On a Supposed Solution to the Reinhold/Sidgwick Problem in Kant's Metaphysics of Morals

The purpose of this paper is to challenge the suggestion that Kant offers a solution to the Reinhold/Sidgwick Problem in his Metaphysics of Morals. The problem, briefly, is about how Kant can hold moral evil to be imputable when he also seems to hold that freedom is found only in moral actions. After providing a new formulation of this problem under the title ‘Objection R/S’ and describing the popular strategy for addressing it through reference to this text, the paper recounts some of the history relevant to interpreting the passage in question. The paper then argues that this strategy is not supported by the text and indeed proves to be contrary to other arguments that are central to Kant's moral thought. The closing section briefly considers other possible ways of addressing the Objection R/S.     

Processing mode influences the relationship between trait rumination and emotional vulnerability

Watkins (2004) found that the mode of processing adopted during expressive writing following a failure influenced emotional recovery from the failure as a function of level of trait rumination. At higher levels of trait rumination, negative mood 12 hours after the failure was greater, but only in an abstract, evaluative writing condition and not in a concrete, process-focused condition. The current study examined whether this interaction of trait rumination with processing mode would generalize to emotional vulnerability to a subsequent negative stressor. Participants repeatedly focused on both positive and negative scenarios in either a concrete, process-focused or an abstract, evaluative mode, before a failure experience. As predicted, after the failure experience, higher levels of trait rumination were associated with lower levels of positive affect, but only for participants in the abstract, evaluative condition and not for participants in the concrete, process-focused condition. This finding is consistent with processing mode influencing the relationship between trait rumination and emotional vulnerability.     

Training to use voice onset time as a cue to talker identification induces a left-ear/right-hemisphere processing advantage

We examined the effect of perceptual training on a well-established hemispheric asymmetry in speech processing. Eighteen listeners were trained to use a within-category difference in voice onset time (VOT) to cue talker identity. Successful learners (n=8) showed faster response times for stimuli presented only to the left ear than for those presented only to the right. The development of a left-ear/right-hemisphere advantage for processing a prototypically phonetic cue supports a model of speech perception in which lateralization is driven by functional demands (talker identification vs. phonetic categorization) rather than by acoustic stimulus properties alone.     

How does mindfulness-based cognitive therapy work?

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is an efficacious psychosocial intervention for recurrent depression ( [Kuyken et?al., 2008], [Ma and Teasdale, 2004] and [Teasdale et?al., 2000]). To date, no compelling research addresses MBCT’s mechanisms of change. This study determines whether MBCT’s treatment effects are mediated by enhancement of mindfulness and self-compassion across treatment, and/or by alterations in post-treatment cognitive reactivity. The study was embedded in a randomized controlled trial comparing MBCT with maintenance antidepressants (mADM) with 15-month follow-up (Kuyken et al., 2008). Mindfulness and self-compassion were assessed before and after MBCT treatment (or at equivalent time points in the mADM group). Post-treatment reactivity was assessed one month after the MBCT group sessions or at the equivalent time point in the mADM group. One hundred and twenty-three patients with ≥3 prior depressive episodes, and successfully treated with antidepressants, were randomized either to mADM or MBCT. The MBCT arm involved participation in MBCT, a group-based psychosocial intervention that teaches mindfulness skills, and discontinuation of ADM. The mADM arm involved maintenance on a therapeutic ADM dose for the duration of follow-up. Interviewer-administered outcome measures assessed depressive symptoms and relapse/recurrence across 15-month follow-up. Mindfulness and self-compassion were measured using self-report questionnaire. Cognitive reactivity was operationalized as change in depressive thinking during a laboratory mood induction.MBCT’s effects were mediated by enhancement of mindfulness and self-compassion across treatment. MBCT also changed the nature of the relationship between post-treatment cognitive reactivity and outcome. Greater reactivity predicted worse outcome for mADM participants but this relationship was not evident in the MBCT group.MBCT’s treatment effects are mediated by augmented self-compassion and mindfulness, along with a decoupling of the relationship between reactivity of depressive thinking and poor outcome. This decoupling is associated with the cultivation of self-compassion across treatment.     

Psychosocial correlates of depressive rumination

The study examined the relationship between brooding, the maladaptive sub-component of depressive rumination, an important cognitive mechanism implicated in the aetiology of depression, and a range of depressogenic psychosocial factors, including insecure attachment styles and maladaptive interpersonal behaviours. It was hypothesised that brooding (but not the more adaptive reflection component) is associated with an attachment pattern characterised by fear of rejection, and an interpersonal style characterised by submissiveness. Currently depressed (n = 29), previously depressed (n = 42) and never-depressed (n = 32) adults completed self-report measures assessing depressive symptoms, rumination (brooding and reflection), attachment orientation and maladaptive interpersonal behaviours. The study hypotheses were partially supported: After controlling for gender and depressive symptoms, brooding was significantly associated with one indicator of underlying rejection concerns (rejection sensitivity, p = .05), but was not associated with another indicator of underlying rejection concerns (anxious attachment style) or with avoidant attachment style. After controlling for depressive symptoms, brooding was uniquely associated with the submissive interpersonal style (p < .01). Brooding was not correlated with needy or cold interpersonal styles after controlling for depressive symptoms.     

Implicit volition and stereotype control

Goals are mental representations that vary in accessibility and operate within goal systems. The implicit nature of goal activation and pursuit is shown here to make goals effective not merely at overturning the influence of an activated stereotype on how people respond to members of stereotyped groups, but effective at implicitly controlling the activation of stereotypes in the first place. In a set of experiments examining chronic egalitarian goals, faces and names of members of stereotyped groups presented as target stimuli led to the inhibition of stereotypes, as well as to the heightened accessibility of egalitarian goals. A separate set of experiments illustrate a similar ability of individuals to control stereotype activation when egalitarian goals are temporarily triggered within a context, rather than being chronically held. Goals that require one to inhibit stereotypic associations to a target can lead to the intended, yet implicit, control of stereotype activation, even when one is not aware the goal is active or being pursued or being regulated.     

Reliability of the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List

The Multiple Affect Adjective Check List was administered to students and psychiatric outpatients. The tests were scored on the three regular scales (anxiety, depression, and hostility), and a fourth score was formed by adding the three scales. All scales were reliable across form and over short intervals. Over larger time intervals the scales indicated greater “state” changes in the student group than in the psychiatric outpatients. Interscale correlations were high, suggesting that the test may be viewed as a single scale measuring general negative affect arousal.     

A Simple Test of the Concurrent Validity of the Social Interest Index

To assess the concurrent validity of the Social Interest Index (SII), we examined the relationships between subjects' social interest scores and their number and frequency of social contacts. As hypothesized, subjects' SII scores were related in a positive, significant manner to their reported number of close friends, number of relatives they felt close to, and number of monthly friend/relative contacts (all ps < .01). The results, which showed a positive relationship between social interest and social contacts, support the concurrent validity of the SII.     

Stressors Experienced During Deployment Among Canadian Armed Forces Personnel: Factor Structure of Two Combat Exposure Scales

Combat exposure is linked to increased mental health problems among military personnel. Reliable, precise, and efficient measurement of combat experiences can facilitate understanding of the effects of combat on mental health. This study examined the psychometric properties of 2 scales used to assess deployment experiences in Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) personnel in 2 different settings: during a Third Location Decompression (TLD) program after deployment, and during routine postdeployment screening. Principal components analyses yielded similar results for the 2 measures. The components containing items relevant to Exposure to the Dead and Injured, Dangerous Environment, and Active Combat were common across both surveys. The TLD results revealed a fourth component, Personal Suffering, while the postdeployment screening data revealed a fourth component, Perceived Responsibility. This study found categories of deployment stressors that can be used for further analysis, and underscores the importance of assessing a broad range of exposures in the combat environment.     

Bifactor Modeling and the Estimation of Model-Based Reliability in the WAIS-IV

Previous confirmatory factor analytic research that has examined the factor structure of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV) has endorsed either higher order models or oblique factor models that tend to amalgamate both general factor and index factor sources of systematic variance. An alternative model that has not yet been examined for the WAIS-IV is the bifactor model. Bifactor models allow all subtests to load onto both the general factor and their respective index factor directly. Bifactor models are also particularly amenable to the estimation of model-based reliabilities for both global composite scores (ω _h ) and subscale/index scores (ω _s ). Based on the WAIS-IV normative sample correlation matrices, a bifactor model that did not include any index factor cross loadings or correlated residuals was found to be better fitting than the conventional higher order and oblique factor models. Although the ω _h estimate associated with the full scale intelligence quotient (FSIQ) scores was respectably high (.86), the ω _s estimates associated with the WAIS-IV index scores were very low (.13 to .47). The results are interpreted in the context of the benefits of a bifactor modeling approach. Additionally, in light of the very low levels of unique internal consistency reliabilities associated with the index scores, it is contended that clinical index score interpretations are probably not justifiable.