The metaphysics of mortals: death,immortality, and personal time

Philosophical Studies - Personal time, as opposed to external time, has a certain role to play in the correct account of death and immortality. But saying exactly what that role is, and what role...     

The Baby Boomer bias: The negative impact of generational labels on older workers

While generational labels (e.g., Baby Boomers) are popular in the media, few studies have explored whether using these labels leads to discrimination against older workers. Using an inbox task, we examined whether the label “Baby Boomer” led older workers to be viewed more negatively than the label “older employee” in four workplace scenarios. Data were collected from 304 management students (mean age = 30.92 years, SD = 9.21). Individuals identified as Baby Boomers were viewed more negatively across all four different scenarios and this effect was modified by social dominance orientation and power distance orientation in the hiring scenarios. Overall, our results suggest the use of generational labels such as Baby Boomers may negatively impact the workplace experiences of older workers.     

Too Old to Train or Reprimand: The Role of Intergroup Attribution Bias in Evaluating Older Workers

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to explore the role rater and target age play in the evaluations of poorly performing workers. Intergroup attribution theory suggests that rater age predicts the attributions made for the poor performance of older workers.

Design/Methodology/Approach

In this study, 203 supervisors in various industries completed measures of causal attribution and evaluations for a poorly performing hypothetical subordinate.

Findings

Compared to the poor performance of younger targets, the poor performance of older targets was more likely to be attributed to external and controllable causes by older raters and more likely to be attributed to stable causes by younger raters. These attributions predicted willingness to punish and likelihood to provide training.

Implications

Our findings were partially supported by intergroup attribution theory and suggest that this theory may be useful in understanding how older workers’ performance is evaluated.

Originality/Value

This is one of the first studies to utilize intergroup attribution theory among supervisors in exploring how older workers are evaluated in the workplace and to demonstrate that the theory predicts how older workers’ poor performance will be attributed. Our study provides evidence that when evaluating a poorly performing older target, older raters will be more inclined to attribute this performance to controllable causes and thus be more punitive than younger raters. Further, we provide some evidence that raters will be more punitive and less willing to provide training when evaluating poorly performing targets to whom they are similar.     

Is ‘human action’ A category?

It seems to have been taken for granted that we all know what a human action is. However in attempting to draw from what philosophers have said about actions the necessary clues as to their distinguishing features, one finds little to discourage the idea that there is no way of distinguishing one category of occurrences, human actions, from the complex of different sorts of things which happen. From this I am tempted to conclude that there is no category of human action. But before drawing such a conclusion an ancient but terrible question must be faced: What sorts of things happen in the world ? This ancient question is faced but not answered. It is brought up because the failure to find a satisfactory answer to the question, Is human action a category? is a failure even to find a satisfactory assumption about what kind of reference the term ‘human action’ is supposed to have.     

Toward a further understanding of assent

Arranging assent opportunities is an increasingly common strategy for involving clients in therapeutic decisions within behavior analysis. Recent behavior-analytic articles have helped create a basic behavioral definition and conceptualization of assent, but much more guidance is needed for practitioners and researchers interested in embedding assent into their practices. The purpose of this article is to advance the conceptualization and understanding of assent and assent practices by refining previous definitions and conceptualizations of assent and providing six essential considerations for embedding assent into practice. The six considerations consist of determining the applicability and feasibility of assent, assessing assent-related skills, arranging assent procedures and teaching assent-related skills, arranging fair choices, selecting opportunities to assess assent, and informally assessing assent. Following the discussion of the considerations for assent practices, we issue a call for specific topics of research on assent.     

Verbal Sexual Coercion Experiences,Sexual Risk,and Substance Use in Women

Research has linked sexual assault, substance use, and sexually transmitted infection (STI) risk in women. Sexual assault by means of verbal sexual coercion (VSC) is more common than sexual assault by means of physical tactics, but VSC is rarely assessed independently. In addition, past work has established global connections among substance use, sexual assault history, and STI risk; however, assessing substance use during sexual behavior is less common. This study examined the relations among VSC, STI risk behavior, and substance use and attitudes. We hypothesized that women with larger numbers of VSC experiences would report more frequent sexual risk behaviors and substance use and attitudes. Participants with larger numbers of VSC experiences reported larger numbers of anal sex partners, more frequent penile–vaginal sex and sexual activity after substance use, and stronger sex-related alcohol expectancies. These findings suggest that VSC is associated with higher levels of STI risk in women.     

Adolescents' psychological response to the experience of community interpersonal violence: a cross-national and a cross-cultural comparison

A comparative cross-national study investigating the level of experience with community interpersonal violence, level of psychological distress, and the relationship between exposure and distress among adolescents is presented. Participants were 617 first-year college students comprising African Americans and Jamaican Americans living in New York City, and Jamaicans living in Kingston, Jamaica. The three groups are similar in terms of age, gender, educational level, and race; they differ in location of residence, culture, and immigration status. Location of residence is related to exposure; immigration status is related to distress; but culture is not related to vulnerability when exposed. The effect size of the relationship between exposure and distress appears to be robust across variations in culture, amount of exposure, and level of distress.     

Aging is associated with increased Weber ratios for caffeine, but not for sucrose

To investigate whether age-associated changes in the human taste system are quality-specific, we compared young and elderly subjects' suprathreshold discrimination abilities for caffeine and sucrose. The method of constant stimuli was used to obtain just noticeable differences and Weber ratios. The elderly generated larger Weber ratios than did the young for both the medium and high concentrations of caffeine, but not for the low concentration. For example, a 74% increase in .005 M caffeine was required to obtain a perceptible difference for the elderly, whereas a 34% increase produced a perceptible difference for the young. The Weber ratios for sucrose did not differ for the two age groups. The results of this study indicate that age-associated changes in the taste system are quality-specific.     

Quality-specific effects of aging on the human taste system

Elderly persons are known to have elevated taste thresholds, with those for bitter more affected by age, for example, than those for sweet. Do analogous quality-specific effects occur at suprathreshold levels? Young (mean age = 20.3 years, SD = 2.99) and elderly (mean age = 72.5 years, SD = 4.58) subjects made magnitude estimates of sweetness, bitterness, sourness, and saltiness for the unmixed components sucrose, caffeine, citric acid, and NaCl at three concentration levels for each. They also made magnitude estimates of the separate taste qualities in two-component mixtures of sucrose with each of the other three qualities, at various levels of the two components in each mixture. Magnitude estimates of taste intensity were interweaved with magnitude estimates of the heaviness of six weights, which subjects were to judge on the same subjective intensity scale: This is the calibration feature of the method of magnitude matching, and permits the comparison of elderly and young subjects on the absolute intensity of tastes. When unmixed components were judged, elderly subjects found the characteristic tastes of caffeine and citric acid less intense than, but those of sucrose and NaCl as intense as, younger subjects did. In judging mixtures, the elderly found bitterness, but not the other three qualities, less intense than did the young subjects.     

Aging is associated with increased Weber ratios

To investigate whether age-associated changes in the human taste system are quality-specific, we compared young and elderly subjects’ suprathreshold discrimination abilities for caffeine and sucrose. The method of constant stimuli was used to obtain just noticeable differences and Weber ratios. The elderly generated larger Weber ratios than did the young for both the medium and high concentrations of caffeine, but not for the low concentration. For example, a 74% increase in .005 M caffeine was required to obtain a perceptible difference for the elderly, whereas a 34% increase produced a perceptible difference for the young. The Weber ratios for sucrose did not differ for the two age groups. The results of this study indicate that age-associated changes in the taste system are quality-specific.