Antonovsky introduced the salutogenic model whose aim is to explain the origins of health and to describe how health can be promoted. Sense of coherence (SOC) is the core concept in the model and is defined as the degree of meaningfulness, comprehensibility, and manageability that people feel in their life. The aim of this article is to bring attention to some topics on SOC that need to be explored in future research. First, SOC and how it is measured are briefly described. Thereafter, there is a brief discussion of the following seven topics: (a) the dimensionality of the SOC scale, (b) SOC as the causal variable, (c) SOC as the outcome variable, (d) general SOC versus domain-specific SOC, (e) the concept of boundary in the measurement of SOC, (f) SOC as a continuous versus a dichotomized or trichotomized variable, and (g) the importance of relating SOC to salutogenic outcome measures. In conclusion, the salutogenic model, with its core concept of SOC, is an excellent guide for research on health and well-being, but there are still some parts of this model that deserve further theoretical and empirical attention.
This study seeks to describe how the composition of the physical care environment conditions relatives' involvement in nursing home institutions. It is well known that the physical care environment in institutions has a significant impact on the well-being of residents and the work satisfaction of nursing staff. Less explored is how physical care environmental factors are related to the involvement of relatives in nursing homes. A visual analysis of 52 photographs from three nursing homes in Sweden shows how the physical environment acts to condition the involvement of relatives through the use of design, information displays, and cultural symbols. Although various aspects of the physical environment promoted participation of relatives, that engagement was based on certain limited concepts of involvement. This suggests that other conceptual frameworks of involvement in nursing homes are possible, and that these might encourage other aspects of involvement from the relatives of nursing home residents.
Japan has become a super-aged society, facing demographic challenges resulting in societal and economic consequences. In its political structural reform, the Japanese government presented the urgency to consider the increase in labor mobility that includes the issues of immigration and female employment, both domestic and foreign. The aim of this study was to explore, from a Japanese woman’s perspective, the intertwined issues of immigration. An in-depth interview was performed and analyzed by content analysis with a methodological departure in qualitative journalistic interviewing. The case was a Japanese woman with a unique profile. The results of this study, family permanency and group cohesiveness, can contribute to understand the potential interdependency between the roles, within the Japanese society, of foreign female domestic workers and Japanese women. In conclusion, it appears that the pivotal role of women in the Japanese society and the global feminization of migration challenge Japanese social consistency.
The purpose of this study was to describe the psychosocial experience of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ nurses upon their return from deployment at an Ebola Treatment Center during an Ebola virus disease outbreak in Kenema, Sierra Leone, between 2014 and 2015. The following three psychosocial aspects related to pre-, during, and postdeployment were explored: stress management, sociocultural exposure, and attitudes from others. This is a descriptive qualitative study with a cross-sectional design. Questionnaires were administered to 50 nurses, of which 44 responded. Eight themes were identified in relation to the three psychosocial aspects of interest: professional- and self-confidence, pragmatism, wellness activities, human contact, cultural competency, professionalism, pariah, and/or hero. One of the most important findings in this article relates to the essential mental health support pre- and during deployment with an emphasis upon return when the risk of isolation and stigmatization is greater. In conclusion, more research is needed about the psychosocial challenges met by nurses to prepare and support them as increasing threat of emerging infectious diseases puts pressure on global health systems.
This article, based on experimental evidence, reports insights into how chief financial officers-experts-and master's students in accountingnovicesperceive economic rationality within the field of accounting. Based on the prospect theory and the fourfold pattern, four scenarios, covering everyday business situations, are used as a measurement instrument for capturing the experimental subjects' perception of economic rationality. The findings of the article indicate that the experts and the novices seem to be more economically rational when it comes to dealing with risk and uncertainty related to gains than when dealing with risk and uncertainty associated with losses. Furthermore, the novices tend to deal with the sunk-cost fallacy in a more economically rational way than the experts. From an economically rational point of view, mental accounting should not be particularly important in accounting judgment and decision making, but sometimes the experimental subjects seem to frame the scenario/issue at hand in mental-accounting terms.