WHETHER SPIES TOO CAN BE SAVED

Spies, like soldiers, do a job and employ tactics that need justifying. I offer an argument for how Christian ethics may handle the moral problems of spying and do so by looking at the morally troubling tactics used by spies through the eyes of those who played an important role in shaping Christian theology and philosophy and have become normative in Christian moral thinking on the use of force. I argue that spying may be justifiable when we conceive the profession as a kind of use of force that is governed by the just war criteria. Spying is a particular kind of use of force that takes its moral character from those who authorize it, with what justification, to what ends, and with what methods. Particular attention is given to the tactics of disregarding the rules of war, the telling and living of lies, running covert operations, and assassinating military and political leaders.     

Meaning(fullness) Without Metaphysics: Another Look at Hume’s “Meaning Empiricism”

Although Hume has no developed semantic theory, in the heyday of analytic philosophy he was criticized for his “meaning empiricism,” which supposedly committed him to a private world of ideas, led him to champion a genetic account of meaning instead of an analytic one, and confused “impressions” with “perceptions of an objective realm.” But another look at Hume’s “meaning empiricism” reveals that his criterion for cognitive content, the cornerstone both of his resolutely anti-metaphysical stance and his naturalistic “science of human nature,” provides the basis for a successful response to his critics. Central to his program for reforming philosophy, Hume’s use of the criterion has two distinct aspects: a critical or negative aspect, which assesses the content of the central notions of metaphysical theories to demonstrate their unintelligibility; and a constructive or positive aspect, which accurately determines the cognitive content of terms and ideas.     

Performance of Ethical Military Research is Possible: On and Off the Battlefield

Many of the same fundamental principles and regulations that govern civilian biomedical research also apply to research conducted by the US Military. Despite these similarities, the conduct of research by the US Military has additional requirements designed to preserve service members' informed consent rights, ethical standards and information that may be deemed classified. Furthermore, there are also additional rules and regulations associated with potential research to be done in a combat setting. Before conducting battlefield research, many unique circumstances must be considered to include: (1) the current legal and regulatory requirements for advanced informed consent (2) the tactical situations, and the ability to adequately document in the "austere" environment (3) the need to provide improved drugs and devices for combat casualty care and (4) the special nature of the superior-subordinate relationship. This paper discusses historical background, regulatory oversight, ethical implications and release of information as it pertains to research conducted by the US Military.     

The impact of disclosure of HIV on the index patient's self-defined family

For most people facing a serious illness, the family is regarded as the primary source of support. Research suggests that patterns of support may differ for people infected with HIV. Access to support normally requires disclosure of one's health problem to others. This study examined the impact of disclosure of HIV on the index patient's self-defined family. Most participants were gay men attending a London HIV clinic. Both they and the care-givers whom they identified to the researchers were interviewed. The results of this qualitative study highlight the fact that many gay men with HIV do not regard their biological family as their primary social support system. Friends and partners were commonly cited as primary care-givers. Most of those interviewed who provided support to the infected individual clearly remembered the disclosure event. They also had a number of emotional reactions, over time, to disclosure. We argue that adjustment to illness among care-givers is a complex two-way, reciprocal process whereby the infected individual and care-giver take subtle cues from one another in terms of how they appear to one another to cope. Some emotionally painful feelings may be experienced but not openly expressed. Therapists who work with families affected by illness should first learn from the patient who he or she defines as 'family'. They should also enquire about the impact of disclosure of illness on all care-givers as well as subsequent reactions and unexpressed feelings associated with this.     

Analysis of covariance structures

A general method is presented for estimating variance components when the experimental design has one random way of classification and a possibly unbalanced fixed classification. The procedure operates on a sample covariance matrix in which the fixed classes play the role of variables and the random classes correspond to observations. Cases are considered which assume (i) homogeneous and (ii) nonhomogeneous error variance, and (iii) arbitrary scale factors in the measurements and homogeneous error variance. The results include maximum-likelihood estimations of the variance components and scale factors, likelihood-ratio tests of the goodness-of-fit of the model assumed for the design, and large-sample variances and covariances of the estimates. Applications to mental test data are presented. In these applications the subjects constitute the random dimension of the design, and a classification of the mental tests according to objective features of format or content constitute the fixed dimensions.Preparation of this paper has been supported in part by NSF Grant GB-939 and U. S. P. H. Grant GM-1286-01. Computer time was donated by the Computation Center, University of Chicago.Now at the University of Chicago.Now at the University of Georgia.     

Emotion recognition in schizophrenia: further investigation of generalized versus specific deficit models

In this study, the authors examined the nature of emotion perception in schizophrenia. Two samples of people with schizophrenia, one receiving acute care for a recent exacerbation of symptoms and the other receiving extended care, were compared with a nonclinical control group on emotion perception and general perception measures. The nonclinical control group obtained the highest scores on all of the study measures, and the acutely ill group obtained the lowest scores. Furthermore, the acutely ill sample had a specific deficit in emotion perception that remained present after controlling for performance on the general perception tasks. Conversely, the deficits in emotion discrimination in the extended-care sample reflected generalized poor performance. Differences in performance on the emotion identification task between the 2 clinical groups were reduced when controlling for active symptoms.     

Multicultural minds. A dynamic constructivist approach to culture and cognition

The authors present a new approach to culture and cognition, which focuses on the dynamics through which specific pieces of cultural knowledge (implicit theories) become operative in guiding the construction of meaning from a stimulus. Whether a construct comes to the fore in a perceiver's mind depends on the extent to which the construct is highly accessible (because of recent exposure). In a series of cognitive priming experiments, the authors simulated the experience of bicultural individuals (people who have internalized two cultures) of switching between different cultural frames in response to culturally laden symbols. The authors discuss how this dynamic, constructivist approach illuminates (a) when cultural constructs are potent drivers of behavior and (b) how bicultural individuals may control the cognitive effects of culture.     

Stress grouping improves performance on an immediate serial list recall task

Five experiments investigated whether perceptual patterning afforded by imposing a recurrent stress pattern on auditorially presented lists has a positive effect on list recall. The experiments also addressed whether the recall advantage reflected the salience that the stress pattern created for certain items or whether the recall advantage arose from the distinct grouping configurations that were produced by the stress pattern. The authors explored these issues by examining immediate serial-recall performance for spoken lists that either did or did not have a stress pattern imposed on them. Lists had an anapest or dactylic stress pattern or were monotone and consisted of two stimulus types, either digit names or common English nouns. Results showed that stress patterns enhanced serial-recall performance and that the recall benefit derived primarily from the perceptual grouping afforded by the stress patterns. Results also showed that the grouping benefit derived from stress patterning generalizes to monotone lists. In contrast, salience effects are attached to the stimulus per se and do not transfer.     

Does Age Moderate the Relation Between Social Negativity and Psychological Distress?: A Meta-Analytic Investigation

Recently, Finch et al. (Journal of Personality, 1999) reported the results of a meta-analysis in which social negativity was demonstrated to be positively related to psychological distress. In the present investigation, we employed meta-analytic techniques to test competing hypotheses as to whether age amplifies or dampens the relation of social negativity and psychological distress. A total of 104 effect sizes (e.g., concurrent correlations between self-report measures of social negativity and psychological distress) from 53 independent samples were extracted from 46 journal articles. Contrary to hypotheses, the relation between social negativity and psychological distress was not significantly different for samples of older (60 + years) and younger (<60 years) adults. An explanation was provided for why the present meta-analysis and previous narrative reviews have resulted in discrepant conclusions about negativity effects.