Testing Developmental Pathways to Antisocial Personality Problems

This study examined the development of antisocial personality problems (APP) in young adulthood from disruptive behaviors and internalizing problems in childhood and adolescence. Parent ratings of 507 children’s (aged 6–8 years) symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and anxiety, were linked to self-ratings of adolescents’ (aged 14–16 years) symptoms of depression, substance use, conduct problems, and somatic problems, to predict self-ratings of APP in young adulthood (age 20–22 years). The findings suggested a hierarchical development of antisocial behavior problems. Despite being positively associated with conduct problems in adolescence, neither internalizing problems nor substance use added to the prediction of APP in young adulthood from conduct problems in adolescence. The developmental pathways to APP in young adulthood did not differ by gender.     

The Association of Externalizing Behavior and Parent–Child Relationships: An Intergenerational Study

We investigated the influence of the child’s behavior on the quality of the mutual parent–child attachment relationships across three generations. We did so using a prospective longitudinal study which spanned 20 years from adolescence through adulthood. Study participants completed in-class questionnaires as students in the East Harlem area of New York City at the first wave and provided follow-up data at 4 additional points in time. 390 participants were included in these analyses; 59% female, 45% African American, and 55% Puerto Rican. Using structural equation modeling, we determined that externalizing behavior in the child was negatively related to the mutual parent–child attachment relationship for two generations of children. We also found continuity in externalizing behavior for the participant over time and from the participant to his/her child. Additionally, we found continuity in the quality of the mutual attachment relationship from the participant’s relationship with his/her parents to the participant’s relationship with his/her child. Finally, the mutual attachment relationship of the participant with his/her parents had a negative association with the participant’s externalizing behavior in adulthood. Based on these results, we propose that family interventions should focus on the role of the child’s externalizing behavior in the context of the parent–child attachment relationship. Furthermore, we suggest that prevention programs should address externalizing behavior as early as possible, as the effects of externalizing behavior in adolescence can persist into adulthood and extend to the next generation.     

Relativism or Relationism? A Mannheimian Interpretation of Fleck’s Claims About Relativism

The paper explores the defence by the early sociologist of science Ludwik Fleck against the charge of relativism. It is shown that there are crucial and hitherto unnoticed similarities between Fleck’s strategy and the attempt by his contemporary Karl Mannheim to distinguish between an incoherent relativism and a consistent relationism. Both authors seek to revise epistemology fundamentally by reinterpreting the concept of objectivity in two ways: as inner- and inter-style objectivity. The argument for the latter concept shows the genuine political background and intent of Fleck’s sociology of science and its ambition to relieve the cultural struggles of his time.     

Shifting Loyalties: Reconsidering Psychology’s Subject Matter

Schwarz (IPBS: Integrative Psychology & Behavioral Science 43:3, 2009) cogently demonstrates that in conjunction with scientific conventionalism psychology has developed a rather deficient view of their subject matter: the human being. Psychology based on an impoverished notion of empirical has rendered subjectivity or ‘the measuring apparatus man’ invisible. As his story implicitly demonstrates, psychologists supported by a positivistic view of science (in part to be empirical) and notion of ‘objectivity’ have learned to trust their ‘rigorous’ methods instead of their participants as capable of revealing important and interesting phenomena. If we are going to take subjectivity and experience seriously there should be a cultivation of a new attitude or orientation regarding psychology’s subject matter (i.e., the human being) and science. This commentary discusses Mark Freeman’s (2007) argument that the first requirement of science should be ‘fidelity to the phenomena’ and elaborates on the implications for psychology grounded in this view of science.     

Psychoanalyzing Historicists?: The Enigmatic Popper

The paper shows how Karl Popper’s critique of ‘historicism’ is permeated by psychoanalytic discourse regardless of his critique that psychoanalysis is one of the exemplars of pseudoscience. Early on, when he was formulating his philosophy of science, Popper had an apparently stringent criterion, viz. falsifiablity, and painstaking analysis. The central argument of this paper is that despite his representation of psychoanalysis as the principal illustration of the category he dubs as ‘pseudoscience’, Popper’s analysis has been infused with psychoanalysis when it comes to his social and political philosophy. Besides, not only was his interpretation of the proponents of ‘historicism’ and the ‘closed’ society mediated by the very concepts of a field which he indicted as pseudoscientific but also he frequently slipped into vacuous and unverifiable accusations forgetting the jurisdiction he formerly accorded to empirical adequacy and logical consistency when examining and assessing theories.     

Parents Perceived as Peers: Filial Maturity in Adulthood

Filial maturity refers to the adult offspring’s perception of parents as individuals with past histories and limitations. Three studies were conducted to measure filial maturity and its relational and developmental correlates. Study 1 included adults aged 18–59 to empirically assess filial maturity and its correlates across adulthood. Study 2 examined associations between filial maturity and constructs indicative of emerging adulthood (e.g., emotional autonomy), among people aged 18–24. Study 3 included young and middle-aged adults (N = 158; ages: 22–49) and their parents to assess associations between parents’ reports of relationship quality and offspring’s filial maturity. Offspring reported greater filial maturity with mothers and with parents with whom they reported greater relationship quality, closeness, and autonomy. Parents who reported greater relationship quality had offspring who reported greater filial maturity. Findings suggest that filial maturity is a dyadic phenomenon that influences parent child relationship quality across the lifespan.     

Hermeneutical Portrait of Today’s 18–22 Year Old Young Adult Male

This article’s objective is to help uncover today’s 18–22 year old young adult male in his modern day milieu in order to paint a hermeneutical portrait of his maleness and masculinity. It will attempt to do so utilizing two main categories: (1) psycho-social development and (2) socio-cultural types and archetypes. Psycho-social development refers to the meaning and telos of the young man’s “maleness” and “masculinity.” It is the self-perceived direction of his sexuality explored within the frameworks of physiology and post-modern implications of his development. Socio-cultural types and archetypes refer to the established male roles and masculine identity markers as well as the human energy that operates in the daily life of college men today. The article concludes with a portrait of the young man’s overall perception of the public sphere, how he is placed within a social and political mindset and imagination regarding maleness and masculinity today.     

Carnap,Kuhn, and revisionism: on the publication of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Structure</Emphasis> in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Encyclopedia</Emphasis>

In recent years, a revisionist process focused on logical positivism can be observed, particularly regarding Carnap’s work. In this paper, I argue against the interpretation that Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions having been published in the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science, co-edited by Carnap, is evidence of the revisionist idea that Carnap “would have found Structure philosophically congenial”. I claim that Kuhn’s book, from Carnap’s point of view, is not in philosophy of science but rather in history of science (in the context of a sharp discovery–justification distinction). It could also explain the fact that, despite his sympathetic letters to Kuhn as editor, Carnap never refers to Kuhn’s book in his work in philosophy of science.     

The Age of Uncertainty: Parent Perspectives on the Transitions of Young People with Mental Health Difficulties to Adulthood

For young people aged 16–24, the transition from adolescence to young adulthood involves predictable and unpredictable changes and they may encounter challenges in their roles, relationships, and responsibilities. Young people with mental health difficulties face additional challenges as they and their families navigate this transition. As a result, families commonly experience anxiety, uncertainty, frustration, and turbulent relationships. After learning to become advocates to secure appropriate services for their children, in late adolescence and young adulthood, parents are likely to find themselves excluded from their children’s treatment planning and services. This article reports findings from a recent qualitative study of the experiences and perceptions of 42 family members supporting their children with mental health difficulties during the transition years. Family members described their goals for their children, their frustrations trying to access appropriate services for their children, and their strategies to provide the support their children needed. Recommendations are for service providers to connect transition age youth with practical assistance and supportive mentoring relationships. Family members requested service providers to consider them as resources and potential collaborators in supporting young people with mental health difficulties to live successful lives in the community.     

Work Status Congruence’s Relation to Employee Attitudes and Behaviors: The Moderating Role of Procedural Justice

Purpose  

The purpose of this study is to explore procedural justice as a boundary condition of work status congruence’s (WSC) relationships with organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). WSC is defined as the degree to which an employee’s schedule, shift, full-time or part-time status, and number of working hours, match his or her preferences (Holtom et al. in J Appl Psychol 86:80–93, 2002). This exploration is grounded in the outcome favorability–procedural justice interaction literature (e.g., Brockner in Acad Manag Rev 27:58–76, 2002).     

The non-epistemology of intelligent design: its implications for public policy

Intelligent design creationism (ID) is a religious belief requiring a supernatural creator’s interventions in the natural order. ID thus brings with it, as does supernatural theism by its nature, intractable epistemological difficulties. Despite these difficulties and despite ID’s defeat in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District (2005), ID creationists’ continuing efforts to promote the teaching of ID in public school science classrooms threaten both science education and the separation of church and state guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. I examine the ID movement’s failure to provide either a methodology or a functional epistemology to support their supernaturalism, a deficiency that consequently leaves them without epistemic support for their creationist claims. My examination focuses primarily on ID supporter Francis Beckwith, whose published defenses of teaching ID, as well as his other relevant publications concerning education, law, and public policy, have been largely exempt from critical scrutiny. Beckwith’s work exhibits the epistemological deficiencies of the supernaturally grounded views of his ID associates and of supernaturalists in general. I preface my examination of Beckwith’s arguments with (1) philosopher of science Susan Haack’s clarification of the established naturalistic methodology and epistemology of science and (2) discussions of the views of Beckwith’s ID associates Phillip Johnson and William Dembski. Finally, I critique the religious exclusionism that Beckwith shares with his ID associates and the implications of his exclusionism for public policy.     

Trivalent Semantics and the Vaguely Vague

Michael Tye responds to the problem of higher-order vagueness for his trivalent semantics by maintaining that truth-value predicates are “vaguely vague”: it’s indeterminate, on his view, whether they have borderline cases and therefore indeterminate whether every sentence is true, false, or indefinite. Rosanna Keefe objects (1) that Tye’s argument for this claim tacitly assumes that every sentence is true, false, or indefinite, and (2) that the conclusion is any case not viable. I argue – contra (1) – that Tye’s argument needn’t make that assumption. A version of her objection is in fact better directed against other arguments Tye advances, though Tye can absorb this criticism without abandoning his position’s core. On the other hand, Keefe’s second objection does hit the mark: embracing ‘vaguely vague’ truth-value predicates undermines Tye’s ability to support validity claims needed to defend his position. To see this, however, we must develop Keefe’s remarks further than she does.     

Parental Influences on Young Women’s Certainty about Their Career Aspirations

Identity control theory (Kerpelman, Pittman, & Lamke, Journal of Adolescent Research, 12: 325–346, 1997) and the literature on possible selves (Markus & Nurius, American Psychologist, 41: 954–969, 1986) and family influences on adolescents’ vocational choices (e.g., Otto, Journal of Career Development, 27: 111–117, 2000; Whiston & Keller, The Counseling Psychologist, 32: 493–568, 2004) were used to guide this study of young women’s career aspirations. How mother–daughter and father–daughter relationships were associated with young women’s certainty about their anticipated future careers was addressed with data from 304 female undergraduates. Findings indicated that parent–daughter connectedness predicted the young women’s anticipated distress, as well as their willingness to change to fit parental views should their parents disagree with their career aspirations. In addition, anticipated distress mediated associations between willingness to change and connectedness with parents, and between willingness to change and father–daughter career discussions. Discussing career goals with mother increased mother’s influence, but decreased father’s influence, on daughter’s career certainty under conditions of father–daughter disagreement about career choice. The ability to separate her own feelings from those of her father was particularly important in reducing the daughter’s willingness to change her career goals to fit maternal or paternal expectations. Collectively, these findings offer additional insights about the role of parent–adolescent relationships in understanding young women’s career aspirations and note the importance of considering the distinct influences of mothers and fathers on their daughters’ career goals and plans.     

Thomas Kuhn's Misunderstood Relation to Kripke-Putnam Essentialism

Kuhn's ‘taxonomic conception’ of natural kinds enables him to defend and re-specify the notion of incommensurability against the idea that it is reference, not meaning/use, that is overwhelmingly important. Kuhn's ghost still lacks any reason to believe that referentialist essentialism undercuts his central arguments in SSR – and indeed, any reason to believe that such essentialism is even coherent, considered as a doctrine about anything remotely resembling our actual science. The actual relation of Kuhn to Kripke-Putnam essentialism, is as follows: Kuhn decisively undermines it – drawing upon the inadequacies of such essentialism when faced with the failure of attempts to instantiate in history or contemporaneously its ‘thought-experiment’ – and leaves the field open instead for his own more ‘realistic’, deflationary way of thinking about the operation of ‘natural kinds’ in science. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Popper’S Evolutionary Epistemology Revamped

In a paper entitled “Revolution in Permanence”, published in the collection “Karl Popper: Philosophy and Problems”, John Worrall (1995) severely criticised several aspects of Karl Popper’s work before commenting that “I have no doubt that, given suffi-cient motivation, a case could be constructed on the basis of such remarks that Popper had a more sophisticated version of theory production......” (p. 102). Part of Worrall’s criticism is directed at a “strawpopper”: in his “Darwinian Model” emphasising the similarities and differences between genetic mutation, variation in animal behaviour and the gestation of scientific theories, Popper (1975, 1981, 1994) never stated that tentative scientific conjec-tures “while more or less random, are not completely blind.” He was referring to variation in animal species behaviour, and about tentative scientific conjectures he said nothing, although common sense would indicate that presumably he regarded them as being less blind and less random. In Popper (1977, 1983), giving a summary of his “Darwinian Model”, he repaired this omission about tentative scientific conjectures by inserting the sentence “On a level of World 3 theory formation they are of the character of planned gropings into the unknown.” Recent developments in the field of genetics (see for example Raff (1996), Lewis (1999), Korn (2002)) indicate that Popper’s intuitions were along the modern lines while Worrall’s intuitions are old fashioned. Therefore Popper’s “Darwinian Model” remains both viable and fruitful.     

人的存在的历史性及其现代境遇

This article argues that the problem of modernity concerns the circumstances of existence and human destiny in modern times. To understand the nature of this problem and find the corresponding solution, we need to reinterpret the thought of Karl Marx regarding the contradictions of human existence and its historical dimensions. Following Marx’s line of thinking, this article reviews his critical sequence, creative transformation, and development of duality of thought on man and the world in Western history, focusing on the following four issues: (1) how Marx, on the basis of man’s sensuous objective activities, observes the duality of man and the world as well as the relationship between man’s internal and external activities; (2) how Marx discloses the true connotation and real significance of man’s historical existence, history, and historicity; (3) how Marx reveals the inherent contradictions of modern capitalist society and the destiny of modern man based on historic thought concerning man’s existence; and (4) by praising Marx’s views on material production and the eternal significance of ancient Greek culture, the article reveals another dimension of Marx’s thought, a dimension that tends to be ignored. This article holds that in this era of globalization, it is extremely important and urgent to have an in-depth understanding of Marx’s historical thoughts regarding human existence and of the feasibility of his theory. Moreover, it is imperative to further develop this understanding to create a clearer picture of our own path of development and our outlook on humanity. Translated by Cui Hui from Zhongguo Shehuikexue Wenzhai 中国社会科学文摘 (China Social Science Digest), 2005, (3): 44–46     

Parenting Styles and Emotion Regulation: The Role of Behavioral and Psychological Control During Young Adulthood

This study examined the relations between maternal parenting styles (including warmth, behavioral control, and psychological control) and young adults’ emotion regulation. Participants included 246 young adults from a large Midwestern university, as well as their mothers. Higher levels of maternal control, particularly psychological control, were related to lower levels of young adults’ emotion regulation. This study is among the first to explore the above relations within the context of young adulthood. Limitations and clinical implications are discussed.     

Why Science cannot be Value-Free

Against the ideal of value-free science I argue that science is not––and cannot be––value-free and that relevant values are both cognitive and moral. I develop an argument by indicating various aspects of the value-ladenness of science. The recognition of the value-ladenness of science requires rethinking our understanding of the rationality and responsibility of science. Its rationality cannot be seen as merely instrumental––as it was seen by the ideal of value-free science––for this would result in limiting the autonomy of science and reducing scientists to “minds to hire”. The scientific rationality must be seen as practical rationality which takes into account the full horizon of values. The scientific responsibility must also be broaden in scope and type. On this basis I draw three practical conclusions concerning the organization of research and training of young scientists, appealing to Plato’s claim that those most capable of healing are also those most capable of harming.     

The Three Selves of Adulthood: Cultural Conceptions of Self Among Oriya Hindu Women

This essay examines the cultural conceptions of self among Oriya Hindu women who live in the temple town of Bhubaneswar in Orissa, India. It explores the temporal dimension of these conceptions during adulthood. While Hindu understandings about the relative permeability of the human body and its potential for transformation lead to an interdependent conception of the self, each of the three phases of adulthood—young adulthood, mature adulthood and old age—produces its own particular variant. The particularity of each variant derives from the cultural meanings attached to each life-phase and the social context of these women’s lives. The critical variable appears to be the predominant goal of each life-phase. The goals of assimilation in young adulthood, dominance and centrality in mature adulthood and coherence in old age lead to an interdependent conception of the self that changes, during the course of adulthood, from ‘emergent’ to ‘encompassing’ to ‘non-interdependent’.     

Superaddressee or Who Will Succeed a Mentor?

This philosophical essay is inspired by a four-year pedagogical relationship that continues in its altered form today. The main focus of this piece is the transformation of a mentor as an immediate addressee into mentor as a superaddressee, an influential third listener who oversees observable dialogues. I explore the mutual responsibilities of a student and a mentor in order to uncover the elements in the pedagogical chemistry responsible for the transformation of an addressee into a superaddressee. Confirmation (a perfect form of understanding) of a student’s intellectual and moral uniqueness, incarnation of a particular value deemed desirable by a student, and education of a student into the dialogic ways of being on his or her own are the necessary ingredients of the process of becoming a superaddressee. Initially a mentor engages in the pedagogy of understanding whose ideal outcome is confirmation of a student’s intellectual and moral makeup. After the dialogue is over, a mentor often moves into the domain of inner speech from where he or she continues to offer perfect understanding, especially in the absence of such understanding from an immediate addressee. Two types of superaddressees are identified and their relationship with the invoking consciousness is explored. I conclude that becoming a superaddressee is the most generous pedagogical contribution to a student’s future: a mentor thus makes his or her voice available to a student’s inner dialogue, often without receiving anything in return. Mikhail Bakhtin is highly influential in my writing. “Superaddressee” or “a third listener” is one of his coinages. The term is treated in “The Problem of the Text” as part of the collection “Speech genres and other late essays” (1986), alluded to in Voloshinov’s (1976) “Discourse in Life and Discourse in Art” and expanded upon in Frank Farmer’s (2001) “Saying and Silence.”