Moral Tragedies, Supreme Emergencies and National-Defence

abstract Assume that some group, A, is under a serious threat from some other group, B. The only way group A can defend itself is by using lethal force against group B, but the standard conditions for using force in self‐defence are not met. Ought group A to avoid the use of force even if this means yielding to an aggressive, evil power? Most people would resist this conclusion, yet given the violation of essential conditions for self‐defence, this resistance is hard to justify. The aim of this paper is to point to an interesting yet unnoticed move made by some philosophers to find a way out of this problem, a move which relies on construing the situation at hand as a tragic dilemma. I show the attractiveness of this solution and argue that in the end it fails.     

Implications of the Victimization Syndrome for Clinical Intervention with Crime Victims

Because most victims pass through somewhat predictable emotional stages, a crisis model of intervention applicable in a generic sense to victims of crime is proposed.     

HOW PATIENTS COMMUNICATE ABOUT THEIR ILLNESS

This article presents two empirical investigations of how patients communicate about their illness. A review of the literature on provider-patient communication is offered. From this review, we conclude that we know intuitively more about the interaction between health care providers and their patients than the research literature has revealed. A series of research questions are advanced concerning the patient's communicative contributions to the provider-patient relationship. The first study offers evidence of distinct patient-communication typologies. How patients communicate about their illness is also closely related to how they utilize the health care system. The second study uses independent raters to validate patient self-reports about their communication behavior. The findings suggest that how patients communicate to health care providers is a factor worthy of further study. Several specific avenues for future research are discussed in light of these findings.     

The Impact of Social Issue Television Programming on Attitudes Toward Rape

A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the impact of a television movie about acquaintance rape on subsequent attitudes about rape. To maximize external validity, a nationally representative sample of 1,038 male and female adults from three age groups was selected to participate in the study. These participants were then randomly assigned to view or not view the movie over a closed-circuit channel, prior to the network broadcast of the film. Afterward, acceptance of rape myths and perceptions of rape as a social problem were measured. The movie increased awareness of date rape as a social problem across all demographic groups. The movie also had a prosocial effect on older females who were less likely to attribute blame to women in date rape situations after exposure. However, the opposite effect tended to occur among older men. The findings suggest that emotional involvement with a movie and selective perception of movie events may mediate the impact of social issue television programming.