INCREASING ONE ASPECT OF SELF‐DETERMINATION AMONG ADULTS WITH SEVERE MULTIPLE DISABILITIES IN SUPPORTED WORK

We attempted to increase one aspect of self‐determination among 3 supported workers with multiple disabilities. Following Baer's (1998) self‐determination conceptualization, the workers were exposed to two conditions that involved working more versus less independently based on availability of assistive devices. Next, their condition preferences were assessed and honored. All participants consistently chose the more independent condition. Results reflect how self‐determination may be enhanced by giving workers increased control over work situations.     

Conscious and nonconscious discrimination of facial expressions

Abrupt discontinuities in recognizing categories of emotion are found for the labelling of consciously perceived facial expressions. This has been taken to imply that, at a conscious level, we perceive facial expressions categorically. We investigated whether the abrupt discontinuities found in categorization for conscious recognition would be replaced by a graded transition for subthreshold stimuli. Fifteen volunteers participated in two experiments, in which participants viewed faces morphed from 100% fear to 100% disgust along seven increments. In Experiment A, target faces were presented for 30 ms, in Experiment B for 170 ms. Participants made two-alternative forced-choice decisions between fear and disgust. Results for the 30 ms presentation time indicated a significant linear trend between degree of morphing and classification of the images. Results for 170 ms presentation time followed the higher order function found in studies of categorical perception. These results provide preliminary evidence for separate processes underlying conscious and nonconscious perception of facial expressions of emotion.     

Kant and the determinacy of intuition

A central issue in debates about Kant and nonconceptualism concerns the nature of intuition. There is sharp disagreement among Kant scholars about both whether, prior to conceptualization, mere intuition can be considered conscious and, if so, how determinate this consciousness is. In this article, I argue that Kant regards pre-synthesized intuition as conscious but indeterminate. To make this case, I contextualize Kant's position through the work of H.S. Reimarus, a predecessor of Kant who influenced his views on animals, infants, and the role of attention. I use Reimarus to clarify Kant's otherwise ambiguous commitments on the determinacy of intuition in animals and newborns, and the role attention, concepts, and judgment play in making intuited contents determinate. This contextualization helps to shed light on Kant's discussion of pre-synthesized intuition in the threefold synthesis of the A-Deduction by demonstrating that Kant's theory of mind in the deduction offers transcendental grounding for empirical accounts of infant development like Kant and Reimarus's. The upshot is a Kant at odds with many recent interpretations of his theory of mind: pre-synthesized intuition is conscious but indeterminate.     

THE CHALLENGE OF THE FUTURE TO THESCIENCE-RELIGION DIALOGUE

Abstract. Zygon and the Center for Advanced Study in Religionand Science have exhibited two foci: the theoretical, concernedwith questions of cosmology and human nature, and the practical, concerned with issues of morality and ritual. These foci overlap, but in recent years interest in the practical has increased. This hasimplications for science-religion dialogue: rather than simply dis-cussing theoretically points of identity, similarity, and differencebetween science and religion, focus on the practical leads to exa-mining how each functions in its own way to inform moral life.Increased interest in the practical is commendable, but theoreticalconcerns should not be excluded.     

The effect of MMPI-2 on scoring of special scales derived from MMPI-1.

Twenty-nine special scales derived from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-1; Hathaway & McKinley, 1983) were scored from MMPI-I and MMPI++-2 (Hathaway et al., 1989) items for a normal and a psychiatric sample. Resulting pairs of mean scores were compared. Absolute differences were found to be small but statistically significant. We concluded that, despite the statistical significance, the small absolute differences suggest that most of the MMPI-I special scales probably can be scored and interpreted from MMPI-2 items. Further research along this line is necessary.     

Pastoral theology in a pluralistic age

The article presents a theological and normative response to the question, “What is Pastoral Theology?”. The primary task is to bring together theological ethics and the social sciences to provide a normative vision of the human life cycle for a pluralistic setting with diverse religio-cultural assumptions. Introduces a clinical case to suggest the range of questions with which Pastoral Theology should be concerned and presents four propositions informed by a theological ethic and a dynamic perspective.