False memories for script actions in a mugging account

Abstract

A number of cross-language priming experiments are reported that evaluate whether word meanings in the first and second language are represented in common or separate systems. A masked priming procedure was used on the assumption that when prime awareness is limited, any priming effects directly reveal the underlying structure of the semantic system. Primes were presented in the subjects' first language, while targets were in their second language. Priming effects were obtained for word pairs that were semantically highly similar but not translation equivalents, for example fence-haie (= hedge in French), suggesting that words in the two languages share common elements of semantic code. Priming was also obtained between translation equivalents which, in conjunction with the results for semantically similar pairs, is most naturally interpreted in terms of partially shared semantic representations. However, no masked priming effects were obtained between associated pairs of relatively low semantic similarity, for example shoe-pied (= foot in French), whereas such pairs did produce an effect when primes were unmasked. The results are discussed in terms of limitations on the semantic activation produced by masked words, and the role of collocational relationships in priming between associated words in the same language.     

Moral responsibility for actions: epistemic and freedom conditions

I will argue that a desert-based justification for treating a person in a certain way is a justification that holds this treatment to be justified simply by what the person is like and what he or she has done, independent of (1) the fact that treating the person in this way will have good effects (or that treating people like him or her in this way will have such effects); (2) the fact that this treatment is called for by some (justified) institution or practice; or (3) the fact that the person could have avoided being subject to this treatment by choosing appropriately, and therefore cannot complain of it. I will explore the implications of this understanding of desert for the role of desert-based justifications of blame, punishment, and economic reward.     

The means-end account of scientific,representational actions

Synthese - While many recent accounts of scientific representation have given a central role to the agency and intentions of scientists in explaining representation, they have left these agential...     

Attributions for the negative historical actions of a group

Two field studies examined the attributions made for the historically negative behaviour of a group as a whole, depending on whether the actions were committed by the ingroup or an outgroup. In the first study, Jewish people assigned more internal responsibility to Germans for their treatment of Jewish people during the Second World War than Germans assigned to their own group. In the second study, people attributed the negative historical actions of another nation more internally (and less externally) than similar negative historical actions committed by their own nation. This pattern of intergroup attributional bias was more pronounced among people who highly identified with their national ingroup. Outgroup homogeneity and perceptions of differences between the groups were also significantly predicted by ingroup identification. Links between social identity theory and the intergroup attribution bias are considered. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The unpacking effect in allocations of responsibility for group tasks

Individuals tend to overestimate their relative contributions to collaborative endeavors. Thus, the sum of group members’ estimates of the percentage they each contributed to a joint task typically exceeds the logically allowable 100%. We suggest that this tendency stems partly from individuals’ inclination to regard their fellow group members as a collective rather than as individuals, and that leading people to think about their collaborators as individuals should therefore reduce the perceived relative magnitude of their own contributions. Consistent with this thesis, four experiments demonstrate that people’s tendency to claim more than their fair share of the credit for a group task is attenuated when they “unpack” their collaborators, conceptualizing them as separate individuals, rather than as “the rest of the group.”     

Automatic actions: Agency,intentionality, and responsibility

This article discusses a challenge to the traditional intentional-causalist conceptions of action and intentionality as well as to our everyday and legal conceptions of responsibility, namely the psychological discovery that the greatest part of our alleged actions are performed automatically, that is unconsciously and without a proximal intention causing and sustaining them. The main part of the article scrutinizes several mechanisms of automatic behavior, how they work, and whether the resulting behavior is an action. These mechanisms include actions caused by distal implementation intentions, four types of habit and habitualization, mimicry, and semantically induced automatic behavior (which is later disregarded because of its lack of clarity). According to the intentional-causalist criterion, the automatic behaviors resulting from all but one of these mechanisms turn out to be actions and to be intentional; and even the behavior resulting from the remaining mechanism (naturally acquired habits) is something we can be responsible for. Hence, the challenge, seen from close up, does not really call the traditional conception of action and intentionality into question.     

Sensation seeking,decision making styles,and preference for individual responsibility

Two scales were designed to measure respectively how people report they make plans and decisions; the Active/Decisive (AD) scale, and the degree to which they prefer environments that offer some type of personal initiative, personal freedom, and/or personal control; the Individual Responsibility (IR) scale. The results indicate that people can be differentiated in terms of being active/decisive and, to some degree, in terms of preferring environments that offer greater or lesser amounts of individual responsibility. Factor analysis of the AD scale indicated there are four distinct factors that correspond to four of the attributes that Peters and Waterman (1982) suggest characterize the planning and decision making styles of the executives of some of the top companies in the U.S. The AD scale was found to correlate 0.42 (P < 0.01) with Zuckerman's Sensation Seeking scale (SSSV) while the IR scale was found to correlate 0.24 (P < 0.01) with the SSSV scale. It is suggested that the trait of sensation seeking ‘prepares’ individuals to develop the active/decisive planning and decision making style as well as influences them to endorse the concept of ‘individual responsibility’.     

Combined group and individual treatment for the borderline patient

This article discusses the attenuating mechanisms of group psychotherapy that support and enhance analytic work with borderline patients in combined group and individual psychotherapy. A group case study is presented which addresses the manifestations and management of transference and countertransference in a combined treatment approach. Combined treatment was observed to respond effectively to both the intrapsychic and interpersonal difficulties of borderline patients. A multidimensional model for treating these patients in a community mental health setting is proposed.     

Moral responsibility for actions and omissions: a new challenge to the asymmetry thesis

This paper presents a new challenge to the thesis that moral responsibility for an omission requires the ability to do the omitted action, whereas moral responsibility for an action does not require the ability to do otherwise than that action. Call this the asymmetry thesis. The challenge arises from the possibility of cases in which an omission is identical to an action. In certain of such cases, the asymmetry thesis leads to a contradiction. The challenge is then extended to recent variations of the asymmetry thesis defended by John Martin Fischer and Carolina Sartorio. Finally, a possible objection to the challenge is addressed.     

A mediation model of individual differences in attitudes toward affirmative actions for women

A mediation model of the relation between gender and attitudes toward affirmative action in favor of working women was tested. Four mediation variables were considered: perceived unfairness in the situation of working women, perceived threat to the non-designated group (men), self-esteem, and gender self-concept (masculinity and femininity). 192 women and 128 men, with differing occupations, participated. Gender affects individuals' attitudes toward affirmative actions for women, mediated by perceived unfairness in the situation of working women, perceived threat to the non-designated group, and feminine self-concept. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Exploring moderators of the relationship between adolescents' social responsibility and civic actions

Scholars have regarded social responsibility as a motivator of civic actions. Social responsibility, however, does not consistently lead to civic actions. Informed by sociopolitical development theory and social cognitive theory, the present study examined critical reflection about societal inequalities and intentional self-regulation as potential moderators of the relationships between adolescents' social responsibility and political activities, social activism and community service. Survey data were collected from 737 adolescents in the Northeastern United States (M_age = 14.52, 58.2% girls, 57.5% White/European American). Path analysis indicated that social responsibility was associated with all three types of civic actions, and critical reflection moderated the relationship between social responsibility and political activities. We discussed limitations, implications and directions for future research. See Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement .