The purpose of this paper is to present a general mechanistic framework for analyzing causal representational claims, and offer a way to distinguish genuinely representational explanations from those that invoke representations for honorific purposes. It is usually agreed that rats are capable of navigation because they maintain a cognitive map of their environment. Exactly how and why their neural states give rise to mental representations is a matter of an ongoing debate. I will show that anticipatory mechanisms involved in rats’ (...) evaluation of possible routes give rise to satisfaction conditions of contents, and this is why they are representationally relevant for explaining and predicting rats’ behavior. I argue that a naturalistic account of satisfaction conditions of contents answers the most important objections of antirepresentationalists. (shrink)

Welfare is at least occasionally a temporal phenomenon: welfare benefits befall me at certain times. But this fact seems to present a problem for a desire-satisfaction view. Assume that I desire, at 10am, January 12th, 2010, to climb Mount Everest sometime during 2012. Also assume, however, that during 2011, my desires undergo a shift: I no longer desire to climb Mount Everest during 2012. In fact, I develop an aversion to so doing. Imagine, however, that despite my aversion, I (...) am forced to climb Mount Everest. Does climbing Mount Everest benefit me? If so, when? A natural answer seems to be that if in fact it does benefit me, it benefits me at no particular time, and hence the desire-satisfaction view cannot accommodate the phenomenon of temporal welfare. In this paper, I argue, first, that a desire-satisfaction view can accommodate the phenomenon of temporal welfare only by accepting what I call the “time-of-desire” view: that p benefits x at t only if x desires p at t . Second, I argue that this view can be defended from important objections. (shrink)

Desire satisfaction theories of well-being and deprivationism about the badness of death face similar problems: desire satisfaction theories have trouble locating the time when the satisfaction of a future or past-directed desire benefits a person; deprivationism has trouble locating a time when death is bad for a person. I argue that desire satisfaction theorists and deprivation theorists can address their respective timing problems by accepting fusionism, the view that some events benefit or harm individuals only at (...) fusions of moments in time. Fusionism improves on existing solutions to the timing problem for deprivationism because it locates death’s badness at the same time as both the victim of death and death itself, and it accounts for all of the ways that death is bad for a person. Fusionism improves on existing solutions to the problem of temporally locating the benefit of future and past-directed desires because it respects several attractive principles, including the view that the intrinsic value of a time for someone is determined solely by states of affairs that obtain at that time and the view that intrinsically beneficial events benefit a person when they occur. (shrink)

This research characterizes and compares the job satisfaction of fitness professionals in Portugal between genders, ages, professional experience, professional title, and educational qualifications. A total of 401 fitness professionals answered the online questionnaire Job Satisfaction Scale, which has 16 factors rated on a Likert scale with seven levels. The statistical analysis comprises descriptive and statistical tests to compare the results of two (t-test) or more (ANOVA) groups. Overall, the results demonstrated that fitness professionals were moderately satisfied with their (...) work. The lower degrees of job satisfaction were concerning salary, opportunities for promotion, and stability at work. The highest levels of job satisfaction were related to the freedom to choose their work method, their work colleagues, the physical conditions of their workplace, and the opportunity to use their competencies. There were no differences in job satisfaction in terms of gender and a few differences between professional title and between educational levels. Regarding age and professional experience, the results showed significant differences in almost all factors, suggesting that, as fitness professionals get older and more experienced, their job satisfaction is greater. The results of this study suggest that even though fitness professionals are, in general, moderately satisfied with their work, some aspects can be improved by employers to increase their satisfaction levels. Such findings would assist employers in guiding the job satisfaction of their employees with consequent enhancements in the services provided by fitness professionals, which can increase participants’ retention in exercise fitness activities. (shrink)

‘Patient satisfaction’: Knowledge for ruling hospital reform — An institutional ethnography Driven by funding restraint, Canadian health‐care has undergone over a decade of significant reform. Hospitals are being restructured, as text‐based practices of accountability bring a new business‐orientation into hospital and clinical management. New forms of knowledge, generated through records of various sorts, are a necessary resource for managing care in the new environment. This paper's research uses Canadian sociologist Dorothy E. Smith's institutional ethnographic methodology to critically analyse one (...) instance of text‐based management. I analyse information about ‘patient satisfaction’ as it is generated through a patient survey (in which I was implicated through my involvement with a hospitalized family member). Subsequently, I have studied the management environment into which that information would be entered. I argue that in the instance analysed, the information becomes part of a dominant consumer oriented healthcare discourse that subordinates concerns about ‘what actually happened’ as a professional caregiver would have known it. On this basis, I contend that this sort of taken‐for‐granted approach to making decisions about quality care in hospitals may be seriously, even dangerously, flawed. (shrink)

This article sets down the foundations of a research project on Health and Physical Education (HPE) teachers’ job satisfaction and job embededness. According to the literature, HPE teachers has a weak status inside and outside school which may conduct to professional marginalization. After describing the situation of the teaching profession in the province of Québec, the focus is directed toward HPE as a teaching specialty. A conceptual framework that articulates job satisfaction and job embededness models is then proposed. (...) In conclusion of this theoretical reflexion, considering the actual teacher shortage, school organizations are invited to adhere to a more sustainable approach of teaching resources management. (shrink)

Latin-American immigration has transformed Chilean schools into new multicultural scenarios. Studies about intergroup dynamics among students from different cultural backgrounds and their psychological consequences are still limited in south–south migration contexts. Literature has suggested that intergroup relations influence students’ satisfaction with school, and they could be improved by the development of competences to cope with cultural differences. This study aims to verify if cultural self-efficacy and its dimensions mediated the influence of prejudice on satisfaction with school, in a (...) sample composed byN= 690 Chilean and Latin-American immigrant secondary students. Results showed that cultural self-efficacy reduced the effect of prejudice in satisfaction with school, in the cases of both immigrant and Chilean students. The dimensions of cultural self-efficacy in processing information from other cultures and mixing with different others make the difference. Findings’ contributions for the understanding of adolescents’ intergroup relations and psychosocial interventions at school are discussed. (shrink)

We develop the theory of partial satisfaction relations for structures that may be proper classes and define a satisfaction predicate ($\models^*$) appropriate to such structures. We indicate the utility of this theory as a framework for the development of the metatheory of first-order predicate logic and set theory, and we use it to prove that for any recursively enumerable extension $\Theta$ of ZF there is a finitely axiomatizable extension $\Theta'$ of GB that is a conservative extension of $\Theta$. (...) We also prove a conservative extension result that justifies the use of $\models^*$ to characterize ground models for forcing constructions. (shrink)

Background Informed consent is a process in which a healthcare provider obtains permission from an individual prior to surgery. Patient satisfaction with the informed consent process is one of the main indicators of healthcare service quality. This study aimed to assess patient satisfaction with surgical informed consent at Jimma Medical Center, Ethiopia, in 2020. Methods A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted from April 1 to June 30, 2020, at Jimma Medical Center. Face-to-face interviews were conducted using structured questionnaires. (...) A systematic sampling technique was used to select the study participants. The collected data were coded, entered into Epi data version 3.1, and analyzed using SPSS version 25. Bivariate and multivariate regression analyses were performed to determine the association between patient satisfaction and socio-demographic and facility-related factors. In multivariate regression, predictors with a P-value of < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results Totally 372 study participants were interviewed with a response rate of 97.8%. Nearly two-fifths (43%) of patients were satisfied with surgical informed consent. Living in an urban area (AOR: 2.279, 95% CI 1.257–4.131), having current referred history (AOR: 1.856, 95% CI 1.033–3.337), consent form version (AOR: 2.076, 95% CI 1.143–3.773), time spent on the provision of informed consent (AOR: 5.227, 95% CI 2.499–10.936) and having better patient-health providers relationship (AOR: 5.419, 95% CI 3.103–9.464) predictors were positively associated with patient satisfaction. Conclusion Patient satisfaction with the surgical informed consent process was relatively low. Therefore, Health care professionals need to emphasize a way of delivering informed consent, patients' needs and obey a standard informed consent to improve patient satisfaction. (shrink)

Student satisfaction measures serve to provide a measure of ‘quality’ in the current audit culture of universities. This paper argues that the form of satisfaction valued within contemporary Higher Education amounts to a form of settling, where the primary aim is to settle the students’ expectations, and meet their needs. Drawing initially on the etymology of ‘satisfaction’, the paper then turns to the work of Martin Heidegger and his notion of the ‘uncanny’, to discuss how we are (...) ontologically unsettled. The uncanny will be discussed in relation to the Greek play Antigone, and illustrated with examples from the novel Stoner. In provoking angst or anxiety by leaving students ‘unsettled’ in terms of their thinking, this may open students up to a consideration of more ontological concerns – within their Higher Education but also in their lives more generally. (shrink)

The tenuous claims of cost-benefit analysis to guide policy so as to promote welfare turn on measuring welfare by preference satisfaction and taking willingness-to-pay to indicate preferences. Yet it is obvious that people's preferences are not always self-interested and that false beliefs may lead people to prefer what is worse for them even when people are self-interested. So welfare is not preference satisfaction, and hence it appears that cost-benefit analysis and welfare economics in general rely on a mistaken (...) theory of well-being. This essay explores the difficulties, criticizes standard defences of welfare economics, and then offers a new partial defence that maintains that welfare economics is independent of any philosophical theory of well-being. Welfare economics requires nothing more than anevidentialconnection between preference and welfare: in circumstances in which people are concerned with their own interests and reasonably good judges of what will serve their interests, their preferences will be reliable indicators of what is good for them. (shrink)

In comparison with a highest attainable good, a future of everlasting progress may appear subjectively dissatisfying or objectively deficient. This is the satisfaction problem. I defend the progressive view against three strands of the satisfaction problem and argue that the notion of a highest good faces a satisfaction problem of its own.

Early intervention is developed following different types of service organization, which in turn require different professional and family roles. The aim of this study was to compare the perceived satisfaction and family quality of life amongst families receiving early intervention developed at centers in comparison to those receiving the routines-based early intervention in families’ homes, that is a family centered intervention in ecological environments. Under a transformative paradigm, a mixed methods design was used, using the Consumer Report Effectiveness Scale (...) (CRES-4) and the Beach Center Family Quality of Life Scale (FQOLS) and two focus groups as data collection instruments. The sample comprised 166 parents in the quantitative phase and 16 parents in the qualitative phase. Results showed that families receiving routines-based early intervention had greater satisfaction with the service although both groups showed similar scores for family quality of life in most of the analyzed domains. Three dimensions were identified throughout the qualitative phase: problem solving, professional team and service organization. Both the models analyzed have an impact on family quality of life and parents are in general satisfied. Strengths and weaknesses were found related to the problem-solving process, the role of the professional team, family empowerment and the service’s organization. The areas requiring further development are the effective training of professionals focused on family practices, the exchange of information with the family and a more participatory organization that takes parent’s perspectives into consideration. The value given to a combined model is another aspect highlighted in this study, as well as the need for a more agile assessment period to avoid unnecessary delays. (shrink)

La Philosophie du Procès est une doctrine dynamique de l’individu. Chaque individu, chaque entité actuelle exprime l’Univers tout entier, mais chaque individu vit et existe en vue de l’expression de soi d’autres individus. L’accomplissement de l’entité actuelle en elle-même est la satisfaction; le mouvement d’objectivation de soi par lequel elle se transcende pour servir à la détermination et à l’accomplissement d’une autre est la décision.

Research indicates that greater involvement in religion may be associated with better physical health. The purpose of this study is to see if the satisfaction of spiritual needs is associated with health. This model that contains the following core hypotheses: Individuals who attend church more often are more likely to receive spiritual support from fellow church members than people who attend worship services less frequently ; receiving more spiritual support is associated with stronger feelings of belonging in a congregation; (...) individuals who feel they belong in their congregations are more likely to feel their spiritual needs have been met; and people who feel their spiritual needs have been met are more likely to rate their health in a favorable manner. The data provide support for each of these relationships. (shrink)

The economic theory of the consumer, which assumes individual satisfaction as its goal and individual freedom to pursue satisfaction as its sine qua non, has become an important ideological element in political economy. Some have argued that the political dimension of economics has evolved into a kind of “secular theology” that legitimates free market capitalism, which has become a kind of “religion” in the United States [Nelson: 1991, Reaching for Heaven on Earth: The Theological Meaning of Economics. (Rowman (...) & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, Savage, Maryland); 2001, Economics as Religion: From Samuelson to Chicago and Beyond (The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, Pennsylvania); Thurow: 1983, Dangerous Currents: The State of Economics (Random House, New York); Milbank: 1990, Theology and Social Theory, Beyond Secular Reason (Basil Blackwell, Cambridge, Massachusetts)]. Consumer theory in its ideological form provides an important base for this religion and is no longer merely a positive framework for understanding consumer choice or estimating market demand. The paper explores the view of the human being, the “anthropology,” that is implicit in the economic theory of the consumer and compares its “theological” implications with the corresponding theological anthropologies in the Judaeo-Christian tradition. The paper outlines the assumptions of consumer theory and then focuses on three aspects of the theory from a critical theological perspective: the individual in community, property ownership, and human destiny (or “eschatology” in theological terminology). The principal conclusion is that consumer theory, viewed from this perspective, leads to a reductionist and existentially harmful view of human beings. The maximization of individual satisfaction raises genuine ethical issues when viewed as a political and religious value. The paper argues that the issues could be ameliorated if economists would include more explicit treatment of a social dimension and ethical alternatives in consumer theory and if theologians would give greater attention to economic theory. (shrink)

Life satisfaction is widely considered to be a central aspect of human welfare. Many have identified happiness with it, and some maintain that well-being consists largely or wholly in being satisfied with one’s life. Empirical research on well-being relies heavily on life satisfaction studies. The paper contends that life satisfaction attitudes are less important, and matter for different reasons, than is widely believed. For such attitudes are appropriately governed by ethical norms and are perspectival in ways that (...) make the relationship between life satisfaction and welfare far more convoluted than we tend to expect. And the common identification of life satisfaction with happiness, as well as widespread views about the centrality of life satisfaction for well-being, are problematical at best. The argument also reveals an unexpected way in which philosophical ethics can inform scientific psychology: specifically, ethical reflection can help explain empirical results insofar as they depend on people’s values. (shrink)

According to a well-established view of desire satisfaction, a desire that p is satisfied iff p obtains. Call this the 'standard view'. The standard view is purely semantic, which means the satisfaction condition of desires is placed in the truth of the embedded proposition that indicates the content of the desire. This paper aims to defend the standard view against two frequently discussed problems: the problem of underspecification and desires conditional on their own persistence. The former holds that (...) the standard view cannot capture the specific ways of desire satisfaction. The latter holds that the standard view does not provide sufficient conditions for the satisfaction of desires conditional on their own persistence. To address the first problem, I will disambiguate different interpretations of desire ascriptions using de re/de dicto distinction. My argument to address the second problem rests on the disambiguation of different senses of satisfaction: semantic and agent. (shrink)

Satisfaction with life is a core dimension of well-being that can be of great importance in the workplace, in light of the close link between worker health and organizational success highlighted by the perspective of healthy organizations. This study aimed at analyzing the factors associated with satisfaction with life, focusing on the role of resilience, career adaptability, self-efficacy, and years of education. A sample of 315 workers filled out the Satisfaction with Life Scale, General Self-Efficacy Scale, Career (...) Adapt-Abilities Scale, the 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and a demographic questionnaire. Data were analyzed by implementing a chained mediation model. Results showed a significant and positive relationship between resilience and satisfaction with life, partially moderated by the chained effect of career adaptability and self-efficacy, controlling for education. When inserted as a covariate, education showed a significant and negative association with satisfaction with life. Such findings contribute to enriching the field of research on the factors that contribute to the well-being of workers and may have important practical implications for interventions in organizations. (shrink)

We show that for every countable recursively saturated model M of Peano arithmetic and every subset A⊆M, there exists a full satisfaction class SA⊆M2 such that A is definable in (M,SA) without parameters. It follows that in every such model, there exists a full satisfaction class which makes every element definable, and thus the expanded model is minimal and rigid. On the other hand, as observed by Roman Kossak, for every full satisfaction class S there are two (...) elements which have the same arithmetical type, but exactly one of them is in S. In particular, the automorphism group of a model expanded with a satisfaction class is never equal to the automorphism group of the original model. The analogue of the first result proved here for full satisfaction classes was obtained also by Roman Kossak for partial inductive satisfaction classes. However, the proof relied on the induction scheme in a crucial way, so recapturing the result in the setting of full satisfaction classes requires quite different arguments. (shrink)

Respecting privacy and patients’ satisfaction are amongst the main indicators of quality of care and one of the basic goals of health services. This study, carried out in 2007, aimed to investigate the extent to which patient privacy is observed and its correlation with patient satisfaction in three emergency departments of Tehran University of Medical Science, Iran. Questionnaire data were collected from a convenience sample of 360 patients admitted to emergency departments and analysed using SPSS software. The results (...) indicated that, according to 50.6% of the patients, the extent to which their privacy was respected was described as either ‘weak’ or ‘average’. Spearman’s coefficient indicated a significant correlation between respecting privacy and the patients’ satisfaction about the various aspects of privacy studied. Considering the levels of privacy observed together with the patients’ degree of satisfaction, it is imperative that clinical professionals address both aspects from conceptual and practical viewpoints. (shrink)

The aim of this research is to examine the relationships between authenticity, subjective happiness, and life satisfaction. The participants were 347 university students. In this study, the Authenticity Scale, the Subjective Happiness Scale, and Satisfaction with Life Scale were used. The relationships between authenticity, subjective happiness and life satisfaction were examined using correlation analysis and Structural Equation Model. In correlation analysis, authentic living was found positively related to subjective happiness. On the other hand, self-alienation, accepting external influence (...) was found negatively correlated to subjective happiness. Besides subjective happiness and life satisfaction have positive relation. Structural Equation Model showed that self-alienation, accepting external influence results in a decrease subjective happiness on life satisfaction whereas rise in authentic living lead to subjective happiness, so subjective happiness also brings life satisfaction. According to standardized beta coefficients, the most significant predictor of subjective happiness was self-alienation. Results were discussed in the light of the related literature. (shrink)

The results of an exploratory study examining the role of trust in stakeholder satisfaction are reported. Customers, stockholders, and employees of financial institutions were surveyed to identify management behaviors that lead to stakeholder satisfaction. The factors critical to satisfaction across stakeholder groups are the timeliness of communication, the honesty and completeness of the information and the empathy and equity of treatment by management.

The science of well-being studies an evaluative kind, well-being, which raises natural worries about the ability of empirical research to deliver. This paper argues that well-being research can provide important information about how people are doing without entangling itself very deeply in controversial normative claims. Most life satisfaction research, for instance, purports only to tell us how people see their lives going relative to what they care about ? something most people can agree is important, whatever their theory of (...) well-being. At the same time, such research can mislead if it does not in fact have the significance it seems to have. Life satisfaction measures in fact have this problem: life satisfaction attitudes have deep in-principle limitations in their ability to reflect the subjective quality of people's lives, for instance because they are only weakly constrained by the facts about how people see their lives going. You might, e.g., reasonably be satisfied with your life even if you think it's going badly for you. I propose largely replacing such measures with aggregate life evaluation measures, which dispense with both the global judgment and ?satisfaction? elements of life satisfaction. (shrink)

Traditionally, research focused on determining the causes of employee pay satisfaction has investigated the influence of job-related inputs, both extrinsic and intrinsic to the job itself. Together with these inputs, pay-related fairness issues have played an important role in explaining the phenomenon. However, few studies consider the factors linked to fairness issues, such as ethical leadership. Because ethical leadership necessarily entails the concept of fairness, it seemingly should have a positive effect. Furthermore, because the presence of supervisor ethical leadership (...) (SEL) offers strong chances for employees to achieve moral accomplishments and excel in the practice of their jobs, SEL should enhance the effects of intrinsic job inputs. Whereas high job motivating potential (JMP) makes it easier for employees be self-actualized, moral fulfillment is necessary for them to obtain authentic self-actualization at work and minimize the impact of pay deficiencies. Along with SEL, JMP should be shaped to increase positive experiences of job meaningfulness, responsibility for job outcomes, and knowledge of results at work, which can lead to enjoyment in doing the job in itself, not just for compensation-related motives. Hierarchical regression analysis with a sample of 151 employees in a diverse set of Spanish organizations supports the direct effects of JMP and SEL and shows that higher levels of SEL increase the positive effects of JMP on pay satisfaction. The practical implications of these findings and further research directions conclude this article. (shrink)

Anti-capitalist thinkers in the West have long argued that the expansion of markets creates new wants faster than it can satisfy them, and that consumption under capitalism is a form of addictive behavior. Recently, however, the relentless expansion of desire has come to be seen as a strength rather than a weakness of capitalist regimes. To understand this change socialists must consider whether there is a point to consumer spending that goes beyond satisfaction with what one gets. Freud's notion (...) of instinctual ambivalence illuminates the ways in which spending itself is a fusion of the desires to lose and to gain. This helps to explain how the socialist distinction between satisfying and addictive consumption misses the mark. Broadening this insight, we can see that Western thought about justice, originating in Judeo-Christian theology, conceals a fundamental ambivalence about both domination and gain by suggesting that inequality (beginning with that between God and man) is justified when the dominating party loses and the gainer submits. Ironically, however, the new post-utilitarian rationale for capitalism undermines this putative justification of social inequality in consumer-oriented capitalist societies by bringing our internal ambivalence about gain and dominance to the surface. This development creates an opportunity for a new beginning in Marxian social theory. The final sections of the essay suggest that social theory has been trapped in a debate over whether predators (and their human counterparts) kill in order to eat or eat in order to kill (Marx vs. Nietzsche). To break this trap we must shift the basis of social criticism from the metaphor of predation to the metaphor of parasitism. This changes the focus of critical analysis from unmasking the predator in every situation to identifying in every social structure the mechanisms of incorporation, mutual subversion, asymmetrical exchange, and surplus-creation (as distinct from equilibrium). If neither the desire for gain nor the desire for dominance are self-explanatory, then the Marxian critique of Nietzsche and the Nietzschean critique of Marxism both have valid points. The essay concludes with reflections about the importance of addressing the post-utilitarian rationale of capitalism with the same depth and comprehensiveness that we find in Marx's critique of its utilitarian rationale. (shrink)

As has been shown by several studies, teaching is a highly stressful occupation (Johnson et al., 2005), and most teachers experience work stress. Long-term stress decreases job satisfaction and can result in chronic exhaustion which can develop into burnout syndrome. Implications of burnout syndrome are strongly negative both for the personal and professional life of teachers. As burnout syndrome puts teachers’ well-being, quality of the teaching process and relationships with students at risk, it is important to seek ways to (...) avoid teachersÉ’ burnout. Many studies have confirmed the protective role that coping strategies play in managing stressful situations, teacher’s self-efficacy or social support. In previous studies, a negative connection was found between burnout syndrome and job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is a crucial element in the definition of wellbeing. We find wellbeing rather not as a resource for burnout prevention but as an opposite state to burnout syndrome. The paper presents a quantitative survey on burnout syndrome and related variables among Czech elementary school teachers (n = 2,394). According to burnout score, two subgroups were selected – teachers with no burnout manifestations and teachers with developing/developed burnout syndrome. Through the statistical analysis, these two groups were compared in job satisfaction, self-efficacy, coping strategies, and social support. The study shows significant differences between the two groups of teachers... (shrink)

Desire satisfaction has not received detailed philosophical examination. Yet intuitive judgments about the satisfaction of desires have been used as data points guiding theories of desire, desire content, and the semantics of ‘desire’. This paper examines desire satisfaction and the standard propositional view of desire. Firstly, I argue that there are several distinct concepts of satisfaction. Secondly, I argue that separating them defuses a difficulty for the standard view in accommodating desires that Derek Parfit described as (...) ‘implicitly conditional on their own persistence’, a problem posed by Shieva Kleinschmidt, Kris McDaniel, and Ben Bradley. The solution undercuts a key motivation for rejecting the standard view in favour of more radical accounts proposed in the literature. (shrink)

Background and Aim: Today universities admit International Students as well as national students. Tehran University of Medical Sciences has been also started admitting International Students in regards of its Internationalization aims. Student’s satisfaction is of high importance in order to gain the given goals. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the satisfaction of International students of TUMS. -/- Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive study. The target group was international students of TUMS, the participants were (...) selected through availability sampling. The research instrument was researcher-made questionnaire which the reliability calculated as 0.97 by Chronbach’s alpha. The data was analysied by Microsoft Excell version 2010. -/- Results: The overall satisfaction of the students was 70% (satisfied and completely satisfied) while the overall dissatisfaction was 10% (dissatisfied and completely dissatisfied). -/- Conclusion: Given satisfaction of more than half of the International students, TUMS has performed reasonably. Based on the results obtained in this research the university may pay attention to the fields reported as dissatisfied. (shrink)

According to the popular Whole Life Satisfaction theories of happiness, an agent is happy when she judges that her life fulfils her ideal life-plan. Fred Feldman has recently argued that such views cannot accommodate the happiness of spontaneous or pre-occupied agents who do not consider how well their lives are going. In this paper, I formulate a new Whole Life Satisfaction theory which can deal with this problem. My proposal is inspired by Michael Smith’s advice-model of desirability. According (...) to it, an agent is happy when a more informed and rational hypothetical version of her would judge that the agent’s actual life matches the best life-plan for her. This view turns out to be a flexible model which can avoid many problems of the previous theories of happiness. (shrink)

We observe a number of connections between recent developments in the study of constraint satisfaction problems, irredundant axiomatisation and the study of topological quasivarieties. Several restricted forms of a conjecture of Clark, Davey, Jackson and Pitkethly are solved: for example we show that if, for a finite relational structure M, the class of M-colourable structures has no finite axiomatisation in first order logic, then there is no set (even infinite) of first order sentences characterising the continuously M-colourable structures amongst (...) compact totally disconnected relational structures. We also refute a rather old conjecture of Gorbunov by presenting a finite structure with an infinite irredundant quasi-identity basis. (shrink)

This study employs the tools of conversation analysis in order to assess consultee satisfaction in chat endings obtained from the e-counseling provided by the Youth Board of Cyprus. In order to study whether consultees are satisfied with the service they receive during the chat, an alternative approach of exploring consultee satisfaction to those that rely on self-report or questionnaires, which are methods that are external to the actual interactions, has been applied. Therefore, internal indications of consultees’ satisfaction, (...) as displayed in the ways in which they express appreciation, or otherwise, during the closing stages of chats, is the preferred method. Indications of satisfaction, or otherwise, produced during the chat, through displays of appreciation, withholding appreciation or even exhibiting dissatisfaction, do help to inform chat-handlers about the extent to which they have satisfied consultees’ expectations. Internal indicators of consultee satisfaction are displayed in the closing stages of the e-counseling chats. The different expressions have consequences on how the chat ends, with satisfied consultees ending the chat with strong and enthusiastic expression of appreciation and with dissatisfied consultees expressing resistance in reaching termination. (shrink)

One version of the desire satisfaction theory of well-being (i.e., welfare, or what is good for one) holds that only the satisfaction of one's present desires for present states of affairs can affect one's well-being. So if I desire fame today and become famous tomorrow, my well-being is positively affected onlyif tomorrow, when I am famous, I still desire to be famous. Call this the present desire satisfaction theory of well-being. I argue, contrary to this theory, that (...) the satisfaction of past desires that are no longer held does indeed affect one's well-being. The satisfaction of past desires is good for one in that the present satisfaction of past desires positively affects one's past well-being. I argue for this view in stages, starting with the recognition that many of our desires are satisfied not at an instant but over an interval of time, and that it is during this interval of time that our well-being is positively affected. Once we get our foot in the door with some temporal thickness to desire satisfaction and the associated well-being, I argue, the door must open more widely to allow for greater temporal distance between present desire satisfaction and past well-being. I defend my thesis that present satisfaction of past desires increases one's past welfare against objections, including the claim that it involves backward causation and Velleman's claim that the view is highly counterintuitive whether or not it involves backward causation. I argue that some of the objections rely on hedonistic intuitions, intuitions that most desire satisfaction theories of welfare aim to correct. Once properly understood and applied, my counterintuitive and controversial thesis is really quite innocuous. (shrink)

Las relaciones entre el mundo de la educación y el trabajo tienen objetivos diversos, relacionados con la pertinencia, la formación recibida, el ejercicio profesional, la eficiencia universitaria y la repercusión social; de manera que resulta valiosa la información sobre el cumplimiento del encargo social del profesional, al tiempo que se convierte en instrumento de gestión universitaria. Objetivo: determinar la satisfacción alcanzada por el cumplimento del encargo social de egresados de maestrías ejecutadas en la Facultad de Ciencias Médicas "Manuel Fajardo". Métodos: (...) se emplearon teóricos, empíricos, y estadísticos. Se asumió como universo a los 40 empleadores de egresados de maestrías del territorio, a quienes se les aplicó un cuestionario para obtener información sociodemográfica y de satisfacción, según escala Likert. Resultados: entre las opiniones emitidas por los empleadores predominaron las satisfactorias; seguidas por aquellos que no dieron su opinión y en tercer lugar por el grupo que manifestó insatisfacción con la labor investigativa de estos egresados al no dar respuesta al banco de problemas institucional y por tanto no reportar ningún beneficio al centro donde dirigen. Discusión: La satisfacción alcanzada por sus usuarios finales en el mundo laboral posibilitó a la Facultad de Médica del municipio determinar que las maestrías ejecutadas, cumplen satisfactoriamente con su encargo social, escuchar directamente cómo repercute su posgrado y convertir sus resultados como medida de gestión y herramienta interna institucional para monitorizar desde una perspectiva no explorada, el desempeño de sus egresados en opinión de sus empleadores directos. The relations between the world of education and work have different objectives related to appropriateness, the received training, professional practice, university efficiency and social impact; therefore the information on the fulfillment of professionals' social task is valuable, and it becomes a tool for university management at the same time. Objective: establishing the satisfaction got by the fulfillment of the social task of graduates from master degree courses implemented at Manuel Fajardo Medical Sciences Faculty. Methods: theoretical, empirical and statistical methods were used. The sample group was constituted by 40 employers of graduates from master degree courses in the region who were asked to fill in a questionnaire in order to get sociodemographic and satisfactory information according to the Likert scale. Results: satisfactory opinions prevailed among those given by employers, followed by those who did not give their opinions. The third place belongs to the group that expressed its dissatisfaction with the research work of the graduates who did not solve the institutional problems bank and therefore did not generate profits to the establishment they direct. Discussion: The satisfaction accomplished in the working world by final users made it possible for the Medical Faculty of the municipality to determine that the implemented master degree courses satisfactorily fulfill their social task, to directly listen to the impact of the postgraduate course and to change results as a management measure and as an internal institutional tool to monitor, from a non-explored perspective, the performance of graduates in their immediate employers' opinions. (shrink)

BackgroundNurses provide the majority of health-care services and face numerous health challenges during an epidemic. During the COVID-19 epidemic, nurses are subjected to physical, mental, and social disorders that impair their quality of life and hardiness. Therefore, it is important to be aware of the situation of nurses. The current study aimed to compare the compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue and hardiness among nurses before and during the COVID-19 outbreak.Materials and MethodsThis cross-sectional study included 508 clinical nurses from one public (...) hospital in southern Iran. The subjects were recruited using census sampling methods in 2019–2020. Sampling was performed before and during the COVID-19 with a 1-year interval. Although, the study setting was the same before and during the COVID-19, questionnaires were completed by different nurses before and during the COVID-19. Demographic questionnaire, professional quality of life questionnaire and Occupational Hardiness Questionnaire were used to collect data.ResultsThe scores of compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue and hardiness did not differ significantly during the COVID-19 compared with before the COVID-19. Before COVID-19, hardiness and work experience predicted 11% of the variance of compassion satisfaction, whereas during COVID-19, hardiness and gender predicted 26% of the variance of compassion satisfaction. Before COVID-19, hardiness and work experience predicted 3% of the variance of compassion fatigue, whereas during COVID-19, hardiness, type of employment and gender predicted 6% of the variance of compassion fatigue.ConclusionThe current study found that compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue and hardiness did not change during the COVID-19 outbreak compared with before the COVID-19 outbreak. However, during the COVID-19, the hardiness was a significant predictor of compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue. The study results showed that it was possible to increase the compassion satisfaction and reduce the compassion fatigue by strengthening the hardiness of nurses. However, these results need to be considered in future studies, especially in crises such as COVID-19 disease. (shrink)

Background: Individualized care is closely related to the fulfillment of nurses’ ethical responsibilities regarding the provision of healthcare as well as having a strong foundation in the philosophy of nursing. Objective: This study aimed to determine the association of job satisfaction and burnout with individualized care perceptions in nurses working at a university hospital located in the Central Black Sea region of northern Turkey. Research design: A cross-sectional correlational survey design. Participants and research context: The study was conducted between (...) 15 February 2017 and 15 August 2017 with 419 nurses working at a public university hospital located in Samsun. Data were collected using an information form, the Individualized Care Scale-Nurse Version, the Minnesota Job Satisfaction Scale, and the Maslach Burnout Inventory. The Mann–Whitney U test, Kruskal–Wallis test and Spearman Correlation were used. Ethical considerations: Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the Ondokuz Mayıs University Clinical Studies Board of Ethics. Oral informed consent was taken from the participants. Findings: There was a significant positive relationship between the total Individualized Care Scale-A Nurse Version score and the General Satisfaction subscale score of the Minnesota Job Satisfaction Scale (r = 0.121, p < 0.05). The total Individualized Care Scale-A Nurse Version score increased as the General Satisfaction subscale score of the Minnesota Job Satisfaction Scale increased. There was a significant negative relationship between the total Individualized Care Scale-B Nurse Version score and the Desensitization (r = –0.143, p < 0.01) and Personal Achievement subscale scores of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (r = –0.182, p < 0.01). The Desensitization and Personal Achievement subscale scores of the Maslach Burnout Inventory increased as the total Individualized Care Scale-B Nurse Version score decreased. Discussion: Factors associated with the individualized care perceptions of nurses, such as job satisfaction and burnout levels and factors related to personal life and worklife should be taken into consideration. Also in order to increase job satisfaction and motivation in nurses, personal preferences regarding the service they want to work at should be taken into account. Conclusion: Nurses with lower burnout and higher job satisfaction were found to have higher individualized care perceptions and to support the individuality of patients in care applications. It is important to consider work-related factors associated with individualized care perceptions, job satisfaction, and burnout in nurses. (shrink)

The article is a generalization and analysis of some of the results of the monitoring of the satisfaction of graduates of the Russian State Social University, conducted in 2020. The results of similar monitoring carried out in other higher educational institutions are also considered. The article pays great attention to the relationship of various factors of graduates' satisfaction, corresponding to the prospects for improving the educational process based on the results of monitoring studies. The article may be of (...) interest both for researchers of the educational process in universities and for a wide range of specialists in the field of university pedagogy. (shrink)

In this paper, I consider the tutorial conversation in Higher Education. To focus the discussion I use the scenario of a tutorial conversation between a lecturer and a student. I begin by suggesting that the increasing emphasis placed on student satisfaction in certain Higher Education Institutions tends to focus the tutorial conversation towards a form of settlement that I then consider in light of Thoreau's Walden. To explore what other conversation might be possible, I turn to the philosophical writing (...) of Martin Buber. I discuss his ‘life of dialogue’ in relation to the distinction he draws between I and Thou and between I and It and to how Nancy Vansieleghem and Jan Masschelein analyse this in relation to the 2002 film, Le Fils. With reference to the film adaptation of Alan Bennett's The History Boys, I suggest a different starting point for the tutorial conversation. I conclude that the tutorial discussion, seen as an invitation to speak, and as a form of exposition and dialogue, is the possibility of the opening up of a new dimension of thinking and acting. This is the invitation to a conversation in education that is itself truly educative. (shrink)

Recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in the doctrine of purgatory among Christian philosophers. Some of these philosophers argue for the existence of purgatory from principles consistent with historic Protestant theology and then attempt, on the basis of those principles, to formulate a distinctively Protestant view of purgatory—i.e., one that differs essentially from the Catholic doctrine as regards purgatory’s raison d’etre. Here I aim to show that Protestant models of purgatory which are grounded in the necessity of becoming (...) fully sanctified before entering heaven (Sanctification Models) fail to contrast materially with the Catholic model of purgatory, which has historically been formulated in terms of the necessity of making satisfaction for sins already forgiven (The Satisfaction Model). Indeed, I shall argue that contrary to widespread assumption, the Sanctification Model and the Satisfaction Modelare equivalent when the latter is properly understood. (shrink)

The current institutional focus on patient satisfaction and on surveys designed to assess this could eventually compromise the quality of health care while simultaneously raising its cost. We begin this paper with an overview of the concept of patient satisfaction, which remains poorly and variously defined. Next, we trace the evolution of patient‐satisfaction surveys, including both their useful and problematic aspects. We then describe the effects of these surveys, the most troubling of which may be their influence (...) on the behavior of health professionals. The pursuit of high patient‐satisfaction scores may actually lead health professionals and institutions to practice bad medicine by honoring patient requests for unnecessary and even harmful treatments. Patient satisfaction is important, especially when it is a response to being treated with dignity and respect, and patient‐satisfaction surveys have a valuable place in evaluating health care. Nonetheless, some uses and consequences of these surveys may actively mislead health care.Our critique of patient‐satisfaction surveys takes into consideration three different ways patients may be “satisfied.” First is the provision of medically necessary care that actually improves their outcomes. The second concerns interventions that patients or families want but that are medically unnecessary and may negatively affect health outcomes. The third category—comprising factors that are less likely to affect health outcomes but may certainly contribute to a sense of dignity and well‐being—includes “humanistic” aspects of health care, such as good communication and treating patients with respect, as well as peripheral aspects, such as convenient parking and designer hospital gowns. These distinctions are important as we explore patient satisfaction and its implications. (shrink)

Modern physics encompasses theoretical and experimental research divided in subfields with specific features. For instance, high energy physics (HEP) attracts significant funding and has distinct organizational structures, i.e., large laboratories and cross-institutional collaborations. Expensive equipment and large experiments create a specific work atmosphere and human relations. While the gender misbalance is characteristic for STEM, early-career researchers are inherently dependent on their supervisors. This raises the question of how satisfied researchers with working in physics are and how different subgroups – female (...) and early-career researchers – perceive their work environment. We empirically investigated job satisfaction and satisfaction with the academic system among physicists (N=123) working in large laboratories, universities, and independent institutes. The scale for measuring the satisfaction with the academic system in physics yielded three factors: experience of research autonomy, opportunities to use one's knowledge, and appreciation of the research by the general public. The results show that physicists are less satisfied with the academic system than with their work environment. Moreover, female scientists and junior researchers experience their jobs more negatively. The results emphasize the need for improving work and research conditions for underprivileged groups in physics. Interestingly, no significant effect was found between different types of academic institutions and general job satisfaction. Finally, physicists felt that their work has not been well understood by the public. (shrink)

This paper gives a brief survey of current research on the complexity of the constraint satisfaction problem over fixed constraint languages.

This paper provides a computational characterization of coherence that applies to a wide range of philosophical problems and psychological phenomena. Maximizing coherence is a matter of maximizing satisfaction of a set of positive and negative constraints. After comparing five algorithms for maximizing coherence, we show how our characterization of coherence overcomes traditional philosophical objections about circularity and truth.

It has been well established that life satisfaction is related to perceived social justice. However, current theories provide contrary assumptions on the direction of the influence. In this research, we use data from two longitudinal surveys collected in China to test the reciprocal relations between life satisfaction and perceived social justice over time. With a random intercept cross-lagged panel model, we disaggregate the between-person effect and the within-person effect of the relationship. To specify the conditions of the effect, (...) we consider income levels as the moderator. Study 1 showed that on the between-person level, life satisfaction, and perceived social justice are positively correlated. On the within-person level, cross-lagged effect results showed that an individuals’ deviations from their expected score in life satisfaction predict deviations from their expected perceived social justice at the next time point, while deviations from expected perceived social justice does not predict subsequent deviations from expected life satisfaction. In study 2, we divided participants into three groups based on their household income and conducted a multiple group analysis to test its moderation effect. We found that the between-person correlation of life satisfaction and perceived social justice is not moderated by income level, and it is significant in all the three groups. However, the within-person cross-lagged effect is moderated by income level, and the effect of life satisfaction on perceived social justice only exists in the low income group. This research confirms the unidirectional relationship between life satisfaction and perceived social justice across time, and clarifies the effect in different levels and income groups, providing new insights on the formation of justice perception. It is recommended that future studies apply experimental designs to reach causal effects and explore more possible moderators and mediators. (shrink)

PurposeThe study aimed at investigating the state of psychiatric nurses’ job satisfaction, job burnout, and the moderating effect of family support between them in China during the COVID-19 pandemic.Materials and methodsOnline self-report questionnaires were distributed and 212 psychiatric nurses participated in the research. Pearson correlation analysis, multiple stepwise regression analysis, and simple slope test were used for data analysis.ResultsThe results showed that the status of their job satisfaction and burnout did not reach a satisfactory level and job (...) class='Hi'>satisfaction had a significant negative impact on job burnout. Meanwhile, family support played a negative moderating role between the two variables.ConclusionPsychiatric nurses suffered from job burnout in China during the COVID-19. Family support could have a counterproductive effect when the nurses were experiencing decreasing job satisfaction. It gave suggestions to the medical institutions and the government to improve the psychological well-being of the psychiatric nurses and even of all the medical staff. (shrink)

Based on organizational justice theories and cognitive dissonance theories, the authors hypothesized that: (a) perceived top management support for ethical behaviors will be positively correlated with all facets of job satisfaction (supervision, pay, promotion, work, co-workers, and overall); and (b) the correlation will be highest with the facet of supervision. Empirical results (n = 77 middle level managers from two organizations in South India) supported only the second hypothesis. Implications for managing a global workforce are discussed.