Deviant scripturalism and ritual satanic abuse part one: Possible Judeo‐Christian influences

Sociologists are locked in a contentious debate with mental health personnel over the reality of intergenerational satanic abuse. Prominent sociologists insist that the satanic accounts are part of a moral panic fuelled by the media, conservative churches, and professionals who use directive, suggestive, or leading questions in their counselling and interviewing sessions. Many therapists, in contrast, are convinced that the intensity of their clients’ horrific memories along with the basic similarities of many clients’ accounts strongly suggest that the ritual abuse accounts are true. Drawing from the discipline of religious studies, this study argues that readily accessible religious texts that often are central to our culture may provide inspiration to people who either want to sanctify their deviance or venerate the reputed god of this world (i.e. Satan). Using interviews and diaries from several alleged survivors, this study compares excerpts from their accounts with doctrinal precedents for satanic ritual abuse in deviant interpretations of the Judeo‐Christian tradition. While the article stops short of stating that intergenerational satanic accounts are true, it insists that at least some of them are plausible.¹     

Accuracy, completeness, and consistency of emotional memories

Judges and lawyers often consider inconsistent testimonies to be inaccurate. We addressed this assumption by asking undergraduate students on 2 occasions to write detailed accounts of violent movie fragments they had seen. These accounts were evaluated in terms of accuracy, completeness, and consistency. Experiment 1 showed that accounts tended to be accurate. Moreover, first accounts were marginally more complete than second accounts. The number of inconsistencies between the 2 accounts was not significantly related to their accuracy. Experiment 2 sought to replicate these findings using a more emotionally upsetting movie fragment. Results were highly similar to those of Experiment 1 in that accounts tended to be accurate but incomplete. Inconsistencies were not significantly related to the accuracy of participants' accounts. In line with previous research, we found that accounts of emotional events can be highly accurate but tend to be incomplete. More importantly, inconsistencies cannot be seen as valid predictors of testimonial inaccuracy.     

The sequential analysis of transgressors' accounts of breaking environmental laws

Three-hundred and twenty written accounts of environmental transgressors were assessed by sequential analysis to reveal their argument streams. The accounts were obtained from the written statements that transgressors are allowed to give during the Spanish administrative process and which were included in files handled by four environmental law enforcement agencies. These agencies are distributed across national, regional, island and municipality jurisdictions. The setting for the study is a highly protected environment in which environmental laws have high salience. Results reveal that transgressors use simple argument streams, consistently more defensive than conciliatory, and questioning the perceived legitimacy of environmental law. It was seen also that the empirical functioning of the explanations related to pursuing emotional/prosocial objectives differs from what was expected from the traditional conceptual definition. Results are discussed in terms of how the assessment of the internal dynamic of the accounts would provide valuable information on transgressors' reasoning in relation to environmental laws.     

When Manipulation Gets Personal

Many accounts of moral responsibility have emerged recently that question the importance of conscious choice for moral responsibility. Instead of this ‘volitional’ requirement, these ‘attributionist’ accounts claim that agents are responsible for their actions when their actions reflect who they are and what they value. This paper argues that attributionist accounts are too quick to dismiss the connection between volition and moral responsibility. By excising conscious control from their accounts, attributionists leave open the undesirable possibility that an agent may fulfil all necessary conditions for moral responsibility even when she is under the conscious control of another person. Through analyzing situations in which attributionist conditions for moral responsibility are met while an agent is controlled by someone else, the link between an agent's volition and her moral responsibility becomes more apparent.     

Who's Got the Power? Gender Differences in Partners’ Perceptions of Influence During Marital Problem-Solving Discussions

Previous research on marital communication indicates that women have more influence in marital problem solving because they raise the issues and shape the discussion. Other studies suggest that men have the power in marital problem solving. This study re-examines power and influence from the partners’ point of view. Twenty-seven couples — 18 with a first child under 2, and 9 undecided about having children — were videotaped while working on a self-selected problem concerning their division of family labor. Data sources included: (a) transcribed audiotaped accounts given by each partner while viewing a videotape of their problem-solving discussion; (b) self-report questionnaires; and (c) ratings by a research team of the concordance between spouses’ accounts. Husbands and wives were perceived as having a primary influence on different aspects of the discussion. Women tended to raise the issues and draw men out in the early phase of the discussion, while men controlled the content and emotional depth of the later discussion phases, and largely determined the outcome. The women's accounts emphasized that their influence in the early phase was often illusory: their behavior was shaped primarily by the effort to choose strategies that would avoid upsetting their husbands. In terms of overall satisfaction with marriage, wives had greater tolerance than their husbands for conflict in the area of division of domestic labor, but less tolerance for their husbands’ domination of the discussion process. Women's marital satisfaction was higher when there was concordance between spouses in their accounts of their problem-solving discussion. This research highlights the importance of eliciting spouses’ own perceptions and definitions in understanding the impact of gender-linked power differences in marital communication.     

Constructions of Agency in Accounts of Drunk Driving at the Outset of Semi-Mandatory Counseling

Convicted drunk drivers, in accounts of their offenses, rarely display qualities of agency that would contribute to a favorable outcome in counseling. Instead, the discursive and rhetorical aim of the accounts is often to evade responsibility and ownership of the offending behavior. Such disclaim of personal agency can be achieved in various ways in the narration of drunk driving (DD) incidences. This study examined how five aspects of agentic presentation (reflexivity, historicity, intentionality, causal attribution, and relationality) were present in or missing from such accounts. It was found that a tentative model of (non)agentic display based on those five aspects could differentiate between the cases in a meaningful way and contribute to an understanding of the clients’ ways of positioning themselves in semi-mandatory counseling as well as of their uses of the counseling context.     

Mythos and Mental Illness: Psychopathy, Fantasy, and Contemporary Moral Life

Medical accounts of the absence of conscience are intriguing for the way they seem disposed to drift away from the ideal of scientific objectivity and towards fictional representations of the subject. I examine here several contemporary accounts of psychopathy by Robert Hare and Paul Babiak. I first note how they locate the truth about their subject in fiction, then go on to contend that their accounts ought to be thought of as a "mythos," for they betray a telling uncertainty about where "fact" ends and "fantasy" begins, as well as the means of distinguishing mental health from mental illness in regard to some social roles.     

Assessing the accuracy of conflicting autobiographical memories

We examined criteria that rememberers and neutral audiences use to validate conflicting memories. In Experiment 1, rememberers described an incident that they recalled differently from someone else from their own and the other person’s perspective. Rememberers and audiences then evaluated the accuracy of statements in both accounts, explained their accuracy ratings, and appraised the qualities of the memories. In Experiment 2, dyads who possessed conflicting memories of a shared past episode evaluated each other’s recollections. In both studies, rememberers rated their own recollections as more accurate than other people’s and based their judgments primarily on the internal coherence of the memories. Rememberers used consensus more frequently and sensory detail less often to evaluate other people’s memories than their own. Audiences (Experiment 1) reported examining the consistency between the accounts and their own experiences; they also used consensus and normative behavior to a greater extent than rememberers. In both studies, rememberers judged their own accounts to be more detailed and coherent. Their ratings of detail and coherence predicted their ratings of accuracy.     

How accounts shape lending decisions through fostering perceived trustworthiness

We examine the roles of social accounts in influencing lenders’ decisions about loaning money to borrowers. Using field data and a laboratory experiment, we show that lenders will lend money depending on the accounts borrowers tell. In Study 1, field data from a peer-to-peer lending website reveal that two-account combinations (explanation–acknowledgment and explanation–denial) increase the likelihood of favorable lending decisions. A laboratory study helps explain the important role of accounts by unpacking the process of perceived borrower trustworthiness in lending decisions. A final field study assessing the performance of loans 2 years after origination shows that accounts, despite having a positive effect on the loan decision process, negatively predict loan performance. Collectively, the three studies show that accounts facilitate economic exchanges between unacquainted transaction partners because of their role in increasing perceived trustworthiness, but that ironically, accounts can negatively relate to loan performance.     

Should I believe this? Reality monitoring of accounts of self‐experienced and invented recent and distant autobiographical events

To examine personal and interpersonal reality monitoring, 240 participants wrote accounts of invented or self‐experienced autobiographical events. Half the participants wrote about a distant event that happened before the age of 15 and half wrote about a recent event that happened after the age of 15. Using a yoked design, participants rated the qualitative details of their own accounts and the details of other participants' accounts. Consistent with previous research, we found that self‐experienced accounts contained more qualitative details than invented accounts, and that accounts of recent events contained more qualitative details than accounts of distant events. Participants rated their own accounts as more qualitatively detailed than other participants' accounts, which suggests that they did not base their self‐ratings solely on the written details. We discuss the practical and theoretical importance of our findings. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive preferences: merging political accounts and well-being accounts

Accounts of adaptive preferences are of two kinds: well-being accounts fully theorized for their own sake and political accounts theorized to facilitate the political project of reducing oppression and marginalization. Given their practical role, the latter are often less fully theorized, and are therefore less robust to theoretical criticism. In this paper, I first draw on well-being accounts to identify the well-theorized elements that political accounts should want to adopt in order to strengthen their project and avoid common criticisms. Second, I appeal to the political project to show the shortcomings of the well-being accounts on which I draw.     

Federalism vs Realism: Charles Hodge, Augustus Strong and William Shedd on the Imputation of Sin

Abstract:   Nineteenth-century Calvinistic theologians in the United States explored both 'federalist' and 'realist' accounts of the transmission of original sin from Adam to his progeny. An examination of the logic of three of these accounts, those of William Shedd, Augustus Strong (who were both realists) and Charles Hodge (who was a federalist), shows that aspects of their views can be defended and yields some helpful pointers towards a realist reconstruction of the doctrine today.     

Wanton Responsibility

Mainstream accounts of responsible agency either overlook or discount wanton agents as plausible candidates for responsible agency. This is largely due to the compatibilist project of such accounts, and to their deemphasis of historical and modal considerations. I argue that wantons – those who are indifferent to the desires that move them to act – can and ought to be counted as responsible agents. Indeed, they deserve special blame for the acts of wrong doing that issue from their wanton behavior.     

“I don’t want to let myself down or the charity down”: men’s accounts of using various interventions to reduce smoking and alcohol consumption

Men are less likely to seek medical help than women and are more likely to adopt unhealthy practices. This study investigated men’s constructions of alcohol and tobacco cessation interventions in relation to dominant masculine identities. Focus groups and interviews with 12 male university students were analysed using an eclectic approach informed by discursive psychology and Foucauldian discourse analysis. Findings suggested that interventions encouraging competition among friends were constructed as favourable, and autonomy and control were central to men’s accounts. While men presented their behaviour change as intentional, their accounts revealed a tendency to conceal this from others, suggesting a negative influence of peer pressure. However, participants who had raised money for charity whilst abstaining described this process as rewarding and acting as a “buffer” to legitimise their healthy behaviour when socializing with other men. Implications for health providers and policy makers are discussed.     

Comparing associative, statistical, and inferential reasoning accounts of human contingency learning

For more than two decades, researchers have contrasted the relative merits of associative and statistical theories as accounts of human contingency learning. This debate, still far from resolution, has led to further refinement of models within each family of theories. More recently, a third theoretical view has joined the debate: the inferential reasoning account. The explanations of these three accounts differ critically in many aspects, such as level of analysis and their emphasis on different steps within the information-processing sequence. Also, each account has important advantages (as well as critical flaws) and emphasizes experimental evidence that poses problems to the others. Some hybrid models of human contingency learning have attempted to reconcile certain features of these accounts, thereby benefiting from some of the unique advantages of different families of accounts. A comparison of these families of accounts will help us appreciate the challenges that research on human contingency learning will face over the coming years.     

“Tears of joy” and “tears and joy?” personal accounts of dimorphous and mixed expressions of emotion

In this investigation two distinct theoretical frameworks were applied to personal accounts of experiencing both smiles and crying, informally referred to as “tears of joy.” Dimorphous theory posits that such expressions arise from a positive or negative appraisal, and a single corresponding emotional experience. In contrast, mixed emotions theoretically arise from simultaneous positive and negative appraisals, positive and negative emotions, which might also culminate in two expressions of emotion. Across three experimental studies participants were exposed to a positive story, or a story with mixed positive and negative aspects. Participants reported on their appraisals, emotions, and personal accounts of their expressions. Explicit, freely-written, and implicit measures, as well as participants’ own explanations for their reported smiling and crying all converged on patterns supporting both dimorphous and mixed expressions of emotion. Data suggest the subjective experience of both “tears of joy” and “tears and joy.”     

“Universal reason” as a local organizational method: Announcement of a study

This article announces an ethnomethodological study of the formal analytic practices of Tibetan philosophers engaged in the collaborative work of producing correct philosophical debates. Tibetan scholar-monks address themselves to the work of sustaining an argument, providing formal warrants for authorizing truth and correctness, objectivating their accounts and disengaging those accounts from their local organizational practices. At the same time, it is the concern of the Tibetans' dialectics to avoid naive acceptance of reified accounts. The announced study proposes to describe their philosophical activities and to locate what originality may affect resolving the tension between formal analytic work and philosophical insight into truth.     

Research Report: Self-harming behaviour: from lay perceptions to clinical practice

Self-harm is a complex phenomena that occurs in many different settings. Multi-factorial explanations predominate in the literature and accounts of treatment reflect this diversity, ranging through psychobiological and psycho-social theories. This study aims to identify, describe and interpret some of the accounts and understandings of self-harm from a cross section of the general population and then relate this to clinical practice. Q Methodology is used to explore various competing viewpoints of lay people in understanding and treating people who self-harm. Eight different accounts were produced from the Explanation Q-sort. All but the Biological account described self-harm as a coping strategy, utilized in response to feelings of helplessness following social interaction and were therefore psycho-social in nature. There were four treatment/policy viewpoints that were all psycho-social in nature. These were influenced by humanistic and cognitive types of therapy and were united by the importance of empathy, positive regard and empowerment. These viewpoints are fully explored in this study. Common themes and factors connecting the explanations and treatment Q-sorts are discussed. These findings are then discussed in terms of their implications to current working practice and further initiatives and research projects.     

Self‐Knowledge Failures and First Person Authority1

Davidson and Burge have claimed that the conditions under which self‐knowledge is possessed are such that externalism poses no obstacle to their being met by ordinary speakers and thinkers. On their accounts, no such person could fail to possess self‐knowledge. But we do from time to time attribute to each other such failures; so we should prefer to their accounts an account that preserves first person authority while allowing us to make sense of what appear to be true attributions of such failures. While the core idea behind Davidson's and Burge's accounts appears ioadequate to this task, I argue that it can be deployed in such a way as to deliver the desired result. What makes this possible is that two attitude‐types can differ as follows: the self‐knowledge required for an utterance to be a Oing that p is different from the self‐knowledge required for it to be a Ψfing that p.     

Autonomy Within Subservient Careers

While there is much literature on autonomy and the conditions for its attainment, there is less on how those conditions reflect on agents’ ordinary careers. Most people’s careers involve a great deal of subservient activity that would prevent the kind of control over agents’ actions that autonomy would seem to require. Yet, it would seem strange to deny autonomy to every agent who regularly follows orders at work—to do so would make autonomy a futile ideal. Most contemporary autonomy accounts provide purely theoretical analysis without reference to any practical goal that autonomy could serve. These accounts are likely to resolve this issue in one direction: either almost entirely including or excluding subservient workers from autonomy. Either solution would fail to distinguish agents who sufficiently control their lives, in spite of limited subservience, according to their own standards, from agents for whom subservience precludes a fulfilling life. I suggest the solution lies in a return to goal-oriented autonomy accounts, which can use the goal to distinguish when subservience overwhelms autonomy from when subservience and autonomy can coexist. I present an account that anchors autonomy in the happiness that it provides for agents who sufficiently control their lives as determined by their more important prudential standards. On this account, agents in subservient careers can be autonomous if they determine how to make their careers consistent with their happiness.