Situating Martin Heidegger's claim to a “productive dialogue” with Marxism

This critical review aims to more fully situate the claim Martin Heidegger makes in “Letter on Humanism” that a “productive dialogue” between his work and that of Karl Marx is possible. The prompt for this is Paul Laurence Hemming's recently published Heidegger and Marx: A Productive Dialogue over the Language of Humanism which omits to fully account for the historical situation which motivated Heidegger's seemingly positive endorsement of Marxism. This piece will show that there were significant external factors which influenced Heidegger's claim and that, when seen within his broader corpus, these particular comments in “Letter on Humanism” are evidently disingenuous, given that his general opinion of Marxism can only be described as vitriolic. Any attempt to explore how such a “productive dialogue” could be construed must fully contextualise Heidegger's claim for it. This piece will aim to do that, and more broadly explore Heidegger's general opinion of Marxism.     

Serious Offenders: Using Evidence to Predict and Manage the Risk

In response to the risk of serious further offences, an evidence‐based approach is needed in risk management. A recent joint prison–probation inspection of the management of life sentence prisoners in six U.K. prisons found that the quality of assessment and plans to manage risk of harm to others was insufficient, with too much focus on the offender's verbal account. The present paper discusses observations of regular prisoner behaviour as the basis for predictions, and summarizes results of an evaluation of this methodology based on a sample of high‐risk category prisoners released into the community. Prison behaviour has not traditionally been seen as a valid risk marker for violent recidivism, which may be because typically only conspicuous high‐level behaviours are considered by risk management panels. Our research suggests that we are neglecting a valuable source of information on risk by failing to observe on‐going and consistent pre‐release behaviour. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tests of Objectification Theory in Gay, Lesbian, and Heterosexual Community Samples: Mixed Evidence for Proposed Pathways

Objectification theory (Fredrickson and Roberts 1997) proposes that women are especially vulnerable to eating disordered behavior when they live in cultures in which their bodies are a constant focus of evaluation. The current study examined whether predictions of objectification theory involving the associations among sexual objectification, body surveillance, body shame, and eating disordered behavior were supported in groups that varied by both gender and sexual orientation. Adults from a U.S. community sample in the Chicago area (92 heterosexual women; 102 heterosexual men; 87 gay men; and 99 lesbian women) completed self-report measures of these constructs. Results suggest that group differences in experiences of sexual objectification and body surveillance may partially explain gender and sexual orientation-based differences in eating disordered behavior.     

Research Ethics in a Business School Context: The Establishment of a Review Committee and the Primary Issues of Concern

This paper describes the establishment of and the issues experienced by the Research Ethics Committee (REC) of a Business School within a University in Ireland. It identifies the issue of voluntarily given informed consent as a key challenge for RECs operating in a Business School context. The paper argues that whilst the typology of ethical issues in business research are similar to the wider social sciences, the fact that much research is carried out in the workplace adds to the complexity of the REC deliberations. The use of deception in the design of research studies, pestering the local community and the potential for harm to the researcher are also discussed briefly in the context of business research. The experiences of the authors’, two of whom have served as respective chairpersons of the business school REC since its inception in addition to being members of the university level REC, inform the discussion.     

What Accounts for Heterosexual Women’s Negative Emotional Responses to Lesbians?: Examination of Traditional Gender Role Beliefs and Sexual Prejudice

This study examined a pathway to heterosexual women’s experience of anger and anxiety in response to lesbian interactions. Participants were 149 18–30 year old heterosexual female undergraduates (56% African American) from a southeastern United States university. Participants completed measures of female gender role beliefs, sexual prejudice, and state affect, viewed a video depicting relationship behavior between a female–female or male–female dyad, and again completed a measure of state affect. Results indicated that traditional beliefs about women were associated with higher levels of sexual prejudice toward lesbians. In turn, higher levels of sexual prejudice predicted increased anger (not anxiety) in response to the female–female, but not the male–female, dyad. Findings elucidate determinants of heterosexual women’s anger, and potentially aggression, toward lesbians.     

Sexual prejudice and anger network activation: mediating role of negative affect

The present study sought to establish whether increases in negative affect following exposure to homosexuality mediate the relation between sexual prejudice and anger network activation. Participants were 159 heterosexual men who completed measures of sexual prejudice and state negative affect. Participants were randomly assigned to view a short video depicting either a male–male or male–female sexual interaction and, following the video, again reported state negative affect. Anger network activation was then assessed via response latencies from a lexical decision task that required participants to identify emotion or emotionally neutral words from non‐words. Results indicated that the pattern of covariation between sexual prejudice and anger facilitation was significantly more positive when participants viewed male–male erotica relative to male–female erotica. Increases in negative affect, particularly anxiety/fear, were found to mediate this association. These findings suggest that increases in negative affect following exposure to homosexuality may be the emotional trigger for biases in the processing of anger‐related information and represent the cognitive underpinnings of sexually prejudiced aggression toward gay men. Aggr. Behav. 00:1–10, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Dressed for the Occasion: Font‐Product Congruity in the Perception of Logotype

Styles of lettering (i.e., fonts) can differ in their appropriateness for describing certain types of brands and products. We use the Osgood dimensions of evaluation, potency, and activity to measure the connotative meaning of fonts and product categories. Judgments of the appropriateness of a font for a product partly depend on the consistency between the connotative meaning of the font and that of the product along dimensions of potency and activity. However, its perceived appropriateness also depends on the connotative meaning of the font per se, indeendent of the type of product being described. These differences are also evident when participants choose a company to call on the basis of ads similar to those found in the Yellow Pages. Finally, the effect of the meaning that people assign to a font is similar to the effect of the meaning they assign to the product's name itself.     

Rumination and attention in major depression

Up until recently, it had been assumed that attentional biases for negative information do not exist in depression. However studies using post-conscious exposure durations have produced contradictory results. The limitations of common attentional tasks, suitability of stimulus materials and differences in stimulus duration times may have contributed to these inconsistencies. We aimed to address many of these issues and examine attentional responses in major depression at two post-conscious exposure times. We also investigated possible roles for rumination and distraction in increasing and lessening attentional biases for negative information. We used a fully controlled experimental design to test the effects of both induced and trait rumination and distraction on attention in patients with major depression and healthy controls. Attention was assessed using the dot-probe task. The findings revealed an attentional bias for negative information in depressed patients only at the longer post-conscious exposure duration. Furthermore although this bias was not influenced by either induced or trait distraction, it was related to trait rumination. Overall, the results showed that depression is associated with a strategic attentional bias towards negative information and that this bias is stronger in individuals who habitually ruminate.     

Clericalism,Religious Duress and its Psychological Impact on Victims of Clergy Sexual Abuse

Religious duress is a unique kind of threat and constraint involuntarily experienced by some members of the Roman Catholic Church as a result of religious indoctrination and training. Fear, awe and respect for the clergy foster the development and actualization of religious duress. This phenomenon can seriously impede a person’s capacity to accurately perceive and evaluate abusive actions perpetrated on them by clergy. This constraint poses an impediment to emotional and spiritual development. Internalized religious duress confuses and psychologically overwhelms such individuals and renders them incapable of absorbing their sexual trauma. The consequent feelings of numbness and immobility distort the perception of reality. It then becomes impossible for the individual to act in a manner that would protect and promote emotional growth and spiritual well being.     

The self-fulfilling prophecy in intensive care

Predictions of poor prognosis for critically ill patients may become self-fulfilling if life-sustaining treatment or resuscitation is subsequently withheld on the basis of that prediction. This paper outlines the epistemic and normative problems raised by self-fulfilling prophecies (SFPs) in intensive care. Where predictions affect outcome, it can be extremely difficult to ascertain the mortality rate for patients if all treatment were provided. SFPs may lead to an increase in mortality for cohorts of patients predicted to have poor prognosis, they may lead doctors to feel causally responsible for the deaths of their patients, and they may compromise honest communication with patients and families about prognosis. However, I argue that the self-fulfilling prophecy is inevitable when life-sustaining treatment is withheld or withdrawn in the face of uncertainty. SFPs do not necessarily make treatment limitation decisions problematic. To minimize the effects of SFPs, it is essential to carefully collect and appraise evidence about prognosis. Doctors need to be honest with themselves and with patients and their families about uncertainty and the limits of knowledge.