On the Role and Value of Intercollegiate Athletics in Universities

This paper challenges Professor Myles Brand’s position on the role and value of intercollegiate athletics in U.S. colleges and universities on the ground that it fails to account for considerations of deep fiscal responsibility. It presents both a philosophical and ethical criticism of his position that broadens the discussion beyond athletics to include a particular kind of higher educational institution more generally.     

A twin study of attachment style in young adults

The relative contribution of genetic and environmental influences to individual differences in attachment security is still incompletely understood. We assessed attachment style with the Experiences in Close Relationships questionnaire in a volunteer sample of 677 twins (43% male) ages 23-24 years drawn from the population-based Italian Twin Register, who belonged to 244 complete pairs (46% monozygotic) and 189 unmatched pairs. Genetic structural equation modeling was performed with the Mx program. Genetic effects accounted for 45% and 36% of individual differences in attachment-related anxiety and avoidance, respectively. Furthermore, the covariation between anxiety and avoidance was found to be mainly due to genetic factors, with heritability of the latent attachment security phenotype estimated at 62%. Unshared environmental factors explained the remaining proportion of variance. Although our findings are best regarded as preliminary given some study limitations, they suggest that both nature and nurture contribute to individual differences in adult attachment.     

Rats’ memory for time and relational responding in the duration-comparison procedure

Rats were trained in a duration-comparison task to press one lever if the comparison duration (c) was 1.2-s shorter than a standard duration (s), and another lever if c was 1.2-s longer than s. The interval between s and c duration was 1 s. The 10 duration pairs used during training controlled for the absolute duration of c and the total duration of an s-c pair. The total duration of an s-c pair was not predictive of the correct response. In Experiment 1, during equal-duration pair test trials, rats increasingly responded long (i.e., c > s) as the s-c delay was lengthened. In Experiment 2, long responding increased as the s-c delay was lengthened, even when the illumination condition during the s-c delay differed from that during the intertrial interval (ITI). In Experiment 3, transfer to novel duration pairs was assessed. Overall accuracy for the novel duration pairs was significantly above chance, but transfer performance was also affected by the absolute value of the novel c durations. This is the first study to demonstrate that rats can acquire relational duration discriminations. As in previous studies with pigeons the evidence was consistent with subjective-shortening of the standard duration and there was also evidence of a reliance on a mixture of absolute and relational strategies in responding.     

Counseling in Thailand: Development From a Buddhist Perspective

The authors present historical and current accounts of the counseling profession in Thailand. In addition to the influences of Buddhism on counselor training and practices, professional issues such as licensure, professional organizations, and the relationship between counselors and other mental health professionals are summarized. The role of counselors in recent political and natural disasters is highlighted, along with the importance of adapting Western counselor training and service practices to better meet the needs of the Thai population.     

Self-body recognition depends on implicit and explicit self-esteem

The present contribution bridges research on body image, self-esteem, and body recognition. Recent work in neuroscience indicates a superiority in the processing of self relative to others’ body parts. The present contribution shows that this ability is not universal but it is qualified by individual differences in implicit and explicit self-esteem. In fact, two studies (n₁ = 41 and n₂ = 35) using two different paradigms in body recognition and direct and indirect measures of self-esteem reveal that this advantage in recognizing one's own body parts is associated with one's level of self-esteem. Moreover, it appears that measures of implicit and explicit self-esteem provide different contributions to self-body recognition abilities and that these contributions depend on how self-body recognition is assessed. Implications of these results are discussed notably in the perspective of research on body image.     

Goldman and the foundations of social epistemology

This essay argues that Alvin I. Goldman's truth-linked theory of group knowledge (veritism) omits individual components of social cognition, that all group based theories of knowledge lead to scepticism, and that if any sense is to be made of social knowledge, it must be done on individualist lines. I argue that Goldman's veritism can be reconstructed by adopting a reliabilist theory,social reliabilism. And I argue that Goldman's objections to a particular sort of consensualism are not telling. So there are now two plausible and competing theories of social knowledge-social reliabilism and consensualism.I am grateful to Keith Lehrer and Alvin Goldman for their criticisms of previous drafts of this paper.     

Mood vs. Interpersonal Affect: Identifying Process and Rating Distortions in Performance Appraisal

This study was designed to simultaneously analyze the influence of mood and interpersonal affect on the performance appraisal process. Results suggest that affect consistency, as opposed to mood consistency, is likely to influence the weighting of recalled performance information and ratings subsequently assigned. Surprisingly, a mood-incongruent effect also occurred when weighting the performance information. Aside from affective influences, the raters assigned the most weight to positive performance incidents, however, the raters remembered more of the negative performance. Implications for appraisal practice and directions for future research are discussed.     

FOUNDATIONS OF A KANTIAN THEORY OF PUNISHMENT

It has recently been argued that there is probably no theory of punishment to be found in Immanuel Kant's writings, but that “if one selects carefully among the many remarks and insights that Kant has left us about crime and punishment, one might even be able to build such an edifice from the bricks provided.”¹ In this paper, I seek to provide part of a foundation of a Kantian theory of punishment, one which is consistent with many, if not all, of Kant's own insights on justice. Finally, I assess the plausibility of Kant's view.