Social class ranks people on the social ladder of society, and in this research we examine how perceptions of economic standing shape the way that individuals evaluate the self. Given that reminders of one's own subordinate status in society are an indicator of how society values the self in comparison to others, we predicted that chronic lower perceptions of economic standing vis-à-vis others ...

Parents and adolescents often hold discrepant views about the family environment and these discrepancies may in turn influence adolescents' psychological adjustment. The current study examined how adolescent-parent perceptions of family routines and chaos, and their congruence and incongruence, relate to adolescents' self-reported psychological adjustment (depressive symptoms and perceived stre...

This study investigated the illness perceptions of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and whether perceptions are influenced by type of treatment for proliferative lupus nephritis. In addition, the illness perceptions of SLE patients were compared with those of patients with other chronic illnesses. Thirty-two patients who had experienced at least one episode of proliferative lupu...

High successful applications of soft computing and fuzzy logic can be found in engineering disciplines. Current research is done for computational subject, e. g. computing with words, or computing with colors, which is one of the new ideas for the processing of color information. The main fact of this approach is the adequate representation of color and its linguistic description. This approach...

Linguistic variables are reviewed and some aspects of the original definition revisited, showing that they provide a first formal frame to do computing with words in a “narrow sense”. A two-levels hierarchy of languages is discussed in order to move to simple cases of computing with words in natural language, supported by linguistic variables.

The aims of this study were 1) to explore the degree of concordance/discordance between the illness perceptions of patients with a chronic illness and those of their partners, and 2) to examine the relationship between the concordance/discordance of couples' illness perceptions and social support exchange processes. In a cross-sectional study, 119 chronic patients and their partners completed q...

Surveys have revealed that nonusers of hearing aids frequently hold negative perceptions of hearing aid users (the "hearing aid effect"). This study involved the use of both objective and subjective approaches in measuring the perceptions of older females toward hearing aid wearers. Twenty older females rated an aided and unaided peer after reading to them. Between-group differences were insign...

BACKGROUND Medical schools may select students for their attitudes towards rural medical practice, yet the rural-urban disparity in availability of medical practitioners and services has not diminished in recent times despite government initiatives and increasing numbers being trained for a career in medicine. One medical school, with a focus on rural and remote medicine, aims to select student...

BACKGROUND Interest in nephrology careers among internal medicine residents in the United States is declining. Our objective was to assess the impact of the presence of a nephrology fellowship training program on perceptions and career interest in nephrology among internal medicine residents. A secondary objective was to identify commonly endorsed negative perceptions of nephrology among intern...