THINKING ABOUT THE GOOD: RECONFIGURING LIBERAL METAPHYSICS (OR NOT) FOR PEOPLE WITH COGNITIVE DISABILITIES

Abstract: Liberalism welcomes diversity in substantive ideas of the good but not in the process whereby these ideas are formed. Ideas of the good acquire weight on the presumption that each is a person's own, formed independently. But people differ in their capacities to conceptualize. Some, appropriately characterized as cerebral, are proficient in and profoundly involved with conceptualizing. Others, labeled cognitively disabled, range from individuals with mild limitations to those so unable to express themselves that we cannot be sure whether their behavior is mediated by concepts at all. Constricted cognitive capacities have been thought to prevent participation in the prescribed process for forming personalized ideas of the good. So liberal theory, when formulating principles and practices of justice, often disregards cognitively disabled peoples' perspectives. We put aside metaphysically driven notions about personhood and show how interpersonal processes of "prosthetic" thinking (different from surrogacy) can satisfy liberalism's standards, positioning cognitively disabled individuals as fully participating subjects of justice.     

When Supervising Physicians See Patients Strategies Used in Difficult Situations

As part of training in an internal medicine ambulatory clinic, a supervising physician may see a patient who has already been seen by a trainee. The authors conducted qualitative analyses of videotapes of medical interactions and of the participants commentaries regarding the interactions. They found that physicians and trainees showed concerns regarding the emerging definitions of their relationship to each other and to the patient in opening the interaction and in taking history from the patient. The concerns experienced by supervising physicians and by trainees are described arid the strategies used in opening the interaction and in interviewing the patient are analyzed. The article concludes with an evaluation of the strategies used to manage interactional difficulties.     

Reading Against the Lines: Resisting Foreclosure in Therapy Discourse

In this article, it is noted that poststructural ideas can be useful tools in fostering reflexivity and creativity for clinicians. By examining the process of meaning construction, clinicians can detach from repetitive interpretations of therapy discourse that lead to conversational closure. Four strategies for guiding a reading of family therapy interaction are presented: incitement to discourse, deconstruction, normativity, and the cultural grid of intelligibility. These strategies are used to describe examples of marital therapy discourse. By learning to read therapy as discourse, clinicians may critically examine how meaning is constructed and use that awareness to foster therapeutic conversations.     

Making People Feel Guilty in Conversations

Communication plays an important role in eliciting and shaping people's emotions. Yet surprisingly little empirical or conceptual work has explored how social interaction encourages or discourages various emotions. This article summarizes a series of four studies which examined how people, in conversations, go about generating one emotion—that of guilt—in others. In the first study, a typology of 12 guilt moves was inductively devised. The most common ways of making another feel guilty were: reminding the other of his or her obligation to a relationship, listing sacrifices one has made for the other, reminding the other of his or her role responsibilities, comparing the other to someone else, and questioning the other. The primary reason for using guilt in conversations was persuasion. In the second study, the typology's generalizability was confirmed. Findings also revealed that the likelihood of using guilt in conversations increases with greater relationship intimacy and that people believe others are more likely to use guilt than themselves. The 12 techniques for guilt elicitation were examined in the third study for their independence and dimensionality via multidimensional scaling. The results suggest three underlying dimensions (self-nonself, acquiescence-restrictiveness, and commission-omission) and six potential clusters. The final study conceptualized guilt elicitation and sensitivity as individual differences. A brief, multifactor scale of individuals’ tendency to use guilt, to use it with ease, and to be susceptible to guilt moves was developed. The three dimensions correlated significantly with a number of communication-focused personality variables.     

Gender differences in standards for romantic relationships

Why is it that women often report more problems in their romantic relationships than do men? One explanation apparent in the literature is that women may view different standards as important for relationships than do their male counterparts and, as a consequence, women may be less likely to have their standards met. A second explanation is that while women and men may not differ in terms of the importance they associate with various standards, the experiences they have in their romantic relationships may lead women Lo believe their standards are not fulfilled as often as do men. The current study offers a preliminary test of these two rival explanations and found greater support for the latter. Analyses of two composite measures and more detailed factor-based measures generally indicated that the standards held by women and men involved in heterosexual romantic relationships were rated similar in importance. Women, however, tended to note that their standards were met less fully than did men. Further, compared to men, women reported a greater discrepancy between the importance they associated with various standards and the extent to which the standards were fulfilled in the context of their relationship. The ability of two different theoretical models to predict and explain these findings is discussed, as re the implications of the results for future research.     

The Deferential Wife Revisited: Agency and Moral Responsibility

This paper rejects two main arguments for absolving the deferential wife and victims of deprived circumstances from responsibility or blame for their servility: for Susan Wolf, circumstances can determine their reasons and acts, and for Sarah Buss, circumstances can give them excusing reasons for their acts. The paper argues that circumstances can give them justifying reasons to act in ways defending their intrinsic worth when their acts can be legitimately interpreted as a protest against an attempt to degrade their intrinsic value.     

Couples' Concurrent Cognitions The Influence of Relational Satisfaction on the Thoughts Couples Have as They Converse

Studies of cognition in relationships show that people's thoughts about their partners shape and reflect the quality of relationships. Some research further suggests that women's cognitions are more relationship-centered than men's. The data supporting these arguments, however, often are based on partners' retrospective reports or responses to hypothetical scenarios. This study examined partners' concurrent cognitions—the thoughts they have during the course of interaction. Data were collected using a modification of “protocol analysis.” Partners conversed over networked computers and also voiced what they were thinking. Results indicated that those who were dissatisfied with their relationship expressed significantly more negative thoughts about their partner, fewer positive thoughts about their partner, and fewer positive thoughts about their relationship than did those who were satisfied. Dissatisfied men vocalized fewer negative thoughts about themselves than did those who were satisfied. ‘Women's thoughts were not more focused on relationship-oriented issues than were men's; men expressed more negative cognitions about relationships. The findings confirm that there are distinctions between the concurrent cognitions of satisfied and dissatisfied partners. Researchers should continue questioning the influence of gender on the ways partners evaluate their relationships.     

From Elites to Strangers: Employment Coping Styles of New Hong Kong Immigrants

This article discusses how highly skilled Hong Kong immigrants cope with the perceived loss of their elitist status in their adopted country.