On the role of language in social choice theory

Axiomatic characterization results in social choice theory are usually compared either regarding the normative plausibility or regarding the logical strength of the axioms involved. Here, instead, we propose to compare axiomatizations according to the language used for expressing the axioms. In order to carry out such a comparison, we suggest a formalist approach to axiomatization results which uses a restricted formal logical language to express axioms. Axiomatic characterization results in social choice theory then turn into definability results of formal logic. The advantages of this approach include the possibility of non-axiomatizability results, a distinction between absolute and relative axiomatizations, and the possibility to ask how rich a language needs to be to express certain axioms. We argue for formal minimalism, i.e., for favoring axiomatizations in the weakest language possible.     

My body as an object: self-distance and social experience

In phenomenology the body is often referred to as the lived body which makes the world familiar to me. In this paper, however, I discuss bodily self-consciousness in terms of self-distance. Self-distance is the suggestion that bodily self-consciousness consist in a reflective stance where you conceive of your body as a physical thing, an object in the world as well as the subject of bodily experiences. I argue that we are bodily self-conscious because we experience our own body in more than one way and that these ways are not derivative of one another or hierarchically ordered. This latter claim conflicts with certain phenomenological readings of how the body is experienced, one of which I will refer to and discuss as the Familiarity Objection to my idea of self-distance. I end the paper with a discussion of why we need the conception of experienced objectification that is entailed in the notion of self-distance to account for both pathological and non-pathological bodily self-experiences. The notion of self-distance improves our understanding of how the body plays a central role in psychosis for the experience of distorted inter-subjective relations.     

The role of executive function in perspective taking during online language comprehension

During conversation, interlocutors build on the set of shared beliefs known as common ground. Although there is general agreement that interlocutors maintain representations of common ground, there is no consensus regarding whether common-ground representations constrain initial language interpretation processes. Here, I propose that executive functioning—specifically, failures in inhibition control—can account for some occasional insensitivities to common-ground information. The present article presents the results of an experiment that demonstrates that individual differences in inhibition control determine the degree to which addressees successfully inhibit perspective-inappropriate interpretations of temporary referential ambiguities in their partner’s speech. Whether mentioned information was grounded or not also played a role, suggesting that addressees may show sensitivity to common ground only when it is established collaboratively. The results suggest that, in conversation, perspective information routinely guides online language processing and that occasional insensitivities to perspective can be attributed partly to difficulties in inhibiting perspective-inappropriate interpretations.     

The role of social perspective in perceiving the causes of success and failure1

An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that observers' causal attributions about an actor's performance at a task would be affected by their social perspective in observing the situation. Observer subjects were either assigned to serve in a role comparable to that of observer-subjects in most actor-observer experiments or were assigned a distinctive role more divergent from the social perspective of the actor. As expected, observers with a similar social perspective to that of the actor made more flattering attributions about the actor's performance than observers with a dissimilar social perspective. We concluded that actor-observer differences in attribution for an actor's performance in any one experiment cannot be taken as definitive evidence either for or against the defensive attribution idea.     

The role of personality in adolescent career planning and exploration: A social cognitive perspective

Social cognitive career theory (SCCT) recognises the importance of individual differences and contextual influences in the career decision-making process. In extending the SCCT choice model, this study tested the role of personality, social supports, and the SCCT variables of self-efficacy, outcome expectations and goals in explaining the career readiness actions of career planning and exploration. The authors surveyed 414 Australian high school students in Years 10, 11 and 12. Career exploration was associated with goals and social supports, whereas career planning was associated with self-efficacy, goals, personality and an interaction term for goals and social support that indicated that levels of planning were highest when social support and goals were highest. Implications for parents, teachers and guidance counsellors as well as recommendations for future research directions are discussed.     

Defining body deception and its role in peer based social comparison theories of body dissatisfaction

The purpose of the current study was to operationalize the phenomenon of body deception, describe its theoretical importance, and validate its existence in an experimental paradigm. The definition of body deception includes the intentional misrepresentation of information about appearance to others. The present study examined body deception in a controlled experimental study of male and female same-sex peer groups using a series of hierarchical linear models. Ninety male and 90 female undergraduates were randomized to an experimental same-sex peer group or individual control condition. The results suggested that both men and women used body deception among peers, but men's body deception was muscularity driven whereas women's was thinness driven. Body dissatisfaction was significantly predictive of the degree of body deception used by both genders and it was significantly related to peer group membership. An integrated model for the role of body deception in body image disturbance is proposed.     

Seeing ahead: Experience and language in spatial perspective

Spatial perspective can be directed by various reference frames, as well as by the direction of motion. In the present study, we explored how ambiguity in spatial tasks can be resolved. Participants were presented with virtual reality environments in order to stimulate a spatialreference frame based on motion. They interacted with an ego-moving spatial system in Experiment 1 and an object-moving spatial system in Experiment 2. While interacting with the virtual environment, the participants were presented with either a question representing a motion system different from that of the virtual environment or a nonspatial question relating to physical features of the virtual environment. They then performed the target task assign the label front in an ambiguous spatial task. The findings indicate that the disambiguation of spatial terms can be influenced by embodied experiences, as represented by the virtual environment, as well as by linguistic context.     

Interactional Imogen: language,practice and the body

Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences - Here I try to improve on the available answers to certain long-debated questions and set out some consequences for the answers. Are there limits to the...     

Networking as a job search behaviour: A social network perspective

Although networking is typically recommended as a job search strategy in the popular press, research on networking as a job search behaviour is scarce. On the basis of social network theory, the present study investigated whether the structure and composition of job seekers' social network determined their networking behaviour and moderated its relationship with job search and employment outcomes. The data were collected in a large, representative sample of 1,177 unemployed Flemish job seekers, using a two‐wave longitudinal design. Job seekers with a larger social network and with stronger ties in their network spent more time networking, beyond individual differences in extraversion and conscientiousness. Networking explained incremental variance in job offers beyond job seekers' use of print advertising, the internet, and public employment services, but not in employment outcomes. Some evidence was found indicating that networking might be more effective for job seekers whose social network contains weaker and higher‐status ties.     

Dewey's philosophy and the experience of working: Labor,tools and language

Although Richard Rorty has done much to renew interest in the philosophy of John Dewey, he nonetheless rejects two of the most important components of Dewey's philosophy, that is, his metaphysics and epistemology. Following George Santayana, Rorty accuses Dewey of trying to serve Locke and Hegel, an impossibility as Rorty rightly sees it. Rorty (1982) says that Dewey should have been “Hegelian all the way” (p. 85). By reconstructing a bit of Hegel's early philosophy of work, and comparing it to Dewey's metaphysics and epistemology we can see that Dewey was indeed “Hegelian all the way” and that Rorty has constructed a false dilemma. We also gain some interesting insight into Dewey's philosophy by viewing it in terms of labor, tools and language.     

Primate social cognition and the origins of language

Are the cognitive mechanisms underlying language unique, or can similar mechanisms be found in other domains? Recent field experiments demonstrate that baboons' knowledge of their companions' social relationships is based on discrete-valued traits (identity, rank, kinship) that are combined to create a representation of social relations that is hierarchically structured, open-ended, rule-governed, and independent of sensory modality. The mechanisms underlying language might have evolved from the social knowledge of our pre-linguistic primate ancestors.     

Links between local language competence and peer relations among Swiss and immigrant children: the mediating role of social behavior

The primary aim of this investigation was to evaluate a model in which children's social behaviors, including prosocial behavior, setting limits, and social withdrawal, were hypothesized to mediate the links between local language competence (LLC) and peer acceptance and victimization. Longitudinal data were collected via teacher and peer reports on 541 (286 boys and 255 girls) immigrant and Swiss native 5-to-6 year-old kindergarteners. Results showed the immigrant children were less fluent in the local language compared to native Swiss classmates. Moreover, results from structural equation models, with bootstrap tests of indirect effects, indicated that social behaviors mediated the link between LLC and the quality of children's peer relationships. Implications of these findings for school professionals are discussed, such as the need to help immigrant children make a smoother transition to their host communities by providing additional language and social supports while children acculturate and acclimate to their new surroundings and peer group.     

Thinking outside the cortex: social motivation in the evolution and development of language

Alteration of the organization of social and motivational neuroanatomical circuitry must have been an essential step in the evolution of human language. Development of vocal communication across species, particularly birdsong, and new research on the neural organization and evolution of social and motivational circuitry, together suggest that human language is the result of an obligatory link of a powerful cortico-striatal learning system, and subcortical socio-motivational circuitry.     

Touch and body language in family therapy

This paper describes the running of a workshop in body language in family therapy; it gives an account of the development of touch and body language techniques in therapy at Hill End Adolescent Unit; it traces over a hundred years, some of the literature and gives a few clinical examples.     

Affective reactivity in language: the role of psychophysiological arousal

Several studies have found that individuals with schizophrenia and their relatives, as well as healthy controls, exhibit greater language disturbance when discussing affectively negative as compared to positive or neutral topics. The goal of this study was to test the hypothesis that negative emotion impairs language production, at least in part by increasing physiological arousal. The authors had 35 healthy adults produce speech in response to affectively negative, positive, and neutral questions while the authors recorded heart rate and skin conductance. Participants displayed greater amounts of reference errors, higher heart rates, and a higher frequency of nonspecific skin conductance responses when discussing affectively negative as compared to positive or neutral topics.