Constitution and ontology: Some remarks on Husserl's ontological position in the Logical Investigations

This paper is based on studies made during a stay at the University in Wuppertal, Germany. I thank Professor Klaus Held and Dr. Dieter Lohmar for their various comments upon my initial research.     

Family and childhood adjustment in cystic fibrosis

Family adaptation has been commonly associated with the psychological adjustment of chronically ill children. However, few studies have attempted to systematically evaluate this association and its relationship to illness severity. We studied 44 children ages 7 to 15 and their families at a large cystic fibrosis center and obtained measures of 1) impact of illness on the family; 2) family functioning; 3) behavioral adjustment; 4) social competence; 5) ratings of anxiety, depressive, and eating disorder symptoms; and 6) ratings of illness severity and duration. Impact of illness on the family and overall family dysfunction were significantly correlated with illness severity, but not duration. However, impact of illness on the family was significantly correlated with internalizing behavioral symptoms, while family dysfunction was correlated with depressive symptomatology. These findings suggest that illness-related stress is primarily reflected in general emotional and behavioral symptoms, with familial adaptation either ameliorating or exacerbating their development into depressive symptomatology.     

Looking, laughing, and smiling in dyads as a function of intimacy motivation and reciprocity

Eighty college students (40 females and 40 males) were administered the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) and interviewed in either a one-way (interviewer asks questions) or reciprocal (interviewer asks questions and discloses information about him- or herself) condition by a same-sex interviewer. The TATs were scored for intimacy motivation. In this 2 (Female vs. Male) × 2 (High vs. Low Intimacy Motive) × 2 (Reciprocal vs. One-Way Condition) experiment, intimacy motivation was positively associated with greater levels of laughter, smiling, and eye contact for the entire sample, as hypothesized. Furthermore, women showed significantly higher scores than men on laughter, smiling, and eye contact. Contrary to a second hypothesis, high intimacy motivation combined with reciprocal condition did not yield the highest levels of laughter, smiling, and eye contact. The results extend the construct validation literature for intimacy motivation into the domain of nonverbal behaviors considered to be indicative of positive interpersonal regard in cordial human interactions.     

Group psychotherapy with borderline patients: Contrasting remainers and dropouts

Borderline patients present major treatment difficulties in almost every treatment modality. The reason borderlines drop out or fail to benefit from therapy are obscure. Some findings points to the important factor of therapist and patient fit. In the present study, two therapy groups with borderline patients were followed for 20 months. In the study, the therapists were found to individualize the process and their interventions were found to be unevenly distributed among future remainers and dropouts especially during periods of group instability. The results were interpreted along with the Pygmalion hypothesis, that is, that the fit and the therapists' perceived trustworthiness were crucial factors for group psychotherapy outcome for borderline patients.     

The content of aliefs

In “Against alief”, Mandelbaum (Philos Stud 165(1):197–211, 2013) argues that if aliefs—a sui generis kind of mental states originally posited by Gendler (J Philos 105(10):634–663, 2008a; Mind Lang 23(5):552–585, 2008b; Analysis 72(4):799–811, 2012)—are to play the explanatory role that is usually ascribed to them, their contents must be propositionally structured. However, he contends, if aliefs have propositional contents, it is unclear what distinguishes them from beliefs. I find Mandelbaum’s arguments in favour of the idea that aliefs must have propositional contents to be compelling. However, I think aliefs should only be credited with a deflated kind of propositional content that I will baptize as “semi-structured propositional contents”, since they are composed by representational units that are neither fully un-detachable nor fully re-combinable. As I will argue, this way of understanding the content of aliefs not only allows us to accommodate all the worries raised by Mandelbaum regarding the nature of their contents, but it also it helps explain why aliefs have some of the peculiar features that Gendler ascribes to them. Consequently, it gives to the advocates of aliefs new tools to defend, against Mandelbaum, that these are sui generis mental states with their distinctive functional role in our cognitive lives.

     

Are the psychophysical laws fine-tuned?

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion - Neil Sinhababu (Am Philos Q 54(1):89–98, 2017) has recently argued against the fine-tuning argument for God. They claim that the question of...     

基于自我参照编码的复合反应范式：有效鉴别有罪者和无罪知情者

隐藏信息测试在司法实践中应用受限的主要原因是容易将知道犯罪相关信息的无罪知情者误判为有罪者, 因此, 需探索有效区分有罪者和无罪知情者、有罪者和无罪不知情者的测谎技术。复合反应范式(complex trial protocol, CTP)是一种能有效抵抗反测谎的隐藏信息测试, 但尚未成功用于鉴别有罪者和无罪知情者。本研究设计了可同时测量EPN和P300的基于自我参照编码的CTP, 每个试次的第一部分随机呈现探测刺激或无关刺激, 第二部分随机呈现目标刺激(自己姓名)或非目标刺激(他人姓名), 要求被试在两个部分看到刺激时均做“与我有关”和“与我无关”的反应。结果表明, 基于自我参照编码的CTP能有效区分有罪者和无罪知情者, EPN区分有罪者和无罪知情者的鉴别力优于P300, P300区分有罪者和无罪不知情者的鉴别力优于EPN。     

Investigation of the factorial structure and psychometric properties of the Persian version of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 in patients with psychiatric disorders

The aims of this study were to assess the factor structure, validity, and reliability of the Persian translation of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20) and to examine different models of the TAS-20 in Iranian patients with various psychiatric disorders. Participants were 839 patients with psychiatric disorders, including obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) (n = 80), schizophrenia (n = 82), bipolar disorder (BD) (n = 100), alcohol dependence (n = 81), major depressive disorder (MDD) (n = 95), psychosomatic disorders (n = 92), anxiety disorders (n = 85), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (n = 90), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (n = 55), and suicide attempts (n = 79). Results indicated that the three-factor TAS-16 fit the data well, after removing four items from the externally-oriented thinking (EOT) subscale. In addition, the total score and subscales had strong internal consistency and concurrent validity. An alternative three-factor model and a four-factor model, which both allow the reverse-coded EOT items to load on a separate factor, also had an acceptable fit. The results suggest that after deleting four items from the EOT subscale, the 16-item TAS is a reliable scale among Iranian psychiatric patients. Moreover, the alternative three-factor and four-factor structures may be appropriate to apply among Iranian patients.