Can Darwinian Feminism Save Female Autonomy and Leadership in Egalitarian Society?

As a Darwinian feminist I welcome any attempt at correcting the historical neglect of women’s roles in human evolution, as Rebecca J. Hannagan (2008, in this issue) does in her paper “Gendered Political Behavior: A Darwinian Feminist Approach.” There is much to be said for the view that women’s political agency in foraging societies has systematically been underestimated, due to a combination of researcher bias and the lesser visibility of women’s political strategies. As a feminist Darwinian, however, I must conclude that wishful thinking seems to have led Hannagan into overestimating the degree of female autonomy and leadership in these societies.     

Curing Psychopathology: Can Philosophy Help?

Abstract

It is argued that philosophers can contribute indirectly to the cure of psychopathology by helping to resolve problems that impede the development of effective treatments. Two such problems are discussed. The first arises because different schools of therapy use conflicting criteria in evaluating therapeutic outcomes. A theory of Defective Desires is developed to deal with this problem. The second issue, which divides the field of psychotherapy, concerns the need for experiments, especially in validating claims of therapeutic efficacy. An epistemological foundation is developed to support the need for experiments.     

Genetics: Can Moral Theology Help?

The article discusses Marc Lappé's use of the Principle of Double Effect (PDE) for justifying Germ Line Gene Therapy as a secondary effect of Somatic Gene Therapy. The author argues that Lappés argumentation is mistaken because it is based on a inadequate interpretation of the PDE's scope and function as a means of moral justification. Through an investigation into the history of PDE in Catholic theology, the author gives arguments that use of PDE relies upon some form of deontological framework which is not present in contemporary bioethics. The author concludes that isolated use of PDE, as Lappé seems to suggest, does therefore not warrant moral justification.     

Lay Understanding of Happiness and the Experience of Well-Being: Are Some Conceptions of Happiness More Beneficial than Others?

The aim of the study was to understand aspects of life that men and women associate with happiness and to explore the connections between these associations and well-being (measured as positive affect, negative affect and life satisfaction) in different periods of life. Participants were 785 people who were asked to list associations that came to mind on hearing the word ‘happiness’. The moderating roles of gender and period of life (adolescence/adulthood, transition/no transition) were analysed. Participants associated happiness mostly with health and relationships. Other categories included knowledge, work, material goods and freedom. Those who associated happiness with work had higher levels of positive affect. Associating happiness with relationships predicted greater life satisfaction, whereas associating it with material goods predicted lower satisfaction. Gender moderated the relationship between associations and positive affect: associating happiness with material goods decreased positive affect among men but no such effect was observed among women; associating happiness with relationships was beneficial for women but unbeneficial for men. Additionally, associations with material goods predicted lower positive affect, especially in times of transition. Associating happiness with knowledge decreased positive affect in adolescents and increased it in adults. Some ways of understanding happiness improved life satisfaction but none were related to negative affect. The relationship between concepts of happiness and positive affect is complex; some concepts are unbeneficial only for some people and during certain periods of life.     

Evolutionary Ethics: What Can We Learn From from the Past?

In this paper I look at the question of the derivation of ethics from evolutionary biology, and I do so by considering both historical attempts to make such a derivation and contemporary work.     

Does Mealtime Communication Improve Happiness? Considering the Trait of Shyness1

Shared mealtimes have been found to be important daily rituals with positive effects on behavior and mental health, such as increasing subjective well-being. However, most previous studies have not considered possible barriers to these positive effects, specifically shyness. We investigated the relationships among shared mealtime quality, shyness, and subjective well-being, and the moderating role of shyness in the relationship between the other two variables by surveying a sample of college students (n = 305). Correlational analyses revealed that shared mealtime quality was negatively associated with shyness and positively associated with subjective well-being. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that shared mealtime quality was significantly associated with subjective well-being, as was the interaction between the friend factor of shared mealtime quality and shyness. Therefore, shared mealtime quality might help improve happiness, but shyness should be considered a possible barrier to this beneficial effect when meals are shared with friends.     

Can QOL Researchers Learn Anything “Scientifically” Meaningful from Popular Cultural Icons Who Speak on Happiness and Well-Being?

This is review of two books written by “gurus” who address the topic of happiness and well-being from a spiritual perspective. One book is Matthieu Ricard’s Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill (published by Little, Brown and Company, 2003). The other book is Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose (published by A Plume Book, 2005). The books are thought provoking and interesting reading for the layperson. From a scientific perspective, they should not be treated with any credibility. They advocate an image of the human condition and well-being that is not based on a good and scientific understanding of human nature.     

Can the Decoherence Approach Help to Solve the Measurement Problem?

This work examines whether the environmentally-induced decoherence approach in quantum mechanics brings us any closer to solving the measurement problem, and whether it contributes to the elimination of subjectivism in quantum theory. A distinction is made between ,collapse, and ,decoherence,, so that an explanation for decoherence does not imply an explanation for collapse. After an overview of the measurement problem and of the open-systems paradigm, we argue that taking a partial trace is equivalent to applying the projection postulate. A criticism of Zurek's decoherence approach to measurements is also made, based on the restriction that he must impose on the interaction between apparatus and environment. We then analyze the element of subjectivity involved in establishing the boundary between system and environment, and criticize the incorporation of Everett's branching of memory records into the decoherence research program. Sticking to this program, we end by sketching a proposal for ‘environmentally-induced collapse’. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

From One to Two: Can Visual Feedback Improve the Light Touch Effects on Postural Sway?

The postural control is improved by implicit somatosensory information from lightly touching a rigid bar or explicit visual information about the postural sway. Whether these two additional sources provided at the same time further reduce the postural sway is still unknown. Participants stood on a force plate as quiet as possible lightly touching the bar while received or not visual feedback of the center of pressure position on a monitor screen. Postural sway reduced similarly with the light touch regardless of the additional visual feedback. The findings suggested that providing explicit visual feedback of the center of pressure does not increase the light touch effects on the postural sway. The importance of the implicit somatosensory information on postural control is discussed.     

Happiness on the Political Agenda? PROS and CONS

This paper provides a critical analysis of the application of happiness research into policy domains. An overview of the current debate on the politics of happiness is elaborated by focusing on its promising perspectives as well as the potential problems it raises. Arguments of proponents and opponents are confronted with each other in discussing the following central issues in the debate: (1) the state of progress of the happiness research; (2) the value of happiness and its promotion by political means; (3) the possibility of promoting happiness; (4) paternalism versus autonomy and (5) a fair distribution of happiness. It is concluded from this that pragmatic issues do not pose insurmountable obstacles for the realization of a politics of happiness, although further research is definitely recommendable. The ideological or ethical issues however require further debate and research before the actual realization of a politics of happiness is possible. More specifically, the science of happiness needs to give more attention to analyzing the value of happiness and the desirability of increasing happiness by political means. Also the weighing of the value of happiness against other values and goals is an important issue to be put on the agenda. This paper thus explicates the moral choices and challenges that politicians would be confronted with if they want to put the increase of happiness on the political agenda.     

Averting Dementia of the Alzheimer's Type in Women: Can Counselors Help?

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in late life, taking its greatest toll on women over age 80. This article provides an overview of AD, including risk factors and counseling strategies targeting risk. Counseling strategies address stress, cardiovascular health, social integration, depression, and holistic wellness.     

Adaptation and the Set-Point Model of Subjective Well-Being: Does Happiness Change After Major Life Events?

ABSTRACT— Hedonic adaptation refers to the process by which individuals return to baseline levels of happiness following a change in life circumstances. Dominant models of subjective well-being (SWB) suggest that people can adapt to almost any life event and that happiness levels fluctuate around a biologically determined set point that rarely changes. Recent evidence from large-scale panel studies challenges aspects of this conclusion. Although inborn factors certainly matter and some adaptation does occur, events such as divorce, death of a spouse, unemployment, and disability are associated with lasting changes in SWB. These recent studies also show that there are considerable individual differences in the extent to which people adapt. Thus, happiness levels do change, and adaptation is not inevitable.     

Do Orientations to Happiness Mediate the Associations Between Personality Traits and Subjective Well-Being?

Personality traits have frequently been observed to be associated with subjective well-being. It has been suggested that personality traits may lead individuals to experience life in certain ways which, in turn, influences their subjective well-being. However, the exact mechanisms underlying this relationship remain unknown. The present study hypothesized that the ways in which individuals endorse strategies for achieving happiness (i.e., orientations to happiness: through a life of pleasure, through a life of engagement, or through a life of meaning) mediates the associations that personality traits have with subjective well-being (i.e., satisfaction with life, positive affect, and negative affect). Our results indicated that an orientation to meaning in life partially mediated the relationship between extraversion and life satisfaction. In addition, all three orientations to happiness (i.e., pleasure, engagement, and meaning) partially mediated the relationship between extraversion and positive affect. Discussion focuses on the implications of these results for understanding the connection between personality traits and subjective well-being.     

Evolutionary debunking: Can moral realists explain the reliability of our moral judgments?

Evolutionary debunking arguments, notably Sharon Street’s Darwinian Dilemma (2006), allege that moral realists need to explain the reliability of our moral judgments, given their evolutionary sources. David Copp (2008) and David Enoch (2010) take up the challenge. I argue on empirical grounds that realists have not met the challenge and moreover cannot do so. The outcome is that there are empirically-motivated reasons for thinking moral realists cannot explain moral reliability, given our current empirical understanding.     

Scan the QR Code of Happiness: Can Mobile Payment Adoption Make People Happier?

This research note investigates the association between mobile payment adoption and happiness. We employ the conditional mixed process model to address the selection bias and estimate the open-access 2017 Chinese General Social Survey data. Our findings reveal that mobile payment adoption significantly improves rural residents’ happiness but does not significantly influence urban residents’ happiness. Exploring gendered differences finds that regardless of urban or rural residence, females are happier than males when adopting mobile payment. Our findings suggest that promoting mobile payment adoption could bring favourable well-being returns.