Levinas and the euthanasia debate

The philosophers' tendency to characterize euthanasia interms of either the right or the responsibility to die is, in some ways, problematic. Stepping outside of the analytic framework, the author draws out the implications of the ethics of Emmanuel Levinas for the euthanasia debate, tracing the way Levinas's position differs not only from the philosophical consensus but also from the theological one. The article shows that, according to Levinas, there is no ethical case for suicide or assisted suicide. Death cannot be assumed or chosen—not only because suicide is a logically and metaphysically contradictory concept but also because in the choice of death ethical responsibility turns into irresponsibility. However, since Levinas holds that one must be responsible to the point of expiation, he can be said to approve certain actions that may have the consequence of hastening death.     

Human trafficking: factors that influence willingness to combat the issue

Human trafficking involves severe violations of human rights and social action is required to combat it. Past research has identified emotional reactions to victims of trafficking, as well as the perceived cost and efficacy of actions, as significant predictors of willingness to get involved. We surveyed 216 Australians (70% female) to assess their perceptions of sex and labor trafficking and actions to reduce them. Results demonstrated that women reported greater personal distress (but not empathy) for victims than men, which was associated with greater willingness to take action. Women also perceived available actions to be more efficacious than men, which predicted willingness, while perceived cost of actions did not. Implications for promoting social action to reduce human trafficking are discussed.     

Some linguistic considerations related to the issue of female orgasm.

The purpose of this paper has been to identify a linguistic issue that continues to cloud our thinking about the subject of female orgasm. A specific technical revision has been recommended, i.e., that female orgasms be described as either coital or noncoital. It has been suggested that we help our female patients to become aware of this vocabulary and that we let them know that the clitoral/vaginal dichotomy is incorrect. Systematic adherence to the correct vocabulary is therapeutic. The linguistic implications concerning the issue of female orgasm have been examined as they relate to both theory and practice. It has been argued that linguistic usage pertaining to female sexuality generally is the product of a patriarchal value structure and, as such, reflects patriarchal prejudices about female sexuality. It has been suggested that the apparent inability of many women to achieve coital orgasms is related to centuries-old cultural attitudes and that linguistic usages, particularly dichotomies, tend to perpetuate the prejudices that underlie many cultural attitudes. Freud's view of the role of language in clinical practice has been indicated. Finally, it has been suggested that the linguistic recommendation made in this paper can be viewed as implementing the process by which recent biological findings are used to strengthen psychoanalytic theory and practice.     

Associative learning of likes and dislikes: Some current controversies and possible ways forward

Evaluative conditioning (EC) is one of the terms that is used to refer to associatively induced changes in liking. Many controversies have arisen in the literature on EC. Do associatively induced changes in liking actually exist? Does EC depend on awareness of the fact that stimuli are associated? Is EC resistant to extinction? Does attention help or hinder EC? As an introduction to this special issue, we will discuss the extent to which the papers that are published in this issue help to resolve some of the controversies that surround EC. We also speculate about possible boundary conditions of EC and attempt to reconcile conflicting results on the functional properties of EC.     

Some philosophical thoughts on the nature of technology

Much of the effort put into discovering or defining the nature of technology has been along “party lines,” for example, either favoring technology or not. Although there is a clear divergence in the stand that various authors take with respect to this topic, I believe they share a common assumption, namely, that there is such a thing as “the essence” or “nature” of technology. My claim in this paper is that the broad use to which we put the term “technology” is better understood on the model of “family resemblance,” a model put forward by Ludwig Wittgenstein, than it is on models that utilize the notion of “essence” or “nature.” Not only does the family resemblance model serve us better in understanding the wide variety of uses of the term, but it also helps to ameliorate the antipathy between the parties that their discussions often invoke.     

On the controllability of evaluative-priming effects: Some limits that are none

Two experiments examined recent claims of uncontrollability of the evaluative-priming effect. According to these claims, imposing an adaptive 600 ms response deadline prevents successful faking (Degner, 2009). Furthermore, strategic control attempts have been argued not to reduce the priming measure's sensitivity to spontaneous evaluations so that correlations of evaluative-priming effects with external criteria are not affected by attempts to fake (Bar-Anan, 2010). Here, we show that faking is possible even with an adaptive 600 ms response deadline when faking instructions do not conflict with speed pressures imposed thereby (Experiments 1 and 2). In addition, suitable faking instructions substantially affect the predictive validity of priming effects in terms of their correlations with (non-faked) self-report measures and the Implicit Association Test (Experiment 2). The previous claims about the uncontrollability of the evaluative-priming effect may thus have been premature.     

Some tests of the hypothesis that obesity is a defence against depression

The hypothesis that obese Ss who lose weight would become depressed was investigated by assessing the relationship between weight loss and changes in Beck Depression Inventory scores. The results failed to support the hypothesis for the group taken as a whole. Nor was it possible to isolate subgroups for whom the hypothesis seemed to hold.     

Health care research that delivers: introduction to the special issue on cognitive factors in health care

Research that addresses human factors issues in health care has made good progress since the landmark 1999 Institute of Medicine report on medical error (Kohn, Corrigan, & Donaldson, 1999), yet patient safety remains a persistent challenge for the health care system. While this challenge reflects many factors, we focus on the need for research that is sufficiently comprehensive to identify threats to patient safety, yet specific enough to explain how provider and patient factors interact with task and health context to engender these threats. Such research should be theory-based, yet also problem-driven; exert experimental control over theoretically relevant variables, yet also involve participants, tasks, and contexts that represent the problems of interest. A tension exists between theory-based, experimentally controlled research on the one hand, and problem-driven research with representative situations on the other. The studies in this special issue are both informed by theory and guided by application, reflecting what Stokes (1997) referred to as "use-inspired basic research." Collectively, these studies represent progress toward improving patient safety and the quality of health care. However, important work remains to be done to significantly improve health care by more comprehensively managing tensions between theory and application and different research methodologies. We discuss barriers to accomplishing such research in general (the challenge of testing theory in situ in rich environments), and specifically in the health care domain. Significant progress will require research programs that thoughtfully manage mixed methods across a series of converging studies.