Ethics and Science: Is Plausibility in the Eye of the Beholder?

This paper argues that morality is objective in a specific sense that accords with a broadly expressivist stance in metaethics. The paper also explains that although there is a kind of subjectivity in moral inquiry, the same holds for other kinds of normative inquiry, including epistemic and even scientific inquiry, and moreover that this kind of subjectivity is no threat to morality’s objectivity. The argument for the objectivity of morality draws strong parallels between ethics, epistemology, and science, but does not depend on equally strong parallels between ethics and mathematics. I argue that there is more to learn from a comparison between ethics and mathematics than I used to think, but the difference between the issues that come up in thinking about objectivity in ethics and those that come up in thinking about objectivity in mathematics is substantial, and we cannot carry over results from the philosophy of mathematics to the case of morality.     

Narrative and embodiment – a scalar approach

Recent work on the relation between narrative and selfhood has emphasized embodiment as an indispensable foundation for selfhood. This has occasioned an interesting debate on the relation between embodiment and narrative. In this paper, I attempt to mediate the range of conflicting intuitions within the debate by proposing a scalar approach to narrative and an accompanying concept of a split-self (Waldenfels 2000). Drawing on theoretical developments from contemporary narratology, I argue that we need to move away from a binary understanding of narrative as something an entity (the self) strictly is or is not; rather, we need to see narrative as an attribute admitting of degrees. I suggest that the relation between narrative and embodiment should be seen along these lines, proposing three levels of the narrativity of embodied experiencing: 1) the unnarratable, 2) the narratable and 3) the narrative. Finally, I discuss the implications this framework has for the general question of the narrative constitution of selfhood.     

Religion in Public Health‐Care Institutions: U.S. and U.K. Perspectives

In this article, we consider the role that religion plays in the health‐care institutions of the United States and the United Kingdom. Religion has played a significant role in the development of health‐care institutions in both countries and continues to be present in them in important ways. To capture the range of involvement of religious groups in various sectors of the health‐care institution, we propose a continuum for their relationship, from completely merged identities at one end (“faith‐saturated”) to entirely separate ones at the other (“faith‐secular partnerships”). Versions of this scheme have appeared in both U.S. and U.K. reports that describe the faith component of faith‐based organizations that work in global contexts. We apply this framework to identify specific U.S. and U.K. exemplars, finding that examples of all types exist in both societies, despite the more secular nature of the United Kingdom. Accurately characterizing the relationship between religion and public health‐care institutions can inform future policy and research.     

Churches in transforming mission: A story of Lutheran communion in Africa

The argument of this paper is that the legacy of “ecclesia semper reformanda” (churches in a continued reformation and renewal) in Africa should not only transform the theological perspective of the Lutheran communion, but also take stock of the diaconal, social, economic and political realities of its members. In other words, a theology done in Africa needs tools and methodologies that are more comprehensive.     

Moderator influences of informal experimenter support

This study examined the effect of experimenter support during an intensive 1-year research project on teenage mothers and their infants at 1 and 3 years of age. A variety of information concerning the infants' developmental levels, the mothers' psychological and sociological status, and the mother-infant interaction was collected at both ages. Results indicated that the positive effects of informal support at 1 year of age were no longer evident in mother or child 2 years later. The findings are discussed in light of the effects of observational research and possible implications for intervention programs for teenage mothers.     

The psychophysics of contingency assessment

The authors previously described a procedure that permits rapid, multiple within-participant evaluations of contingency assessment (the "streamed-trial" procedure, M. J. C. Crump, S. D. Hannah, L. G. Allan, & L. K. Hord, 2007). In the present experiments, they used the streamed-trial procedure, combined with the method of constant stimuli and a binary classification response, to assess the psychophysics of contingency assessment. This strategy provides a methodology for evaluating whether variations in contingency assessment reflect changes in the participant's sensitivity to the contingency or changes in the participant's response bias (or decision criterion). The sign of the contingency (positive or negative), outcome density, and imposition of an explicit payoff structure had little influence on sensitivity to contingencies but did influence the decision criterion. The authors discuss how a psychophysical analysis can provide a better understanding of findings in the literature such as mood and age effects on contingency assessment. They also discuss the relation between a psychophysical approach and an associative account of contingency assessment.     

Factors affecting self-referral to counselling services in the workplace: a qualitative study

The benefits of psychological support in the workplace (also known as workplace counselling) are well documented. Most large organisations in the UK have staff counselling schemes. However, it is unclear what, if any, factors affect employee decisions to use such schemes. This study has used a qualitative methodology to explore the reasons that make employees use workplace counselling. Eleven employees of a university in the north of England who had used the staff counselling service of their employer took part in the study. The employer had two schemes available: an internal staff counselling service and an external Employee Assistance Programme (EAP). A semi-structured interview was used with each participant and grounded theory techniques were used to analyse the interviews. The analysis resulted in the construction of a model of psychological help-seeking in the workplace. The main findings indicate that most participants were motivated to use their employer's counselling service by their prior positive experiences of similar or other type of mental health services. Other encouraging factors were: recommendation of service by others, a supportive environment and trust in the confidential ethos of the service. Conversely, negative preconceptions of psychological help-seeking and a perception of the employing environment as unsafe were shown to have been discouraging factors. The study concludes with suggestions for practice and for further research.     

Enhancing Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Mothers and Expectant Mothers on Low Incomes: Adaptations and Additions

Intervening with depressed women during their childbearing years, especially with those on low incomes, is critically important. Not only do mothers and expectant mothers suffer unnecessarily, but their untreated depression has critical negative consequences for their families. Despite this, these women have proven especially difficult to engage in psychotherapy. In this paper we describe several adaptations and additions we have made to a brief form of Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) to meet the needs of mothers and expectant mothers living on low incomes in the community who suffer from depression, but face significant practical, psychological, and cultural barriers to engaging in and staying in treatment. In addition, we present some preliminary data on the extent to which our enhanced, brief IPT approach promotes improvements in treatment engagement and retention relative to usual care for expectant mothers on low incomes.