Who Says It's Sexual Harassment? The Effects of Gender and Likelihood to Sexually Harass on Legal Judgments of Sexual Harassment1

The effects of participants’ gender and propensity to sexually harass were examined in a sexual harassment case in which the gender of the harassers and victim were manipulated systematically. Male and female participants scoring either high or low on the Likelihood to Sexually Harass (LSH) scale (Pryor, 1987) reviewed an ostensibly real hostile work environment case and made judgments about the case. When participants were the same gender as the victim, individual differences in LSH failed to influence their judgments. When the participants’ gender was the opposite of the victim's, those low in LSH perceived the behaviors as more likely to be sexual harassment than those high in LSH. These results are discussed and their implications considered.     

To Identify or Not To Identify? National Disidentification as an Alternative Reaction to Perceived Ethnic Discrimination

This study was a longitudinal investigation of the psychological and attitudinal consequences of perceived ethnic discrimination and ethnic and national identification among immigrants in an 8-year follow-up study with panel data. The participants were 293 immigrants in Finland coming from the former Soviet Union. The results supported the Rejection-Disidentification Model (RDIM) proposed in this study; perceived discrimination resulted in national disidentification, which, in turn, increased hostile attitudes towards the national out-group. Contrary to prevalent assumptions in the literature, long-term psychological well-being was not determined by the absolute level of discrimination experienced in the past. However, it was influenced by an increase in those experiences over time, and evidence was also obtained for the reciprocal relationship between perceived discrimination and well-being. The results of the study were discussed in terms of the further development of the theoretical models explaining the role of identification in relationships between perceived discrimination, attitudes towards the national out-group and well-being among multiple-identified minority members.     

Can blindsight be superior to 'sighted-sight'?

DB, the first blindsight case to be tested extensively (Weiskrantz, 1986) has demonstrated the ability to detect and discriminate a range of visual stimuli presented within his perimetrically blind visual field defect. In a temporal two alternative forced choice (2AFC) detection experiment we have investigated the limits of DB's detection ability within his field defect. Blind field performance was compared to his sighted field performance and to an age-matched control group (n=6). DB reliably detected the presence of a small (2 degrees ), low contrast (7%), 4.6c/ degrees Gabor patch with the same space-averaged luminance as the background presented within his blind field but performed at chance levels at the same eccentricity (11.3 degrees ) within his sighted field. Investigation of detection as a function of stimulus contrast revealed DB's ability to detect the presence of an 8% contrast stimulus within his blind field, compared to 12% in his sighted field. No significant difference in detection performance between DB's sighted field and the performance of six age-matched control participants suggests poor sighted field performance does not account for the results. Monocular testing also rules out differences between the eyes as an explanation, suggesting that DB demonstrates superior detection for certain stimuli within his visual field defect compared to normal vision.     

What is the Right Thing to Say? Agreement among Perceivers on the Supportiveness of Statements

Most social support theory implies that there are objectively supportive people and statements. Yet there is little agreement among perceivers that some people are more supportive than others. Nonetheless, there might be better agreement regarding supportive statements. In three studies, children, college students, and members of a clinical training program rated the supportiveness of specific statements presented by text or video. Agreement among perceivers accounted for only 11% of the variance (range = 8%–12%). Perceivers disagreed because of their traitlike perceptual biases, as well as perceivers’ idiosyncratic tastes. Implications for social support theory were discussed.     

Working Memory Rating Scale's Utility to Identify Children's Memory Difficulties in Diverse Educational Environments: Can It Work in Every School?

The aim of the present study was to explore the psychometric properties of the observer‐based Working Memory Rating Scale (WMRS) tool, in a sample of 6‐ to 12‐year‐old Greek primary school children. Results established a good internal consistency; appropriate factorial, criterion‐related and convergent validity; and diagnostic utility of the scale in the Greek population. However, the relationship between teacher's ratings and the objective assessment of children's working memory abilities was mediated by children's vocabulary knowledge, suggesting that verbal skills can constitute a form of bias in this particular educational environment. In conclusion, the WMRS can provide a reliable assessment of children's working memory capacity in Greek schools. Nevertheless, characteristics of the child such as verbal abilities could bias teacher's judgments. Therefore, the WMRS in Greek schools should be used as an initial screener, and objective working memory measures should be included in the assessment if warranted. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Can You Lie Without Intending to Deceive?

This article defends the view that liars need not intend to deceive. I present common objections to this view in detail and then propose a case of a liar who can lie but who cannot deceive in any relevant sense. I then modify this case to get a situation in which this person lies intending to tell his hearer the truth and he does this by way of getting the hearer to recognize his intention to tell the truth by lying. This case, and further cases that I develop from it, demonstrate that lying without the intention to deceive is possible.     

Can implementation intentions help to overcome ego-depletion?

Research on ego-depletion suggests that the ability to self-regulate one’s behavior is limited: Exerting self-control on an initial task reduces performance on a subsequent task that also requires self-control. Two experiments tested whether forming implementation intentions could prevent ego-depletion and/or offset the effects of ego-depletion. Experiment 1 found that participants who formed implementation intentions during an initial ego-depleting task subsequently showed greater persistence on an unsolvable puzzles task compared to participants who did not form implementation intentions. Experiment 2 found that among participants who had been ego-depleted during an initial task, forming implementation intentions improved subsequent performance on a Stroop task to the level exhibited by non-depleted controls. Thus, implementation intentions help to enhance people’s ability to self-regulate their behavior.     

Can attention be allocated to sensory modalities?

Three experiments examined the effects of attention allocation to the modalities of vision, audition, and touch. The first two experiments utilized a simultaneous-successive comparison. The simultaneous procedure involved simultaneous monitoring of all three sensory modalities for the presence of a near-threshold stimulus. The successive condition allowed S to give his full attention to each sensory modality in turn. There was no advantage for the successive condition, whether the task consisted of detection of a single stimulus (Experiment I) or detection of the absence of one of many stimuli (Experiment II). Experiment III used a different paradigm to extend these results and bridge the gap between these results, those of Eijkman and Vendrik (1965), and those of Moray (1973a, b). We concluded that selective allocation of attention to sensory modalities does not affect the early stages of perceptual processing.     

Can humans think their way to increased freedom?

In response to Auger's article, “Are Human Beings Free?” several points are made in favor of humans' having at least some degree of free choice or free will: (1) Although partly dependent on biological and social influences for their tastes, people may sometimes actually train themselves to change these tastes and desires. (2) Although logically people may never be totally responsible for their acts, unless we pragmatically hold them responsible for their antisocial behavior we vitiate all moral rules of the social groups in which theychoose to reside. (3) RET can hold people responsible for their wrongdoing and help them to act less wrongfully in the future by teaching them how to condemn theirdeeds andacts but not themselves as humans.     

Can We Turn a Blind Eye to Eliminativism?

In this paper I shall reply to two arguments that Stephen Stich (1990; 1991; 1996) has recently put forward against the thesis of eliminative materialism. In a nutshell, Stich argues that (i) the thesis of eliminative materialism, according to which propositional attitudes don't exist, is neither true nor false, and that (ii) even if it were true, that would be philosophically uninteresting. To support (i) and (ii) Stich relies on two premises: (a) that the job of a theory of reference is to make explicit the tacit theory of reference which underlies our intuitions about the notion of reference itself; and (b) that our intuitive notion of reference is a highly idiosyncratic one. In this paper I shall address Stich's anti-eliminativist claims (i) and (ii). I shall argue that even if we agreed with premises (a) and (b), that would lend no support whatsoever to (i) and (ii).     

Can priming your self lead to punishing others?

Previous research has shown that priming the individual self can increase the accessibility of individual self-cognitions. In turn, we hypothesized that blame for immoral behaviors also would increase, leading to higher assignments of punishment, but that the size of this effect would depend on whether the behaviors violated perfect or imperfect duties. To test these hypotheses, participants assigned yearly bonus penalties to employees who had performed dishonest, disloyal, unfriendly, or uncharitable acts. As expected, the individual prime increased punishments, and this effect was accentuated for violations of perfect duties relative to violations of imperfect duties.     

Can spirituality be taught to health care professionals?

Although people with life-limiting conditions report a desire to have spiritual concerns addressed, there is evidence that these issues are often avoided by health care professionals in palliative care. This study reports on the longitudinal outcomes of four workshops purpose-designed to improve the spiritual knowledge and confidence of 120 palliative care staff in Australia. Findings revealed significant increases in Spirituality, Spiritual Care, Personalised Care, and Confidence in this field immediately following the workshops. Improvements in Spiritual Care and Confidence were maintained 3 month later, with Confidence continuing to grow. These findings suggest that attendance at a custom-designed workshop can significantly improve knowledge and confidence to provide spiritual care.     

Cigarette Smoking in Popular Films: Does It Increase Viewers' Likelihood to Smoke?1

The effect of viewing smoking in popular films was investigated. Participants were instructed to rate main characters in scenes from popular films on 12 characteristics (e. g., attractive, sexy, sociable). One group watched 6 scenes from popular films in which the main character they rated was smoking. The other group watched scenes from the same 6 films in which they rated the same main characters who were not smoking. The participants rated the female characters shown smoking less favorably on all rated characteristics, but not the male characters. The male regular and occasional smokers had a higher current desire to smoke if the film characters they had viewed smoked. Both female and male participants who viewed the characters smoking were more likely to indicate a likelihood to smoke than were the participants who viewed the nonsmoking scenes.     

Can one pay attention to a particular color?

In an array of elements whose colors vary can we selectively choose to process all the items of a particular color preferentially in relation to those of another color? We addressed this question by presenting subjects with arrays containing many elements, and recording reaction times to a luminance change of one of the elements. Half the elements had one color and the other half another color--the spatial distribution being random. In two tasks--a simple detection of this change or a choice reaction time to the polarity of the change--we found that reaction times were independent of the number of items in the array. Cuing the subjects as to the color of the target item had no significant influence on the detection task, but subjects were faster if cued for the discrimination task. A further experiment replicated these findings and examined possible costs and benefits. Our final experiment separated the roles of attentional guidance and postattentional processes by having subjects judge the orientation of the target element and varying the magnitude of the target flash that defined which element was the target. We found that this judgment was also affected by color cuing, and that the size of the effect interacted with the flash strength, suggesting that color cuing has its influence at the stage of attentional guidance. We conclude that subjects can selectively attend to items on the basis of color given the appropriate task and stimulus dynamics.     

Popularity or Influence? The Use of Citation Index to Identify Leaders in Family Therapy

Our frequency analysis of most living family therapy theorists using the Social Science Citation Index yielded a definite increase in frequencies over the last ten years and considerable differences in frequencies among various theorists.     

Can massive but passive exposure to faces contribute to face recognition abilities?

Recent studies have suggested that individuation of other-race faces is more crucial for enhancing recognition performance than exposure that involves categorization of these faces to an identity-irrelevant criterion. These findings were primarily based on laboratory training protocols that dissociated exposure and individuation by using categorization tasks. However, the absence of enhanced recognition following categorization may not simulate key aspects of real-life massive exposure without individuation to other-race faces. Real-life exposure spans years of seeing a multitude of faces, under variant conditions, including expression, view, lighting and gaze, albeit with no subcategory individuation. However, in most real-life settings, massive exposure operates in concert with individuation. An exception to that are neonatology nurses, a unique population that is exposed to--but do not individuate--massive numbers of newborn faces. Our findings show that recognition of newborn faces by nurses does not differ from adults who are rarely exposed to newborn faces. A control study showed that the absence of enhanced recognition cannot be attributed to the relatively short exposure to each newborn face in the neonatology unit or to newborns' apparent homogeneous appearance. It is therefore the quality--not the quantity--of exposure that determines recognition abilities.