Chains of Command: Responsibility Attribution in Hierarchies1

Obedience to authority involves a chain of causation whereby one party causes another to act. Theoretical problems of responsibility in chains of command were addressed and responsibility within interpersonal causal chains was investigated among a quota sample of the Boston SMSA (N= 391). Findings replicated prior investigations of attitudes about the My Lai massacre and Calley trial. Most respondents approached the incident in terms of the assertion versus denial of responsibility—assertion on the basis of personal causation, versus denial the basis of superior orders. Judgments of responsibility for other bureaucratic crimes of obedience (Watergate burglary and cover-up) or for wrongdoing in professional settings differed sharply, but tendencies to assign or reject assignment of responsibility to subordinates were consistently observable across incidents. Demographic cleavages supported earlier conclusions: More educated respondents and religious “others” (Jewish, other groups, and none) were more likely to assert individual responsibility, but education's effects were stronger for non-Catholics. The paper concludes by raising the possibility of training individuals to assert individual responsibility in the face of illegal or immoral commands from authority.     

Sharing Responsibility and Holding Responsible

Who, in particular, may hold us responsible for our moral failings? Most discussions of moral responsibility bracket this question, despite its obvious practical importance. In this article, I investigate the moral authority involved and how it arises in the context of personal relationships, such as friendship or family relations. My account is based on the idea that parties to a personal relationship not only share responsibility for their relationship, but also — to some degree that is negotiated between them — for one another's lives. In sharing these responsibilities, we grant people a particular authority to respond to us. By highlighting the responsibility that we assume when we hold someone responsible, I also suggest that this analysis contains important lessons for thinking about responsibility in other contexts.     

Obsessive-compulsive behaviours in specific situations: the relative influence of appraisals of control, responsibility and threat

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by repeated and persistent attempts by the individual to control their thoughts and by taking action through rituals in order to prevent feared or personally distressing outcomes. While cognitive theories of OCD have generated supportive research findings and effective treatments, they have not considered broader control beliefs that may motivate aspects of OC-phenomenology. We have previously proposed that broader control beliefs, specifically desire for control and sense of control, may play a role in OC-symptoms (Moulding & Kyrios, 2006). In the present study, non-clinical participants (N=219) were presented with four hypothetical scenarios relevant to an OCD-checking concern, and using a manipulation paradigm, the relationship between control constructs and appraisals hypothesized to be relevant to OCD (threat, responsibility) was examined. Desire for control was moderately affected to responsibility and threat appraisals, while sense of control did not relate to these constructs. The relationship between aspects of OC-phenomenology and appraisals of control, responsibility and threat were also investigated. Higher desire for control predicted both affect and action, while a lower sense of control predicted higher distress and action, over-and-above appraisals of threat and responsibility. Control appraisals were particularly relevant to use of action, and to affect in the low responsibility situations. A possible interactive model of desire for control, threat and responsibility is discussed.     

Responsibility - Beyond Resentment and Indignation

Philosophia - My aim in this article is to flesh out a new distinction between moral responsibility, as it is understood in light of Strawson’s “reactive attitudes,” and an...     

Freedom in responsibility: a response.

This paper is a critical response to Elisabeth Gr?b-Schmidt's article "Freedom in responsibility: On the relevance of 'sin' as hermeneutic guiding principle in bioethical decision making." Gr?b-Schmidt's chief contention is that ethics begins with anthropology, and that moral responsibility is thereby grounded within a set of given limits. Freedom is distorted into sin when these limits are transgressed. My principal complaint is that her account of the relationship between freedom and sin is grounded in a tragic ontology. Alternatively, I contend that anthropology is grounded in Christology in which freedom is a gift of the Spirit. Consequently, sin is not so much tragic as it marks a refusal of humans to accept their divine election. The issues of human cloning and embryonic stem-cell research are used to exemplify what difference these respective differences might make in a process of moral deliberation.     

Helping Following Natural Disasters: A Social‐Motivational Analysis1

The present investigation explores how judgments of responsibility influence affective and helping reactions toward natural‐disaster victims. Guided by Weiner's (1995, 2006 ) theory of social motivation, we hypothesized that judging victims responsible for a disaster would indirectly lead to low rates of helping. Two studies tested this hypothesis. In Study 1, a bogus earthquake was used to test experimentally the effects of responsibility judgments (low, high). In Study 2, we surveyed attitudes about the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Our results showed that Weiner's model was supported across studies. Responsibility judgments led to anger and sympathy, and sympathy led to helping intentions, which in turn led to helping behavior. Comparisons across studies and the relationship between helping intentions and behavior are discussed.     

人际关系对社会责任感的影响

为揭示人际关系对社会责任感的影响及其机制, 该研究采用问卷调查和实验相结合的方法, 探讨了二者之间的相关与因果关系, 以及共情的中介效应。研究1采用问卷调查法探讨这三者的关系, 结果发现, 人际关系对社会责任感具有显著的正向预测作用, 并且共情在二者之间发挥着部分中介效应。研究2采用实验法操纵了人际关系效用, 结果显示, 高效用组的社会责任感显著高于低效用组和控制组, 并且低效用组显著低于控制组。这表明人际关系效用对社会责任感具有明显的影响。研究3进一步操纵了人际关系的亲密度, 结果发现, 亲密度对效用与社会责任感的关系具有调节作用, 在低亲密度条件下, 高效用组的社会责任感明显高于低效用组, 但是在高亲密度条件下, 社会责任感均维持较高水平。因此, 人际关系对社会责任感具有明显正向影响。     

大学生人际自立特质与抑郁的关系：人际应对的中介作用

人际自立与抑郁关系的系列研究显示,人际自立特质可以抵御抑郁。本次研究进一步假设人际自立特质可以通过人际应对的中介作用来抵御作为人际应激反应的抑郁。为了检验这一假设,采用青少年学生人际自立量表、流调用抑郁自评量表和大学生人际关系压力应对方式问卷对重庆、甘肃三所大学362名有效被试进行了调查,相关和结构方程模型分析的结果显示,在控制了性别、年龄、专业后：（1）人际自立的5个特质与积极应对显著正相关,与消极应对和抑郁显著负相关;（2）人际独立、人际主动和人际责任能直接负向预测抑郁;（3）消极应对在人际开放和人际责任与抑郁之间起到中介作用。研究结果部分支持了研究假设,提示人际自立特质可以通过人际应对的中介作用来影响抑郁。     

Fatherhood and Child Support: Do Men Have a Right to Choose?

ABSTRACT My primary aim is to call into question an influential notion of paternal responsibility, namely, that fathers owe support to their children due to their causal responsibility for their existence. I argue that men who impregnate women unintentionally, and despite having taken preventative measures, do not owe child support to their children as a matter of justice; their children have no right against them for support. I argue for this on the basis of plausible principles of responsibility which have been used to defend abortion rights. I then consider the morally relevant differences between men and women, arguing that while in some cases these differences may justify differential treatment, their import should not be overstated — in many cases, the burden of child support will be too great to impose justly on fathers. This conclusion is not as undesirable as it may seem: I suggest feminist considerations in favour of revising the notion of paternal responsibility and consider alternative arrangements of child support.     

Technology and Epistemic Possibility

My aim in this paper is to give a philosophical analysis of the relationship between contingently available technology and the knowledge that it makes possible. My concern is with what specific subjects can know in practice, given their particular conditions, especially available technology, rather than what can be known “in principle” by a hypothetical entity like Laplace’s Demon. The argument has two parts. In the first, I’ll construct a novel account of epistemic possibility that incorporates two pragmatic conditions: responsibility and practicability. For example, whether subjects can gain knowledge depends in some circumstances on whether they have the capability of gathering relevant evidence. In turn, the possibility of undertaking such investigative activities depends in part on factors like ethical constraints, economical realities, and available technology. In the second part of the paper, I’ll introduce “technological possibility” to analyze the set of actions made possible by available technology. To help motivate the problem and later test my proposal, I’ll focus on a specific historical case, one of the earliest uses of digital electronic computers in a scientific investigation. I conclude that the epistemic possibility of gaining access to scientific knowledge about certain subjects depends (in some cases) on the technological possibility for making responsible investigations.     

The mediating effects of misinterpretation of intrusive thoughts on obsessive-compulsive symptoms

Perfectionism and inflated responsibility have both been identified as risk factors for the development and maintenance of obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms. The aim of the present study was to test whether the relationships between these two variables and OC symptoms are mediated by the misinterpretation of intrusive thoughts (MIT). Three hundred and three university students completed the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, the Maudsley Obsessional Compulsive Inventory, the Responsibility Attitude Scale, and the Responsibility Interpretations Questionnaire. MIT was found to partially mediate the relationship between responsibility attitudes and OC symptoms. MIT also partially mediated the relationship between concern over mistakes and OC symptoms, even after controlling for responsibility attitudes. Both concern over mistakes and responsibility attitudes were significant predictors of MIT and OC symptoms, but responsibility was the stronger predictor when all of the variables were included in the model. Clinical implications for the treatment of OCD are discussed.     

Task interdependence and job design: test of a theory

This paper develops the concept of task interdependence and integrates it in the Hackman and Oldham (1976) theory of job design. Two dimensions of initiated task interdependence and received task interdependence are developed as multidimensional concepts, each being made up of the elements of scope, resources, and criticality. A distinction is made between the two psychological states of experienced responsibility for one's own work and personal outcomes, and experienced responsibility for others' (dependents') work and personal outcomes for whom one initiates task interdependence. Autonomy is hypothesized to be related only to experienced responsibility for one's own work outcomes while initiated task interdependence is related to experienced responsibility for others' work outcomes. Initiated interdependence is also hypothesized to be positively related to the affective positive work and personal outcomes, while received task interdependence is negatively related to these variables. New subscales for the measurements of these constructs are developed and reliability and validity coefficients are reported. The substantive results give support to the motivating potential of initiated task interdependence. However, the results do not support the hypotheses associated with received task interdependence.     

Précis of Justice,Luck, and Knowledge*

Justice, Luck, and Knowledge (JLK) contributes to recent developments in two areas, moral responsibility and distributive justice. Prominent luck‐neutralizing approaches to distributive justice, exemplified in work by Cohen and by Roemer, argue that justice requires equal distribution of goods for which people aren't responsible. Such views of justice haven't focused attention on responsibility itself. Meanwhile, responsibility has been illuminat‐ingly articulated in work including, and influenced by, Frankfurt's seminal essays. My book brings these separate lines of work, on justice and on responsibility, into contact, examining how the new articulation of responsibility constrains the roles responsibility can play in distributive justice. Part I focuses on responsibility and its inverse correlate, luck; Part II assesses responsibility‐based approaches to justice in light of preceding arguments about responsibility. (See JLK, 4–5 on responsibility, reactive attitudes, and accountability.)     

公正世界信念与大学生社会责任感的关系:人际信任的解释作用及其性别差异

社会责任感是大学生学业成就和幸福生活等积极心理与行为的有效预测指标,考察社会责任感的影响因素及其作用机制有助于大学生社会责任感的培养与提升。为此,本研究以6所高校852名大学生为被试,考察了公正世界信念与大学生社会责任感之间的关系,以及人际信任对二者关系的中介作用及其性别差异。结果发现：（1）公正世界信念可以显著正向预测大学生的社会责任感;（2）人际信任在公正世界信念与大学生社会责任感之间发挥着部分中介作用,但是主要表现在男大学生群体中,而女大学生中未发现该效应。这说明,公正世界信念可以显著预测大学生社会责任感,并且在男大学生中人际信任是二者关系的中介桥梁。     

大学生人际自立特质对人际信任的预测:独立于大五人格的作用

采用大学生人际自立量表、人际信任量表、大五人格简式量表等工具对1345名大学生进行的调查和情境研究显示:控制大五人格后,人际开放仍能预测人际信任倾向,并能通过人际信任倾向的中介作用间接预测人际信任的认知和行为反应;人际责任仍能直接预测人际信任的认知与行为反应。这提示,在对人际信任的预测方面,人际责任和人际开放具有大五人格所不能解释的独特作用,并在一定程度上支持了人格与人际信任反应的人际信任倾向中介模型。     

Ethical Responsibility and Historical Biography

ABSTRACT Lately, the demand for historical biography has remained strong, fresh works appearing with increased regularity. My concern is with the subjects of these efforts—the dead figures whose lives and natures form the bulk of the contents. The ethics of the professional historian provide writers of historical biography with some guidelines, but are these sound, substantial and enduring enough to ensure the just treatment of the subjects? My contention is that they are not, and I set out tentatively in this brief essay to speculate on some grounds upon which a fuller sense of ethical responsibility, respect and commitment may be built. The major difficulty in attempting this exercise rests with the actual nature of the subject towards whom any duty or responsibility is to be felt, and it is on ambiguity respecting this issue that any serious conclusions may risk shipwreck. Alternatively, if any sense of ethical concern is thought demonstrable in this context, it may rest upon premises that are fundamentally egoistic in nature.     

Three aspects of self-disclosure as they relate to quality of adjustment

Subjects completed two measures of actual self-disclosure (one for intimacy of self-presentation and one for inwardness of self-presentation)and a self-report of past self-disclosure. and California Psychological Inventory. For both sexes the two measures of actual disclosure correlated positively but neither instrument related positively to the self-report measure. Females disclosed more than males on both measures of actual disclosure. Quadratic, inverted-U relationships were hypothesized for the self-disclosure and CPI scales, but by and large they were not found. Linear associations were noted, the major ones being a positive pattern of correlations between the inwardness of actual disclosure and measures of flexible autonomy, responsibility and socialization for the males, a negative set of relations between the intimacy of actual disclosure and scales indicative of good interpersonal adjustment for the females, and a positive relationship between the self-report measure and scales indicative of social poise, extraversion and socialization for both sexes.     

Personality,life events and subclinical depression in students

Eighty-eight psychiatrically normal undergraduates, completed four paper-and-pencil measures; a Life Events Questionnaire (LEQ), a questionnaire measuring attributional style (QAS), a Beck Depression Inventory and an Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) measuring extraversion and neuroticism. Neuroticism and introversion were found to be significantly related to subclinical depression. The attributional style hypothesized by learned helplessness theory as a personality trait associated with depression was found to be related to neuroticism but not to depression. The relationship between depression and life events was found to depend upon the way events were interpreted. Depression was related to the frequency of events which students perceived to be unpleasant, uncontrollable and for whose occurrence they felt responsible. Neuroticism and the frequency of negative events for which responsibility was perceived were found to be the best predictors of depression. It is concluded the results support Eysenck's view of personality and vulnerability to depression and doubt is cast on the learned helplessness theory of vulnerability to depression.     

Responsibility as Answerability

ABSTRACT

It has recently become fashionable among those who write on questions of moral responsibility to distinguish two different concepts, or senses, of moral responsibility via the labels ‘responsibility as attributability’ and ‘responsibility as accountability’. Gary Watson was perhaps the first to introduce this distinction in his influential 1996 article ‘Two Faces of Responsibility’ (in Agency and Answerability, 260–86. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), but it has since been taken up by many other philosophers. My aim in this study is to raise some questions and doubts about this distinction and to argue that it has led to confusion rather than clarification in debates over moral responsibility. In place of the attributability/accountability distinction, I propose that there is a single (and unified) concept of moral responsibility underlying our actual moral practices. This core notion of moral responsibility, which I call ‘responsibility as answerability’, is well positioned to explain those aspects of our moral practice that Watson associates with the ‘attributability’ face of moral responsibility as well as those aspects of our moral practice he associates with the ‘accountability’ face. But it does so in a way that does not require us to multiply senses of moral responsibility and that allows us to continue to have meaningful disagreements over the basic conditions of moral responsibility.     

责任对后悔强度的影响：来自ERP的证据

采用事件相关电位技术,研究责任对后悔的影响。实验采用赌博范式,主要因素是被试对于负性结果所负责任的大小,分为三个水平：1（只有被试一人犯错）、1/2（被试和另外一个人犯错）以及1/3（三人同时犯错）。研究结果发现,被试主观评定的情绪强度和责任感上,1条件下的显著大于1/2和1/3条件下的,而1/2和1/3条件无显著差异;被试的反事实思维则在三个水平上差异显著,责任越大,反事实思维越强。fERN（feedback error-related negativity,反馈错误相关负波,也称FRN,反馈负波）的波幅在1条件下的显著大于1/2和1/3条件下的,而1/2和1/3条件下的无显著差异;而P300的波幅则在三种水平上差异显著,责任越大,波幅越小。结果支持责任对后悔强度有所影响,且后悔强度在一定程度上随责任大小呈线性变化。