Introduction: Engaging with Nanotechnologies – Engaging Differently?

The idea of conducting upstream public engagement over emerging technologies has been gaining popularity in Europe and North America, with nanotechnologies seen as a test case for this. For many of its advocates, upstream engagement is about a re-conceptualisation of the science–society relationship in which a variety of ‘publics’ are brought together with stakeholders and scientists early in the Research and Development process to co-develop technological trajectories. However, the concept, aims and processes of upstream engagement remain ill-defined, are often misunderstood, and have undergone little critical analysis. This special issue of NanoEthics, entitled ‘Engaging with Nanotechnologies–Engaging Differently?’ takes a multi-nation, multi-case approach to explore this idea, drawing on work represented by four articles from the US and Europe, from ethnographic work in the nanotechnology lab through to analysis of a Citizens’ Jury and other attempts to move public debate ‘upstream’. An overall message from the papers is that without adequate critique ‘upstream engagement’ might end up re-producing out-dated forms of science communication or being rejected as a failed concept before it has even matured.     

Gender Differences in Attitudes Toward Affirmative Action Programs in Australia: Effects of Beliefs,Interests, and Attitudes Toward Women

This research identified mediators explaining the relationship between gender and attitudes toward affirmative action programs for women. Structural equation modeling was conducted on survey data obtained from academics at an Australian university (n = 198 with listwise deletion of missing data). Findings indicated that the relationship between gender and affirmative action attitudes was mediated by (1) perceptions of affirmative action's impact on material self-interest, (2) belief in the existence of gender discrimination, and (3) traditional attitudes toward women. Implications for organizations, policymakers, and researchers are discussed.     

The Influence of Family and Experimental Context on Cognition in Anxious Children

Examined the influence of family on anxious children's cognition. Research by Barrett, Rapee, Dadds, and Ryan (1996) found anxious children reported increased avoidance after interacting with their parents. They labelled this finding the FEAR effect—Family Enhancement of Avoidant Responses. Whilst some subsequent studies have found similar results, others have not. These contradictory findings question whether the direction of parental influence on anxious children is determined by the perceived demands of the experimental context. Anxious children (N = 101) and their parents were asked to interpret seven ambiguous situations and to discuss what their child would do if the scenario actually occurred. Study 1 found that children in the anxious group and an externalizing control group were more likely to interpret ambiguous situations as threatening than nonclinic children were. Study 2 sought to examine changes in the children's responses from pre- to postfamily discussion, and to identify variables associated with the FEAR effect in anxious families. Interestingly, anxious children whose families completed the discussion task after they (children) had been offered treatment were more likely to show a FEAR effect than anxious families who completed the task as part of assessment. Study 3 examined predictors of enhanced avoidance in anxious families. Treatment context and maternal distress were correlated with the child's increased avoidance following family discussion. Limitations of these studies and directions for future research are discussed.     

Effects of DRL and DRL combined with response cost on perseverative verbal behavior of an adult with mental retardation and obsessive compulsive disorder

Although there has been increased interest in the identification and diagnosis of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) in people who have developmental disabilities, clinical research has been reported infrequently. The present single‐case study evaluated the effects from systematic behavioral intervention with a 26‐year‐old man who had moderate mental retardation, OCD, and exhibited perseverative verbalizations. Verbalizations were reduced when the man gained access to preferred activities contingent upon a low response frequency (DRL: differential reinforcement of low‐rate responding). The behavior was reduced further when a DRL contingency was implemented in the form of a response cost procedure. The implications of these findings for the treatment of OCD in people with developmental disabilities are discussed. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Implementation Intentions and Facilitation of Prospective Memory

Forming detailed implementation intentions for a future behavior can increase the probability that the behavior is actually completed. We investigated whether this intention effect could be used to improve prospective memory in older adults. As expected, participants who formed an implementation intention were more than twice as likely to self-initiate the intended behavior (writing down the day of the week on every sheet of paper received during the experiment) compared with participants who either were merely instructed to do so or actively rehearsed the instruction. Forming an implementation intention, however, did not improve performance on a task that required a response to salient cues. We conclude that detailed implementation intentions facilitate prospective memory on tasks that lack salient cues and require self-initiation.     

Unconscious choice: the dissociation of creative animus among writers and psychotherapists

The paper argues that writers and psychotherapists are drawn to their work through the desire to remedy an unconscious sense of lack brought about by early relational trauma. Often, because of its origins in psychic pain, the connection between these individuals' beginnings and their profession remains largely dissociated. The theme is developed with reference to the idea of the wounded healer taken up by Jung. It is proposed that the original wound is also the crack that lets the light in: a dissociated tough spirit that can be channelled into discriminating countertransference and strong writing. This paper is implicitly arguing against an objective or neutral analytic stance, and for the therapeutic and creative value of acquaintance with negative affect.     

Emotion Regulation and Loss of Control Eating in Community-Based Adolescents

The current study investigated concurrent and prospective associations between emotion-related constructs and loss of control (LOC) eating in adolescents. Community-based females (N?=?588) completed annual self-report assessments of LOC eating, emotional awareness, emotion regulation strategies, and neuroticism from ages 16 to 18 years. Linear regressions and a regression-based multiple mediation model using bootstrapping were computed to examine the relationships among emotion-related constructs and LOC eating frequency. In the concurrent model, age 18 emotional awareness and emotion regulation strategies were associated with age 18 LOC eating, F(6, 416)?=?12.11, p?<?0.001, accounting for 4.5 % of the variance after controlling for demographics, body mass index, and neuroticism, F change?=?10.81, p?<?0.001. In the prospective model, age 17 emotional awareness predicted age 18 LOC eating, F(7, 425)?=?11.67, p?<?0.001, accounting for 1.7 % of unique variance beyond the effects of age 16 LOC eating and age 17 demographics, body mass index, and neuroticism, F change?=?4.26, p?=?0.015. In the multiple mediation model, age 18 emotion regulation strategies mediated the association between age 17 neuroticism and age 18 LOC eating, indirect effect estimate?=?0.003, 95 % confidence interval?=?0.001–0.005, after controlling for age 16 LOC eating and age 17 demographics, body mass index, and emotion regulation variables. Results suggest that deficient emotion regulation may contribute to the onset and maintenance of LOC eating in adolescence (although effects were small), and may partially explain the well-established prospective relationship between negative emotionality and later LOC eating. Prevention and early intervention programs should seek to improve adaptive coping in at-risk populations.     

Tracking Privilege‐Preserving Epistemic Pushback in Feminist and Critical Race Philosophy Classes

Classrooms are unlevel knowing fields, contested terrains where knowledge and ignorance are produced and circulate with equal vigor, and where members of dominant groups are accustomed to having an epistemic home‐terrain advantage. My project focuses on one form of resistance that regularly surfaces in discussions with social‐justice content. Privilege‐preserving epistemic pushback is a variety of willful ignorance that many members of dominant groups engage in when asked to consider both the lived and structural injustices that members of marginalized groups experience daily. I argue that this dominant form of resistance is neither an expression of skepticism nor a critical‐thinking practice. I suggest that standard philosophical engagements with these expressions of resistance are incapable of tracking the harms of privilege‐preserving epistemic pushback. I recommend treating this pushback as a “shadow text,” that is, as a text that runs alongside the readings in ways that offer no epistemic friction. I offer this as one critical philosophical practice for making students mindful of the ways they contribute to the circulation of ignorance and epistemic violence during the course of their discussions.