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Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence 2023We review and critically assess several issues arising from the potential -large-scale- implementation or deployment of Large Language Models (LLMs) in society. These...
We review and critically assess several issues arising from the potential -large-scale- implementation or deployment of Large Language Models (LLMs) in society. These include security, political, economic, cultural, and educational issues as well as issues concerning social biases, creativity, copyright, and freedom of speech. We argue, without a preconceived pessimism toward these tools, that they may bring about many benefits. However, we also call for a balance assessment of their downsides. While our work is only preliminary and certainly partial it nevertheless holds some value as one of the first exploratory attempts in the literature.
PubMed: 37396972
DOI: 10.3389/frai.2023.1130913 -
Mayo Clinic Proceedings Feb 2000
Topics: Humans; MMPI; Mortality; Predictive Value of Tests; Temperament
PubMed: 10683649
DOI: 10.4065/75.2.133 -
Scientific Reports Jul 2020Scores on an optimistic-pessimistic personality scale have been associated with mortality, but optimism and pessimism scores are separable traits and it is unclear which...
Scores on an optimistic-pessimistic personality scale have been associated with mortality, but optimism and pessimism scores are separable traits and it is unclear which has effects on health or longevity. The Life Orientation Test (LOT), containing items for optimism and pessimism, was included in a twin study on health of Australians aged over 50 in 1993-1995. After a mean of 20 years, participants were matched against death information from the Australian National Death Index. 1,068 out of 2,978 participants with useable LOT scores had died. Survival analysis tested for associations between separate optimism and pessimism scores and mortality from any cause, and from cancers, cardiovascular diseases or other known causes. Age-adjusted scores on the pessimism scale were associated with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality (Hazard Ratios per 1 standard deviation unit, 95% confidence intervals and p-values 1.134, 1.065-1.207, 8.85 × 10 and 1.196, 1.045-1.368, 0.0093, respectively) but not with cancer deaths. Optimism scores, which were only weakly correlated with pessimism scores (age-adjusted rank correlation = - 0.176), did not show significant associations with overall or cause-specific mortality. Reverse causation (disease causing pessimism) is unlikely because in that case both cardiovascular diseases and cancers would be expected to lead to pessimism.
Topics: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Body Mass Index; Cardiovascular Diseases; Female; Humans; Kaplan-Meier Estimate; Male; Middle Aged; Optimism; Pessimism; Proportional Hazards Models
PubMed: 32724068
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-69388-y -
Arthritis Research & Therapy Mar 2012The therapeutic response to a drug treatment is a mixture of direct pharmacological action and placebo effect. Therefore, harnessing the positive aspects of the placebo... (Review)
Review
The therapeutic response to a drug treatment is a mixture of direct pharmacological action and placebo effect. Therefore, harnessing the positive aspects of the placebo effect and reducing the negative ones could potentially benefit the patient. This article is aimed at providing an overview for clinicians of the importance of contextual psychosocial variables in determining treatment response, and the specific focus is on determinants of the placebo response. A better understanding of the physiological, psychological, and social mechanisms of placebo may aid in predicting which contexts have the greatest potential for inducing positive treatment responses. We examine the evidence for the role of psychological traits, including optimism, pessimism, and the effect of patient expectations on therapeutic outcome. We discuss the importance of the patient-practitioner relationship and how this can be used to enhance the placebo effect, and we consider the ethical challenges of using placebos in clinical practice.
Topics: Analgesics; Animals; Cognition; Humans; Pain; Personality; Physician-Patient Relations; Placebo Effect; Treatment Outcome
PubMed: 22494482
DOI: 10.1186/ar3783 -
Aging & Mental Health Jun 2023The relationship between optimism and cognitive functioning is not fully understood. We examined the association of optimism with risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI)...
OBJECTIVES
The relationship between optimism and cognitive functioning is not fully understood. We examined the association of optimism with risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia in the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS).
METHODS
Optimism was measured by the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R) total score, and optimism and pessimism subscales. A panel of experts adjudicated cognitive endpoints based on annual cognitive assessments. We used cox proportional hazard regression models to examine the association of LOT-R total score and optimism and pessimism sub-scores with MCI/dementia. We also examined the relationship between vascular disease, LOT-R total score, optimism and pessimism, and cognition.
RESULTS
Mean age was 70.5 (SD = 3.9) years. The sample ( = 7249) was 87% white, and 29.8% of participants had < 12 years of education. Total LOT-R score (HR = 0.96, 95% CI: 0.94, 0.98, < 0.001) was associated with lower risk of combined MCI or dementia. More pessimism (HR = 1.08, 95% CI: 1.05, 1.11, < 0.0001) was associated with higher risk of MCI or dementia after adjustment for ethnicity, education, vascular disease, and depression. No significant relationships emerged from the optimism subscale.
CONCLUSION
These data suggest that less pessimism, but not more optimism, was associated with a lower risk of MCI and dementia.
Topics: Humans; Female; Aged; Postmenopause; Cognitive Dysfunction; Cognition Disorders; Optimism; Dementia; Vascular Diseases
PubMed: 35694859
DOI: 10.1080/13607863.2022.2084710 -
Information Processing & Management May 2022This paper proposes a new deep learning approach to better understand how optimistic and pessimistic feelings are conveyed in Twitter conversations about COVID-19. A...
This paper proposes a new deep learning approach to better understand how optimistic and pessimistic feelings are conveyed in Twitter conversations about COVID-19. A pre-trained transformer embedding is used to extract the semantic features and several network architectures are compared. Model performance is evaluated on two new, publicly available Twitter corpora of crisis-related posts. The best performing pessimism and optimism detection models are based on bidirectional long- and short-term memory networks. Experimental results on four periods of the COVID-19 pandemic show how the proposed approach can model optimism and pessimism in the context of a health crisis. There is a total of 150,503 tweets and 51,319 unique users. Conversations are characterised in terms of emotional signals and shifts to unravel empathy and support mechanisms. Conversations with stronger pessimistic signals denoted little emotional shift (i.e. 62.21% of these conversations experienced almost no change in emotion). In turn, only 10.42% of the conversations laying more on the optimistic side maintained the mood. User emotional volatility is further linked with social influence.
PubMed: 36569234
DOI: 10.1016/j.ipm.2022.102918 -
Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine 2019Depression is a common mental disorder seen across all age groups, including children and adolescents. Depression is often associated with significant disability in... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
Depression is a common mental disorder seen across all age groups, including children and adolescents. Depression is often associated with significant disability in children and adolescents.
AIM
This review aims to evaluate the Indian research on depression in children and adolescents.
RESULTS
Available data suggest that the point prevalence of depression/affective disorders ranges from 1.2% to 21% in the clinic-based studies; 3%-68% in school-based studies and 0.1%-6.94% in community studies. There has been only one incidence study from India which estimated the incidence to be 1.6%. With respect to the risk factors for depression, studies have reported various education-related difficulties, relationship issues with parents or at home, family-related issues, economic difficulties, and other factors. A limited number of studies have evaluated the symptom profile, and the commonly reported symptoms include depressed mood, diminished interest in play activities, concentration difficulties, behavior problems in the form of anger and aggression, pessimism, decreased appetite, decreased sleep, anhedonia, and somatic symptoms. None of the studies from India has evaluated the efficacy/effectiveness of various antidepressants in children and adolescents with depression.
CONCLUSION
There is a wide variation in the point prevalence reported across different studies, which is mainly due to methodological differences across studies. Limited data are available with respect to symptom profile and factors associated with depression in children and adolescents.
PubMed: 31142922
DOI: 10.4103/IJPSYM.IJPSYM_5_19 -
Health Psychology : Official Journal of... Sep 2022To test whether 2 conceptually overlapping constructs, dispositional optimism (generalized positive expectations) and optimistic bias (inaccurately low risk...
OBJECTIVE
To test whether 2 conceptually overlapping constructs, dispositional optimism (generalized positive expectations) and optimistic bias (inaccurately low risk perceptions), may have different implications for smoking treatment engagement.
METHOD
Predominantly Black, low-income Southern Community Cohort study smokers (n = 880) self-reported dispositional optimism and pessimism (Life Orientation Test-Revised subscales: 0 = neutral, 12 = high optimism/pessimism), comparative lung cancer risk (Low/Average/High), and information to calculate objective lung cancer risk (Low/Med/High). Perceived risk was categorized as accurate (perceived = objective), optimistically-biased (perceived < objective), or pessimistically-biased (perceived > objective). One-way ANOVAs tested associations between dispositional optimism/pessimism and perceived risk accuracy. Multivariable logistic regressions tested independent associations of optimism/pessimism and perceived risk accuracy with cessation motivation (Low/High), confidence (Low/High), and precision treatment attitudes (Favorable/Unfavorable), controlling for sociodemographics and nicotine dependence.
RESULTS
Mean dispositional optimism/pessimism scores were 8.41 ( = 2.59) and 5.65 ( = 3.02), respectively. Perceived lung cancer risk was 38% accurate, 27% optimistically-biased, and 35% pessimistically-biased. Accuracy was unrelated to dispositional optimism ((2, 641) = 1.23, = .29), though optimistically-biased (vs. pessimistically-biased) smokers had higher dispositional pessimism ((2, 628) = 3.17, = .043). Dispositional optimism was associated with higher confidence (Adjusted odds ratio [A] = 1.71, 95% CI [1.42, 2.06], < .001) and favorable precision treatment attitudes (A = 1.66, 95% CI [1.37, 2.01], < .001). Optimistically-biased (vs. accurate) risk perception was associated with lower motivation (A = .64, 95% CI [.42, .98], = .041) and less favorable precision treatment attitudes (A = .59, 95% CI [.38, .94], = .029).
CONCLUSIONS
Dispositional optimism and lung cancer risk perception accuracy were unrelated. Dispositional optimism was associated with favorable engagement-related outcomes and optimistically-biased risk perception with unfavorable outcomes, reinforcing the distinctiveness of these constructs and their implications for smoking treatment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
Topics: Cohort Studies; Humans; Lung Neoplasms; Motivation; Optimism; Personality
PubMed: 35901400
DOI: 10.1037/hea0001184 -
The American Psychologist Dec 2018Dispositional optimism is the generalized, relatively stable tendency to expect good outcomes across important life domains. This article provides a representative... (Review)
Review
Dispositional optimism is the generalized, relatively stable tendency to expect good outcomes across important life domains. This article provides a representative review of 30 years of research on dispositional optimism and physical well-being. Assessment of optimism is described, along with data regarding its stability. A review of the research linking optimism and physical health is then presented. Included in the review are initial studies suggesting that optimism and physical well-being might be linked as well as more recent, larger scale epidemiological studies that make the point more emphatically. Also considered are potential pathways-behavioral, biological, and social-that might explain these associations. The article concludes with a brief look to the future, describing several issues and questions that still need to be answered. These questions include the relationship of optimism and pessimism to each other (and the implications of that relationship for physical well-being), the origins of optimism and pessimism, and interventions that might be implemented to reduce the negative impact of a pessimistic outlook. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).
Topics: Attitude to Health; Health; Health Behavior; Humans; Optimism; Personality
PubMed: 30525784
DOI: 10.1037/amp0000384 -
Indian Journal of Nephrology 2023Shortage of organ donors is the most important obstacle standing in the way of lifesaving organ transplantation in a myriad of patients suffering from end-stage organ... (Review)
Review
Shortage of organ donors is the most important obstacle standing in the way of lifesaving organ transplantation in a myriad of patients suffering from end-stage organ failure. It is vital that the transplant societies and associated appropriate authorities develop strategies to overcome the unmet needs for organ donation. The power of prominent social media (SoMe) platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, which reach millions of people, can increase awareness, provide education, and may ameliorate the pessimism toward organ donation among the general population. Additionally, public solicitation of organs may be helpful for waitlisted candidates for organ transplantation, who cannot find a suitable donor among near relations. However, the use of SoMe for organ donation has several ethical issues. This review attempts to highlight the advantages and limitations of using social media in the context of organ donation for transplantation. Some suggestions on the best utilization of social media platforms for organ donation while balancing ethical considerations have been highlighted here.
PubMed: 37197042
DOI: 10.4103/ijn.ijn_158_22