Malingering,Perceptions of Illness,and Compensation Seeking in Whiplash Injury: A Comparison of Illness Beliefs Between Individuals in Simulated Compensation Scenarios and Litigation Claimants1

This paper compares beliefs about whiplash injury between individuals in simulated compensation/no compensation scenarios and actual litigant claimants. Comparisons between simulators and the clinical sample revealed that chronic patients reported significantly more symptoms than all simulator groups. The beliefs of the real compensation claimants in the acute phase of the condition were similar to those in the ‘injury only’ simulator group. The analyses identified a trend towards beliefs in the expected timeline of the illness becoming more negative with time, whilst feelings of control over the symptoms improve. The paper discusses indicators of malingering behavior and the possible involvement of litigation and treatment processes in the transition to a chronic state of ill health.     

FOUR THEORIES OF FILIAL DUTY

Children have special duties to their parents: there are things that we ought to do for our parents, but not for just anyone. Three competing accounts of filial duty appear in the literature: the debt theory, the gratitude theory and the friendship theory. Each is unsatisfactory: each tries to assimilate the moral relationship between parent and child to some independently understood conception of duty, but this relationship is different in structure and content from any that we are likely to share with anyone apart from a parent. A more promising account will concentrate on what is unique about the parent-child relationship. I articulate and defend the 'special goods theory', according to which filial duties arise from the distinctive kinds of goods that healthy parent-child relationships typically involve.     

The Importance of Affective Beliefs and Attitudes in the Theory of Planned Behavior: Predicting Intention to Increase Physical Activity1

Standard theory of planned behavior (TPB) questions to elicit salient behavioral beliefs may elicit instrumental consequences of behavior, and overlook affective consequences. Two hundred thirteen English adults (35 to 75 years of age) completed a questionnaire that contained closed measures of TPB constructs, and open‐ended questions that asked not only about advantages and disadvantages, but also what respondents would like or enjoy and dislike or hate about being more physically active. Beliefs elicited by affective questions were associated more strongly with a closed affective attitude scale. Beliefs elicited by instrumental questions were associated more strongly with a closed instrumental attitude scale. Closed measures of the standard TPB variables explained 48% of the variance in intention to increase physical activity, while affective attitude explained an additional 11% of the variance. Applications of the TPB should consider affective and not just instrumental determinants of behavior.