Integration of Certainty,Severity, and Celerity Information in Judged Deterrence Value: urther Evidence and Methodological Equivalence1

The purposes of these studies were (a) to establish on a general basis whether 3 time-honored manipulable components of punishment combine additively, or multi-plicatively in determining the judged deterrence value of a sanction, and (b) to explore the equivalence in principle of two mutually exclusive experimental designs. Study 1 used a repeated measures design whereas main and interactive effects of certainty and severity were substantial and appeared to follow a multiplying rule, celerity effects were very small and local. Studies 2a and 3 used independent groups and established that the results of Study 1 were not merely an arbitrary product of the method. The discussion addresses the minimal effects of celerity, the interaction between certainty and severity, and the theoretical implications of choice of method.     

Effects of Perceived Responsibility,Injury Severity,and Injury Target on Discipline Severity

We examined the effects of injury severity, injury target, and perceived responsibility on supervisors' discipline severity following a rule violation. Participants made discipline judgments after reading scenarios describing work rule violations. Data revealed an Injury Severity × Injury Target interactive effect on discipline severity. Respondents disciplined rule violators more severely when the behavior caused a serious coworker injury than when the violating behavior caused a minor coworker injury. Discipline severity decreased as the severity of the injury the rule violator experienced increased. That finding goes against conventional wisdom stating that a positive linear relation exists between the extent of an injury and discipline severity and suggests that supervisors might not make all discipline judgments in a simple, linear fashion.     

Racism,Counterfactual Thinking,and Judgment Severity1

Two contrasting models of the effects of motivational influences on the relationship between counterfactual thinking and social judgment were tested, using a modified version of Wells and Gavanski's (1989) cab driver vignette. Undergraduates (N= 208) assigned blame to a negligent white or black target after imagining how the target's alternative behavior could have either easily or improbably averted two accident-related fatalities. Results suggested that motivational variables such as racism moderate the relationship between counterfactual thinking and judgment severity rather than directly affect the counterfactual thinking process itself. Implications for current conceptions of both counterfactual thinking and racism are discussed.     

Hierarchical Position, Gender, Accident Severity, and Causal Attribution

The two studies reported here confirmed the role of the attributor's hierarchical level in causal attributions about accidents in different types of organizations. In both studies, supervisors vs. subordinates had to analyze a minor work accident vs. a serious one. The first study used male vs. female subjects, whereas the second compared the target's position in the same (in-group) vs. different (out-group) hierarchical level as the attributor. In all cases, more internal attributions than external ones were given to explain the accident. These results demonstrate a tendency toward defensive attribution, whereby people tend to protect themselves or their group from blame or prejudice (Shaver, 1970a). This self-protective attribution bias was found to increase with accident severity, particularly in Study 2. The conclusion offers some suggestions for accident analysis and prevention.     

Family Functioning, Self-Concept, and Severity of Adolescent Externalizing Problems

We investigated direct and shared effects of family functioning and self-concept on the severity of adolescent externalizing problems in a sample of 224 clinically referred adolescents. Structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed strong, direct relationships between problem behaviors and both family functioning and self-concept. Using R. M. Baron and D. A. Kenny's (1986) and G. N. Holmbeck's (1997) criteria for testing mediation in SEM, family functioning partially mediated the relationship between self-concept and problem behaviors. A moderation model, testing the relationship between externalizing problems and the interaction between family functioning and self-concept, did not yield a significant effect. Our findings indicate that self-concept and family functioning exert direct and shared effects on externalizing problems and suggest that interventions for clinically referred adolescents should target both the individual adolescent and his/her family.     

Investigating Relationships Among Distress Tolerance,PTSD Symptom Severity,and Alcohol Use

Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment - Exposure to trauma (particularly interpersonal trauma), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and low distress tolerance (DT; the...     

Pretrauma Neuroticism, Negative Appraisals of Intrusions, and Severity of PTSD Symptoms

Earlier studies found that self-reported posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms are correlated with negative appraisals of symptoms and with neuroticism. It is unclear whether the latter two are associated. Possibly, an overarching trait such as neuroticism mediates the relationship between PTSD symptoms and negative appraisals of symptoms. Data from a previous study (see I. M. Engelhard, M. A. van den Hout, M. Kindt, A. Arntz, & E. Schouten, 2003) were used in the present effort to address these issues. Neuroticism scores were obtained from 1,372 pregnant women. One hundred and twenty-six women experienced a pregnancy loss, and 117 of them were assessed for PTSD symptoms and negative appraisals of symptoms. The 3 variables of interest were all significantly correlated. The data indicate that negative appraisals of symptoms explain and predict PTSD symptoms independently of neuroticism.     

Evidence,experience, and externalism

The Sellarsian dilemma is a famous argument that attempts to show that nondoxastic experiential states cannot confer justification on basic beliefs. The usual conclusion of the Sellarsian dilemma is a coherentist epistemology, and the usual response to the dilemma is to find it quite unconvincing. By distinguishing between two importantly different justification relations (evidential and nonevidential), I hope to show that the Sellarsian dilemma, or something like it, does offer a powerful argument against standard nondoxastic foundationalist theories. But this reconceived version of the argument does not support coherentism. Instead, I use it to argue for a strongly externalist epistemology.     

Luck, Evidence and War

abstract   We seem to have conflicting intuitions regarding luck and war, and we seem to be faced with a dilemma. Either, we deny that a war can be made just or unjust as a result of luck, and we accept that we should not appeal to the outcome when claiming that the war was or was not justified. Or, alternatively, we allow that it is legitimate to base our judgements on the outcome, but as a result we must accept that luck can make a war just or unjust. Traditionally, these have been taken to be the two forks of the dilemma, but, in this paper, I argue that they are not the only options. Rather, we can appeal to the outcome of our actions without claiming that this is, in anyway, an appeal to moral luck. Rather, the outcome provides us with evidence.     

Commanders' Attitudes Toward the Nature,Causality, and Severity of Combat Stress Reaction

This study examines the attitudes of 176 Israel Defense Forces (IDF) com- manders to the nature, causality, and severity of combat stress reaction (CSR). Each commander was presented with 1 of 24 vignettes describing a CSR incident and was requested to fill out an attitudes questionnaire. The impact of the following variables on commanders' attitudes was as- sessed: casualty's rank, casualty's combat skill, presence of an additional physical injury, type of symptomatology, and respondent's background vari- ables. Findings revealed relative tolerance toward CSR casualties. On the whole, the commanders did not regard CSR as dangerous or as a sign of insanity. They considered the disorder more as battle shock and emotional breakdown than as malingering or softness. The reaction was thought to be more an outcome of what happened in the battle than a result of prewar psychological problems. CSR casualties with high combat skills, physical injury, low rank, or depressive symptoms, elicited more tolerant attitudes than those with low combat skills, no physical injury, high rank, or aggressive symptoms.     

Rumination,Resilience, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Severity Among Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan

This study investigated the relationships among combat exposure, intrusive, and deliberate rumination, resilience, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among service members who deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan (N = 191). Participants completed an online survey and hierarchical linear regression results indicated that enlisted rank, higher combat exposure, lower resilience, and higher intrusive rumination predicted higher levels of PTSD symptom severity. Resilience moderated the relationship between combat exposure and PTSD symptom severity, such that participants who had higher levels of resilience had lower levels of PTSD symptom severity at all levels of combat exposure. These findings suggest the importance of increasing resilience in combat veterans, specifically those of enlisted rank and veterans exposed to higher levels of combat. Findings also suggest that teaching veterans how to control or minimize intrusive rumination might help lower PTSD severity.     

Evidence,explanation and enhanced indispensability

In this paper I shall adopt a possible reading of the notions of ‘explanatory indispensability’ and ‘genuine mathematical explanation in science’ on which the Enhanced Indispensability Argument (EIA) proposed by Alan Baker is based. Furthermore, I shall propose two examples of mathematical explanation in science and I shall show that, whether the EIA-partisans accept the reading I suggest, they are easily caught in a dilemma. To escape this dilemma they need to adopt some account of explanation and offer a plausible answer to the following ‘question of evidence’: What is a genuine mathematical explanation in empirical science and on what basis do we consider it as such? Finally, I shall suggest how a possible answer to the question of evidence might be given through a specific account of mathematical explanation in science. Nevertheless, the price of adopting this standpoint is that the genuineness of mathematical explanations of scientific facts turns out to be dependent on pragmatic constraints and therefore cannot be plugged in EIA and used to establish existential claims about mathematical objects.     

Feminist Radical Empiricism,Values, and Evidence

Feminist epistemologies consider ways in which gender (among other social factors) influences knowledge. In this article, I want to consider a particular kind of feminist empiricism that has been called feminist radical empiricism (where the empiricism, not the feminism, is radical). I am particularly interested in this view's treatment of values as empirical, and consequently up for revision on the basis of empirical evidence. Proponents of this view cite the fact that it allows us to talk about certain things such as racial and gender equality as objective facts: not just whether we have achieved said equality in our society, but whether we are, in fact, all equal. I will raise the concern that the way in which they model the role of values in epistemology may be a problematic idealization of the open‐mindedness of human agents. In some cases, resistance to value‐change cannot be diagnosed as a failure to respond adequately to evidence. If so, the strategy of empirically testing our values that some feminist radical empiricists suggest may not be as useful a tool for social change as they think.     

Predictors of Offense Severity, Prosecution, Incarceration and Repeat Violations for Adolescent Male and Female Offenders

We examined factors predicting severity of first offense, adjudication, incarceration, and repeat offenses for first time juvenile offenders. The sample consisted of 12,468 juveniles, all born in 1985. Each of the juveniles had been assigned to the South Carolina Juvenile Justice System (SCDJJ) on at least one occasion (“referral”). Analysis on referral severity showed significant age, gender, and race differences, with older youth, blacks and males referred for more serious offenses. On first referrals, older youth and whites were more likely to be adjudicated with white females showing the greatest likelihood of prosecution; this was true with severity level controlled. Status offenses were more likely to be prosecuted than non- status offenses. Analyses on prosecution versus diversion showed that blacks and males were more likely to be diverted than prosecuted. Youth referred for violent crimes were most likely to be incarcerated. There were no gender or race effects on incarceration. Youth who were prosecuted for the first offense were more likely to be referred a second time than those who were not prosecuted. Gender and race did not significantly affect second referral rates. Findings for third referrals followed similar patterns. The relationship of our findings to previous research findings, and implications for juvenile justice procedures are discussed.     

Obsessional Thoughts in Postpartum Females and Their Partners: Content, Severity, and Relationship with Depression

Only a few studies have examined the development or exacerbation of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) during pregnancy and the postpartum. Although the available literature suggests that OCD symptoms, particularly obsessional problems, develop at higher than expected rates among postpartum females, the overall prevalence of such symptoms in the postpartum remains unknown. Previous findings also suggest that intrusive distressing thoughts related to situational stressors are common in the general population. Therefore, the present study was designed to assess the presence and phenomenology of postpartum obsessive-like intrusive thoughts, images, and impulses in a large sample of parents with very young infants. Surveys were mailed to 300 childbearing women and their partners. Results were obtained from approximately one fifth of the sample; and 65% of respondents indicated the presence of obsessional intrusive thoughts. Intrusions were similar to normal obsessions as reported in previous research. Results are discussed in terms of the content of intrusive thoughts, their relationship to depression, and implications for etiological models of OCD and perinatal education.