Reflective Equilibrium as an Ameliorative Framework for Feminist Epistemology

As Helen Longino's overview of Hypatia's engagement with feminist epistemology suggests, the last twenty‐five years’ contributions to this field reveal a strong focus on the topic of knowledge. In her short outline, Longino questions this narrow focus on knowledge in epistemological inquiry. The main purpose of this article is to provide a framework for systematically taking up the questions raised by Longino, one that prevents us from running the risk of becoming unreflectively involved in sexist, racist, or otherwise problematic inquiry. I argue that a specific form of the method of Reflective Equilibrium, as it is widely discussed in moral epistemology, logic, and theories of rationality, enables us to cope with the problems of traditional epistemology, which feminist theorizers such as Sally Haslanger have pointed to. With the account of Reflective Equilibrium I am offering—drawing in many respects on the model provided by Catherine Z. Elgin—we have an ameliorative method that allows us to rethink epistemological values, goals, and standards in a systematic way, and that largely avoids implicit and explicit biases in epistemology.     

Parent-report and performance-based measures of executive function assess different constructs

A total of 405 children of 5–18 years of age were administered performance-based and parent-report measures of executive function (EF), and measures of motor, attention, reading, and mathematics performance. Attention, reading, and mathematics abilities were associated with a parent-report measure of EF. Reading and mathematics abilities were also associated with performance-based measures of EF, including the Animal Sorting, Inhibition, and Response Set subtests of the Developmental NEuroPSYchological Assessment-II. In contrast, motor functioning was only associated with performance-based measures of EF. Findings suggest that different constructs of EF are measured by parent-report versus performance-based measures, and that these different constructs of EF are associated with different neurodevelopmental processes.     

Family Conflict Moderates the Relation Between Negative Mood and Youth Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms

Higher negative (or lower positive) mood is associated with internalizing and externalizing problems among some, but not all youth, suggesting that contextual factors may influence these temperament-symptom relations. Family conflict also is associated with internalizing and externalizing problems, although it is unclear whether family conflict influences the relation between negative mood and symptoms. To address this gap, we examined whether family conflict moderates the relations between temperamental negative mood and internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Participants were 775 youth (69?% male, 76?% Caucasian). Mothers and youth completed questionnaires when youth were ages 10–12 (time 1) and 12–14 (time 2). When exposed to higher family conflict at time 1, children higher in negative mood experienced higher time 2 internalizing and externalizing problems than children lower in negative mood. When exposed to lower family conflict, children’s internalizing and externalizing symptom levels were similar regardless of their levels of negative mood. Findings suggest that interventions aimed at reducing youth’s risk for internalizing and externalizing symptoms should address conflictual interactions within the larger family system, particularly among youth with higher negative mood.     

Academic Socialization Among Latino Families: Exploring the Compensatory Role of Cultural Processes

This study examines the relation of parent educational expectations, cultural socialization, and familism with academic adjustment among 150 Latino parent–adolescent dyads (81% Mexican origin; 79% were mothers). Adolescents (53% girls) responded to measures of school engagement, educational utility, parental educational expectations, cultural socialization, and familism. Results suggest that, after accounting for parents’ reported educational attainment, adolescents’ perceptions of academic and cultural socialization messages and their own endorsement of familism were uniquely related to school engagement; only parental educational expectations were uniquely related to beliefs about the utility of education. Cultural and academic socialization may thus complement each other.     

Who are your Neighbors? Neighbor Relationships and Subjective Well-Being in Japan

Supportive relationships with neighbors have been shown to positively predict indicators of subjective well-being. Using data from the 2010 Japanese General Social Survey, we examine how neighbor relationships predict subjective well-being. Japan presents an interesting case to examine this question when considering its highly institutionalized neighborhood associations. We find that controlling for the safety and amenity aspects of the neighborhood environment, supportive neighbor relationships significantly increase men and women’s life satisfaction, but such relationships have a significant positive effect only on men’s happiness. The effects of neighborhood relationships on life satisfaction and happiness are significantly larger for men. Moreover, we find that the social and safety aspects of the neighborhood reinforce each other to increase life satisfaction also only for men. Implications of the gendered pattern of these results are discussed for future research on the association between neighbor relationships and subjective well-being in Japan and beyond.

     

WARRANTED ASSERTIBILITY AND THE NORMS OF ASSERTORIC PRACTICE: WHY TRUTH AND WARRANTED ASSERTIBILITY ARE NOT COINCIDENT NORMS

Crispin Wright has argued that truth and warranted assertibility are coincident but non‐co‐extensive norms of assertoric practice and that this fact inflates deflationary theories of truth. Wright's inflationary argument has generated much discussion in the literature. By contrast, relatively little has been said about the coincidence claim that is the focus of this paper. Wright's argument for the claim that truth and warranted assertibility are coincident norms is first presented. It is then suggested that the argument trades on an ambiguity in ‘justified’ and ‘warrantedly assertible’. Finally, it is argued that, once the ambiguity is removed, there is reason to reject the claim that truth and epistemic warrant are coincident norms of assertoric practice. One important result is that no epistemic theory of truth can satisfy what Wright takes to be a key platitude about assertion.     

The Duty to Protect: Privacy and the Public University

This article addresses the tensions between the sense of responsibility that university administrators feel to protect student privacy with the requirement to be accountable and transparent to the public. This discussion is placed in the context of the history and purpose of post-secondary education.     

The Effects of Delayed Report and Motive for Reporting on Perceptions of Sexual Harassment

We examined whether the timing of the report and the victim's apparent motive for reporting influences women's and men's perceptions of sexual harassment. Undergraduates (153 women, 149 men) listened to 1 of 6 versions of audiotaped testimony of the victim and defendant. The report was filed either immediately or 18 months later, and motive either was presented as altruistic, retaliatory, or was not specified. Participants chose a verdict, rated the defendant's guilt, and rated the defendant and victim on several dimensions. Higher guilt ratings, more positive evaluations of the victim, and more negative evaluations of the defendant were associated with immediate reporting and an altruistic motive, although women weighed these factors more heavily than did men.