People with intellectual disability as neighbours: Towards understanding the mundane aspects of social integration

Although people with intellectual disabilities (ID) are increasingly expected to relocate from traditional institutional care to ‘regular’ neighbourhood housing facilities and socially integrate in these neighbourhoods, little is known about how they are perceived and appreciated as neighbours. This paper reports on interviews carried out with 30 neighbours without ID who were neighbours of small‐scale care facilities for people with ID. Interviews addressed the neighbours' everyday experiences of neighbouring in general, and neighbouring people with ID in particular. Neighbouring, for these informants, called for a fine balance between friendliness without over‐involvement. While they were generally positive about their interactions with their neighbours with ID, it emerged that the formal nature of the care facility and the interaction style of some of the neighbours with ID often contravened informants' assumptions about neighbouring. Informants expressed concern about a possible lack of appropriate distance, reciprocity and accountability among their neighbours with ID. The nature of the care facility, with paid staff, often group activities, formal means of achieving the everyday small tasks which neighbours sometimes do for each other, and a high turnover of residents, all undermined the possibility of a typical neighbourly relationship. In conclusion, we suggest that integration of people with ID into everyday neighbouring relationships raises complex challenges for care organizations that need to find a balance between supporting the needs of people with ID they care for, adequate support and mediation for other neighbours when necessary, and all the while avoid becoming overly involved in neighbouring as a formal partner. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Zum Verhältnis zwischen Experiment und Gedankenexperiment in den Naturwissenschaften

On the relation between experiment and thought experiment in the natural sciences. To understand the reciprocal autonomy and complementarity of thought and real experiment, it is necessary to distinguish between a ‘positive’ (empirical or formal) and a transcendental perspective. Empirically and formally, real and thought experiments are indistinguishable. However, from a reflexive-transcendental viewpoint thought experiment is at the same time irreducible and complementary to real experiment. This is due to the fact that the hypothetical-anticipatory moment is in principle irreducible to physical reality—even though it refers to physical reality and is bound with the empirical use of our understanding. The presence of counterfactuals is the condition of the possibility for thought experiments to become in principle real ones, by means of a series of technical realisations that gradually approximate the idealisations that they contain.     

What Are We to Think about Thought Experiments?

Arguments from thought experiment ask the reader to imagine some hypothetical, sometimes exotic, often fantastic, scenario for the sake of illustrating or countering some claim. Variously characterized as mental experimentation, imaginary cases, and even crazy cases, thought experiments figure into both scientific and philosophical arguments. They are often criticized for their fictive nature and for their lack of grounding. Nevertheless, they are common especially in arguments in ethics and philosophy of mind. Moreover, many thought experiments have spawned variations that attempt to both affirm and refute their original arguments. These emended thought experiments exhibit a variety of styles, details, and embellishments. A rhetorical analysis of these variations suggests a reciprocal influence between the arguers' selection of details and their philosophical commitments. I offer examples of this relationship from the variations on John Searle's Chinese Room thought experiment and Judith Thomson's unconscious violinist thought experiment.     

Eternally Separated Lovers: The Argument from Love

A message scribbled irreverently on the mediaeval walls of the Nonberg cloister says this: ‘Neither of us can go to heaven unless the other gets in.’ It suggests an argument against the view that those who love people who suffer in hell can be perfectly happy, or even free from all suffering, in heaven. This paper considers the challenge posed by this thought to the coherence of the traditional Christian doctrine on which there are some people in hell who are suffering and others in heaven who are not suffering. More precisely, it defends the following argument:

1. No one who loves another can be perfectly happy or free from suffering if they know that their beloved is suffering.

2. Anyone in hell suffers (at least as long as they are in hell).

3. Anyone in heaven is perfectly happy or at least free from suffering.

4. There can be no one in heaven who is aware of the fact that his or her beloved is in hell. (1, 2, and 3)

The paper argues that the first premise is eminently plausible and that those who accept the traditional Christian doctrine should endorse the claim that some of those in heaven love people whom they know to be suffering in hell. So, it concludes that there is reason to reject the traditional Christian doctrine.     

Retribution and emotional regulation: The effects of time delay in angry economic interactions

Individuals driven by negative emotions often punish non-cooperators at a cost to themselves. The current research demonstrates that, although time delays can attenuate this effect, they can also produce unintended consequences. Five experiments investigated the effects of time delays and thought patterns on punishments in direct and third party interactions. The results show that time delays decreased punishment (Experiment 1) by reducing negative emotions (Experiments 2A and 2B). However, thought patterns during a delay were crucially important (Experiments 3A and 3B): People who engaged in a distraction task punished less; people who engaged in affective rumination punished more; and people who engaged in cognitive reappraisal were unaffected by a delay. These differences meant that, after a time delay, affective ruminators administered greater punishments than cognitive reappraisers or distracted individuals. Implications of these findings for managing punitive impulses via time delays are discussed.     

Respect,Coercion, and Religious Reasons

It is often assumed that people of faith should not endorse a law for religious reasons, since such an endorsement is considered to be disrespectful. Such a position is increasingly opposed by scholars who argue that such demands unjustifiably force people of faith to compromise their religious ideals. In order to defend their opposition to such demands, some scholars have invoked thought experiments as reductio arguments against the claim that endorsing laws dependent on religious reasons is necessarily disrespectful. I argue that these attempts have failed, and present an alternative thought experiment that demonstrates that such a law is not necessarily disrespectful. Because I conclude that previously proposed principles cannot defend this conclusion, I defend an alternative way of accommodating this intuition; a post‐secular deliberative approach based on the principle of double effect.     

THE LANGUAGE OF PARTICIPATION AND THE LANGUAGE OF RESISTANCE1

Language and gestures define the involvement of low-status groups with authorities either as joint participation in policymaking or as conflict. Policies that seriously deprive non-elites are often politicized, encouraging the perception that all affected by them participated in their formulation. This perception is problematic and often misleading, for formal decision-making procedures chiefly reflect extant inequalities in the ability of participants to achieve their values and to influence public opinion. It is those who can exercise influence outside the context of formal proceedings who wield real power; but formal proceedings remain vital rituals, for they symbolize participation and democracy and so marshal public support and compliance. The poor lack the informal sanctions and other resources that confer influence, with the important exception that they can create disorder and thereby threaten elites; but in becoming politicized they renounce that political weapon.     

Mogucnosti Grupne Psihoterapije (The Potentials of Group Psychotherapy)

Abstract

This study documents the experiences of 20 Chinese people in Hong Kong who participated in group cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). They were asked to comment on the aspects of the group content and process that they found to be useful or not useful in dealing with their depressive moods. In general, they reported that the groups helped them gain awareness of their thought and behavioral patterns and learn new cognitive and behavioral strategies. Certain aspects of the group process, however, such as the outpouring of negative emotions, were considered by the participants to be counterproductive to their learning and practice of CBT.     

TOUCH,SOUND, AND THINGS WITHOUT THE MIND

Abstract: Two notable thought experiments are discussed in this article: Reid's thought experiment about whether a being supplied with tactile sensations alone could acquire the conception of extension and Strawson's thought experiment about whether a being supplied with auditory sensations alone could acquire the conception of mind‐independent objects. The experiments are considered alongside Campbell's argument that only on the so‐called relational view of experience is it possible for experiences to make available to their subjects the concept of mind‐independent objects. I consider how the three issues ought to be construed as raising questions about woulds, coulds, or shoulds—and argue that only on the normative construal of them are they resolvable as intended by the a priori methods of the philosophers who pose them.     

Self-report may underestimate trauma intrusions

Research examining maladaptive responses to trauma routinely relies on spontaneous self-report to index intrusive thoughts, which assumes people accurately recognize and report their intrusive thoughts. However, “mind-wandering” research reveals people are not always meta-aware of their thought content: they often fail to notice shifts in their attention. In two experiments, we exposed subjects to trauma films, then instructed them to report intrusive thoughts during an unrelated reading task. Intermittently, we asked whether they were thinking about the trauma. As expected, subjects often spontaneously reported intrusive thoughts. However, they were also “caught” engaging in unreported trauma-oriented thoughts. The presence and frequency of intermittent probes did not influence self-caught intrusions. Both self-caught and probe-caught intrusions were related to an existing tendency toward intrusive cognition, film-related distress, and thought suppression attempts. Our data suggest people may lack meta-awareness of trauma-related thoughts, which has implications for theory, research and treatment relating to trauma-related psychopathology.     

A slugfest of intuitions: contextualism and experimental design

This paper considers ways that experimental design can affect judgments about informally presented context shifting experiments. Reasons are given to think that judgments about informal context shifting experiments are affected by an exclusive reliance on binary truth value judgments and by experimenter bias. Exclusive reliance on binary truth value judgments may produce experimental artifacts by obscuring important differences of degree between the phenomena being investigated. Experimenter bias is an effect generated when, for example, experimenters disclose (even unconsciously) their own beliefs about the outcome of an experiment. Eliminating experimenter bias from context shifting experiments makes it far less obvious what the “intuitive” responses to those experiments are. After it is shown how those different kinds of bias can affect judgments about informal context shifting experiments, those experiments are revised to control for those forms of bias. The upshot of these investigations is that participants in the contextualist debate who employ informal experiments should pay just as much attention to the design of their experiments as those who employ more formal experimental techniques if they want to avoid obscuring the phenomena they aim to uncover.     

Thai Transgenders in Focus: Demographics,Transitions and Identities

ABSTRACT

Data was analysed for a sample of 195 Thai transgendered females (i.e., male-to-female (MtF) transgenders) who had completed a questionnaire covering, inter alia, demographics, transition histories and sexual/gender identities. Mean age was 25.4 years.

For demographic data, we found that our participants were often among the youngest in their family, that females played a prominent role in their lives (often rearing them without any male help), and that around one in five brothers (natural or step) were also transgendered.

With regard to transition histories, we found that many participants had transitioned very early in life, beginning to feel different to other males, and identifying as non-male by middle childhood. By adolescence many were living a transgendered life. Many took hormones, beginning to do so by a mean age of 16.3 years, and several from as early as 10 years. Many underwent surgeries of various kinds, on average in the twenties, with one undergoing SRS as early as 15 years.

As to identity, most of our participants thought of themselves simply as phuying (women), with a smaller number thinking of themselves as phuying praphet song (a ‘second kind of woman’). A small number thought of themselves as kathoey (a more general Thai term embracing a variety of gender non-conformities). While most participants would prefer to be a woman, there were a few who seemed comfortable being transgendered. A few foresaw that they would not be living a transgendered life into old age. The vast majority expressed a sexual attraction to men.     

Experiences of surgery readiness assessments in British Columbia

Abstract

Background: A surgical readiness assessment is a major step in the medical journey of trans people seeking gender-affirming surgery. Much of the peer-reviewed literature surrounding surgical readiness assessments emphasizes the perspectives of academics and clinicians, leaving the voices of trans and gender diverse patients largely unheard.

Aims: This paper foregrounds patient experiences with surgery readiness assessments to discuss the tensions, challenges and opportunities they generate.

Methods: We conducted a thematic analysis of 35 in-depth interviews with trans people who accessed or were seeking to access gender-affirming surgery in British Columbia.

Results: We developed three main themes to capture participants’ narratives of their surgical assessment experiences. The first, assessments as gatekeeping, explores the stories of people who described their assessments as outdated and even discriminatory processes. The second, assessments as a barrier to care, discusses the informational missteps, bureaucratic regulations, economic issues, and geographic concerns that made assessments difficult to access. The third, assessments as useful, includes positive stories about assessments that often involved feeling supported by an assessor and feeling prepared for the next steps.

Discussion: These narratives demonstrate how much variation exists among people’s experiences of readiness assessments for gender-affirming surgery. No matter how their actual assessment turned out, many participants approached their appointments with a great deal of anxiety and trepidation. We attributed this stress was to challenges ranging from lengthy wait times, arbitrary medical gatekeeping, a lack of access to knowledgeable and supportive providers, unclear or changing administrative processes, and insufficient communication. To address these challenges, it is crucial for the medical system to create more accessible pathways with centralized, up-to-date information for people trying to access assessments. Patients are best served by multi-disciplinary gender-affirming teams that provide individualized care.     

The Illusion-of-Transparency and Episodic Memory: Are People Egocentric or Do People Think that Lies are Easy to Detect?

The illusion-of-transparency seems like an egocentric bias, in which people believe that their inner feelings, thoughts and perspectives are more apparent to others than they actually are. In Experiment 1, participants read out true and false episodic memories to an audience. Participants over-estimated the number of people who would think that they were the liar, and they overestimated how many would correctly identify the liar. Experiment 2 found that with lessened task demands, and by using a scale of doubt, participants distinguished lies from truthful statements (albeit with a degree of error). Over the two experiments, results indicated that people have some ability to distinguish lies from truth (in illusion-of-transparency tasks), although people often overestimate this ability, and participants sometimes think their own lies are easier to detect than is really the case.     

I know the rule,but I'll just go with my gut: is there a rational use of intuition?

ABSTRACT

Research has established that human thinking is often biased by intuitive judgement. The base-rate neglect effect provides such an example, so named because people often support their decisions in stereotypical individuating information, neglecting base-rates. Here, we test the hypothesis that reasoners acknowledge information provided by base-rates and may use individuating information in support of a “rational” decision process. Results from four experiments show that “base-rate neglecting” occurs when participants acknowledge sample distributions; participants who prefer individuating over base-rate information perceive base-rates as less diagnostic and are more confident in their individuating-based responses; and that posterior probabilities (assigned after all relevant information is considered) predict more individuating-based responses for individuating-preference participants (suggesting a rational process). However, data also show a deeper form of base-rate neglect: even when some participants report to prefer base-rate information, define individuating information as non-diagnostic, and their posterior probabilities suggest otherwise, they still provide individuating-based responses.     

Navigating the ‘space between’ the Black/White binary: a call for Jewish multicultural inclusion

ABSTRACT

In the twenty-first century, diversity and multicultural analysis of race often falls along a Black/White binary paradigm. Therefore, those who are perceived to be White are often left out of the discussion of diversity and multicultural education (DME) in the United States. This absence is particularly true for American Jews of Ashkenazi descent. In academic circles today, the notion of ‘Whiteness’ is often used as a determining factor for overlooking antisemitism while addressing issues of racism aimed at other racial and ethnic groups in the United States. Data show that acts of antisemitism continues to rise in the U.S., especially on college campuses. Due to a lack of acknowledgment in the university classroom, Jews continue to be overlooked in multicultural academic thought, which can have wide-ranging consequences for Jews and non-Jews alike.     

“I Am Just an Ordinary Person …”: Spiritual Reminiscence in Older People with Memory Loss

SUMMARY

One of the greatest challenges to people diagnosed with dementia is their search for meaning leading to the development of effective coping strategies as their memory loss and confusion progresses. The challenge for carers is to learn ways of entering the world of people who have difficulties communicating and have behaviour problems, assisting them to communicate more effectively by responding to their interests and needs, and listening to their emotions expressed in various ways. Strategies are being developed for supporting and affirming personhood in those people who are often isolated and withdrawn from even their closest friends and relatives. Spiritual reminiscence work is one way of helping older people with memory loss find meaning in their lives as they cope with the day to day difficulties of memory loss and prepare for death.

This paper will present the results from indepth interviews from 16 participants in a larger study exploring memory loss and spiritual reminiscence. Themes arising from the data analysis revolve around notions of relationships, loneliness, family and attendance at worship.     

Have you been to Paris?

Two experiments examined how people answer questions of the form ‘Have you been to X?’ where X is a city or a country abroad. In the natural experiment subjects were not given any material to memorize, and were timed as they indicated whether they themselves had been to the place in question. In the artificial experiment subjects were given places to memorize and were asked to imagine they had been to them. The test was similar to that of the natural experiment. The natural experiment supports a hierarchical search proceeding first on the level of countries and then on that of cities. The results of the artificial experiment reflect the structure of the memorized information. The comparison between the two experiments is made from a general methodological perspective.     

Literature and Thought Experiments

Like works of literature, thought experiments present fictional narratives that prompt reflection in their readers. Because of these and other similarities, a number of philosophers have argued for a strong analogy between works of literary fiction and thought experiments, some going so far as to say that works of literary fiction are a species of thought experiment. These arguments are often used in defending a cognitivist position with regard to literature: thought experiments produce knowledge, so works of literary fiction can too. This article concedes that works of literary fiction can be put to use in thought experiments, but not in a way that is helpful to the cognitivist. In particular, it draws three disanalogies in the ways we engage critically with thought experiments and with literary fictions. First, we use thought experiments to make arguments; second, we read thought experiments in strongly allegorical terms; and third, the terms of criticism we apply to thought experiments and to works of literature differ. Although these disanalogies present problems for the cognitivist position, they also give us a sharper picture of the distinctive educative potential of works of literary fiction.     

How people think “if only …” about reasons for actions

When people think about how a situation might have turned out differently, they tend to imagine counterfactual alternatives to their actions. We report the results of three experiments which show that people imagine alternatives to actions differently when they know about a reason for the action. The first experiment (n = 36) compared reason – action sequences to cause – effect sequences. It showed that people do not imagine alternatives to reasons in the way they imagine alternatives to causes: they imagine an alternative to an action more than an effect, and to a cause more than a reason. The second experiment (n = 214) and the third experiment (n = 190) both show that different sorts of reasons have different sorts of effects on how people imagine alternatives to actions. People imagine an alternative to an action (the protagonist went to a ball) less often when they know the reason for the action was an obligation (he had to participate in fundraising) compared to when they know about a weaker reason (he wanted to meet a famous violinist) or no reason. The second experiment shows the effect for a social obligation and the third experiment replicates and extends it to a health obligation. We interpret the results in terms of the possibilities that people keep in mind about actions and their reasons.