ARE THERE NON-EXISTENT INTENTIONALIA?

Tim Crane has maintained that intentional objects are to be conceived of as schematic entities, having no particular intrinsic nature. While I take this metaphysical thesis to be correct, I cast doubt on whether it excludes intentionalia, especially non-existent ones, from the general inventory of what there is, as Crane seems to think it does. There is a tension here, since Crane uses intentionalia in order to individuate intentional states, but at the same time attempts to dispense with them. If my doubts are grounded, the tension disappears.     

JOB ORIENTATION OF MALES AND FEMALES: ARE SEX DIFFERENCES DECLINING?

Sex differences in job orientation found by Manhardt (1972) were explored to determine if they still exist, or if a trend toward similarity as found in studies on traits and behaviors prevails. Significant sex differences were found on 8 of 25 job characteristics, compared with 11 found by Manhardt. In the original study, factor analysis indicated that males value long-range career objectives while females prefer a comfortable working environment and pleasant interpersonal relationships. This study extracted similar factors which explained twice the variance found in the original. However, sex differences on factor preference were mixed. Further, results show that males are less homogeneous in their preference than are females, a complete reversal of results found previously. Implications for personnel managers in handling differences on job orientation of males and females are discussed.     

ARE ALL LATINAS THE SAME? PERCEIVED BREAST CANCER SCREENING BARRIERS AND FACILITATIVE CONDITIONS

In this article, we examine perceived breast cancer screening barriers and facilitative conditions for immigrant women from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, El Salvador, and South America ( N = 58). Focus groups conducted separately with women of each ancestry were analyzed using grounded theory methods. Identified barriers comprise secrecy, lack of information, embarrassment, fear, and distrust of health care providers. Perceived facilitative conditions include knowing the importance of early detection and noticing a symptom. We compare and contrast findings across ancestries and discuss how psychosocial and cultural factors could be better integrated into early detection programs. The women's high screening rates also suggest that breast cancer screening can be facilitated in this population by addressing institutional factors (e.g., access to health care, transportation).     

IS THERE A FUTURE FOR THE DIALOGUE?

The title question was raised by Philip Hefner in an editorial in the March 2007 issue of Zygon, and answered in various ways in sixteen guest editorials in the June, September, and December 2007 issues. In this article, after defining some pertinent concepts, I comment on these essays. I review critical statements made by the guest editorialists and survey their proposals for further dialogue topics. I conclude with my own views on the future of the dialogue and the role of Zygon therein.     

WHAT ARE THE CONTENTS OF EXPERIENCES?

I address three interrelated issues concerning the contents of experiences. First, I address the preliminary issue of what it means to say that experiences have contents. Then I address the issue of why we should believe that experiences have contents. Finally, I address the issue of what the contents of experiences are.     

RACIAL DIFFERENCES IN EMPLOYEE RETENTION: ARE DIVERSITY CLIMATE PERCEPTIONS THE KEY?

Given considerable racial differences in voluntary turnover ( Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2006 , Table 28), the present study examined the influence of diversity climate perceptions on turnover intentions among managerial employees in a national retail organization. The authors hypothesized that pro-diversity work climate perceptions would correlate most negatively with turnover intentions among Blacks, followed in order of strength by Hispanics and Whites (Hypothesis 1), and that organizational commitment would mediate these interactive effects of race and diversity climate perceptions on turnover intentions (Hypothesis 2). Results from a sample of 5,370 managers partially supported both hypotheses, as findings were strongest among Blacks. Contrary to the hypotheses, however, White men and women exhibited slightly stronger effects than Hispanic personnel.     

IS THERE A CONSERVATIVE SOLUTION TO THE MANY THINKERS PROBLEM?

On a widely shared assumption, our mental states supervene on our microphysical properties – that is, microphysical supervenience is true. When this thesis is combined with the apparent truism that human persons have proper parts, a grave difficulty arises: what prevents some of these proper parts from being themselves thinkers as well? How can I know that I am a human person and not a smaller thinker enclosed in a human person? Most solutions to this puzzle make radical, if not absurd, claims. Recently, however, Michael Burke and Howard Robinson proposed conservative solutions that, according to them, do not have such undesired consequences. This paper argues that the conservative solutions tacitly assume at least one of the radical ones, and therefore they provide no alternative to the extreme solutions.     

IS THERE A PROBLEM WITH THE LPC SCORE IN LEADER MATCH?

Some problems with the use of the LPC score in the Fiedler, Chemers, and Mahar Leader Match self-teaching book were identified and examined. The cutting scores defining high and low LPC were questioned because of inadequately developed norms and the alteration of the LPC scale from 16 to 18 items. The current procedures were estimated to create a substantial bias toward being inappropriately categorized as a high LPC individual.     

ARE WE CLOSER TO FREE MARKET EUGENICS? THE CRISPR CONTROVERSY

Might the 2018 birth of two designer babies in China write the opening paragraph for the next chapter in the history of eugenics? The worldwide scientific community has tacitly put a moratorium on human clinical application of CRISPR gene editing, waiting until unknown risks can become known. But this ethical agreement has been breached, and calls are now being heard for more rigorous regulations. Perhaps religious and spiritual leaders can join the bioethical chant: the yellow light of caution is flashing.     

ARE LIBERALS AND EVANGELICALS SINGING FROM THE SAME SONG SHEET?

Characterising Liberal and Evangelical theology as positions on a continuum or spectrum is common within Protestant circles. I argue that Liberals and Evangelicals do not share a common conceptual framework but embody competing and incommensurable conceptual schemes. Liberal theology then is not a distortion of true Biblical Christianity, as is often supposed, but rather is an entirely different approach to doing theology, indeed, to seeing the world. What I hope to achieve by way of this paper is to provide a context within which to better understand both Liberal and Evangelical claims, and to offer an explanation as to why the debates between the two schools are seemingly intractable. Further, I hope to encourage Liberals and Evangelicals to pursue the difficult task of understanding each other's position so that genuine dialogue can take place.     

IS IT ALL IN THE NUMBERS? A Case Study of Tokenism

The purpose of the present study is to explore whether the negative consequences of tokenism are the result of imbalanced proportions alone, or whether society-wide sex role stereotypes which affect male and female tokens differently are also a factor. Men working at concession stands at an amusement attraction were assigned by the experimenters to one of two work groups in which the numbers of women and men were either skewed or balanced. Unlike a token woman at the attraction, these token male workers did not experience the negative consequences of tokenism (visibility, contrast, and assimilation). In fact, token men identified with supervisors and advanced more quickly than their non-token counterparts of both sexes. The results are interpreted as indicating that underrepresentation alone cannot explain the negative effects of tokenism for women.     

EFFECTS OF SELF-EFFICACY and GOAL-ORIENTATION TRAINING ON NEGOTIATION SKILL MAINTENANCE: WHAT ARE THE MECHANISMS?

In a replication and extension of Gist, Stevens, and Bavetta (1991), we examined the effects of self-efficacy and a performance- versus a mastery-oriented post-training session on trainees' negotiation skill maintenance. Sixty MBA students received salary-negotiation training and engaged in practice negotiations with a confederate. They then attended either a performance- or a mastery-oriented post-training session. A second practice negotiation was conducted 7 weeks later. Results indicated that mastery-oriented trainees engaged in more interim skill-maintenance activities, planned to exert more effort, and showed more positive affect than did performance-oriented trainees. In addition, self-efficacy interacted with the post-training condition on Time 2 performance: Low self-efficacy trainees performed more poorly than high self-efficacy trainees in the performance- but not in the mastery-oriented post-training condition. Analyses indicated that trainees' cognitive withdrawal mediated this effect. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

OAKESHOTT ON THE CHARACTER OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE: NEED THERE BE A CONFLICT BETWEEN SCIENCE AND RELIGION?

Michael Oakeshott reflected on the character of religious experience in various writings throughout his life. In Experience and Its Modes (1933) he analyzed science as a distinctive “mode,” or account of experience as a whole, identifying those assumptions necessary for science to achieve its coherent account of experience in contrast to other modes of experience whose quests for coherence depend on different assumptions. Religious experience, he thought, was integral to the practical mode. The latter experiences the world as interminable tension between what is and what ought to be. The question, Is there a conflict between science and religion? is, in Oakeshott's approach, the question, Is there a conflict between the scientific mode of experience and the practical mode? Insofar as we tend to treat every question as a practical one, these questions seem to make sense. But Oakeshott's analysis leads to the view that scientific experience and religious experience are categorically different accounts of experience abstracted from the whole of experience. They are voices of experience that may speak to each other, but they are not ordered hierarchically. Nor can either absorb the other without insoluble contradictions.