The politicization of deviance: Resisting and reversing degradation and stigmatization

Using the Israeli case of Abu‐hatzira, this paper argues that processes of degradation, stigmatization and deviantization can be reversed. The case itself is documented to be followed by an interpretation clustered along two axes. It is argued, first, that Abu‐hatzira used in his favor an existing ethnic dispute in Israel, coupled with a religious factor. Second, reversal of deviantization can be achieved by politicizing “regular” deviance, subsequently making a political statement within the context of an effective ideology geared to mobilize a receptive audience.¹     

Environmentalism in India: Modernity and history's curses

Temples or Tombs? Industry versus Environment: Three Controversies, by Darryl D'Monte, Centre for Science and Environment, Delhi, 1985, 281 pages, hb Rsl80

The State of India's Environment 1984–85: The Second Citizens’ Report, Centre for Science and Environment, Delhi, 1985,380 pages, hb Rs320     

The Price of Pain and the Value of Suffering

ABSTRACT— Estimating the financial value of pain informs issues as diverse as the market price of analgesics, the cost-effectiveness of clinical treatments, compensation for injury, and the response to public hazards. Such valuations are assumed to reflect a stable trade-off between relief of discomfort and money. Here, using an auction-based health-market experiment, we show that the price people pay for relief of pain is strongly determined by the local context of the market, that is, by recent intensities of pain or immediately disposable income (but not overall wealth). The absence of a stable valuation metric suggests that the dynamic behavior of health markets is not predictable from the static behavior of individuals. We conclude that the results follow the dynamics of habit-formation models of economic theory, and thus, this study provides the first scientific basis for this type of preference modeling.     

Family interventions in psychosis: a scale to measure therapist adherence

The efficacy of family interventions in psychosis is well documented. UK and USA schizophrenia treatment guidelines advocate the practice of family interventions within routine clinical services. However, less attention has been paid to the study of treatment fidelity and the tools used in its assessment. This study reports the inter-rater reliability of a new scale: Family Intervention in Psychosis-Adherence Scale (FIPAS). This measure is designed to assess therapist adherence to the Kuipers et al . (2002) family intervention in psychosis treatment manual. Reliability ratings were based on a sample of thirteen audiotapes drawn from a randomized controlled trial of family intervention. The results indicated that the majority of items of the FIPAS had acceptable levels of inter-rater reliability. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the training and monitoring of the effectiveness of practitioners for family interventions in psychosis.     

A Defence of Weighted Lotteries in Life Saving Cases

The three most common responses to Taurek’s ‘numbers problem’ are saving the greater number, equal chance lotteries and weighted lotteries. Weighted lotteries have perhaps received the least support, having been criticized by Scanlon What We Owe to Each Other (1998) and Hirose ‘Fairness in Life and Death Cases’ (2007). This article considers these objections in turn, and argues that they do not succeed in refuting the fairness of a weighted lottery, which remains a potential solution to cases of conflict. Moreover, it shows how these responses actually lead to a new argument for weighted lotteries, appealing to fairness and Pareto-optimality.

Fusions and Ordinary Physical Objects

In “Tropes and Ordinary Physical Objects”, Kris McDaniel argues that ordinary physical objects are fusions of monadic and polyadic tropes. McDaniel calls his view “TOPO”—for “Theory of Ordinary Physical Objects”. He argues that we should accept TOPO because of the philosophical work that it allows us to do. Among other things, TOPO is supposed to allow endurantists to reply to Mark Heller’s argument for perdurantism. But, we argue in this paper, TOPO does not help endurantists do that; indeed, we argue that anyone who accepts TOPO should reject endurantism.     

Cognitive Alteration of Feeling States: Historical Background

Within the scientific community there is a growing awareness and acceptance of the notion that people do not exist only in a world of physical forces and events. A person's perception of the world in which they live in a world is also defined by their own perceptions, experiences, and biases. In other words, a person responds and reacts, not only to objective or experimenter-defined stimuli, but also to his or her apperceptions and subjectively defined stimuli.     

Cognitive alteration of feeling states: Historical background

Within the scientific community there is a growing awareness and acceptance of the notion that people do not exist only in a world of physical forces and events. A person's perception of the world in which they live in a world is also defined by their own perceptions, experiences, and biases. In other words, a person responds and reacts, not only to objective or experimenter-defined stimuli, but also to his or her apperception and subjectively defined stimuli. Reprinted from London, Harvey and Richard E. Nisbett.Thought and Feeling: Cognitive Alteration of Feeling States. Aldine.     

EMOTLAB: Software for studying emotional signaling in economic bargaining games

EMOTLAB software creates a virtual social environment in which individuals interact via computer with a virtual interaction partner in a series of economic bargaining games. The virtual partner appears on the participant's computer screen as a digital image (e.g., video or picture file) during each trial. A key feature of EMOTLAB software is its ability to control both the strategic behavior and the emotion signaling behavior (e.g., anger vs. embarrassment) of the virtual interaction partner. By simply editing a series of text files that control the subroutines governing the different features of the experiment (payoff structure, number of trials, etc.), EMOTLAB can generate an essentially infinite number of different social bargaining situations in which participants earn monetary payoffs contingent upon their decisions. This paper provides an overview of this software and how one can edit various subroutines to generate a typical experimental session in which research participants encounter a virtual interaction partner who displays different emotional signals.