Barking up the wrong tree? Industry funding of academic research. A case study with commentaries

This case raises ethical issues involving conflicts of interest arising from industrial funding of academic research; ethical responsibilities of laboratories to funding agencies; ethical responsibilities in the management of a research lab; ethical considerations in appropriate research design; communication in a research group; communication between advisor and graduate student; responsibilities of researchers for the environment; misrepresentation or withholding of scientific results.     

Accommodation to What? Univocity of Being,Pure Nature,and the Anthropology of St Irenaeus

Abstract: This article, the author's inaugural lecture for the J.I. Packer chair at Regent College, Vancouver, takes as its starting‐point Karl Barth's penetrating question, ‘Accommodation to what?’ Suggesting that recent evangelical theologies have been too ready to accommodate to the immanentism inherent in postmodern culture, the article traces the roots of that immanentism to Scotus's teaching concerning the univocity of being, and suggests that in St Irenaeus's christologically shaped account of the nature and destiny of human life there is a theologically satisfying preservation of a proper account of transcendence.     

Why are you bringing up condoms now? The effect of message content on framing effects of condom use messages.

According to prospect theory (A. Tversky & D. Kahneman, 1981), messages advocating a low-risk (i.e., easy, low-cost) behavior are most effective if they stress the benefits of adherence (gain framed), whereas messages advocating a risky behavior are most effective if they stress the costs of nonadherence (loss framed). Although condom use is viewed as a low-risk behavior, it may entail risky interpersonal negotiations. Study 1 (N = 167) compared ratings of condom use messages advocating relational behaviors (e.g., discussing condoms) or health behaviors (e.g., carrying condoms). As predicted, loss-framed relational messages and gain-framed health messages received higher evaluations. Study 2 (N = 225) offers a replication and evidence of issue involvement and gender as moderators. Results are discussed with reference to the design of condom use messages.     

What do you think of followers? Examining the content,structure, and consequences of implicit followership theories

Implicit followership theories (IFTs) are defined as individuals’ personal assumptions about the traits and behaviors that characterize followers. Goals of this research were to: (1) Identify the content and structure of IFTs, (2) examine the relationship between IFTs and extant implicit theories in the leadership literature, and (3) establish a preliminary nomological network of leaders’ implicit followership theories by examining its consequences for leader–follower interpersonal outcomes. This study included 1362 participants across five separate studies and seven samples. Results provide evidence for content, convergent, discriminant, criterion, and incremental validity, as well as internal and temporal consistency of the IFTs instrument. IFTs are represented by a first-order structure (Industry, Enthusiasm, Good Citizen, Conformity, Insubordination, and Incompetence), and a second-order structure (Followership Prototype and Antiprototype). Leaders’ IFTs predicted interpersonal outcomes: liking, relationship quality, trust, and job satisfaction. Future research and practical implications are discussed for this understudied branch of leadership research.     

The logic of social exchange: has natural selection shaped how humans reason? Studies with the Wason selection task

In order to successfully engage in social exchange--cooperation between two or more individuals for mutual benefit--humans must be able to solve a number of complex computational problems, and do so with special efficiency. Following Marr (1982), Cosmides (1985) and Cosmides and Tooby (1989) used evolutionary principles to develop a computational theory of these adaptive problems. Specific hypotheses concerning the structure of the algorithms that govern how humans reason about social exchange were derived from this computational theory. This article presents a series of experiments designed to test these hypotheses, using the Wason selection task, a test of logical reasoning. Part I reports experiments testing social exchange theory against the availability theories of reasoning; Part II reports experiments testing it against Cheng and Holyoak's (1985) permission schema theory. The experimental design included eight critical tests designed to choose between social exchange theory and these other two families of theories; the results of all eight tests support social exchange theory. The hypothesis that the human mind includes cognitive processes specialized for reasoning about social exchange predicts the content effects found in these experiments, and parsimoniously explains those that have already been reported in the literature. The implications of this line of research for a modular view of human reasoning are discussed, as well as the utility of evolutionary biology in the development of computational theories.     

If I want you to like me,should I be like you or unlike you? The effect of prior positive interaction with the group on conformity and distinctiveness in consumer decision making

The extant research points to conflicting results regarding social influence in consumer decision making. On the one hand, there is empirical evidence that suggests that people conform to other members of their groups. On the other hand, several studies demonstrated the opposite pattern, namely, that individuals seek distinctiveness from others in the group. The goal of the present research is to reconcile these contradictory findings. To this end, I propose that whether a person will conform to or seek distinctiveness from others in a particular consumption situation is contingent on the absence or presence of one's prior positive interaction with the group. I also suggest that this effect will occur in a public context, that is, when an individual's choice is visible to other group members. The results of experiment supported these propositions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Do you believe happiness can change? An investigation of the relationship between happiness mindsets,well-being,and satisfaction

Three studies (N = 794) examined if beliefs about the malleable nature of happiness (growth mindsets) are associated with well-being and if this well-being had downstream implications for satisfaction with one’s relationships (Studies 1–3), health (Study 3), and job (Study 3). In Study 1 (N = 277), happiness growth mindsets were associated with greater well-being and greater relationship satisfaction. In Study 2 (N = 337), using an experimental paradigm and serial mediation, encouraging growth mindsets led to stronger beliefs in the changeable nature of happiness, which in turn was associated with subjective well-being, and, finally, relationship satisfaction. In Study 3 (N = 180), we replicated the downstream effects of growth mindsets of happiness on well-being and subsequently on relationship satisfaction and extended these serial mediation effects to health and job satisfaction. We discuss the implications of happiness mindsets.     

Who is the Hero in the Life of the Traumatized Patient? Reflections on Bodansky’s Work with Mrs. E

The vexed question of how to explain analytic success with traumatized patients like Bodansky’s Mrs. E is considered from a perspective on psychoanalytic history and the specific theory-buttressed assumptions and practices of earlier generations of analysts that led them to conclude that traumatized patients couldn’t be helped via psychoanalytic work. I then consider Mrs. E’s life with an organizing question, Who is its hero?, applying perspectives from Charles Dickens and from Fraiberg and colleagues’ work, and use these perspectives to question the theory-based assumption that Mrs. E must have somewhere had a good object experience to have a life. These perspectives allow contemplation of a saving forceful agency at Mrs. E’s core (perhaps one experienced by her as “animal”) that seems essential to understanding her successes in living. The success of her treatment in assisting her with building a life suggests that her analyst’s helping her with mirroring and, even more important, with mentalizing, contribute importantly to her life improvement. Some potential limitations of his approach to her are also implied in his account; in particular, his limited work with her intimate desires and feelings, both libidinal and aggressive.     

What do humans feel with mistreated humans,animals, robots,and objects? Exploring the role of cognitive empathy

Motivation and Emotion - The aim of this paper is to present a study in which we compare the degree of empathy that a convenience sample of university students expressed with humans, animals,...     

An evaluation of the quantity and quality of empirical research in three pastoral care and counseling journals, 1990-1999: has anything changed?

This article summarizes a review of all articles published in Pastoral Psychology, The Journal of Rleigion and Health, and The Journal of Pastoral Care between 1900 and 1999, identifying a total of 737 scholarly articles, of which 165 (22.4%) were research studies. The proportion of research studies, especially quantitative studies, increased significantly between the first and second half of the study period (p < .05). There was a significant positive correlation between compliance with three out of four criteria of internal validity. Three of five criteria of external validity were also positively related to one another. Compared to previous research using identical criteria to assess quantitative studies in the same journals in 1980-1989, the 1990-1999 sample showed improved compliance with respect to specifying the sampling method (p < .001), reporting the response rate (p < .05), and discussing the limitations of research studies (p < .001). However, the overall findings suggest that many researchers in the field do not have a sophisticated knowledge of statistical sampling, statistical analysis, or research design. Several recommendations for increasing the quality of quantitative research are offered.     

Who wants to become more conscientious,more extraverted,or less neurotic with the help of a digital intervention?

Desires to increase in extraversion and conscientiousness as well as to decrease in neuroticism are the three most prevalent personality change goals. This study describes characteristics of people who wanted to change one of these personality traits (total N = 1196) with the help of a digital personality change intervention. The extent to which characteristics predicted the selection of one change goal over the other two was explored using machine learning. Individuals desired to change traits with lower (in case of desires to increase) or higher (in case of desires to decrease) self- and observer-reports and with greater self-other discrepancies. This identification of characteristics of people who desired to change certain personality traits informs future interventions.     

Who Needs Valid Moral Arguments? (Dedicated to the Memory of R.M. Chisholm, 1916–1999)

Why have so many philosophers agonised over the possibility of valid arguments from factual premises to moral conclusions? I suggest that they have done so, because of worries over a sceptical argument that has as one of its premises, `All moral knowledge must be non-inferential, or, if inferential, based on valid arguments or strong inductive arguments from factual premises'. I argue that this premise is false.     

Sartre,The Condemned of Altona and the Critique of Dialectical Reason-to-come: Insanity or Bad Faith Running Away with Itself?

What for Sartre happens when bad faith goes so deep that one is no longer master of it? In The Condemned of Altona, Franz Gerlach, after an initial show of resistance, joins the Nazi cause and tortures prisoners of war in his charge. Fleeing home from Russia at the war’s end, he sequesters himself in the attic of the family mansion and attempts to absorb the guilt of the twentieth century by frantically arguing his case before a tribunal of scuttling crabs.

What does Sartre’s portrayal of hallucination tell us about the human condition and is it the result of insanity? As a harbinger for the Critique of Dialectical Reason (CDR), Sartre’s ontology has shifted away from an emphasis on human isolation and absolute freedom to a concern with how behaviour, even of an irrational kind, is a profound reflection of one’s place in a social hierarchy. Also a reflection of a CDR-type approach, Sartre’s views change regarding the status of truth and interpersonal relations. For while someone like Nausea’s Roquentin exhibits a redemptive value through introspection, fantasy and private experience, Franz’s behaviour points to a repeated failure to deal with social reality and the associated attempt to redeem his own existence by acting authentically towards others.     

Characteristics of successful fakers versus unsuccessful fakers: is empathy, intelligence, or personality associated with faking PTSD on the MMPI-2?

Moyer, Burkhardt, and Gordon found in 2002 that some individuals could fake PTSD on the MMPI-2. In light of these results, a follow-up study was conducted to assess whether attributes such as empathy, intelligence, subjectivity, or insightfulness influenced ability to fake a PTSD profile on the MMPI-2. 35 subjects from the previous study were divided into two groups, successful fakers and unsuccessful fakers. Analysis indicated no significant differences between groups on the measures of empathy or intelligence. However, a significant difference was found between groups on the Schizophrenia and Cynicism scales and falling just short of significance on the Hypochondriasis scale. These results suggested that individuals able to fake PTSD are more insightful and less subjective, which makes them better at role-playing.