioethical knowledge by analyzing the lexical content in their patients' medical records. Medical records are a synthesis carried out by physicians, often reflecting collaborative efforts, and capturing verbal statements indicative of thought processes suggestive of learning. The study is a sequential mixed-methods design with a retrospective descriptive approach, comparing medical records from the early years of the Department of Humanism and Bioethics' operation (2013-2015) to the more recent ones (2019). Technical bioethical terminology such as "therapeutic effort limitation," "futility," "beneficence," and "respect for autonomy" is more prevalent in recent medical records. This trend may stem from the positive impact of bioethics consultations conducted by the Department, with haptic communication serving as a particularly effective form of interaction with others during experiences of moral distress. This appears to be characteristic of cultures like those in Latin America.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of associations between self-regulation and morality in preschool and elementary school children

The importance of self-regulatory skills for the socio-emotional competencies of children is being researched and discussed extensively. However, in order to make a clear statement about the impact of self-regulation on children’s morality, a systematic review of the literature is urgently needed. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to analyze associations between self-regulation and morality of preschool and elementary school children. In this context, distinctions among different definitions and operationalizations of self-regulation and morality are considered. Search terms were entered in the bibliographic databases PsycINFO, Scopus and Web of Science. To meet the inclusion criterion, studies needed to report empirical associations between self-regulation and morality in children of preschool and elementary school age. Furthermore, the studies should report primary data and be published in English in a peer-reviewed journal. Studies with secondary or summarized data, special populations or with certain designs were excluded. A total of 37 studies were included in the narrative synthesis. 35 of these studies were included in the meta-analysis. The narrative synthesis showed that different definitions and operationalizations were used for both self-regulation and morality. There also seems to be no consensus regarding the association between the constructs. Meta-analysis results revealed a small positive combined effect between self-regulation and morality, especially between temperament-related self-regulation and moral behavior and moral emotions. In order to gain a better understanding of the effects of self-regulation on morality, longitudinal research and further research addressing different forms of these constructs are essential.

How Our Caregivers Shape Who We Are: The Seven Dimensions of Attachment at the Core of Personality

Psychology defines personality as the stable traits of an individual, and cognitive research suggests that a set of core beliefs is at the root of these traits. From this perspective, two major questions remain unanswered: (1) What are the core beliefs that make up personality? (2) How are they acquired? An interesting answer is provided by attachment theory, according to which attachment is at the basis of personality. The current theoretical formulation, however, does not sufficiently clarify the relationship between the two. Adopting a cognitive-clinical approach, we put forward a novel version of attachment theory, arguing that it can better account for the relationship between attachment and personality, thereby providing more convincing answers to questions (1) and (2). In particular, we propose that: (A) attachment information is acquired over seven dimensions; (B) the acquisition of each dimension is induced by a specific caregiving feature and (C) realized through a specific acquisition mechanism - imprinting. In a nutshell, we propose an Attachment-Personality Model (APM) according to which seven attachment dimensions constitute the knowledge core of personality. We finally discuss the significant implications of the model, especially its clinical application in terms of conception, assessment, and treatment of mental disorders. The model can be empirically tested, and we suggest three ways to do that.